Local Art Exhibits at this time are showing an array of very uninteresting works that do not deserve comment. When our reviewers see something special you will hear about it.

November 5 and still nothing out there of any interest. Clark and Arbus are hard to beat.

Dec 14, 2005   Cafe with Love    Saugerties NY   85 Partition St    845   246-1795 . At last an exhibit worth discussing. Robert Lipgar a local photo artist brings to the Cafe with Love , 7 black and white prints which are on view along the side wall of this lovely coffee and food cafe.The interior is like entering a cozy box car. When I arrived the ladies in waiting were friendly and talkative. The prints are gritty black and white head on street 'stuff' without the flowery effuvium that makes you want to spit. In the past few months I have seen shows of this type in which the artists statement takes precedence over the thing itself and the statement attests to the fact that the artists ' concerns' are soooo special. I made it my business to avoid Roberts 'statement' and biography as it sometimes dilutes the interest in the print. My point of view is orthodox and reactionary meaning simply that if the images themselves don't make the statement the picture taker wanted then no amount of explanation or concern will modify the end product.  Now, dear viewer in Robert's case the images a least 5 of them hit the target completely. They are 50' ish in quality, beautifully composed and printed, and hold your interest without lingering for no apparant reason but to be polite. Robert, you have done well. I appreciate the things that make you click the shutter. I am looking foward to seeing more of your work. As for Mr. Lipgar's biography it makes no difference if he is the Archbishop of Canterbury or Mary Queen of Scots his work stands by itself and it's damn good folks. 

                    

 gypsie.jpg   ' the fortune teller'  by  B. Lemkowitz

 

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OUTSIDER ART # 1   B. Lemkowitz

 

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Outsider Art #2   B. Lemkowitz

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Outsider Art # 3     B. Lemkowitz

THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2006      I look foward to the biennial which takes place at the Whitney Museum every 2 years. This year the biennial was given a title  'Day for Night'  how very charming.  This title 'Day for Night' is taken from the film by the late French writer/director Francois Truffaut. The film was a black and white masterpiece as opposed to this sanctioned mess. The curators are British and French, so I suppose we will have to see ourselves through the filter of foreigners. As Viola Salzado-Gramm indicates, ' we're the spoiled children of the globe and we should be embarrassed but,  thankfully this new crop of artists and big conceptual thinkers will win us back a few friends'.  BULLSHIT... The Whitney is a mausoleum of confusion and political correctness and has always been so, one has to really work hard to get through it all. This rouges' gallery of inane, vapid, shallow  and meaningless cuteness is like having to negotiate 210 stations of the cross. The best way to see this show is to start  being pissed off upon entering the building and let the rest proceed from that point. Hoping to see the next Warhol or Duchamp in this mess is quite imposssible. The show is immature, underdeveloped, juvenile and a humiliation both to the public and the institution it is housed in. Even the lower floor coffee shop is like a funeral parlor. I don't get it. I would surely like some feedback. To summarize, this show looks like a space in which the contractor comes in with a bunch of workers, drops their tools and materials on the floor moves them around, leaves for lunch but never come back and on top of it there are labels all over the wall explaining the artists ' CONCERNS '  My  concern is that the Whitney like its big sister uptown, the Guggenheim have lost their way and are playing to the tourist crowd who wander in from 42nd Street to visit here and are not aware that not only doesn't the emperor have no clothes, he has no suspenders.