For those of you who live outside the US, the Superbowl is the championship game of the National Football League of the United States. It is the most watched broadcast in the entire year in the US. It is estimated that over 93 million people watched last year’s Superbowl of which about 40 million were women. CBS who will be broadcasting the game this year, estimate that over 100 million people will have watched the game today.
The Indianapolis Colts were probably the favored team having won four years ago. However the New Orleans’ Saints came through for the first time in their 43 year history. It is a very emotional win for a team that was affected by the Katrina Hurricane and had to play away from their home stadium for the entire 2005 season. In the team is also a player of Haitian descent, Jonathan Vilma who has a lot of family still in Haiti. This win will mean a lot to the people of New Orleans and to Haiti.
“Monday morning quarterbacking” has already started now with everyone having their opinion on what won the game.
I think it was brave leadership from the coach, with years of practice by the whole team, a determination to keep trying, a cool head in adversity and a sure belief that they would win. I hear that the team was practicing as hard as they would normally be doing mid-season, instead of taking it easy before the last game thinking they’d already done the hard work getting to the championships.
I think that everyone can take away the same lessons and apply it to their own lives. It’s hard to win the Superbowl. It’s hard to make it in the artworld. You have to be brave, keep honing your skills, be determined, not become discouraged by adversity and believe that you will make it.
There is a lot of geometric work in Chelsea at the moment. It often happens that galleries in Chelsea end up having similar styles of work at the same time, despite the fact that forward planning cycles differ between galleries and most don’t tend to discuss detailed scheduling with each other. It must be just one of these mysteries of the universe.
The wealth of geometric work is very diverse in quality and one of the best of them is Jack Tworkov “True or False” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery on 26th street.
Born in Poland Tworkov immigrated to the United States when he was 13. He grew up to become one of the founding members of the New York school which was the home of the abstract expressionist movement which included at the time, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Arshile Gorky. He taught art at many universities, colleges and schools, including the Pratt Institute, Queens College, Columbia University and Yale University. At the latter he was Chairman of the Art Department from 1963-1969 influencing many young rising stars including Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Nancy Graves and Brice Marden.
Although originally he was known for his very bold, gestural brush strokes and flame colors, in the 1960s he moved into more analytical and geometric form paintings. These are the works being displayed in this exhibition (1960-1975). The title of the show, according to the press release comes from a 1968 Tworkov quote: “True and False. Blind man’s bluff, hands outstretched in the darkness feeling, wondering what is true and what is false, because our life depends on knowing the difference.”
Standing in front of the canvases, I found myself drawn towards a hypnotic quality of the works. There is a depth and emotion to these abstract works that is very compelling. They appear very simple at first glance and perhaps a little mesmerizing, but I found them catalytic and refreshing the longer I stood in front of them.
This exhibition continues until February 20th, 2010.
I walked into the gallery and saw drawing after drawing of feet. Fifty eight of them to be exact! Somebody obviously has a foot fetish. It actually looked like a collection of studies that you’d find in an art class in the neighborhood. Some of them were actually quite good. Others were a bit “eh” (a technical art term just in case you didn’t know – usually accompanied with a shrug of one shoulder, a raise of the eyebrows and maybe a raise of the upper left lip too – I hope you get the picture.)
This artist obviously knows a lot of people with flat feet and very few with pretty feet – although that probably goes without saying for the general public. I spend quite a lot on pedicures, but I’m not sure that I would want to subject them to this sort of scrutiny! Or maybe the artist took some artistic license?
These feet which are drawn with a wide range of plants, objects and patterns provide a “whimsical and intimate glimpse into the artist’s private life, while also testifying to his compositional wit and poetic hand” according to the press release. These sketches were done by Andy Warhol between 1956 and 1961.
The sketches have been taken from Warhol’s personal sketchbooks. I wonder if he knew that these would be publicly shown? Would he have minded? Probably not. This is the man who coined the term everybody gets to be “world famous for 15 minutes”.
Would these sketches have been in a Chelsea gallery if they were anybody else’s? Probably not. They’re there because they’re Andy Warhol’s. The interest in the minutiae of celebrities probably started around this time. I suppose that’s why memorabilia of celebrities including dirty laundry, household items and everything else that they ever touched (or didn’t) sell and stories about their personal lives keeps magazines and “news” outlets alive.
The exhibition which was organized in conjunction with the Andy Warhol Foundation is only open until February 6th, but a full illustrated catalogue is available at the Paul Kasmin Gallery and their web page has a comprehensive slide show if you missed it.
N.B. The above image is by Andy Warhol, courtesy of the Paul Kasmin Gallery.
After you’ve done the artwork for Haiti, why don’t you turn your hand to the commission that is being requested by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to create a new logo for them?
The NEA Chairman has been using the words “Art Works” to describe the work of the agency. Behind the words is a three layered meaning according to Rocco Landesman, (the Broadway producer and new NEA Chairman since May 2009 – prior post), covering the art that artists create, the goal to inspire, transport and challenge viewers and audiences and finally to remind everyone that artists are real workers who are a part of the country’s economy, earning salaries, supporting families, paying taxes as well as being entrepreneurs and placemakers, revitalizing the economy and the ethos of the neighborhoods.
The RFP (request for proposal) is a standard government document of 23 pages including a cover letter. Basically, you have to create a logo and a statement of 500 words or less about the design with a fixed price allowing the NEA to use the logo as they see fit.
Proposals must be emailed to the NEA by 5pm on February 26th 2010.
I don’t know if it will help, but don’t forget that Landesman likes baseball, horse-racing and country music as well.
It’s only 2 weeks since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, leaving hundreds of thousand dead and millions homeless. Already, other headlines are starting to hit the news above the situation in Haiti, but the situation remains dire, and in many ways worse.
In order to help the people of Haiti, Monkdogz has set up a silent online auction of artwork.
We are asking artists from around the world to donate a small flat piece of art work measuring 5” x 7” (13cms x 8cms), signed on the back by the artist.
New artwork will be accepted until February 22nd.
The work will be displayed anonymously, but all artists, sponsors and winning bidders will be credited on the website.
100% of all proceeds will go directly to UNICEF, Partners in Health, Oxfam and Habitat for Humanity.
Winning bidders will be asked to send a stamped addressed envelope for the work, to ensure that all the money will go to the charities. Administrative costs for running this project are being covered by Monkdogz.
We hope that you will participate by donating a work of art, bidding on the artwork or spreading the word about the project.
Even the art world is impacted by the sports world on occasion. An interesting wager has been set up based on the results of the Super Bowl XLIV which will be played this coming Sunday, February 7th to determine the American football champions of 2010.
Tyler Green who writes the Modern Art Notes blog at ArtsJournal has instigated a bet between The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. If the New Orleans Saints win on February 7th, the Indianapolis museum will send “The Fifth Plague of Egypt” by J.M. Turner to the New Orleans Museum, which gets to show it for three months. If the Indianapolis Colts win instead, then the New Orleans museum will send the “Ideal View of Tivoli” by Claude Lorrain to Indianapolis for a three months exhibition.
What a great way to bring these two worlds together.
I’ve always boycotted Walmart and it’s subsiduaries as I’ve disagreed with their business model which I think ultimately depresses an economy. My views were further entrenched when I’d hear stories of Alice Walton, snatching artwork away from the Metropolitan Museum and the National Gallery of Washington by paying over the odds for the work, when the museums were trying hard to keep it in the public eye. She’s also currently embroiled with the Fisk University’s financial turmoil offering to take shared ownership of Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs pending an appeal with the Georgia O’Keeffe museum according to the FT.
However I’ve had to sit back and think twice about the Crystal Bridges Museum that Alice Walton and the Walton Family Foundation have spent $50million on. The 100 acre site in Bentonville, Arkansas will be home to a beautiful museum of American art, housing much of Alice Walton’s art collection in the midst of a wonderful nature park.
The unique glass and wood buildings have been designed by Moshe Safdie which will lie by a natural spring called Crystal Spring gives the museum its name. The museum is hoping to become a venue for outdoor concerts and public events as well as for private meetings and events such as weddings and conferences. It also states on its web site that “encouraging community uses and activities (is) of its highest priorities.”
The plans look fabulous and it will be a wonderful development for the region. Current plans expect the museum to open next year. I will look forward to visiting it and hope that it succeeds in its mission.
Banksy the elusive British graffiti artist has expanded into films. His first foray into this genre is a film which made it’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival. “Exit through the Gift Shop” is a story of how an eccentric LA-based French vintage clothes shop keeper turned documentary maker attempts to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on him.
Banksy has described the film as “the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed. “Trying to make a movie [that] truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So we haven’t bothered. Instead, this is simply an everyday tale of life, longing and mindless vandalism. Everything is true, especially the bit where we all lie.”
John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Festival said “Exit through the Gift Shop is one of those films that comes along once in a great while, a warped hybrid of reality and self-induced fiction while at the same time a totally entertaining experience,” “The story is so bizarre I began to question if it could even be real… but in the end I didn’t care. I feel bad I won’t be able to shake the film-maker’s hand and tell him how much I love this film. I think I will shake everyone’s hand that day and hope I hit on Banksy somewhere. I love his work in all forms.” (Courtesy of the Telegraph.)
Chelsea is really quiet in January. Many of the shows have been up since the end of last year. Group shows proliferate and often they are just a jumble of the gallery stable artists. So it was good to come across “Stripped, Tied and Raw” at the Marianne Boesky Gallery on 24th Street.
It’s a group show of artists who have worked by stripping, ripping, twisting, draping, stretching, stitching and painting canvas; thereby expanding the definition of a painting. The artists are Jorge Eielson, Donald Moffett, David Noonan, Steven Parrino and Salvatore Scarpitta.
The gallery press release state that these “five artists have broken free from the dimensional confines of the stretcher while remaining true to painting, material and form assuming equal weight as content.”
It’s an unusual concept and a great theme for a group show. The styles are very different and yet work well together. It’s a well curated show and continues until February 13th.
A woman has joined a select club of people who’ve accidentally put a tear in a painting.
Wandering around with her art class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Friday, she stumbled onto the Picasso painting “The Actor” considered to be worth $130million and a rare example of his rose period when he painted itinerant acrobats in costume according to AP and MSNBC. The damage, a six inch irregular vertical tear in the bottom right hand corner is expected to be unobtrusive when completed.
The other person to famously tear a Picasso is Steve Wynn who put his elbow into “Le Reve” when he was showing it to some friends just after he negotiated to sell it to Steven A. Cohen for reported $139million. Wynn put a small thumb-sized hole in the canvas and the deal with Cohen fell through. It’s rumored that he said at the time “Thank goodness I did it and not someone else!” I hear that it hangs in Steve Wynn’s office today.
Unfortunately, I am also in this club, not a Picasso, but a large painting “Wild Irish Rose” a rose colored work that Robert d. Hogge gave me when I first really got to know him. I was hanging the work up in the house, when my hand slipped and it fell onto a sharp corner of a cabinet. It made a right angled tear of about 3 inches in the middle of the lower half of the painting.
I felt absolutely awful. Really sick to the stomach. Mortified. Devastated.
I feel dreadful even now when I think about it. I don’t know how I plucked up the courage to tell Bob about it but I did, knowing that he would see it before long. He was very good about it and brushed it off; reassuring me and saying he could repair it easily.
Bob did repair it well and he kindly says that he can’t see where it was now, some 7 years on. I can sense it, because it’s burned into my mind but it is hard to see. It hangs in my bedroom today where I see it every day. It’s one of my favorite paintings. It reminds me to be grateful, humble, know that life goes on and that friendship survives.
