"Art Gallery Shows to See in December" by Martha Schwendener

Tribeca

Ragnar Kjartansson   Through Dec. 20. Luhring Augustine Tribeca, 17 White Street

The power of postcards may be waning in the age of the internet, but their historical significance is indisputable. The photographer Walker Evans collected 9,000 postcards and often rephotographed their locations.

In “Sunday Without Love” at Luhring Augustine, the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson has recreated in video, complete with a tune adapted from a German comedic song, a postcard attached to his refrigerator featuring a kitschy pastoral scene.

Absurd but absorbing, “Sunday Without Love” reprises an approach Kjartansson used in an earlier video of the band the National playing their song “Sorrow” repeatedly for six hours. Here, the video lasts 19 minutes, but it gives you ample time to contemplate the wry futility of life and perhaps the decline of Europe — or admire the commitment of the artist and the young actors who remain perfectly frozen in their poses for the duration of the video.

Read full article at nytimes.com