Wonderful Snowflake Site

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Snowflakes for all of you flakes out there...

Exreme Geometry: Sarah Morris@Petzel Gallery

Looking forward to seeing this show of extreme geometric paintings currently on view at Friedrich Petzel Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Oon view until March 17, 2007.

Artists Talk: Whitney@Altria

So I went to this 'artists talk' last night at the Whitney Museum @ Altria.
Here are my impressions:
First of all, the show is spectacular: not to be missed. Each artist contributed to the overall effect which gives evidence to a new aesthetic based on obsessive/compulsive construction, found objects, re-purposeing refuse and an idiosyncratic approach combined in thought-provoking and visually stunning ways.
For this, I salute the artists Diana Cooper, Charles Goldman, Jason Rogenes, Jane South and Phoebe Washburn, the curator and all involved.
That said, here are my thoughts on the 'talk'.

1. This is 2007, please don't use a slide projector from last century in a show concerned with technology... please. "Next slide, please...next slide please..."
2. Learn how to speak into a microphone (rehearse, if you have to!).
3. If you plan to show projected images, please place the screen where it can be seen.

This may sound like a rant but this was the most unprofessional event I have attended in recent memory and I had to excuse myself in the middle because:
I couldn't hear the artists speak (faulty microphone? no rehearsal?),
I couldn't see the artists (they could have been on a platform or even in the raised section of the Altria space),
I couldn't see the slides,
and finally, these artists had very little to say other than drop names of grants, residencies, schools and other self-serving trivia that added little at all to the experience of the work on view.

All that being said, the show itself is a gem.

Burgeoning Geometries - Mon February 19, 2007

Planning to see this talk:
As part of The Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria’s Artists on Art series, artists from our current exhibit, Burgeoning Geometries, are scheduled to speak on Monday, February 19 at 6:30pm.

Artists Diana Cooper, Charles Goldman, Jason Rogenes, Jane South and Phoebe Washburn will discuss their work in conjunction with the exhibition, Burgeoning Geometries.

Glitter and Doom: Last Chance

Last Chance (closes on February 19, 2007) to see this exquisite jewel of a show. This exhibit evokes the spirit of Joel Grey in Cabaret and the Weill-Brecht Weimer Republic in all of its' decadence; a mesmerizing detailed depiciton of the demi-monde .

Sonja, 1928
Christian Schad

Brice Marden@MoMA : Last Chance to See It

Went to see the Brice Marden retrospective@MoMA a few days ago and I was reminded how different a paintings looks ‘in the flesh’ as opposed to a reproduction of it. Brice Marden’s paintings (more than most) suffer from the inability of a reproductive process to capture the nuance, the surface quality and the subtle transparencies and incidents that are the real subject of his art. The intense looking that is required of his images does not travel well to the small-format printed page. On the web, these paintings look like cartoons.
I must say that the earliest monochrome paintings literally pale next to the later, richer and denser images. These paintings sing with color and light and the sure hand and eye of a master painter in his prime.
*Thanks to simpleposie from Toronto for this photo.

Albers / Moholy Nagy @ The Whitney Museum: *****

These works alone are worth the trek to the 'uptown bunker for difficult art'!

Painting - Timeline Index

Painting - Timeline IndexI've posted this once before but the point is that there are more and more excellent online resources for the student of art history. Are there any art history students still out there?

Van Gogh and Expressionism from Art Daily.Com

Top:
Vincent van Gogh, The Yellow House (The Street), 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Stichting).
Bottom:
Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau Street with Women, 1908. Private collection, Courtesy Neue Galerie New York.
In keeping with the recent trend for exhibits that link an artist and a related movement or area of art historical relevance (“Picasso and American Art @The Whitney”, Soutine and Modern Art @ Cheim & Reid last spring), along comes another winner: Van Gogh and Expressionism scheduled to come to the Neue Gallery in NYC this spring. I have been amazed at the sort of neon colors and nineteen-sixties flavor acheived by Kandinsky in the first decade of the last century!






Artdaily.com - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Frank Gehry IAC Model / Building

From concept to execution, the new Frank Gehry building for Interactive Corp (IAC) on the West side of Manhattan is almost finished.

If you are a Frank Gehry fan, check out the "Frank Gehry Sketches" DVD.

Real 'Turkey Art'

This is the real deal. Good to see that ceramics is alive and well in Turkey.

Bad Turkey Art

I can’t believe it, but there are still teachers making ‘Turkey Art’ out there.
I hate to be negative on this Thanksgiving Day, but please...

"Using a white piece of paper and crayons, trace around one hand of the child. Enclose the space left by the wrist and add legs. Draw wattle, beak, and eyes on the thumb (head). Color the feathers (fingers)"

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

El Greco to Picasso@Guggenheim

Picasso Bullfight Mash up! This image is based one a painting now appearing at the Guggenheim. I have yet to see this show but it promises to be a stunner. El Greco, Velasquez, Zurbaran, Goya, Miro, Dali, Picasso: who could ask for more?

Jennifer Steinkamp @ Lehman Maupin, Chelsea until 11/25

Looks like an interesting show, thanks to Modern Art Obsession for pointing this out.

The panoramic The Wreck of the Dumaru is a site-specific installation encompassing every wall of the first room of the gallery. The work references her great uncle who became delirious and died at sea during World War I. Steinkamp portrays a forceful sea in hallucinogenic colors rising from the gallery floor. A languid blue acts as a tranquil background while the slow moving, yet dynamic waves rise and fall. Reaching extraordinary heights, the waves are disorienting as they crash and crest around the gallery.

Brian Eno: 77 Million Paintings!

Yes, 77 Million Paintings!! No two alike! Brought to you by Brian Eno, formerly known for his music. I happened to be listening to Steve Reich's Drumming Part 1 while viewing this web page which definitely enhanced the whole experience.

What to See in NYC: Brice Marden @ MoMA

Brice Marden / Pablo Picasso
Interesting comparison, n'est-ce pas? Everything comes from Picasso in NYC right now. The Brice Marden show @MoMA looks to be an eye-opener. The Picasso pictured above is on sale this week @ Sotheby's.
Don't forget the Picasso and American Art @ the Whitney. A must-see.

Frank Gehry's InterActive Corp

NYC's first Gehry Building is nearing completion. Several more (including the much-delayed Nets Stadium in Brooklyn) are in the planning stages.

See more photos of IAC@brianrose.com

Cézanne to Picasso exhibit@the Met

Cézanne to Picasso exhibit@the Met showcases the usual suspects in all their splendor: a great opportunity to see Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cézanne alongside their progeny: The early Matisse, Vlaminck and Picasso. This exhibit serves as a mini-primer of Post-Impressionism (sans Seurat), Fauvism (sans Derain) and even Cubism (sans Braque). For the missing pieces trek to the Met's modern galleries one flight down.





Sean Sculley@ The Met:

"The works in “Sean Scully: Wall of Light” are paintings of imagined walls made of rectangular blocks. Inspired by the light Scully saw on the stones of Mexican pyramids, the series is an exercise in repetition and variation. But it is also a push backward and forward at the same time.

Scully, 60, was born in Ireland, raised in England and began his career as a figurative painter. But he became interested in the work of Mark Rothko and moved to the United States, where he is now a citizen. Inspired by Rothko’s spiritual abstractions, Scully became an abstract painter who clearly acknowledges his debt to those who came before him."

http://www.sheldonartgallery.org/about/news.html?topic=details&news_id=132



Read More:
-from an earlier exhibit of Sean Scully paintings:
http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/scully.html

NY Times Review of Sean Scully at The Met

Dylan@The Morgan Library

O. K. So I went to the Morgan Library, ostensibly to see the Bob Dylan show (somewhat of a bore, to tell the truth) but I was most impressed by the new addition designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano.
The space was bright and modern but not cold and austere like the new MoMA. The warmth was due in large effect to the use of an indoor tree, ample sky lights and light-colored wide planked wood flooring throughout.

Jeweled bookcover of the Lindau Gospels
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=62
The enameling technique know as 'champleve' in this exquisitely be-jewelled binding was impressive in the new gallery which is essentially a jewel box within the larger space.

"Basse Taille: French for “low cut.” A technique in which a pattern is created in the metal backing before enameling.

Champleve: French for “raised field” or “raised plain.” A technique in which enamel is inlaid into depressions in the metal, leaving metal exposed. The depressions are typically made by an etching process, although other methods exist. First done in the 3rd century AD by the Celts decorating their shields, this technique has been one of the favorite forms of enameling."

Art of Fine Enameling

Cimabue@ The Frick

Looks like another stunning exhibit at The Frick.
Mirror images of two extremely rare paintings by the early Italian master, Cimabue. Shown here to emphasis the formal clarity and compositional elegance to best effect.