FRISCO BID.PETER PLAGENS ON MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN GIVE MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN some credit for diplomatic consistency: She doesn't miss a beat when the subject of negative reviews of her 1999 Carnegie International The Carnegie International is the oldest North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. comes up. "I would turn," she says in response to my line of questioning Noun 1. line of questioning - an ordering of questions so as to develop a particular argument line of inquiry line of reasoning, logical argument, argumentation, argument, line - a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the , "to reviews by Steve Litt [Cleveland Plain Dealer], Katy Siegel [Artforum], and Graham Shearing [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is a newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Although founded in 1889 it existed only in the eastern suburbs of the city until 1992 when, as an offshoot of the Greensburg Tribune-Review ]." She adds: "A lot of the pieces were newly commissioned and allowed the artists to make leaps within their own work. This was the first time that Janet Cardiff could use video as well as audio, and the first time that Sarah Sze worked with siding material, for instance." I had been (gently) prodding the thirty-eight-year-old contemporary curator--recently hired away from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh to replace Gary Garrels at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art--about her rep as a fairly predictable, politically correct politically correct Politically sensitive adjective Referring to language reflecting awareness and sensitivity to another person's physical, mental, cultural, or other disadvantages or deviations from a norm; a person is not mentally retarded, but (in a high-gloss, Masterpiece Theatre sort of way) selector of artists who, as the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times's Roberta Smith had put it, "je t from one show to another to create the same engaging effects." (Downshifting down·shift v. down·shift·ed, down·shift·ing, down·shifts v.intr. 1. To shift a motor vehicle into a lower gear. 2. To reduce the speed, rate, or intensity of something. 3. for journalistic purposes into hint-of-hostility mode, I had asked what she made of the fairly negative press the Carnegie International received from Smith as well as from the Los Angeles Times's Christopher Knight, who criticized her show for conforming to "institutional norms.") Okay, you're probably thinking, but where's the story in Grynsztejn's appointment to a major institutional post, other than what's in the press releases from Pittsburgh and San Francisco expressing, respectively, congratulations and regrets, and congratulations and joy? Museum personnel are about as mobile these days as software designers, so it's hardly news that Grynsztejn is moving on, after just three and a half years in Steeltown, to an institution with a boardful of billionaires. And since contemporary curators are short on cosseting precious objects with white cotton gloves and long on compiling fat Rolodexes filled with international artists whom they hire to concoct con·coct tr.v. con·coct·ed, con·coct·ing, con·cocts 1. To prepare by mixing ingredients, as in cooking. 2. on-the-spot work for theme shows, it's not exactly earth-shattering that providing creative opportunities for the likes of Cardiff and Sze would be a source of pride for Grynsztejn. As usual, though, what's noteworthy about Grynsztejn's new gig lies between the lines Between the lines can refer to:
Peter Plagens is art critic of Newsweek and a contributing editor of Artforum. |
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