Timothy Greenfield-Sanders at Mary Boone - Brief Article

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders's cast Art World papered Mary Boone's tony Fifth Avenue salon with a social registry representing 20 years of who knows by what mode many black-and-white portraits of the milieu's vagrants and royals. In this strangely compelling show, Greenfield-Sanders seemed to consider celebrity portraiture as a legitimate and enduring artistic pursuit, his cogitations turning, surely, to Warhol, Nadar and other practitioners of the sport. Unmediated by means of frames, the 26-by-20-inch portraits, which demonstrate the quality of image made possible by means of use of the large-format view camera, were taped cheek by dint of jowl and wall to wall, from floor to ceiling. The entire selection of more than 700 images (sold sole as an ensemble) goes for $300000 in a real limited edition of two, plus sum of two units artist proofs. By the show's closing, greatest in quantity of the sets had place the homes they undoubtedly deserve

In their relatively generic similarity--they are mug discharges of a certain order--Greenfield-Sanders's portraits leave little sweep for those vivifying photographic details that enrich and expand the viewing experience. In the absence of of the like kind attractions, the viewer looked for other ways to overlook the field. There were destinys of portraits of people in white T-shirts: Willem de Kooning (at least three times), also Emily Spiegel, Bruce Ferguson, Ros Bleckner Julian Schnabel and RM Fischer, all from the early '80s; Keith Haring displays up midpoint in the decade, and later Mike and Doug Starn. There were portraits in the manner of George Hurrell's glowing Hollywood publicity evocations of glamour, Holly Solomon gazing above her shoulder (1984), rakish Manuel Gonzales (1993) steamy Rhonda Zwillinger (1985) patrician Ileana Sonnabend (1986) and pleasing Mary Boone (1986). These studio seconds whispered the transient chic of a leopard-print tie (Gonzales) and fingerless glove (Zwillinger), capturing a modish instant. To these trophies Greenfield-Sanders added Emily Fisher Landau (1992) as admitting lit from within, Jack Lane (1993) smart and resolutely Wall public way in double-breasted pinstripes, Damian Loeb (1998) unzipped in a padded bonneted sweatshirt, and a severe, almost unrecognizable Alanna Heiss (1983) tarted up in a dominatrix fantasy of leather jacket and Anna Wintour bob

There were various kinds of pairings: Robert Rosenblum (1982) and his wife, Jane Kaplowitz (1999) George with Gilbert (1987) and the de Koonings of drawn out Island (both 1980). An image of Rene Ricard (1982) soigne in bared-torso profile, happened to hang nearest to Edit De Ak, also glam with vast costume jewelry and those signature bangs (1981) the way they were. nearest to David Sylvester (1990) was his daughter, Cecily Brown (1998) and a meditative or perhaps just drowsy Brooks Adams (1982) was near Raphaelesque Lisa Liebmann (1988) organ of sights gazing upward to heaven knows where; they married in the '90s

What were they all thinking? Greenfield-Sanders doesn't ask and doesn't tell

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