- This boat made of blown-up gloves sprayed silver is by Yayoi Kusama, who also created the great big, bright, five-panel painting behind it. These pieces are just a small part of the Kusama show-within-a-show at SAM. You should really go and see it.
The transformation is called Elles: SAMâSingular Works by Seminal Women Artists*, and it will last through January 13. One floor up, there's also Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris, more than 130 photographs, videos, sculptures, paintings, and installations made by 75 women artists between 1907 and 2007. No other American museum will get this show. And neither SAM nor Seattle intend to squander this momentâthis show from Paris has occasioned the only time since its founding in 1933 that the museum has ever done anything like this.
- This beheaded, bearded womanâa real person set out for display at a Paris museum, photographed by the artist Zoe Leonard and part of Ellesâwatches over visitors to SAM.
To start simply: What does it mean to stuff the concerns of half the population into one-quarter of one year? There's the distinct feeling that we'd better get all the girl business out of the way right now, or else we will miss our chance. SAM, which is run almost entirely by female administrators, has good intentions. But you know what they say about those.
*In the review, I was pressed for space. But here on the internet, I can add that, yes, the use of the word "seminal" in SAM's title is weird.
More photographs from the show on the jump, and with the review.