I spent the weekend at my brothers wedding in the outskirts of Albany New York this weekend (Congrats again Marty and Kate). Martin (ANABA) and I had been speaking about getting together and he was going to take me to see Second House, well long story short it rained all day Saturday (my only day that was available) and Martin and I missed each other, so I missed out. But not really. Catherine and I drove all over Rensaeller getting to know the area and did a little bit of poking around.

What we saw was the one of the reasons (I think) why RP has decided to move here.

Source material. The whole area has a whole slew of material that is just ripe for RP, this area has the older things that are still there - in a shape that is still interesting enough to use (conceptually or physically). Literally the bones were sticking out of the graveyard.

Labels: New York, Richard Prince

Nicolai Ouroussoff, writing for the New York Times, gives you a quick tour of the new Acropolis Museum. This sounds like it will be worth the wait. Unsurprisingly it also makes a case for returning the Elgin marbles. I'm always torn when it comes to the return on antiquities, although maybe the british and greeks need to figure out a deal of some sort here. I have no idea what that would be.

In the New York Times Magazine, David Giffels has a great story about a Ramones T-shirt and fatherhood. This is a better story than what I just wrote to describe it, please trust me on this. You just have to believe that a ripped Ramones T-shirt (not ripped "Flashdance-style") is always better than a non-ripped one. But, what do the kids think?

The Washington Post touches base with a review of the current show at the American Visionary Museum. I find "outsider art" interesting, I do however have a problem when the artists have a satellite dish in the backyard. I mean how "outsider" is that? The show does look interesting, It runs through August, I'll probably see it in January - let's talk then.

W Magazine has it's art issue this month. It's a fun read, especially for the stories about damaging and repairing art.

Labels: Fontana Mix

Morris Louis produced a startling amount of work in the short span of time that was his life. Between 1954 - 1962 Louis produced more than 600 artworks in what was for it's time a stunning new direction. This direction has become known as "Color-Field Painting".

The theory is that Color-Field Painting is based on two general components; color and field. There are a few lesser ideas as well, one of which is working away from any kind of figure-ground relationship, and it is heavily weighted on the shoulders of Clement Greenberg. Greenberg's raise was the championing of the Abstract Expressionists and Color-Field Painting was his second act.

In the past few years, Greenberg has fallen from critical favor and the group of artists that are pulled down with him are the Color-Field artists. It has become clear to me that Color-Field Painting needs to be looked at through a different lens if it is going to regain any footing in the history of art as a whole (I'm talking group of artists not individuals). The fact is, that Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis have created some amazing paintings (as have Olitski, Gilliam, Noland, and Davis to name a few) however what struck me about Louis's painting in this show was the incredible amount of process that is right at the surface of these artworks, combine the obvious links between Color-Field Painting and what would become known as minimalism and you have a serious mix of artworks to be looked at through a very different lens than that of "Greenbergian" doctrine. I think this is the reason these paintings stay at the forefront of art, while the "movement" as a whole is kind of a sinking ship. At the end of the day, color-field or other reductive strategies are still being used to make artworks. Hence the serious need to develop a new way of looking and thinking about these artists.

Which brings me back to the Morris Louis show, Two works in particular stood out to me, Dalet Tet, 1959, an amazing amount of work in creating this canvas - with so many pours developing into a rich velvet like black with color pours dancing underneath. This was the first piece that I saw of Louis's that made me think and visually explore more about the process of his artwork. The second piece Beth Chet, 1958, with it's array of browns and umbers, this image stands out for me as much for it's difference to the other works, as well as it's use of semi-architectural elements. (sorry, no images were available)

This is the first museum show of Louis's work in 20 years. The show, although a little on the short side is still a very strong show if for no other reason than it is time to start critically reassessing a pivotal time in abstract image making. Highly Recommended.

Morris Louis Now
An American Master Revisited at the Hirshhorn Sept 20 - January 6

Image at top: Morris Louis, Number 99, 1959-1960
Acrylic resin (Magna) on canvas, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968.110. Copyright 1960 Morris Louis.

Labels: Criticism, Museums, Painting, Washington DC

In something like my last post, I mentioned that Lori Nix is having a show at Randall Scott Gallery along with Dane Picard. Well I got home from work this friday afternoon and opened an invite from Irvine Contemporary and was thrilled with the news that Kahn and Selesnick (above) are returning to the DC area with a new show called "Eisbergfreistadt". No doubt that there is some type of fiction that will revolve around images and characters - what I do know is this is based just after the first world war. Expect something from me in the next week or so.

Lori Nix at Randall Scott. October 27 - December 8
Kahn and Selesnick at Irvine Contemporary. October 27 - December 8

Labels: DC Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

Carol Vogel (New York Times) notes that some 350 or more boxes stuffed with receipts, photographs, letters and other records chronicling the history of the Leo Castelli Gallery are being given to the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art in Washington. LC helped launch the careers of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella, as well as many others. The gift includes sales transactions, exhibition reviews, letters from artists and collectors, and photographs from the gallery's beginings in 1957 to the year Castelli died (1999). "This is the holy grail of postwar American art," said John W. Smith, director of the archives.

Holy Grail? more like the Rosetta Stone. Still it's a great gift.

Labels: 60's, Jasper Johns, Washington DC

Matthew Collings
Regular readers know of my enjoyment of Matthew Collings dairy in Modern Painters. Here's a pretty good interview with him on Artnet (amazing how they interview their own writers as an article - but that's another story) Here's a quick snippet.

writer: You made your reputation with TV programs and books on modern and contemporary art, but more recently you've turned your attention to Matt's Old Masters, and now you've remade Sir Kenneth Clark's Civilization. It would seem that you really do hate contemporary art these days.

Matthew Collings: I know a lot about art and want to talk about it. But knowing about it isn't the same as feeling you have to mindlessly support it and say the accepted things about it to show you're in a creepy club, or that you can intimidate people who don't know about it. That's the theme of all my books and programs. The new series is about how we might understand "civilization" today (that is, if we think we've still got it). It goes from the Greeks to now, but it's all from the perspective of now. The book that comes out of the series is more diaristic and confessional; it's about my tragic parents and so on, what I thought yesterday, etc., as in Blimey. There's also some stuff about Clark and the whole idea of TV arts programs. But the true focus of both the book and the TV series is the anxieties and uncertainties of art now, taking "art" as a kind of culture or constant, ongoing discussion, not just a collection of individual objects or shows.

Glenn Branca
A couple of days I alerted readers about a GB performance of Symphony No.13: Hallucination City for 100 electric guitars. Well it seems that PGWP saw this performed in LA about a year os so ago.

Follow this link to the story

Johnnie Winona Ross
One of my favorite artists, JWR (above: Sand Bend Draw, 2005) has a new show in New York this week at Steven Haller Gallery. I'll review this later in the month. But don't wait for me, exhibition is from October 18 - November 24.

Lori Nix
Randall Scott Gallery is showing Lori Nix (another favorite / below: The Majestic, 2006) along with Dane Picard right here in Washington DC. Exhibition is from October 27 - December 8. I'm missing this opening, however do expect a review.

Labels: DC Galleries, Fontana Mix, Galleries, Lori Nix, New York, Painting, Photography

The New York Times Magazine has a great article in the Dia Foundation from both the management side as well as the donor side. The Patron Gets a Divorce is just an amazing read.

A very curious article on Lisa Dennison about her departure from the Guggenhein for Sotheby's.
New York Magazine

Labels: Museums

I doubt many of you are aware of Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler book from a few years back - a detailed and fascinating history of the music produced in Germany in the late 60s and 70s (with a heavy emphasis on "prog" rock). Well, he's now doing the same thing for Japanese music with the Japrocksampler.

Japrocksampler is a larger book than the German one, Japrocksampler is a more detailed look at the Japanese scene, with plenty of background, before focusing on the key artists and collector's favorites.

Labels: music

Labels: Your moment of ennui

Glenn Branca
GB will be conducting a performance of his epic Symphony No.13: Hallucination City for 100 electric guitars.

The composition - comprised of four movements; March, Anthem, Drive and Vengeance - has been described by the Village Voice as his "most impressive work ever".

What can I say - wow.

Labels: international

I went to the library and among other things, I checked out a book on Jasper Johns (focused on the late seventies and eighties) so I'm flicking through the book and see a series of pages that are smeared with oil paint. It wasn't my oil paint which was just great. I love the idea that multiple artists are looking at the same paintings - or even books and getting the same or different things. I love that.

I want to start talking about process more often and realize I still agree with the teaching from Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki. For those of you coming to the party a little bit late, here's the Cliffs Notes version:

Students are taught not to worry about clothing or food and only to focus on "the way". After a few rounds of questions regarding the practicality of such an approach, Dogen responded that the important thing is to be focused on "the way", these other things are trivial in the whole of your practice.

Starting next week, I'll be talking a bit about my process - I'd love to hear about yours as well.

Labels: Jasper Johns, Painting

I love reading (and visiting) other people's studios - and this is no exception. Robert Ayers has a short interview with Brice Marden about what, is in his studio on Artinfo.

Follow this link

Labels: Brice Marden, Painting

Jen Bekman's 20 X 200 - Well Done. I recently bought a print from the new Jen Bekman enterprise, 20 X 200 (which I spoke of recently). I received my first print earlier last week (Tema Staufer, Palm Aire) and I could not be more pleased. The printing is of a very high quality and the packaging is exactly as it should be. It is a hell of a lot of value for 20 bucks (24 with shipping).

I'm in a show at the Fort Worth Art Center. Cecil Touchon curated a collage show called White on White: Selected Works from the Collage Museum. I'm pretty happy with the collages I've been doing lately - I really should get them up on the site. Fort Worth Art Center, October 5 - October 30.

Andre Emmerich R.I.P.

Labels: Fontana Mix, Photography

Elisabetta Povoledo writes for The New York Times on saturday, about the digitization of Veronese's The Wedding at Cana being installed on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore a few weeks ago. The article goes into great depth about the painstaking work of how this masterpiece was scanned, scrutinized, and eventually printed, and touched up to become very close to the real thing or at least a photo of the real thing - or something that resembles the original as it now exists.

The group Factum Arte has digitally recreated, in what I understand is in amazing detail and has hung it in the same place it was removed from almost 210 years ago.

Here's a bit of the backstory
Napoleon's forces removed the painting from the refectory of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore as war booty - cutting the painting into pieces and reassembling it back home. It currently hangs at the Louvre (Paris) directly across from the Mona Lisa and is claimed to be viewed by 9 million visitors a year by the French authorities. (sidebar: do you remember any of the other paintings in that room? - I don't)

Venice has always wanted this painting back - they still occasionally have mock trials of Napoleon and every few years someone wants to sue the Louvre or the French Government for it's return. That return is not going to happen since it was resolved (diplomatically) in 1815.

Back to the story
So what we have is a very serious digital reproduction sitting in place of what is now somewhere else. Do understand that I believe that this digital copy - which took 18 months to do - is probably one hell of an object. However it is not an art object. It carries no authenticity as art. The thing is, I believe in art, the real thing - not copies, duplicates or substitutions. I want to experience, the presence of something, it may be ancient or temporary - but I want to experience that thing. I want to see the same paint, rock or whatever the artist did when he or she made it. This is as close to religion as I have, and I care for it deeply. This "new" The Wedding at Cana bothers me, I feel like it's starting a bit of a trend where this will become an acceptable way to view art in the future. This is the crux of why I'm even bothering to write about this.

A couple of years ago I wrote about a Caravaggio exhibit that exhibited all of his paintings in one place as digital reproductions. People would say "It's just as good" or some such thing - but the truth is the show had the stink of not being real - and the public agreed - the show quietly went away.

I will give credit to Factum Arte who has insisted that the digital work is "not a clone but a deep and detailed study". I just hope that the public understands this when they see a artwork that looks like the real thing in the place where it was always meant to be, and is now for lack of a better word, home.





A Footnote Richard Hell, speaking about his first band, Television, stated; "All we did was cut our hair and played in street clothes, and people, so hungry for the real thing, worshipped us like gods".

Labels: Criticism, Europe, international, Painting