Newbury Street Won Out
DTR Modern Galleries
167 Newbury Street

Kidder Smith Gallery
131 Newbury Street

My First Friday was spent on Newbury St last night. And while it wasn't the best showing (of people or of art), it was an enjoyable evening nonetheless. I only made it to two galleries, because work was busy this week, not to mention my newly injured wrist. Wish I could say I fell down after too much fun at the Ketel One event last Tuesday, but instead it was a lame slip and trip on the stairs at work. I spent the majority of Friday in the ER waiting for an x-ray.... But in brighter news, one gallery on Newbury really caught my eye.

DTR Modern Galleries' "Revisiting the Flash of the 80's" was an enjoyable and impressive collection of Pop Art. The space was quite enjoyable, aside from the sales girl who asked, "who is your favorite Pop Artist?" A question such as this should never be asked of anyone simply because Pop Art is such a style that many people hate or even dismiss. Any true Art Historian wouldn't have asked such a question, but then again I have grown accustomed to the sales people in galleries being all sales and no art. Sure, she knew her Warhol and Haring factoids, since they were at the exhibit, but how would she have reacted if I countered her question with, "Oh for me it's Keith Haring, but what is your favorite school of German Expressionism?"



I didn't ask her this question, mainly because I was enjoying the show and didn't want to try to out art snob the art snob! The space is perfect to exhibit the large pieces by Warhol, Haring and Basquiat. I love when paintings by many pop artists are displayed together, because the evidence of how each builds off the other in terms of style and composition becomes so obvious. If you had thrown a few Lichtenstein’s into the mix, the small space would have rivaled, in terms of quality pop art, the miserable "Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons" exhibition at the MFA a few years ago. Bottom line, go check out the gallery if you enjoy Pop Art. I don't want to turn this blog into a debate or the validity or merit of past famous artists.

My experience at the new David Moore exhibit at the Kidder Smith Gallery was as disappointing as my previous show was enjoyable. Moore's large abstract pieces lacked feeling, depth or even decorative value. His ribbon like execution of his brush, created flat planes of color and shape that never seemed to engage the viewer. Most abstract paintings, even from so called masters lake Newman who I don't like, elicit more feeling than the contemporary paintings by Moore. Newman, who uses singular color planes with the "zip" that crosses them in such a way that, before the Moore show, i never thought could convey much emotion - but they do! Maybe that's why Newman is a master and Moore is trying to hawk his pieces for 10,000 a pop!

Yet, there is more wrong with Moore. My companion last night pointed out what I had been thinking in the back of my mind all night - there is no depth to these works whatsoever! If you look at the blue piece "Pulse" I have posted below, you can see the ribbons of color. What you can't see is that these pieces must have been hurriedly produced for exhibition because of one simple fact: the colors never cross or intertwine with one another. The blue ribbon is always on the same plane throughout the canvas and the black ribbon is on the plane above it and below all of it is a plane of white ribbon. Therefore, you create an amazingly flat surface, despite the physical amount of paint on the canvas. This effect, intended or not, renders the paintings emotionless.




The last failing of the Moore show was the final test i put all abstract pieces I dislike to before I shirk them off. I asked myself, "If I had a large room with a color scheme that matched this painting, could I hang it and enjoy it on the level of a decorative element?" The answer with Moore was a simple no. I would rather hang a blank canvas still in its wrapper and tell people I had a Duchamp.