I'm going to go back 100 years or so to an artist I passed over: Goya. In the spectrum of artists from those of structure to those of feeling, Goya is definitely the latter. But what is remarkable is the way he anticipated the romantics and 20th century expressionists, working at the height of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightment thinkers of the 18th century believed in the ultimate and inevitable perfectability of man through reason. They largely ignored the existence and power of the bestial side of man, a fatal mistake. The Greeks were wiser: thouogh they elevated reason as man's great gift, they never forgat the other side of his nature. Their image was of the horse and rider - today the Id and Ego - and understood the need to respect and control the bestial side…
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I'm coming back around to where I started, which was with Cezanne...and more generally with late 19th century European painting. I find more to excite me in that period than in any other.
As I think about the Impressionists, and the generations that followed, I definitely learn something about myself and what satisfies my artistic soul. I like structure. I am more excited by Degas and Manet, the two artists who had an "academic" training, than I am by most of Monet, and I like Monet better than Renoir. I can feel the lightness and joy of Renoir's work, its wonderful softness, but ultimately it leaves me wanting more.
In Degas' work, the feeling of carelessness in framing belies the artfulness behind it…
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Should paintings or nude statues be shown in a public setting such as a Library or Mall? As a visual artist who sets up art displays in public places, I am very aware of our American society's standards of what is considered acceptable for public consumption. All societies have these standards of behavior and yes, the standards do evolve with society. 60 years ago, Tarzan of the Apes was considered too sexy for the libraries! What is acceptable in Europe is quite different than what is acceptable in America also. American standards are usually much more conservative than those prevalent in Europe. In this financially strapped time, Libraries are very dependent on donations to purchase their materials…
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I have been picking out artists who are my favorites, and who also deserve to be called great because of the nature of their enterprise. Many of my favorite artists are not "great" in this sense; they are modest and unassuming in their scope and intentions. A good example is the artist with whom I feel the greatest natural affinity: John Constable. But before turning to Constable, I thought I should give homage to his truly great English contemporary, William Turner.
It is hard to like Turner as a human being; he was rather a nasty man, secretive, suspicious, paranoid…
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The decision to include Leonardo is not based on the impact of the work on me viscerally and emotionally; in fact, on one level you could say he is not a "favorite" artist at all. It is more that I stand in awe of what he accomplished as an artist, while so much of his energies and imagination were focussed on other things. And of course, after a piece on Michelangelo, it is only proper to give Leonardo equal time.
Michelangelo and Leonardo were the towering figures of the Renaissance until the younger Raphael rose to join them, great rivals, driving each other to greater heights…
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In each of the previous posts I have asked the question "What challenge did this artist set himself that sets his work beyond good to great?". Not all my favorite artists have such an ambitious enterprise, but I will show one more; Michelangelo. For me, the remarkable thing about his work is how often he rose above crippling external limitations and turned them into glorious oportunities.
The "David" is an excellent example, especially if we accept the story about its creation. According to contemporary sources, a truley magnificent block of Carrara marble, intended for another sculptor, was tragically damaged in transit, with a chunk broken off in the middle almost to the center of the block…
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This is the second in my new series of my favorite artists, and what it is in their artistic enterprise that sets them above the merely very good. After having started with a self-portrait by Cezanne in my last post, I can't resist starting this post off with another self-portrait, one of many by Rembrandt.
How different they are! The Cezanne self-portrait, though it can captivate you as a work of art for hours, in the end shows you almost nothing about the man beyond his physical exterior. Cezanne clearly was not trying to explore his inner self at all. The Rembrandt, on the other hand, shows you infintely more than a thousand words could tell you about his soul, his humanity, and most importantly our humanity. Just look into his eyes, and get lost in them…
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The other day I was in for treatment at my chiropractor, and he asked me if I had seen "that guy who paints on TV" and what I thought of him. I said I had, that he had mastered the skills of his craft, and had developed visual ideoms for natural elements which were now second nature to him. Then, in an effort to explain why that did not make him a great artist, I told him about Cezanne. Later, I decided that might make a good series of posts to do: artists whose chosen enterprise was such that the challenge of it elevated them way above the norm.
I told my chiropractor that Cezanne, far from whipping off images that he could do in his sleep, set himself a goal that is arguably the most challenging ever set by an artist…
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This is a collage created almost entirely from recycled magazines. (The sun is gold leaf) I worked on this by grading the magazine photos by value and then treating the value sketch (gridded up onto 24_36 piece of black matboard from an 8,5_11 b/w photograph) like the base for a big big jigsaw…
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There is sex, that physical act, and then there is love making. While often playing semantics, there is a discernible difference between the two. Making love implies an emotional connection, a certain intimacy that transcends the physical, and often has nothing to do with sexual intercourse. Making love can be present in all kinds of relationships, in fact, as it is the uniquely human ability to connect on a spiritual plane.
Suze Orman says, quite accurately, that women are more relational than men. A woman cannot do well with anything in her life, unless she has a relationship with it. While Suze is talking about women and money, I think this idea is important…
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Eight Reasons Why Small Art Makes A Big Gift
The Holidays aren__™t coming, they__™re here! We're barely through the Thanksgiving leftovers and already the giving and receiving of gifts has spiraled out of control. We feel pressure to buy something, anything, whether the receiver wants it or not. Don__™t get frantic, take a deep breath, think it through. "Doesn__™t art, especially small art, make the perfect gift?" Here are eight reasons why___
1. Art fits everyone
2. There is a good chance they don__™t have another one like it.
3. Art doesn__™t spoil.
4. There is no such thing as too much art.
5. You can take it on a plane.
6. Art (often) does not require batteries.
7. There is no assembly.…
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It is not a new idea that nature herself is a rich source of abstract pattern and design. Examples of pattern are all around us, in the forms of flowers, the lacework of branches against the sky, and the geological expressions in rock. In the last hundred years, we have been able to see the patterns of nature at the macro and micro scale as well: The fabulous swirling forms of nebulae, and the intricate ordered patterns of crystals.
I have always had a powerful response to these natural patterns, while never having a strong urge to work abstractly. My compulsion in art is to record what excites me in the outside world. In the last eighteen months, that has often been rocks and rockfaces. Most recently, I have found myself responding to the most abstract examples I see…
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"While watching a Dave Matthews Band recording, I was struck by the beauty of the African costumes worn by his back up singers. The ladies were stunning, and I knew immediately I had to make this necklace, called, "The Ladies"
I feel a tremendous draw to tribal patterns and ethnic colors. To me there is a universal connection to each peoples' experience of nature that expresses itself in primitive art. Regardless of who we are or where we are in our present physical being, I believe we all, as connected beings of One Source, have access to these images. I love that glass, as a very primitive art medium, continues to lend itself to endless expressions of color, pattern, and style…
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This image is by artist Miriam West who sells her original artwork in Union Square Park in New York City. This is Miriam's livlihoood and for ten years, it was my livelihood too. I became an artist by selling my work on the street in Soho and then for the last three years until last summer in Union Square. I not only survived monetarily, I also made important contacts with galleries, publications and clients who now support me from all over the world.
Now the parks department, backed by Mayor Bloomberg want to sterilize our parks and limit the number of artists selling in the parks…
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When I first joined
artId.com, I was almost immediately challenged by another artist who seemed, by and large, much more experienced and knowledgeable about this whole thing called art than I will likely ever claim to be... He didn't seem to like my work and I really didn__™t like what he seemed to be trying to say to me about it. I evaded his remarks as best I could and I got rather defensive in return, to say the least. I didn__™t like what he was insinuating about my ___art___ because, at the time, it seemed like he was trying to tell me that all the elements of an innate ability are found within my work, but it seemed to me that he (more than anything else) thought my work lacked something…
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In the contemporary art world, it seems pass__ to produce images that are simply beautiful. The successful modern artist, (generally speaking, of course), confronts, dares, shocks, and comments in order to be heard and seen. Is this the purest function of art? Are artists responsible for instigating discussion, for changing the world? Or is it OK to make images that are beautiful, images that simply celebrate the wonder that is also a part of our experience? What would you prefer to have in your home or office? What would you prefer to see at a museum or gallery?
I am making my annual sojourn to the mountains this week___no satellite signals, no power___just the earth in all her glory. I will be turning these questions over in my mind under a canopy of 200 year old trees…
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If there is any one thing that can bring your creativity to a halt, it__™s a negative attitude. If you think everything is bad, then it will be. The news media has the power of negative thinking and will only report the worst. It__™s catchy, all that doom and gloom and it__™s easy to get stuck in their quicksand. …
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Here are my thoughts about abstract art and this piece that I created with watercolor pencils.
When the eye sends light signals to the brain, those impulses goes through the Lateral Geniculate Nucleii to the visual cortex (the projection screen in the back of the head) which then routes the signals back to the LGN via the information processing channels of the ___subconscious___ including memory, associations, personality and all other so-called intentional states of mind like beliefs and desires which are extensions of the intellect and emotions, and which account for things like empathy and spirituality in art and religion.
Without this perceptual feedback, the owner of the brain cannot recognize the image before his eyes…
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It is almost as if Henri Cartier-Bresson could make himself invisible, judging by the way the people in his photographs seem unaffected by - if even aware of - the great French photographer__™s presence. His images are completely candid; no posers allowed. His photos are value-added portraits of reality. He could extract drama out of the commonplace, and always found the balance point between narration and abstraction. Cartier-Bresson, whose life touched every decade in the 20th century and beyond, was friends with another Henri - the artist Matisse. Maybe that's who influenced the strangely decorative aspect to Cartier-Bresson__™s photographs.
Henri Cartier-Bresson's images are gray-scale compositions with somewhat musical qualities…
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder whether you__™re looking at an Ingres__™ odalisque, a Grecian urn, a Gibson arch-top, or Gucci heels. For everything from Delacroix to dirty pictures, you need vision to enjoy art.
As I have my head examined by the experts here at The Peterson Institute of Arts and Sciences Research Laboratory and Gift Shop, my eyeball is a theme park. Let me walk you through it while the venerated Doctor D. L. Rayburn stands by on the outside. So don your wet-suits for a trip thru the vitreous humor, the fluid that fills the eyeball - but please, no flash photography. If hypodermic needles and quivering eyeballs make you squeamish then just relax and___
We__™re in…
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