The Chicago Artists Coalition Review
June 2005

The Scourge of Second City Syndrome
By Claire Wolf Krantz

Although my dual roles as artist and critic enhance each other, I choose to separate them in practice to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest. However, my reflections as an artist on the general curatorial practices at the MCA are particularly relevant to the spring exhibit there, “Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye.” These curatorial practices are entrenched in city-wide visual-arts institutions that promote their own agendas rather than the culture of art in Chicago. I think that this situation is unfortunate for everyone.

The following personal incident is neither about my personal pique nor criticizing the curator, but is illustrative of the problems that virtually all but a handful of Chicago artists face in this city. The MCA exhibit deals with ideas regarding “the art, history, and culture of places, spaces, and identities from the point of view of the tourist.” This is a subject that I have been exploring in my artwork for at least 15 years, since I began living for extended periods of time in foreign places. Staci Boris, a curator at the MCA, told curator Francesco Bonami about my work and my interest in the subject.  At Stacis suggestion, and knowing that he was curating this show, I sent Bonami an email asking him to look at what I have been doing. He emailed me back, saying that Staci had talked to him and that he would contact me at an appropriate time. Needless to say, Bonami never contacted me: he did not discuss my work with me, nor did he ever look at it—in an exhibit or in my studio.

As has been the experience of most Chicago artists, the MCA’s curatorial practices affect the city’s artists in similar ways, particularly those in mid career. With rare exceptions, the curators do not look at local artists’ work, either by visiting shows or studios. They are not interested in issues generated in Chicago, unless they are directly tied to concerns formed elsewhere. Their token support for very young artists in the monthly “12 x 12: New Artists/New Work” exhibits amounts to building a farm team for other cities: these artists know they will not get further support here, so they move away and enhance the art scene elsewhere.

My experiences living in other cities indicate that this need not be the case. I just returned from South Africa, where I investigated the art scene there, reporting on its various aspects for both American and South African publications. South African collectors and institutions have the self-confidence to support their artists. Their money, exhibitions, and publicity do not go to supporting foreign shows, foreign artists, or foreign issues. With very little governmental support for the arts, corporate and private institutions as well as museums encourage wealthy collectors to provide the funds to promote local production. They believe, rightly, that examining local interests and local methods of production—by means of competitions, exhibitions, collecting, financial support, and an active public press—will encourage the most compelling and creative work to be made.

The resulting dialogue has proved to be interesting, and often relevant, globally. Since the official advent of democracy in 1994, when apartheid collapsed and the cultural boycott ended, this support for the arts has paid off. Exhibits of South African art take place all over the world. Issues pertinent to local work are being discussed globally. International museums and collectors are buying it. Tourists are discovering cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg. It has brought financial support to the arts and the local economies, and broadcast the social and political changes that are occurring there. The South Africans are defining issues that are being paid attention to elsewhere, rather than being passive followers of those introduced by supposedly more important art centers. Thus, the support of South African institutions for their local artists has, in only ten years, put that art scene on the map.

In Chicago, the mayor’s office is doing its best to publicize Chicago as an interesting place to visit. Local architecture, theater, and music are publicized and are attracting attention. Where are Chicago’s visual arts? Chicago is not a second city. Only Chicago’s major institutions, like the MCA, think so.

Claire Wolf Krantz is an artist, freelance critic, and guest curator.
As an artist she works in a combination of painting and photography as well as digitally created images.