Post #313162 by donhonyc on Fri, Jun 15, 2007 10:25 PM

Don't know if any of you have heard of this new exhibit at The Whitney, but I saw it today and was blown away by not all, but some of the work they had included. For the most part this exhibit says what it is: Psychedelic Art from the late 60s, not really more, not really less. So most of what you are probably already visualizing, ie., Fillmore era concert posters, underground art and magazines, and just overall memorabilia from that time were in abundance. Not such a bad thing if you're a fan of that stuff like I am. At the same time it's a little 'been there, done that', and you could probably get alot of it on Ebay, but still fun to see under glass. On the other hand, there were some significantly amazing examples of light and sound environments from that time that one would never be able to see anywhere. Stuff we've all heard of but never got to experience first hand, that is..if you were too young then. The Whitney had all of these set up as dark rooms that you could actually walk into and see original light show designs in their original form. Yes, there was the stereotypical 'liquid light' which was cool, but there were also some profoundly hypnotic light, color, and shape..um...'meditations'..if you will, that were really F'in cool. There was even a small room that had nothing but silver mylar on the walls and strobe lights. That description doesn't do it justice, but trust me it was pretty goddamned trippy. And again these installments were all original as conceived by the artists of the era not some lame-ass Hard Rock Cafe style reproduction. Those were the most impressive parts of the show, and it made me wish there were more places that I could go to that carry that psyched-out art installation tradition, but alas those days are LONG gone.

With all of that said, I was a little dissapointed but not surprised at a couple of reviews that I read of the show from The New York Times and New York Magazine. Overall the critics of both publications more or less panned the show, offended at how The Whitney, THE WHITNEY, should stoop so low as to consider of all things HIPPIE CONCERT POSTERS worthy of adorning the walls of this institution of HIGHER art! They were also complaining that the show didn't pay any attention to alot of the political and social issues of the time. And I say: It wasn't that kind of show, it was all about TRIPPED OUT ART from the era. Period. So I don't know what the hell they were talking about.

This all may not sound very Tiki-esque, but I bring it up because in some ways this period suffers the same criticism that Tiki does: to some it's just LOW-ART kitsch and not really worthy of any sort of significant attention or any REAL place in popular culture. ESPECIALLY the hippy stuff, because at this point that era has been reduced to nothing but phoney Dead Heads and bad Austin Powers jokes. This drives me a little nuts because (and I know I have talked about this before) I think unfortunately "The 60s" have been so played-out and over nostalgized that it's hard for many to actually see that there was some substantial art...yes ART, that came out of that time. All of that trippy 'rose colored glasses' criticism is true too. But if this stuff was so bad, it would have been gone and forgotten by now. This is all about art, music, installations, whatever that were created mostly by people in their 20's fachrissakes 40 years ago and it's still being talked about today! Ahem....40 years from now are we going to be talking about anything people in their 20s now 'created'. Paris Hilton anybody?? Anyway...what does this all mean? I don't know, but if I can sit in a dark room and look at some crazy film loop of psychedelic light and color that was made in 1968-69 by a drug taking DIY underground hippie filmmaker, and have it 'penetrate my soul', than that is frickin cool with me and the critics be damned! So if any of you are in NYC now through September 16, check it out. Don't be fooled by the stereotypical dopey name of the show. "The Summer of Love"..please they could have come up with something better. Besides, the show is about the art from 1965-1970 not just 1967. Anyway..Try it-u might like it.