shot by Jamie Dalglish at 52 Bond Street, New York

Benefit Sale for DAN ASHER
Thursday, April 1, 2010
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Gavin Brown Enterprises
620 Greenwich Street (at Leroy Street)
New York, NY

from Gavin Brown:

Most of you know Dan Asher. He is unforgettable. One of the great believers. A staggeringly prolific and inventive artist who undoubtedly will be more appreciated when he is gone than he is today.

Dan has been sick with lymphoma/leukemia for some time, but in the last few months his illness has progressed and changed, fast and aggressively. Anyone who has seen Dan in the past month knows that he is in the middle of a brutal fight. Dan will be undergoing a stem cell transplant from his brother at some point in the next month. His platelet counts are very low, which indicates that most likely the cancer is advancing once again. He will undergo intense chemo in hospital prior to the procedure. (The cancer transformed to a virulent form in November and the chemo can keep it at bay for shorter and shorter periods, leaving a dire prognosis unless the transplant is performed).

It has happened again - one of our community, an artist whose only real asset is his creativity, is struck a blow and needs the assistance of his friends and peers.

TOOLS FOR THOUGHT | Rebuild Haiti | Benefit Party
MONDAY MARCH 15TH 2010
7:00PM to 9:00PM

Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue
New York NY 10021

Above: Jeff Koons, Monkey Train, Heat transfer prints on wood skateboard, 2006

Tickets are $100.00
($85 Tax-deductible)
Supports the efforts to rebuild Haiti
Click here to buy tickets

* Cocktail reception
* Exhibition and silent auction
* Special performance by Patti Smith and guests
* DJ: Alexandra Richards
* Drinks by Apotheke

2010
The "Who Dat?" Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art
February 23 - May 30, 2010

Adam Weinberg addressing the troops

Tuesday, February 23, 2010. 7:00 PM. In his charming remarks earlier this afternoon during the press opening of the less than charming 2010 Whitney Biennial, co-curator Francesco Bonami (who wistfully regretted how difficult it was convincing artists half his age to have dinner with him) alluded to the intrinsic arbitrariness of all Biennial exhibitions. As an institution just turned 75 years old, and facilitated under the venerable aegis of the Whitney Museum, each particular Biennial, despite its essential claim to showcase the best and brightest art production of the past two years, is still dependent on the whims and prejudices of its organizers. Hence the unavoidable hit-or-miss possibilities of every succeeding exhibition.

There is no cumulative formula for success, as new curators tend to establish new priorities and then select new artists as the avatars of same. If the turnover seems particularly extreme this year, even educated observers of the art scene might feel confronted by a "Who Dat?" Biennial, an exhibition at least partly populated by a fickle and jejune cast of characters.

CONFUCIUS: His Life and Legacy in Art
February 11 – June 13, 2010
China Institute Gallery
125 East 65th Street, New York

February 16, 2010. Growing up, I didn't have much time for Confucius. Among the prominent Asian philosophers, he took second place to Lao Tzu and Taosim, and for obvious reasons. Taoism seemed more laissez-faire, less involved with propriety and property. It embraced a certain ease and modesty, a harmonious accommodation with nature. There was a nonchalance that sat well with my hipster, slacker ideal of "there's a road we're all on, man, but it really leads nowhere except right back to where we all started from, so don't get me uptight, just chill and pass that j."

My rebellious, reductivist streak left no room for the conventional wisdom of the Confucian status quo, for its apotheosis of family, for using the correct ritual and sacrifice on every occasion, for a strict legal code that could deaden spontaneity. I had dabbled in the Analects, and these dialogs were obviously "wise", but my lingering suspicion was that they were wise in the wrong way. There was no escaping their prim orientation towards duty and decorum.

Changing the World through Art/Auction and Gala
to benefit The Time In Children’s Arts Initiative

Haunch of Venison
1230 Avenue of the Americas
Between 48th & 49th Streets
20th Floor
New York City

For further information and tickets:
917-318-9499 or http://tinyurl.com/ybd4qt6

Time In on the web:
http://hiartkids.com/fr_timein.htm
Time In on facebook:
http://tinyurl.com/yld2rm

It didn't take long. That old viral meme featuring Hitler, as portrayed by Bruno Ganz in the film Downfall, going postal over something or other, has been applied to the recent special election in Massachusetts to fill the late Edward Kennedy's Senate seat.

The drollest bit, aside from the general incongruity of accepting Hitler as a liberal Democrat: "Health care was supposed to be done by August, now it drags on forever, like Stalingrad!"

from the New York Times:

Kenneth Noland, whose brilliantly colored concentric circles, chevrons and stripes were among the most recognized and admired signatures of the postwar style of abstraction known as Color Field painting, died Tuesday at his home in Port Clyde, Me. He was 85.