WORLD ARTS BY MAXIMILLIEN de LAFAYETTE                                                                                                                                                                       

MICHEL MAJERUS MOVING PARTS: IT IS ONLY PROPAGANDA AND ART DISILLUSION. NOTHING VERY SPECIAL!

Photo: Michel Majerus, Controlling the Moonlight Maze, 2002.

Kunsthaus Graz presents Michel Majerus - Moving Parts - Forms of the Kinetic, through May 16, 2005. Majerus had a short life (1967-2002) but he had "left behind a remarkable body of works. In doing so he rushed through a database of both popular culture and art history. He not only followed the spirit of the 1990s, which was characterised by the digitalisation of culture, by techno and ecstasy but helped define it." claims a noted art critic. Another critic stated "What evolved from this was a mix of visual codes of high and low art, where Majerus made use of the medium of painting in a pronounced way. Ultimately, his spacious installations illustrated the productivity of a medium—painting." The curator of the show claims that the Kunsthaus Graz with its advanced architectural structure is an ideal setting for presenting Michel Majerus’ central space-oriented works. Michel Majerus never competed against painting. He rather added it to his palette of creative forms of expression in order to redefine the phenomenon of space with its help. His development as an artist ranged from the canvas as “arena” in Jackson Pollock’s works, via Barnett Newman’s color spaces to the transference of painting into the domain of object art in Pop Art; and eventually it led him into the virtuality of the gaming culture. And I have a problem with all these glowing jargoned accolades. Majerus' work is a colorful idea, a chronicle of pop culture BUT not a "mageure" and meaningful artwork . Propaganda and well-crafted publicity campaign  are distorting and exaggerating the significance and esthetic importance of Majerus' Moving parts. It is more of an art disillusion carnival than esthetic depth and substance. Rating: 1 star out of five.

 

THE BIO-BLURB SHOW

Photo: Cacoon, by Suzanne Anker. A leading contemporary printmaker and sculptor, Suzanne Anker studied art at Brooklyn College under Ad Reinhardt, Jimmy Ernst and Harry Holtzman. She later completed her education at the University of Colorado, where she received her MFA in 1976. After graduating, Anker taught art at both the University of Colorado and at Washington University, St. Louis. She returned to New York in 1978 and later became the Director of the Painting and Drawing program at New York University. Data: ArtOfThePrint.

Host Suzanne Anker and guests reconsider the virus as both a biological and cultural phenomenon. In its mutating form, new strains have been able to  cross species boundaries, just as globalization has created permeable boundaries in geopolitics. The panelists discuss new media art and politics in terms of a living code. With Joseph Nechvatal, an innovator in robotic painting and digital art, Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum and Director of Intelligent Agent, and McKenzie Wark, cultural critic and author of "A Hacker Manifesto" (Harvard University Press, 2004). Edition #8: Virus Redux-Reconfiguring.Culture@http://www.wps1.org/include/shows/bio_blurb.html.First broadcast March 21, 2005