Folkert de Jong
amsterdam born, looks to history / newspapers / old photographs for political and cultural reflections (like The Shooting...at Watou). drunken revelry and merriment have historically always been part of Dutch and Flemish culture.
confronts viewer with the character's insanity, as they're hyper-aware of the viewer's presence and meant to make us feel bothered
they look haunting, like singularly-driven characters risen from the dead, more nightmarish than dream-like, or as de jong puts it, "from the darker part of the human's subconscious." (great youtube vid of an interview with him / montage of works).
characters assume deceptive religious-like identities out of crisis: palm readers, false prophets, the great communicator, the manipulator, blue widows (beautiful sketch), architects, sculptors, and the devil (who's wearing a 'lifeguard' t-shirt lol), like in his Der Falsche Prophet exhibition. we're given something to believe in (despite its fiction), reflecting man's tendencies to direct things that aren't necessarily truthful into something recognizable. our need for guidance and role playing analyzed and critiqued.
styrofoam and polyurethane. art is fun with a capital Frightening
The Bitter Draught (Adriaen Brouwer) - lifeguard (the devil)
Das Schlachtfest (brouwer) - dinner scene
Smoking Men (brouwer) - lounging
Three Musicians (Picasso) - The Player / Circle of Trust
The Banjo Lesson (Tanner) - The Shooting Lesson
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (Degas) - ballerina
Broadway Boogie Woogie (Mondrian) - Last Boogie Woogie
[via Saatchi Gallery, James Cohen Gallery]
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
alt bros?
Kurt Kauper
first painting i looked at struck me as a 3rd wave feminist adaptation of James Whistler's 1st wave Symphony in White No. 2. aside from a visual/terminology pun (tan lines outline his symphony in white), he uses he elements of the whistler painting--the mirror that entraps the woman's domestic role (her mirror reflection looks painful and longing), the reduction of her identity to the beautiful objects around her like the china or japanese flowers--and completely inverts it. he changes her gender, doesn't try to conceal his identity (actor Cary Grant), or personality (characteristically debonair), and unleashes his passions by revealing the blazing fire, unlike whistler who obscures the fireplace with her virgin dress in which he acknowledges the repressed female sexuality
interesting use of curvilinear geometry to make use of motion in his paintings that otherwise feel like a still photograph from a time past.
smoothed out naked figures / realism / tilted picture plane feel like Philip Pearlstein's work
he also has some nice delicate mechanical drawings; you can imagine him transferring these visual studies onto larger canvas grids, about eight feet in height. i like when artists give the illusion of including the viewer into their private process of creating
magnify details by clicking paintings, would have missed orange sock reflection in 'Old Spice LIME talc for men'
Symphony in White No. 2 (James Whistler) - Cary Grant #1
After the Hunt (William Harnett) - Derek >> feels like a similar still life arrangement on wooden panels in same color palette, 'before the game'. nice "sher-wood", derek!
Portrait of the Artist (Hockney) - Shaving Before the Game >> affectionate and plastic rendering of men (especially in profile) reminds me a little of hockney. shaving before the game is also my favorite painting of his
[via Acme]
first painting i looked at struck me as a 3rd wave feminist adaptation of James Whistler's 1st wave Symphony in White No. 2. aside from a visual/terminology pun (tan lines outline his symphony in white), he uses he elements of the whistler painting--the mirror that entraps the woman's domestic role (her mirror reflection looks painful and longing), the reduction of her identity to the beautiful objects around her like the china or japanese flowers--and completely inverts it. he changes her gender, doesn't try to conceal his identity (actor Cary Grant), or personality (characteristically debonair), and unleashes his passions by revealing the blazing fire, unlike whistler who obscures the fireplace with her virgin dress in which he acknowledges the repressed female sexuality
interesting use of curvilinear geometry to make use of motion in his paintings that otherwise feel like a still photograph from a time past.
smoothed out naked figures / realism / tilted picture plane feel like Philip Pearlstein's work
he also has some nice delicate mechanical drawings; you can imagine him transferring these visual studies onto larger canvas grids, about eight feet in height. i like when artists give the illusion of including the viewer into their private process of creating
magnify details by clicking paintings, would have missed orange sock reflection in 'Old Spice LIME talc for men'
Symphony in White No. 2 (James Whistler) - Cary Grant #1
After the Hunt (William Harnett) - Derek >> feels like a similar still life arrangement on wooden panels in same color palette, 'before the game'. nice "sher-wood", derek!
Portrait of the Artist (Hockney) - Shaving Before the Game >> affectionate and plastic rendering of men (especially in profile) reminds me a little of hockney. shaving before the game is also my favorite painting of his
[via Acme]
Thursday, March 10, 2011
flower vendoring bicycle riding animal holding hobo clowns
allison schulnik
her hobo clowns are emotionally primitive creatures and explore their surrounding relationships through poking and finger pointing. they are ceaseless in their discovery, like in Hobo with Bird, which captures a dynamic moment of becoming, understanding, and knowing. schulnik gives them a lot of psychological depth and awkward moments of self-realization (like in Performance #2, which also has one of my favorite color palettes), some even transcending the psychology of their own characters and becoming intimate reflections of the viewer's psyche.
even though her paintings are the most seducing, don't miss her sculptures, films and works on paper like Yellow Man. more modest, same emotional delight
grizzly bear commissioned schulnik to make a claymation vid for "ready, able". one viewer wrote, "I found this while trying to find grizzly bear attacks." in this way schulnik makes her videos multifunctional.
Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (van Gogh) - Sunflowers #9
Old Man in Sorrow: On the Threshold of Eternity (van Gogh) - Hobo Clown #2
Virgin and Child in a Flower Garland with Angels (Rubens - Virgin and Child // Jan Brueghel - flowers) - Sunflower Wreath
Niagara (Frederich Edwin Church) - Niagara Falls #5
my beautiful dark twisted fantasy (George Condo) - Girl with Animal
[via Mark Moore Gallery]
her hobo clowns are emotionally primitive creatures and explore their surrounding relationships through poking and finger pointing. they are ceaseless in their discovery, like in Hobo with Bird, which captures a dynamic moment of becoming, understanding, and knowing. schulnik gives them a lot of psychological depth and awkward moments of self-realization (like in Performance #2, which also has one of my favorite color palettes), some even transcending the psychology of their own characters and becoming intimate reflections of the viewer's psyche.
even though her paintings are the most seducing, don't miss her sculptures, films and works on paper like Yellow Man. more modest, same emotional delight
grizzly bear commissioned schulnik to make a claymation vid for "ready, able". one viewer wrote, "I found this while trying to find grizzly bear attacks." in this way schulnik makes her videos multifunctional.
Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (van Gogh) - Sunflowers #9
Old Man in Sorrow: On the Threshold of Eternity (van Gogh) - Hobo Clown #2
Virgin and Child in a Flower Garland with Angels (Rubens - Virgin and Child // Jan Brueghel - flowers) - Sunflower Wreath
Niagara (Frederich Edwin Church) - Niagara Falls #5
my beautiful dark twisted fantasy (George Condo) - Girl with Animal
[via Mark Moore Gallery]
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
poised toys
Hideki Kuwajima
Kuwajima takes found, recycled and cheaply manufactured children toys and water guns to construct these highly animated sculptures, part of her 'euphoria series' (euphoria 100320 (plastic), euphoria 100701 (plastic) both done in 2010). the appeal of these crafts are in their symmetrical construction, centering the viewer instead of leaving us overwhelmed or scattered, which must be difficult for this medium (bright colors/many smaller parts composing objects composing larger structures). but the standardization of its plastic parts does help maintain this control and (surprising) coherence. i like how her titles, describing each euphoria as an identification number, also references the mechanical, which feels oxymoronic in its nature (mechanizing a feeling). here's another 'euphoria', "euphoria 001" (2008), which resembles a festival, unabashedly celebratory. apparently Hermès has commissioned her for some window displays (cool!), but i can't find any pictures online (anyone know where to find this?)
she's not afraid to work small either. in 2009 she did these key-chain sized sculptures which are only several centimeters tall and wide. Kuru Kuru Scope 001 ed.3 and Kuru Kuru Scope 002 ed.3/10 are perfect pieces to design a home around.
a friend commented that japanese artists are drawn more to the 'cute' in the way american artists may be drawn to the 'sexy', as schoolgirls and childhood imagery are often fetishized in japanese culture, which i think is a great point.
*for mature audiences only*
Paprika (film still, dir. Satoshi Kon) -"euphoria 001" (2008)
[via Roentgenwerke]
Kuwajima takes found, recycled and cheaply manufactured children toys and water guns to construct these highly animated sculptures, part of her 'euphoria series' (euphoria 100320 (plastic), euphoria 100701 (plastic) both done in 2010). the appeal of these crafts are in their symmetrical construction, centering the viewer instead of leaving us overwhelmed or scattered, which must be difficult for this medium (bright colors/many smaller parts composing objects composing larger structures). but the standardization of its plastic parts does help maintain this control and (surprising) coherence. i like how her titles, describing each euphoria as an identification number, also references the mechanical, which feels oxymoronic in its nature (mechanizing a feeling). here's another 'euphoria', "euphoria 001" (2008), which resembles a festival, unabashedly celebratory. apparently Hermès has commissioned her for some window displays (cool!), but i can't find any pictures online (anyone know where to find this?)
she's not afraid to work small either. in 2009 she did these key-chain sized sculptures which are only several centimeters tall and wide. Kuru Kuru Scope 001 ed.3 and Kuru Kuru Scope 002 ed.3/10 are perfect pieces to design a home around.
a friend commented that japanese artists are drawn more to the 'cute' in the way american artists may be drawn to the 'sexy', as schoolgirls and childhood imagery are often fetishized in japanese culture, which i think is a great point.
*for mature audiences only*
Paprika (film still, dir. Satoshi Kon) -"euphoria 001" (2008)
[via Roentgenwerke]
Monday, March 7, 2011
"Short Leash" "Heavy Handed" "Scissor Sister"
Kelly Reemtsen
saw her "I'm Not Falling For You" show and my male gaze fell head over chainsaw for her. her women are entirely subject to the male gaze; they don't have faces and the perspective focuses tightly from the shoulder to mid-calf on a white background. they're like mannequins in dresses, capturing the passively sunny dresses of a 1950's housewife, yet reflecting their fiery temperaments and perhaps indignant that they're stuck in a housewife role. her gardening tools look more like weapons, like a stepford wife gone manic. the contrasts she sets up confront issues of women and power, and she cleverly asserts a strong-willed independence in the new woman.
she has a deliciously rich impasto technique and uses the most sumptuous colors in her machinery, especially her candy colored dotted chainsaw blades (in person you can see dollops of paint). modeling with hue rather than black and white tones is one of my favorite shading techniques, and reminds me of Wayne Thiebaud's style. i'd get more into him, but i think i'll save him for another post. her white brushtrokes are controlled, but disorderly, perhaps referencing (and slightly subverting?) thiebaud's technique of horizontal and orderly white brushstrokes as the background to his works. she outlines her figures with white paint in the same way he does, too. some curators agree! they like to group their work together in exhibitions. and some curators don't like to make that parallel obvious and will put thiebaud's landscape work next to her feminist statements, don't you get it??
Three Machines (thiebaud) - Not Every Pill is Bitter
Two Kneeling Women (thiebaud) - unrequited
[via ADLER&CO, David Klein Gallery, Skidmore Contemporary Art]
saw her "I'm Not Falling For You" show and my male gaze fell head over chainsaw for her. her women are entirely subject to the male gaze; they don't have faces and the perspective focuses tightly from the shoulder to mid-calf on a white background. they're like mannequins in dresses, capturing the passively sunny dresses of a 1950's housewife, yet reflecting their fiery temperaments and perhaps indignant that they're stuck in a housewife role. her gardening tools look more like weapons, like a stepford wife gone manic. the contrasts she sets up confront issues of women and power, and she cleverly asserts a strong-willed independence in the new woman.
she has a deliciously rich impasto technique and uses the most sumptuous colors in her machinery, especially her candy colored dotted chainsaw blades (in person you can see dollops of paint). modeling with hue rather than black and white tones is one of my favorite shading techniques, and reminds me of Wayne Thiebaud's style. i'd get more into him, but i think i'll save him for another post. her white brushtrokes are controlled, but disorderly, perhaps referencing (and slightly subverting?) thiebaud's technique of horizontal and orderly white brushstrokes as the background to his works. she outlines her figures with white paint in the same way he does, too. some curators agree! they like to group their work together in exhibitions. and some curators don't like to make that parallel obvious and will put thiebaud's landscape work next to her feminist statements, don't you get it??
Three Machines (thiebaud) - Not Every Pill is Bitter
Two Kneeling Women (thiebaud) - unrequited
[via ADLER&CO, David Klein Gallery, Skidmore Contemporary Art]
Sunday, March 6, 2011
colonial taboos and inappropriate shoes
Kent Monkman
really excited to write about this artist, monkman's one of my favorite artists of the moment !!
post-colonial 'cowboys & indians' games in drag explore political, social and sexually charged narratives in what monkman calls the "queer frontier", which makes that other hudson river valley stuff seem pretty boring. layers of meaning can be teased out of these scenes with recurring characters like 'miss chief' and socio/economic/political motifs create another world for us to indulge and figure out.
half the fun is figuring things out. monkman loves to reference other well known contemporary and modern artists, and infuses greek mythology and sculpture into his narratives. he clearly marks himself as a man of culture, sharp wit, and over-stuffs his audience with action, visual cues and greater social questions. it's almost impossible not to see new things every time you revisit his work especially because his works are so large, some exceeding a hundred inches in length.
the voyeuristic component of his work doesn't go unnoticed. his characters become visual studies for other characters in his work: they paint scenes en plein air and in artist's studios of each other and shoot themselves on film. the viewer too is apart of the voyeurism and becomes complexed in the interplay of gazes, further unlocking imagery and ideas of the psycho-sexual id.
here's a list of monkman's fun refs, let me know what you find and i'll post it!
Fountain (Duchamp) - The Triumph of Mischief
Sunday in the Park - (seurat) sunday afternoon
Christ imagery / Lance of Longinus - Artist and Model
Laocoön (finished by Michelangelo)- The Academy
Pygmalion and Galatea (Jean Leon-Gerome) - Si je t'aime prends garde a toi (Study for Icon for a New Empire)
Thomas Kinkade - Duel after the Masquerade
Louis Vuitton quivers and suitcases - Charged Particles in Motion
LV graffiti ?? - Daniel Boone's First View of the Kentucky Valley
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Jaques-Louis David) - The Trapper's Bride
other greek myths/characters:
hermes the trickster, the death of adonis, achilles and patroclus, hyacinth
found this punk rock//heavy metal band using The Triumph of Mischief as their album cover! um yea this is what death metal looks like ok??
[via Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, Galerie Florent Tosin in Berlin, Bailey Fine Arts in Toronto, and Trepanier Baer Gallery in Calgary]
really excited to write about this artist, monkman's one of my favorite artists of the moment !!
post-colonial 'cowboys & indians' games in drag explore political, social and sexually charged narratives in what monkman calls the "queer frontier", which makes that other hudson river valley stuff seem pretty boring. layers of meaning can be teased out of these scenes with recurring characters like 'miss chief' and socio/economic/political motifs create another world for us to indulge and figure out.
half the fun is figuring things out. monkman loves to reference other well known contemporary and modern artists, and infuses greek mythology and sculpture into his narratives. he clearly marks himself as a man of culture, sharp wit, and over-stuffs his audience with action, visual cues and greater social questions. it's almost impossible not to see new things every time you revisit his work especially because his works are so large, some exceeding a hundred inches in length.
the voyeuristic component of his work doesn't go unnoticed. his characters become visual studies for other characters in his work: they paint scenes en plein air and in artist's studios of each other and shoot themselves on film. the viewer too is apart of the voyeurism and becomes complexed in the interplay of gazes, further unlocking imagery and ideas of the psycho-sexual id.
here's a list of monkman's fun refs, let me know what you find and i'll post it!
Fountain (Duchamp) - The Triumph of Mischief
Sunday in the Park - (seurat) sunday afternoon
Christ imagery / Lance of Longinus - Artist and Model
Laocoön (finished by Michelangelo)- The Academy
Pygmalion and Galatea (Jean Leon-Gerome) - Si je t'aime prends garde a toi (Study for Icon for a New Empire)
Thomas Kinkade - Duel after the Masquerade
Louis Vuitton quivers and suitcases - Charged Particles in Motion
LV graffiti ?? - Daniel Boone's First View of the Kentucky Valley
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Jaques-Louis David) - The Trapper's Bride
other greek myths/characters:
hermes the trickster, the death of adonis, achilles and patroclus, hyacinth
found this punk rock//heavy metal band using The Triumph of Mischief as their album cover! um yea this is what death metal looks like ok??
[via Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, Galerie Florent Tosin in Berlin, Bailey Fine Arts in Toronto, and Trepanier Baer Gallery in Calgary]
Friday, March 4, 2011
more Play-Doh less Plato
Richard Allen Morris
material looks ductile, globs of paint naturalistically sculptured. it has an undeveloped attitude, but you can anticipate the work revealing itself more. in this way there's a concealing nature in its primordial form. they're kind of on the precipice of works being finished and finished works, like the playfully balanced "Window Washer"
nice pastel colors, gives work a contemporary edge. Scale, surprisingly, was a work he did in 1968.
[via Peter Blum, R. B. Stevenson Gallery]
::editor's note:: skeptical RAM did Scale in 1968. Benefit looks like it was done around the same time, but was actually done in 2010 according to these dudes? i guess artistic progression could be overrated when history tends to remember only one or two of your works #artisforever
UPDATE: you can see Morris dates Scale as 1986 in the lower right hand corner of the work, i don't know why i couldn't see that before, i think i was just looking for a date where his signature is (lower left). i received many emails about this you all seemed overly concerned, but we figured it out nice work!!
material looks ductile, globs of paint naturalistically sculptured. it has an undeveloped attitude, but you can anticipate the work revealing itself more. in this way there's a concealing nature in its primordial form. they're kind of on the precipice of works being finished and finished works, like the playfully balanced "Window Washer"
nice pastel colors, gives work a contemporary edge. Scale, surprisingly, was a work he did in 1968.
[via Peter Blum, R. B. Stevenson Gallery]
::editor's note:: skeptical RAM did Scale in 1968. Benefit looks like it was done around the same time, but was actually done in 2010 according to these dudes? i guess artistic progression could be overrated when history tends to remember only one or two of your works #artisforever
UPDATE: you can see Morris dates Scale as 1986 in the lower right hand corner of the work, i don't know why i couldn't see that before, i think i was just looking for a date where his signature is (lower left). i received many emails about this you all seemed overly concerned, but we figured it out nice work!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)