Hello,
Welcome to the first letter of Camel, my new newsletter covering a variety of art-related and Grant-Tyler-related topics. I hope you enjoy it.
ABSTRACT
I want to begin this newsletter with a basic introduction to my attitude and beliefs about what art is and should be. Over the past year or two I’ve been thinking about having a spiritual experience of art and an aesthetic experience of religion. I know that might rub some of you a weird way, but hang with me, I think it will be a useful thought-form whether you are spiritual or not. A great painting is never about the canvas and pigments and fats the same way that kneeling before a crucifix isn't really about the corpse of a man nailed to a post. Early on in my aesthetic education I was introduced to Nietzsche's thoughts on Raphael's Transfiguration, and I've been peddling that lesson ever since.
Jesus Christ dominates the upper half of the painting levitating into the air backed by a luminously glowing cloud. In the foreground, a boy is caught by his father as he suffers an epileptic seizure. At left, a man, looking at the boy, points to the levitating Christ. This creates a compositional triangle between the levitating Christ, the epileptic boy, and the stunned observer. For Nietzsche, Raphael was implicitly pointing a finger out of the painting back towards us, the viewer. Let me explain.
Jesus is here transfiguring into Christ: Spirit is breaking through the substance of matter and revealing itself to be the Truth beneath the veil. The boy convulses at the moment he witnesses this transfiguration. He is overwhelmed by the experience. For Nietzsche, the Spirit breaking through matter is the art experience. We, the witness, ought to be like the boy—that is, if we are in the presence of truly great art. It should transport us out of the world, into the sublime. We’ve all (I hope) been physically arrested encountering of a great work of art. That is a small dose of what that boy is experiencing. This is what I search for. I'm driven by a hunger to experience something more real than everyday life. It is art's singular irony and greatest potential achievement that in producing artifice, a brilliant truth might burst forth and reveal our everyday experience to be merely a superficial cloak for something far deeper and more real. This is the beauty experience.
Think about this the next time you hear someone say a work of art is boring because it's a colorful painting or goopy sculpture. Our everyday barometer for conservative versus radical artwork more closely correlates to a work's commercial viability than to its inherent aesthetic power. There are plenty of exciting paintings and sculptures just as there are plenty of boring installations and performances. Rather, a work should be judged conservative when it withholds its potential aesthetic power from a viewer. By the same token, I believe radical art to be that which uncompromisingly pursues the power of the beauty experience regardless of the form or media or even content that the artist happens to be working with.
We should not cede our capacity to have a powerful art experience to the cerebral demands of historical novelty or economic potential. The problems of novelty and originality will be a recurring theme in this newsletter as I see them major drags on our potential to make and experience powerful art.
REVIEW
Julien Nguyen at Matthew Marks
I've loved Nguyen's works for a few years. I remember a friend saying to me that after the 2016 election, artists either tended towards didactic and political protest art or withdrew into fairy tales. That, for them, explained why surrealism got so big at the same time as social justice art. I think it's a flawed over-generalization, but to some extent it has stuck with me. I associate Nguyen with that moment, as one of the more exceptional young talents in the "fairy tale" camp, though, again, I don’t agree with that characterization because it reduces imaginative thinking to a flighty rejection of reality.
Nguyen’s work is deeply imaginative and is backed up by serious skill. I respect Matthew Marks more than almost any other dealer and I think of his program as having exceptionally high standards. Nguyen fits into that well. Through Nguyen’s work the mystical and mythical are rendered with careful attention and well-trained execution. He is one of those artists whose work is so solid that one has the feeling he has painted the same thing over and over again in order to achieve the tightest rendering possible. But still he leaves room for the hand, for the tactility of his presence. He is extremely materially particular, which is evident in his works but also from his Instagram stories. These are so many ways to say his masterful craftsmanship is without question. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he took on a derivation of one of my favorite paintings in L.A., Dieric Bouts’ Annunciation, on view at the Getty Museum. Nguyen removes the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary and replaces them with himself, cooly reposed against the back wall of Mary’s chamber. The work is titled Anagnorisis which we are told is “the Greek word for ‘recognition,’ used in the context of ancient theatre to describe a protagonist’s moment of critical discovery.” I wonder if it is a self-discovery implied here. I find myself drawn to Nguyen’s excavation of historical painting as it suggests he and myself share a longing for a timeless beauty, and that today’s modes have little to offer towards that end. Perhaps this is what he is discovering.
NY ART WEEK
Fairs are unavoidably shallow. I have never written about them before. But I don't hate them. I genuinely love working the booths and have a habit of haunting my dealer friends until they agree to employ me for the weekend. But, it should come as no surprise, as a viewer my experiences at fairs are regularly... shallow. The writing below is perhaps reflective of the contextually-distorting reality of the fair environment.
I just got back to LA from a somewhat sleepy Frieze week in NY. Sleepy for personal reasons to be sure, but also for the collective yawn that emanated from the fairs this year. (I attended Frieze, NADA, and Independent.) Independent was largely ignorable, apart from my friend Peppi Bottrop & Cameron Spratley's two-person booth with M. LeBlanc, Europa's presentation of Suyi Xu, and the collector's corner section that featured a salon of various outsider artworks. NADA was awful. Frieze was ok.
Independent
Starting with Bottrop and Spratley at LeBlanc's: I'm partial to this work as Bottrop and LeBlanc are friends of mine but nonetheless I thought their booth — in one of those weird upstairs-corner-glass-overlook green rooms — was well executed. Bottrop showed some new frottage works (I recently included a frottage from this series that he made of a Porsche Carrera 911 in my group show Holy Motors) that barely fit between the floor and ceiling. These paired well with Spratley's characteristically gritty collage works. Assembled from cut archival inkjet prints, his pictures often have a grinding, vibratory energy about them, and they are littered with pop culture references. Bottrop's works are ghostly and sparse. My favorite is his vaporous frottage of the door to the bathroom in his LA studio. If you'd like to learn more about what I think of Bottrops's work, I'd encourage you to visit my website and read the two press releases I've written for him.
I don't have much to say about Europa's presentation of Suyi Xu but it was one of the more attractive and memorable presentations at the fair. I like these mystial, geometric, regular paintings. I like the rawness of them. I thought the quality of execution was strong. They are not totally groundbreaking paintings but I don't really care for groundbreaking anyways. I don't know anything about Xu but I will be keeping an eye out and learning more.
The outsider art room was weird and good. I wish I took more pictures. Honestly it was the most inspiring thing I saw between NADA, Frieze, and Independent besides Koon's Hulks (can't help it... more later). There was a harrowing drawing of smiling figure reminiscent of Mystery Man from Lynch's Lost Highway entombed in a geometric chamber, a grotesque painting of a nuclear family suffering from... nuclear radiation? or maybe some other dark cosmic malady. Felt like Jim Nutt meets David Dees. Also a strange stone sculpture of a blue baby crying upwards. I only realize now that each of the three that stood out to me most feature some variety of “aaaahhhhh”.
NADA
...is hardly worth mentioning, to be honest. I was astonished by how underwhelming it was. One exception was Franz Kaka's presentation of two Canadians: Katie Lyle and Michael Thompson. I was not familiar with either of these artists before this. Lyle's paintings are texturally rich. They seem to be made on scrap pieces of canvas that are later mounted to a clean stretched canvas. It's my only reservation about them but I understand the move from a practical standpoint. It's more effective in Painting, Garden, Clock than in In the Shadows if only because the former comes off as less distracting. As a viewer the strategy does not come off as essential so I think it is beneficial to make it as muted as possible so long as there's a practical necessity there. Michael Thompson's paintings are cinematic and sexy. They have an archetypal dreaminess that is very seductive. They reminded me of the late great Dave Hickey's Invisible Dragon book. Something about the marriage of sex appeal and masterful compositional unity. While masterful may be too much bravado when discussing these, they certainly had a promising maturity about them. I didn't spend much time there but I'll be eyeing these artists going forward.
What happened to NADA this year? I had the feeling they struggled to sell booths. And, not that I'm all knowing or anything, but there were dozens of galleries, from LA too, that I'd never heard of showing work that should've been in undergrad critiques.
Frieze
...was the most engaging and well-rounded fair. As I mentioned, I love Koon's Hulks. In a perfect world, I would live in a glass house deep in the Montana wilderness with nothing other than a Rick Owens marble bed and Koon's Tuba Hulk facing each other. There were three: the organ Hulk (I saw later on Instagram that an organist performed on this sculpture during the fair and I deeply regret missing that), the tuba hulk, and the inflatables hulk. As the subjects suggest they are loud and strong and aggressive. They are exquisite, uncompromising, in their construction. These really mark for me the epitome of the old surrealist project. Technically neurotically disciplined, as classical non-literary surrealism is wont to be. The connotative associations between the Hulk and loud classical instruments is admittedly juvenile, but I'm happy to lean into that when so many other aspects of the works espouse an epochal quality.
Shelley Uckotter's painting at Matthew Brown was a standout in the fair (these photos of it make it much duller than it was in person). I generally like her work but I thought this one was especially strong. It had a special roughness that was gratifying. And the red socks really locked in the overall palette for me. Narratively it's a bit emptier than I'm used to from her, but that didn't bother me too much in the moment.
I also enjoyed Francesca Facciola's works at Lodovico Corsini, but I also had the privilege of working that booth for an afternoon so I had special exposure to them. They are paintings of a wood carved marionette avatar of the artist. She is pictured in a series of dramatic scenes, two oil paintings and two charcoal on vellum drawings. In the first of the oil paintings the marionette is crucified, surrounded by the chaos of a whirlwind. Within the frenetic swirls, illustrations outlining more figures peer out. There is a sense of breaking through in the chaos. That is even more strongly stated in her other oil painting in which the marionette playfully leans against a cartoonish wet paint brush as the thunderous foot of a distant female giant seemingly kicks down the barrier between two dimensions. These works are all very impressive in their execution. I was told they are snapshots from an animated film that is underway and will be released soon.
MARKET
I just read the UBS Market Report which came out the first week of May. I recommend it. Below are some key findings.
2024 global art market down 12% for second straight year
2024 US Market down for second straight year, -9% from 2023
The UK overtook China once more for second largest market (18% and 15% respectively of global market).
Sales in the dealer sector continued to show mixed results in 2024, with aggregate values declining by 6% to $34.1 billion.
The top and middle were squeezed in 2024, with middle faring the worst. The bottom of the market, on the other hand, has been resilient: “For all dealers with annual turnover of less than $1 million, the share of works sold at prices of less than $50,000 was 95%, but it was also a majority of 74% for those turning over between $1 million and $10 million, showing that there was not only more activity by lower-value dealers but also more activity at lower price segments for dealers at different levels. Even for the largest dealers with turnover in excess of $10 million, around one-third (34%) of their sales were in the sub-$50,000 segment in 2024 and 60% were for less than $250,000.”
The smallest dealers with turnover of less than $250,000 reported the largest increase in sales (17%), their second year of growth and a market turnaround for this segment which had seen the weakest recovery in 2021 and 2022.
Dealers with turnover of between $1 million and $5 million were also up by 10%, however, the higher turnover segments reported declines, with the $5 million to $10 million segment down by 3%, and the $10 million-plus segment down by 9%, the second year of slowing values for each.
Primary deals and private secondary deals lead the market. Risks associated with public secondary auctions slashed that market by 25%. “… Public auction markets slowed over the year and values dropped [from $25.2 billion] to $19.0 billion, their lowest level since 2020.”
I had one dealer friend tell me he sees this year's market rivaling 2008/9 for choppiness. Another dealer in a similar bracket told me it's been the best year he's ever had. Another is cutting costs by closing their brick and mortar and switching to a pop up model until there's more clarity. There were some notable absences at the fairs which I imagine had a lot to do with galleries tightening their belts and taking a precision approach to fair exposure. I doubt this will have long term consequences but I wish it did. It would be nice to have a leaner fair experience in general.
What do you make of this? What has your experience been like in the past year or two?
Remember when emerging overtook classics in auction sales volume? This is speculated to be the consequence of "The Great Wealth Transfer" and an influx of new, young collectors with less of an interest in the classics and more of an interest in artists under 45. If that's true, it should continue in the long term, despite some corrections in the near term. While I didn't see specific data comparing sales volume of classics to emerging at auction in this UBS report, the bigger picture suggests the dominance of emerging in the market is here to stay.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
I published a review of "Denzil Hurley and Brian Sharp curated by Jonas Wood" at Sebastian Gladstone in Caesura Magazine. Sebastian is hosting a talk between Sharp and Wood at the gallery at 1pm on May 24th. I’ll be there. I recommend going to see the show before it closes.
I wrote the press release for Psychic... Powerless... by Jake Fagundo, at As It Stands. Opening Saturday May 24. Check out the show I organized with Fagundo at my former apartment gallery in 2023.
JUST MISSED IT...
I recently curated Holy Motors at Temple Projects in Los Angeles earlier this year. It closed April 19th. Thank you to all who came out, and most especially to the artists who participated and to Temple for hosting us.
I recently wrote the introduction to Jon Rafman's cover story for Flash Art. I work at Rafman's studio by day and have had the opportunity to reflect on what we do publicly a couple of times. I am continually grateful to Jon for bringing me onto the team something like 5 years ago. This piece was published on the occasion of Proof of Concept, his recently concluded solo presentation at Sprüth Magers, LA.
One of the more challenging pieces I've written recently was published in Australia's Memo Magazine. It discusses the value of Rothko Chapel, where I've made an annual pilgrimage since I was a wee boy. It's short but dense. Thank you to editor Gemma Pegalia for her generous and insightful guidance on this piece.
ONGOING & UPCOMING
Grant Falardeau, an artist I curated into my 2023 show Páthos at Temple Projects, just opened a solo exhibition titled Celosia at Galerie Neu's Nervi Delle Volpi annex in Genoa, IT. Highly recommend keeping up with Grant’s work.
It's not yet announced, but I am organizing another show at Temple Projects in Los Angeles. This will be a two-person show opening at the end of May. More on that soon.
Already mentioned, but Psychic... Powerless... by Jake Fagundo at As It Stands opens Saturday, May 24 from 6-9pm.
Thank you for reading. If you'd like to be removed from the newsletter please say so in a reply or feel free to unsubscribe. If you have any comments or questions or disagreements, please send me a message. We also have a chat going on Substack if you’d like to join the conversation.
Peace,
Grant
grant.edward.tyler@gmail.com
https://granttyler.cargo.site/
www.instagram.com/grantedwardtyler
really appreciated this; waiting patiently for the next camel⚙️