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Get to know some potential 'masters'
By MARY ANN MARGER, Times Art Critic © St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2000 TAMPA -- Through just 26 works, a compact show at the Tampa Museum of Art surveys significant art of the end of the 20th century. But don't expect to breeze through it. Like most good art of our age, it is puzzling at first, but takes on substance as the viewer delves into it. No clue will explain it all easily. Every artist has a different shtick. Fortunately, good text labels help. Borrowed from the Milwaukee Art Museum and here for its fifth and last venue, the show is an opportunity to catch up on the artists who are appearing again and again in exhibits. Almost all have exhibited in the bay area before; some are already in our permanent collections. So it's not too soon to evaluate these artists, to proclaim them among the best of our times. Somewhere here are the Monets and Van Goghs of tomorrow. Art in the past two decades has been characterized by diversity. Some liked it hot: The neo-expressionists, unlike the abstract expressionists of mid-century, added images to their angst-ridden canvases. Some liked it cold: They turned to new technology and mass media for tools and messages. And some were somewhere in between. Whatever direction they chose, they reflected the fact that we live in a pluralistic society; we have accepted our diversity. Our art reflects that change in attitudinal climate. But enough of the past tense. Most of these artists are alive and working today. Their best may be yet to come. A single generalization can be made about this art: It is ambiguous on purpose. Expect to exert some brain strain. Most of the artists are Americans, with Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke of Germany, Francesco Clemente of Italy and Guillermo Kuitca of Argentina giving us an idea of how national boundaries no longer define the nature of art. Five huge neo-expressionist works hang in the small Focus Gallery, one each by Susan Rothenberg, Baselitz, Richter, Polke and Philip Guston. Polke's Schloss Ludwigs Ruh (Repose in Ludwig's Castle) is the only one realistically rendered (and only in part); it shows hands within bars (remember: He was "Mad King Ludwig"). Abstraction is liberating, freeing the artist from conforming to our notions of reality. Is the realism coincidence or part of a "who's mad and who isn't?" message? At the opposite extreme, with no substantive meaning intended, is the art of Scott Burton's Dining Table (1982). As we broaden our concept of beauty through novel design, Burton asks that we consider whether the work is sculpture, furniture or both. There is no double function with Haim Steinbach's pink accent, of two shiny silver trash cans, placed too high on a shelf to catch trash. He bought them already made; they reflect our throw-away society literally. For further contemplation, he displays them with four teakettles and two double-faced masks. Is he warning against carrying mass-production too far? A similar work is in the permanent collection at the Ringling. The influence of mass media also comes through in Felix GonzalezTorres' stack of white offset prints containing only the words "Veterans Day Sale." Viewers may take a sheet home, thus participating in the artistic process. The work raises questions: Why do we commemorate the day with a sale? Did our veterans fight for this? Peter Halley made a major statement in the 1980s with Neo-Geo, short for "neo-geometric conceptualism." His slick paintings of rectangles could be read as abstract in the extreme, but they were real symbols of cells in every sense of the word. Two Cells (1988) relies on paint texturizer to take the work beyond hard edge. Ross Bleckner expresses the theme of AIDS through paintings of somber spirituality, using white washes across a background of grays. In Outstanding European (1989), a figure holds a candelabra aloft, its central flame obscured by an ugly scab-like protrusion. Willie Cole's Domestic Dancers (1998), one of the newest works in the show, is one of the most sophisticated. The design references African fiber art; the technique -- scorch marks made by a steam iron, a waffle griddle and a range coil -- recalls domestic chores, reminding us that artists without means to buy conventional art tools will use whatever is available. The repetition of pattern is common in folk art; the figurative forms are common in African art. But not all the work is so rich. Christopher Wool's untitled alkyd and acrylic stencil on aluminum proclaims: FOOL. Fool is a letter away from Wool; was he having a bad day? Or is the fool the viewer? Like advertising imagery, it's a quick hit. So is Jenny Holzer's electronic LED sign that scrolls messages across its display. Others in the show include pattern and decoration artist Robert Kushner, abstract expressionist Philip Guston (a stretch here; he died in 1980) and pop artist Jasper Johns. All these artists represent different directions of the mainstream. You won't love or relate to everything, but you can expect to find a few works that will enrich your own insights into contemporary art. It will help when you see these artists again. At a glance
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