Meier Wing Revisited

I was quite happy to be able to get into the Meier wing of the DSM Art Center the last time I was there with my Art History class. I had forgotten about many of the pieces that appear in this wing, and I found I actually missed some of them, like I would old friends. Some, were more like being at a class reunion - I was perfectly okay to ignore them and pretend like I didn't even see them across the room looking at me, trying to make eye contact.

I remember John Chamberlain's crunched up car sculpture - I liked it the first time I saw it and I still like it. That is a very tactile piece for me. I used to frequent junkyards with my first husband, looking for elusive parts to restore our old cars with, and I frequently brought my camera because I always saw very beautiful things there.

Julian Schnabel's broken pottery gimmick is still just that - a gimmick. I never really liked it the first time I saw it and I don't really like it now.

Joseph Beuys' Chalk on Slate - I love it! Again, though, I have always loved real slate chalkboards - I hate these modern white boards. I can tolerate the SmartBoards because of their technology, but give me chalk and slate any day. The photo at left does not show what is at the Art Center, but it is the same type of thing with an aluminum frame. (left)





Mona Hatoum - Hair Grid - Love it! So delicate. It is so lost from your vision at even ten feet from the piece. I want to know how she made it. I want to know if she used a pegboard to keep the knots in relative alignment. Very obssessive, very appealing to me. (left)



Gerhard Richter - Landscape 1985 - Love it!

Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Silver Plated Brass - Love it!

Anseim Keifer - untitled, 1987-88 - Love it!
  


Vik Munoz - Chuck C-print - Buzz, thumbs down. My enjoyment across the room was dampened as I came closer to find out that this was not "real" dimensional swatches on a canvas.

Ruud van Empel - World #21 Cibachrome - Buzz, thumbs down. Just don't like it. Looks entirely too much like the big-eyed cheesy art from the 1970's - that anti-Holly Hobby stuff that was everywhere. Icky. (left and right)

Cindy Sherman - Untitled #218 - I am mixed on Sherman's stuff and let me tell you the main reason why. I think it's a cop out to not title your work. Of course, you can keep track of them if they are all titled "Untitled" and then assigned a chronological number to it at the end, but come on. You can do this for a living and make a fairly substantial mark on the world of art history ... and can't come up with enough titles for your work? Please. I agree that sometimes the title is the hardest part, I've been there, but did you really have 218 untitled pieces in 1990, or is the 218 number a running total in your entire career? What do the numbers go up to? Or was it your intent all along to "title" it all along with sequential numbers? I seriously doubt it .

All in all it was a very enjoyable trip down memory lane for me. I will have to make it a point when I go back to go again with a notebook to take notes. I may feel differently next time I am there. My notes for that day will be titled "Untitled, 57th visit".