`THE NEW YORKER`

July 20, 1992 Goings On About Town/ART pg. 10 Upstairs, at Postmasters' "Morality Cafe" (80 Greene St.; through July 25), Erik Oppenheim's impeccably good manners have given way to the boiling temperament more closely associated with the art world of the early seventies. In this show about "ethical decision-making processes," John Lekay chose to exhibit, under his own name, works he owns by his artist friends, and to install Oppenheim in person as a dealer. Curator Kenny Schachter and the gallery later objected to the nature and scale of the piece, and to the presence of Oppenheim. Lekay in turn charged them with trying to interfere with his artistic process. Hell broke loose when Schachter insisted that Lekay contain his piece in the space that had been allotted him. With Oppenheim's encouragement, Lekay went into a frenzy (which he later likened to the artistic furies of Pollock), destroyed his installation and most of the art within it, and insisted that the debris remain as his part of the show. Postmasters agreed, on the condition that the artist not enter the gallery again. Lekay has added lengthy statements to the remains of the installation "by proxy," and the whole situation overshadows everything else on display. What at first sounds like the artist's adolescent inability to recognize the boundaries between self and world-a notion supported by Lekay's Duchampian appropriation of his friends' art-ends up reading more like a deliberate act of provocation intended to challenge the very basis of the exhibition. At the "Morality Cafe," coffee and lemonade are served. By ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN| installation | slide sheet | press release | checklist | reviews | mail us | home |