Blogs Centerpoints Online

Would Beuys have auditioned for “American Idol”?

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Or the Idol counterpart in his home country, Deutschland sucht den Superstar? (Love that title!) The shaman/sham/most brilliant artist of all time (to paraphrase an Art News profile from 1980), did take risks with his “aktions,” most famously in cohabitating with a coyote in a gallery (see documentation in Walker exhibition) – but I just [...]

Beuys goes "Bananas"

Beuys goes "Bananas"

Or the Idol counterpart in his home country, Deutschland sucht den Superstar? (Love that title!) The shaman/sham/most brilliant artist of all time (to paraphrase an Art News profile from 1980), did take risks with his “aktions,” most famously in cohabitating with a coyote in a gallery (see documentation in Walker exhibition) – but I just learned that he also made a go of it as a pop singer. Artforum.com (via YouTube) has a video of Beuys making himself vulnerable before mainstream TV viewers, performing a protest song called “Sonne Statt Reagan” in 1982 on the German show Bananas, which also hosted acts like Depeche Mode. Artforum’s video section has a lot of other good stuff, including David Byrne talking with Jeff Koons – in 1975, Matthew Barney’s 2003 Regis Dialogue at the Walker, and an interview with Mary Heilmann in which the artist talks about “keeping the bourgeoisie happy,” among other things.

Take our blog survey, win an iPod shuffle

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Every so often we like to take a survey of our readers to see what you think. Our last survey was in March of 2007, so it’s time for a new one. The questions are focused on the blogs and a little demographic information, which you can skip if you like. We’re sweetening the deal [...]

Every so often we like to take a survey of our readers to see what you think. Our last survey was in March of 2007, so it’s time for a new one. The questions are focused on the blogs and a little demographic information, which you can skip if you like.

We’re sweetening the deal this time. If you take the survey, you can enter your name into the pool and we’ll select one person to win a 1GB iPod Shuffle.

Take the survey.



Photo by bluetsunami.

The Mr. Rogers of Contemporary Art

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[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Si7DxOu31V0[/youtube] part one [youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=aS7U2y8fDrY&feature=related[/youtube] part two I found an odd little series on YouTube called Each & Every One of You, which the creators describe as “a sincere but irreverent 1980s cable TV-style show” that “teaches ordinary people how to make contemporary installation art.” The host, Don Goodes — a former art critic and self-styled [...]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Si7DxOu31V0[/youtube]

part one

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=aS7U2y8fDrY&feature=related[/youtube]

part two

I found an odd little series on YouTube called Each & Every One of You, which the creators describe as “a sincere but irreverent 1980s cable TV-style show” that “teaches ordinary people how to make contemporary installation art.” The host, Don Goodes — a former art critic and self-styled Mr. Rogers living in Montreal — dedicates this two-part episode (warning: total running time is about 30 minutes) to what he calls Political Accumulation Installation.

“We begin by taking a stand — the stand of criticizing Western culture for its misdoings,” Goodes says, before leading viewers through the other three essential steps to contemporary installation art: Making aesthetic decisions, developing the concept and, ultimately, making the work. My favorite segment, in Part 2, is dedicated to “rejected artists,” featuring interviews with artists “whose projects were rejected by art galleries, art councils or whatever.”

And the Webby goes to …

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The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, at the Smithsonian, is among winners of the 12th annual Webby Awards — the Internet’s version of the Oscars — as Best Cultural Institution for its Web site for Design for the Other 90%. The exhibition opens May 24 in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. As it happens, Smithsonian Education was [...]

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, at the Smithsonian, is among winners of the 12th annual Webby Awards — the Internet’s version of the Oscars — as Best Cultural Institution for its Web site for Design for the Other 90%. The exhibition opens May 24 in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. As it happens, Smithsonian Education was nominated in the same category, earning the People’s Choice award there. The National Gallery of Art earned nominations in two categories (Art and Podcasts).

The Museum of Modern Art won a Webby in the Art category for its illuminating site detailing Richard Serra’s 2007 retrospective. Throughout, you’ll find captivating video, vivid photography and revealing interviews with Serra, who opens his intensive process and gives a detailed tour of his work on video.

No other American arts institution earned a nomination in the Art and Best Cultural Institution categories.

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