Wired

My last project before my art class ended for the semester had to do with using string in a three dimensional format.  I had a cigar box which I painted with many coats of black paint.  I then unsuccessfully tried to tie string in different configurations around the box keeping it very taut.  Frustration quickly set in.  I was unable to adhere the string tightly enough even after using all kinds of glue.  I then trashed that idea.  I decided to substitute wire for string and instead of wrapping the box, I used plastic stands taken from a children's board game and bent wire to fit into the slots.  I liked the idea of incorporating one yellow stand.  I finally glued all the pieces to the bottom of the box creating a minimal abstract design.

Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde at the MOMA

"From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, Tokyo transformed itself from the capital of a war-torn nation into an international center for arts, culture, and commerce, becoming home to some of the most important art being made at the time. Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde provides a focused look at the extraordinary concentration and network of creative individuals and practices in this dynamic city during these turbulent years. Featuring works of various media—painting, sculpture, photography, drawings, and graphic design, as well as video and documentary film—the exhibition offers a story of artistic crossings, collaborations, and, at times, conflicts, with the city as an incubator. It introduces the myriad avant-garde experiments that emerged as artists drew on the energy of this rapidly growing and changing metropolis."

The above quote is taken from the Museum of Modern Art's website.  I viewed the exhibit the other day and was very surprised at how little I knew about the avant-garde movement in Tokyo at that time.

The work I saw was very political and experimental.  There were many references to the atomic bomb, repression, the war, history etc.  Above is an example of a surreal painting of a samauri overlooking what appears to be an american west landscape.

This is an exhibit worth seeing if for no other reason than to get a feel of what was happening during this important period in Japanese art.

A Class Trip to the Whitney Museum of American Art

After my last class for the fall semester, a small group of us went to the Whitney Museum www.whitney.org to see several current exhibits.

First up was a full floor show of an artist by the name of Wade Guyton OS.

From a review of the NY Times:


Like many artists Mr. Guyton, who is 40, is both a radical and a traditionalist who breaks the mold but pieces it back together in a different configuration. He is best known for austere, glamorous paintings that have about them a quiet poetry even though devised using a computer, scanner and printer. The show is titled “Wade Guyton: OS,” referring to computer operating systems.

Uninterested in drawing by hand, much less in wielding a paintbrush, he describes himself as someone who makes paintings but does not consider himself a painter. His vocabulary of dots, stripes, bands and blocks, as well as much enlarged X’s and U’s and occasional scanned images, combines the abstract motifs of generic Modernism and the recycling strategies of Andy Warhol and Pictures Generation artists like Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine."

At the other end of the age spectrum an 89 year old artist by the name of Richard Artshwager has an exhibit that is tremendously diverse featuring the mediums of sculpture, painting and drawing.

From The New Yorker:


"The artist, who remains active at the age of eighty-eight, has lost nothing in the way of talent, skill, or ambition since the nineteen-sixties, when he amazed the New York art world with superbly crafted paintings and sculptures in eccentric mediums: plywood, rubberized horsehair, and, especially, Formica, which he called “the great ugly material, the horror of the age.”The work blended the essences of the big movements of the sixties—Pop art, minimalism, and conceptualism—with a sweet frisson of outsiderness, reflecting the late-blooming Artschwager’s jump into art from his first career, as a furniture-maker. "

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/richard-artschwager-whitney-museum-of-american-art-art#ixzz2ENYSXWzc

  

"Off The Grid"

My latest assignment was "Checkerboard" utilizing a 2 dimensional collage.  I had saved many calendars that have been either mailed to me from various organizations or given to me.  For this project I used a calendar focussing on quilts.  I glued the shapes onto a polka dot background still being inspired by the artist Yayoi Kusama (see Sept. 13th. blog).  I then added more polka dots and cut out the interior spaces of some of the squares allowing the background to peek through.  Finally, I added 2 women cut out from an old photo that I found at an antique store.  Perhaps there is a story here...women being the quilt makers.  Below is the result:

"Faking It" A photography show at the Met

The other day I saw a very interesting show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org entitled "Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop."

"The urge to modify camera images is as old as photography itself—only the methods have changed. Nearly every type of manipulation we now associate with digital photography was also part of the medium's pre-digital repertoire: smoothing away wrinkles, slimming waistlines, adding people to a scene (or removing them)—even fabricating events that never took place."

Before I visited this exhibit I had copied some old black and white photos of old-time movie stars in different settings.  I then photographed myself, cut and pasted my head onto the body of some of the actresses and then copied them on my printer.  Thus I had manipulated the photos and below are some of the results:

Shades of Gray (not the book)

    The last class I had before the super storm Sandy reeked havoc on the area had as a theme "interiors using shades of gray."   One of the artists whose interiors I have always loved is Matisse.  His use of color and pattern was a hallmark of his work.  Using his imagery I made a black and white copy of one of his very colorful paintings, mounted it on black board, added collage, removed some areas with a straight edge blade, and using pen and ink filled in some areas as well.  Without bright colors, his painting takes on a very different feel.  

A Political Collage

"Map" and "Globe" were themes for the last two classes.  For maps,  I decided to cut up one of Africa and glue the countries haphazardly on a black ground emphasizing how little we know of this continent.  I added imagery of African American woman that was transferred onto packing tape which gives an indistinct image further emphasizing how vague our knowledge is of the people and the continent.

For "Globe" I decided to make another political statement using some imagery I found of Osama Bin Laden.  I cut and pasted his head on a background of hot air balloons seemingly floating in the sky.  Although he looks rather benign I did place one of his heads upside down next to the flag of the United States.  The other flags represent many countries involved with terrorism directly or indirectly.

A Trip to the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia

Recently my daughter and I went to see the new home of the Barnes collection www.barnesfoundation.org in Philadelphia.  Between 1912 and 1951, Dr. Albert Barnes collected post-impressionist and modern paintings.  He then had a gallery built in Merion outside of the city to house his collection.  Not only did he assemble paintings, but he also amassed African sculpture, Asian art, antiquities, industrial art, jewelry etc.  He hung these pieces together in a very specific way and called them ensembles.  In order to see his collection in Merion, one had to make an appointment.  Now that the collection has been moved to a new beautiful museum in the heart of Philadelphia, it is easier to see the work although an appointment can be made on line and is suggested.  I was overwhelmed by the depth and beauty of this collection and I highly recommend a visit.  Below is just a small sampling.

Van Gogh

Cezanne

Matisse

Hansel and Gretel revisited - an Assemblage

At my class last week we were given an assignment to use "homely" objects perhaps within a box.  A while ago I had started to decorate a box with paint and floral paper.  Then I left it alone until last week.  I had completed several earlier assemblages using the fairy tale themes of "Rapunzel" and "Sleeping Beauty."  For this project I decided to revisit "Hansel and Gretel."  The little figures which are actually salt and pepper shakers were found at an antique dealer in Ithaca.  The twigs are real.

Below are my versions of "Rapunzel" and "Sleeping Beauty".

Corrugated Paper

This past week our assignment was to create a collage out of corrugated paper.  Honestly, this did not particularly interest me.  However, instead of ignoring the assignment and doing something altogether different, I decided to challenge myself and work with a material that I had no great love for.  I remembered a Picasso exhibit that I saw a while ago where he used that material in his creation of a guitar. His corrugated paper collage is featured above.

I set to work and my collage is shown below.

Transforming 2 Dimensions Into 3

In my last blog I wrote about a visit to the Whitney Museum and how I decided to do a two dimensional collage inspired by the polka dots that artist Yayoi Kusama uses in many of her pieces.  The theme of my art class this past week was white on white again.  This time, however,  the assignment was to create a 3 dimensional artwork.  With that in mind I chose to recycle my 2 dimensional piece and create an assemblage.   I had a glass covered square rosewood box that I painted white using several coats of acrylic paint.  I then pasted my original collage inside the box and added painted wooden spherical shapes.  Finally, using gloss medium I sealed and shined up the outside.  Voila a new piece!

At the Whitney Museum

At the Whitney museum www.whitney.org I saw a retrospective of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama pictured here.  Her work spanning many decades encompasses painting, sculpture, drawing, collages and large-scale installations.

Although I was unfamiliar with her work, I found myself intrigued by her vision and the vast collection and variety of her art.

In fact, today the first day of my collage class we were given an assignment  called "white on white."  I always considered myself a colorist so this was going to be quite a challenge.  I must have been influenced by Kusama's use of polka dots in many of her pieces and the result is pictured here:

A Gem of a Museum

The great advantage of living in New York are the many museums and art galleries featuring art through the ages from prehistoric to the latest in contemporary pieces.  Most of us are familiar with the major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art.  However, there are some small gems and the other day I discovered one of them.

The Rubin Museum of Art rmanyc.org located on 17th. Street between 6th. and 7th. avenue is a museum devoted to Himalayan art with many works from Tibet, China, and India.  It is a beautiful museum occupying 5 floors with changing exhibits.  One can view the many unique sculptures, paintings, wall hangings etc. without any crowds hovering close by.  I look forward to returning there and highly recommend it.

At the Museum of Modern Art

"Century of the Child-Growing By Design, 1900-2000" is the name of one of the exhibits I visited today at the Museum of Modern Art.  The emphasis is on the preoccupation of childhood during the 20th. century.   Along with the myriad toys and games featured, there was also school architecture, clothing playgrounds etc.  The objects ranged from colorful, harmless toys to more serious ones with overtones of politics such as war toys.

I find old style toys particularly interesting and try to incorporate them into some of my assemblages as shown above.

Another Museum Visit

Recently I visited the Neue Museum www.neuegalerie.org located on Fifth Avenue and 86th. Street.  The reason for my visit was to view the work of Gustav Klimt whose 150th. anniversary is being celebrated.  The museum had paintings on view from their own collection along with some from other sources as well as drawings and personal photographs.  His work is very well known, very decorative and he is known for his paintings of women.  However there were several landscapes included that I had not seen before which I liked very much.  You can view them on the website.

I have always been interested in painting people as opposed to landscapes or still lifes. Above are two examples of my efforts.

The Confluence of Art and Nature

This past week I have been staying with my sister and brother-in-law at their home in Ithaca New York an area filled with natural beauty.  Art can be found not only on the walls of a gallery or a museum but in the world around us.  I am always in awe of the beauty of nature and how natural wonders can be interpreted into artworks.  Below are some examples.

A Japanese Garden at the Johnson Museum at Cornell

A Gorge at Treman State Park

"Almost Famous Paintings" - an altered book

Recently one of the projects I worked on was altering a book which is an art form that can be very creative.  I chose a book of famous paintings that I have owned for many years.  With paint, collage and other materials I picked pictures that appealed to me and then changed or altered them rendering them into new images often resulting in humorous takes on the original works of art.

Vuillard at the Jewish Museum

Today I went to the Jewish Museum jewishmuseum.org where a wonderful exhibit featuring the French artist Edouard Vuilllard who painted during the 19th - 20th centuries.  He was part of a group of artists known as Nabis....known for their somewhat abstract style, flat painting and pattern.  I was not very familiar with his work and enjoyed the visit tremendously.  He was a painter of people in their everyday surroundings.  As he said, he painted people, not portraits.  One can learn much more about an individual surrounded by their own possessions doing everyday things than someone sitting stiffly facing the artist.  I hope you take a look at the site.

A visit to Monet's Garden at the NY Botanical Garden

Today I paid a visit to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx to view a new exhibit which is a recreation of Monet's Garden in Giverny.  It was a beautiful display featuring many different flowers,  a  palette of deep, beautiful colors and an inspiration to anyone who appreciates nature.  I now understand why Monet became a painter of flowers and spent many happy years in Giverny creating this masterpiece of a garden.

Iron

One of the recent weekly themes in my class was "iron".  Most of my fellow students chose to create a collage incorporating the appliance "iron".  I did not.  I checked the thesaurus and among the synonyms were words like strong, hard etc.  With that in mind I decided to use metal screws and nails and decorated a box that I first painted silver.  I then thought of using an action hero and placed him in the box as my little twist on a more serious piece.  I call it "Strong Box."

The Affordable Art Fair

"Dream State"  (Sold piece)

Saturday, the day of the fair started out damp and wet but improved dramatically as the day wore on.  The show had 25 exhibitors with varied work such as photography, collage, painting, pottery etc.  I thought that the quality was very good, but unfortunately the attendance was smaller than expected I think due to the lack of advertising.  However many of my friends came to support me and I did sell one of my pieces.  I also think the troubling economic condition gave people pause before plunking down money for artwork.  However, I am really glad to have had that experience and I especially want to thank Chloe, Sophie and Jennifer for sticking it out and offering me a lot of help and advice on setting up the show.  I am now ready to enter more art shows and get my work out there.

Using the Computer to Create

One of the weekly themes of my art class was "Mirror."  Using this concept I decided to make a mirror image of my head using the photo booth app on my MacBook.  The result is very strange and depending on how one looks at it, it can resemble me or a weird Asian person.  I titled it "Me Too" as a play on words.

Using Words

I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art  www.moma.org where I saw an exhibit entitled "Exquisite Alphabets" which uses words to express ideas, concepts, beliefs etc.  Words have always been an important form of expression and using them in an artistic way is what I chose to do in this next project.   The theme of my last class was "Knife" and I immediately came across the words "Knives" and "Kill" in the newspaper.  That was the beginning of an idea.  I painted a small canvas black leaving a red line representing blood.  Then serendipity happened...I came across a stamp with the words YOU SHOULD KNOW... A new mixed-media piece was born.

A Day of Art in NYC

Today I went to a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about the iconic painting "Madame X" by John Singer Sargent painted in 1884.  It created a huge scandal at the time.  She was a woman who was very concerned with her appearance and wore a rather risque gown.  Sargent was  determined to paint her as he saw her..a rather haughty woman who was unafraid to defy convention.  Notice the ear...she rouged it!

I also created a painting of a woman who is concerned with appearances.

A Theme

I have been working on a theme for some of my assemblages using well-known fairy tales in a different way.  "Rapunzel and The Tiny Prince" is featured here.  I used a head from a broken old-fashioned bathing beauty doll attached her to a hand-painted birdhouse and found a tiny prince to place at the base.  If you notice, her hair is tied up...perhaps she is not that interested in that little prince.

I also worked on a piece I call "Sleeping Beauty Awakes".  In this one I used an old doll,  put her into a hand-painted book box, covered her with a fancy blanket, and added pearls.  The prince (actually the head of a Ken doll) is attached to the lid and lo and behold 3 babies are in bed with her!  A lot has transpired during her years of coma-like sleeping.

A Visit to the Museum of Modern Art

As a member of the MOMA, I try to go fairly often and recently I went to view several exhibits.  I have always been interested in photography and the Cindy Sherman exhibit is a must.  She is the subject of every photograph changing her persona each time.  Another fascinating photographer features an exhibit by Taryn Simon who was being interviewed while I was viewing her work.  You can check out these and other shows on the MOMA site.  Below is one of my favorite photographs by yours truly.  This photo was taken from my window one morning.