The Irrevocability of Nature, Mark Kostabi

In Tales of Two Americas, Annie Dillard’s poem “Soup Kitchen” encourages anyone feeling helpless or discouraged to relieve their despair by serving others. Jim Goldberg’s photograph of an impoverished family also finds optimism amidst difficulty, as the woman depicted notes that her family may be poor but they care deeply about one another. Mark Kostabi’s drawing similarly supports Dillard’s message of self-care through serving others.

Exhibition Label: "NetWorks: Art and Artists from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection," Mar-2011, Susan Earle, Stephen Goddard, and SMA Interns Mark Kostabi was an active participant in the East Village art scene during the mid- 1980s, and his drawings and paintings share an affinity with the graffiti-inspired works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Unlike his peers, Kostabi also worked on cultivating his public persona by publishing self-interviews that offered commentary on the commodification of art. Kostabi’s interest in confronting the issues that plagued contemporary society, such as alienation, materialism, artistic ambition, and the pressure to produce for the sake of production, informed his choice of subject matter and subsequent artistic practice. In 1988 the artist opened “Kostabi’s World,” a large studio in SoHo that employed painting assistants and “idea people.” Tipping his hat to Duchamp, Kostabi “made” his art through the act of signing the paintings conceived of and executed by others. The early figural drawings on view predate the more “conceptual” work later produced by Kostabi’s studio.