Well, this is something special: ish klein and the Boo! show. I found it through a meandering trail of clicking and reading things about this and that (namely CA Conrad) and now I'm watching a bunch of episodes on the YouTube.
Different in a good way & I feel better for having stumbled upon them.
Showing posts with label 700 Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 700 Art. Show all posts
Modern art and my new coat
I have a new coat. It belonged to my aunt, who is moving out of Roslindale, leaving me the last of the Watson clan to be in the Roslindale/West Roxbury area. A place we have been since about 1909. The 100 year tradition continues.As a result of Aunt Bet ty moving, many things are donated or given away to make the move easier, as is the usual custom. I was the receiver of all the "funky" things unwanted: chunky necklaces with a Buddha medalion, a fantastic feminine Stetson-ish hat and my new coat, a Piet Mondrian inspired piece of fashion.
This lead me to the question: who is Piet Mondrian? I mean, I've seen those lines and color blocks for ages, but it's time to explore. Here, from the website:
http://www.artinthepicture.com/
A collection of quotes from the artist, and my humble thoughts on the quote.
Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture.
Of course, immediately, I think in terms of poetry. I substitute "lines and color" for "words and syntax" and "subject of the picture" for "subject in the poem". I think about the LANGUAGE poets. & now-a-days? What does Post-Abstract look like? Two threads, is what I see. One is a backlash. In terms of art, it is art that is Neo-Realism. In poetry, linear narrative work, like our dearest Billy Collins. The other thread is a merging of movements, including Abstract. It may seem in opposition to the movement that after it is experienced, it then gets incorporated into a hybrid of past periods, but I feel as though I'm seeing that in art -- partially abstract but partially clear in "subject" -- that we are able to incorporate that into our creations now.
The position of the artist if humble. He is essentially a channel.
Yes, indeed. I've written about this on my poetics blog (where I'm reposting this entry so sorry if you're reading it there & now confused. If that's where you're reading this, see my day to day blog for the original entry). Art pre-exists in a frequency and artists try to tune into the frequency to channel what they're hearing from it. Sounds hippie maybe, but let's talk about it like this. Chef Jose Andreas, who has a show called "Made in Spain" on PBS and also has an interesting looking restaurant in DC, likes to use the sparist ingredients for some recipes. But he also experiments in that gastrowhatsitcalled type crazy foam shtuff and whatnot. His philosophy on why he is able to execute this type of cooking successfully, and why other chefs tend to fail, is that he "listens" to the essence of the food. He does not try to dominate or master it and change it to something it is not meant to be. He tunes into the essence of the food item and then extracts it and plays with it to see what else it wants to do. The same happens with the painter and the pain, the sounds and the musician, the poet and the words. It's not a matter of mastering and dominating but of listening and channeling.
In art the search for a content which is collectively understandable is false; the content will always be individual.
Because EVERYTHING is subjective; therefore, meaning can never be absolute. (So, instead, make lines and blocks of primary colors...)
The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore the object must be eliminated from the picture.
Again, I think of poetry that takes out the narrative angle and instead focus on the juxtaposition (smartpeopleword) of words to prickle the brain in ways that prose does not.To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual.
I think, in this case, about the difference between gnosticism and apostolicism. Gnosticism is about going inside oneself to find spirituality. Apostolicism is about going out and "preaching the word of the Lord", if you will. So, if you call reality the outside, than the spiritual can easily be the inside.
Okay, that's the end of my ponderings on Piet Mondrian's quotes. I didn't use all of them from the website, just a few choice ones.
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Piet_Mondrian/Quotes/
Andrew Wyeth, the Portland Museum of Art and Lynne Drexler
Andrew Wyeth died today. He has a lot of work at the Portland Museum of Art, where I happened to be this past Tuesday. He's one of the featured artists there, actually. There's a significant N. C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth collection on the third floor. I am someone who quite loves those "huh?" inducing paintings -- the abstract expressionists. However, I love Andrew Wyeth because he captured the quiet, the beauty, the sometimes grotesqueness, the harsh but still comforting aspects of my beloved Maine in his work.
On the other end of the spectrum, 
the museum had an exhibit about the artist Lynne Drexler, one of the Monhegan artists. Her, I loved. She is an abstract expressionist but also, as someone in the feature DVD about her that was playing as part of the exhibit put it, she was a colorist (not the hair care kind!). Her play, her invention and her "juxtaposition" to use one of those AWESOME words that always sound so pretentiously silly, however apt they may be, of color I loved a lot.
the museum had an exhibit about the artist Lynne Drexler, one of the Monhegan artists. Her, I loved. She is an abstract expressionist but also, as someone in the feature DVD about her that was playing as part of the exhibit put it, she was a colorist (not the hair care kind!). Her play, her invention and her "juxtaposition" to use one of those AWESOME words that always sound so pretentiously silly, however apt they may be, of color I loved a lot. NYT Andrew Wyeth obit:
Things I Love - MOBA
One of the things I love in Boston is very close by to where I live. It's not technically in Boston; it's in Dedham. The Dedham Community Theatre houses one of Boston's best treasures: the Museum of Bad Art. The MOBA should not be confused with Boston's Museum of Fine Art (also a favorite place) but once you see the collection, there's no chance of confusion.
Recently, WBUR, the local NPR station did a feature on the MOBA, which has now expanded to the Somerville Theatre as well. Both the Somerville and Dedham MOBAs are located in the lobby outside of the men's bathroom.
Story at WBUR is here.
MOBA webpage:
Purchase the book (pictured above) here.
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)
Robert Rauschenberg passed away earlier this week. If you don't know his work, NPR just did a very comprehensive remembrance:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90411572
I learned about Rauschenberg when I took the "Black Mountain College" course my final year at UMaine from Steve Evans with guest professor Robert Creeley.
After that I hadn't thought much about Rauschenberg until I went to the SFMOMA in 2003 during April vacation (my first April vacation as a teacher). They had an exhibit that featured Rauschenberg's work prominently, and I was grateful for the course I had taken two years beforehand, which enhanced my appreciation for the exhibit.
That course was something else, I tell yah. (That's the 1950s way to say it, which is how a lot of the quotes sound in Duberman's book about it) and I had no idea how lucky I was to have been in it while I was there.
So, here's to Robert Rauschenberg. Thanks for being so kick ass.
Dur...
But seriously, he was.
URGENT: For All the Truly "True Americans" (the ones who actually believe in the first amendment)
URGENT: For All the Truly "True Americans" (the ones who actually believe in the first amendment)
Please read. From Nomadics, Pierre Joris's blog. All back story leading to this post can be fond here:
Please read. From Nomadics, Pierre Joris's blog. All back story leading to this post can be fond here:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Troy's Heavy Hand of Censorship
In two previous posts I reported on RPI banning an art installation by Iraqi-born, US-citizen Waafa Bilal and its re-opening under the aegis of The Sanctuary for Independent Media. I was there on Monday night, and there was indeed a counter demontrarion (under that old slogan of "Freedom is not Free") by some 25 people. Bilal's presentation & talk went ahead without any trouble, however, in front of a large audience that filled the space to capacity. It was an exhilarating occasion, living proof, it seemed, that freedom of speech & First Amendment rights were not completely extinguished in Bush-land. But then, this morning, The Sanctuary sent out the message below – extremely disheartening & shocking. Please help The Sanctuary survive by making a contribution to its fund.
Perhaps you've heard the news that the City of Troy, citing code violations, has shut down The Sanctuary for Independent Media effective immediately.
This happened the day after a top Troy official, who is also a Rensselaer County legislator and a constituent liaison for Senator Joseph Bruno, organized a protest condemning Wafaa Bilal's work and our decision to present it on Monday night.
We have been working on our building since we first occupied it and throughout have been in close communication with the city about our plans, so this sudden closure- following the censorship of Wafaa's work by RPI last week-came as quite a shock.
You can hear the phone call from the City of Troy here, along with a clip from Wafaa Bilal's talk, and make up your own mind about the motivation behind the City's action.
We have contacted the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and private practice attorneys for assistance on the First Amendment aspects of this situation.
This crisis has created an urgent need to raise funds for building improvements: if you can manage it, it would be greatly appreciated if you could make a secure online financial contribution at here, or send a check payable to The Sanctuary for Independent Media to PO Box 35, Troy NY 12181.
Under the circumstances, the remaining three programs in our "Art, Freedom, Democracy" series are in jeopardy as is the rest of the Sanctuary season. We will let you know shortly whether our presentation of The Yes Men next Tuesday, March 18 will proceed as planned, and if so, where.
Many thanks for your support in the past; if you can offer further help in this moment of need, please reply to this message (or email). We're creating a separate email list for Sanctuary activists to avoid burdening this one, so let us know if you'd like to be on it.
Hope to see you soon!
--Your Friends at The Sanctuary
for Independent Media
-----------------------------
Support The Sanctuary for Independent Media!
You can make a secure, tax-deductible online donation
(or a gift in someone else's name) at:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=10330
Visit our website at:
www.MediaSanctuary.org
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