Crockery Heaven
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
If the souls of crockery and tchochkes are destined for divine judgement then a well-behaved tea platter, ornament or china centerpiece equivalent of dying and going to heaven would be to end up in a sculpture by Joan Bankemper. “Sojourn” currently on display at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea, would be a crockery Elysian Field. Plate Purgatory, according to a similar theology, might be a 1980s painting by Julian Schnabel where offending articles are smashed and splattered with paint. But in Ms. Bankemper, the pristine kitsch of each piece is preserved while the juxtaposition with accumulated fellows in an exuberant hierarchy amounts to a glorious sum greater than its individual parts. Until February 19 at 520 West 27th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, 212 966 6676
Mr Cohen, who is Publisher/Editor of artcritical.com, is art critic at the New York Sun
