Bantamweight Flickr Battle!
After the gorgeously gargantuan show at MoMA that held New Yorkers spellbound in its midtown courtyard, the whole country of France is now making a fuss this week over Richard Serra. The New York Times slideshow revealing his latest steel monoliths at the Grand Palais is surprisingly vertical. Plus, who can resist Richard Serra’s craggly mug, above.
Meanwhile, the blogosphere is a-twitter about whether Serra could be gathering steam as the most popular artist captured on Flickr. A recent Flickr search has revealed that at time of posting, there are 6,192 Flickr photos that match the search terms ‘Richard Serra.’ A new bantamweight contender, ‘Olafur Eliasson‘ is up to 4,256 and averaging about 30 adds per day, presumably fed by visitors to his current show at MoMA and PS1. Surprising names in the flyweight division are ‘Matthew Barney‘ at 1,139, ‘Marcel Duchamp‘ at 1,408, and the white canvas master ‘Robert Ryman‘ trailing with just 107 Flickr posts. Please note that photographing museum paintings by Robert Ryman is not encouraged.
In the heavyweight division, readers have suggested that Henry Moore, at 14,563, and Alexander Calder at 17,471 (by last name only), are positioned to defeat the overall reigning champion Andy Warhol, who currently has 18,900 Flickr photos tagged with his name. Further investigation has revealed that not all works tagged with Andy Warhol actually are by Andy Warhol, but include some creative appropriation.
Robert Adams: On the Edge at Fondation Cartier
Robert Adams, who was recently featured in Art:21 — Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4, recently opened his first solo show in France. On view in the exhibition, titled On the Edge, are approximately 150 photographs that illustrate Adams’ lifelong devotion to the western American landscape and reflect both devastating and hopeful visions of the environment. Although human figures are usually absent from Adams’ photographs, their influence is easily perceived: a billboard mounted on a tree-covered hill, construction of suburban housing projects, graffiti in an otherwise tranquil desert view, or the consequences of “clear-cutting,” a practice of quickly and completely cutting down forests that the American West has witnessed over a period of time.
The photographic component of On the Edge is constructed around Adams’ views on the rural and urban landscape surrounding him while looking eastward and westward from his home. He is intrigued by the thought that “if we face eastward we confront the remains of what was, until we destroyed it, one of the world’s great rainforests, while if we face westward we contemplate the open sea, not itself unharmed but still beautiful and carrying with it, as all beauty does, a suggestion of promise.” Robert Adams lives on the west coast of the United States.
On the Edge is on view through January 27, 2008.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
261, Blvd Raspail
75014 Paris
France
Watch a clip from Adams’ Art:21 segment:
See more images from the exhibition here.
