Friedrichs Pontone is pleased to announce Actions & Perceptions, a group exhibition curated by Max Lust. Actions & Perceptions features a dynamic selection of works, ranging from the ultra-contemporary to antiquities, blending together voices and themes of many perspectives.
Letter from the curator, Max Lust:
Are we doomed to be free? Sartre would say yes, we are stuck in the paradox of choices where even the choice not to choose is nevertheless a choice, proper. Despite the mistakes I have made in my private life-choosing to live my personal life in bad faith, which I paid for dearly-throughout my professional life I have made myriad choices as a collector and curator. These choices are presented before you. This exhibition tells my personal story in the form of a gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art", a pop-up art bar. In it are art objects represented by my friends and colleagues. It comprises a cross-over of various art markets and periods that, wittingly or not, I fell in love with, ranging from Antiquities to Modern and Contemporary art to art by young, emerging artists.
This exhibition is deeply personal. After moving back to New York during the height of the pandemic, and following a dramatic rise and fall in Vienna's art scene, I rebuilt my career and new life in Manhattan. Although I was born the grandson of an important collector, this was not my choice. However, it became my choice to follow in his footsteps, the sole member of ten grandchildren and two sons to do so. It was, indeed, a choice to take up the mantle and honor my grandfather's legacy, mastering what Napoleon fortuitously called the "[ability] to master luck"! In particular, I inherited my grandfather's vim to find the most cutting-edge art. Although the 1990s more or less remained my grandfather's cut-off, I began expanding the timeline of the family collection when I started collecting Shepard Fairey prints at the age of 17. My fascination with Antiquities began during the pandemic, while still living in Vienna. I thus inaugurated the lengthy process of teaching myself how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics, a process I would continue after moving back to New York. I fell into the antiquities market purely by happenstance, during a stroll past a shop with what appeared to be an Egyptian relief in the window. My first thought was that there was no way that this was real. But I was surprised when I peered at the label, which read "Old Kingdom". And there I was with a choice-to continue walking or go inside. I chose the latter and ended up making a new friend who was kind enough to consign many of the antiquities in this show.
The fact that this show transpired is a rapprochement between blind luck and intentional choosing. For instance, Allan D'Arcangelo, whose work is displayed here, is an artist whom my grandfather ardently collected and one that I, too, deeply admire. In 2018, I returned to New York to attend auctions and art fairs during the "high art" season. My Austrian friends and I were at the Frieze preview, walking around the various booths. It was like being hit by a ton of bricks when we stumbled on a booth dedicated to D'Arcangelo's work. This was pure luck and I espied an opportunity. As a representative of the family collection, I introduced myself to the gentleman working the booth, who was none other than Martin Friedrichs. Martin had organized this D'Arcangelo exhibition. Six years later, he went independent and founded Friedrichs Pontone. We stayed in contact with one another throughout the years and, roughly four months ago, I was displaced from my flat following a major fire in my building. Martin reached out to me regarding an unrelated matter when I then pitched the concept of the current exhibition to him. He agreed and here we are. This arc is thus represented by the Allan D'Arcangelo 1965 work-on-paper from my family collection.
This exhibition is idiosyncratic, including well-known and young artists. It includes friends and those whom I never had an opportunity to meet. The nexus is a network built on luck, cold-calling, complimentary drinks and discussions occasioned by art openings. This is my third exhibition since moving back to New York and my fifth-ever in New York. This show is a cocktail of art. Roughly two-thirds are works from emerging artists, one-third from my family collection, and there is a splash of antiquities. Each week, a novel drink will be introduced to be paired with a rotating cast of artworks located behind the bar. The show celebrates spontaneity, changing weekly based on various events, some public and others private. Exhibited artists and works are subject to change without reason or warning. The pairings, however, expound genealogies of influence. Philip Hinge's devotional study of feline art is paired with the fragmented Egyptian bust of Baset, the Egyptian cat goddess. This thread illuminates feline devotion spanning over two thousand years. Fox Fagan, a promising 24-year-old artist, is paired with photographer Carlotta Corpron; both engage light and its diffusion. Corpron is a pioneer from the 1940s who experimented with motile camera movements and shutter speeds, creating architectural studies influenced by Moholy-Nagy. Fagan overexposes her film negatives to light, transferring the mylar image by way of tracing. And last but not least is the performance-cum-assemblage works of Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG), which harken back to Viennese Actionism-in particular, Hermann Nitsch's photos of Rudolf Schwarzkogler's 1960s performances. The latter is represented by a photograph from my family's collection. One of the most piercing memories from my childhood, this photo frightened me quite a bit as a child. YBDG is also nostalgic. I became acquainted with some of their members in the Vienna art world. Following a wild few evenings at a popular drag party in Vienna, we reconnected in New York.
Stop me if you've heard this one before… a man walks into a bar and orders a shot. He throws it back and looks at a photo nested in his wallet. He orders another shot and, after imbibing it, again peers at the photo. After repeating this action several times, the befuddled bartender asks, "What is the photograph of?" The man replies, "It's a photo of my wife. When she starts to look good, I know to go home." Sometimes it feels like this is the reason that art openings serve alcohol. When inebriated, even the most amateurish art might uncloak its dilettante embellishments, revealing something of genuine interest. But this is not the reason to imbibe here. The drinks, like the works, are cultivated with great intentionality. If you like the show, have a drink. If you don't like the show, have a drink. If you don't drink alcohol, just have a soda. After all, you are free to do as you please.
To drink or not to drink, to like or dislike the exhibition, are personal choices. But with a gesamtkunstwerk, the percipient's experience-that very moment you view and engage the art object-itself arguably becomes a moment of art, briefly imbricated in the full latticework of art objects. Like the contemporary art in the exhibition, the antiquities on view were at one point contemporary. The earliest work of art in the collection, an Egyptian ceramic from the Gerzean (Naqada II, 3500-3200 BCE) Protodynastic Period, was once new. The piece was made well over 5000 years ago, but how we continue interacting with it today becomes a part of its story. If mankind is still around in 7024 AD, these "contemporary" works will also be 5000 years old, indexing an ancient epoch. Is that relevant? Well, that is up to you. But here you are, presented with the choice to enjoy the art, the drinks, and live in the moment, figuring in the fold of this epoch.
Featuring works by:
Buford
Conner Chase
Maia del Estal
Fox Fagan
Angel Lovecraft
Luke Libera Moore
Sarah Muirhead
Joseph Parra
Bill Rabinovitch
Pasha Smelyantsev
Young Boy Dancing Group