"Public Offerings"

ArtForum, Sept, 2001 by Nico Israel

The original title for the exhibition was "The Global Academy," a rubric emphasizing distinctions and links between "global" art and art-school hubs--Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, London, and Tokyo. Its newer name and retooled curatorial direction arose during a period in which initial public offerings of stocks seemed like a sure thing. This was a time when, according to one catalogue essay, some young artists, like stockbrokers and dot-commers, expected to make it big before they hit thirty or not at all. Those of us with other careers can't help feeling a bit grateful that the era this show celebrates may already be verging on obsolescence. For any curator or critic of contemporary art, this is, of course, the booby trap of historicizing the (careening) contemporary. But now that some of the hype over IPOs has waned, tech stocks have tanked, and, perhaps consequently, the exploding art market has been reined in, the offerings the exhibition explored--and the offering it made--seem strangely noncommittal, neither bull nor bear.

Nico Israel is a frequent contributor to Artforum.