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I really like this show. It’s just so well put together. So I spent some more time with it, and I got myself the catalog, and I like it even more. The catalog is really well done, nice and wordy, filling in a lot of the historical questions you might have after visiting the show. There’s a series of events and a symposium attached to this show later this month, and I’m probably going to like those too. All of my Getty Center pics are in one big Flickr set, here are some more show highlights that I didn’t shoot last time I visited it.

Tokyo Fluxus

above - this case contained a variety of Tokyo Fluxus works.

above - this “envelope book” housed various projects. I’ve taken part in envelope shows before and their fun, but I love the binding on this book. I’m totally going to steal it for something.

above - Ay-O’s Finger Box, Ay-O - a small tactile box, designed as part of Fluxkit.

above - Composition for a Rich Man, Sohei Hashimoto, 1961 - I really hope someone sent him his million yen. This kind of art is right up my alley. This piece and other textural pieces from this period, like Yoko Ono’s various Instruction Poems, has a kind of irony free humor that I’m not sure is as possible in the art world today. Side note - “Sohei” in Japanese essentially translates as “Priest/Monk Warrior”. I don’t know if it’s intended to be perceived that way in his name or if Sohei is also a Japanese first name.

above - Endless Box, Shiomi Mieko - Every reference I’ve found to Mieko has her described as a composer. Now, it’s hard to imagine someone being both a visual artist and a composer. Those worlds seem very far apart.

Non-Fluxus Works

above - Tactile Box and Finger Box, Ay-O - I didn’t get a good picture of these works the first time. This display is awesome - you really get to get closer to the work via what could easily have been a cheesy “edutainment” interactive display. One of the things I noticed on my second visit is how I barely even noticed the variety of “building paraphernalia” that surrounds this vitrine. It’s in a corner, next to a door, surrounded by a variety of detectors and a fire alarm pull. View the label here.

Whenever I see these works I’m reminded of one of these that my mother made for a toddler age class that she was assistant teaching for. It was made out of a cardboard box filled with a variety of fun to feel objects, and had a hole on one side where a section of tube sock was attached to put your hand through. She handed it to me to test and when I was done, I pulled my hand back out, only to discover that my mother had stapled the sock to the hole in such a way as to potentially injure anyone pulling their arm out on a row of staple bottoms. My arm looked like it was attacked by tiny pumas or something. I’m glad I ended up being the guinea pig on that one - I can only imagine the commotion of a whole bunch of scratched up crying toddlers.

above - Jon Shiruba (John Silver), Kara Juro (author), Yokoo Tadanori (designer) - Jon Shiruba is a Japanese novel inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (which I can’t think of without being reminded of the tragedy of Charles Crumb). That silhouette cover is just peg-leggy awesome. View the label here to get the background on this one.

above - One Thousand-Yen Note Trial Catalogue of Seized Works, 1,000-Yen Note Discussion Group, 1967 - The label sums this piece up thusly - In 1963 Neo Dada and Hi Red Center artist Akesegawa Genpei constructed a series of works, experimenting with 1000-yen note images. In 1966 he was prosecuted for currency fraud, and was found guilty of “imitation.” The court process was an exercise in absurdity that where the list of seized works itself became art.

above - Electromagica poster - How can you not love 1970’s computer graphics? What was the exact moment when the future went from being frightening and wonderful to everyday?

above - Telephone Piece, Yoko Ono - Yeah, I take too many pictures of these readymade telephone pieces. I’m waiting for your call, Yoko!

Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes has a series of posts up concerning allegations that Edward Goldman used his KCRW radio show to pimp artwork that he would then market to collectors, and that he would contact galleries after sales which occurred during his gallery tours (which people pay Goldman to participate in), asking for a percentage of the gallery’s cut from the sale as a commission. According to Green’s sources that cut was an astonishingly high 25%.

Of the two allegations out there, the first one, that Goldman artificially inflated the importance of art on his show, for the purpose of later selling that piece to a collector isn’t particularly troubling. I think anyone who’s been involved in the gallery side of the business knows how much of the art press out there has an agenda behind it. The second allegation, that Goldman approached galleries after people on his tours had purchased art due to the tour, is extremely troubling. If true, it’s extortion, plain and simple. What’s sad is that Goldman could likely have had some kind of legitimate, friendly agreement between himself and the gallery to take an agent’s commission arranged in advance. If he really does have the influence to drive sales, I have a hard time imagining most galleries being uninterested in working with him on that level.

As of now, all of Green’s sources are anonymous, but I’m of the bent that if Green’s willing to put himself out there then I’m willing to lend him my ear on this one. He’s managed to get Ruth Seymour, KCRW General Manager on the phone about the issue, and she’s about as receptive as a wall, completely uninterested in listening to accusations coming from anonymous sources. She also failed to respond to the ethical questions involved in the accusations in a general way.

I’m neither a KCRW listener (I’m a KLXU/KPCC) man myself - may my morning never become eclectic), so I’m not particularly familiar with Goldman. I’ve listened to his show a few times over the years, but I’ve got no real opinion as to his take on art, so I can’t really weigh in with an opinion as to his conduct. I can tell you, as a former gallery owner, if I had the same experience with a critic, I might just let him extort me - I’ve heard similar allegations about other Los Angeles critics, and there’s far too few of them, and it’s hard enough to get on their regular radar, that I can see why someone would let themselves be extorted, rather than be cut off. If I was going to make this kind of allegation about a critic, I’d probably do it anonymously, too.

So far, Green’s put up three posts about the issue, the first, outlining the complaint, the second, noting complaints by a second dealer, and a third post, in which he recounts his conversation with KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour. Other voices are chattering about it, as well. Garrison Frost, of the South Bay blog The Aesthetic, has noted the controversy, asking how it will effect Goldman’s local standing in the arts community.  LA Observed’s Kevin Roderick takes note of the situation. OC Art Blog’s Chris Hoff comments on the situation stating how it’s nice to see some of the covers getting pulled off of our massively unregulated industry, and includes a well said disclosure about his own site, to boot : I’m a total shill. Everything about this blog is a way to promote The Office and the art scene in OC. If the art scene in OC is healthy then The Office and my artist friends might be healthy. Just so you know…