Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby CAP » Sun Feb 09, 2014 11:16 am

A compilation based on around 77 curators or ‘nominators’ by the forces at Phaidon publications. The number and range supposedly ensured a balanced or perhaps ‘global’ perspective. Actually at most it panders to a consensus of the privileged and politically correct. Nothing new there then. The result is 115 selections of painters (some with more examples than others). It makes for a very big and unwieldy book with no further subdivisions, as offered in say Painting People (2006) by Charlotte Mullins or Painting Today (2009) by Tony Godfrey. It underlines a certain lack of discernment and rigour. There is an introduction by Barry Schwabsky that’s pretty forgettable and brief introductions to the selected individual artists by the nominators; I take it, which are also mostly rubbish. But I’m not going to do a full blown review here; my fundamental objections to method and terms are registered in other reviews.

Here I’m just going to play a little game of lists – what I’d have left out, what I might have added. This is a game I sometimes play with exhibition catalogues. Apologies for anglicised spelling in names throughout, for those offended by the (longstanding) practice. :roll:

My choices are based purely on the reproductions. I didn’t try to weight it in terms of how many to exclude or where they came from or what their social status might entail. I was going on just what I considered available in the pictures, what looked derivative of an included strand, what looked poor or unpromising as a departure. Now, most of these names won’t mean much, because the array of curators and agendas mean they’re pretty specialized or obscure, apart from their own precious little domains so what I’m doing is something much more general, not exactly populist, but looking for common ground certainly, looking for standards really.

ARTISTS I WOULD DROP (56)

Nina Chanel Abney
Richard Aldrich
Karin Mamma Anderson
Antonio Ballester Moreno
Lisa Brice
Rafal Bujnowski
Stephan Bush
Gillian Carnegie
Sarah Crowner
William Daniels
Noah Davis
Benjamin Degen
Nicole Eisenman
Ida Ekblad
Michael Fullerton
Wayne Gonzales
Richard Hawkins
Carmen Herrera
Alex Hubbard
Nathan Hylden
Magdalena Jitrik
Chantal Joffe
Chris Johanson
Jacob Kassay
Jutta Koether
Makiko Kudo
Li Dafang
Liang Yuanwei
Liu Xiadong
Marcin Maciejowski
Tala Madani
Victor Man
Birgit Megerle
Dianna Molzan
Farhad Moshiri
Surendran Nair
Paulina Olowska
Silke Otto-Knapp
Jon Pestoni
Johannes Phokela
Blake Reyne
Clare Rojas
Christoph Ruckhaberle
Maaike Schoorel
Dana Schutz
Glenn Sorensen
Mickalene Thomas
Padraig Timoney
Lesley Vance
Pieter Vermeersch
Wang Xingwei
Andro Wekua
Wendy White
Katharina Wulff
Zhang Enli
Jakub Julian Ziolkowski

As it turned out that was 56 artists of a list of 115, and initially I thought it looked so long it might be easier to list the artists I’d keep. There are 59 of those, hardly any shorter or easier to list. But I list them below anyway. Mostly these are better known and since I can barely remember earlier editions of Vitamin P, I can’t be sure who was conspicuously absent from earlier editions and who has been dropped to make way for new names in the current edition, but my amended list still covers what I consider the main strands to painting in the noughties. I don’t think I’ve been too narrow in this. I have tried to be catholic in my tastes. The book would probably have been stronger for limiting it to these 61 and allowing more reproductions for each artist. One or two pages should not be enough to qualify for inclusion nor satisfy the reader’s curiosity. But we all know the book is an exercise in diplomacy before aesthetics, and that a lot of the duds I’ve expelled are there for art world or institutional politics not artistic excitement. Their nomination ought to be an utter condemnation of the nominator.

ARTISTS I’D KEEP (59)

Ellen Altfest
Hurvin Anderson
Juan Arayo
Tauba Auerbach
Jules de Balincourt
Hernan Bas
Tilo Baugartel
Michael Borremans
Mark Bradford
Kerstin Bratsch
Varda Caivano
Brian Calvin
Philippe Decrauzat
Kaye Donachie
Pierre Dorion
Milena Dragicevic
Thomas Eggerer
Adrian Ghenie
Mark Grotjahn
Wade Guyton
Josephine Halvorson
N. S. Harsha
Jacqueline Humphries
Merlin James
Xylor Jane
Jia Aili
Jitish Kallat
Makina Kamura
Khalif Kelly
Martin Kobe
Tomasz Kowalski
Stefan Kurten
Li Shurui
Li Songsong
Nalini Malini
I Nyoman Masriadi
Katy Moran
Kristine Moran
Justin Mortimer
Odili Donald Odili
Christopher Orr
Alessandro Pessoli
Vitaly Pushnitsky
R. H. Quaytman
Sterling Ruby
Serban Savu
Raquib Shaw
Amy Sillman
Anj Smith
Josh Smith
Neil Tait
Alexander Tirei
Phoebe Unwin
Charlene Von Heyl
Kelley Walker
Corinne Wasmuht
Matthias Weischer
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Luiz Zerbini

The artist’s I’d add are just as obscure. But I think you can probably find examples of their respective works on the web. I haven’t got time for links just now. . Obviously there’s the temptation to add myself and Jasper, but take that as read. I’ve tried to pick newer or ‘emerging’ artists, as curators like to say, simply because I can’t be sure that bigger names haven’t made it into an earlier edition of Vitamin P. Neo Rauch for example seems a conspicuous omission, it’s hard to believe he had to make room already for some of the dreck P2 has dredged up, and then again if the New Leipzig School is old news why include other contemporary Leipzigers like Ruckhaberle, Weischer and Baumgärtel? This is just lazy or careless nomination. I’ve included some of the younger Leipzigers like Martin Galle, Robert Seidel and Robby Neugebauer –all masters students of Rauch, I think. My choices basically range between Europe, the UK and America. So Africans, South Americans and Australians, amongst many others, hardly get a look in. Nothing new there either, but at least I’m maintaining a pictorial standard, not simply toying with diplomacy. Sally Smart is an Australian ‘painter’ (perhaps more collagist) worth at least noticing. I can’t be sure the Irish artist Mairead O’hEocha didn’t get a cap in an earlier edition, so I’m including her. She has a show in Dublin this year! But what ratio of the selection is female, straight, white, Christian, Marxist, Virgo, bilingual, ambidextrous and overweight, is of no concern to me, if it’s not in the picture.

ARTISTS I’D ADD, MAYBE… IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

1. Phillip Allen
2. Tim Bailey
3. Tjebbe Beekman
4. Guillaume Bresson
5. Guillermo Caivano
6. Juliano Caldeira
7. Enrique Martinez Celaya
8. Steven Charles
9. Joel Croxson
10. Martin Damman
11. Gerald Davis
12. Marc Desgrandchamps
13. Sarah Douglas
14. Kim Dorland
15. Jack Duplock
16. Sarah Dwyer
17. Valerie Favre
18. Martin Galle
19. Till Gerhard
20. Simon Cantemir Hausi
21. Katrina Heichel
22. Paul Housely
23. Thomas Hylander
24. Roger Kelli
25. Claire Kerr
26. Rob Kolomyski
27. Bo Joseph
28. Francesca Lowe
29. Sabine Moritz
30. Ryan Mosley
31. Elizabeth Neel
32. Robby Neugebauer
33. Frank Nitsche
34. Seboo Migone
35. Mairead O’hEocha
36. Joyce Pensato
37. Andrew Piedilato
38. Magnus Plessun
39. Cornelius Quabeck
40. Steven Roden
41. Alison Schulnik
42. Robert Seidel
43. Sally Smart
44. Tony Swain
45. Zack Thorne
46. Graeme Todd
47. Lara Viana
48. Jonathan Viner
49. Christian Ward
50. Claire Woods
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby Jimmynutz » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:23 am

Joffe out?
Mortimer in?
Crumbs.
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby Jimmynutz » Tue Feb 11, 2014 6:32 pm

These are great lists.
I don't really like Phillip Allen's old paintings but he has changed them quite a bit recently and i think they're much better.
http://www.kerlin.ie/exhibitions/oxbloo ... ed-works/4
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby CAP » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:36 am

Useful link JN - I'd not seen these. :)

I'm reminded a bit of John Walker....
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby Jim » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:54 am

I think Damien Meade is a very good painter, would you consider him for your 'to be added' list?
http://scheubleinbak.com/artists/damien-meade
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby CAP » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:30 pm

Well in truth Jim I probably wouldn’t, but perhaps I ought. At the very least I feel obliged to offer some justification. The thing is, the picture-of-a-sculpture/model/toy bit is fairly familiar now (pace Glenn Brown, Richard Patterson up to Christopher Stevens, Matthew Weir, even Nigel Cooke or James Wright – alternatively, you can pick it up in New York from the mid nineties in someone like Alexander Ross - he’s more on the play dough/Plasticine-as-biomorphic-or-wobbly-Barbara-Hepworth-sculpture tip. Yeah I know - but for a while that played there! But for me the whole thing is just a little too inviting of demonstrations of virtuosity. It’s too easy for people to just admire the painter’s diligence – the ‘realistic’ rendering! Meh. As one who spent some years in the commercial illustration ghetto – I have a certain resistance to that instant legibility – and I suppose it makes for a bit of a blind spot artistically. The other thing is, this territory is pretty much owned by digital photography now. Don’t ask me for names. But the deviously, deviantly Photoshopped ‘artefact’ is hot in some circles.

As usual, I blame the Germans.

But look Damien Meade will certainly not be without admirers – clearly isn’t even in Switzerland - and the guy’s in the John Moore’s/Whitechapel loop, so it may just be a question of time before he’s recognised as a stout traditionalist, carrying on where Richard Patterson or Matthew Weir have bravely gone before. It’s a niche. Should I be tracking this thread in current painting? Well… only to drop it with a Heckler & Koch from a grassy knoll at the first opportunity. It may be something painting can never away from, for long or far, but it’s not something you want to get mesmerised by either. It’s significant that people like Brown, Patterson and Stevens eventually loosen up and ask more of drawing and composition; leaven the dogged literalism with more complex sources and treatments. These are a bit tricky to go into here.

Anyway my list of possible inclusions was only to indicate stuff ignored by the chosen choosers. And since posting it I’ve realised I should have included Nigel Cooke – maybe on the same rationale as Meade? – Marius Bircea, Baker Overstreet (once Saatchi collects someone everyone else seems to shun them) Tomory Dodge, Jansson Stegner (I included Jon Viner as a Post-Currin mannerist, but Stegner probably deserves a cap as well, even if he doesn’t come off the bench). No doubt more will occur to me… :roll:
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Re: Vitamin P2 – New Perspectives in Painting – 2011 edition

Postby Jim » Thu Feb 13, 2014 9:54 am

fair enough, cheers!
:mrgreen:
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