| Rudolf Stingel Captivates His Viewers At The Whitney Museum |
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| Written by Mark Rifkin, twi-ny.com | |
Rudolf StingelThrough October 14Admission: $15 The Whitney Museum of American Art 945 Madison Avenue at 75th St. Museum Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11 am-6 pm 212-570-7715 whitney.org  Untitled (2000)  The hallway of the Whitney before you go into the Rudolf Stingel exhibition  An inside view of the Rudolf Stingel exhibition In another room, Stingel has hung gold wallpaper paintings, made from stencils, over a mirrored floor that reflects both the works, which have a homey yet elegant feel, and visitors, reconfiguring the barriers between viewer and object. Farther along, Stingel has included a fake heating unit jutting out from a wall, looking like it’s rusting, creating a jarring experience since unregulated heat is such a powerful, destructive force, especially in a museum. Destruction is a key element in Stingel’s white Styrofoam panels, which he walked over before hanging them, placing the artist right in the middle of both creation and destruction, beginning and end. Start and finish is also evoked by the inclusion of the huge horizontal rug from Stingel’s studio, hung across a wall, becoming a piece of art itself, complete with footprints, paint drippings, and hair embedded in it. Finally, a large space features two black wallpaper paintings, with imperfections added, along with three giant oil portraits Stingel made of himself, based on photos of him taken by Sam Samore. The Stingel on canvas, deep in thought, looks exhausted and withdrawn; he hangs on the wall, a piece of art not unlike the nearby wallpaper works, imperfect, yet demanding of the viewer’s attention, the photorealistic quality blurring the line between art and artist, artist and viewer, and, perhaps, artist and artist. To find out more about what's going on this week in New York, visit www.twi-ny.com |
