He skips the frames too

I usually do not get very far into stories about artists who work far outside traditional media. The sheep preserved in urine, the cloth-covered bridge, they just don’t work for me. Not a surprise given my magnetic pull to the Wyeths and John Singer Sargent.

But The New York Times Magazine piece on Tino Sehgal and his live sculpture kept me riveted right to the end. One of the most interesting things in Arthur Lubow’s article is the explanation of how Sehgal sells his work to museums, a tricky business given that the pieces involve people not paint or stone–making it tough to “own” or control viewing of them in the usual senses. Lubow does a fine job setting up this aspect of the story:

“He does not allow his pieces to be photographed. They are not explained by wall labels or accompanied by catalogs. No press releases herald the openings of his exhibitions; indeed, there are no official openings, just unceremonious start dates. All of this can engender skepticism, but the aspect of Sehgal’s work that his detractors find most irritating is the way the art is sold…”

Read this one, it is worth your time.