‘THE VIEWER BECOMES SICKENED BY THE REALITY OF THE BAD COPY'
Michael Wilkinson‘s ‘Red Wall with Skewed Brick‘, 2006
Which waysnow?
The rise of the MODERN
TITUTE is a symbol of Glasgow’s art renaissance.
What does the institute now stand for? Alexander Kennedy investigates.
n a city as small as Glasgow. an expanding
contemporary art scene is learning how to take
itself more seriously and to define confidently its perimeters. With Jeremy Deller‘s 2004 Turner Prize success and Toby Paterson‘s Beck‘s Futures win before it. the stern gaze of the international art world has fallen on Toby Webster's Modern Institute.
After studying product design and environmental art at (ilttsgow School of Art. Webster began organising exhibitions of his peer's work. taking over the tricky business of selling it from the artists. He learnt the ropes at the Transmission Gallery before opening the Modern Institute. and now represents a stable of 26 artists with international profiles. Glasgost established art venues have only recently begun to take the work of this generation of artists seriously. now that it has solidified into an identifiable style and can be packaged. bought and sold. But it was Webster's belief in end-game play modernism that significantly affected this trajectory. (GoMA’s Recent .-\cqur'sirimis show demonstrated this ‘better late than never‘ attitude. and the (‘CA also played catch-up by exhibiting works by Jim Lambie and Toby Paterson.)
It would be naive to assume that the grandiose title of ‘the Modern lnstitute‘ is as ironic as its humble exhibition space would lead one to believe. There is an environmental/project-based contingent amongst Webster‘s coterie of artists. that attempt to ‘problematise the institutionalisation of art' (Deller. for example). but most of the work shown relies unashamedly on the traditional gallery set tip (white walls. wooden floors. paintings/chlptures. invisible
price tags and cash registers). and explores traditional modernist concerns. This means that some of the art shown balances appropriated minor aesthetic revolutions with an unchecked reactionary bent: the original with the derived. The formalist discoveries from the history of modern art are occasionally misquoted. which in itself is not a bad thing. but when the resultant work is mannered and lacking in insight. the viewer becomes hungry for the illusion of the real thing and sickened by the reality of the bad copy.
As an institute founded on modernism. this form of
critique based on the employment of unembarrassed and informed taste seems fitting. rather than journalistic reportage driven and haunted by the paranoid question: ‘But is it art‘." The work shown in the Modern Institute allows. no. forces its to ask: ‘ls it good art'." The viewer then has to take responsibility for their views — it only seems fair - and the art. if it is good. justifies itself. That said. Glasgow's art scene still seems too polite and fragile to start throwing well aimed stones. This passivity will stop when money rolls in. competition grows and art becomes Art.
lf Glasgow‘s contemporary art market continues to be bolstered by such well deserved public laurels and plaudits - which fashion dictates it will — there will be fascinating aesthetic decisions made in studios next door to (or owned by) private financiers. moneyed gallery owners and dealers. This truism. tethering art to money. is bleak yet liberating. as judgements of taste can enter the arena unabashed. And. as ‘there is no law in the arena‘. hungry things will quickly become food.
Visual Art
Ilit
THE BEST STUFF
:2: Graham Fagen Robbie Burns gets the reggae treatment in this specially commissioned collaboration between Ayrshire- born Fagen and On-U Sound label Adrian Sherwood. See preview. Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 7 l Feb—Sun 73 Mar.
=i= Andy Warhol: Self Portraits Having experienced more than his 15 minutes of fame, Warhol defined a new era of celerity. This is the only UK showing of his pretty face in hundreds of new ways. See Rave. page 10. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sat 12 Feb—Mon 2 May.
2}: Scottish Show Comes Home The top Scottish designers bring their work back hame after the exhibition's grand tour of Milan and London. See feature, page 14. The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Sat 5 Feb—Fri 78 Mar.
ti: Mat Colllshaw Looking in the mirror, a pretty youth mutates into elderly elegance while prostitutes hover within lilypads. The YBA artist's work finds a natural home in the mysterious environs of the Botanics. See review. lnver/er'th House. Edinburgh, until Sun 20 Feb.
=l= Ellen Gallagher Your last chance to see the hand crafted workings of New York artist Gallagher whose gamelan loops. plasticine wigs, scratched 8- movies and carved watercolour paper have a hypnotic pull. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 73 Feb.
=i< elbowroom Artwork that tackles the issues of abuse towards women with an integrity that is brave. confident and assured in subject and artistic merit. Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Mon 14 Feb.
i-vz, 227'. THE LIST 97