{"id":60618,"date":"2019-05-22T21:15:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T01:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=60618"},"modified":"2019-05-24T11:05:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T15:05:37","slug":"review-there-were-high-hopes-for-the-leonard-cohen-exhibit-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/05\/22\/review-there-were-high-hopes-for-the-leonard-cohen-exhibit-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW | There Were High Hopes For The Leonard Cohen Exhibit In New York"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cLeonard
\u201cLeonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything,\u201d through Sept. 8 at the Jewish Museum in New York. (Old Ideas\/The Jewish Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 To call Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything <\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201ca contemporary art exhibition,\u201d \u2014 as the Jewish Museum in New York does\u00a0 \u2014 is to suggest new ways of understanding Cohen\u2019s very old soul have been found. Well, it doesn\u2019t happen, maybe because this was mission impossible from the first.<\/p>\n

This is not to diminish the work by a dozen top drawer artists.\u00a0 <\/span>It does a good job of that on its own.\u00a0 Check out the cover<\/a> of\u00a0The New York Times, from November 11<\/i>, (2016) where Donald Trump\u2019s imminent electoral triumph is juxtaposed with news of Cohen\u2019s Nov. 7, 2016 death. This is not just irony over-load: it\u2019s missing the point \u2014 whatever it is \u2014 by miles.<\/p>\n

While making your way to pieces such as The Poetry Machine<\/i> (2017) by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller \u2014 wherein a poem from Cohen\u2019s Book of Longing<\/i> is spewed forth with each organ key pressed \u2014 you ease your way through a velvety gloom into various smaller rooms found over three floors, which were once lived in by the internationally connected Warburg family back in the day. Now gloom prevails, Cohen country, the more the merciless.<\/p>\n

I really like the Jewish Museum. It\u2019s proof you don\u2019t have to be big in the art business to be good. It\u2019s been more quick-witted and sure-footed than its much bigger rivals along New York\u2019s Museum Mile. Yet over the years, I\u2019ve felt that, perhaps in responding to its pedigree, many of its shows were couched in a certain curatorial circumspection. This time around real, physical couches, with comfy throw pillows have added considerably to the show\u2019s salubrious vibe. On the day of my recent visit, many museum visitors were sprawling on floors in one darkened space after another giving the entire experience the ambience of an up-scale Frat House party at Montreal\u2019s McGill University in the \u201860s and \u201870s, Cohen\u2019s early glory days.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cLeonard
\u201cLeonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything\u201d (Old Ideas\/The Jewish Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actually, this is not <\/i>beside the point, it may well be the point itself.\u00a0 <\/span>Anything about, or from Cohen is best understood from the voluptuary\u2019s point of view, particularly when it happens in the dark. \u201cSerious has a kind of voluptuous aspect to it,\u201d he once wrote. (\u201cThe light\u201d only gets in a bit, as if through a crack, sings Cohen in \u201cAnthem,\u201d hence the title.) Joni Mitchell famously dismissed him as a \u201cboudoir poet.\u201d Her intention was anything but complimentary \u2014 she also used the word \u201cplagiarist\u201d to describe Bob Dylan \u2014 but she was right about the sort of setting where Cohen\u2019s work does its best work on the rest of us. The voluptuousness at the show is boudoir-like, compressed and frilly. (Note to Ms. Mitchell: As a borrower, Dylan has nothing on Bach or Picasso.)<\/p>\n

Dylan is inevitably drawn into any discussion on Cohen although unfortunately not in A Crack In Everything.<\/i> And Dylan\u2019s voice is missed. He would have been harder and better on Cohen than any of the dewy-eyed artists. The two met over the years and discussed songwriting. (The gist of it: what took Cohen years to do cost Dylan less than an hour.) I can imagine them as Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot<\/i> or, in an American context, to Tod and Buz in Route 66. <\/i>Maybe they could have revived Bing Crosby and Bob Hope\u2019s Road To<\/i> pictures. Anyway, there were always parallels as the two were aware. Whatever else has resulted, Dylan\u2019s structural analysis of Cohen\u2019s craft is the best there is and would have given a bit of needed grit here.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the mansion plays an unstated role.\u00a0 <\/span>Built-in 1906 in the French high frou-frou Renaissance manner, it was donated in 1944 to the Jewish Theological Seminary. It\u2019s a reminder of Cohen\u2019s own roots in Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Jewish establishment where his\u00a0<\/span>grandfather Lyon, co-founder of Canadian Jewish Congress, began the Freedman clothing company which was later run by his father, Nathan. Cohen\u2019s own compass always pointed to Montr\u00e9al, where he could renew his \u201cneurotic affiliations,\u201d as he once said and to where he was flown to be buried in the family plot.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cLeonard
Leonard Cohen: a dapper, doleful, ironic, gracious, anxious, reclusive, theatrical, seductive Jewish Canadian troubadour. (Old Ideas\/The Jewish Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leonard Cohen – Une Br\u00e8che en Toute Chose<\/i>, a more extended original edition at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art contemporain de Montr\u00e9al (MAC) until closing April 9 last year, occupied one vast gallery without the spatial \u201cconstraints\u201d in \u2018what is an aristocratic mansion on Fifth Ave,\u201d says co-curator John Zeppetelli, MAC\u2019s director and chief curator. \u201cEven so, it was the first time they (the Jewish Museum) loosened up so much space.\u201d<\/p>\n

With co-curator Victor Shiffman, Zeppetelli turned the museum\u2019s multiple spatial intimacies to their advantage, \u201cfor a concentrated environment,\u201d he went on, \u201cperfect for people who read complex novels but don\u2019t go complex art installations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complexity of these installations might well be questioned. Admittedly, I didn\u2019t stay the entire time required by the projection compiled by editor Alexandre Perreault\u2019s of 220 Cohen self-portrait drawings, while I did hang around for most of the entire well-chosen line-up of 18 musicians in Listening to Leonard<\/i> (2017) for their Cohen cover versions. So, to recap: two lists of accomplishments.\u00a0 <\/span>I did go to Ari Folman\u2019s Depression Chamber<\/i> (2017), where you\u2019re alone in a gloomy room \u2013 what else? \u2013 while listening to Cohen\u2019s \u201cFamous Blue Raincoat\u201d as the lyrics are projected on the wall. A woman just came out as I poked my head in then to remember there was art elsewhere needing my more immediate attention. Anthony Perkins did his attic scene in Psycho <\/i>better than I could.<\/p>\n

\"A
Candice Breitz\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Your Man (A Portrait of Leonard Cohen),\u201d 2017. (Guy L\u2019Heureux\/Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art contemporain de Montr\u00e9al)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Crack In Everything <\/i>fits nicely in the modern museology\u2019s audience-friendly connections made with pop music, like Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock \u2018N Roll<\/i> at the Metropolitan Museum a block or so away. (to Oct.1) But the Jewish Museum show suggests the missed-potentials of other artistic parallels, starting with Noel Coward or maybe Gilbert (\u201cNe Me Quite Pas\u201d) B\u00e9caud. Like them, he wore his world-weariness like a formally fitted evening wear. For those who shared his life and times, Cohen, like Coward, will always remain a presence beyond his music.<\/p>\n

Art-wise though, the chart-topper in A Crack In Everything \u2014<\/i>\u00a0visually, musically and conceptually \u2014 is South African artist Candice Breitz\u2019s group\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>18 older male Cohen fans singing, \u201cI\u2019m Your Man,\u201d each version backed by members of the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, from Cohen own Montr\u00e9al congregation. Foe the visitor it works this way: The backing, a capella choir confronts you in the first of two darken rooms doing the backing vocals for the soloists you meet in the second darkened room.<\/p>\n

In truth, Cohen had double his share of glory days.\u00a0 <\/span>The first \u2014 the young moody poet turned youngish moody songwriter \u201870s period \u2014 was in fact a tune-up for the second, where he emerged following the \u201890s as a world-weary aesthete with a chip on the shoulder of his famous blue raincoat.<\/p>\n

\"Self
Self Portrait (Leonard Cohen Family Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We met a few times as this metamorphosis was upon him but, still, I best remember what didn\u2019t<\/i> change, the way his inherent playfulness would add wattage to his eyes when meeting women. It\u2019s there in one of many video clips used in A Crack In Everything<\/i>, when he tells a female TV host he\u2019s thinking of getting a tattoo.<\/p>\n

Where?\u00a0 <\/span>she asked provocatively. Oh, at a little shop he knows downtown Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n

The evident distress of Cohen\u2019s latter years, where he had to stay on a tour going into his 80s,\u00a0 <\/span>although not ignored, is left for another time, for, I guess, another venue in another medium.\u00a0 <\/span>By then his world-weariness, like his suit, was the real thing. But then, hey, he always knew where to do for a good tailor and a tattoo.<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/span>,<\/i><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Instagram<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To call Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything a contemporary art exhibition is to suggest new ways of understanding Cohen\u2019s very old soul have been found. Well, it doesn\u2019t happen, maybe because this was mission impossible from the first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":60628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,4967,36,52],"tags":[1940,29323],"yst_prominent_words":[12997,29308,29313,29312,29311,29299,29320,29319,29318,9956,29300,29305,29309,12841,29306,29307,29310,7059,29322,29321],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LEANARD-COHEN-EXHIBIT-2019.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-fLI","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60618"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60782,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60618\/revisions\/60782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60618"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=60618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}