|
1997-98
Luc Sante reviews Painting by Numbers in a cover story in the
New York Times Book Review, January 4.
Real Love, Andrew Ross (Chapter 7, What the People Want From
Art?, pp. 149-161), New York University Press, New York and London.
Komar & Melamid, Schon-Haslich, curated by Gerald Matt, Kunsthalle,
Vienna (catalog published by Kunsthalle Wien Ritter Verlag).
Naked
Revolution, an Opera about Washington, Lenin, and Duchamp created
with David Soldier, is performed at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
and the Kitchen, New York. Later performed at George Masson University,
stage director Kirby Malone.
The opera as well as a series of paintings, sculpture, and collages, becomes
part of the American
Dreams series (1996-1997), based on artists' collection of George
Washington memorabilia.
Working with images of both the Soviet and America revolutions, K&M
found a similarity between Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union and government
supported patriotic art in the US. (See K&M’s portrait of George
Washington in: George Washington, American Symbol, Barbara J.
Mitnick, Hudson Hills Press, NY, the Museum of Stony Brook, and The Museum
of Our National History; also Komar & Melamid’s American
Dreams, Philadelphia Art Alliance, catalog by Mark Thistlethwaite,
Neil Rector, and Amy Ingrid Schlegel, curator, 2024.)
Liberty as Justice (see below), mural in the lobby of the Bronx
New Housing Court Building, New York. Architect Ralph Vinoly. Commissioned
by New York Percent for the Art (1996-1998).
K&M return to their early concept of the Healing Power of Art
(see 1974-1975, Circle,
Square, Triangle and Color Therapy). Projects: Light
and Shadow Therapy; Neosenilism and Neosincerity; Van Gogh Art Ministry;
etc.
For Asian
Elephant Art And Conservation Project, K&M travel to Thailand
to teach elephants to paint. Revenue for sale of paintings assists elephants
and their keepers. Thai Princess Galiyani and World Wildlife Fund support
project.
When developing Collaboration with Animals, K&M propose architectural
projects for the beaver’s canals and dams, and termite’s towers.
They propose using both the branches of trees and the wind to paint on
canvas, and also a special device to outfit potatoes to take photographs.
K&M travel to Moscow to teach Mikki,
a chimpanzee, to take photographs.
K&M, Liberty
as Justice, mural in the lobby of The Bronx New Housing Court,
Bronx, New York. Architect Ralph Vinoly. Commissioned by New York
Percent for the Art (1996-1998). |
|