iPad Art, David Hockney and Charles Saatchi

Much to my surprise, I got an iPad for Christmas. I already have a desktop, a laptop and an iPhone, why would I need an iPad? Then I remembered a video that went viral a few months ago of a man finger-painting a realistic portrait from a live model on an iPad, using the Brushes app. If you haven't seen it, check it out:

Being a recovering, as opposed to a practicing artist, I ignored all the red flags that go up whenever I encounter art supplies of any kind and downloaded the Brushes app. Twenty-four hours later, I came up for air.

Brushes records all of your strokes and they are immediately available for play-back, stroke by stroke. This is the feature that practically hypnotized me. After doodling for a while, the possibilities for animation became abundantly clear and I began experimenting. So, if you will indulge me and remember that I'm not a practicing artist, I offer my day-after-Christmas doodlings, just to give you a taste of the possibilities:

What can a real artist do with an iPad? David Hockney, always eager to experiment with new media, currently has an exhibition, Fleurs fraîches (Fresh Flowers) at La Fondation Pierre Bergé in Paris, consisting of iPhone and iPad drawings. Some are projected, some are shown on actual iPhones and iPads displayed museum style in a darkened gallery. He continues to update the exhibition, emailing new works every day. It runs through January 30.

Click here to see a video of the exhibition and a discussion between Hockney and curator Charlie Scheips.

Click here for a review of the show in the Atlantic.

Are you doing iPad  art? If you would like to submit a piece of your own with the animation for possible publication on this blog, upload it to YouTube and email the URL to me at iPadsubmissions@offrampgallery.com. Do not attach the original movie file to the email -- they're too large and I will have to delete them unopened.

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My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic is a slim volume of questions and answers to advertising mogul, art dealer and collector Charles Saatchi. He refuses to be interviewed in person but allowed questions to be submitted by journalists, critics and members of the public.

Keeping in mind the controlled environment in which he presents himself, Saatchi comes across as surprisingly candid, self-deprecating and funny. It is also abundantly clear that he adores his wife, domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. It's hard to dislike a man who loves his wife and says when asked about a recent weight loss, "I was fat and ugly and now I'm thin and ugly."

When asked if he is concerned about his impact on the art market, he responds: " I never think too much about the market. I don't mind paying three or four times the market value of a work that I really want. Just ask the auction houses. As far as taste is concerned, I primarily buy art in order to show it off."

Just a regular Joe following his passion. He does sometimes come across as self-serving, such as when asked to look ahead 100 years and say who are the great artists who will pass the test of time:

"General art books dated 2105 will be as brutal about editing the late 20th century as they are about almost all other centuries. Every artist other than Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst will be footnote." Saatchi famously funded Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living  (a.k.a. the $12 Million Stuffed Shark) and showcased it in 1992 in the first Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. The piece resulted in Hirst being nominated for the 1992 Turner Prize (which he didn't win that year) and launched him to superstardom.

Saatchi redeems himself when asked what he thinks about artists: "Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on. I love them all."

This book is a light and interesting read, another piece in the puzzle for anyone who, like me, struggles to make sense of the seemingly incomprehensible world of contemporary art.

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Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm

Offramp Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story from January 9 - February 6, 2011. The opening reception will be on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. For her second solo exhibition at Offramp Gallery, Los Angeles based artist, Anita Bunn, will be exhibiting a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.

 

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed



RIP Captain Beefheart; Man with a Blue Scarf and Lucian Freud

I was sad to hear of the passing last Friday of the reclusive avant-garde musician/visual artist, Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart. I was fortunate enough to have met Don several times in the late seventies when I was working at a Licorice Pizza record store in the valley. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band were rehearsing in a warehouse nearby that had no bathroom, so naturally, being the star-struck youngsters that we were, we offered them full access to our employees-only bathroom.

One day I looked up to see Don coming through the front door wearing his signature fedora, on top of which was a traditional cone-shaped Chinese straw hat. He strode up to me at the counter, pointed to his head and announced "I'm wearing two hats." I dissolved into giggles and didn't ask why -- it seemed like such a Captain Beefheart thing to do -- and have cherished the memory ever since as my own personal surreal Captain Beefheart moment.

Here's a video of my favorite Captain Beefheart song, the uncharacteristically romantic ballad, Observatory Crest.

Don Van Vliet is represented by Michael Werner Gallery in New York. Click here to see a selection of his paintings. 

R.I.P.

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Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by art critic Martin Gayford  gives unprecedented access into the otherwise private realm of artist Lucian Freud's studio, and a look at the slow, deliberate process of painting his masterful portraits. Gayford sat for "Man with a Blue Scarf" from November 2003 through July  2004, for hundreds of hours in the same position, with his right leg crossed over his left, wearing the same clothes, bathed in the same pool of light in the darkened studio, sometimes in silence, sometimes in dialog with Freud. He kept a diary as they went along, recording bits of conversation, thoughts and observations. It is from this diary that he has crafted this charming and revelatory book.

As a former painter, what struck me most about this book was the insight into Freud's process -- specifically, how slowly and intentionally he paints and how that would seem to contradict his broad, spontaneous-looking brushstrokes. The portrait in this case starts with a quick charcoal sketch on canvas, over which Freud begins applying paint to the area between the sitter's eyes, working slowly out in all directions, leaving parts of the white canvas unpainted almost until the very end. Intense concentration and looking proceed each brush stroke, and often the stroke is "practiced" by tracing it in the air with his arm. Once on the canvas, if the stroke isn't exactly right, it is wiped off and the process begins again.

The progress is sometimes so slow it is difficult for Gayford to perceive: "I want the picture to move on, I want it to be finished. My hope is that he will begin a new area -- the chin, the scarf, the jacket. . . . LF [as Gayford refers to Freud throughout the book] doesn't seem remotely concerned about hurrying." The quality in Freud's work is "inextricably bound up with emotional honesty and truthfulness." It is this emotional honesty that Freud painstakingly strives for in his work, slowly building a relationship with his sitter, searching with each layer of paint for a deeper understanding and more real representation of his subject -- not just the fleshy corporal outer shell that he depicts so masterfully, but also the complex underlying substrata and depth.

Man with a Blue Scarf is illustrated with over 50 mostly color illustrations of paintings from all periods of Freud's career, photos of Freud at work in his studio, as well as reproductions of other artists' work that influenced him. The book is sprinkled with Freud's insights and opinions of artists, mostly the old masters, as well as anecdotes about those he has known personally over the course of his long career.

I recommend Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud for anyone who has ever painted, is thinking about painting, or simply admires Freud's work.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm


Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed

Offramp Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story from January 9 - February 6, 2011. The opening reception will be on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. For her second solo exhibition at Offramp Gallery, Los Angeles based artist, Anita Bunn, will be exhibiting a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.



Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, the Pogues, and more . . .

I was skeptical when I heard that Patti Smith's Just Kids had won the National Book Award for nonfiction. Fortunately, curiosity won out over skepticism and I decided to read it, and add my voice to the growing chorus of praise.

Seduced from page one by Smith's poetic yet straightforward language and her eye for detail, I devoured this touching memoir of Smith's early life and her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe -- first as lovers, then later, as Mapplethorpe explored his homosexuality, as friends. They were young, innocent, in love, and devoted to living their lives for art.

Smith paints a vivid picture of artistic life in New York City in the late sixties and early seventies, warts (or should I say lice?) and all. From Max's Kansas City, to the Strand Bookstore, to the legendary Chelsea Hotel (where both Smith's and Mapplethorpe's portfolios are accepted as collateral for a room deposit), she brings to life a colorful parade of characters including Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Salvador Dali, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

Even though Smith and Mapplethorpe ultimately went their separate ways -- Mapplethorpe becoming an acclaimed and controversial photographer, Smith a poet and punk rock legend -- they remained devoted to each other until Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989. Before he died, Smith promised Mapplethorpe that she would one day write their story. She has more than fulfilled her promise -- poetically, tenderly, and with undeniable artistry.

Click here to buy Just Kids.

Here's a video of Patti reading from the book and singing "Because the Night."

Now that I'm in a New York City/punk kind of mood, I wanted to share one of my all time favorite Christmas songs, the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York." Enjoy!

The perfect holiday gift

I won't be recommending electronic appliances very often, but this one is awesome, the perfect holiday gift for the artist or coffee lover on your list: Aeroccino Plus Automatic Milk Frother. Fill it with milk, push a button and in 90 seconds you have a heavenly pitcher of perfectly frothed milk. No fussing with that nozzle spewing hot water and steam all over the place, this magical machine takes all the pain out of making a perfect cappuccino.

Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery

We had a wonderful turnout for the opening reception of ArtZone at Offramp on Sunday! Thanks to everyone who came, the 28 artists who contributed work to the exhibition and to everyone who helped put it together. ArtZone is open every day through December 19 from 1-6pm and there will be a closing reception on Sunday, December 19 from 2-5pm.

Here's video from the opening reception.

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed

Art Basel Miami Beach: The View from Pasadena

Having perused at least a dozen articles about last week's Art Basel Miami Beach extravaganza, the message I get is that the art market is back, along with celebrity-studded parties, mega-galleries expanding their international franchises, collectors with more money than god, corporate sponsors, seven-figure sales, and super-star artists.

There are some obvious questions here: Is this a good thing? Where is the art? Will Miami trickle down to Pasadena? Is there anyone left who still believes in the trickle-down theory?

As I've mentioned before, I'm not against making money, and hope that Offramp Gallery will be able to participate in a few fairs soon. But would I trade the cappuccino-fueled conversations at Offramp for an international team of lawyers, accountants and sycophants? Would I give up the salon-like atmosphere that the steady stream of artists, writers and musicians to Offramp affords, to jet-set to every art fair in the world? I don't think so, and I'm fairly certain I would be miserable if I did.

But what about the dedicated artists who work hard all their lives, juggling their art career with several part-time jobs, with precious little to show for it in terms of money, security or material comfort? Why does there seem to be so little middle-ground in the art world? Is this a reflection of the economy as a whole, where the rich are getting richer as the middle class disappears? Or has there never been a place for artists in American life?

What do you think? Should every artist and every art dealer strive for jet-setting super-stardom? Or should we embrace the starving-artist-in-the-garret-art-for-art's-sake lifestyle and quit grousing? Is the not-for-profit world going the same way as everything else -- billionaire funding for museum wings to house their own collections on the high end; the imminent closing of organizations like the Municipal Art Gallery here in Los Angeles, on the bottom?

I know that's a lot of questions for one blog post, and I am the first to admit I don't have the answers, but I can recommend another great book to shed some light on the subject, Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World. Structured around seven aspects of the art world, each one a chapter in the book, we are given insider access to a Christie's auction, a CalArts crit class, the Art Basel fair, Artforum magazine, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami's studios, Britain's prestigious Turner Prize, and the Venice Biennale. It's a great read that you won't be able to put down. 

Image of the Week

James Griffith
Dark Wings (Moth 2), 2010
tar on panel
8" x 10"

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Saturday & Sunday (December 11, 12, 18, 19): noon-8pm; Monday - Friday (December 13-17): 4-8pm. ArtZone is a joint venture between Project 210 and Offramp Gallery, a one-stop holiday shop for affordable art. Twenty-seven artists from both galleries have been invited to submit art work priced at $500 or below.

The opening reception for ArtZone will be on Sunday, December 12, from 2-5pm. The exhibition is at Offramp for eight days only with these special hours: