Kiki Anderson's Blog

Posted by Kiki Anderson

I've been a fan of the photobook for a long time. Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip has always been a favorite of mine, for example, and I thought of it as seminal. But reading The Photobook I really came to realize that there's much, much, much more. I was totally out of it. It's like an epiphany of sorts. And it sort of makes me crazy. So many gorgeous books! I want them! No wonder Martin Parr's been assiduously collecting his whole life.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

While taking notes on Pablo Picasso for the review, I wrote the following:

Women

-mistresses

-mistress v. wife

-Carolyn Lanchner's essays

As I was writing, though, I realized that I just couldn't tackle Picasso and women. It's been covered before, and Lanchner touches on the subject several times in the book. But it seemed just impossible for me to discuss Picasso and women in passing, and then if I gave it a section or a paragraph, it would take on more weight than I wanted. And yet, it's a central theme in his work. He made so many portraits of women, and the iconography is often unsettling and complicated. It's also fascinating, and in no way diminishes his stature; in fact if anything it enhances it.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

Yesterday I reviewed Skulls by Noah Scalin. Like the author, I'm a big skull fan myself, but I've never made them. I do have a Tibetan skull rosary, however, one of my favorite belongings. I used to have two, but gave one away to a friend who bought land in Maine. I love Posado's prints, and the tradition of Día de los Muertos. And the Dance of the Dead, whether by Hans Holbein or any other woodcutter. Skulls falls squarely within all of these traditions, I think. It's a contemporary take on very old subject matter.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

In my recent review of Lives of the Artists by Calvin Tomkins, I mention that the approaches of many of the artists featured feel dated. Maurizio Cattelan, on the other hand, seems current. He's on this month's cover of Modern Painters, holding a mannequin arm at his groin, like a gigantic penis. His expression is gleeful, almost drunken. The gesture of the arm: a salute. This is Cattelan. He's like the jester; his jokes have a bite to them. Social and political commentary, as well as the natural discomfort we all have with the body but try to pretend we don't, combine in awkward ways that resonate. Cattelan is not an artist who is concerned with individual expression. He is about spiky analysis with a purpose. And that feels like a good future for art right now.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

The Vamp & Tramp story is another inspiring example, and reminds me a bit of UPPERCASE. Both are small companies dealing in artists' books, which they LOVE. That's the great part. These people are working hard at their passion.

Vicky Stewart was heading out for a six-week tour when she granted me an interview. But she seemed so calm and cool, with gracious Southern manners. We talked for a while. She spends a lot of time talking to people all over the country about her collection, so she was easy to interview.

Here she discusses the growing interest in artists' books in the special collections department of libraries:

We think that more special collections in universities are actually adding artists' books to their collections. They don't necessarily have an artist's book collection, but they will buy artists' books to supplement an existing genre collection.

Women's issues, for example, is a very explosive subject. Those collections buy a lot of structural books. If you look at Miriam Schaer's work, you'll see she uses clothing that she molds and then she'll have a book within it, like a bustier, a strapless bra that goes from the waist up. She'll split that down the middle and then on the inside of that will be a book. And it will have something to do with how women are treated, whether it's abuse, or relationships, the opposite sex, it could be anything.

So artists' books present a rounded view of a subject matter. Interesting.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

It's great to see such a thinking, critical fashion maven. Iké Udé talks about dandys of the past. But I think that he has more in common with them beyond the obvious style obsessions. He, like many of them were, is bitingly critical, which is wonderfully refreshing in this day of mindless media obsession.

Right now, Iké Udé has a new book out about style makers, Style File. But he also has a show at Stux gallery which is all about Paris Hilton the media-constructed persona. Udé makes a distinction between style and fashion. Style doesn't have much to do with money, and is important to human life. Fashion is fleeting. People chase after it. Trends.

And yet, Iké Udé enjoys following fashion, too. He just does it analytically.

Posted by Kiki Anderson

UPPERCASE journal, the blog for UPPERCASE gallery/shop/press, is an inspiring site to see, especially at the beginning of a new year. The UPPERCASE venture seems to have done a lot in the brief time they've been open. It makes you realize that if you do something you love, you stand a good chance of succeeding at it. Just work really hard.

Also, the whole UPPERCASE venture seems so nicely connected. The shop begot the gallery, which created the press. The blog documents it all, and is like a collection of images and projects from other artists that in turn will inspire another project at UPPERCASE.