VOELZ CHANDLER: Lens focuses on artist view

Published October 27, 2007 at midnight

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Judy Pfaff burns segments of her complicated collaged images as a way to assuage her grief over the loss of several people she loves.

Alfredo Jaar uses materials as diverse as slides and flowers to speak out against genocide and repression.

Ursula von Rydingsvard cuts and chisels huge planks of cedar to create sculptural pieces that are part textural feast and part homage to the spiritual qualities of Earth.

This fall these artists move out of the studio and onto television, in Art:21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century. The series, which begins Sunday, offers studio and site visits, as well as interviews that reveal how 17 noted artists think, work and respond to the world around them.

Visual art - especially in the realm of the contemporary - is a rare beast on TV, so the fourth edition of Art:21 has spawned numerous public gallery screenings designed to gather the faithful around a celebratory aesthetic hearth.

But those tied to the tube at home may find solitary viewing just as rewarding. The series' curator, Susan Sollins, this time out has divided Art:21 into segments on romance, protest, ecology and paradox, though in some cases the artists chosen for explication of one concept may slide over into others.

Take Robert Adams, the photographer who rose to prominence while living in Colorado and photographing the banality of development in a state that prides itself on its natural beauty. Now living in Oregon, Adams is shown photographing the coastline and water he loves.

In Art:21, Adams is part of Ecology, the third segment. But it could be argued that Adams' unsparing views of the environment also fit into either protest or romance, considering the palpable concern his images demonstrate for the land, as well as his love for beauty in all forms.

But that is the curator's choice - and Sollins made some tough ones here - in terms of organizing so many personalities, mediums and styles into segments that emerge as an extremely short hour.

After viewing three segments, a few things become apparent. First, that Sollins selected artists who are quite articulate in their ability to explain how they work and why they do what they do; that's not always the case.

Also, she lets artist and art take center stage, with narrative in their words alone. There are no talking heads or experts, and no questions, just answers. Biographical information is inserted in various ways, but doesn't drag down the individual stories.

And the work environments are as varied as the art forms; Art:21 never feels trapped by the isolation of the studio.

But the clock obviously is ticking if you are trying to cram four stories into one hour. In the piece on Lari Pittman, in the Romance segment, the artist talks about how various forms in one of his paintings serve as the nouns, and others as the adjectives. What's missing, he says of the work in progress, is the verb.

Unfortunately, we never see that concluding element, that completion of thought in the work in question. That's too bad. A verb is the driver, and it's missing here.

Art:21

Art in the Twenty-First Century

? What: Four new segments (Romance, Protest, Ecology and Paradox) in the biennial PBS series on contemporary art

? When and where: First episode 10 p.m. Sunday, with the next three at the same time on successive Sundays

? Of note: A companion Art:21 volume is available.

? Grade: A-

Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

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