Friday, February 8, 2008
Seis, Siete, Ocho
Yeah, so I obsess over wedges of color! So what!The table is finished as of today. I do, though, have the planes of color operating together as I like, with the secret "really ties the room together" finishes coming at the end.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Varnedoe vs. Judd vs. Riley vs. Theoretical Abyss
I was thinking recently about how music is percieved. While listening to Keyboard Study #2" (Terry Riley) I was struck at how monumental the shifts and repositioning of each phrase was against it's armature. This immediately called to mind something I read in the somewhat* transcription of Dr. Varnedoe's Mellon Lecture Pictures of Nothing. He said something to the effect that -and I am paraphrasing- with Minimalism each sculptural/visual event was striking because the scope of possibility is so reduced within each work. Minimalism is important because it reduces the dialogue to the work alone, to the world within each piece.
I like this idea, but it is clearer to me with regard to music. Music seems to inherently define it's own space. Meaning, that space in music is intuited and delimited by our minds. One can see music being performed, and feel it through the chairs, and respond to the performers reaction to it, but the only context for listening is the interior space of our mind. In our "headspace" the scope of possibility for music is both reduced and infinite rather than being judged against the space in which it sits.
I cannot conceive of sculpture, or any work of visual art without the tangible, physical space it inhabits. Even paintings! (I usually do a semi-circle around 2-D works too.) Reducing the scope of a real work in the real world seems to compromise the work's power, and put it at the mercy of it's environment. I supose that maybe Judd and co. where challenging the "white cube", or did the white cube come from Minimalism? At any rate, physical space is crucial to the perception of visual art, say I.
Actually, Benedict Mason uses architectural spaces to kind of shape the music and it's uptake, doesn't he?
* The lectures were somewhat extemporaneous.
I like this idea, but it is clearer to me with regard to music. Music seems to inherently define it's own space. Meaning, that space in music is intuited and delimited by our minds. One can see music being performed, and feel it through the chairs, and respond to the performers reaction to it, but the only context for listening is the interior space of our mind. In our "headspace" the scope of possibility for music is both reduced and infinite rather than being judged against the space in which it sits.
I cannot conceive of sculpture, or any work of visual art without the tangible, physical space it inhabits. Even paintings! (I usually do a semi-circle around 2-D works too.) Reducing the scope of a real work in the real world seems to compromise the work's power, and put it at the mercy of it's environment. I supose that maybe Judd and co. where challenging the "white cube", or did the white cube come from Minimalism? At any rate, physical space is crucial to the perception of visual art, say I.
Actually, Benedict Mason uses architectural spaces to kind of shape the music and it's uptake, doesn't he?
* The lectures were somewhat extemporaneous.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Some important events in American painting happening Right Now! ( or in the very near future.)
Stanley Lewis at the Bowery Gallery: http://bowerygallery.org/artists.html
I missed the reception, of course.
Charles Cajori at Lohin Gebuld Feb 14!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Air: 24 Hours, Eleven A.M.
I saw this painting today after wandering around the new, to me, hang of the contemporary work at SAAM. (Smithsonian American Art...) I really like it! Surprising because I have until this moment never been particularly fond of Jennifer Bartletts work. It's a real painting that makes sense to me.
Well, it's a little too Peto, with the imagery stuck on there. And a little blue...if I overthink it then I will certainly stop liking it. The cropping is a little funny...The paint is a one shot approach...It works in this case though...
Monday, February 4, 2008
El Dia Cinco
Incrementally moving forward. I was adjusting colors and values, trying to get the perfect balance of mud. Very tedious and fussy. That's what I get for listening to NPR's Marketplace and All Things Considered rather than King Khan and BBQ.
Mea Culpa
Okay by day four of working I was finally able to post day three and four. Now Day 2 is included! I'll see if I can make a slideshow with a soundtrack to post at a later date to take up the slack.See if you can spot the 20 differences between each picture! It's like the Washington Post Magazine! Fun!
The painting is starting to solidify a little. I have already spent a good amount of time retracing my steps. But slowly a painting is beginning to emerge.
I am liking the compartment of space over there on the right. It is something I tried in an earlier painting to a lesser effect. However now that compartment is calling to mind those remote pagodas in Chinese landscapes. You know, where the scholar sits and the floor is tipped precariously upward in it's isometric-ness.
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