For the inaugural Frieze Los Angeles Talk, Frances Stark will be quizzed by Hamza Walker and Josh Kun in a new take on Name That Tune.
Friday, February 1, from 7 pm to 9 pm.
LAXART
7000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood.
From top: Frances Stark; art for Stark’s The Magic Flute. Images courtesy the artist and LAXART.
In an exhibition curated by Ali Subotnick which “explores the comedic impulse in contemporary art,” THE PARTY was inspired by the Blake Edwards film of the same name.
Contributing artists include Catharine Czudej, Marepe, Jason Meadows, Pentti Monkkonen, Ruby Neri, David Robbins, Jennifer Rochlin, Frances Stark, Jeffrey Vallance, Dan Ciesielski, Sean Landers, Peter Land, and David Robbins
THE PARTY, through August 31.
ANTON KERN GALLERY, 16 East 55th Street, New York City.
Above: Pentti Monkkonen, Rabarbaro Zucca, 2018.
Below: Frances Stark, Bricks and Flakes, rough sketch for a kimono series, 2014.
Images courtesy of the artists and Anton Kern Gallery.
Following a reprise screening at LACMA of her new film THE MAGIC FLUTE, join Frances Stark for a conversation with opera company director and L.A. Philharmonic artist-in-residence Yuval Sharon, and LACMA curator Stephanie Barron.
This event is in conjunction with the LACMA exhibition CHAGALL—FANTASIES FOR THE STAGE.
FRANCES STARK—THE MAGIC FLUTE, Tuesday, October 3, at 7 pm.
BING THEATER, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
CHAGALL—FANTASIES FOR THE STAGE , through January 7, 2018.
LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
lacma.org/event/magic-flute-screening-and-discussion
See: PARIS LA, “Frances Stark’s Magic Flute”:
For the 2017 Whitney Biennial, Frances Stark created a series of paintings depicting enlarged pages of underlined passages from the title essay of CensorshipNow!!, by Ian Svenonius:
“Censor the news. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other media liberties have become a grotesque and deadly parody of their promise….
“Censor the technology. Technological innovations determine much of what becomes art, media, communication, and therefore life. We must manacle these mediums for the sake of expression itself….Flat-screen television transforms every room and space into an outhouse….”
Last weekend at the Whitney, many viewers stood before Stark’s work enthralled. Others cherry-picked paragraphs out of context—reading Svenonius’ rhetorical examples of past misdeeds as endorsements—and missed one of Svenonius’ points: The dangers of making false comparisons between the past and the present to excuse what we do in the future.
FRANCES STARK—2017 WHITNEY BIENNIAL, through June 11.
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York City.
See Daniel Brockton’s Vanyaland interview with Svenonius:
Frances Stark, Ian F. Svenonius’s “Censorship Now” for the 2017 Whitney Biennial, Spread 3 of 8 (pp. 16-17) (the state, like a rampaging mob boss), 2017.
Image credit: Frances Stark and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents the World Premiere of Frances Stark’s THE MAGIC FLUTE, a new film version of Mozart’s opera wherein the vocal element has been removed—the aria melodies will be played by a group of young musicians, not sung—and the audience will access the libretto via title cards.
“With the libretto as the central visual focus, the melody becomes the bouncing ball in the viewer’s head, and therefore the viewer inhabits each character….I’m trying to make THE MAGIC FLUTE unfold for people very directly and joyously. It isn’t about clever redressing or anything, it’s really about the bare bones of the opera having the capacity to engage you. The accessibility of the opera was based on its high-low conceit.” — Frances Stark
Stark updated the libretto to fit the refigured score, which has been adapted by conductor Danko Drusko. Producer-arranger H.B. Barnum recorded and mixed the music.
THE MAGIC FLUTE, Friday, April 28 at 7 pm. Sold out. Stand-by line forms outside theater at 6:30 pm.
LACMA, Bing Theater, Los Angeles
lacma.org/event/magic-flute
In New York City, the 2017 WHITNEY BIENNIAL features a suite of new paintings by Stark.
WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2017, through June 11.
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York City.
whitney.org/Exhibitions/2017Biennial
See “And Then There Were None: Frances Stark and A.L. Steiner in Conversation with Dorothée Perret,” PARIS LA 14, Winter 2016:
francesstark.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/And-Then-There-Were-None.pdf
Frances Stark, during the production of The Magic Flute.
Image credit: Alexa Karolinski
