Reading through Jerry Saltz’s “Has Money Ruined Art?” article, I felt I could not fully grasp the entirety of his critique without looking up the numerous artistic references he included. When I Googled artist Ryan Trecartin, I was fascinated by his work. Born in 1981, Trecartin is a young, innovative artist and filmmaker, just hitting the scene. He received his BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. Trecartin was first publicized in the Wall Street Journal in 2006, in which he was included in a selection of ten top emerging artists in the United States, barely out of their teens. Trecartin collected several awards in 2009, including the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts award, the New Artist of the Year Award at the Guggenheim Museum, and a 2009 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
So what makes this budding new artist so famous?
New York Times journalist Roberta Smith examined his work firsthand at Trecartin’s exhibition at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens. The exhibition titled “Any Ever” is a “tumult of video, furniture, music, extreme makeup and insistent jabberwocky.” The insanely overstimulating rooms are pack with theatrical elements and household objects, backdropped by dizzying short films directed and produced by Trecartin himself. The plot lines of these brief movies are nonlinear and “nothing is as it should be” is common theme. Smith describes Trecartin’s art as the combination of “the retinal extravagance of much 1980s art with the political awareness of the ’90s and the inclusiveness and technological savvy of the postmillennium.”
Available Sync, 2011. Unique sculptural theater Installation view Any Ever, MoMA PS1, New York, 2011
P.opular S.ky (section ish), 2009 Still from HD video. Duration 43 minutes 51 seconds
Trecartin’s artistic talent began developing when he was in sixth grade when he started photographing himself dressing up and staging plays with friends. When Apple introduced iMovie in 2000, Trecartin immediately began editing his own videos on his computer. His senior thesis titled “A Family Finds Entertainment,” was a 40-minute color-saturated video, screened at the New York Underground Film Festival, marking his rise in the art world and on the Internet. It was also the way he came out to his family.
Technology has certainly been the vehicle for Trecartin’s fame. Smith notes, “New technology has allowed Mr. Trecartin to articulate and dimensionalize his version of overload more fully.” With technology advancing at an increasingly rapid rate, art is being pushed to new boundaries. And it is up to the viewer to answer the question so often asked in our class- “What is art and what is nonsense?”
Ryan Trecartin's Mango Lady (Back). The sculpture is covered with dried fruit. 2006. Mixed Media. 99 x 69 x 58 cm
For the New York Times article, click here.
I just recently posted a blog about technology being used in the music field and now I see proof of it being used in the visual arts field. It is evident that technology is becoming a crucial part of every innovative field. Also… to digress a bit… I find the sculpture to be genius for the simple reason that it is constructed from an “out of the box” mentality. I admire the artists mentioned in your post for being original and highly creative.
Very interesting to see how all of the arts have expanded beyond the typical boundaries. Installations, “conceptual” art, technology, etc. have contributed to a world of ideas that extends far beyond the edge of the picture frame. I do sometimes wonder about the future of such works (how do you preserve a room installation or a sculpture made of dried fruit?) By comparison, a granite sculpture is SO much more traditional, but we can expect to be able to appreciate it 50 years from now.
When I was reading the post, I couldn’t help myself from laughing at the “nothing as it should be” theme of the “Any Ever” exhibit. It sort of reminded me of the “The Bald Soprano” where everything was just is because it is. It didn’t have to have any meaning, which to most people feels as though that is wrong, strange, or just plain absurd. My question with some of these exhibits installations, “conceptual” art, and other mediums for modern art, such as “Any Ever” and some of his other pieces is its longevity, like Professor Smaldone has stated. Aside from perishable quality “Mango Lady”, these exhibits face the obstacle of being classified as just modern art. It will have to face the challenge of being trapped as titled modern; so that it could transcend time and be applied to more than just the art appreciators of today.
Art, in my opinion, needs some sort of commercial appeal in order to find its way into textbooks as not only a thing of the past, but something that could be appreciated today. When one looks at a Michelangelo painting, it is understandable why it is able to be popular and well known way after it was completed . The simple person is able to appreciate the simple beauty of the painting, while the more sophisticated mind can think of the meaning and influences of the art piece. The problem I think that faces such artists like Trecartin is the fact that his work can sometimes appear as just strange and pointless to try to understand and appreciate. It could be appreciated by the art snobs, but not by the layperson that allows the art to survive the trials of time. I am not denying the artistic ability of Trecartin, but rather its his ability to appeal to my peers and not just the art editor of the New York Times that I doubt the life span of his career.