New Acquisitions November 2012

Justification: I needed to buy a dish wand replacement sponge. Since I live in a painfully small town, my only source was Amazon. Wondering what else was in my shopping cart, produced a larger, heavier package than I initially anticipated. Clerk Fluid = long overdue acquisition by Clark Flood (AKA Mark Flood), I heard Now We Are Hungry was the best Dave Eggers book on short stories, Jonathan Letham's The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, etc. has resided on this "to buy" list for a long time, and Umberto Eco's The Infinity of Lists was my impulse purchase (I can't believe I didn't check it out from the library first). Now all I need is some free time to read.

Mark Flood's NY Times Interview

Mark Flood, art world, 1997 [image via]

Mark Flood remains of my favorite artists in Houston. I miss his paintings that used to hang on the living room walls especially the one of the silhouetted creature that looks like it emerged from a tar pit. Sadly, I have no representation of it and can't find one online so the above will have to suffice.

On Friday, Randy Kennedy of the New York Times interviewed him and his answers are in glorious Mark Flood fashion - full of sarcasm, wit and humor. One of my favorites:

Q. "When you worked as an assistant at the Menil Collection, you were close with the renowned curator Walter Hopps. How did an art-world job change your view of the art world?"

A. "It was wonderful for me to be around people who were so obsessed with art. They were very obsessed and very willful — willful rich people. It’s why I love this place. [He gestures at the gallery around him.] I hate parasitical art bureaucracies. I hate nonprofit organizations. I love willful rich people who are obsessed with art. The context always determines the meaning of a work of art."

I really wish I was going to NYC between now and 18 September when his Hateful Years exhibition is up at Luxembourg and Dayan. Meanwhile, if you ever read this post, Mark, and want to trade a painting no one wants to buy that you pulled from the far reaches of the borrowed studio, drop me a line.

Mark Flood (No Lace)

I've been thinking about Mark Flood's paintings lately (above: Wait Here, 2010). I was happy to see him return to humor that isn't indicative in his lace paintings of the last decade (although the lace black panther I once saw in his studio remains one of my favorite pieces).


Mark Flood, Another Painting (Leaves), 2009


Mark Flood, 25 Additional Paintings, 2009

His overt text references sum up how I feel right now after grading and grading and meeting and meeting and grading students for what feels like every last minute of the entire month. Sometimes it's great to have it spelled out, especially at 1:39 AM.