Friday, February 19, 1988

Glossies,1980. Inks and watercolors on paper, with self-adhesive plastic laminating film. Allan McCollum Annina Nosei Gallery Julian Pretto Gallery John Weber Gallery ith three concurrent exhibitions on view, this is the time to make up your mind about the art of Allan McCollum, one of the early perpetrators of the crisp, optically-seductive, Neo-Conceptual art object that is currently so prevalent. Through his own repetitious over-production, Mr. McCollum questions art's relentless proliferation. By it's very nature, his work suggests that the unique art object is at best an illusion, and that the supply of art invariably rises to meet the demand. At the Nosei Gallery, Mr. McCollum's "Surrogates" — small plaster stand-ins for paintings that he has made since the late 70's— line the walls. There are on view more than 1,700 of these blank framed surfaces, painted in an array of Mediterranean, monochrome hues and each as interesting as the next. At Julian Pretto, there are Mr. McCollum's early 1980's drawings, called "Glossies." These consist of little drawings — totally black surfaces with white borders — that could be, in a sense, surrogates for the surrogate paintings. Arranged in multiples on larger boards and under glass, they look like miniaturized pictures at an exhibition — in particular, the show at Nosei. They also bear an eerie resemblance to blackened-out Polaroids, while the vagaries of their blacks suggest vagaries of the night sky. Over 10,000 Individual Works (detail) At John Weber, a veritable blue sea of tiny sculptures spreads from the front to the back of the gallery. There are over 10,000 of these "Individual Works," as the artist calls them. They are all painted aqua blue, and they lie cheek to jowl on a table that measures 7 feet across and 66 feet long. Cast aggregates of various small things — bottle lids, plumbing fittings and heaven knows what else — these objects resemble toys, perfume bottles and hand grenades. The wall label tells us that each of them is unique, a dazzling and initially incredible fact. While Mr. McCollum's art is primarily an art of ideas or even a form of criticism, it has to be made to be understood, just as it has to be seen to be believed. The fact that the artist carries out his strategies with such impeccable precision is always breathtaking. It is fortunate that his art is is not the only kind being made and shown these days. Nonetheless, Mr. McCollum's work inevitably unleashes a number of issues, even if the art world doesn't always want to think about them. —Roberta Smith