Review by Joanne Hinkel

"ANNE DAEMS: Parsley and Pearls" at Nicole Klagsburn Gallery, New York, NY

Ahh, to be young and beautiful in New York City. Is there anything more divine?

Whereas Nan Goldin captures the gritty, dark underground of New York's young and beautiful, Anne Daems focuses brightly on fresh-faced girls and boys as they glide unaware across the Manhattan streetscape. As the success of Gossip Girl, pricey designer boutiques on the LES, and last year's death of CBGB all attest -- it is this young, beautiful, and decidedly RICH Manhattan that has beat out Goldin's version.

Daems, from Belgium, took these photographs while in a residency here in New York in '05. The several photos on view are from the series 72 girls (and some boys) that could be models (available in book form on Amazon). Capturing the boys and girls as they are en route and unaware they are being followed/watched/photographed -- we don't see faces really, more backs, side profiles, flowing hair, and impatient postures -- she immortalizes a fleeting, unmemorable moment as memorable. There is a rich legacy of voyeuristic photography in New York of course, which starts with Evans and will probably never end. My Googling the topic "subway photographs New York" brought me to this very cool website: here.

Daems' interest in examining that which goes unnoticed carries over to the color-test scribble drawings that have been reworked as large-scale prints. These, shown in conjunction with her photographs, are a strong contrast -- in their sparse quietness, full of blank space, and intermittent color scribbles -- to the could-be models that give the city a quicker heartbeat.

Jolie-Pitt Twins Bring In Big Bread

One of the biggest news stories this week, of course, is that Angelina and Brad sold their baby photos for $14 mil (to People magazine and a British mag), which is the highest amount ever paid for celebrity photographs.

What I don't understand is why people are so desperate to see these pics. Weird. I have no doubt that the babies are absolutely adorable, but they're newborns. They are going to look like newborns -- which is to say like any other baby.

The ever-humanitarian Jolie-Pitts will donate the millions from the sale of the photographs to a charity that focuses on helping children around the world which helps to counter-balance the annoying factor of this whole thing. (Though, a friend of mine recently told me that most of these celebrity charities never really get off the ground, but who I am to say any more on that when I don't really know the facts...)

After reading about all this -- it was the main headline on Yahoo! when I logged in -- I also learned that Jolie got pregnant by in vitro. Apparently the two "couldn't wait" to have more babies and this way they could get knocked up immediately without having "to try to get pregnant."

Why can't they wait? Why do they need so many babies?

At the rate these two are going they may give that 44-year-old woman in Canada who just gave birth to her 18th child a run for her money.

One caveat, though, is that Jolie might have to let go of her sex appeal if she has 14 kids (see pic above).

What Does "Art Not Babies" Mean?

That's simply the title I made up for this blog.

Why?

Well, there are three main reasons, really:

1.) I am a 32-year-old married, educated woman living in New York who is more interested in talking about art than about babies.

2.) I am pointing out that there is overwhelmingly more coverage about celebrities having babies in the media than there is about art or artists.

3.) When this generation of babies grow up, I can guarantee that they will wish that their parents talked more about art than about babies -- and I am using "babies" as a metaphor for all the silly obsessions with celebrities, gossip, TV, in place of serious thoughts.

For each day that I write on this blog there will be two types of posts:

• One having to do with an art experience I have in New York -- a review of a gallery or museum exhibit or public art work, or an interview or interaction with an artist -- or a reaction to art I see online;

• One having to do with that day's big news story about a baby or babies.

--Joanne
"Art Not Babies"