On Thursday, before Huck went running toward a flight of stairs, tripped and fell into a wall which broke two bones in his arm, and required an ambulance, 9 hours in the ER, sedation (morphine), two attempts at resetting the bones, I visited NYU’s Grey Gallery during lunch to see Toxic Beauty: the Art of Frank Moore.
At first glance his work is not the kind I’d be particularly drawn to. His paintings are figurative and surrealist in style. They are aesthetically “not my thing”. However, on closer inspection I found them moving. I was drawn in. The show continues in NYU’s Bobst Library with Moore’s drawings and prints, notebooks as well as delightfully compulsive video Beehive. In this collection of work a fascinating portrait emerges of the depth of Moore’s artistic practice and concerns.
I’ve been thinking about my response to this show in comparison to my response to the Alighiero Boetti show at MoMA. On the surface, unlike Moore’s work, the Boetti retrospective seemed like it would appeal more to me. I enjoy a high concept artist with work that employs enigma, puzzles and a critique of authorship. Yet walking through the MoMA show I was disappointed to feel largely unmoved by the artwork. The show is impressive in its scale, diversity and concepts but the actual objects left me cold. And despite all the chance-work to it it feels oddly controlled.
At the same time of my visit to MoMA I was reading Alex Ross’s Listen to This. These were a couple things written in that book about the composer John Cage: “The composer is not in full of control of what the musicians play yet he’s the principle author” and “Cages’s chanciest works have a personal stamp because he took such care in selecting their components”. This reminded me of Boetti because his stamp is all over everything even when other people are doing the work. And for all its “play” much of the work, seems rather calculated. Finally, there is something (perhaps this is knee-jerk) slightly uncomfortable about him employing anonymous workers to make what are ultimately his pieces.
Moore is a traditional artist-author of his work. His work is infused with his urgently personal passions and concerns — environmental degradation and his health (he had AIDS and died in 2002). AB’s passions feel cooler, less earthy and less urgent.
I do remember one drawing from the MoMA show that I really liked. It played with the scale of animals and was inspired by Boetti’s kids’ children’s books. And I remember thinking… kids? This guy had kids?!