Armory Show 2001: Death and Melancholy in New York Galleries

The 2001 Armory Show in New York, held February 22-26, was marked by a melancholic atmosphere, with snow falling on the Hudson River during the vernissage. Despite excitement over works like Andreas Gursky at Matthew Marks, Ugo Rondinone's installation at Matthew Marks in association with Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, Doug Aitken's light box at 303 Gallery, and Rodney Graham at Lisson Gallery and Donald Young, a sense of gravity prevailed. At Soho, Paul McCarthy's opening at the New Museum drew a half-hour wait, alongside Martin Kerssels. Key works included Jeff Wall's "The Flooded Grave" at Marian Goodman, depicting a waterlogged grave with starfish, sea urchins, and shells, evoking Freud's "uncanny" and Robert Gober's earlier work. Rosemarie Trockel's "Manu's Spleen" at Barbara Gladstone featured watercolors and videos, including a scene of three androgynous figures in a cemetery. Isaac Julien's "Trussed" at Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert's "Enduring Love" explored love and death between a skinhead and a black man. Sarah Rapson's video "Cathcart Hill" at Cohan Leslie and Browne showed a mother and child at Tate Modern, shot in black-and-white like French New Wave, with a Hitchcockian narrative. Other notable works included Ugo Rondinone's sad clown at the Armory Show, Rodney Graham's nostalgic pioneer America, Douglas Gordon at Gagosian, and pieces by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jack Pierson, Roni Horn, Francis Alÿs, and Katy Schimert.