The Left Front

"Severe economic downturn. a dysfunctional government. Wall Street bailouts. Public protests and police clashes. A president accused of "socialism." Struggles for immigrant and minority rights. The threat of military conflict abroad and social turmoil at home:

                                                       The United States in the 1930's

(Quoted from John Paul Murphy's exhibition essay)

Art catnip for the printmaker and a timely premise for an exhibit. The Grey Art Gallery (100 Washington Square East, NYC) has this thought provoking exhibit up until April 4th.  Any similarities to our current political climate is entirely intentional I'm sure. This fresh look at the work of artist activists during the 30's gives an interesting backdrop for examining the canon of political art.

Mitchell Siporin, woodcut, Workers Family 1937

As Lisa Corrin, director of the Block Museum points out, many of the artists featured in this exhibit paid for their political beliefs by being blackballed or otherwise shunned by the art world.  Probably because of the non-commercial nature and political charged content many of the the works represented here were powerful images yet many of the artists name were unfamiliar to me.

Bernece Berkman, woodcut, Toward a Newer Life, 1937

Many of the works are by artists affiliated with either The John Reed Clubs or the American Artists' Congress. Referred to as the "Red Decade" the 1930's saw increased agitation for progressive social change among intellectuals, writers and visual artists. By the decades' end many artists had become disillusioned with their support of Communism under Stalin.

Aleksei Ilyich Kravchenko, wood engraving, On the Barricades, 1925

As co-curator Jill Bugajski points out in her essay; "...the budding USSR became an inadvertent role model for groups the world over seeking to elevate the working class and combat exploitative old-world monarchies or new-world industrial oligarchies."

The worst recession since the Great Depression led to the creation of the Occupy protest movements and a resurrection of our interest in how artists react to social climates of economic disparity, social injustice and corruptions of the political system.

The print as a mode political statement derives from their reproducibility and ease of dissemination into "public" hands. The art on display at the Grey Art Gallery is both sobering and yet full of optimism that it has the power to change society.

The Left Front: Radical Art in the "Red Decade," 1929-1940 in on view through April 4, 2015 at the Grey Art Gallery/New York University, 100 Washington Square East, NYC.

Exhibition Link

A Very Big Dragon!

Soga Shōhaku, Dragon and Clouds (Un ryu- zu), Japanese, Edo period, 1763.

Unveiled last week at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Shōhaku's dragon had long been under wraps as it received extensive conservation and repair, including custom-made wooden lattice cores with multiple layers of paper on each side.

Extraordinary in person, the panels extend to a full 35' length despite two missing and long lost to history. The missing panels would have been just to the right of the dragons face in the picture above. 

The dragon's face panel.

The piece dominates its room at the MFA; the lights low. All the better to imagine that it originally was inside a temple. Painted with ink, the piece while looking very graphic, is actually very nuanced with greys, giving the work a three dimensional feel.

 A dragon's claw

Interestingly, the curators descriptions include mention of Soga Shōhaku's penchant for painting in a wild style fueled by copious amounts of alcohol. They point to areas such in the claw area above where it seems that large rags have been used to smear background. I'm not sure how much is lore or exaggeration, but much of the power does come from the tension of tightly controlled areas playing off of deft but loose handling of the ink. Indeed there is much splattering in the composition.

Panel with clouds.

The end panel above is typical of the wet on wet, very abstract handling of the clouds. Take away that claw and it's a close step to imaging a Pat Steir painting.  Two scrolls and a powerful two panel ink drawing of a hawk round out this outstanding look into Soga Shōhaku's work.

"Return of the Dragon" at Museum of Fine Arts in Boston through July 6th

Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix

Art Spiegelman

True confession; if not for comics I probably wouldn't be an artist.  As a kid from a small town with blue collar parents, museums and cultural opportunities might as well have been on the moon.  Culture was spending an hour at Signor's Cigar Store looking through the comic rack until getting getting the word to buy something or get booted out.
It wasn't until college that I got to see the great underground of the comic world and Art Spiegelman.

The Jewish Museum's Spiegelman retrospective is a chance to see a cohesive body of work that features both his Pulitzer winning Maus and a substantial body of early work. 

 Art Spiegelman

The exhibition includes some great early works like Ace Hole, Midget Detective and The Viper Vicar of Vice, Villainy and Vickedness as well as his Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages.  

Art Spiegelman 'Garbage Pail Kids'

I was struck by the thought while looking over the material how different it looks on the wall as opposed to the book format I'm used to.  Comics and graphic novels have an ability to retain an air of transgressive nature by their format in book form that eludes most 'high' art or 'fine' art.  These are works that by their nature are resistant to becoming a commodity in the current high stakes art world poker game.  While there is a collectible market for early comics, for the most part Spiegelman's work remains available for view or for purchase insuring that its importance lies in the art not in scarcity. 

Wall viewing also provides us with an opportunity to see the artist at work.  More than a few panels are unpacked with the addition of preliminary sketches that show how the images build up to final compositions.

  Art Spiegelman - from In the Shadow of No Towers

In the years since Maus, Spiegelman has referred to the work as the 5000 pound rodent on his back; although from my viewpoint he remains vital, evidenced from the works at the end of the exhibit including his In the Shadow of No Towers and collaboration with Pilobolus on a dance and theatrical work.

Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix is at the Jewish Museum through March 23. 
(5th Ave at 92nd. st. NYC)

Refusal of Time

I heard William Kentridge's Refusal of Time long before I found Gallery 919 at the Metropolitan Museum. The soundscape created by collaborator Philip Miller with some tuba heavy base lines was accompanying the procession portion of the finale to the 30 minute 5 channel video piece. Those who are familiar with Kentridge's work will find many familiar elements such as his shadow procession with all the ponderous hauling, carrying and trudging still at work in Refusal.

As the piece comes to an end and the crowd shifts I sit in one of the chaotically placed (and bolted to the floor to protect against any OCD attempt to align them) chairs.  I find that I'm not alone in taking to a chair and attempting to adjust the angle a bit in a futile attempt to take in everything that is projected onto the walls. This is the artist's first reminder to us that time depends on our point of view.

In dealing with Time, Kentridge revels in the understanding of its inherently chaotic nature.  That chaos is the elephant in the room and indeed the artist has placed an elephant in the gallery. At least a kinetic "machine" by additional collaborators Jonas Lundquist and Sabine Theunissen is referred to as the "elephant".  Comprised of various pulleys, struts, open bellows it "breaths" with a regularity and mechanical certainty that provides a semblance of order to the otherwise disjointed nature of the projections.

Conversations with Peter Galison, Harvard science historian and author of "Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps: Empires of Time" form the background from which Kentridge explores philosophies of standardization, physics and power structures.
The work is dense with the artist's overlapping themes and imagery; much of which recalls and expands his rich tradition of stop motion, reversed motion and self reflection on dual natures. At times it recalls early cinema and vaudeville and contained in that whimsy is a entirely fallible human nature at odds with the hubris of the synchronization of time.

William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time: Five-channel projected video installation with sound and kinetic sculpture. Through May 11. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Met link for exhibition

Annie Bissett's Welcome to Nonotuck

They Looked Behind - ©Annie Bissett

Artist and printmaker Annie Bissett's exhibit at the Historic Northhampton Museum presents an intimate look into the distant past of New England.  Drawn from her We Are Pilgrims series of woodblock prints Annie looks back through the eyes of her Mayflower ancestors to revisit the lives of early immigrants.

The stage begins to be set by the museum's displays of artifacts from the indigenous peoples and early settlers in the central Massachusetts region.  We are welcomed into the exhibit by a hand painted map of depicting the early colonial settlement.

Welcome to Nonotuck -Hand painted map on canvas - © Annie Bissett

That we are in Nonotuck and not Northhampton, MA serves as the artist's reminder to us that the earliest settlers arrived as immigrants to an already populated area.  Elsewhere in the exhibit Annie reinforces the linguistic reminder that many place names are still in use after 300 years.

Vast Unpeopled Lands - ©Annie Bissett

Annie's work is both elegant and thought provoking.  Vast Unpeopled Lands with its patterned landscape and unique constellations is a wry reminder of occupation and land usage long before "discovery" and settlement by Europeans.

Although a modest number of prints are used to tell the complex story of two disparate cultures the artist is equally able to recognize the struggles of each.

The print Dorothy Bradford Comes to America depicts the drowning of a young woman, the first wife of Plymouth Colony leader William Bradford.

Technically, Annie Bissett's use of japanese mokuhanga printmaking methods seem well suited to this tightly focused exhibition.  The use of lettering carved in the blocks adds a slightly anachronistic touch that brings the viewer back to a time when woodcuts were used to disseminate information and document events.

Her mastery of color gradation or bokashi combined with flattened areas of color and pattern give the print surfaces a unique and lyrical feel.

 



The artist digs deep into correspondence, diaries and histories of the era to unearth ties to the complexities of the quest for religious freedoms, definitions of morality and the yearning for individual freedoms.

In the piece God Bless John Alexander and Thomas Roberts, 1637 Annie examines the punishment of two men convicted of "performing ongoing homosexual acts with each other".  Their punishments included whipping, branding and  banishment.










Annie Bissett's work will be at the Historic Northhampton Museum - November 8 - December 6.

Link to Annie Bissett website

Link to Annie Bissett's blog Woodblock Dreams

Fantastic Garden

Fantastic Garden - Project Director and Master Printer Maria Arango Diener

One of the nicest Kickstarter rewards I ever received arrived yesterday from printmaker Maria Arango Diener. Back in August my blog post "Carving Little Things" mentioned her Fantastic Garden project and the small woodblock I contributed. My reward for carving the small block plus a small Kickstarter contribution are four exquisitely printed panels that make up this monumental collaborative puzzle print.

Maria has co-ordinated 92 artists (no small feat) in the creation of these four panels, each 22" x 30' that make up the garden.

From Maria's project description:

"Briefly, a Monumental Puzzle Print is a large design composed of 'puzzle pieces", each of which is designed and carved by a unique artist under a common theme.  The project director designs, cuts the wood into puzzle-like pieces, then sends the pieces to participant artists; they carve their own little design and send the tiny piece back.  Then the director assembles the carved pieces.  The entire design, is printed as a woodcut print after the puzzle is reassembled and finally each participant receives a huge print encompassing the entire design."

Overall the resulting print looks meticulously planned in every detail belying the fact that none of the artists knew where in the overall design their piece would rest nor what their neighbors would create. Maria's work on the background and areas surrounding each piece boldly unites the garden theme carved by the individual artists.

My Carp block is the top right piece.

Maria has also provided delightful supporting material with the print complete with edition information for collectors and maps for locating the various artists.  A project catalogue with the print and additional artist information is due shortly.

For more on the Fantastic Garden Monumental Puzzle Print and printmaker Maria Arango Diener please visit her (fantastic) website - 1000 Woodcuts

Edo Pop

Susan Shulman and William Evertson at Japan Society's Edo Pop

None of my trips into NYC would be complete without a stop to the Japan Society.  Quietly tucked in near the UN on East 47th the Society's gallery hosts shows that have inspired my practice for years.  Edo Pop is one of those. (in fact a bit jealous since my work could have been tucked in there somewhere - more on my latest print series later)

The curators are exhibiting 100 historic ukiyo-e woodblock prints paired with the work of ten contemporary artists, who because of style, technique or sensibility create a dialogue with one of the worlds first "popular" art movements.

The Edo period (1615-1868), a prolonged era of relative peace and prosperity became known for a sift in art patronage from the aristocracy to merchants. The prints, known as "pictures of the floating world" found inspiration in everyday life, the pleasure quarters and the theater.

AIKO - Sunrise (detail of mural)

Graffiti artist AIKO, whose wall murals take up the atrium area combines the sensibility of everyday life from the streets with traditional ukiyo-e themes.

Emily Allchurch - Tokyo Story 1: Lotus Garden

Emily Allchurch's large photographic transparencies in light-boxes are paired with landscapes from Hirosage's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.  Hirosage didn't always visit the locations for his landscapes, instead constructing idealized portraits that were evocative of the soul of a place. Allchurch used a similar sensibility, digitally combining her photographic images to create slightly hyper-real locations.

Paul Binnie - A Hundred Shades of Edo: Sharaku's Caricatures

Paul Binnie, is a Scottish artist who has embraced modern sosaku hanga (creative prints) in which the artist dispenses with the traditional division of labor between the artist and the artisans who actually carve and print the woodcuts in favor of mastering the entire process.  Binnie's work strikes a unique balance of relating to the techniques while adding colors that pop and unique imagery.

Ishii Toru - Tokyo Tower

Ishii Toru's "Tokyo Tower" was an impressive work; a mountain (Fuji?) of salarymen painted as kabuki actors.  It relates strongly to a tradition of caricature combined with reference to current economic and political themes.

Artists Kazama Sachiko, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Masami Teraoka, Jimmy Robert, Narahashi Asako and Hatakeyama Naoyo are also included in Edo Pop.

EDO POP at Japan Society Gallery, 333 East 47th St. NY, NY though June 9th. Hurry!

Is It All About the Frame?

Success that is; art world success.  Not that I can define it because each artist seems to have a different dictionary that they're working from.  I spent the weekend in NYC seeing everything from sketchbooks, artist's works in progress in their studio, quiet powerful shows and art star work.

Viewing Matthew Barney at the Morgan Library got me thinking about frames because he has some unusual frames.  The little title cards always mention the frames....self lubricating frames, polyethylene frames and cast out of prosthetic limb material frames.

The exhibition, Subliming Vessel, focuses on Barney's drawings from the 1980's though works that storyboard his Cremaster Cycle film and his latest River of Fundament.

Generally I found the delicate light line of the drawings buried by the quirky artistry of the frames.  Barney's drawings seem studied and a bit tentative; something I found at odds with the exuberance of the frames.  Although for Barney, who is concerned with creating mythologies from obscure references perhaps this topsy turvy relationship of overpowering frame to pale, underwhelming drawing  is a devise in the overall fable.

Maybe the frame is everything.

The rest of the show happens in the vitrines, which are another framing device.  These contain the storyboards, which in this case contain a variety of photos, magazine clippings, diagrams that form a type of "connect the dots" insight into the artist's work on his Cremaster Cycle Films.   Selections from the Morgan collection are also in the vitrines, providing the additional [frame] of gravatas, plus additional references to the elaboration of the complex fable that Barney is weaving.

Not quite a fan yet, but Barney has enough of them and plenty of them screaming genius. I'm looking forward to his new work, River of Fundament. I went for the drawings and was disappointed, but I was enlightened by the overall effect that the layering of obscure connections the artist evolves. In effect, Subliming Vessel works well as a frame for insight into the artist's reference points.

Matthew Barney - Subliming Vessel at the Morgan Library through Sept. 2.

FInding Art Off the Beaten Path

© CJ Nye - All the Little Cashews - oil on unprimed canvas

Caution, road trips are sometimes required to find what you're looking for.  I found some some very nice works by Caroline J. Nye and Bernard Klevickas on Long Island.  Exhibiting at a precious little gallery in Bay Shore called the Second Avenue Fire House Gallery, these two NYC based artists have presented a very elegant installation of their works.  The exhibition's title, "Source" refers to materials as opposed to an artist's influences.

Caroline (CJ) is a painter and presents several works that delve into not only the material of paint but into the nature of the support.  All the Little Cashews, (above) works very delicately with the often unpredictable nature of raw canvas.  CJ creates a variety of symbols and shapes referencing both art history, signal flags and to my eye the nature of a group conversation.

© CJ Nye - Mr. Alexander Pablo Androver - oil on canvas (photo from the artist's website)

Another of CJ's works, Mr. Alexander Pablo Androver, successfully explores the nature of canvas as a support for paint by returning to its draping nature as essentially a fabric.   Here, her playful title, a mashup of Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso and Miguel Androver gives us clues that the piece enjoys a rich inner life at the intersection of movement and deconstructed space with a flair for fashion.

© Bernard Klevickas - Untitled (six pack) - Powder coating and automotive paint 

on pressed stainless steel with polished areas and aluminum base

Bernard Klevickas' metal sculptures also deal with the idea of "source".  From his time as an arts fabricator Bernard has collected discards and sought to repurpose fragments.  Also involved is a reflection on the nature of the steel and it's reaction to pressure as it is pressed into the wave forms that make up many of the pieces in this exhibit.

© Bernard Klevickas - Untitled (Roswell) - Pressed, welded and polished stainless steel

(Photo from artist's website)

Another of Bernard's pieces on exhibit, Roswell, shows his sensitivity to the material through the use of curves formed by hydraulic press to obtain strength for the upper part of this slightly anthropomorphic piece contrasted with the slightly springy nature of its "legs". 

Source is at the Second Avenue Firehouse Gallery through June 15 (Regular hours Saturdays from 10:30-6:30 And by appointment.  Contact: Steven Ceraso  (516) 643-2179)

Gallery link

CJ Nye website

Bernard Klevickas website

No Laughing Matter

Yue Minjun -Woodcut 1 The Grasslands Series - woodcut 47 x 34" - 2008

Smith College Museum of Art is currently hosting an exhibition titled, Collecting - Art of Asia. While I found fascinating work throughout the exhibit, I spent most of my time in the Sacerdote Gallery on the main floor with Prints: 1950 - 2013.  The artists, representing Japan, China, Korea and Pakistan use a variety of printmaking techniques.  Of special interest to me as a printmaker was a chance to see some practitioners of sosaku-hanga.  Sosaku-hanga, which literally means "creative prints" is a 20th century departure from the traditional division of the labor of producing a woodblock print with the artist taking control of all three of the main tasks of producing a woodcut print. In the ukiyo-e genre that most of us are familiar with you actually have a collaborative process involving an artist, a carver and a printer. In sosaku-hanga the artist works all three disciplines.

Munakata Shikō Sand Nest 1938 (printed in 1957) 13.5 x16 woodcut

Munakata's small block printed simply in black is a wonderful example by one of the artists associated with sosaku-hanga.  Munakata was known for often spontaneously creating his image during the carving process. As a printmaker who plans the image but is open to change inspired by the carving process the idea of just beginning a a carving to see what emerges is both frightening and intriguing.  

Another favorite from the show was a print by Kiyoshi Saito.  It's hard to describe the difference from seeing this in person to here in thumbnail, but the detail, textures and subtle coloration have an impact that brought me back time and time again to marvel at its creation.

Kiyoshi Saito - Winter in Aizu - woodcut - ca1940

Another post Mao approach to woodcut inspired by western abstraction was a piece by Goto Hidehiko.

Goto Hidehiko Silent Night - woodcut

Silent Night is from a a suite of works commissioned by collectors Mary and Norman Tolman who hoped the collection containing eight artists working abstractly on the subject of "Hope for the Future" would help restore Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters (both political and natural).  Goto's piece with its small white space which seems to reach through various surfaces is both a subtle and yet powerful example of the woodcut process.

Fang Lijun  2000.6.25   woodcut 2000 47 x 32"

Another twist to sosaku-hanga was the development of what is termed Cynical Realism. The works typically tend to the ironic or display contempt and disillusionment with Chinese society.  Fang Lijun uses jigsaws and power tools to fashion these large and rough figures.  

                                      Yue Minjun -Woodcut 2(?) The Grasslands Series - woodcut 47 x 34" - 2008

The piece on top and this are part of the Grassland series by Minjun who is also associated with Cynical Realism.  Quoting Minjun, "Smiling is a refusal to think deeply when you feel there are things about which you have no way of thinking deeply or which are too difficult to think about and you need to get rid of your thoughts."

Annie Bissett, woodcut artist and blogger also has a great review of this show.

Smith College Museum of Art - Collecting - Art of Asia - though May 26th (North Hampton, MA) 

This Lautrec is Damned Brazen

La Vache Enragé - 1896 - color lithograph - 79 x 57.5 cm

So begins a critique from 1893 by Félix Fénéon in the introduction to the catalogue for the Toulouse-Lautrec & His World exhibition.  A powerful exhibit now on view in Connecticut's New Britain Museum of American Art highlights a collection of over 150 works on paper.  Drawings, many lithographs and a handful of original posters comprise the show.  Fénéon continued, "he couldn't care less about outlines or colors."

  Edmée Lescot - 1893 - lithograph - 27 x 19 cm

After viewing the exhibition, and at a distance of over a century, it is difficult to asses the scandalous nature of Lautrec's subject matter or his line.  In fact what is most striking is the incredible economy of line that was used to create the frenzy of his favorite subjects, the actors, dancers, circus performers and prostitutes of Montmartre.

Surrounded by the survey of his work one realizes that Lautrec not only was a man in touch with his times but had a major role in defining those times.  He lived at a time of rapid developments in lithography which made possible the large scale posters he is famous for.  In turn his posters made his subjects recognizable throughout Paris.

The piece above shows his use of crachis, a splattered ink technique that helps define gradations much like the moku hanga woodcuts from Japan that he admired and collected.  The celebrity and courtesan were also  favorite subject matter in many Ukyio-e prints.

Utagawa Kunisada - Lady Naruto no mae - ca 1847-1852

While not intended as a survey of Lautrec's work and there are no painting included here, it did strike me that his brief 36 years were those of unceasing output.  The many pencil sketches attest to his penchant for evenings of Paris nightlife followed by days in the lithography studio.  The lithographs appears to be worked directly on the stone rather than traced of copied, giving them an extraordinary spontaneity.

Jane Avril - color lithograph - 124 x 91.5 cm

And of course without Lautrec's attention to celebrity where would Warhol be?

Toulouse-Lautrec & His World

January 12–May 12, 2013 at the New Britain Museum of American Art 

Another Damn List

...©William Evertson, Go Make Another List. (ink on paper)

I feel strangely compelled to jump on the yearly wrap up bandwagon with a few of the exhibitions that inspired me during 2012. None of these shows were huge blockbusters but they did speak to me and in particular with relation to two topics in my own art that are becoming more important in my 4th decade of art making, the narrative and process.

Narrative in the sense that my work is becoming more literal; moving from the symbology of an idea or concept to telling a more personal narrative of my relationship to my milieu.

The other concern is process or the method of making art.  Since my days as a student in the seventies when conceptual art was prevalent to today's incarnation where we seem to be in a post skills generation I often felt that arc of development grating on my perhaps naive, or nostalgic or romantic notions of what it was to be an artist. Frankly, I want a strong idea well executed.  But what happens if you have a weak idea well executed by others? (as many artists do)  Or a strong idea you can only poorly execute yourself, either through lack of resources or lack of necessary skill?

So, it is through those two lens' of concern that I've selected several shows that inspired me in 2012.

Ten Thousand Waves, video installation by Isaac Julien

Just when I thought I had lost the capacity to watch another multi screen video installation Boston Institute of Contemporary Art hosted Isaac Julien's 9 screen projection Ten Thousand Waves.
(Link to ICA press release which also contains a link to a slide show of stills from the project)
Three separate stories are interwoven among the screens and as you wander and pause to view the installation from different vantages the stories blend in infinite permutations. Especially evocative is the use of the green screen images of the ancient sea goddess Mazu, protector of fishermen and sailors, who is said to guide shipwrecked sailors safely to shore as she glides from screen to screen.

Julien has taken a powerful idea for alternative narrative and through collaboration with actresses Maggie Cheung and Zhao Tao, video artist Yang Fudong, poet Wang Ping, and venerable Chinese calligrapher Gong Fagen created a fascinating platform for contemplating storytelling.

Junirui Gassen, The Battles of the Twelve Animals (detail)

The Met hosted a lovely exhibit called Storytelling in Japanese Art.
(Link to Met press release)

This quiet (ie: non-blockbuster) group of works shows the power of narrative in various formats from scrolls to screens to objects.  It also foretells and serves as the precursor to our more modern forms of animation and graphic novels.  

Bernini, terracotta sketch

Another Met hosted exhibit that fascinated me was Bernini, Sculpting in Clay.
(Link to Met press release - and closing on Jan. 6)

This exhibit featured drawings and clay "sketches" that show the development of the artist's vision for his renowned statuary and fountains in Rome.  Detailed yet raw and powerful in their preliminary form they exemplified my particular fascination with that romantic notion of an artist able to conceive and execute at the highest levels while also maintaining a workshop for the fabrication of the full scale pieces.

Quay Brothers

Before MoMA presented Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets I have to admit they were barely on my art radar.

(Link to MoMA press release for Brothers Quay)

Now, I've visited twice and purchased the DVD of their films.  In this retrospective not only are the films available but also the very idiosyncratic stage sets used in the making of the Quays very strange stop motion pictures.  Their art is a throw back, an anachronism in the art of film and the results are largely indecipherable yet immensely mysterious and rewarding. (on-going until Jan.7th)

Glass, Wilson and Childs,  Einstein on the Beach

Finally, the re-staging of Einstein on the Beach this fall at BAM.

(link to BAM press release)

To me this opera/ expression of avant-garde rebellion circa 1976 was like a unicorn; that is, I'd never seen one. (until this fall)  Now, although in many moments of its performance I felt my numb seat like never before, it is one experience this year that continues to haunt me with its odd yet precise construction.  Obviously not the result of the lone genius variety of artist but instead a fortunate collaboration in which seemly disparate elements seem to meld to work as a mesmerizing dream. Truly a marvel of stagecraft.

As I prepare for another year in my own studio, concentrating on authentic narrative and mastery of process, I'll finish with a link to the exact opposite type of art I am at work on.  (Link to Jonathan Jones review of Damien Hirst)  

Concerning Hirst's U-turn from conceptual to traditional; 

"Now he has confessed, with his ambitious yet miserably unaccomplished still-life paintings, that he admires the skilled art of the past, and would love to paint like Manet or Velázquez, after all."

Ouch!!

Well friends, may your artistic endeavors meet with much, much better reviews....here's to a fruitful 2013.

Drawing!

...One More Agony, ©1979 Evertson, spray paint and chalk on paper...

This ancient piece executed shortly after I moved to NYC from grad school sums up my dilemma after viewing two drawing exhibits recently. Some art is so good I can't stand it.

The exhibitions currently at the Morgan Library and the Frick are sweeping in the scope of history covered and a must see for artists interested in the sublime beauty offered by drawing.

First some links:

The Morgan Library covers Dürer to de Kooning: 100 Master Drawings from Munich.

The Frick covers Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery.

One of the dangers for me, as a working artist lies in comparisons.  It's easy to become overwhelmed not only by the virtuosity of these masters, but the fact that the works have been safeguarded and admired for centuries. Just imagine the task of archiving and preserving something as fragile as paper for centuries.  I wonder as I look through my flat files of works what will happen to my work, certainly precious to me but what of their survival?

For example, the Munich collection which dates from 1758 when Elector Carl Theodor commissioned the creation of a kabinett of drawings and etching certainly has required generations of dedicated curators.  It now contains over 400,000 works on paper and is a triumph of will over the horrors of wars, plunder and nature.

Titian, Rider and Fallen Soldier, ca.1537

Indeed war is a favorite subject matter during the Renaissance and Rider and Fallen Soldier by Titian illustrates the horror and frenzy captured as a drawing.  Several pieces on exhibit are intended as more commemorative in nature but the immediacy of the act of drawing struck me as I look over the knees of the fallen man into the vagueness of the victor astride his mount.

The piece contains grid lines so it is a mystery as to its purpose; whether as study for a lost work or a proposed work. The catalogue tantalizes us with mention of a mural destroyed in 1577.

Pontormo, Two Standing Women, ca. 1530

 This Pontormo struck me as having an abstract quality yet with an economy of line and shading conveys a drama unfolding. Or is the abstract and ethereal looking upon its more corporal self?

Huber, View of Feldkirch, 1527

Discovery of artists unknown to me of which there were many in these two exhibits left me a bit chastened.  Huber is a good example.  The year is 1527 and here this man is placing nature in front of the trapping of man.  Very oriental feel about this ink sketch in the handling of the tree and mountains in the background. (....and the eye and observation to be this confident!...)

Friedrich, View over the Elbe, ca. 1816

Exhibitions like this also serve to focus my thinking concerning narratives of influence and how we categorize artists into schools.  This Friedrich has an unmistakable feeling of the surreal about it; from the framing of the half circle world below the bridge to the lonely figure above.  While it could be classified as allegory I find the cropping and composition of the natural observed world particularly transcendent. The piece is rendered in graphite with shading of a warm brown wash.

In our modern sense drawing can exist as a major working method in and of itself and as we move to the more recent works we do see that drawing became something more capable of existing as the final vessel rather than preparation.  Or perhaps it has come full circle, in that drawing first appeared as pictograph intended to communicate directly.  Later becoming secondary or process or training as our human inclination to elaborate developed.  In the case of the early works represented here one can witness both the eye training and the use as preparatory material.

Heizer, Untitled, ca.1968

Some later works represented in the exhibit such as the Heizer piece tend to operate on several levels.  This piece seems to exist first as words, with an erased heading of "Statements" Further erasure of the words and headings and subsequent banding with graphite and ink seem to impose a landscape feel to the piece, perhaps referring to the artists practice of large scale earth works or of obliterating the statement in favor of the visual.


One other fine link is the review by the always knowledgeable and insightful John Haber from Haber's Art Reviews.

Only a few more short weeks to see these drawings - Both exhibits close January 6th.