By William J. Simmons True Portrait by Kristine Larsen to Form Deborah Kass shakes up the canon

60 ModErn PaintErs december 2015 blouinartinfo.com Form Deborah Kass shakes up Deborah Kass in her Brooklyn the canon studio, 2015.

blouinartinfo.com december 2015 Modern Painters 61 intensity of her social and art historical themes. The result is a set of tall, sobering, black-and-blue canvases adorned with “The only art that matters equally hefty neon lettering, akin, perhaps, to macabre monuments or even something more sinister in the tradition of is about the world. pulp horror movies. This is less a departure than a fearless statement that affirms and illuminates her entire oeuvre—a tiny retrospective, perhaps. Fueled by an affinity for the medium Audre Lorde said it. Toni and its emotive and intellectual possibilities, Kass has created a template for a disruptive artistic intervention into age-old Morrison said it. Emily aesthetic discourses. As she almost gleefully laments, “All these things I do are things that people denigrate. Show tunes— so bourgeois. Formalism—so retardataire. Nostalgia—not a real Dickinson said it. I’m emotion. I want a massive, fucked-up, ‘you’re not sure what it means but you know it’s problematic’ work of art.” At the core of interested in the world.” Kass’s practice is a defiant rejection of traditional notions of taste. For example, what of Kass’s relationship to feminism, queer- Deborah Kass is taking stock—a moment of reflection on what ness, and painting? She is, for many, a pioneer in addressing motivates her work, coincidentally taking place in her issues of gender and sexuality; still, the artist herself is ambivalent Gowanus studio the day before the first Republican presidential about such claims, as is her right. Kass’s engagement with candidates’ debate, which overflowed with sexist, racist, and has been specifically pinpointed as an arena of transphobic rhetoric. “I’m not interested in me,” she says, gender play; her “America’s Most Wanted” series “and the world is a mess. There is a general feeling of being of silkscreened portraits, shown recently at Sargent’s Daughters bruised and helpless, with real limitations to our effectiveness.” on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is a feminist intervention Kass’s statement is not confined to social circumstances; in into the interplay of masculine gazes enacted by Warhol in his her practice, she also hopes to emphasize the formal innovation subtly homoerotic 13 Most Wanted Men mural, which was and deftness—not to mention art historical rigor—that have rejected by the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Warhol reluctantly characterized her career since the 1970s. A self-described closet chose to have his installation obliterated by his characteristic

Silver Deb, formalist, Kass, in her newest body of work, “No Kidding,” silver paint rather than replace it, but in her iteration, Kass 2000. Silkscreen which opens at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York on December 9, revived Most Wanted Men with art world superstars rather than and acrylic has given herself chromatic and technical parameters of specific hardened criminals, thereby reinventing Warhol’s gay male on canvas, 40 x 40 in. colors and regimented sizes, thereby formally distilling the mythology through new visual and political modes. She has also posed in drag as Warhol and silkscreened self-portraits in his style, as in the humorously titled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1991. More than anything, her delightful appreciation of pop culture and celebrity has all the earnestness of camp, as Susan Sontag originally defined it in 1964, the same year as Warhol’s disastrous attempt at public art. Still, Kass’s work tran- scends comparisons made by critics who do not dig deeper than the most obvious tenets of Women’s and Gender Studies 101. Nevertheless, while an artist does not and should not have complete control over the discussion that surrounds his or her imagery, when it comes to issues of self-identification—be it sexuality, gender, or religion, to name a few themes Kass addresses—or deeply held convictions about one’s place in the world, a variety of factors must be balanced in order to promote a holistic view. In contrast to most of the existing literature, she says, “I am much more interested in who people are than in what people are. I want to know what they are doing in the world.” This is not to say that Kass is invested in the post-gender k

rhetoric that often runs amok in the art world, art history or graduate programs, and beyond. It is rather to insist on a more ew Y nuanced, gender-based intervention in the canon. Surprisingly, Kass points to the straight male artist par excellence——as central to her choice to become an artist after viewing his retrospective at the Museum of Modern min Gallery, N Art in New York in 1970. “Frank Stella’s show at moma confirmed s my life path,” she says. In the ’80s, she moved into quasi-Cubist landscapes and genre scenes that exhibit signs of the chromatic Paul Kad Paul experimentation that would fully emerge later in her career.

She then created her incisive “Art History” series, in which she ss an juxtaposed ’s paint drips and ’s

portrait of Gertrude Stein with references to Disney and Peanuts orah Ka b

cartoons. This transitioned into the much-lauded “Warhol” De

62 ModErn PaintErs december 2015 blouinartinfo.com

Good times, 2015. Mixed media, 72 x 72 in. ss orah Kab orah De

blouinartinfo.com december 2015 Modern Painters 63 64 ModErn PaintErs ModErn Enough AlreadyEnough 2012. N canvas, seven Day After Day After Day panels, each transformers, 2010. O 18½ x 14 in. acrylic onacrylic 72 in. x 36 eon and and eon Above: il and and il R i ght: december 2015 , ,

Susan Rothenberg,PatSteir, dissertation onit.JoanSnyder, “Someone hasgottodoaPh.D. in NewYork,”shesays. feminism andpostwarpainting about theintersectionof modernism: “I’vealwaystalked in acrucialmomentofpost- and understudiedcollision political representsacentral of thepersonaland theorized thatthisadmixture may notberecognizedassuch. precedents, thoughthey gression havestronghistorical is thattheseactsoftrans- time. Whatoneoftenforgets transgender modesforsome have beenworkingattheintersectionoftranshistoricaland as favorites,suchNicoleEisenmanandKerryJamesMarshall, mutable processesofself-identification.ManycitedbyKass interspace betweenandamongmaterials,histories, journey asanartistcanexistinuncertainandever-evolving identity-based sensibilityorthematicrepertoire.Butone’s a rejectionofformaladvancementsinfavorsomeinherent two minglealongsideKelly,apioneerofhard-edgedabstraction. Streisand), meetsWarhol,thetokengaymodernist,and Imagine thatYentl,across-dressingJewishgirl(playedbyBarbra in theseriesareconfoundingandthoroughlypostmodern: I said, ‘This looks like ’s studio.’ painted forthe‘Yentls’[“TheJewishJackieSeries,”1992–93], Kass’s oeuvre:“WhenIlookedatthewallofbackgroundshad work. Stellaisn’ttheonlysurprisingpointofreferencein Times,” which,asthenamesuggests,setsstageforhernew series andcontinuedinto“Feel-GoodPaintingsforFeel-Bad In fact,Kasshasrightly There ispressureonwomenartists,itseems,tohew blouinartinfo.co m

” The juxtapositions ” The juxtapositions

content norformhistory.“ThedifferencebetweenStella identity politicsandartisticproductionthatelidesneither the quixoticdesiretoescapethisdarkplanet. panels inanodetodiscoursesofpainting,femalestardom,and quotes KatyPerrylyricsinblockletteringatopcolor-block of thehyper-Conceptual1980s)to2015’sYoungForever,which (imagine thecouragenecessarytopainttheseinclimate whole bodyofwork,fromherdeliciouslyflamboyantlandscapes of “NoKidding”that,somehaveforgotten,hasitsrootsinKass’s Hence, theunflinchingformal,historical,andsocialcandor she refusestobelimitedbyanygenderedorsexualassociations. She carriesafeministformalisminherverymarrow,evenas to trulyunderstandingtherepletenatureofanyartisticoutput. queer theorythusreflectsthebeautifulambivalencenecessary that withpolitics.”Kass’spositionvis-à-visfeminismand all thesewomenarerealabstractpaintersandsomehowinfused Harmony Hammond,ElizabethMurray,andLouiseFishman— Kass representsamutuallybeneficialrelationshipbetween and ElizabethMurray—they open,” touseherterminology, interestingly, a“cracking Kass’s career.Thereisalso, static canonthatmarks into animpersonaland if needbe,livedexperience urge toinsert,forcefully this intelligentandrigorous feminist content.”Itisexactly ing openformalismwith the personwhosignifiedcrack- did withCézanne.Shewas with FrankStella,whatshe with formalism,whatshedid Murray andwhatshedid feminism,” shesays.“Isaw to mewhenIdiscovered are bothformalists—occurred

Both images: Deborah Kass and Paul Kasmin Gallery Deborah Kass and Paul Kasmin Gallery their rootsinjazzandtheblues, foundationsthataresodear morally ambiguous,kinkyone. TheStones,moreover,have and seenotapurely,unequivocally evilworldbut,rather,a 1970s andearly1980s.One might lookintothesedarkpaintings fueled theearlyyearsof feminist sexwarsinthelate inspiration camefromtheRolling Stones,who,incidentally, to getthefuckoutofhere.”Itcomesasnosurprisethat some reminds me,“BlackandBlue.Gotothesource.It’sawish that jarsthelistenerorviewerintoattention. lyrical rhythms,aswellaconstantsenseofdisplacement “syncopated formalism,”markedbyunexpectedbutnevertheless one couldcallKass’sadvancementsanostensiblygenderless thing—I tookpopstandardsanddidthemmyway.”Perhaps they wereequallydifferent.IrealizedI’vedonetheexact same they werejustdoingthemdifferentlyfromeachother.And Sarah, Billie,Ella,Carmen.Everyonewasdoingthesame songs; Young playinginmyhousewheneverfatherwashome. John ColtraneandDizzyGillespieMilesDavisLester I thoughtthat’swhatgreatartwas.dothatvisually.heard in variationsonthemes”—oridentities,forthatmatter—“and because Ilistenedtojazzasakid,”sherecalls.“Jazzisinterested sociopolitical reception. the lifeofanartwork,fromitsmaterialinceptionto tates withcharacteristichumor,defyingconventionthroughout masculine ortechnocraticseriousnessoftheworkssheresusci- joyful Technicolorsensibility.Shepointswithironytothe severity ofthemonochrome,piecemanagestoevokeadarkly from 1963.Despiteitsforebodingblackrectanglesandthe Days AreHereAgain,”thetitleaniconicBarbraStreisandsong in thestyleofJasperJohns’ssubtlestencilstoread“Happy art historicaldiscoursewithfivepanels,eachmarkedlightly whom shehasdeepreverence).Kassreconfiguresthismonolithic (pioneered bythefigureheadsofpost-painterlyabstractionfor Happy Days,2009,inwhichKasstakesonthemonochrome of contentwithformalism—anactcross-pollination.Consider Returning tothetwo-tonednewworksin“NoKidding,”Kass She explainsthesecomplexitiesviathehistoryofmusic.“It’s

those painters,greatsongwriters. Butitisadream.” of myfantasy.It’scommon languagewiththoseguys, it’s not a common language. It’s not, but it’s the common language she asks.“ Adrienne Richbookofpoetry The DreamofaCommonLanguage? in thefaceofagatheringworldwide darkness.“ supports adialogueaboutthepotentialforcommunitybuilding again declaredthemedium’sirrelevance,evenasseries about thenatureofpaintinginanenvironmentthathas once both somberandgenerative;itallowsforsustainedthought the discoursesurroundingpaintingasawhole.“NoKidding” is uninhibited attempttoredirectourvision—indeed, singular neverthelesscomesthroughthisnewwork:an a newone? are somanygoodstylesoutthere,whydoIneedtomake as Ihavenointerestinstyle.I’vethought,likeAndy,‘there them?” shesays.“Ihavenointerestinformalinnovation, just welcomes it.“Stella,Johns,Andy—whatwouldIdowithout and irrevocablewounds. delicate fortheworld,isalwaysblackandblue,fueledbydeep poetic presence.Afterall,thearchetypalqueeraesthete,too Johns’s tragicmuse,HartCrane,withtheseries’sublime, resurrect thebestofJasperJohnsandperhapsgivenewlifeto (she hadtobuyonlytwocolors),theworksin“NoKidding” combination ofwords,industrialmaterials,andhumblepaint reflective setofpaintings.Withtheirflatbedpictureplaneand single entity,amountingtoacohesive,conversational,and knowledge, brazensentimentality,andbitingironyintoa characteristic Kassfashion,shecombinesadroitarthistorical have anythingtodowithgenderandsexualityatall.In with apainterlyvocabulary,somethingthatmayornot combining thesheerweightofourcontemporarymelancholia emphasizes, “Iwantedtomakeareallyformalshow,” comes fromsuchblendingofgenres. to Kassaswell.Thebestmaterial,historycouldconfirm, Kass wouldtakenoissuewiththiscomparison;instead,she Aside fromhersocialandhistoricalinspirations,Kass This ismydreamofacommon language.Iknow ’ ” Despiteherinsistencetothecontrary,something blouinartinfo.co You knowthe

m

december 2015 MP

” canvas, 72 x72 in. canvas, 1997. A Yentl (My Elvis) Quadruple Silver Mod e rn Painte crylic on on crylic rs ,

65