Thursday, August 06, 2009

Grosse aus

In a previous post I mentioned the seemingly ubiquitousness of Katherina Grosse while I was in Germany.  Well, she's followed me back home.  Tonight, listening to a podcast from the Tate Modern (a 5hr, 53 min Contemporary Painting and History Symposium), there she was speaking of her work.  I'm halfway through the episode now, and it's pretty good.  Not as dry and crusty as some of the Tate's programming.  I like the offerings withing the Tate Events podcast, but man, some of the theorists they have speaking can wring the life out of the most lush subjects. A recorded conversation with Lawrence Weiner was very entertaining, but another conversations that included David Batchelor Richard Dyer on the color of white was just such a one, which was surprising an disappointing because Chromophobia was soo good.
Back to Grosse's work, I respect her program and what she's doing with the medium of painting.  It's just distant and cold, which is contrary to the hotness of her gesture, and as she sais in her talk the prevalence of sexual energy and love that is infused in her concept of action.  In her discussion, she mentions her project at the Neues Museum in Neurnbeg and two other concurrent projects in Germany.   I've not seen her work in person, and her installation at the Kunsthalle in Berlin had just closed when we were there.  She was also taking part in a gallery group exhibit we didn't have time to see.  
The Nuernberg work felt a bit perfunctery and constrained.  As I said, ambitious, but just felt like it missed the mark.

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