The Keeper : A Conceptual Curation

For first visitors of my blog, the Review by Artist (Artist's Review) is a series of my personal writings, records of art exhibition visiting. It is technically a storage of personal pictures, notes, and thoughts from my exhibitions visiting, but it is open to public and you are free and welcome to read and view and leave comments.

Next Artist's Review will be: Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty

March 26–July 24, 2016 which (yes the exhibition is already closed)... I haven't being able to write about after the visit.

The Keeper by New Museum

7. 20 - 9. 25. 2016 

This exhibition is particularly a good example of exhibition about corroboration of artists and curator which the curator holds its significance as the artists or the collectors. It is like conceptual art, only conceptual curation. Collectors just do collect as their passion, obsession, duty, practice, and study. Curators use their (collectors') "almost obsessed" behaviors as concept and medium, and they  organize and sort them out to be presented.

The main installation of The Keepers is called “Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002)” vast display of teddy bear photographs conceived by the German artist Ydessa Hendeles. From the massive amount of photographs, we can visually experience the relationship of American people (mostly white Americans of both genders) and Teddy bears after 1902 when teddy bear was introduced to America.

The ways teddy bears appear in each photographs of different time periods speak to us about that the little bear always had been of different yet always sentimental symbolic or mental meaning of people in the pictures. It is visually satisfying exhibition and must be said that the show is as photogenic as Yayoi Kusama, which is a must for museum to hold this type of exhibition.

Although the Pertness (The Teddy Bear Project) is the one largely advertised, there are more collectors in this exhibition that should not be forgotten. 

Some of the works we should pay attention to are such as followings:

• Henrik Olesen’s “Some Gay-Lesbian Artists and/or Artists relevant to Homo-Social Culture Born between c. 1300-1870.”
• Stacks of massive drawings on the same measurement papers by Vanda Vieira-Schmidt
• film works and butterfly study drawings on wall, that is not allowed to photograph and unfortunately I cannot remember the artist's name ( I will update once it came back to me...).

Quote from New Museum:

"“The Keeper” is an exhibition dedicated to the act of preserving objects, artworks, and images, and to the passions that inspire this undertaking. A reflection on the impulse to save both the most precious and the apparently valueless, it brings together a variety of imaginary museums, personal collections, and unusual assemblages, revealing the devotion with which artists, collectors, scholars, and hoarders have created sanctuaries for endangered images and artifacts...." ( New Museum Website )

Personally, I like the New Museum because it is like a small version of Whitney Museum for the design and the exhibition(The Keeper) reminds me the exhibition in summer 2014, at MoMA PS1.

Note: There are a few sections in the exhibition that photography is not allowed, such as the butterfly study pieces by artist whom I cannot remember the name on top of my head but he showed his letters and films at MoMA PS1 in 2014, so it is highly recommended to go visit the exhibition and see in person.

As Japanese, I also have memories with Teddy Bears. In my memories, they are somewhat connected to Europa rather than US whether if it originally came from USA or Germany. 

It is also known as quality collectible item in Japan (although there are mass production of stuffed bears), each Teddy Bear (even if made from the same pattern) supposed to have different face and different characteristic, hand sewed, and believed to be time consuming to make, and probably that are the reasons why  Teddy Bears reminds me of good old Europe. 

The idea of "collectible" in handmade teddy bears perfectly suit to this exhibition to feature the teddy bears as the main of the exhibition. 

"Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the teddy bear became an iconic children's toy, celebrated in story, song, and film. Since the creation of the first teddy bears which sought to imitate the form of real bear cubs, "teddies" have greatly varied in form, style and material. They have become collector's items, with older and rarer "teddies" appearing at public auctions. Teddy bears are among the most popular gifts for children and are often given to adults to signify love, congratulations, or sympathy." (from Wikipedia)

The New Museum Entrance

At the show window, you are welcomed by ridiculous looking not really teddy bears. Many of them. And you can buy them.

The Entrance Introduction to THE KEEPER

“The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz (1916-1992) Insurance Clerk from Vienna, 1993-2008.”by the artist Oliver Croy and the critic Oliver Elser 

by Henrik Olesen

by Henrik Olesen

by Vanda Vieira-Schmidt

by Vanda Vieira-Schmidt

by Yuji Agematsu

by Yuji Agematsu

by Yuji Agematsu

by Yuji Agematsu

by Yuji Agematsu

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

 Partners (the Teddy Bear Project) (2002) by Ydessa Hendeles

Of course we have bears at the ground floor cafe:)

Of course we have bears at ground floor museum shop too:) 

Bonus Photos from New Museum