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Bits & Pieces: Alec Soth; Xmas kitsch, Shanghai-style; the coming Inquisition; more

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How to spend the money from all those gifts you’re going to return. Find some ideas browsing Alec Soth’s top 10 photo books of 2009. Fans of Soth’s earlier blog — and they were becoming legion — are elated that he’s back, at least in a bloggy kind of alter-ego way as one “Lester B. Morrison.”  They [...]

Lester B. Morrison's Facebook photo

Lester B. Morrison's Facebook photo

How to spend the money from all those gifts you’re going to return. Find some ideas browsing Alec Soth’s top 10 photo books of 2009. Fans of Soth’s earlier blog — and they were becoming legion — are elated that he’s back, at least in a bloggy kind of alter-ego way as one “Lester B. Morrison.”  They should also keep an eye out for more information about Soth’s first survey, opening here at the Walker next September.

Christmas, as only the Chinese can do it: My friend Adam Minter, a writer based in Shanghai, has been snapping photos of every Christmas tree he’s seen in the past few days — 141, to be exact.

redemption house

The script at the bottom of that tree says “Redemption House.” See the other 140 Christmas trees — some pathetic, some downright creepy, and many pushing kitsch into entirely new realms — at Adam’s blog, Shanghai Scrap.

Barbara Kingsolver & Walker history: In Lacuna, Kingsolver’s first novel in nine years, a character named Tom Cuddy writes to the protagonist, Harrison Shepherd:

“The Department of State is getting into the art business. … the idea is to pack up a fresh load of paintings on Uncle Sam’s ticket, and parade them around the museums of Europe. A special show of American paintings to send overseas, to show those Parisians we’re not a bunch of rubes. … They recruited my old boss for the job, Leroy Davidson from the Walker. He only got 50 thousand clams to work with but he’s done a killer job, Leroy chose everything himself. He’s fed up with the Europeans sniggering about heart-throbbing landscapes and the American Scene, so he decided to give them an eyeful. Seventy-nine paintings, mostly Modern Art: Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, it’s a killer.”

Joseph LeRoy Davidson (1908 - 1980)

Joseph LeRoy Davidson (1908 - 1980)

Incidentally, work from those painters is currently on view in Benches & Binoculars. Two outlines of Davidson’s distinguished career (here and here)  note that he was an assistant director and curator at the Walker before moving to Washington and heading up the feds’ initial efforts at cultural PR through contemporary art (which, according to some, came into full flower with Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s). Our archivist Jill Vuchetich notes, however, that “the timeline is slightly off.  He would have been the first assistant director starting in 1940 when the Walker Galleries became the Walker Art Center, under director Daniel S. Defenbacher.”

Your most burning questions about art … answered! Watch the informative and instructional video below, which tells you how to submit queries for the upcoming Inquisition — a revival of a public quiz forum that played out at the Walker in 1940. In fact, Davidson probably got in on this game, as it was invented by his boss, Defenbacher.

Bits & Pieces: holiday design, “sagging,” celebrity art lovers

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Marcel’s Wanders-ing here, and over there: Can’t get enough of Marcel Wanders’ holiday trinkets at Target? You might want to moon over the 312-page digital book that Wanders published on his website, which exposes the whole design process and then some, including “Santa’s rejects.” It’s well worth paging through. Also check out the wrapping paper, [...]

Marcel Wanders cover for de Bijenkor's 2008 holiday magazine

Marcel Wanders cover for de Bijenkorf's 2008 holiday magazine

wander_target design book

page from Wanders' design book for Target, 2009

Marcel’s Wanders-ing here, and over there: Can’t get enough of Marcel Wanders’ holiday trinkets at Target? You might want to moon over the 312-page digital book that Wanders published on his website, which exposes the whole design process and then some, including “Santa’s rejects.” It’s well worth paging through. Also check out the wrapping paper, socks, teddy bears, lingerie, Christmas balls, vases, dresses, and table decorations he designed for the 2008 holiday season at de Bijenkorf, a department store in his home country. (This year, de Bijenkorf’ commissioned Victor & Rolf to create a Christmas collection—perhaps Target will bring that duo to this side of the Atlantic next year?)

“…and a giant cherry on a huge spoon”: Target’s 2009 festivities also include a new video and radio commercial with a song by the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers. Watch the video and try to guess which Singer has a day job at the Walker.

Enduring? Certainly. Endearing? You decide … an exhibition about “sagging” called Hang Time: The Enduring, Endearing Trend, is up at Pill House (aka Pillsbury House) in South Minneapolis through January 30. As curator Roderic Southall told MPR’s Marianne Combs:

“If I were asked to boil down the messages that are sent to saggers by those adults who object to it I would suggest the phrase ‘you low down dirty dog homo boy who lacks any positive sense of who you are . . . listen to me as I tell you how to be.’ I think that accurately reflects how little I think the dialogue has been worth. Why we have such a violent community dialogue about clothing in the midst of all of the other social challenges is worthy of study and, in a way, celebration.”

Fair enough. But as Combs and Southall himself point out, if something’s been going on for 20 years, hasn’t it transcended trend status? Count on a lively artist/community discussion on January 15 atat 6:30 p.m.

From the Archives: Celebrities in our Midst! One of our interns is going down to the archives and will soon be posting treasures she unearths there (following up on this post). For now, pay a quick visit to Eyeteeth, the blog of former Walker staffer Paul Schmelzer, to see Sonic Youth enjoying the Walker’s 2006 Cameron Jamie exhibition. He hasn’t yet visited the Walker — that we know of — but James Franco’s been making inroads of late in the contemporary art world, including an appearance as a presenter at the First Annual Art Awards; now the Wall Street Journal has published his lengthy piece about performance art, questioning whether his role as artist “Franco, just Franco” on General Hospital qualifies as such; it’s accompanied by a video in which he interviews “godmother of performance art” Marina Abramovic.

"Franco, only Franco" on "General Hospital"; image from ABC

"Franco, just Franco" on "General Hospital" (image from ABCO)