Artist as Curator

"Deep Comedy" (curated by Dan Graham) at Marian Goodman Gallery, through July 30

Don’t let the title fool you. “Deep Comedy,” which first appeared at Ballroom, a nonprofit gallery in Marfa, Texas, is neither funny nor especially deep. But it does have its charms and is perhaps most compelling for exploring commonalities among artists in curator Dan Graham’s milieu. Most of the participants in the show — who include John Baldessari, Rodney Graham, Allan Ruppersberg, Michael Smith, and William Wegman — came of age, like Graham, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and all share a predilection for self-deprecating, deadpan humor. This is perhaps best articulated, surprisingly, by Vija Celmins’s "Pan" (1964), an early realist painting depicting what appears to be a waffle iron as it begins to smoke. But for a true laugh-out-loud experience, don’t miss Christian Jankowski’s "The Matrix Effect" (2000), a video using children to impersonate artists such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Glenn Ligon, and Baldessari, each spouting emotional truisms about their work.

At left: Installation view of "Deep Comedy" at Marian Goodman Gallery

Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery