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I travel and review art exhibits in a manner that you don`t need a phd to grasp. I am attracted by clarity and dialogue rather than the usual artcentrism of specialized readings. I witness as many art shows as any official journalist, but keep in mind that I`m NOT a "writer", merely a purveyor of sentiments and impressions. Because I am based in Montreal this diary will mostly focus on its scene, but I`ll be voicing opinions on major, worldwide issues.
Monday, March 08, 2004
New York In A Fraction: John Veltri, 1966
You probably missed this show, but Louise Desy`s installment (I really thought it worked as an installation) of John Veltri`s photographic commission for "300-358 West 37th Street, Manhattan" (September 1966) was quite an interesting essay in urban portraitude. And I don`t know if Veltri realized that by being conditioned by the very nature of his project, he suceeded in portraying the New York City of his time in quite a judicious form, simply concentrating on the vigourous analysis of one section of a street, instead of providing the usual formal synthesis of relatively themed "city books" or "architecture books", the such broader pictorial essays he did end up releasing, but that would be after he was going to scrutinize one last specific detail of his home town: indeed, soon later, while pursuing a parallel career in documentary cinema, he would be publishing a book (in 1971) all about the Statue of Liberty.
But by 1966, John was merely working for the architecture firm L.S. Wegman who proposed a plan for building an "Arcade Sidewalks" along West 37th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. A plan that was later refused because it concluded to be too costly and most importantly asking too much modifications of already eminent structures on the street (the CCA notes, amongst a series of plans facsimiles assembled in a booklet, that this refusal may serve as a lesson for architects today since in the future it is going to be harder in the field of urban planning to compromise with already existing, culturally protected buildings). Nevertheless, what we were left here with, besides all the anecdotal, was Veltri`s thorough and original photographic research. A project that can easily be reduced in two parts: 1) a large double panorama of approximately 40 shots of West 37th street in an emptied state (shot on an early sunday), and 2) exactly 49 shots, divised by street portions, and detailing life on the street, building contours, perspective shots, and other general urban motifs (parkings, traffic, etc..).
The panorama shots function exactly like a similar work made by Melvin Charney for Montreal St-Laurent ("The Main") Blvd in 1965, with both side of the streets juxtaposed in reverse manner, along a path made of collaged frontfaced photographs. They represent the blunt, almost 2d, surface overview of the material from which the surrounding variations on the wall respond in some sort of "cubist`s game", exploring the perticularities of the environment`s in a similar ordeal, if less spectacular, than the works of another famous Quebec artist, Alain Paiement, who nearly 30 years later realised a gigantic 3D photo installation covering the pictorial "format" (as in.."physical amplitude") of yet one famous New York spot: Times Square. Add to this a documentation of the street`s activity, in the middle of Garment District circa mid 60`s, when it was really a busy place (the quantity of trucks and people moving boxes will make you wonder if everyone on the street decided to move on the same day), filled with many important clothing manufactures and gross dealers, and on top of each photograph all the numbers of the street buildings anytime they appear in any perspective (even when we only see rooftops motifs), and you get a pretty obsessive and unbanal dissection of a fragment of 60`s New York.
The only question left, regardless of the artist`s intention to pull the fractionary diagram of a street for the aims of an architectural firm, which at this point I believe have been artistically far exceeded, is if such an analysis could justifyingly counter as a portrait of the city as a whole. Are we getting any sense of greater New York from this ? I believe only a new yorker who was living in the town through the 60`s could answer, but I`m tempted to say yes, because the city was built in such an unusual grill format, with buildings attached in straight rows, using various architectural standards that were spread across a few sections of the town (cast iron, greek revival, etc), that I suppose concentrating on a tiny portion of this grill can communicate a vague idea of what other intersections could ressemble (well, that is if we keep out of Midtown, Wall Street, and residential quarters). And New york is just always such an hyperactive city, everywhere. That, you can get a clear demonstration in Veltri`s work, showing a fair amount of walking shoppers and truck deliveries, though the street he is showing is not quite the same as of today, which have become much calmer from the outside (...but not the inside). If there is one last word that characterizes both Veltri`s project, the essence of what we are getting from it, and an idea of New York city as a whole, is that they`re all dynamic.
Cedric Caspesyan
PS: The museum had a "one line" description of the exhibition on their website, what paradoxically expressed two things: 1) the curator is good at selecting and presenting work but really boring as someone able to comment on the CCA`s decision of presenting the work. 2) the exhibit was one of the easiest, accessible, public-friendly show presented at CCA in a while, far from the hermetism of the hundreds Cedric Price blueprints showing on the other side (which I`ll comment at some point...gimme a year, that was an exhausting exhibit).
PS2: Dominique Blain review in process...great show but delicate to review.
Comments-[ comments.]
But by 1966, John was merely working for the architecture firm L.S. Wegman who proposed a plan for building an "Arcade Sidewalks" along West 37th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. A plan that was later refused because it concluded to be too costly and most importantly asking too much modifications of already eminent structures on the street (the CCA notes, amongst a series of plans facsimiles assembled in a booklet, that this refusal may serve as a lesson for architects today since in the future it is going to be harder in the field of urban planning to compromise with already existing, culturally protected buildings). Nevertheless, what we were left here with, besides all the anecdotal, was Veltri`s thorough and original photographic research. A project that can easily be reduced in two parts: 1) a large double panorama of approximately 40 shots of West 37th street in an emptied state (shot on an early sunday), and 2) exactly 49 shots, divised by street portions, and detailing life on the street, building contours, perspective shots, and other general urban motifs (parkings, traffic, etc..).
The panorama shots function exactly like a similar work made by Melvin Charney for Montreal St-Laurent ("The Main") Blvd in 1965, with both side of the streets juxtaposed in reverse manner, along a path made of collaged frontfaced photographs. They represent the blunt, almost 2d, surface overview of the material from which the surrounding variations on the wall respond in some sort of "cubist`s game", exploring the perticularities of the environment`s in a similar ordeal, if less spectacular, than the works of another famous Quebec artist, Alain Paiement, who nearly 30 years later realised a gigantic 3D photo installation covering the pictorial "format" (as in.."physical amplitude") of yet one famous New York spot: Times Square. Add to this a documentation of the street`s activity, in the middle of Garment District circa mid 60`s, when it was really a busy place (the quantity of trucks and people moving boxes will make you wonder if everyone on the street decided to move on the same day), filled with many important clothing manufactures and gross dealers, and on top of each photograph all the numbers of the street buildings anytime they appear in any perspective (even when we only see rooftops motifs), and you get a pretty obsessive and unbanal dissection of a fragment of 60`s New York.
The only question left, regardless of the artist`s intention to pull the fractionary diagram of a street for the aims of an architectural firm, which at this point I believe have been artistically far exceeded, is if such an analysis could justifyingly counter as a portrait of the city as a whole. Are we getting any sense of greater New York from this ? I believe only a new yorker who was living in the town through the 60`s could answer, but I`m tempted to say yes, because the city was built in such an unusual grill format, with buildings attached in straight rows, using various architectural standards that were spread across a few sections of the town (cast iron, greek revival, etc), that I suppose concentrating on a tiny portion of this grill can communicate a vague idea of what other intersections could ressemble (well, that is if we keep out of Midtown, Wall Street, and residential quarters). And New york is just always such an hyperactive city, everywhere. That, you can get a clear demonstration in Veltri`s work, showing a fair amount of walking shoppers and truck deliveries, though the street he is showing is not quite the same as of today, which have become much calmer from the outside (...but not the inside). If there is one last word that characterizes both Veltri`s project, the essence of what we are getting from it, and an idea of New York city as a whole, is that they`re all dynamic.
Cedric Caspesyan
PS: The museum had a "one line" description of the exhibition on their website, what paradoxically expressed two things: 1) the curator is good at selecting and presenting work but really boring as someone able to comment on the CCA`s decision of presenting the work. 2) the exhibit was one of the easiest, accessible, public-friendly show presented at CCA in a while, far from the hermetism of the hundreds Cedric Price blueprints showing on the other side (which I`ll comment at some point...gimme a year, that was an exhausting exhibit).
PS2: Dominique Blain review in process...great show but delicate to review.
