Delacroix on the Power of the Imagination
“Liberty Leading the People” 1830 by Delacroix “There is something in me that is stronger than my body which is often given new heart by it. In some people this inner power seems almost non-existent, but with me it is greater than my physical strength. Without it I should die, but in the end it ...
Big Wave Surfing, how much do you love your work as an artist?
One winter I was on a painting trip in Oahu, when I went for a drive to the pipeline to watch some of the big wave surfers catch some big ones…. Scores of surfers and tourists sat on the shore and watched in awe at these tiny specks, dwarfed by massive crashing waves as high as buildings, and marveled at the courage of man. Last week was the Mavericks Surf contest in Half Moon Bay and today the elite of the world surfers wait on call, for the go ahead for Eddie Aikau invitational big wave surf event at the Pipeline in Hawaii, for the waves to meet the 40 foot requirement…. As well as being superb athletes they spend hours studying weather patterns, ocean currents and whatever it takes to understand the movement of the ocean…. The first thing I do when I arrive in a beautiful place such as Hawaii is spend a few days just looking at the ocean. Studying it’s waves, it’s light, it’s energy until I feel I have reached an understanding of the special gifts that the location has to offer…. You have to love it and be willing to do whatever it takes to master your craft. You have to have a big vision and you have to have a big passion for the vision that you want to share with the world.
LA Weekly Art show opening, January 10, 2008
This weekend I went to the LA West art show at the Bxsxxx in Santa Monica…. I’m used to zipping around Manhattan on the subway, not sitting in a long snaking traffic queue. I didn’t see a huge amount of art that resonated for me but there were some quite interesting landscapes by XXXXX. The smoothness of the application and the bright colors were gorgeous. The event was packed with artists, their families and collectors. It was quite a feat in patience to see all the different exhibits. Other pieces of art that i liked: You can see the rest of the photos from the show here, in my photo albums…. The artists were jumping up and down on a car covered with a pile of rubbish, yelling and beating it with sticks.
“The Eloquent Nude” – an excellent documentary on the life of photographer Edward Weston
Must see! An excellent beautifully photographed documentary on the relationship and art travels of photographer Edward Weston, and his muse and writer, Charis Wilsdon.
$50,000 in grants for artists
A new charity, United States Artists, will give $50,000 grants to 50 artists. – New York Times: New Charity to Start Plan for $50,000 Artists’ Grants A new charity, United States Artists, will announce today an ambitious plan to provide support to working artists, starting with a grant program that will be one of the most generous in existence. Fifty artists working in a wide variety of disciplines and at various career stages will receive $50,000 each, no strings attached…. “Each year, nominations are made by an anonymous group of arts leaders, critics, scholars, and artists chosen by USA…. Nominators are asked to submit names of artists they believe show an extraordinary commitment to their craft. Artists at any stage of career development may be nominated. To be considered for fellowships, artists must be 21 years of age or older and U.S. citizens or legal residents in any U.S. state. Artists must have the following: Expert artistic skills Received artistic education or training (formal or informal) Attempted to derive income from those skills Been actively engaged in creating artwork and presenting it to the public.”
$135 Million dollars paid for Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
The NYT has an interesting article on the acquistion of a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer which was bought last month by the billionaire collector Ronald S. Lauder and is on display his Neue Galerie for German and Austrian art, on the Upper East Side, NYC. “The art market operates according to its own logic, which may have nothing to do with the quality of the art. Value is not price — whether the issue is a Klimt, or a ballplayer, or a chief executive paid millions of dollars, who runs his company into the ground…. It’s only natural to play the skeptic when the art world is a circus of profligacy, drunk with cash, and when dimwitted speculators make headlines, wasting fortunes on bad art. Who knows what the most money paid in private for a painting really is: maybe $135 million. For that amount, assuming it is what Mr. Lauder paid, his portrait of Adele, a hedonistic masterpiece, will be talked about in terms of how many lives might have been saved or how many lifted from poverty for this sum…. The Met spent more than $45 million two years ago for a tiny Duccio “Madonna and Child” whose modesty seems its most endearing virtue. The tipping point between endearing and hedonistic is evidently somewhere around $100 million…. The Neue Galerie is Christie’s annex now, exhibiting paintings for sale ($15 general admission, no children under 12 allowed), whose display is also a public service.
Andrea Zittel at the Whitney
Andrea and her friends who live at Joshua Tree talked about their influences and experiences on building community in the context of art. Here’s what the Whitney had to say about the event: “Well known for her research and design of domestic and external environments, Andrea Zittel creates experimental models for contemporary life, or what she calls “systems for living.” Her current project, the desert studio and home A-Z West in Joshua Tree, California, explores all aspects of the everyday, from home furniture and house guests to food and clothing, as part of her investigation into the contours of human nature and human needs. One such A-Z project, Wagon Stations, comprises mobile living stations customized by individuals invited to join Zittel’s desert community; several will be on view beginning February 9 at the Whitney Museum at Altria.”… As Andrea herself has to say of the desert: “After living in the desert for six years, I have come to believe that most of us are drawn here because each of us is looking for some version of personal freedom.”… A Wagon in It’s Native Environment A Wagon Station from the installation at the Whitney, Altria The panel itself meandered across a lot of different territories, from activist 60s art to camping out in a large tent in the middle of the Freize Art Fair, in London…. This is what it must be like to live fully in the artist archetype, not an small pokey garret, starving but noble, but in a world of childlike wonder, innocence, creating magnificent worlds of your own choosing, without regard to whether of not anyone else gets it…. Further thoughts from “The Artist’s Mentor”: “In one of his letters from Tahiti, Gaugin had written that he felt he had to go back beyond the horses of the Parthenon, back to the rocking-horse of his childhood…. Many artists feel that the museums and exhibitions are full of works of such amazing facility and skill that nothing is gained by continuing along those lines; that they are in danger of losing their souls and becoming slick manufacturers of paintings or sculptures unless they become as little children.
Einstein Finds Inspiration in the Music of Mozart
Last year, the 100th anniversary of E=mc2 inspired an outburst of symposiums, concerts, essays and merchandise featuring Albert Einstein. This year, the same treatment is being given to another genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on Jan. 27, 250 years ago. There is more to the dovetailing of these anniversaries than one might think.
The Mysterious Mona Lisa
Da Vinci’s most well known and mysterious paintings is the “Mona Lisa.”… Hauntingly beautiful, the mystery of her smile has provoked much discussion…. Leonardo used a special techique called sfumato – the blurred outline and soft edges, with indistinct corners of the eyes and corners of the mouth…. Gelb in his book How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci has found evidence for this from Dr Lillian Schwartz of Bell Laboratories and author of The Computer Artist’s Handbook. “Applying sophistocated computer modeling with precision measurements of scale and alignment, Schwartz compared the Mona Lisa with the only extant self-portrait of the artist, drawn in red chalk in 1518. As she describes it, ‘Juxtaposing the images was all that was needed to fuse them: the relative locations of the nose, mouth, chin and eyes and forehead i none precisely matched the other. Merely flipping up the corner of the mouth would produce the mysterious smile …” And then, of course, there is “The Da Vinci Code” which has been unleashing a torrent of interest and controversy, especially within the Vatican.
Art and the Soul
I am greatly enjoying a book called “The Mission of Art” by Alex Grey, a New York based visionary artist. I especially enjoyed what he had to say about Art and the Soul. “Art is communion of one soul to another, offered through the symbolic language of form and content. An artist creates a sensible form, through harmonious use of the medium (paint, clay, music, and so on), which expresses content, by subject and feeling…. Art expands the appreciator’s consciousness by providing a glimpse into the hearts and minds of strange beautiful humanity…. Many artists develop technical skills – they can draw, paint, or play an instrument – but seem to have little that is fresh, original, or worthwhile to say…. The only way to formal inventiveness and technical ability is to work and work, studying and perfecting the craft. Artists discover unique features of their medium that contribute to actualizing their personal vision…. Devotional labor lavished on a work of art radiates love and care to the viewer.”
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