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A couple of weeks back, I took a trip to the New Museum in New York.

It’s the latest and greatest designer museum complete with amazingly radical architecture and a gift shop.

The museum was full of hip “global” twentysomethings looking to grab their latest art fix.

I began to feel like the whole museum thing was turning into a giant clich� of itself. A cultural formula that we feel obliged to consume like any other brand, but hopefully one that comes with some rich, intellectual stimulation.

My problem with the main exhibition, Unmonumental, was that I didn’t get it or understand any of the meaning of the works, to me it just looked like a random collection of art from the fringes of the scene.

I became somewhat cynical about the idea of how quickly art gets discovered and placed in museums. To me, the works seemed embryonic and not fully realized, but clearly I am no expert and I was missing the point.

A few days ago, I was looking at a pile of old papers and found a leaflet describing the exhibit. One of its paragraphs immediately stuck a chord, seemed massively insightful, made perfect sense and, of course, helped me see the work in a completely new light.

“The opening of the new century seems defined by the disappearance of monuments and erasure of symbols, marked by the indelible images of destruction and ruin, from the fall of the Twin Towers to the obliteration of the Bamayan Budddhas, and the toppling of the statute of Saddam Hussein. It comes as no surprise that this first decade of the 21st century has produced an artistic language of fragments and of debased, precarious trembling forms, sounds and pictures. This millennium appears more concerned with iconoclasm than with creating new, empty and shiny icons. Like the time we live in “Unmonumental” marks the passage from clarity to complexity. It presents artworks that are violent and delinquent, but also expresses the urgent need to start picking up the pieces and rebuilding this world from scratch.”

What I am taking out of this experience is two-fold; it’s always good to read the instructions and there’s always time to take a second look and to revise your first impressions.

Here are some shots of the exhibits and museum.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Posted by Ed Cotton There once was a time when art sponsorship was a subtle thing; brands used to discretely put their logos onto the promotional materials and leave it at that.

Those were the days when art and commerce were kind of separate, in the last few years we’ve seen much more of coming together of the two worlds and perhaps the best example is the partnership between Japanese uber-artist Takasji Murakami and Louis Vuitton.

Murakami’s designs turned the Louis Vuitton brand into a pop sensation.

In 2006, he was interviewed by CNN and asked about the collaboration.

"TS: How did your collaboration with Louis Vuitton come about?

TM: If you look at Louis Vuitton's history, they've always been influenced by Japanese designs, such as the flowers on the kimono, ever since the 19th century. In a very natural way Louis Vuitton is in touch with Japanese culture. It's a very big turning point for me. Now I understand the fashion world a little bit. It's important because the European creative situation is very influenced by fashion and art and fashion are very closely linked."

The partnership between the two continues today and is celebrated at the artist’s upcoming exhibition at the LA MOCA.

For the event, Vuitton has created a “fleeting” store for the where luxury lovers will be able to get purchase and of course, just state at, the range of products from the Vuitton/Murakami collaboration.

It’s a very different kind of museum store and not without controversy.



Via Dezeen



Posted by Ed Cotton Shots from the collection of the Ad Icon Museum,set to open in Kansas City in the Spring of 2008.


Posted by Ed Cotton