A New Show in New York

A new show at New York's "PS1" is made up of "only art that can't be bought. Thus, the exhibition is composed of work that artists either kept or, in a couple of weird cases, sold then bought back. By this curatorial criterion, nearly every artist on earth could be included. Curator Alanna Heiss compounds the problem by haughtily stating that the show evinces her 'unfortunate allergy' to the marketplace. But for the director or curator of an institution that relies on the largesse of artists and dealers--who in turn depend on commerce--to claim an 'allergy' to the marketplace is not only smug, it's deluded and hypocritical."

“Not for Sale” doesn’t fizzle because most of the artists in it are millionaires or famous or both. Nor does it fail because more than a third of the work on view is less than ten years old and fourteen of those pieces are less than five years old, making you wonder how “not for sale” much of this art actually is. No, the exhibition fails because its ideas and construction are lazy. - New York Magazine 04/23/07

Click here to read the full article.

It seems odd to hold a show featuring only the most marketable of New York artists as a shining example of anti-consumerism in the art world. – DN