Off Center

After spending 20 years working sources for news, it’s more than a little odd to work in the same office with my sources. It also has its perks. Conscious the local press would put this story online as soon as they got it, I was able to kick out a quick item Wednesday about Kathy Halbreich’s appointment to the NYC Museum of Modern Art (it’s hard to shake the competitive DNA that comes with life in the press).

But once you’re part of the club, perhaps you can never really drain the ink-stained blood from your veins. Check out the ledes Wednesday from other local press (I’m not going to say we’re becoming a one-newspaper town, but … ):

From Mary Abbe the Star Tribune:

When Kathy Halbreich announced her resignation as director of Walker Art Center last March, she said she was looking forward to at least “one more great professional love affair” in her career.

On Wednesday she was named to a new post as associate director at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For a native New York aesthete of Halbreich’s temperament, MoMA — the world’s premiererepository of 20th century art — is obviously that love.

And from Dominic Papatola of the Pioneer Press:

When Kathy Halbreich announced her departure from the Walker Art Center in March, she said she still had “one more professional love affair left.” That affair will take her to New York and the Museum of Modern Art.

Which makes me more than a little creeped out by my own lede:

When Kathy Halbreich announced she would leave the Walker Art Center after nearly 17 years as its director, she told the New York Times “I can't imagine any other institution capturing my talents and spirits so perfectly.” Apparently, her imagination has found that institution.

Christoph Büchel, who has until now remained silent, finally spoke about his woes with MASS Moca in an email to Geoff Edgers at the Boston Globe. Funny, perhaps, but not the most mature answer- a sentiment also noted here. Hopefully MASS MoCA won’t be responding in kind.

For Paul’s original post on the museum’s legal victory, click here.

When Kathy Halbreich announced she would leave the Walker Art Center after nearly 17 years as its director, she told the New York Times "I can’t imagine any other institution capturing my talents and spirits so perfectly."

Apparently, her imagination has found that institution.

The Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, is creating a position for Halbreich, naming her the museum's only associate director. She will focus on contemporary art initiatives and programming for both the museum and its affiliate, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center.

Rather than lead a department or spearhead exhibitions, Halbreich will work across the institution to help define, structure and extend MoMA's commitment to contemporary art. She will lead the museum's curatorial committee for contemporary work, help develop museum acquisitions of new work and play a role in museum advocacy.

Halbreich, who ends her Walker tenure at the end of October, begins her new gig February 2008. She will report to MoMA Director Glenn Lowry.

Some might raise an eyebrow over Halbreich’s move from a director position at one of the world’s leading contemporary arts institutions to an associate director post at a museum with many focuses, but Halbreich sees the step as part of her personal and professional evolution.

"When I resigned from the Walker, I decided that my days as a museum director were over and I wanted to discover the next chapter in my career," Halbreich said through the MoMA. "I look forward to focusing on art and artists, which are the most challenging and stimulating concerns I can imagine."

Two weeks ago, the Walker announced Olga Viso, director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, as Halbreich's replacement. Viso begins at the Walker in January.

In exit interview with The Rake magazine’s Julie Caniglia, outgoing Walker director Kathy Halbreich discusses how Walker exhibitions affect the art market, her non-art dream job (running the Minneapolis Farmers Market), and the myriad “creative giants” the art world can no longer afford to ignore. A snippet:

The world is much smaller than when I began. The collection at Walker then was basically Euro-Canadian-U.S. It can't be that anymore. With Hélio Oiticica, we were the only museum in the U.S. to show his retrospective in 1994; people thought I was absolutely crazy. But he is going to be considered one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. This country just didn't understand because they didn't know.

What are the powerful countries of the future? Brazil, China, India. Brazil is an enormously fertile ground--that country and Japan have the longest history of really modern art, and the most interesting. China's later, and India I would say even later still. But these places now are extremely alive.

The Year of Living Biblically chronicles the time A.J. Jacobs spent adhering to the more than 700 rules contained in the Bible. He strictly upheld the 10 commandments and many more obscure rules (sleeping in a hut on certain holidays, eating crickets).

What caught my eye though, was the photo progression of his hair growth (thou shalt not cut side hair, in case you needed an explanation). It reminded me of a very different version of the Eleanor Antin performance Carving: A Traditional Sculpture.

The Walker’s most-wanted, most-requested tour guide, Gary White, has hit the World Wide Web by storm. Gary has been touring at the Walker for 25 years, has done an estimated 175 garden tours, and has toured over 400 exhibitions. Apparently once word got to the folks at Cool Hunting about the popularity of Gary’s tours, they wanted to follow one of their own.

• MIA hires new director: Olga Viso, the Walker’s new director, will have good company when she arrives in town. The Minneapolis Institute of Art has hired its new director as well: Kaywin Feldman, eight-year director of the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. She told the Pioneer Press, “I’m a huge fan of Olga. It’s an auspicious moment that we would both start at the same time. We can work together to get to know the community and to do some joint programming.” Both directors are 41 years old and start January 1. Viso is the Walker’s second female director; Feldman is the MIA’s first.

• MacArthur Geniuses: The MacArthur Foundation named its 2007 “genius grant” honorees. Among the recipients — which includes an environmental geographer, a water quality engineer, and a nanotechnologist — are several artists, including blues musician Corey Harris, choreographer Shen Wei, and playwright Lynn Nottage.

• Hanru on Istanbul: Hou Hanru, curator of the 10th Istanbul Biennial (on view through Nov. 4), tells the Wall Street Journal about the political themes of the exhibition and how the specifics of the city affected his curating. The biennial’s theme: Not Only Possible But Necessary: Optimism In The Age Of Global Wars.

• Bogus Banksies: As many as 100 fraudulent prints by British artist Banksy have ended up on ebay, The Guardian reports.

• Shrigley Ink: A compendium of David Shrigley works that have been reproduced as tattoos.

Amsterdam’s Public Space with a Roof has reprinted Off Center’s interview with Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn in its publication BEAUTY UNREALIZED: spider webs of personal universes seeking a form. The book catalogues items from PSWAR’s temporary library, a multimedia installation comprised of objects that were personally or professionally inspiring to 94 people from various backgrounds. It’s part of PSWAR’s research on “understanding beauty not in terms of an object’s internal quality but in terms of its effect on the beholder.”

Here’s the original Hirschhorn interview, conducted in October 2006 inside his Cavemanman, a cave in the Walker galleries constructed from cardboard, packing tape, aluminum foil, and other materials.

(Thanks, Pam.)