An Art Laboratory in New York
Deutsche Bank supports
the Whitney Biennial
Rita
Ackermann, Black Out, 2007
Collection
of the artist;
courtesy Andrea
Rosen Gallery, New York,
and
Peter Kilchmann Galerie, Zurich
It's
regarded as the most important platform for contemporary American art, and
it always provides ample food for debate. The Whitney
Biennial registers current tendencies on the American art scene like a
seismograph. From March 6 to June 1, 2008, the comprehensive show can be
seen on four of the five floors of the Whitney
Museum. For the first time, the historical Park
Avenue Armory presents part of the Biennial.
Sherrie
Levine, Body Mask, 2007,
Collection
of the artist;
courtesy of the
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
From March
6 to March 23, performances, film showings, concerts, and even a dancing
marathon will take place there. After Deutsche
Bank made the completion of Pierre
Huyghe's Biennial work A Journey
that Wasn't possible in 2006, it has once again committed itself to
sponsoring this year's new and commissioned works at the New York show.
Gardar
Eide Einarsson, Judge,
Installation
view Team Gallery, New York, 2007
"The
Biennial is a laboratory," as Donna De Salvo, head curator of the Whitney
Museum, says, "a way of 'taking the temperature' of what is happening now
and putting it on view. It influences our thinking on multiple levels and,
for the Whitney, translates directly into the choices we make about our
exhibitions and collections. In dealing with the art of the present, there
are no easy assessments, only multiple points of entry."
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Karen Kilimnik, The castle great staircase,
Scotland, 2007
Collection of The
Stephanie and Peter Brant Foundation
In
this regard, the show constitutes a highly heterogeneous selection of 81
artists that presents many newcomers alongside established artists, such
as Sherrie
Levine, the pioneer of Appropriation Art whose relevance remains
unbroken, Mary
Heilmann, whose abstract paintings have resisted categorization since
the 1970s or Karen
Kilimnik, who debuts a "Minimalist" installation with four recent
paintings and a chandelier.
Phoebe
Washburn, Regulated Fool's Milk Meadow,
Deutsche
Guggenheim 2007 Installation view,
Photo:
Mathias Schormann,
©Phoebe
Washburn, Deutsche Guggenheim
The Whitney
Biennial exerts a ripple effect. Many artists that show here are expected
to become known worldwide later on. This is certainly to be expected from
young stars like Gardar
Eide Einarsson or Seth
Price, for instance, or from Phoebe
Washburn, whose installations of recycled materials have already
attracted international attention. Last year, the New York artist created
her object collage Regulated
Fool's Milk Meadow at the Deutsche
Guggenheim.
Mika
Rottenberg, Still aus Cheese, 2007,
Collection
of the artist
Mika
Rottenberg also became a name on the New York scene in record time; at
the 2006 London Frieze Art Fair
, Rottenberg won the Cartier
Award for her absurd video installations. Her new work Cheese
circles around the seven Sutherland
Sisters, who performed as human circus attractions with their
fabulously long hair. Anyone seeking to rest from this excursion through
contemporary American art is well advised to seek out the Armory, where DJ
Olive will be setting up a Red Cross tent. Visitors can lie on cots and
listen to his ambient composition Sleeping Pill – and recharge for
more of the Biennial.
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