Canvas Coverup, Ali in Focus, Green Caribbean: N.Y. Uptown Art
David Hammons
Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
An exhibition by installation and performance artist David Hammons is on view at L&M Arts in New York through Feb. 26.
An exhibition by installation and performance artist David Hammons is on view at L&M Arts in New York through Feb. 26. Source: Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
"David Hammons"
Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
A piece of plastic hanging between two exhibiting rooms at L&M Arts in New York, is part of "David Hammons."
A piece of plastic hanging between two exhibiting rooms at L&M Arts in New York, is part of "David Hammons." Source: Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
David Hammons
Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
An exhibition by installation and performance artist David Hammons is on view at L&M Arts in New York through Feb. 26.
An exhibition by installation and performance artist David Hammons is on view at L&M Arts in New York through Feb. 26. Source: Tom Powel Imaging/L&M Arts via Bloomberg
Muhammad Ali
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
A photograph of Muhammad Ali taken by Flip Schulke in 1961 is part of "Flip Schulke: Witness to Our Times" on view at Keith de Lellis gallery through Feb. 26.
A photograph of Muhammad Ali taken by Flip Schulke in 1961 is part of "Flip Schulke: Witness to Our Times" on view at Keith de Lellis gallery through Feb. 26. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
President John F. Kennedy
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
A photograph of President John F. Kennedy taken by Flip Schulke in 1961 is part of "Flip Schulke: Witness to Our Times" on view at Keith de Lellis gallery through Feb. 26.
A photograph of President John F. Kennedy taken by Flip Schulke in 1961 is part of "Flip Schulke: Witness to Our Times" on view at Keith de Lellis gallery through Feb. 26. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
"Central"
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
"Central" by Hurvin Anderson is part of "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 4.
"Central" by Hurvin Anderson is part of "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 4. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
"Country Club Series - Garrison"
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
"Country Club Series - Garrison" by Hurvin Anderson is part of "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 4.
"Country Club Series - Garrison" by Hurvin Anderson is part of "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 4. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Diptych
Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
"Untitled" by Hurvin Anderson, a diptych that is included in "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 12.
"Untitled" by Hurvin Anderson, a diptych that is included in "Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles" on view at Michael Werner gallery through March 12. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
As I enter L&M Arts gallery on Manhattan’s 78th Street, I find myself wondering whether I’ve mistaken the opening date. It looks as if David Hammons’s show is still being installed.
One canvas is covered with plastic, plastic hangs from the ceiling between the two exhibition rooms and there are no explanatory labels or signs to ease my confusion -- except for what looks like a charcoal mark on one wall. It’s Hammons’s signature.
“He didn’t want any sign, so he signed on the wall,” says gallery director Sukanya Rajaratnam. “It’s very him.”
An installation and performance artist, Hammons mounted the L&M exhibition himself. There are big, colorful canvases covered up with various materials -- including several kinds of plastic, a towel and a piece of silk.
Hammons has also done the series “Body Prints,” made by pressing his grease- or margarine-covered body onto paper. One is currently on view at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, which owns several. In another piece, called “Higher Goals,” he attached basketball backboards and hoops to telephone poles in Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza.
One work at L&M is a canvas almost entirely hidden by an armoire, leaving most viewers outside the furniture trade in a state of frustration.
“It’s deliberately inaccessible,” says Rajaratnam. “The armoire is a metaphor for all of Hammons’s work.” Also fairly inaccessible are the prices, ranging from $800,000 to $1.2 million.
Getting as close as I can to one of these intriguing works, I’m not surprised to find that its blue plastic veil isn’t hiding an unfinished work. There’s a complete painting back there. Hammons delays judgment and sustains suspense -- he gets a lot of mileage from what might well have been a Hefty bag.
“David Hammons” runs through Feb. 26 at 45 E. 78 St. Information: +1-212-861-0020; http://www.lmgallery.com/
Ali and King
Flip Schulke (1930-2008) boasts 11,000 civil-rights images in his portfolio, as well as innovative underwater photographs and portraits of boxer Muhammad Ali. Some of these are on view at Keith de Lellis Gallery.
Schulke shot for the black magazines produced by Johnson Publishing Co., and after an assignment to photograph Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1958, he became friends with the civil- rights leader.
He captured a well-known image of King’s expressive hands while he was preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1963, and one of the veiled Coretta Scott King at her husband’s funeral in 1968. The latter was used for the cover of Life Magazine, and both are part of the show.
Prices range from $2,500 to $7,500. You can take home a historic Fidel Castro shot from 1959 for $4,000.
If you’re wondering how many others might own your print, gallery owner Keith de Lellis sounds reassuring.
“Schulke wasn’t printing for the art market, as people weren’t really collecting photographs as social and cultural documents,” he said.
“Flip Schulke: Witness to Our Times” runs through Feb. 26 at 1045 Madison Ave., #2. Information: +1-212-327-1482; http://www.keithdelellisgallery.com/
Return to Trinidad
Strong brush strokes in a wide range of green with touches of blue, red, black and white fill Hurvin Anderson’s often abstract paintings at Michael Werner Gallery.
The artist, of Jamaican descent, had his first solo museum show, “Peter’s Series,” as part of Tate Britain’s “Art Now” in 2009. The present exhibition, called “Subtitles,” revisits images drawn from Trinidad that he has worked with before.
The colors aren’t typical of the Caribbean islands cliche, and for the first time Anderson uses photography in what he calls a strategic way.
“I subsequently projected the images onto the canvas. I printed things on them, and inverted the paintings,” Anderson said in an interview with curator Matthew Higgs, published in the exhibition catalog.
Prices range from $100,000 for the large ones to $30,000 for the small ones. My favorite is a diptych that goes for $200,000.
“Hurvin Anderson: Subtitles” runs through March 12 at 4 E. 77 St. Information: +1-212-988-1623; http://www.michaelwerner.com/index.htm
(Lili Rosboch writes for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Lili Rosboch in New York erosboch2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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