LIVING WITH DUCHAMP, TWO / ROSE OCEAN, exhibition curated by artist Michael Oatman and Tang Museum director Ian Berry opened in Saratoga Springs, NY, Feb 17, 2018, coinciding with the birthday of our daughter Lydia Mulero. Featuring over 50 artists, the exhibition was designed by students from Oatman's RPI architectural seminar on Marcel Duchamp. Inspired by exhibitions organized by Duchamp, the installation includes surprises and more than a few unexpected obstacles

The revised, final list of artists in the exhibition includes works by Lillian Mulero and Fred Escher along with Jan Galligan's collage from 1974 honoring Fat City School of Finds Art founder, Lowell Darling. 

Pictured are Michael Oatman's students with director Ian Berry and exhibition coordinator Torrance Fish reviewing the model for the installation. 

Lillian Mulero's MIRROR painting, oil on silver leaf, 1990. Exhibited in the exhibition INTERROGATING IDENTITY which traveled to Grey Art Gallery, NYU; Museum of Contemporary Art, Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Madison Art Center, Madison, WI during 1991 and 1992. Permanent collection Tang Museum, 2017. (on the right) Robert Gober, UNTITLED, 1992 - 1996.

LIVING WITH DUCHAMP @ the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY·

Back of "Rose Ocean: Living with Duchamp" flyer designed by Jean Tschanz-Egger (via Michael Oatman)

$7.8 M. Artist Record for Christopher Wool Set at Christie’s Evening Sale

At Christie’s London contemporary sale, Christopher Wool’s Untitled set a new artist record. The price, after the buyer’s premium, was £4,913,250 ($7,758,022) high above the estimate of £2,500,000-3,500,000 ($3,947,500 – $5,526,500).

The piece spells out the word “FOOL,” and beat out the artist’s last record, $5,010,500 (according to Artnet), which happens to have been set by Blue Fool, a canvas with the word “FOOL” spelled out in the exact same way and in the same lettering except the previous record is in blue and the new one is in black 

by Jan Galligan & Lillian Mulero, Santa Olaya, PR

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Relocating from upstate New York, we came here with an abiding interest in the art of the island and the artists making that work. Our initial experience suggested that it was difficult to find a centralized resource for art information. The local newspapers and magazines provided occasional articles, but often those articles were a replay of an exhibition's press release, full of information, but lacking insight. The past seven years have shown improvement. Now art writers often give careful attention – as they explore the methods and intentions of the artists under discussion. Now there are more articles on a regular basis, and writers are given more space for their opinions.

Meanwhile, a couple of small but important local art magazines have ceased to publish, with nothing to take their place. This may be a function of the changing way that such information is distributed. As it becomes increasingly difficult to support printed publications, they are replaced by online resources. We still prefer to read articles in print. The information seems to have more substance and the pictures are more impressive on the printed page. But, our opinion does not have much influence. The world of publishing is rapidly changing and we need to adapt or we will be left behind, stranded with a pile of yellowing newsprint and curling glossy magazine pages.

For the independent writer, online publishing provides intellectual freedom, the opportunity to express an opinion, and a means for getting your word “out there.” Attracting and keeping readers can be difficult, but there are tools to help ease the way. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat can be useful in this process. You can connect a blog to those resources, and every time an article is posted, notices are automatically cross-posted to those other forums. Then, it becomes a project of building an audience through online networking while continuing to add new content.

It should be obvious that we are not limiting our remarks to writing about art. Instead we suggest that this provides a blue-print for doing creative work and seeking an audience. Our previous article, ART IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET was a cautionary tale for artists using the internet to promote their work. Efforts must be taken to ensure that your intellectual property is protected. You don't want to give away your production, nor would you like to see someone else make use of your work and take credit for it.

PICTURE CAPTION (left to right) : Elaine Sturtevant, 1966, Duchamp Man Ray Portrait; Richard Pettibone, 1968, Andy Warhol, "Marilyn Monroe," 1964; Sherrie Levine, 1981, After Walker Evans; Deborqh Kass, 2012, The Deb Suite 
[ARTICLE AS PUBLISHED in En Rojo cultural supplement to Claridad newspaper]

by Jan Galligan & Lillian Mulero, Santa Olaya, PR

"It's all fair use," says Jan. "Maybe so," replies Lillian, "but in any event, these days we are all fair game..."

The internet changes everything. This is the mantra and the meme of the moment, and the art world finds itself under the spell. The rules have changed in ways that make it seem like there are no rules. What once was difficult, now is easy. What once took time and effort now can be done in a few keystrokes. Where previously art resided in semi-protected environments: art studios, galleries, museums – now artists, galleries and museums present themselves in the all-sharing, everything up for grabs domain of the world wide web. On one hand this provides for enormous exposure, while on the other, it opens an artist's oeuvre to appropriation, adaptation and reuse, often without the artist's knowledge or permission.

Appropriation has been a part of the practice of art since the early 20th century, originating with Dada and Surrealism. The intention of these artists was to provoke a sense of heightened verisimilitude, while making comment on the contemporary milieu. In the 1950s Robert Rauschenberg created the first contemporary art work employing the work of another artist, when he convinced Willem de Kooning to provide one of his pencil drawings which Rauschenberg then laboriously erased, creating his Erased de Kooning Drawing.

Appropriation became an art movement in the 1980s with the work of Sherrie Levine, rephotographing Walker Evans seminal pictures; Mike Bidlo recreating paintings by Andy Warhol, Picasso and Jackson Pollock; Elaine Sturtevant making perfect copies of Warhol and Marcel Duchamp; and Richard Pettibone creating exact miniature replicas of Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns.

Appropriation art matured and the concept became more sophisticated in the 1990s as other artists took up the practice including Deborah Kass, who made Warhol-like paintings using her own image; Damien Hirst, who used the Disney Mickey Mouse to his own ends when he wasn't making paintings using Spin-Art machines; and the artist who now epitomizes appropriation art, Richard Prince.

Unlike other artists of his generation, Prince embraced the internet – as a means to present and promote his work and as the source of material for his art. Recently this has led to a series of law suits against Prince, as well as against artist Jeff Koons, by the authors of the originals. The success or failure of those law suits has hinged on the concept of fair use – whether or not the new art work sufficiently transforms, or definitively comments on the original source. Prince was sued by a photographer whose images of rastafarians Prince used in his paintings, the result was a split decision: 23 of the paintings were deemed fair use, five were not. Koons was sued successfully by a photographer whose photo was the model for a Koons sculpture of a couple holding eight puppies; and most recently by the photographer of the 1986 Gordons gin advertisements Koons rephotographed for his own Luxury and Degradation series of 1986; that case is still in the courts.

Facebook was founded in 2004 and Instagram in 2010. Both are now heavily utilized by artists for self-promotion. Some artists now directly present their work on Facebook or Instagram, and a few are trying to make those platforms work metaphorically as their canvas or paintbrush. The problem is, that while they are public entities providing world-wide access, according to a copyright attorney in New York – by posting pictures and videos, you grant Facebook “a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any content that you post on or in connection with Facebook.” Instagram's terms of service states: “To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”

So, where does that leave the artist in today's internet free-for-all? One would be advised to proceed with caution when uploading personal artworks of any sort to the internet. You cannot stamp them with a copyright notice and expect that it will be honored or remain in force. On public forums your work is fair game; unless you take the trouble to publish your work in a more controlled private format, say on your own website, or a website where their terms let you retain copyright to your original material. Fair game means anyone, anywhere can collect your work and do with it as they wish: use it outright, incorporate it into their own creations or stamp it with their name and present and sell it as their own.

Closer to home, in 2005 Spanish conceptual artist Antoni Muntadas was commissioned to create a public art project for the Roosevelt station of the inter-urban train. He used photographs from two books by photographer Jack Delano: De San Juan a Ponce en el Tren and Puerto Rico Mio. Muntadas work is titled On Translation: El Tren Urbano, and reproduces Delano's photographs exactly, enlarging them to enormous, 20 x 30 foot, backlit transparencies. In documents regarding this work, Muntadas acknowledges Delano. Although he does not specify that his work is an homage, clearly it is an artistic appropriation.

Contrast this with the work of local artist Carlos Mercado who has appropriated many of Jack Delano's photographs, turning them into a series he calls Iconos, in which he gives no mention of Delano, in the titles or accompanying descriptions.

(left) Antoni Muntadas, On Translation: El Tren Urbano, Roosevelt Station; (right) Carlos Mercado, Iconos, employing colorized photographs of Jack Delano

Mercado's addition of color to Delano's photographs undermines their iconic power, turning them into a decorative pastiche that renders them as oversized picture postcards. Further negating their original meaning, Mercado has given each of the photographs his own title. For instance, a 1940s Delano picture of a group of workers, packed onto a farm truck, is titled COMO SALCHICHA EN LATA. Mercado is able to use Delano's photographs for this purpose without concerns of copyright because they are freely available for download at the Library of Congress. An interesting exercise at best, Mercado's pictures, unlike the carefully considered work of Muntadas, do not pay tribute to – or in any way honor – the original art of Jack Delano.

Picture caption -  various items from the MECA art fair, on the couch at home in Santa Olaya, PR including: Tunica LESS THAN NOTHING shopping bag (Embajada); [his] EL ODIOSO OLOR DE LA VERDAD (the hateful odor of the truth) & [her] SONAMOS BAJO EL MISMO CIELO (we dream under the same sky) T-shirts from Rirkit Tiravanija & Tomas Vu (their GREEN GO HOME project); poster (MECA); books, postcards and announcements (various)

Sideshow, Rutland, VT State Fair, 1941  (click for additional image)

La Barra de Paquito, with Christopher Rivera, Paquito, Juni Figueroa, Jorge Gonzalez, Lillian Mulero, Bubu Negron

Tropical Readymades (assisted): the artist as curator
by Jan Galligan & Lillian Mulero, Santa Olaya, PR

In 1913 Marcel Duchamp presented Bicycle Wheel, the first in a series of artworks he called Readymades, objects selected using a method of visual indifference in which the idea came first. At the time, André Breton defined readymade as “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of the artist.” To create Bicycle Wheel Duchamp selected the front wheel and fork of a black bicycle, mounted it upside down on the seat of a white wooden four-legged stool, then signed and dated the work, adopting readymade, a term used to describe manufactured items, distinguishing them from handmade goods. Duchamp adapted the term ironically to specifically define artworks he would create merely by selection. Because he combined two already made objects into one, he labeled Bicycle Wheel a Readymade (assisted) and then created others including With Hidden Noise,  a ball of twine clamped between two brass plates, joined by four screws. An unknown object was secretly placed inside the ball by one of his friends, and he never discovered what it was. Examples of “pure” Readymades include In Advance of a Broken Arm, 1915, a snow shovel with the title written on the handle, and Traveler's Folding Item, 1916, a leather Underwood typewriter cover, signed and dated by Duchamp.

In 2005 Jesus “Bubu” Negron was included in the Whitney Museum Biennial, where he presented Honoris Causa, consisting of a table from an African street vendor selling handicrafts, coupled with a hot dog cart – locating them both outside the museum. In 2014, Radames “Juni” Figueroa was selected for the Whitney Biennial, and he created Breaking the Ice, a small wooden structure, similar to a typical Puerto Rican casita, that sought, says Figueroa “to bring a bit of Caribbean atmosphere to New York with references to the tropical and beachy architecture of Puerto Rico, and which included several heaters placed to warm up the space, recreating a tropical climate.”

Late last summer, Negron and Figueroa took over the Embajada gallery on calle Cesar Gonzalez in San Juan, and turned it into a clandestine speak-easy, of the sort found along the calles of Bayamon. They called it La Barra de Paquito, named after Figueroa's dog, Paquito – who, for the duration of the exhibition, served as the bartender.  

Artists following a similar aesthetic, Negron and Figueroa until this exhibition, had not previously created art together. Billed as a one-person exhibition of new work by Negron, the project was curated by Figueroa who, in the manner of his Whitney installation, built the make-shift bar from various scraps of lumber, at a slightly small scale – to fit the stature of his dog Paquito.

Negron made a number of works specifically for the exhibition, including a series of 30 photographs laminated onto shaped wooden panels, recalling low-cost religious items found in discount stores around the island. Each photo depicts an invented internet meme of the sort typically found on Facebook. Apparently, all of the meme slogans came by way of text messages exchanged between Negron and Figueroa prior to their exhibit. About his artwork, Negron says, “I like working on projects that promote social interactions (usually) against authorities or power structures. What results, usually becomes an art object or documentation,” or as he has been know to say, “Delving into the bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.”

Other works created by Negron include two cute puppies painted on the back of cardboard beer cases and a slot machine simulating the locally made and illegitimately rigged machines found in convenience stores around the island, this one made of paper mache, cardboard, and an iPad which displays three dogs as the winning combination.

In addition to the work of Negron, Figueroa chose complimentary works by fifteen other artists, some displayed on the bar and others hung on the walls of the back room, including a painting by Leo Fitzpatrick that says: A MAN WALKS INTO A BAR, and a mixed media group of pint liquor bottles by Jessie Stead & R. Lyon called: Duh Angel Signature Cocktail.

In the leadup to their exhibit, on Facebook Negron and Figueroa posted a series of announcements and messages, all carrying the theme: NOTHING CONCEPTUAL. However, it's possible they were speaking ironically, as in NOTHING PERSONAL – which when used as an apology implies that the speaker really did not mean what he was saying. Here, Negron and Figueroa mean exactly what they say. Both artists have a long history of making work and creating installations that are simultaneously entertaining and a challenge to the viewer's sensibilities. Make no mistake, this is art of the most interesting sort, and – it is conceptual. 

In 1969 Sol Lewitt published 35 Sentences on Conceptual Art in Art-Language magazine. A couple of examples: #1) Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach; #14) The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept; and #30) There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.

At that time, conceptual artists were considered dry, humorless, intellectual, and against any art that was decorative or representational. Developed in opposition to the tenets of critic Clement Greenberg, who championed formalism against illusion, conceptual art promoted ideas above objects. As artist Lawrence Weiner declared: “Once you know about a work of mine you own it. There is no way I can get inside someone's head to remove it.”

Now you know about some of the work of Jesus “Bubu” Negron and Radames “Juni” Figueroa and so you own it -- it is yours do with as you wish. Just be careful that they don't come looking for you …

Nothing Conceptual, La Barra de Paquito by Bubu Negron, The Warriors

Embajada, Calle Cesar Gonzalez, 382 – www.embajadada.com

Jesus “Bubu” Negron – www.artsy.net/artist/jesus-bubu-negron

Radames “Juni” Figueroa – www.artsy.net/artist/radames-juni-figueroa

by Jan Galligan and Lillian Mulero 
Santa Olaya, PR

“I still say the art here reminds me of New York's Lower East Side in the 1980s,” says Lillian.

“What? Do you think that the art here looks like Neo-Geo, Neo-Pop, Street Art, and Neo-Expressionism?” I ask.

“No.” What I mean is that the New York art world at that time had a youthful energy and a sense of community and cooperation between artists and gallery owners. Artists worked with colleagues to develop a new culture. At the same time they participated in the international art world and were recognized with important opportunities and represented in influential exhibitions. That's what it feels like here now,” she explains.