edit #1: freja, sasha, fabiana, svetlana, ruslana, irina & more shot by sorrenti art by richard tuttle. Ive never been much of a fan of rich tuttle's colour -mad fuzzy infantile reductivist constructions. some will be impressed by these all-over rainbow-hued volcanic serpentine set-pieces, but I think its a poor use of some of the best models today. its not so much sorrenti's fault, altho one might have hoped he'd bring order to these seismic compositions. really its just that tuttle took the opportunity to overwhelm some fabulous clothes & girls with his dramatic & imaginary new world colourscapes. its a riot of colour & pretty enough on that level. i dont think the clothes were well served despite some fine choices by camilla nickerson like prada balenciaga azria etc. there is a dvd included which i hvnt watched yet, i hear it explains the process of these photos. basically the amount that you can recognize sasha & irina etc is nice, but they are more obscured to me. tuttle's work is ok on its own terms but in the end not a happy fashion shoot for me. and sorrenti, who can be great or can be pretty bad, is actually in the middle here, altho some of you may like this a lot more than me. its an effective lead & main edit for W's 1st ART issue, but its also less in final satisfaction than I usually feel from a major w shoot. at least it is ambitious, if wild-ly unedited or uncontrolled. rating 7 of 10.
edit # 2: jeff koons by juergen teller. koons is an artist who has assembled an amazing body of work over about 3 decades. altho many of his subjects are cute-sy, like sculptures of dogs pigs elves and apes, they add up to an amusing and ironic world/comsumer view which in accum,ulation looks really smart & insightful.
teller, who is one of W's best photogs month to month, shoots some excellent koons images & especially his work, with the monkey face being a personal favourite.
nice combo of interesting artist & artwork, shot in teller's matter of fact style, it hits hard. 7.7 of 10.
* teller shoots another fine portrait of andrew wakua. shame about wakua's sub-rosenquist/chagall expressionist multi-media workls but who knows maybe he'll get better.
edit #3 lisa yuskevage by sorrenti. at this point, yuskevage makes john currin look good. when i first saw her work a decade ago i thought it was a smart feminine & feminist version of the playboy ideal. now i just think its boring, technically below average & dumb. youd think sorrenti was the perfect photog for her, and he does capture her women in their saintly big-tiit glow, but her paintings are much less to look at than tuttle's colour schemes above, and once again sorrenti's work looks mediocre since the art he's recording is so off-putting. 4 of 10 only for his pics. her art is awful.
edit #4; richard prince shoots mariacarla, terry richardson, a hipster, a self portrait, a joke painting, an auto body shop, etc in his upstate house/getaway. Now THIS is exciting art!! prince is surprising all the art world as his marlboro man pieces become the most valuable photos ever. but thats not all to his bag of tricks! as shown here he's a superb photog in several themes. the hipster portraits are awesome, as much as you want to hate a dirty haired pencil thin scenester in hand drawn tee shirts at the body shop & in cool stock car driver jumpsuit. but these are excellent portraits, incl ace frehley kiss makeup sketch!! . 2 mariacarla nudes are by far the best images in the nov w. Ive always loved m/c and the idiots who said she looked bad with blonde hair shld see these . shes so sexy in these 2 pics its stunning, and her body will blow you away too. the richardson portrait is one of the best images of him ever, smoking outside upstate by a car. theres a motorcycle mama pic that looks like an appropriation. and a cute prince self portrait in his own hipster tee & jeans in the driveway. if only the whole ish was this good!!! if you never liked prince you may finally get his mindset here. or maybe you wont but anyway lots of the texture & subjects of his worldview are captured right here & hes suddenly one of the most important & contemporary artists of the 21st century. superb exposition by & about a vital living artist. 9+ of 10.
* and adam mcewen's 'ny times obituary' of richard prince very smart very funny & very apropriate to the media manipulator prince. 8 of 10.
edit #5 brice marden shot by stephen shore. good hudson river valley home & work space & marden portraits & life incidental details. shore has an excellent sensibility & eye & rapore with his subjects 7.5 of 10.
edit #6 unseen bruce nauman portraits from late 60s. unimportant if intimate 5 of 10.
VERDICT: W's first 'art' issue is surely a worthy objective, and i know in future years we'll see some stunning editions. actually month to month the usual W can be as great art-wise as anything ive seen in 21st century- roversi, teller, lorca-dicorcia, weber- these artists can deliver the best image making in media in the 21st century.
so in some ways i found this issue a touch disappointing. prince delievered his signature commentary, wit & observation is a great story, highlighted by mariacarla's goddess-like sensuality. and mcewen's prince-obit was also funny & sharp. otherwise teller's koons feature was good, but what youd see in an average w month.
the sorrenti/tuttle stiory was colourful & aesthetic, but i felt it misused brilliant models in the service of tuttles overwhelming & chaotic art. in the end soprrenti's tuttle & yuskevage pics were not at his top level. the marden shoot was nice by shore. the nauman & wakua shoots were minor.
a nice attempt by my my favourite magazine in the world, but really only prince's brilliant exposition edit is a keeper & deserving of W's top shelf track record.
ONE STRONG THUMBS UP.
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