Dykes! Tutus! Off-ramps! The Guggenheim Mounts a Catherine Opie Retrospective
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/art/dykes-tutus-off-ramps-the-guggenheim-mounts-a-catherine-opie-retrospective/ (http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-08/art/dykes-tutus-off-ramps-the-guggenheim-mounts-a-catherine-opie-retrospective/)
107/2008
It's notoriously difficult to mount a show in Frank Lloyd Wright's
Guggenheim. Catherine Opie has been spared the usual Trial by Rotunda,
however—or the gladiatorial Wright vs. artist bout—by having her
mid-career survey parceled into the wings off the main spiral and
spread over four floors.
This fractured presentation would be disastrous for some artists, but
it kind of works for Opie. Rather than building a chronological
narrative about the artist's evolution, the curators have used the
layout to highlight her varied output and build a thesis supporting
the show's cunning title, "Catherine Opie: American Photographer."
(After all, what's an American photographer? Or, more broadly, an
American?)