It happens that every round of gallery openings in Chelsea has a different flavour. Last night the art world descended on Chelsea district in New York for the opening of almost 50 new art shows and new galleries as well. Perhaps we differ in our opinions on art but what we all agreed on is that it was spectacular, dense with art lovers and illuminated with color.
Art in New York
Mirror to the flower, one mundane thing and I discover Arvo Part /
Rob List posted a few important thoughts to his blog, one is an interview with coppola, yes, the Coppola. And also his own thoughts on art as a practice, a post titled Market worth on his blog. I am almost done with a drawing destined for San Francisco, ( I think ), and discover that I very much dislike hats and love Arvo Part .
Also, to emphasize the mood of the moment - one of the lyrical pieces of Jackson Pollock, where he really is at home and not fighting the black paint, a calligraphy of sorts:
The Seven I's of Why I Paint on Paper by Michael Brennan. A Manifesto of sorts. /
It has been long since I read something that I feel is close to my own practice and how I feel about paper, drawing, my work, the world and my footprint on matter. And here is what Michael says:
"I went to paper after rethinking Thoreau’s Economy and reading about sustainability in From Cradle to Cradle.
I decided to work smaller because we live in an era when dumb things are getting larger (televisions, SUVs, McMansions) and smart things are getting smaller (smart phones, smart cars, smart cards). The generation behind me has been described as “platform agnostic”, meaning they’re willing to watch a cinematic wonder like Lawrence of Arabia on a palm-sized screen. I also prefer the face-to-face engagement that smaller works require—that is the modern interface.
I work exclusively in black and white because I like absolute contrast, and participating in the larger, global tradition of monochromatic painting.
I acknowledge that paper is the perfect surface.
I have come to loathe the wealthy and prefer to make high quality works more cheaply that anyone might afford.
I have become bored with the “grand manner” of painting and its heroic trappings. I felt that my most recent paintings were really drawings masquerading as paintings. Lastly, I’ve always been attracted to simpler, not minimal, more direct means of making art.
I have long maintained that if the artist isn’t surprising himself, he’s most likely not surprising anyone else."
Profound Richard Tuttle /
Quotes from tonight's Richard Tuttle artist talk at Columbia's Miller theater, co-presented by Columbia University Institute for Religion, Culture, & Public Life and Columbia University School of the Arts Visual Arts Program:
"I have had two or three non-art thoughts in my life..."
"Art sustains polarities that cannot be sustained in the (real)world."
"Art accommodates the mystic."
"Art provides the viewer with the experience of reality. Art performs a "blimp". A line becomes a primary thing... Presents itself."
"A miracle belongs to the viewer."
"When you make art you access the back part of the brain(the animalistic part of the brain), and the animalistic gives us relief."
"The relationship between art and the viewer is a relationship more profound than marriage, than parent/child relationship. There is no pain, destruction and a reason for fear."
"Trust your work."
Roxy Paine, no more words /
Abstract Expressionist New York /
What a stunning exhibit at the MOMA tonight. I am not going to say it was well curated as I am not going to say MOMA is a good museum. It was genius, brilliant, inspiring world class art. I personally rediscovered Pollock and not because I found something new, I found the artist rediscovered himself. That's bravery in art and has very few masters. The paintings loved being together and brought out the best in each other. Just like mass and energy, energy brings more paint and more paint bursts with energy. What an opportunity to be with art, to feel it's power to change.
