THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE VISUAL ARTS Volume 31 No. 2 November/December 2016 £4 UK/ $6.00 US/ $7.75 Canada/ C=6.50 Europe Established 1973 IN THIS ISSUE Charles Thomson SPEAKEASY by FEIER LAI ARTICLES The Big Picture The Big CHARLES THOMSON re-examines art’s role in our culture Two Pioneer Institutions Picture of Modern Art at 100 TOM MULLANEY interviews the Arts Club of Chicago and the Renaissance Society REVIEWS U.S. Roger Brown and Andy Warhol at Kavi Gupta Camille Iemmolo and Jon Langford at Thomas Masters REVIEWS EUROPE El Bosco at Museo del Prado, Madrid Today it requires “CAPITAL—DEBT, TERRITORY, considerably more UTOPIA” at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin ability, not to BOOK REVIEWS mention courage, to “Rene Romero Schuler: build something up. Paintings and Sculpture” “A Northern School Revisited” …The real enemy “Salvador Dali & Andy is the terminology Warhol: Encounters in New which we accept York and Beyond” SCOUTING THE BLOGS unthinkingly… The Money Grab NEW ART EXAMINER CONTENTS 5 LETTERS 6 SPEAKEASY FEIER LAI discusses Bureaucracy in the Art World 7 THE BIG PICTURE CHARLES THOMAS, co-founder of the Stuckist movement, discourses on art history and its application in today’s world 14 A SMALL PICTURE OF THE BIG PICTURE JASMINE SURREAL explains the symbolism of her title illustration 15 TWO PIONEER INSTITUTIONS OF MODERN ART AT 100 TOM MULLANEY interviews Janine Mileaf of the Arts Club of Chicago and Solveig Ovstebo of the Renaissance Society as the two organizations celebrate their 100th birthday 23 Johannesburg—A City in the Making DANIEL NANAVATI explores the use of art in the revitalization of the city 24 Team Art and Allen Vandever Host a Talk with Derek Guthrie Chicago’s art community turns out to hear the founding publisher of the NAE 26 Some Thoughts on Expo Chicago THOMAS FELDHACKER reflects on the outcome of Expo Chicago 27 New Lines in Chelsea? MICHEL SÉGARD notices a mini trend in Chelsea gallery exhibitions (continued on page 2) 1 NEW ART EXAMINER CONTENTS (continued from page 1) 28 Chicago Reviews 28 “Politics, Rhetoric, Pop” Roger Brown and Andy Warhol at Kavi Gupta Gallery by EVAN CARTER 30 A Room of Surreal Mindscapes Camille Iemmolo and Jon Langford at Thomas Masters Gallery, by TOM MULLANEY 31 Europe Reviews 31 “Heaven and Hell” El Bosco (Heironymous Bosch) exhibition at Museo del Prado, Madrid, by SUSANA GÓMEZ LAIN 32 “CAPITAL—DEBT, TERRITORY, UTOPIA” exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, by RICHARD SHARLAND 34 Book Reviews 34 “Rene Romero Schuler: Paintings and Sculpture” (2016) by RICHARD SIEGESMUND 35 “A Northern School Revisited” (2015) by DEREK GUTHRIE 36 Soul Bros in Art review of “Salvador Dali & Andy Warhol: Encounters in New York and Beyond” (2015) by TOM MULLANEY 37 SCOUTING THE BLOGS The Money Grab THOMAS FELDHACKER looks at the international art market To have any worth, art, like agriculture, needs to be part of the worldwide movement to discern and rediscover what has been injudiciously trashed in the past and to integrate it with what is of value in the present—just as the Renaissance did with its re-evaluation of Greek culture. Charles Thomson 2 NEW ART EXAMINER New Art Examiner NEW ART Examiner STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Derek Guthrie, Publisher and Co-founder Michel Ségard, Associate Publisher The New Art Examiner is a not-for- Tom Mullaney, US Editor [email protected] profit publication whose purpose is to Annie Markovich, US Managing Editor examine the definition and transmission [email protected] of culture in our society; the decision- Daniel Nanavati, UK Editor [email protected] making processes within museums and Thomas Feldhacker, Social Medial Editor schools and the agencies of patronage [email protected] which determine the manner in which Anne Godden Ségard, Copy Editor culture shall be transmitted; the value Contributing Editors John Link, Michigan systems which presently influence the David Houston, Georgia making of art as well as its study in Donald Kuspit, New York Darren Jones, New York exhibitions and books; and, in particular, George Touche, New Orleans the interaction of these factors with the John Steppling, Norway George Care, UK visual art milieu. Frank Corrigan, Oxfordshire WEB SITE: www.newartexaminer.net Cartoons John Dunbar Kilburn Jonathon Xavier Coudrille A CHICAGO TRADITION Steve Harmann UK Distributor: Capital Books Cover Image: Jasmine Surreal and Michel Ségard Would you like to write for the New Art Examiner? [email protected] The New Art Examiner is indexed in : Art Bibliographies Modern, Art Full Text & Art Index Retrospective and Zetoc UK Office: Rosehill, Altarnun, Cornwall. PL15 7RL. UK. US Office: P.O. Box 15462, Chicago, IL 60615. USA. Inquiries: RESTAURANTS & CATERING [email protected] [email protected] 909 W. Belmont Ave. 773-348-2378 [email protected] 1147 W. Granville Ave. 773-274-0557 All Letters to the editor are printed without editing. 3415 N. 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Everything but our struggle to survive, and the way 30 year old that which satisfies the eye. essays remain relevant when they nail something That’s because we suffer under the conceits of important, even when the importance is negative. a mucked up but controlling majority that does But your review of SLOW PAINTING was truly the not serve art directly but rather leverages it to jewel of the issue, the statement that put a gleam serve “issues” that should be its means, not its of tiny light on a future that must be positive, if end. And so John Santoro’s return to the basics, art is to have any future at all. as they were restored by the Impressionists, The French Impressionists—or “Independents,” is completely relevant to our time. By avoid- as Degas preferred—remain the root to which art ing “issues” he raises the only really important today must attach itself, if it is to be any good. “issue” for art, which is how to be good. Noth- That is as shocking today as it was when they ing else counts unless that is achieved. And you, first declared a path forward by mining the past. dear Derek, brought him to our attention. That is They were against contemporary art, not tradi- art writing at its most effective. Thank you very tion, because contemporary art was in the way.