According to New Gallery Shows, Polaroids, Blogs, and Fonts Are Now Considered Art

Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935

Twenty years before Helvetica, slick typeface was still the domain of the hip. Radical Eastern European designers, artists and writers in the first half of the 20th century latched onto bold graphic fonts and geometric forms to announce their ideas about new aesthetics and social change. In Graphic Modernism from the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910-1935, the New York Public Library has gathered an impressive collection of paper materials, including books, book jackets, periodicals and posters, that illustrate trends in the new graphic vocabulary. It’s remarkable how well these ephemera stand the test of time—if it weren’t for the Soviet-era color palette, you might think you just stumbled into the MoMA design store.

Andre Kertesz

Should Polaroid photographs be taken seriously? They seem more like the kind of thing that the artsy girl across the hall had plastered all over her wall freshman year, not something that real artists use. But Andre Kertesz’s pictures, which are currently on display at Silverstein Photography, are unlike any Polaroid snapshots you’ve seen before. Familiar objects—a rocking chair, a vase—are recorded in crisp focus, softened by atmospheric yellow and blue light that has an almost liquid quality. The images, which include flashes of sunny corners and dusky apartment windows, evoke the rhythm of a quiet Sunday afternoon. In fact, the delicate little photographs function almost like memories in their unassuming integration of daily clutter and more abstract shapes. In one shot Kertesz shows a window sill on which a flower rests in a brandy glass. The simple scene takes on a remarkable intricacy when you notice that the city skyline—blurry through the window—has been reflected in perfect focus by curved glass.

Laurel ptak

Once again, the blogosphere proves its democratizing power. Graphic designer Laurel Ptak was bored at her day job when she started the Web site www.iheartphotograph.com, casually showcasing the work of unpublished photographers she found interesting. The Web site’s growing popularity has attracted some real-world gallery owners and goers, and this week Ptak’s non-virtual curatorial debut will take place at Higher Pictures. Ptak has quirky, fun taste, leaning towards photos with bright colors and bold shapes. Some shots are even overlaid with Microsoft-Paint-style scrawl. Collage is a popular theme too, incorporating cut-and-pasted, pastiched magazine images. Technically, you have to wait until Monday to see the show in person, but the Web site gives a pretty good approximation of the collection. Could blogger curating finally end the Soho/Chelsea/LES debate?