Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 12:53:31 -0500
From: Anthony Stephenson <artspec-AT-injersey.com>
Subject: Re: Whitney Biennial


"Myself, I think art is the evolutionarily necessary add-on organ to
mediate between consciousness and materiality, and the patent pathology
of current culture's relation to materiality (of which commodification
is a part) is evidence that said art shd be doing something it isn't.
Does anything at the Whitney address this (in more interesting ways than
mere smug potshots at the booboisie)? 
 Klefstad"

	Yes, I think much of the work I saw seemed to address (individual)
consciousness versus the "current culture's relation to materiality."
But when you say that "said art shd be doing something it isn't," is
that a wish or an agenda that you see failing?
	Alan Sondheim wrote a book some time ago that almost names a trend that
has probably always existed, but by definition makes it difficult to
grasp in an historical or categorical sense. His book, "Individuals"
examined the work of artists who are both successful and influential on
today's younger artists.
	One could see, however, the influence of a younger artist on an older
one with the work of Louise Bourgeois. Her installation was full of soft
sculpture.


     --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---