Urs Major

Urs Fischer is getting a lot of attention lately but London’s First Post wants him to drop all of that and save the art world:

Fischer is the collective choice to lead contemporary art out of the post-boom doldrums. No one is quite sure if the artists who prospered in the boom – Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami et al – can shake off the associations of excess and drive their ponies on. Fischer, by contrast, almost certainly can.

Judging by an impressive turn-out of the art world cognoscenti, high-profile collectors and gallery and salesroom mafia at the private view, he’s had the support to make it to art super-stardom ever since he dug an acutely of-the-moment construction site hole in Gavin Brown’s Manhattan gallery at the height of the financial meltdown last eyar. […]

Fischer does not seek to impress on us any social message. Instead, he’s created a 21st Century Through The Looking Glass world of images and objects. It’s a playful, engaging arrangement, highly experiential, and far removed from the ironic detachment that has became the art world’s default post-boom position.

Fischer may not have shown up at his own opening, but he did sit down with his art dealer to chat for Interview:

GB: European or American? Do you still feel European here?

UF: I am European.

GB: Why are you living in New York?

UF: I tried living in other places. They’re too monocultural. It’s not like that here. I like a mix.

GB: A lot of people come here and just end up staying. You’ve been to a lot of places . . . but it seems as though you’ve made a decision to be here.

UF: I didn’t move here with aspirations. I didn’t come to New York and think, I’m really gonna make it . . . No. It was because of convenience. It’s a very convenient city to live in. I never wanted to move here when I was a teenager. Everybody I knew who was really ambitious and kind of annoying wanted to move here. I like it here but that has nothing to do with the fantasy image that goes along with it. You have so many people complaining, “It’s not how it used to be.” If you look for specific things and you don’t find them anymore, that’s disappointing. But that’s just your disappointment, it has nothing to do with the city. I think it’s a nice place-harsh at times, and so on, but beautiful nonetheless.