Richard Kern at Feature, Inc.

NY Arts, July/August 2001

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I found myself standing in front of a series of framed photographs by Richard Kern, writing in my journal notes that seemed more like Penthouse letters than art criticism. “Staring wantonly into the camera lens, Lucy slides her delicate hand into her bikini bottom, daring the viewer to come to her with a glance impregnated with innocence and desire… Now taking a soothing post-coital haul from her Marlboro, the buxom blonde opens her legs to reveal the used condom still protruding from her vagina and the mess her unseen lover has left inside her legs.” “Oh my God,” I hear gasped behind me.

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Supernova: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964; Andy Warhol at the AGO

Memo to the Art Gallery of Ontario: fire your marketing staff. Initially, we welcomed the news that the AGO would be hosting an Andy Warhol show. And, even though he might not be the first person to leap into our heads to curate, we welcomed the participation of David Cronenberg, as everybody but heaven knows our misgivings about curators past. Until, that is, we saw the ads: “Sex symbols. Car crashes. Electric Chairs. We’d expect this from Cronenberg, but from Warhol?” Far from being clever and savvy, these ads actually raise the not-entirely-unrealistic prospect that the AGO had never ever heard of Warhol, nor had they any clue what he had ever done. Furthermore, what the general public knows of Warhol (aside from that dreary quote about fame that everyone invariably gets wrong) is that, over and above all else, he was a fey, pale, remote weirdo, and thus a prime candidate to create remote weirdo work. Read the rest of this entry »

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