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Small wonders: Menil-organized Richard Serra drawing exhibit dazzles New York

Richard Serra, "Untitled," 1971, private collection, © Richard Serra
Photo by Savage
Richard Serra, "Untitled," 1972, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, giftof John Coplans, © Richard Serra
Richard Serra, "Untitled," 1972–1973, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;purchase with funds from Susan Morse Hilles, © Richard Serra
Photo by Sheldan C. Collins
Richard Serra, "Untitled," 1973, collection of Mary and Harold Zlot, © RichardSerra
Photo by Ben Blackwell
Richard Serra, "Notebook: Saqqara Pyramid, Egypt," 1990, collection of theartist, © Richard Serra
Photo by Rob McKeever

Minimalist artist Richard Serra's monumental rusted steel sculptures can be found in museums and public plazas worldwide. The imposing works draw strong opinions from the audiences they engulf (sometimes quite literally — a rigger was crushed to death in the early '70s during an installation). Leave it to the Menil Collection to mine the artist's lesser-known drawings and private sketchbooks in a landmark exhibition currently on view at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The show, which travels to the Menil in March 2012, has drawn wide praise from the New York art community, most notably in a New York Times article by chief critic Roberta Smith. Writes Smith of the exhibition,

Laying out Mr. Serra's drawing career with unfamiliar thoroughness, it barrels through 40 years of his adamantine engagement with the medium with a sweep that manages to encompass aspects of latter-day Abstract Expressionism while presaging today's sociable relational-aesthetics art . . . It is not quite like anything seen at the Met before: genuinely radical, physically unsettling art installed with a reasonable degree of effectiveness. It proclaims this august institution's commitment to recent art with an encouraging forcefulness."

The exhibition represents the first retrospective of drawings by the American artist, tracing 40 years of his pursuit of drawing as an independent form, yet still linked to sculptural practice. Through the 50 works on display, viewers can trace Serra's evolution from the traditional drawing media of ink and charcoal to dramatic black paintstick (a combination of pigment, oil and wax). The resulting drawings from the mid-'70s reflect an "emotional urge" that may be harder to detect in Serra's more widely-known monumental sculptures. Indeed, he considered the black in his drawings not mere color, but a material with its own weight strongly influenced by gravity.

Whereas institutions on both coasts may be reluctant to recognize the nation's mainland art powerhouses, the Menil is getting credit where credit is due for the retrospective. Smith quotes Menil curator Michelle White, "His drawings 'are not about something, they are something.'"

The Wall Street Journal, which has increased its cultural coverage as of late, is also moved by the Menil's effort. In her WSJ review, Ellen Gamerman praises the show for its variety: "The black paintstick that Richard Serra uses in his drawings rarely produces the same effect: It can thicken like asphalt, pucker delicately like lace or pour down paper like a sheet of rain."

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective will be on view at the Menil Collection March 2 through June 10, 2012. To watch an interview with Richard Serra about his drawings on Charlie Rose, click here.

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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