That never-ending canvas,
That unforgettable splash,
That splash on the edge,
When the edge is created,
The canvas ends and the edge is never-ending!
Detail, Number 1A, Jackson Pollock,
Showing posts with label Fine Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fine Arts. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Anti-Hitler but not Anti-Totalitarian!
Weekly Art Quotes:
"The Bauhaus was anti-Hitler but not anti-totalitarian (including the new techtronic totality)." (George Cohen on 1940s Chicago art scene, October 11, 1969, in Dubuffet and the Anticulture, exhibition Catalog, 1970.)
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Mondrian Is an Outgrowth of Vermeer
Weekly Art Quotes:
"In the complexity of the modern art, in the wide and diverse background of causes and origins it is fatal to look merely on the surface for cause, but to go back to the arts of the primitive cultures classic constructions and even national traditions -- for it is apparent that Mondrian is an outgrowth of Vermeer and the Flemish tradition, as Matisse is the French tradition, while Picasso draws directly and freely on the Spanish, French, African and classic cultures." (From Twombly's statement in his travel fund application in 1952.)
"If my work seems difficult to someone not familiar with the present trends in painting, it is nonetheless sincere and dedicated in its intellectual honesty." (From Twombly's application for the Catherwood Foundation Fellowship in 1956.)
"In the complexity of the modern art, in the wide and diverse background of causes and origins it is fatal to look merely on the surface for cause, but to go back to the arts of the primitive cultures classic constructions and even national traditions -- for it is apparent that Mondrian is an outgrowth of Vermeer and the Flemish tradition, as Matisse is the French tradition, while Picasso draws directly and freely on the Spanish, French, African and classic cultures." (From Twombly's statement in his travel fund application in 1952.)
"If my work seems difficult to someone not familiar with the present trends in painting, it is nonetheless sincere and dedicated in its intellectual honesty." (From Twombly's application for the Catherwood Foundation Fellowship in 1956.)
Friday, July 01, 2011
Pausing on History
"There was nothing else to do but work seriously and devotedly, struggle for food, see friends quietly, and look forward to freedom."* I was reading Frances Morris's Paris Post War, Art and Existentialism 1945-55 that I arrived at this quotation by Picasso. I paused. I had to. How could I miss the historical similarities between what we are going through today and the historical accounts of WWII.
Today, not so far from Europe, in Syria, Egypt, Libya, China, Iran, and in many other countries under oppressive totalitarian regimes, artists, intellectuals, thinkers, people, are under similar conditions. Our contemporary experiences of working under oppression is similar and yet different from what Picasso described in 1940s. It is different for the simple fact that today we have access to the accounts of WWII and the postwar era. Today we can allow ourselves to be more hopeful in our fight against oppression.
Picasso was among a few artists who did not leave Europe during the dark years of the Second World War. His descriptions, poetic or factual, unique or collective, have recorded an experience of a sensitive mind, a mind worthy of remembering. For us too, There is nothing else to do, but to work seriously... and look forward to freedom!
*Picasso, The Recent Years: 1939-1946, H. and S. Janis, p.4
Today, not so far from Europe, in Syria, Egypt, Libya, China, Iran, and in many other countries under oppressive totalitarian regimes, artists, intellectuals, thinkers, people, are under similar conditions. Our contemporary experiences of working under oppression is similar and yet different from what Picasso described in 1940s. It is different for the simple fact that today we have access to the accounts of WWII and the postwar era. Today we can allow ourselves to be more hopeful in our fight against oppression.
Picasso was among a few artists who did not leave Europe during the dark years of the Second World War. His descriptions, poetic or factual, unique or collective, have recorded an experience of a sensitive mind, a mind worthy of remembering. For us too, There is nothing else to do, but to work seriously... and look forward to freedom!
*Picasso, The Recent Years: 1939-1946, H. and S. Janis, p.4
Monday, May 09, 2011
Gravediggers of the Present!
In his text, On the Advantage & Disadvantage of History for Life, (1874) Nietzsche addressed the task of human existence, what he called, the task of living, in appropriation of history or better say in the relationship between life and historical knowledge. The quest for truth is also part of the task of existing. The values of this quest for the truth, like any other human related task, is intertwined with the nature of human existence. Now the question is what if some knowledge, some truth, proves harmful and deadly? What if in regard to some truth we are faced with this dilemma; know the truth and die or live and continue in error. Nietzsche recognized this dilemma and argued that given the choice between life and knowledge/truth there is no question about which we ought to choose; any knowledge which destroys life destroys itself, for knowledge presupposes life.
From the same text I have somewhat of a long excerpt, which I strongly recommend you to read. What interests me in this text is the complicated position that man has in regard to the truth(s); it is not as simple as the representation of many thinkers before and after Nietzsche on the matter.
"All acting requires forgetting, as not only light but also darkness is required for life by all organisms. A man who wants to feel everything historically would resemble someone forced to refrain from sleeping, or an animal expected to live only from ruminating and ever repeated ruminating. So: it is possible to live with almost no memories, even to live happily as the animal* shows; but without forgetting it is quiet impossible to live at all. Or to say it more simply yet: there is a degree of insomnia, of rumination, of historical sense which injures every living thing and finally destroys it, be it a man, a people, or a culture.
To determine this degree, and through it the limit beyond which the past must be forgotten if it is not to become the gravedigger of the present, one would have to know precisely how great the plastic power of a man, a people or a culture is. I mean the power distinctively to grow out of itself, transforming and assimilating everything past and alien, to heal wounds, replace what is lost and reshape broken forms out of itself. There are men who have this power to so small a degree that they will incurably bleed to death over a single experience, a single pain, frequently over a single delicate injustice, as from a quite a small bleeding laceration. On the other hand there are those who are affected so little by the wildest and most gruesome calamities of life and even by their own malicious acts, that in midst of them or shortly thereafter they achieve a tolerable degree of well being and a kind of clear conscience.* [...] What such a nature* cannot master, is how to forget; it no longer exists, the horizon is closed and whole, and nothing can serve as a reminder that beyond this horizon there remain men, passions, doctrines and purposes. And this is a general law: every living thing can become healthy, strong and fruitful only with in a horizon; if it is incapable of drawing a horizon around itself or, on the other hand, too selfish to restrict its vision to the limits of the horizon drawn by another, it will wither away feebly or over-hastily to its early demise.
Cheerfulness, clear conscious, the carefree deed, faith in the future, all this depends, in the case of an individual as well as of people, on there being a line which distinguishes what is clear and in full view from the dark and unilluminable; it depends on one's being able to forget at the right time as well as to remember at the right time; on discerning with strong instinctual feelings when there is need to experience historically and when unhistorically. Precisely this is the position the reader is invited to consider: the unhistorical and historical are equally necessary for the health of an individual, a people, and a culture."*
* Light and dark being a metaphor for remembering and forgetting.
*Animals not having the sense of history (past, and future.)
* Please note that in this argument Nietzsche is not praising "a kind of clear conscience." Nietzsche has been misinterpreted many times by his future readers, and some times these misinterpretations resulted in horrible events.
*Those who are affected little by wildest calamities of life.
*Translated by Peter Preuss, 1980.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Daily Austin Happenings ...
South by Southwest is here in Austin. I have not gone to any of the events yet; for some reason I have not even passed through the downtown area in the past week. Of course my distance from SXSW has not discouraged me from blogging about it. Well, Austin has become weirder because of it and that makes me a non-participant fan. Aside from SXSW Austin is welcoming spring by little purple and white blossoms.
The sad art history news this week was the death of Leo Steinberg. He was a great art historian who was considered one of the three "Kings of Culturberg" along with Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. His print collection (3200) is held at the Blanton Museum of Art under his name. Here is more on Steinberg.
Tonight is Chaharshanbe Suri. Traditionally Iranians celebrate Chaharshanbeh Suri on the last Tuesday night of the year by lighting bonfires. Like the past years, this Chaharshanbeh Suri provided yet another resistance opportunity for people in Iran. I salute their courage and wish us all a Green Charshanbe Suir.
Leo SteinbergWednesday, February 23, 2011
Austin: Two Museums, Two Exhibitions
Are you looking for some visual stimulation in Austin? Great, there are two exhibitions to see this month. Visit the Blanton Museum of Art for Recovering Beauty: The 1990s in Buenos Aires and Austin Museum of Art for New Art in Austin: 15 to Watch. Recovering Beauty is on view from February 20 to May 22 and 15 to Watch will be on view from February 26 to May 22.
Benito Laren, Buscando precios (Searching for Prices), 1991
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Missing Monsieur Dubuffet!
This is my exam semester; I have to pass four exams and I am not looking forward to them at all. The reading load for each is so brutal that I get to spend very little time on my own work with Monsieur Dubuffet. Today I have noticed that I had surrounded myself with the black and white copies of his paintings. He is everywhere; on the fridge, on my desk, on my laptops' screens, I have even used paper copies of his paintings as book marker here and there. I think it is clear; I miss him!
Jean Dubuffet photographed by Arnold Newman, 1956Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Thingness
"What in truth is the thing, so far as it is a thing? When we inquire in this way, our aim is to come to know the thing-being (thingness) of the thing. The point is to discover the thingly character of the thing. To this end we have to be acquainted with the sphere to which all those entities belong which we have long called by the name of the thing." (Heidegger, Martin, "The Origin of the Work of Art", 1935 Based on a Public Lecture, in Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell, section: Thing and Work p.146, )
Heidegger's Writing & the Thingness of Reading itAustin, December 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
SLSA 2010
Attending the 24th Annual Conference of the SLSA, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. It is cold here in Indianapolis; besides the cold, the art panels are lively and crowded. I am presenting on Jean Dubuffet, Materialized Perception: Cubism of Material in Jean Dubuffet's Table Series in 1950s.
Clotted Table, Jean Dubuffet, 1951, Oil on Masonite Saturday, September 18, 2010
Not an Artist but a Man of the World!
"I ask you to understand the word artist in a very restricted sense, and man of the world in a very broad one. By the second I mean a man of the whole world, a man who understands the world and the mysterious and lawful reasons for all its uses; by the first, a specialist, a man wedded to his palette like the serf to the soil. [...] Apart from one or two exceptions whom I need not name, it must be admitted that the majority of artists are no more than highly skilled animals, pure artisans, village intellects, cottage brains. Their conversations, which is necessarily limited to the narrowest of circles, becomes very quickly unbearable to the man of the world, to the spiritual citizen of the universe." (Charles Baudelaire in the Painter of Modern Life, 1858-9 Translated by J. Mayne. pp.6-7)
In the memory of Hannibal Alkhas who passed away a few days ago at the age of 80 and whom I heard once saying, "I would never wait for 'Lady Inspiration'*to mysteriously come to me through an open window, the life around me is what I need the most." (Hannibal Alkhas in a family gathering in 2000, Tehran.) For more check here and here.
*The word for artistic inspiration in Farsi is Elham, which is also a feminine name. Mr. Alkhas played with the duality of Elham and ironically hinted on the historical use of female models in arts.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Balance, Purity, Serenity
"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art which might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue." - Henri Matisse, Notes d'un Peintre, La Grande Revue, 1908.
Seated Nude, Viewed from Behind,Henri Matisse, 1913,
Crayon transfer lithograph.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
2010 FIFA World Cup: Artsy!
Art:
I am not sure how exactly Dubuffet became a pleasant companion to me, but he did. I don't even notice the time when I am with him. Dubuffet is not the first to propose that art should be clear of all accepted aesthetic conventions, but I think he is the most compelling in his proposal. He did not find art in use of beautiful color or creation of pleasing forms. Art was not for the eyes’ enjoyment. For Dubuffet “art addressed itself to the mind, and not to the eyes.”
2010 FIFA World Cup:
The sunny days of June in Austin are more vibrant due to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am following the games as much as I can. I am always for England and then unfortunately England doesn’t come up very high, so after England is eliminated I am forced to follow other teams. To me soccer is more of a human performance than a sport. Looking at it as a performance, I generally am not for the robotic play of Germany or supreme superstar soccer culture of teams like Italy or Argentina. And let’s hope for once England will play better in its next match.
On another matter yet soccer related, I hope I am not the only one who enjoys FIFA World Cup commercial/cultural advertisements much more than other TV advertisements, Let’s say Super Bowl TV ads for example. FIFA is Artsy!
Miscellaneous:
For Persian Cultural Center newsletter, Peyk, I began a short series on the modern art movements of the twentieth century. The introduction article to the series, “Modernity & Art: Modernism,” is now available as a pdf on the English section of Peyk here. (No. 127, May & June 2010)
I am not sure how exactly Dubuffet became a pleasant companion to me, but he did. I don't even notice the time when I am with him. Dubuffet is not the first to propose that art should be clear of all accepted aesthetic conventions, but I think he is the most compelling in his proposal. He did not find art in use of beautiful color or creation of pleasing forms. Art was not for the eyes’ enjoyment. For Dubuffet “art addressed itself to the mind, and not to the eyes.”
2010 FIFA World Cup:
The sunny days of June in Austin are more vibrant due to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am following the games as much as I can. I am always for England and then unfortunately England doesn’t come up very high, so after England is eliminated I am forced to follow other teams. To me soccer is more of a human performance than a sport. Looking at it as a performance, I generally am not for the robotic play of Germany or supreme superstar soccer culture of teams like Italy or Argentina. And let’s hope for once England will play better in its next match.
On another matter yet soccer related, I hope I am not the only one who enjoys FIFA World Cup commercial/cultural advertisements much more than other TV advertisements, Let’s say Super Bowl TV ads for example. FIFA is Artsy!
Miscellaneous:
For Persian Cultural Center newsletter, Peyk, I began a short series on the modern art movements of the twentieth century. The introduction article to the series, “Modernity & Art: Modernism,” is now available as a pdf on the English section of Peyk here. (No. 127, May & June 2010)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Greenhill Symposium & Other Things!
Inspired by the Elenor Greenhill Art History Symposium, which was held today at the Art Building at UT, I decided to share my art exploration plans here. This is basically a list of art exhibitions that I would like to see in the coming weeks in Austin.
In its "New Works" section, the Austin Museum of Art has Luke Savisky on view through May 9th. In his light installation Savisky uses film and digital projections to converse a light pose on the white wall of the galley. I like to see if this light projection, which sounds like an abstract dancing pose on the wall, will transform the space. I am interested in the transformation of the space. So I will walk into this show with an active expectation!
Desire will be on view through April 25, at the Blanton Museum of Art. Desire presents explorations on the concept of 'desire' by different artists in various mediums. Also at the Blanton, there is Manuel Álvarez Bravo and His Contemporaries, a photography show. The photographs are selected from the Harry Ransom Center photo archive and the Blanton museum collection. The show will be on view until the end of July.
Women and Their Work is featuring Kathryn Kelley’s work through April 15th. Kelley transforms urban waste and makes art installations: “treading where no one hears the echo of her foot fall.” I have been always interested in this process of art making, when the borderline between everyday life and art is minimized via a creative transformation. I did some work on Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, whose works are different in the medium but similar in the concept. My recent piece on Nobel and Webster was published in the English section of Peyk 125: Turning Garbage to Art; Shadow Sculptures by Tim Noble and Sue Webster.
And tomorrow I am going to the opening of Alison Kuo’s exhibition at the SOFA gallery.
I have been so busy with the school that I missed a bunch of good shows in Austin. So I thought if I do not make a public claim on some gallery trips, I would miss more exhibitions. Voilà !
In its "New Works" section, the Austin Museum of Art has Luke Savisky on view through May 9th. In his light installation Savisky uses film and digital projections to converse a light pose on the white wall of the galley. I like to see if this light projection, which sounds like an abstract dancing pose on the wall, will transform the space. I am interested in the transformation of the space. So I will walk into this show with an active expectation!
Desire will be on view through April 25, at the Blanton Museum of Art. Desire presents explorations on the concept of 'desire' by different artists in various mediums. Also at the Blanton, there is Manuel Álvarez Bravo and His Contemporaries, a photography show. The photographs are selected from the Harry Ransom Center photo archive and the Blanton museum collection. The show will be on view until the end of July.
Women and Their Work is featuring Kathryn Kelley’s work through April 15th. Kelley transforms urban waste and makes art installations: “treading where no one hears the echo of her foot fall.” I have been always interested in this process of art making, when the borderline between everyday life and art is minimized via a creative transformation. I did some work on Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, whose works are different in the medium but similar in the concept. My recent piece on Nobel and Webster was published in the English section of Peyk 125: Turning Garbage to Art; Shadow Sculptures by Tim Noble and Sue Webster.
And tomorrow I am going to the opening of Alison Kuo’s exhibition at the SOFA gallery.
I have been so busy with the school that I missed a bunch of good shows in Austin. So I thought if I do not make a public claim on some gallery trips, I would miss more exhibitions. Voilà !
Detail of treading where no one hears the echo of her foot fall by Kathryn Kelley
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Voices in Green!
Voices In Green
Creative Practices in Response to the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election
February 19 – March 5 2010
FAB Galley
Join us for the closing gathering of Voices in Green, Friday March 5th at 6:30PM,
Take a last look at Voices in Green.
Please join us for the closing gathering of Voices in Green on Friday March 5th at 6:30PM in the FAB gallery, located on the lower level of the Doty Fine Arts Building. There will be a review and a gallery talk followed by Q&A. After the closing discussion on March 5th, Voices in Green will continue to celebrate at the Dog and Duck Pub . Voices in Green is an archival exhibition focusing on art and activism around the Iranian Green Movement. These works were created after the crisis of the 2009 Iranian presidential election and all of them were distributed online.
© Rauch Design, photo Green Bird
Related Links:
Department of Art and Art History: Closing reception for Voices in Green exhibition at FAB Gallery
February 19 – March 5 2010
FAB Galley
Join us for the closing gathering of Voices in Green, Friday March 5th at 6:30PM,
Take a last look at Voices in Green.
Please join us for the closing gathering of Voices in Green on Friday March 5th at 6:30PM in the FAB gallery, located on the lower level of the Doty Fine Arts Building. There will be a review and a gallery talk followed by Q&A. After the closing discussion on March 5th, Voices in Green will continue to celebrate at the Dog and Duck Pub . Voices in Green is an archival exhibition focusing on art and activism around the Iranian Green Movement. These works were created after the crisis of the 2009 Iranian presidential election and all of them were distributed online.
© Rauch Design, photo Green BirdRelated Links:
Department of Art and Art History: Closing reception for Voices in Green exhibition at FAB Gallery
Friday, February 19, 2010
Take a Green Look at:
Voices In Green
Creative Practices in Response to the 2009 Iranian Presidential Election
February 19 – March 5 2010
February 19 – March 5 2010
FAB Gallery
Please join us for the opening of Voices in Green in the FAB Gallery on February 19th at 5PM.
Voices in Green is an archival exhibition focusing on art and activism around the Iranian Green Movement. These works were created after the crisis of the 2009 Iranian presidential election and all of them were distributed online. Voices in Green will be on view from February 19th to March 5th in the FAB gallery, located on the lower level of the Doty Fine Arts Building.
© Andrea RauchVoices In Green
Saturday, February 13, 2010
CAA 2010: 2nd Glance
Chicago is not getting warmer, but it has not been as cold as expected. Daily panels and discussions, museum and gallery visits during lunchtime and afternoon breaks, and evening drinks is a good précis of my 4 days of CAA 2010 Conference in Chicago. Other than the usual art historian’s snobbishness and some hyper-intellectual-after-session discussions there is nothing much to gossip about. The most crowded and well-discussed panel so far has been Intention and Interpretation part I. (part II will be this afternoon)
I miss Zeitoon. I just hope to return to Austin soon. I will have a very exciting week ahead with the installation of Voices in Green, the archival exhibition that I am curating.
I miss Zeitoon. I just hope to return to Austin soon. I will have a very exciting week ahead with the installation of Voices in Green, the archival exhibition that I am curating.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Scattered on CAA2010
In Chicago. It snows. Tired of airports. My mind is freezing. Missing my chubby cat.
Just picked up my conference badge. I feel sheepish wearing the badge around my neck; wish there were ID pins.
Already marked the session I am interested in; my list is much shorter than last year. Tomorrow I would like to check out two morning panels: Post-Duchamp, Post Production (Media in Art Theory and Pedagogy) and Future of Criticism. In the afternoon, I will check the open session on Surrealism and one talk on the Modernism & Collectivism panel.
Like always there are some sessions starting at 7:30AM and like always I feel bad for their organizers. In the middle of the winter, in Chicago, at 7:30AM; not everyone is staying at the conference hotel!
I look forward to meeting Professor H. It is a year since I’ve seen her last. Have lots of things to tell her; many sad things on Iran and some progressive professional news.
Just picked up my conference badge. I feel sheepish wearing the badge around my neck; wish there were ID pins.
Already marked the session I am interested in; my list is much shorter than last year. Tomorrow I would like to check out two morning panels: Post-Duchamp, Post Production (Media in Art Theory and Pedagogy) and Future of Criticism. In the afternoon, I will check the open session on Surrealism and one talk on the Modernism & Collectivism panel.
Like always there are some sessions starting at 7:30AM and like always I feel bad for their organizers. In the middle of the winter, in Chicago, at 7:30AM; not everyone is staying at the conference hotel!
I look forward to meeting Professor H. It is a year since I’ve seen her last. Have lots of things to tell her; many sad things on Iran and some progressive professional news.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Not A Fish Fossil!
The semester is over. Maybe I should say its ‘demanding part’ is over, for the work of a grad student is never-ending. These days I am mostly working on my exhibition project. It is very exciting and I hope it engages the viewer with the same excitement. Unlike the show project, my study on Dubuffet goes slowly. Dubuffet’s writings are very poetic and full of short witty segments. Take a look at a couple of them in adoration of lively, dynamic and unconventional art:
A Fish Fossil
As its timeliness retreats, a human work becomes what a fish fossil is to a fish. Please don’t hold it against me, but in my fish tank I prefer the humblest, the commonest, of ablets,* so long as it’s alive (and delirious to be alive), to the most illustrious fish fossil.
Necrophobia
A man asks for a companion, and he is brought the mummy of Thais. The most gorgeous woman in ancient Egypt, he is told. She doesn’t interest him he would rather have a live girl; the maid, for instance.**
Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire
It’s funny to note how much the artists of today*** worry about the durability of their works. Things have gone so far that artists are denying themselves all bright and dazzling colors, because these colors might eventually tarnish. These ones prefer to paint in dull hues right away. Does the intoxication involved in art harmonize with such inhibitions? Many painters fully cognizant of the reason, work hard at bland but durable pieces rather than at more pleasurable ones, which they fear will last only ten years instead of fifty.****
Woman Trying on a Hat' (1943), by Jean Dubuffet
* Ablet is a small fresh-water fish.
** It is ironic that a couple of days ago the news of Louvre returning five fresco fragments to Egypt came out.
*** Dubuffet wrote these around 1945. I am wondering how much of it (importance of the durability of an art piece) is true for the artists of today – our today, the 3rd millennium today?
**** Dubuffet’s paintings in the 40s have vivid colors. Later, in the 50s his work becomes thick and monochromic, but he never used fade colors. (The quotes are from: Dubuffet, Jean, Notes for the Well-Read, trans. Neugroschel, 1945, in Jean Dubuffet Towards an Alternative Reality, Pace Publications inc., NY, 1987.)
A Fish Fossil
As its timeliness retreats, a human work becomes what a fish fossil is to a fish. Please don’t hold it against me, but in my fish tank I prefer the humblest, the commonest, of ablets,* so long as it’s alive (and delirious to be alive), to the most illustrious fish fossil.
Necrophobia
A man asks for a companion, and he is brought the mummy of Thais. The most gorgeous woman in ancient Egypt, he is told. She doesn’t interest him he would rather have a live girl; the maid, for instance.**
Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire
It’s funny to note how much the artists of today*** worry about the durability of their works. Things have gone so far that artists are denying themselves all bright and dazzling colors, because these colors might eventually tarnish. These ones prefer to paint in dull hues right away. Does the intoxication involved in art harmonize with such inhibitions? Many painters fully cognizant of the reason, work hard at bland but durable pieces rather than at more pleasurable ones, which they fear will last only ten years instead of fifty.****
Woman Trying on a Hat' (1943), by Jean Dubuffet* Ablet is a small fresh-water fish.
** It is ironic that a couple of days ago the news of Louvre returning five fresco fragments to Egypt came out.
*** Dubuffet wrote these around 1945. I am wondering how much of it (importance of the durability of an art piece) is true for the artists of today – our today, the 3rd millennium today?
**** Dubuffet’s paintings in the 40s have vivid colors. Later, in the 50s his work becomes thick and monochromic, but he never used fade colors. (The quotes are from: Dubuffet, Jean, Notes for the Well-Read, trans. Neugroschel, 1945, in Jean Dubuffet Towards an Alternative Reality, Pace Publications inc., NY, 1987.)
Friday, November 06, 2009
What is going on in Austin?
Art History-wise this is an energetic November:
Today is the first day of the Transnational Latin American Art Conference (the 1st International Research Forum for Graduate Students and Emerging Scholars.) It will be a 3-day conference with concentration of talks and panels on Saturday and Sunday. The papers will cover the trio continental connections in Latin American art (US, Europe, Latin America.)
Domestic-wise there is not so much energy left after too many energy-sucking issues; Zeitoon, my fat ginger cat, having heart problem was the breaking point of them all.
Domestic-wise there is not so much energy left after too many energy-sucking issues; Zeitoon, my fat ginger cat, having heart problem was the breaking point of them all.
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