A pair sorts of irony are at work in Hauser & Wirth’s presentation of Gary Simmons’s work for Skinny Ice. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s work of the character Bosko, a blatantly racist cartoon created in 1928 by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising that was recognized for expressing his pleasure about varied issues by saying “Mmmm! Dat sho’ is fine!” (Respect to H&W for utilizing the time period “racist” as an alternative of the extra anodyne “racialized” in describing this caricature of a Black individual.)
The six black and white oil work that characteristic Bosko on ice skates virtually seem like drawn research for later works, given Simmons’s signature blurring and partial erasure of the determine. However on this collection, the smearing of the determine uncharacteristically doesn’t make it learn as ghostly. In his retrospective Public Enemy on the Museum of Modern Artwork in Chicago, the ghostliness was a dominant motif that I addressed within the essay I wrote for that present’s catalogue. But on this case, what I get is washy representations of phases of the skater’s motion mid-pirouette, with bits of glacier blue peeking out of the background, reminding us that the sphere of play is the primordial substance of ice.
Gary Simmons, “Going Through Progressions #1” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 78 x 54 inches (198.1 x 137.2 cm) (picture Keith Lubow)
I apprehend one sort of irony by means of noticing the position of Bosko’s arms. In a lot of the six “Going Through Progressions” work, particularly #1 and #6, the arms float elegantly at head degree, trailing the ahead movement of the skater like a flag swept backward by the rate of the churning physique. Determine skaters use their arm place to keep up stability and management the velocity of turns and spins, however finally these motions depicted by Simmons level to greater than self-mastery. They point out a dilemma on the coronary heart of the favored tradition of the USA.
Skilled ice skaters mimic the port de bras motions of ballet. “Port de bras” refers back to the postures and positions the arms are anticipated to take to gracefully complement the motion of the legs within the dance custom that originated in France. This picture is a consummately American amalgam: a physique that’s Black by suggestion — obvious by means of the exaggerated facial options and use of the Black vernacular language in different contexts — which nonetheless contorts itself into the idealized strains of a European conference it is going to solely ever intermittently obtain.
Our tradition each celebrates and denies the human physique — typically in the identical breath. We need the funk, the deep, grounded sensuality that’s typically mistakenly related solely with Blackness (although different cultures have their very own kinds of funk) however then search to remodel the performing physique into an idealized linear kind. We would like each: the sensual delights and the promise of transcendence, which we handle by means of the hypothesis that we’re bits of everlasting flame ensconced in blood and bone. And we dance that repetitious dance with our romantic companions craving for that second of ecstasy when it appears like we would simply go away our our bodies behind.
Gary Simmons, “Black Frosty” (2024), metal, foam, plywood, polyurethane, and automotive paint, dimensions variable, roughly 73 x 60 x 65 inches (185.4 x 152.4 x 165.1 cm) (picture Keith Lubow)
The second facet of irony comes into play contemplating that Bosko’s actions are termed “progressions.” This character was invented in 1928, virtually 100 years in the past, at a second like our present one, when anti-immigrant sentiment is being whipped right into a fever pitch. A century in the past, this perspective resulted in a wave of anti-immigration laws. In keeping with the Nationwide Park Service:
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established the nation’s first numerical limits on the variety of immigrants who might enter the USA. The Immigration Act of 1924, often known as the Nationwide Origins Act, made the quotas stricter and everlasting.
The present President-elect simply received a presidential marketing campaign fueled partially by rhetoric that describes non-European immigrants as ravenous, harmful savages who’re “poisoning the blood” of the nation.
Simmons’s Bosko cycles by means of levels of a pirouette, to reach once more at the start of the movement, and we cycle by means of our worry of and need for our bodies that may present us what our personal are able to. On this second it appears like this tradition solely hardly ever makes progress. Extra usually, what we do is make elaborate circles again and again on the ice till the music stops.
Gary Simmons, “Going Through Progressions #3” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 78 x 54 inches (198.1 x 137.2 cm) (picture Keith Lubow)
Gary Simmons, “Song Remains the Same” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 84 x 108 inches (213.4 x 274.3 cm) (picture Paul Salveson)
Gary Simmons, “Going Through Progressions #6” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 78 x 54 inches (198.1 x 137.2 cm) (picture Keith Lubow)
Gary Simmons, “Champagne Powder” (2024), oil stick and acrylic paint on gessoed paper, 30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm) (picture Paul Salveson)
Gary Simmons: Skinny Ice continues at Hauser & Wirth (134 Wooster Avenue, Soho, Manhattan) by means of January 11. The exhibition was organized by the gallery and the artist.