Timothy Greenfield-Sanders at Mary Boone By Edward Leffingwell Timothy Greenfield-Sanders's project Art World papered Mary Boone's tony Fifth Avenue salon with a social registry representing 20 years of who knows how many black-and-white portraits of the milieu's rogues and royals. In this oddly compelling show, Greenfield-Sanders seemed to consider celebrity portraiture as a legitimate and enduring artistic pursuit, his thoughts turning, surely, to Warhol, Nadar and other practitioners of the sport. Unmediated by frames, the 26-by-20-inch portraits, which demonstrate the quality of image made possible by use of the large-format view camera, were taped cheek by jowl and wall to wall, from floor to ceiling. The entire selection of more than 700 images (sold only as an ensemble) goes for $300,000, in a very limited edition of two, plus two artist proofs. By the show's closing, most of the sets had found the homes they undoubtedly deserve. In their relatively generic similarity--they are mug shots of a certain order--Greenfield-Sanders's portraits leave little room for those vivifying photographic details that enrich and expand the viewing experience. In the absence of such attractions, the viewer looked for other ways to survey the field. There were lots of portraits of people in white T-shirts: Willem de Kooning (at least three times), also Emily Spiegel, Bruce Ferguson, Ross Bleckner, Julian Schnabel and R.M. Fischer, all from the early '80s; Keith Haring shows up midpoint in the decade, and later Mike and Doug Starn. There were portraits in the manner of George Hurrell's glowing Hollywood publicity evocations of glamour, Holly Solomon gazing over her shoulder (1984), rakish Manuel Gonzales (1993), steamy Rhonda Zwillinger (1985), patrician Ileana Sonnabend (1986) and lovely Mary Boone (1986). These studio moments whispered the transient chic of a leopard-print tie (Gonzales) and fingerless gloves (Zwillinger), capturing a modish instant. To these trophies Greenfield-Sanders added Emily Fisher Landau (1992), as though lit from within, Jack Lane (1993), smart and resolutely Wall Street in double-breasted pinstripes, Damian Loeb (1998) unzipped in a hooded sweatshirt, and a severe, almost unrecognizable Alanna Heiss (1983) tarted up in a dominatrix fantasy of leather jacket and Anna Wintour bob. There were various kinds of pairings: Robert Rosenblum (1982) and his wife, Jane Kaplowitz (1999), George with Gilbert (1987) and the de Koonings of Long Island (both 1980). An image of Rene Ricard (1982), soigne in bared-torso profile, happened to hang next to Edit De Ak, also glam with huge costume jewelry and those signature bangs (1981), the way they were. Next to David Sylvester (1990) was his daughter, Cecily Brown (1998), and a meditative or perhaps just sleepy Brooks Adams (1982) was near Raphaelesque Lisa Liebmann (1988), eyes gazing upward to heaven knows where; they married in the '90s. What were they all thinking? Greenfield-Sanders doesn't ask and doesn't tell.

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Art in America