Footnotesto Sweethearts with Williams in 1967.Williams's text for the book on the col Roth laborations ofRoth and Richard Hamilton (see note 6) is a testament to the strength of conti:nuedfrompage 110 Williams's feelings for Roth.Roth also knew Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik and George Brecht. 6. See Dieter Roth and Richard Hamilton, Collaborations: Relations-Confrontcitions, history, one collected from the edges of the artist's (and our) exis with an introduction by Vicente Todolf, and texts by Etienne Lullin and Emmett tence, stuff rejected and then reclaimed that denies the binary of Williams, London, Edition Hansjorg Mayer; Porto, Fundavao de Serralves, 2003. extraordinary art and ordinary junk. 7.Roth often collaborated with other artists in this way: for a time, Hamilton sent him Roth's near total enmeshing of art and life is best represented by a proof from each of his editions, which Roth would overwork; and in 1970, he and the the compelling Solo Scenes, a multipart video simultaneously playing German artist and architect Stefan Wewerka would each finish drawings begun by the other. It was also with the Viennese Aclionists that Roth first began publicly perform on a vast wall of 128 monitors, in which he recorded his everyday ing music (though he had a keen interest early on in avant-garde music). He was to reg activities in his home and studio over the course of his final year ularly incorporate sound components in his work, including musical instruments and (1997-98). If ever there were a work to interrogate the myth of the recordings he made with other artists and with his children. artist, Solo Scenes, shown at P.S. I, is the one to do it. This piece at 8."SNOW" was eventually published as the 11th volume of Roth's Collected Works, a total of 26 books of a projected 40, many of them cheap offset facsimiles of unique once plays on our voyeuristic fascination with the artist, ill but still artist's books, issued by Edition HansjiirgMayer in Stuttgart beginning in 1969. working, and shatters his life irretrievably. The work is impossible to 9.Roth 1'ime,p. 95. read coherently or comprehensively; forever in motion, it makes us 10.For this show and its dating to 1970 rather than 1960, as frequently published, sec aware of the fact that we never see the whole, regardless of how many Dirk Dobke, "Staple Cheese (A Race)," in ibid., pp. 130-31. screens there are or how long we look at them. In the end, as in so 11.Dieter Roth, 1984, p. 9. An alternate version of the story is found in an interview with Roth, in Roth and Hamilton, Collaborations, p. 36: "I was completely fascinated much of Roth's work, we are confronted with transience extended and hypnotised by Bellmer. And I did things like him and Tinguely .... And then I over expanses of time, an ongoing denouement. □ found when I had made, let's say, a drawing, and even made objects with motors in them like Tinguely, and I found it could not go in a show under my name. Everybody 1.The only other significant museum exhibition of Roth's work in the U.S.was at the would recognize 'Whow, this is Tinguely, this is Bellmer.' And then I thought, well you Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 1984; it was accompanied by a catalogue with pour something over it to ... to cover the traces of your thought and of your ownwork. essays by Mary Jane Jacob and Ann Goldstein (Dieter Roth, Chicago, Museum of And I poured sour milk over these objects. And this was the way I discovered that sour Contemporary Art, 1984).The show was drawnfrom the collection of Ira Wool, the fore milk could give me satisfaction." most collector ofRoth's work in this country. 12.The title both refers to Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and to the 2. See Bernadette Walter, "diter rot," in Dirk Dobke and Bernadette Walter, Roth Tiine: fact that 30 examples of the work were cast with birdseed and mounted outdoors, to be A Dieter Roth Retrospective, ed. by Theodora Vischer and Bernadette Walter, New pecked at until they disappearnd. York, Museum of Modern Art; Baden, Lars Millier Publishers, 2004, p.42. "Roth 1'ime: DieterA Roth Retro5pective" opened at the Schaulager Basel [May 25- 3.For the Icelandic meanings, see Dirk Dobke et al., Dieter Roth: Books + Multiples, Sept.16, 2003/, and traveled to the Museum Ludwig, Cologne [Oct. JO, 2003-Jan. 11, London, Edition Hansjorg Mayer, 2004, p.128. 2004/ and the Museum of ModernArt and P.S. I ConternpormyArt Center in (/1teens, 4.Much of the information about Roth's career is derived from Roth 1'i1ne;see especially New York [Mar. 12-June 7, 2004/. ft was accomvanied by ct 304-vage catalogue, edited pp. 76-105 for the years 1960-70. For Roth's early work, see also Dirk Dobke and Laszlo by the head curator of the show, Theodora Visclter, with texts by Dirk Dobke and Glozer,Dieter Roth: Uni,quePieces, London, New York, Edition HansjorgMayer, 2002. BernadetteWalter. 5.Roth never participated formally in Fluxus events, though he maintained close rela tions with Williams and other Fluxus artists th1·oughout his lifetime, even producing Author: John T Paoletti is professor of art history at Wesleya:n University.
ACA Galleries ...... 25 Flintridge Foundation ...... 58 Marlborough Gallery ...... 14-15, 7 4 Saatchi Gallery ...... ••...... 38 Affordable Art Fair ...... 76 Forum Gallery ...... 17 McCoy Inc., Jason ...... 29 Sams, Ann G ...... 149 Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Fountain Gallery ...... 90 McKee Gallery ...... 46 San Francisco ArtInstitute ...... 147 Art, The ...... 77 Frieze Art Fair ...... 78 McKenzie Fine Art ...... 77 Shapolsky Gallery, Anita ...... 83 Anderson O'Brien Fine Art ...... 72 Gagosian Gallery ....34 , Cover 4 Meislin Gallery, Andrea ...... 68 Sheppard Gallery, Allen ...... 56 Art Forum Berlin ...... 84 Galerie de Bellefeuille ...... 16 Miller Gallery, Robert ...... Cover 2 SnydeITTJan Galleries ...... 82 Art Services ...... 146, 148-149 Galerie Lelong ...... 12 ...... 147 Modem Postcard Sotheby's ...... 21 Baczek Fine Arts, William ...... 71 Graham & Sons. James ...... 40 Mott Community College ...... 147 Spanierman Gallery ...... 47 Bespoke Gallery ...... 70 Gray Gallery, Richard ...... 36 Museum of Modern Art, The .... 42 Sperone Westwater ...... 7 Boca Raton Museum of Art ...... 75 Greek Council/Organization of National Academy School of Fine Steele Gallery, Robert ...... 88 Bulgari ...... 32 Promotion of Greek Culture ...30, 79 Arts ...... 144 ...... 88 Stendhal Ga lery, Maya ...... 69 California View Fine Arts ..... 81 Hartioun Naumann Fine Art, Francis ...... 44 l Campbell Gallery,Charles ...... 70 Hazan Gallery, Cheryl ...... 89 Summer Books ...... 86-87 Nelson Gallery, Emil ...... 89 Carberry Gallery, Valerie ...... 26 Hoffman Gallery, Nancy ...... 89 Sun Valley Center for the Arts .....90 Neuhoff Gallery ...... 20 Castelli, Leo ...... 10 Hoffman Gallery, Rhona ...... 77 Tagore Gallery, Sundaram ...... 54 New York Galleries ...... 66 Cheim & Read ...... 2 Islip Art Museum ...... 90 Taipei Fene Arts Museum ...... 84 Northern Kentucky Universety ....144 ie Clark Gallery, Garth ...... 28 Jackson Fine Art, Charlotte ...... 41 ie O'Melveny Gallery, Don ...... 59 Tremaine Foundation, The Emily Cohan Gallery, James ...... 6 Jacobson Howard Gallery ...... 11 � Orlando Museum of Art ...... 85 Hall ...... 74 Contemporary Art Museum Johnson Gallery, J...... 73 University of Hartford/Joseloff Kasmin Gallery, Paul ...... 5 PaceeWildenstein ...... 1 Saint Louis ...... 88 Gallery ...... 76 rJJ Cooper Gallery, Paula ...... 4 Kerrigan Campbell ...... 89 Paris Photo ...... 82 University of Pettsburgh ...... 90 Cowles Gallery,Charles ...... 18 Kidd Gallery, Robert ...... 73 Patrick, Robert ...... 149 ie Virginia Commonwealth Cristea Gallery, Alan ...... 68 Kidder Smith Gallery ...... 22 Peters Gallery, Gerald ....52 tT1 University ...... 145 Crown Point Press ...... 46 Knoedler & Co...... Cover 3 Peyton Wright Fine Art ...... 23 Werner, Michael ...... 8-9 Cuningham Gallery, Betty ...... 19 Levy Gallery, Richard ...... 24 Photo New York .91 � Davis Gallery, John ...... 76 LewAllen Contemporary ...... 31 Plane Space ...... •••...... 77 Yares Gallery, Riva ...... 27 DFN Gallery ...... 67 Lust, Herbert ...... 88 Praxis Galleries .....•...... 75 Zabriskie Gallery ...... 40 FIACe...... 80 M.Y.Art Prospects ...... 76 Rodgers, Paul/9W .....•...... 83 Zoubok Gallery, Pavel .....72 rJJ Fishere-Landau Center for Art ...... 71 Marinoff, Elaine ...... 56 Ross Gallery, Arthur . .85 Zwirner & Wirth ...... 13
Vol. 92, No. 8 (Scplcmber)Arlin J\mericais publiSh('d n1011thlyexe<'pt C(11nbin('(I June/Julyby fkJ.lll Art Publications lncor,K1ratctl, 675 Bro;id\\�dy, New York, N.Y. 10012. Tel: (212) !;141-2800.f\1x: (212) 1).11-286."i. C<)llkntsC opyrightO 2004 by Ari it1America, and ma!' oot he re11ro�foced . i in .an�· manner or form wiUKJul permission,ISSN: (I004-:J214. The O)linions eX]ircsSC4:I "lssursin &.Comment ary; apart from the edi1or's comments, are those of the writers themsch·t-s and not nctessarily Ihose of this 111agaiirie. Not responsible forunsolic ted mam1scripts or phot�raphs Ari in America is indexed in the Rcmleri;' Guidetu Periodical Lilrrolure and the Art lnde;r.Articles are abstrncledand indexed i11 /JI/A (available on-line lhrough Dialog and Qut--std) ;iml 111 Hi.storicu, AbSlr(1CISftntV or Am.,.ri,:(t: /li.,;tvry('1«.l 1,iff. Ra(:k\ '()lumes of Art in Amerir(iMe a\ailahlc on microfo::he from Bdl & Howell, AU. Pt'riodical l)c11ar1me11l, Old Mansfield Hoad, Woosler, Ohio 41691. Microfilm copies arc aV:tilable through Xerox Unfrcrsity Microfilm, Ann Arbor, Mi{'h. 48100. Circulation is \'aCrifit-dby 1hc 1\udit Burtau ofCir(:ulations. Perioditals postage paid at Ne" York, N.l'., and at additional mailing olli<.:cs.BACK ISSUES AND COMl'Llfl'E\'01,UMf.:S : l.,..'lwrt>n('e Mc(iiherr,P.O. Uox 8:12, I� Jolla, Calif. 92038. Sln3SCRIP'TIONS include e(lmbined June/July which com1ts as 2 out of 12 annual i$ut,'$: IJ.S. 12 issues $3\J.95, 24 is.-sues 170,00, :16 is.'mes$95.00. ln Canada, add $20 per year+ iX GS'r,in U.S. l)(ISSC�ions add $20 1�r year; all oth<:rsadd s:Jt)per sul.li.Criptionyear, payable in advance, in U.S. currency. Single/backissue U.S. $10 prepaid; elsewhere $12 prwai
132 September 2004 view, including those in which dots struation and thousands of con and happy at last. represent stars, numbers galax tacts at the site of the most Eschewing the gritty ies, and arrows the continual absorbent part of a woman's body anger of Sue Coe and the expansion of the universe), and before turning its attention to street cynicism of Robbie the technique appears, too, at tiny Halliburton's opportunities in Iraq. Conal, Bag reaches an scale, in dots that are punched out Elsewhere, Coven offers Procter audience she has primed of already etched sheets. The & Gamble a drawing with a with laughter. miniature number or arrow creat woman's face in place of repro -Edward Leffingwell ed by this technique is surrounded ductive organs, "giving a face to by a haze of ink, a linear ambigui the genitalia," and enumerates the ty enhancing the sense that the instances of the firm's use of ani Helen Altman mal testing. at DCKT artist intends to undermine clarity I in one way or another. A storyboard for Bechtel begins For her first New York solo Pindell has related the grids and with the corporate logo, proceeds show, "Smoke Signal," numbers to memories of her through drawings of an orgy and FortWorth-based artist father, who was a mathematician, concludes as a sated participant Helen Altman presented a and the dots to history (in segre licks the logo. NIMH lists mental small selection of her gation-era restaurants, for exam disorders prevalent in the U.S., unusual works-12 "torch ple, red dots painted on dishware and Eli Lilly appears as an octo drawings" and three quilt- and utensils designated use by pus, an idea nixed as "confusing ed "moving blankets." To black people). It is not necessary and unsettling" by the manufactur make the former pieces, to know this in order to sense that er of Prozac. Reimagined as the Altman soaks sheets of these works, which so effectively suicide of a depressed teen, the cotton paper in water for inhabit a territory of secret codes revised plan addresses "the hours or sometimes and broken rules, are somehow depressive, Christian youth we Alex Bag: Rush Limbaugh, 2004, graphite on days; then, using the paper, 22 by 19½ inches; at Elizabeth Dee. connected to highly personal want." The adjacent wall is given flame of a propane torch meanings. -Faye Hirsch to drawings of Michael Jackson as one would a paint- and Rush Limbaugh. With his chil brush, she delicately, and swiftly, printed on canvas, which Altman dren masked as Spider-Man, sears images of various creatures subsequently applies to a pack Jackson is wrapped in the twin (a rooster, two mules, a rearing ing blanket using a thermal serpents of the caduceus-one of horse, among others) onto the transfer technique. The top them a double helix-promoting damp paper. This unforgiving tech stitching is professionally applied trust in Monsanto, deliverers of nique, open to chance and ruin at a quilting factory. Calling Agent Orange, Bovine Growth the pictures must be completed in attention to the framing edge of Hormone and aspartame, for under 10 minutes so as not to the composition, all three quilts "changing the global food market ignite-results in sharp, elegant on view here were bordered with forever." Limbaugh's body is a renderings. a narrow strip of solid-colored pentagram, crowned by horns and Hung unframed, these stark cloth. But Gulls (2003, 78 by 109 a burning candle, surrounded by works covered an entire wall of inches) and Horse (2002, 128 by an aura depicting OxyContin, a the gallery(they average in size 134 inches) also had broad, highly addictive narcotic famously around 24 by 20 inches). Each irregular rectangular swatches of used by Limbaugh himself, who animal is shown completely isolat patterned fabric placed along says, "Try it today, need ii tomor ed, without context or even a hori one edge. row, cherish it always, and then zon line, while the siennas, ochers Like Ark, her 1992-95 work con simply enter an exclusive inpatient and blacks of the scorches make sisting of an 11-foot-tall mound of detoxification facility." The remain for forms that pop out from the store-bought faux burning logs ing wall is covered with a wallpa bare backgrounds. They hover that emit an electrical glow like perlike series of repeated images like sad, inadequate specters of firelight, Altman continues to in ink, ornamented by scrolls in their real-life alternates on the explore our human compulsion to Alex Bag red and featuring drawings of empty white ground. Altman manufacture nature, and the hanged witches, palmistry and wields her torch with great dexteri inevitable feeling of nostalgia that at Elizabeth Dee physiognomy studies. ty, varying the shape and size of follows our unavoidable failure. Seriously engaged with grudges Screened large in a darkened her stroke-Standing Polar Bear -Jessica Ostrower to bare, Alex Bag conjured gallery, Bag's video loop sent up (2002) appears composed of the multifaceted installation the enthusiasm of television blotches rather than the velvety "Coven Services for Consumer advertisements, one of them pro strokes found in Panda or Duck Helen Altman: Panda, 2003, torch Mesmerism, Product Sorcery, and moting Jessica Lynch's "I Am a (both 2003), the polar bear's soft, drawing on paper, 23 ½ by 22 ¼ inches; the Necromantic Reimagination of Soldier Too," starring Bag as sagging underbelly a bouquet of at DCKT. Consumption," a fantasy PR firm Lynch, praising Halliburton's pres chocolaty and tawny brown in the service of big science, cor ence in Iraq: "Halliburton will be splotches. porate whores and media luminar here every step of the way, mak The vulnerability, both in ies. Papering the gallery space ing bad things good." For Eli Lilly, method and display, of the torch with tear sheets, notes and draw Bag is the Wicked Witch, observ drawings contrasts with the ings, Bag offered an abundance of ing that "Prozac has made us all inherent durability of Altman's Research and Development ideas so much happier. I'm Eli Lilly. moving blankets. In making the for clients on one of three char Trust me with your child's mind." latter works, Altman frequently treuse-painted walls. Among Between commercials, a recur uses found photographic images much else, she provides rently startled audience viewed of animals, but this time set amid Halliburtonwith a new approach the infamous phosphorescent natural scenery-on view here to the promotion of tampons and chartreuse of the Paris Hilton sex were a horse, dog and a flock of pads high in toxic dioxin. Coven video, an enthusiastic icon of con seagulls. The photos are then Servicesclocks 38 years of men- spicuous consumption, filthy rich scanned into a computer and