c.a.b. (nyc): The Trouble with Tuttle

Monday, November 28, 2005

Review
Richard Tuttle
The Whitney Museum of American Art
thru 2/5/06

All this to say that I’m going back to The Whitney. I refuse to miss any additional opportunity to see a retrospective of someone who may eventually be one of my favorite artists of all time simply because I currently think he’s talentless.(see full review)

Anonymous said...: I saw the show at the Whitney and really enjoyed it. I had seen some of his work before, but I felt the presentation at the Whitney was very strong. I think what validates Tuttles work is to see it in relation to his Minimalist compadres. Many of them were into removing the hand of the artist and creating works based on systems. Tuttle brought the artist back into works that still challenged the delineation between painting and scultpure. I came to appreciate the nuances of his work which I had previously dismissed. I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites, but I came away with a respect for his place in that time.

The questions of what makes art valid has little purpose. An artists should do what interests him or her and hope that others will come to understand or appreciate it. Ultimately, the hand made object in a culture of mass production contains some inherent value; I think the more relevant the artist's work is to the questions being asked at the time (i.e. what can we express and how can we express it and why do we express) the more potential it has to alter the course of the evolution and become historically significant, which is ultimately what makes it valuable over time; wouldn't you agree?

So its important to know what the questions of the time are and the only way to do that is to see really current work. Yeah? One reason I came to NYC.; 1/13/2006 1:53 PM