Martha Stewart Meets Kropotkin

IF one learns anything at all from years of going to the Whitney, it is that you shouldn’t read too much into its Biennial exhibitions. Though widely seen as the last word on our visual culture over the previous two years, in fact these shows say more about their curators. Politics was rampant in 1993 because Elisabeth Sussman wanted it that way, while formalism resurfaced two years later because the torch had been passed to Klaus Kertess.

And what is the gist of its latest incarnation? One step forward, two steps back, seems to be the guiding principle here. Thus, while the 1995 exhibition seemed, in its (relative) formalist sobriety, to step decisively out of the morass of jammering message art that had characterized the 1993 installment, the present version offers a “correction,” with message once again gaining the ascendancy over mere form.

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James Gardner

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IF one learns anything at all from years of going to the Whitney, it is that you shouldn’t read too much into its Biennial exhibitions. Though widely seen as the last word on our visual culture over the previous two years, in fact these shows say more about their curators. Politics was rampant in 1993 because Elisabeth Sussman wanted it that way, while formalism resurfaced two years later because the torch had been passed to Klaus Kertess.

And what is the gist of its latest incarnation? One step forward, two steps back, seems to be the guiding principle here. Thus, while the 1995 exhibition seemed, in its (relative) formalist sobriety, to step decisively out of the morass of jammering message art that had characterized the 1993 installment, the present version offers a “correction,” with message once again gaining the ascendancy over mere form.