Jerry Saltz’s review of the Whitney Biennial includes this aside that could equally be applied to the art market. Today’s stars are by no means tomorrow’s towering figures. Equally, what is often scorned at first may come to be treasured:
The show has been earnestly organized by independent curator Jay Sanders and the Whitney’s Elisabeth Sussman. For those not old enough to remember: Sussman curated the 1993 biennial, the most reviled one in memory. At the time the show was called “grim,” “flimsy,” and “pious.” In fact it turned out to be the most prescient biennial of the last two decades, introducing novel genres of artistic agency and showcasing emergent artists like Matthew Barney, Glenn Ligon, Janine Antoni, Charles Ray, Robert Gober, Charles Atlas, Mike Kelley, and Andrea Fraser. Many notions of integrating form with conceptual art, and unusual materials with the real world, are still being played out all these years later. Indeed, the last four people on the above list are back at the Whitney again this year.
Leaving Babylon (New York Magazine)
