High Life

On Saturday we got to Chelsea much earlier than we usually do. We were prepared to see some art before all the galleries disappear down here. The place is on the move. Up. Most of the galleries were closed. Not because they’ve been squeezed out by condos but for the holiday. Everywhere we go holidays are getting in the way.

The Marlborough Gallery on W. 25 was open unfortunately. The sculpture show on the ground floor was silly so we followed a sign that read “Landscape Painting, Julius von Bismark” to the second floor where two videos were playing on a large screen. One had a group of workers in a tropical setting painting the leaves of large plants. Green on green. The other showed workers on ladders painting the rocks on the side of a hill. Lol. We were offended. Susan Inglett Gallery was open. The Hope Gangloff painting show there had had a nice write-up in yesterday’s paper. I liked them but not a lot. I like who her influences are, Alice Neel and Egon Schiele.

The new Whitney’s inaugural show was really fun. The building itself is fun. They pulled out their best stuff but arranged it in a mostly chronological order from the top floor down and a very curious thing happened. The oldest stuff was the best, the most engaging as well. By the time we got to the fifth floor with the Barbara Kruger and Matthew Barney stuff I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

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