Still from Under Discussion, a video by Allora & Calzadilla (great interview with them here)
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Excerpt from Tine Van Aerschot’s first production, I have no thoughts and this is one. The actress is Forced Entertainment’s Claire Marshall.
Another excerpt and a short bio here.
Diogenes Laertes, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Pythagoras, Bk. VIII, 8:
“When Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked Pythagoras who he was, he said, “a philosopher,” and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth.”
Video by comedian/musician Chris Cohen.
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Kamila Szejnoch’s work Swing is the winner of this year’s Szpilman Award (“awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time”). The Swing was suspended on one of Warsaw’s largest (and scariest) monuments, the monument to the Berling Army Soldier. (for posters in the same vein and for Szejnoch’s commentary, see here).
Two other works I particularly like from among the finalists are Sai Hua Kuan’s Space Drawing
and Kate Mitchell’s I am Not A Joke:
What I find fascinating in Kristine Moran’s paintings is the sense of discipline. The disasters that keep appearing, the huge messes of messes, the total wreck of a reality she introduces us into, seem like a carefuly planned catastrophy.
No wonder she arrived at theater interiors, with their settings ready for the show, with the wardrobe mirrors reflecting every possible aspect of the mask, with their ridiculously decorative shapes that are bound to disappear when it happens.
This stage is set for failure. A beautiful failure of something that seemed to be going right. Everything was set, every rule was applied and every hope was nurtured.
And yet, the closer to what matters, to the subject (the topic, the I, the eye), the bigger the tension.
Until it all just blows up in pieces.
But not entirely. And call me an optimist, but this structure which reappears even in the most amorphous circumstances sustains not just the painting, but also, whatever is left of me, the empathic viewer.
Moran’s pictures have evolved into an astonishing universe where 3D space that contains, well, how do I put it… paint. Color. Texture. Painting is the better word here. It is as if the painting, a 2D picture, moved into a 3D space. And the space accepted it, incorporating it in its realm. If you think this is a metaphor, see this:
Kristine Moran has been compared to Francis Bacon. Yes, sure, the inter-dependence of form and reality, their perverse games of hide-and-seek… But Moran’s work seemingly leaves the human body – though certainly not the human – much further behind. And maybe because of that, it appears as not so much a struggle of the artist, as a struggle between the forms themselves. As she watches them, cooly, from a distance.
The titles are, in order of appearance: You Used To Be Alright, What Happened ; The World Is Yours ; Collapse of Will ; Hunter – Gatherer.
Okay. This is not an easy moment. All this attention is getting me nervous, and I feel like everything I write is being observed… After all, this has all along been about a private journey into the realm of some contemporary art.
So, just to make sure it is still a blog, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, I was an addict of skiing. I trained and I raced (without too much of a success) and I even got to spend some time with the Polish Ski Team. My first encounter with them was in a hotel in the French village of Les Deux Alpes. I entered the hotel room, and there they were, Poland’s finest skiers. Most of them were concentrated on a Playstation game of Formula 1, with its volume set to maximum level. The rest of the young sportsmen were watching TV – it was a formula 1 race, and its noise was competing with the game. Everyone was completely mesmerized by the two screens. It took me at least a minute to realize there was someone else in the room, though. It was Andrzej Bachleda, by far Poland’s best skier, who has lived most of his life in France, and whom I considered a strange guy – not very talkative, some sort of an odd case… In the midst of the overwhelming noise, the man was sitting on the bed, tucked into a corner, and reading Hemingway.
Well, this man has also come a long way since that moment. He has recently put out another album. Here is one song. (Besides the charming music, do appreciate the Polish mountains in the background).
I told myself that I wouldn’t mention Damien Hirst for a while as he’s a bit of a news hog, but I just can’t help myself. There’s no other artist out there like him. None of my artists friends have told me that they’re laying off up to 20 employees as none of my artist friends have 20 employees to lay off.
The quote below is from the Guardian newspaper here.
“On Thursday, up to 17 of the 22 people who make the pills for Hirst’s drug cabinet series were told their contracts were not being renewed, according to two sources close to Science Ltd, Hirst’s main art-producing company. Another three who make his butterfly paintings were also told they were surplus to requirements.
It is thought that amounts to approximately half of the London-based artists who work for Hirst. They are paid about £19,000 a year, sources said. In June 2007, Lullaby Spring, a cabinet filled with hand-painted pills, sold for £9.65m.”
Artinfo also mention the story here.
The Wooster Collective published an interview with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada. The answers to the following three questions are a brilliant introduction to his work. (My favorite, of course, is the third answer.)
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
I admire artists from different periods because of how they have impacted me at different times in my life. Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Giraud, Marcel Duchamp, John Heartfield, Ana Mendieta, Chris Burden, Barbara Kruger, Mark Pauline, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer are each a little part of me as an artist. With my contemporaries I would have to say that Swoon, Blu, and Marc Jenkins have impressed me not only with what they say with what they create, but also because of who they are as people.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
My art is usually found within the urban landscape. City textures are my favorite background for my work. I like to work with ephemeral materials. One of my directions is to create large charcoal portraits of anonymous people on inner city walls that fade away with the wind and rain.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
If I had another lifetime to devote to something else I would probably be an archeologist.
There is one thing about these portraits from the Identity Series I find awe-inspiring. They are modest. They bring forward the anonymous faces in a way that inspires both empathy and awe. They put them forward, fighting the war with commercial works as well as any. And yet, they are not shining at us with attractive colors. Their truthfulness is more than honest. It is humble. And yet – proud. And one more crucial thing: these faces, they fade away with time. This rare combination of grandiosity and modesty is something truly impressive.
Which brings us to Rodriguez-Gerada’s latest project, the one most of us came to know him for.
He is the author of a huge portrait of Barack Obama (although actually the work is still not finished). But I think this has received enough publicity already. Appropriately enough, the work will be called Expectations, and is yesterday’s news even before it inaugurated. Which tells us as much about the reception of directly political art as about the work itself. (On the other hand, this expectation is also about preparing the desinchantment, isn’t it?)
Two documentaries about Rodriguez-Gerada’s work in Spain:
The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia is selling two major works by two Australian artists from it’s collection to raise the remaining funds needed to purchase a painting by Cezanne titled Bords De La Marne. Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Edmund Capon, is the driving force behind the purchase of the work for AUD$16.2 million from a Swiss private collection which will be the most expensive work ever purchase by a gallery in Australia. Having committed to purchasing the work without having all the funds available, Capon and the gallery have had to do everything that they can to raise the extra funds in hurry and have been begging for donations at every opportunity.
The two works being sold to help fund the purchase are Balmoral by Brett Whiteley’s and Pleasure Craft John Perceval’s both of which are very important works by two of Australia’s most important artists. Apparently the benefactor who donated the pieces has given his blessing to the sale which is all very nice but what would the artist’s think and what would their opinion of the sale be if they were alive today?
It is expected that the price paid for both works at the auction, which is due to take place on the 24th of November, will be considerably lower than if they had been sold six months ago. Capon has even admitted that this is not the ideal time to be selling works of art at auction. By selling these works during a slump in the art market for a lower price it would seem that the sale of these two works has the potential to have a negative effect on the value of the work by both artists which would not reflect well on the gallery.
What concerns me the most is that the Cezanne is being purchased to mark the 30th anniversary of Edmund Capon’s directorship of the gallery. The reason that this concerns me is that two important works of Australian art are being sacrificed in what seems to be a last ditch and desperate effort to secure a work by a non-Australian artist. The whole saga raises the question of whether the gallery has jeopardised the value of the work of two Australian artists just to ensure that Capon gets his anniversary trophy. According to Capon the sale of the two Australian works is not an act of desperation but there is the potential for the market to still perceive the sale to be an act of desperation even if it isn’t. Regardless of the reasoning behind the sale of the paintings I doubt that any artist would want their work to be sold under such circumstances.
I agree that a work by Cezanne will fill a hole in the galleries collection and that Bords De La Marne does seem like a good buy but considering the economic climate and the circumstances in which the work is being purchased, I question whether the purchase of Bords De La Marne at the current time is such a good idea. Capon is quoted in an article from the Sydney Morning Herald as saying “Our timing is obviously not ideal, but there is a degree of urgency from the gallery’s point of view – we simply have to pay for the Cezanne,” If the gallery is that short of funds then should they have committed to purchasing the work in the first place or should they have waited for a better time to make such a significant purchase?
Image: Bords De La Marne by Cezanne
Created by Nicholas Forrest On 11/26/08 At 05:18 PM
The skeptic in me says that there are no original lost masterpieces hiding in closets or the storage sheds of long lost relatives, but I guess it could be possible.
A British woman has discovered a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite English artist John Everett Millais valued at £50,000. The story is that the 45 year old woman was given the painting as a gift for her 9th birthday and forgot about it until she moved house.
Millais is most famous for his Ophelia painting at the Tate Britain, inspired by Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
There’s more on the lost masterpiece on the Telegraph website here.
Other lost masterpieces (or found fakes/copies) include the $50 million Jackson Pollock and some lost Australian paintings found in Texas.
