ART: No Simple Innocence, Childhood Now Invoked Has More in Tow
MANY who track the shifting enthusiasms of the contemporary art world have noted that childhood is now much in vogue. It's not unalloyed innocence, but rather a convenient area in which to channel the discomfort and anxiety that have marked contemporary art for the last several seasons. Sometimes there is irony, but frequently the art in this vein is more childish than childlike.
These conflicts are present in the exhibition "Playtime: Artists and Toys" at the Whitney Museum in Stamford. But it turns out to be a strong show, in part because the curators -- Jennifer Gauthier, Angela Kramer Murphy and Cynthia Roznoy, all members of the satellite museum's staff -- have buttressed the latest work with relevant pieces that stretch back in art history.
The immediate impetus for the show was Alexander Calder's "Circus" (from 1926-31) being temporarily dismantled at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. The show includes parts of it accompanied by a fetching videotape of Calder taking about his creation.
Other venerable works in the exhibition are photographs for "The First Picture Book: Everyday Things for Babies" by Edward Steichen (1930), and a bronze model from the 1960's for the Riverside Drive Playground by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
Part and parcel of the Surrealist movement was the impulse to play games, and the show has good representation by American Surrealists, including Joseph Cornell whose "Memoires inedits de Madame la Comtesse de G." is a small tin filled with strips on which are random words. Putting disparate words together was a favorite Surrealist pastime.
Man Ray, Ruth Bernhard and Val Telberg are other early Surrealist contributors.
The best of the contemporary work has its roots in Surrealism. Vija Celmins's small house is decorated with Magritte-like clouds on its facade, but a blazing fire is painted on its roof.
Some of the new work has an apparitional quality. Michael Ballou's enormous "Big Hand Puppet," for example, lies supine in the middle of the gallery. Jane Hammond's "Clown Suit" has the usual pointy hat and pom-poms for buttons, but it is decorated half with familiar cartoon characters and half with esoteric symbols that might come from tarot cards.
These conflicts are present in the exhibition "Playtime: Artists and Toys" at the Whitney Museum in Stamford. But it turns out to be a strong show, in part because the curators -- Jennifer Gauthier, Angela Kramer Murphy and Cynthia Roznoy, all members of the satellite museum's staff -- have buttressed the latest work with relevant pieces that stretch back in art history.
The immediate impetus for the show was Alexander Calder's "Circus" (from 1926-31) being temporarily dismantled at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. The show includes parts of it accompanied by a fetching videotape of Calder taking about his creation.
Other venerable works in the exhibition are photographs for "The First Picture Book: Everyday Things for Babies" by Edward Steichen (1930), and a bronze model from the 1960's for the Riverside Drive Playground by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
Part and parcel of the Surrealist movement was the impulse to play games, and the show has good representation by American Surrealists, including Joseph Cornell whose "Memoires inedits de Madame la Comtesse de G." is a small tin filled with strips on which are random words. Putting disparate words together was a favorite Surrealist pastime.
Man Ray, Ruth Bernhard and Val Telberg are other early Surrealist contributors.
The best of the contemporary work has its roots in Surrealism. Vija Celmins's small house is decorated with Magritte-like clouds on its facade, but a blazing fire is painted on its roof.
Some of the new work has an apparitional quality. Michael Ballou's enormous "Big Hand Puppet," for example, lies supine in the middle of the gallery. Jane Hammond's "Clown Suit" has the usual pointy hat and pom-poms for buttons, but it is decorated half with familiar cartoon characters and half with esoteric symbols that might come from tarot cards.
