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 identified for expressing his pleasure about numerous 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 particular person.)
The six black and white oil work that function Bosko on ice skates nearly seem like drawn research for later works, given Simmons’s signature blurring and partial erasure of the determine. However on this sequence, 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) (photograph Keith Lubow)
I apprehend one form of irony by way of noticing the location of Bosko’s arms. In a lot of the six “Going Through Progressions” work, particularly #1 and #6, the arms float elegantly at head stage, trailing the ahead movement of the skater like a flag swept backward by the speed of the churning physique. Determine skaters use their arm place to keep up stability and management the pace of turns and spins, however in the end 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 way 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 can solely ever intermittently obtain.
Our tradition each celebrates and denies the human physique — generally in the identical breath. We want the funk, the deep, grounded sensuality that’s generally mistakenly related solely with Blackness (although different cultures have their very own kinds of funk) however then search to rework the performing physique into an idealized linear type. We wish each: the sensual delights and the promise of transcendence, which we handle by way 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 seems like we would simply depart 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) (photograph Keith Lubow)
The second facet of irony comes into play contemplating that Bosko’s actions are termed “progressions.” This character was invented in 1928, nearly 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 angle resulted in a wave of anti-immigration laws. In response to 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, also referred to as the Nationwide Origins Act, made the quotas stricter and everlasting.
The present President-elect simply gained 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 way of phases of a pirouette, to reach once more at the start of the movement, and we cycle by way of our concern of and want for our bodies which may present us what our personal are able to. On this second it seems like this tradition solely hardly ever makes progress. Extra typically, 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) (photograph Keith Lubow)
Gary Simmons, “Song Remains the Same” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 84 x 108 inches (213.4 x 274.3 cm) (photograph Paul Salveson)
Gary Simmons, “Going Through Progressions #6” (2024), oil paint on canvas, 78 x 54 inches (198.1 x 137.2 cm) (photograph 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) (photograph Paul Salveson)
Gary Simmons: Skinny Ice continues at Hauser & Wirth (134 Wooster Avenue, Soho, Manhattan) by way of January 11. The exhibition was organized by the gallery and the artist.
