Alexis Smith - Hardcover

As much a collage as her work, Smith presents herself and her art as a melange of popular culture of the 1940s and 1950s stirred with a heavy dose of Hollywood's dream images. Mixtures of words and objects make up the drawings, murals, and installations shown in this traveling exhibition seen first at the Whitney Museum this winter and currently appearing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Part symbolism, part conceptualism, perhaps, but the art seems less witty than clever, less creative than contrived, and the artist as brittle as the images. Along with the essay by Armstrong, the work contains a fictional biography, a patchwork of myth and jargon, an exhibition history, and a lengthy bibliography. As an example of self-promotion, this probably belongs on the shelves along with many other catalogs of a similar genre. However, it is by no means an essential purchase in times of budgetary cuts.
- Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
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