the first modern style

“From this point of view, mannerism is the first modern style, the first which is concerned with a cultural problem and which regards the relationship between tradition and innovation as a problem to be solved by rational means. Tradition is here nothing but a bulwark against the all too violently approaching storms of the unfamiliar, an element which is felt to be a principle of life but also of destruction. It is impossible to understand mannerism if one does not grasp the fact that its imitation of classical models is an escape from the threatening chaos, and that the subjective overstraining of its forms is the expression of the fear that form might fail in the struggle with life and art fade into soulless beauty.”

(Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, trans. Stanley Godman, vol. 2, pp. 100–1.)

inconclusiveness

“So it comes about that the effect of such a building is not merely not impaired when it is left uncompleted; its appeal and its power are actually increased. The inconclusiveness of the forms, which is characteristic of every dynamic style, gives emphasis to one’s impression of endless, restless movement for which any stationary equilibrium is merely provisional. The modern preference for the unfinished, the sketchy, and the fragmentary has its origin here. Since Gothic days all great art, with the exception of a few short-lived classicist movements, has something fragmentary about it, an inward or outward incompleteness, an unwillingness, whether conscious or unconscious, to utter the last word. There is always something left over for the spectator or the reader to complete. The modern artist shrinks from the last word, because he feels the inadequacy of all words – a feeling which we may say was never experienced by man before Gothic times.”

(Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, trans. Stanley Godman, vol. 1, pp. 242–3.)

october 1–october 15

Films

  • Faces, directed by John Cassavetes
  • Made in U.S.A., dir. Jean-Luc Godard
  • La decima vittima (The Tenth Victim), dir. Elio Petri
  • Serial Mom, dir. John Waters
  • Mars Attacks, dir. Tim Burton
  • Beetlejuice, dir. Tim Burton
  • Head, dir. Bob Rafelson
  • Harriet Craig, dir. Vincent Sherman

Exhibits

  • “Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan,” Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
  • “Robert Adams: On Any Given Day in Spring and Light Balances,” Matthew Marks
  • “Jackson Pollock & Tony Smith: Sculpture An Exhibition on the Centennial of their Births,” Matthew Marks
  • “Richard Tuttle: Systems, VIII–XII,” Pace
  • “Robert Irwin: Dotting the i’s & Crossing the t’s: Part II,” Pace
  • “Dorothea Rockburne Works 1967–1972,” Craig F. Starr
  • “A Visual Essay on Gutai,” Hauser & Wirth
  • “Gego: Origin and Encounter, Mastering the Space,” Americas Society
  • “Chris Ware: Building Stories,” Adam Baumgold
  • “Duchamp Brothers & Sister,” Francis M. Naumann
  • Gerhard Richter, Marian Goodman
  • “We the People,” Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
  • “Mark Flood: Art Star,” Zack Feuer
  • “Zoe Leonard,” Murray Guy
  • “Ai Weiwei: Fairytale Chairs/New York Photographs,” Carolina Nitsch Project Room
  • “Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir: Call on Me with Your Softness,” Stefan Stux Gallery
  • “Leonardo Drew,” Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
  • “Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,” Met

september 16–september 30

Books

  • Jean-Cristophe Valtat, 03, translated by Mitzi Angel
  • Max Frisch, Montauk, trans. Geoffrey Skelton
  • Italo Calvino, The Watcher and Other Stories, trans. William Weaver & Archibald Colquhoun
  • Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals
  • Sophie Calle, The Address Book, trans. Pauline Baggio
  • Benjamin Anastas, Too Good to Be True

Films

  • Le tombeau d’Alexandre (The Last Bolshevik), directed by Chris Marker
  • Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera, dir. Mark Obenhaus
  • Magritte, dir. Adrian Maben
  • Cosmopolis, dir. David Cronenberg
  • Boxing Helena, dir. Jennifer Chambers Lynch

Exhibits

  • “Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper,” Morgan Library
  • “Robert Wilson/Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach,” Morgan Library
  • “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” Brooklyn Museum