SHARKFORUM: OPINION WITH TEETH

MSB: Now we are definitely Siskel and Ebert. In order to over simplify our opinions, let’s assign the shows each rows of up to five paint brushes instead of stars.

LB: Well, maybe. Anyway, let’s hope that there is now, following The No Final Picture show, a moratorium on the endgame gambit. As Wallace Stevens said, “The freshness of this idea has been fresh a long time.”

MSB: I enjoyed the show, but would also love to see it as a summation and large “full stop” applied to the endgame declarative. The third of the leading exhibition triumvirate was After Reality – Realism and Current Painting at the Kunsthalle. Entirely featuring representational work, it promised to be surprising, perhaps even controversial. Adding to such expectations was the fact that the curator Peter Pakesch has put together some of the best painting shows in Europe over the last few years, such as his Nach-Bild of 1999. After Reality was in this light, however, disappointing. A few minor yet delightful works such as those by Silvia Gertsch or the always impressive “bathroom window” paintings by Chuck Close couldn’t make the issue of figuration quite the novel question that I had hoped the show would be. Perhaps such a contention will be possible in a few more years. Still, Pakesch and the Kunsthalle must be applauded for all the previous painting shows, such as that of Hanspeter Hofmann, which clearly helped inspire this whole current panorama in Basel. It is a shame that later that year Pakesch left for the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria.



Chuck Close painting




Silvia Gertsch painting

LB: Graz, in far eastern Austria, has at times been very culturally active. It is nestled between Hungary, Slovenia and Italy. Therein it has the feel of a cultural crossroads, similar to Basel, but at the other edge of central Europe. Mr. Pakesch is a player and will undoubtedly grow in significance in the future. He is ahead of the curve of curators who have wedded knowledge of the gallery world with that of the art institution. Many, including those who didn’t profit directly during his tenure, will be sorry to see him go. He may be a Mandarin, but benevolently so: an archetypal European eclectic. He is a network man, but not exclusively. I shudder to think what kind of nouvelle puritans usually get such jobs. There are myriad ideologues waiting in the wings with baited breath to show us the “proper way to the future.”

To Be Continued .....