Totally Rad at the Paul Kasmin Gallery

The paintings, video installation, and handful of sculptures comprising the Totally Rad: New York in the 80s exhibition don’t have labels, so viewers are left to identify the Basquiats, Schnabels, Koons, Holzers, Warhols, and Harings, among others, on their own. The effect is fairly rad, if we can use that word without sounding glib or dating ourselves faster than the two pairs of Nikes on display, because it transforms the experience of looking into a game of matching. Is the Basquiat the giant red head or the impossible view of the street scene? (The latter.) Is the twisty-turny 3D painting an Elizabeth Murray? (Nope, it’s a Frank Stella.) But even if you can’t think fast and name the major artists of the eighties, the exhibit provides its own reward--a contextual consideration of the splash and flash, color and concept, and assertion of presence through sheer size that mark so much of the art from that time.

Photo: thanks