tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77483812785228850772024-03-18T20:34:51.892-07:00Jane Chafin's Offramp Gallery BlogOfframp Gallery director, Jane Chafin recommends articles, books, videos, films and other interesting arts-related items, as well as updates and insider looks at exhibitions and events at Offramp Gallery. All proceeds from sales of recommended items go to Offramp Gallery. www.offrampgallery.comJane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-54733694775927191172016-07-21T10:20:00.001-07:002017-03-13T08:54:51.023-07:00Announcing Jane's New Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.janechafinofframp.com/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6b82om4mQh_rR18JL4IXn8awi0dZPushC3f6V8D-ldZkkiYjEs8CXtg0kkbh3zc1MGpnt1QSM8OhEUqux1HYV2LSZ-q9JIgK4SBI_IXYCYpFFgz13AdgRARDsoa9LCcdha_9Y_pExPQ/s200/coat+of+arms+trust.jpg" width="169" /></a></div>
After a two-year absence I'm happy to announce I've launched a new blog, <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.janechafinofframp.com/" target="_blank">Jane Chafin: Offramp. </a></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">The content is much the same as this blog. I hope you'll check it out! Thanks, Jane</span></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-49445332217747027382014-04-17T13:45:00.002-07:002014-04-17T15:10:30.763-07:00Artists' Statements: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a phenomenon in the art world I like to call the "metamorphosis of crap." It happens in that instant when, after having been initially bored, confused or repelled by a completely artless pile of crap, you stop to read the artist's statement. Now you are in familiar territory. Your art-schooled-MFA brain kicks in, deciphering the elitist, codified language before you. You smile, you get it, and in that moment, the artless pile of crap magically becomes Art. The metamorphosis is complete. You are no longer bored, confused or repelled. You are a wise, self-satisfied cognoscente, dashing off to transform the next artless pile of crap.<br /><br />Too harsh? Maybe, but artists' statements are a gold mine for someone like me who loves to make fun of the art world. (Note To Self: You should really consider the consequences of biting the hand that feeds you.)<br /><br />Let's look at the actual process of writing an artist's statement. The two videos below by Jörg Colberg and Charlotte Young, respectively, should take any of the mystery out of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Got writer's block? Never fear, anyone can generate their own artist's statement by <a href="http://www.500letters.org/form_15.php" target="_blank">clicking here</a>. You don't even have to be an artist. Just fill out a form, click a button et voilà, you too can turn crap into art! Here's a paragraph from my generated statement:<br /><br />" Her paintings demonstrate how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and often tells a story about the effects of global cultural interaction over the latter half of the twentieth century. It challenges the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other, between our own ‘cannibal’ and ‘civilized’ selves. By studying sign processes, signification and communication, she makes works that can be seen as self-portraits. Sometimes they appear idiosyncratic and quirky, at other times, they seem typical by-products of American superabundance and marketing."<br /><br />To end my rant, I would like to turn to artist William Powhida and his 2009 polemic, <i>Artists Statement (No One Here Gets Out Alive), (</i>see below)<i> </i> in which he brilliantly sums up what all artists are<i> really</i> trying to say:<br /><br />"Lacking any other means for social mobility, I have embraced the COMPETITIVE ethos of CAPITALISM and make art to DESTROY my competition so that I can LIVE forever, make MILLION$, drive an expensive EUROPEAN sedan with leather seats, FLY FIRST-CLASS, eat at fucking 5-star restaurants, marry an Italian porn star, design Louis Vuitton handbags, make 3-hour movies with NO PLOT, edition diamond encrusted GOLD dildos, and have a retrospective that TRAVELS THE GLOBE to become the GREATEST ARTIST to EVER exist PERIOD"<br /><br />Q.E.D.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">William Powhida, “Artists Statement (No One Here Gets Out Alive)” (2009), graphite and colored pencil on paper, 18″x15″ (Image courtesy the artist and Charlie James Gallery)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday, April 20, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Sironi_Forget_Me_Not/home_sironi_forget_me_not.html" target="_blank">Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not</a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Closing Reception & Artist's Talk (3pm)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 4 - June 1, 2014</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Kaufman_Myron/home_thats_life.html" target="_blank">Myron Kaufman: That's Life</a></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 4 - June 1, 2014</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Snow_Skip/home_snow_pity.html" target="_blank">Skip Snow's Pity Party</a></i></b></span><br />
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Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-67950119139173923592014-02-27T12:36:00.001-08:002014-02-27T13:54:35.235-08:00Videos: Let it Rain!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All anyone is talking about here in Southern California is the forecast for much needed drought-busting rain. Sandbags are in place for mudslides, newsrooms are on storm watch, gardeners are crossing their fingers, and roofers are starting to count their money.<br /><br />Let it rain! <br /><br />I've found a few videos to get you in the mood. <br /><br />Let's crank it up and start with the Beatles singing <i>Rain. (</i>Sorry for the fuzzy video quality, but if you look hard enough, you can see Paul McCartney's chipped tooth from a moped accident.)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br /><br />How do you walk through the rain without getting wet? Leave it to artists, in this case a group of artists, rAndom International, who created <i>Rain Room</i>, an interactive installation originally installed at the Barbican in London. Sensors detect and track visitors allowing them to move through the downpour in dry clothes surrounded by falling rain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7cem71cR0S0" width="600"></iframe><br /><br /><br />This mesmerizing "rainfall" is actually a kinetic sculpture,<i> Kinetic Rain, </i>made up of 1,216 bronze rain droplets at the Changi Airport Singapore's Terminal 1. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />I'll end with this dreamy snippet,<i> Lights and Water</i>, by James Adamson (jamesadamson.com). It was shot from his car in downtown San Francisco in one take with no cuts. </span></span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"><b></b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kyjDnysPrL1IA91FBA7laPlOianMezsVv4-ffKbN8-E9K_7i5Z4rufjEtNnQKPDKGx0UT7pcOiDse8Saaa27cXxL8p3CXB_MZeExwupgTu6noRNF_sOmKF7YpCS6neCDJiD0WPIM5Q/s1600/rain2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kyjDnysPrL1IA91FBA7laPlOianMezsVv4-ffKbN8-E9K_7i5Z4rufjEtNnQKPDKGx0UT7pcOiDse8Saaa27cXxL8p3CXB_MZeExwupgTu6noRNF_sOmKF7YpCS6neCDJiD0WPIM5Q/s1600/rain2.jpg" height="92" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;">March 14, 6-10pm<br /><b><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/ArtNight/2014_spring.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Spring 2014 ArtNight Pasadena</a></b><br />Special Preview of <b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Sironi_Forget_Me_Not/home_sironi_forget_me_not.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not</a> </i></b><br />Music by Unpopable</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 16 - April 20, 2014<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Sironi_Forget_Me_Not/home_sironi_forget_me_not.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"><b><i>Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not</i></b></a><br />Opening Reception: Sunday, March 16, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging much recently. Let’s call it a case of writer’s block that took being sent into apoplectic shock by a recent outbreak of artspeak to cure. <br /><br />As you know, MOCA has hired Phillipe Vergne as its new director. In the <i><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-moca-director-philippe-vergne-20140116,0,4169788.story#ixzz2t9DJ5yHe" target="_blank">LA Times</a> </i>article announcing the hire, the writers chose the following quote to introduce us to Vergne: <br /><br />"My vision is to commit to the most <i>experimental</i> artists of our time, but also to <i>contextualize</i> their work within a broader <i>context</i>," Vergne said in an interview. "And I think Moca's collection is one of the best to <i>contextualize</i> that kind of <i>experimentation</i>." [emphases mine]<br /> <br />Really? Are we expected to blindly accept this drivel? </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again no one seems to notice that the emperor is naked. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can we raise the bar an inch or two? This isn’t even good artspeak (an oxymoron if ever there were one)! It reminds me of trying to fake answers on essay questions when I didn’t have a clue. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />I decided to investigate and see just who this Phillipe Vergne character really is. And OMG! I found a video of an hour-long lecture by Vergne defending one of my other all-time pet peeves, the work of artist Gedi Sibony.<br /><br />Quoting from my own blog, here is my one and I hope only experience of Sibony’s work:<br /><br />"A couple years ago I was at MOMA in New York looking at an exhibition of conceptual works from the museum's permanent collection. One piece consisted of an ordinary vertical window shade laid out on the floor. There was some explanatory text saying that the artist had had an epiphany of sorts as he removed the blind from an empty studio and carried it across the hall to his studio and placed it on the floor<i> exactly</i> like it was displayed at MOMA. The piece was titled "The Middle of the World." Really? I suspect marijuana was involved." <a href="http://search.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A35980&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see an image of "The Middle of the World." Your reaction?<br /><br />So I watched as much of the Vergne/Sibony video as I could stand, (I'm inserting it below with apologies) probably about 10 minutes, and here is my take-away: Vergne is charming, has great hair and appropriate art world eyewear, a French accent [note to self: consider changing name of gallery to “La Galerie de L’Offramp.”], a self-deprecating sense of humor, and is passionate about dry, conceptual art. I have no doubt rich people will throw money at him. Good for MOCA. But what about the rest of us?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vergne has since <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/arts/design/let-curators-be-curators-los-angeles-museums-new-chief-says.html?_r=0" target="_blank">publicly stated</a> he will not do much curating but will hire curators and let them do what they do. I’ll try to keep an open mind, but the forecast from here seems to mirror our current Southern California drought. <br /><br />Prove me wrong Phillipe Vergne!</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 14, 6-10pm<br /><b><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/ArtNight/2014_spring.html" target="_blank">Spring 2014 ArtNight Pasadena</a></b><br />Special Preview of <b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Sironi_Forget_Me_Not/home_sironi_forget_me_not.html" target="_blank">Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not</a> </i></b><br />Music by Unpopable</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 16 - April 20, 2014<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Sironi_Forget_Me_Not/home_sironi_forget_me_not.html"><b><i>Susan Sironi: Forget Me Not</i></b></a><br />Opening Reception: Sunday, March 16, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception: Sunday, April 20, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span></div>
Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-78666485500206840022013-08-22T16:54:00.001-07:002013-08-22T17:32:59.367-07:00Watch Out for Falling Coconuts! Sacatar: An Artists' Residency in Paradise<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sun begins to set after a long day in the studio. The colors of the sky and water soften as the panoramic view of the ocean begins to dissolve into night. Once again you hear the primitive drumming that stirs something deep inside you. Visions of the ritual are burned into memory -- the hypnotic dancing of the Candomblé priestesses, deep in trance after invoking the Orixás. As you walk back to your suite in the Casa Grande, monkeys scatter up palm trees and you wonder what magic tonight will bring.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from one of the studios at Instituto Sacatar. Photo by Mark Steven Greenfield</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sound like the opening of a Hollywood movie? It's not. This is the <a href="http://www.sacatar.org/" target="_blank">Instituto Sacatar</a>, an artists' residency on an island off the coast of northeastern Brazil. <br /><br />Taylor Van Horne and Mitch Loch first dreamed of creating an artists' residency, not in Brazil, but near their solar-powered, straw bale house in Sacatar Canyon, high in the Sierra Nevada. The area was remote and there would be difficulties, such as access to water and transportation. <br /><br />It didn't take long to decide on a second, more exotic location. Years earlier Taylor had done a year abroad as a foreign exchange student in Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte on the northeast coast. Even though he left after a year, his heart never did and he returned many times, to see his Brazilian family and eventually to practice architecture in Salvador, Bahia, the former capital of Brazil. <br /><br />So Brazil was the obvious choice, and in 1999 when Sacatar was first conceived, there were no internationally recognized artists' residencies in South America, let alone in Brazil.<br /><br />Taylor returned to Bahia once again to begin the search for a location to turn his and Mitch's dream into a reality. Finally, after several dead ends, Mitch learned of a property through an unlikely avenue: a party conversation with the widow of a successful film director whose daughter had gotten pregnant by the nephew of a Brazilian property owner's lover! <br /><br />The property was not just in Brazil, but on the Island of Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints, across from the city of Salvador were Taylor had worked as an architect. The owner, who had been running a small hotel on the property, wanted to sell.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">NO TURDUCKEN IN BLACK ROME (docu-short, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fclb4VTwnAE">9:00</a>, color, 2013) is a mini-documentary chronicling Matt Sheridan's artist residency at Instituto Sacatar in Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main house on the property was originally built in 1950 as a vacation house and spiritual retreat for the Instituto Feminino, a Catholic girl's school. Located in the center of the 2 1/2 acre property, the large house has a central courtyard, surrounded by a library, several large living rooms, a substantial kitchen and five bedroom suites. Generous verandahs wrap around the house. Monkeys still live in the surrounding trees. A narrow strip of <i>restinga</i>, a native salt water scrub forest, screens the property from 175 meters of secluded white sand beach.<br /><br />Taylor and Mitch immediately followed up on the conversation and the Instituto Sacatar began to become a reality. They purchased the property in 2000, and the first Fellows arrived in September, 2001 (the week of 9/11). <br /><br />They managed that first year with somewhat inadequate facilities, but soon after built a support building with a laundry room, pantry, staff kitchen and employee bathrooms. They eventually added five small buildings clustered around the coconut grove facing the ocean, including an administration building, a wood-working shop, two studios with internal gardens and a raised studio with panoramic ocean views. Two more studios -- for dance and music -- were added in 2010. There are plans to add four more studios and to renovate a second, existing house to include four additional artist apartments.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.199999809265137px; text-align: start;">The Casa Grande, home to the Sacatar Fellows. </span><span style="font-size: 9px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;">Photo by Taylor Van Horne</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Sacatar is an international residency, open to artists of all nationalities and disciplines. There are several avenues to apply, including Sacatar's open selection process, as well as more specific Fellowships in partnership with various organizations.<br /><br />There's an October 14, 2013 application deadline fast approaching for the Cultural Exchange International Program of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Applicants may work in any creative discipline, but they must live in Los Angeles County. The CEI Fellowships to Sacatar provide airfare, studio, room and board plus logistical support for an eight-week residency session, along with a two thousand dollar stipend for personal expenses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you don’t live in Los Angeles County, check the website for other upcoming opportunities. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.sacatar.org/" target="_blank">Click here</a> for more information about Sacatar and how to apply for a Fellowship.<br /><br />And watch out for falling coconuts!<br /><br /><br /><b>Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September 8 - October 13, 2013</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Fifth_Anniversary/fifth_anniversary_main.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Offramp Gallery Fifth Anniversary Group Exhibition</i></b></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday September 8, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lou Beach, Quinton Bemiller, Anita Bunn, Elaine Carhartt, Chuck Feesago, Mark Steven Greenfield, James Griffith, Edith Hillinger, Myron Kaufman, Nicholette Kominos, Susan Sironi, Patssi Valdez</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /> </span></div>
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Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-501509516806392482013-03-11T12:00:00.002-07:002013-03-11T13:23:22.205-07:00Popup Books Meet Animation. Magic Ensues.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads this blog that I love popup books. <span style="font-family: Helvetica;">While researching them recently, I stumbled onto a new genre, animated popup books.</span> I've selected four videos for you. Prepare yourself for magic.<br /><br />In this enchanting video, produced as a trailer for a popup book, <em>Il étais une fois [Once upon a time]</em> by Benjamin Lacombe, a white rabbit guides us through many of our favorite childhood stories. I checked Amazon.com to see if the book itself is still available. All I found were used copies with price tags from $49.99 to $643.27! So enjoy the video.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14769206" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /> <br /><br />Artists Davy & Kristin McGuire had a dream of creating a full scale, life-size theatre performance that opened up like a pop-up book, a show that would mix video projections with live actors to create a totally immersive experience. They created a miniature maquette to show to producers and possible funders. The maquette, called <em>The Icebook</em>, has since taken on a life of its own and become a miniature touring show. <a href="http://www.theicebook.com/Behind_the_Scenes.html" target="_blank">Click here</a> for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of <em>The Icebook</em>. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/19348564" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /> <br /><em>Superstitious</em> is an animated popup book created by David Magnier as the final piece of his masters course in Screen Design for Film and Television at Kingston University, London. It is a story about the perils of having faith in nonsensical beliefs. Ted, a lonely and isolated man, becomes obsessed with changing his luck. <a href="http://www.davidmagnier.com/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to learn more about David Magnier and his work.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p9LNAGyQyr0?feature=player_detailpage" width="600"></iframe><br /><br br="" /> Digitally-enhanced magician Marco Tempest tells the story of Nikola Tesla, celebrating the scientist's accomplishments in electricity and thinking. Tempest also gives us a <a href="http://vimeo.com/43684443" target="_blank">behind-the-scenes look</a> at how carefully-calibrated projection mapping brings a pop-up book to life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/greenfield_mark_animalicious.html" target="_blank">Mark Steven Greenfield: Animalicious</a></strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">March 3 - April 14, 2013</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Saturday, March 30</strong>: Wine Tasting with Mark Steven Greenfield & the Colorado Wine Company. Tickets $20. <a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/greenfield_animalicious_wine_tasting.html" target="_blank">Click here to purchase tickets</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Sunday, April 14:</strong> Closing reception with artist's talk at 3pm</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Kominos_Nicholette_Wandering/Kominos_Wandering_Main.html" target="_blank">Nicholette Kominos: Wandering Boundaries</a></em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">April 28 - June 2, 2013</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Sunday, April 28</strong>: Opening reception, 2-5pm</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Sunday, June 2</strong>: Closing reception, 2-5 with artist's talk at 3pm</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/Hillinger_Edith/Hillinger_Edith_Main.html" target="_blank">Edith Hillinger: A Collision of Cultures</a></em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">June 23 - July 28, 2013</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Sunday, June 23</strong>: Opening reception, 2-5pm</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Sunday, July 28</strong>: Cloing reception, 2-5pm with artist's talk at 3pm</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-70903054368224496392012-12-13T10:22:00.001-08:002016-07-29T10:26:46.327-07:002012 Holiday Gift Guide for the Art Lover on Your List<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am the proverbial kid at Christmas every time a shipment of art books arrives here at Offramp. Writing about art books and stocking them for the bookstore makes it seem like the holidays year round. I've compiled this list of our best-selling titles hoping some of my enthusiasm rubs off to help you with your holiday shopping. Some are old, some are new, but all are guaranteed to satisfy the art lover on your list. <br /><br />Not in the holiday spirit yet? Check out this stunning time-lapse video of one of the world's oldest Christmas markets.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500288054/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500288054&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0500288054&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Natural Fashion</em> by Hans Silvester</strong> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The images are a magical portal to childhood fantasy and play, to a lost world of unfettered, unfiltered imagination and creativity. I found it hard to believe that there weren't stylists and make-up artists off camera staging this fantasy fashion show -- beautiful brown faces and bodies vibrantly painted with abstract motifs in ochre, red, yellow, green and white, and adorned with colorful headdresses of flowers, leaves, pods, mud, fruit and feathers. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/natural-fashion-infighting-among-art.html" target="_blank">Click here for more.</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836502933/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836502933&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=3836502933&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Paris: Portrait of a City</em></strong> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> <br />Taschen has had its way with me again. This time it's </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em>Paris: Portrait of a City</em></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, a voluptuous oversized volume of photographs of the city of my dreams, a visual feast covering 150 years of Parisian history and culture that put me in a prolonged trance-like state. Glancing at my notebook afterwards, I saw that I had jotted down notes about so many events, artists, writers, photographers, entertainers and architecture that I had almost re-created the index -- that's how rich this book is. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/book-about-paris-has-its-way-with-me.html" target="_blank">Click here for more. </a> <br /><br /><em><strong></strong></em></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500516499/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500516499&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0500516499&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>Joseph Cornell's Manual of Marvels</strong></em><br /> <br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0500516499" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
While rummaging through a second-hand bookstore in Manhattan in the early 1930's, Joseph Cornell came across a French agricultural manual full of black and white engravings and advice for farmers. He bought the volume and over time altered it -- adding collages, origami pockets and drawings, crossing out text to make puns, cutting through pages to reveal hidden images, inserting photos from magazines, hand-coloring images and even making a flip-book of page corners. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/joseph-cornells-amazing-manual-of_28.html" target="_blank">Click here for more. </a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0230620590/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0230620590&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0230620590&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art</em> </strong></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>by Don Thompson</strong><br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0230620590" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
A fascinating look into the machinations of the high-end of the contemporary art world, this book is a real eye-opener. What exactly possesses someone to pay $12 million for a stuffed shark? It's all here, from the personality and ego-fed branding of gallerists, artists and auction houses, to the collectors who blindly follow them, competing for the right to pay millions for work they neither like nor understand. I highly recommend this book as a must-read for artists and art-lovers alike. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/few-thoughts-on-art-commerce-and-damien.html" target="_blank">Click here for more.</a><br /> <br /><strong><em></em></strong></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419704567/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419704567&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1419704567&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>The Innocence of Obects</em> by Orhan Pamuk</strong><br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419704567" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk's 2009 novel about lost love and the obsessive collecting of objects, <em>The Museum of Innocence,</em> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">was conceived simultaneously with the idea of creating a bricks-and-mortar museum to house the objects collected while writing and researching the novel. The museum, which opened to the public in Istanbul earlier this year </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is housed in a modest 19th century house. <em>The Innocence of Objects</em> beautifully catalogs the museum's collection and in Pamuk's own words, tells the story of how the museum came to be. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/orhan-pamuks-innocence-of-objects.html" target="_blank">Click here for more. </a> <br /><br /><strong><em></em></strong></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836521202/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836521202&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=3836521202&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo</em></strong><br /><br /> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3836521202" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
As soon as I saw Taschen’s luscious volume </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em>Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo</em></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em> </em>in a museum gift shop, I knew I had to have it. I don't have a big budget for luxury items these days, so I was delighted to find how affordable it was. Released in 2010 as one of Taschen’s 30th birthday “Golden Books,” reprints of luxury books at affordable prices, this volume packs a lot of bang for the buck. Encased in a box depicting a detail of Hiroshige's iconic grey tree limbs and white plum blossoms against an organish-pink sky and fastened with faux ivory toggles, this book is a must-have for art lovers. <a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/hiroshige-one-hundred-famous-views-of.html" target="_blank">Click here for more.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity</em> by David Lynch</strong></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585425400/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1585425400&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1585425400&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1585425400" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />Have you ever wondered
where the dark genius of filmmaker David Lynch comes from? Lynch's 2006 book, <em><span style="color: #2288bb;"><span style="color: black;">Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and
Creativity</span> </span></em>gives rare insight into his creative process and how 35
years of Transcendental Meditation have helped him along the way. The book is
comprised of 85 short chapters, some as short as a sentence, describing how
Lynch captures ideas and turns them into reality through filmmaking, from
<em>Eraserhead</em>, <em>Blue Velvet</em> and <em>Twin Peaks</em> to <em>Inland
Empire</em>. <em>Catching the Big Fish</em> is a charming, easy read and gives
us a refresher course in where our own creativity comes from and how to stay
connected to it. <script src="http://wms.assoc-amazon.com/20070822/US/js/link-enhancer-common.js?tag=janechafinsbl-20" type="text/javascript">
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<img src="http://wms.assoc-amazon.com/20070822/US/img/noscript.gif?tag=janechafinsbl-20" alt="" />
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<a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/short-takes-david-lynchs-big-fish-trip.html" target="_blank">Click here for more.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/" target="_blank">Closing Reception & Artist's Talk with Elaine Carhartt & James Griffith</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Offramp Gallery will be closed January & February 2013</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-10552016424550187502012-11-28T11:18:00.004-08:002016-07-29T10:30:12.390-07:00Joseph Cornell's Amazing Manual of Marvels<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Before I tell you about an amazing new Joseph Cornell box/book, I want to talk briefly about art fairs again. In my ongoing quest to get to the bottom line about whether or not participating in fairs is a money-making proposition, I recently had what I thought was a Eureka moment. The booths are hugely expensive ($6k-$15k for the smallest ones) and just coming up with money does not ensure you entrance. The organizers of the fair don't give you any information on ROI (return on investment), other than talking about exposure, leaving you with second-hand anecdotal accounts of profit/loss. So I decided to get scientific.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>I gathered the email addresses of over 300 galleries who were listed as having participated in fairs last year in three major US cities: New York, Miami and Los Angeles and sent out a simple one question survey -- did you make money, break even, or lose money? I hit send and sat back to collect the responses.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>I got exactly three. One gallery said they broke even, one said they lost money and the third said "I think that most galleries would not want to give you the honest answer to this question and that is why you do not have a clear answer."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>So much for my scientific method. I'll keep you posted on any further insights I have on the subject.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0500516499" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAH1Ionpusiem5eD4d7bemmleBSvET23cDXDLGPErg7mVBjK7IuUDglfmbO8trSp2q6qoUs2bRsVvIaFtyLsCgFoCkYINwMlNii5YGFc7gorj5gHmG42ZhfgGgW5dFTdxPPX0HmGRmQ/s1600/Cornell+package+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAH1Ionpusiem5eD4d7bemmleBSvET23cDXDLGPErg7mVBjK7IuUDglfmbO8trSp2q6qoUs2bRsVvIaFtyLsCgFoCkYINwMlNii5YGFc7gorj5gHmG42ZhfgGgW5dFTdxPPX0HmGRmQ/s320/Cornell+package+shot.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500516499/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500516499&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0500516499" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
to purchase from Amazon.com</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, on to something far more uplifting: Thames & Hudson's recently released <em>Joseph Cornell's Manual of Marvels: How Joseph Cornell reinvented a French agricultural manual to create an American masterpiece.</em> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500516499/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500516499&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0500516499" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> to purchase from Amazon.com.) While rummaging through a second-hand bookstore in Manhattan in the early 1930's, Joseph Cornell came across a French agricultural manual full of black and white engravings and advice for farmers. He bought the volume and over time altered it -- adding collages, origami pockets and drawings, crossing out text to make puns, cutting through pages to reveal hidden images, inserting photos from magazines, hand-coloring images and even making a flip-book of page corners.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LzBIXAMWLxzF0sb8342Hp_jjh-nyyCFzN8uSKATfUecC3K0M523t4rxSbewHMetnnL73ZmV8J-pWUbryJHJSw2sVjl3OovlChUGe4xy7_-HII1dlsPwdvEdCgrF0q3U69eDpSK2M9w/s1600/Facsimile_pp14_15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LzBIXAMWLxzF0sb8342Hp_jjh-nyyCFzN8uSKATfUecC3K0M523t4rxSbewHMetnnL73ZmV8J-pWUbryJHJSw2sVjl3OovlChUGe4xy7_-HII1dlsPwdvEdCgrF0q3U69eDpSK2M9w/s320/Facsimile_pp14_15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All works of art by Joseph Cornell © The Joseph and Robert </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> New York, NY. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">the Joseph and Robert Cornell memorial Foundation, 2002.<u></u></span></td></tr>
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The volume was discovered in Cornell's basement soon after his death in 1972 and is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The actual book is far too fragile for all but a few to see first-hand, making this new publication all the more exciting. Getting this one in the mail and opening it was early Christmas for this art/book lover. <em>The Manual of Marvels</em> comes in a specially designed box with a magnetic closure that opens to reveal two books and a DVD. Pulling on a shiny red ribbon lifts the books from the box.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first volume is a facsimile of 60 of the pages altered by Cornell, replete with pages-deep die-cuts, an origami pocket that opens to reveal the head of a bull and end-papers so faithfully reproduced that you think Joseph Cornell actually signed your copy in pencil and left you his address in Flushing should you care to contact him.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGxxAL6URccXlVr16sXlImG0GemEsph_D6AwXPxq1OWO_adDuYEQ-QDLs4Lx3JDZ2-hOslYTLVdzySVO34jpp9i0j8_12Fh5zdz4qF9pfMHAwjVHMQpzBYw5np3idejJYKevuuWVvxA/s1600/Facsimile_pp18_19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGxxAL6URccXlVr16sXlImG0GemEsph_D6AwXPxq1OWO_adDuYEQ-QDLs4Lx3JDZ2-hOslYTLVdzySVO34jpp9i0j8_12Fh5zdz4qF9pfMHAwjVHMQpzBYw5np3idejJYKevuuWVvxA/s320/Facsimile_pp18_19.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All works of art by Joseph Cornell © The Joseph and Robert </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">New York, NY. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Joseph and Robert Cornell memorial Foundation, 2002.<u></u></span><u></u></td></tr>
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A fold-out of a diagram of a Russian ship has been collaged to show cats hanging laundry on the ship's rigging and reads "Runaway Pussy Cat." A list which mentions a "M. Couteau" has been altered in pencil to read "M. Cocteau." An engraving of strawberries has been hand-colored and altered to read as an elegant headdress for a young beauty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second volume in the box is a collection of essays about Cornell's work, edited by art historians Analisa Leppanen-Guerra and Dickran Tashjian. Also included in the box is a DVD showing all 425 pages of the manual, with buttons that allow you to skip to the more than 160 pages altered by Cornell, many of which are annotated. All in all, countless hours of discovery, education and enjoyment are assured. It is the perfect gift for the art/book lover on your list. Oh, and get one for yourself as well.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500516499/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500516499&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to purchase from Amazon.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patssi Valdez: Mementos</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through December 23, 2012<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/carhartt_elaine_portraits.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Elaine Carhartt: Portraits</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through December 23, 2012<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/griffith_james_natural_selection.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James Griffith: Natural Selection</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through December 23, 2012<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-70786807032052013402012-10-26T09:51:00.001-07:002012-10-26T10:06:37.635-07:00Videos: Bosch and Brueghel get Animated for Halloween<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If your need for the macabre this Halloween goes beyond cute kids in costumes and Hallmark notions of creepy, this animated look at two giants of art history, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, should transport you to those depraved depths you crave.<br /><br />We'll start with a jaunty video by Eli Rosen based on the drawing <em>Big Fish Eat Little Fish</em> by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/K_NnH4PGQdM" width="600"></iframe><br /><br /><br />This next video, by Dobromil Nosek, is based on Bosch's <em>Seven Sins</em>. Unfortunately, we only get an enticing glimpse of three of the seven.<br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br /><br />Ray Koefoed's music video, <em>A Plague on You</em>, is based on Brueghel's <em>Triumph of Death</em> and ups the ante on the creepiness factor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Kr_buvPfRM" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />Ready for more? Andrey Zakirzyanov's edgy <em>Break the Silence</em> music video is a mash-up of Bosch and Brueghel imagery with a cameo appearance by a certain someone from the work of Leonardo da Vinci.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KWDbVqRXrMQ" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />I've saved the most gruesome for last, Buckethead's video for <em>Spokes for the Wheel of Torment</em>. Based on several paintings by Bosch, it is not for the faint of heart. You have been forewarned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1bSZslEDUl0" width="600"></iframe><br /><br /><br />Happy Halloween!<br />
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<strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong> <br />
<br /></span><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anita Bunn: Detour</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />through October 28<br />Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, October 28, 2-5pm<br /><br />November 3-4, 2012</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/adams_lisa_benefit.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Benefit Exhibition & Sale for Lisa Adams</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be among the first to select works at benefit prices by Los Angeles luminaries such as Laddie John Dill, Ed Moses, Kristin Calabrese, Larry Bell, Chuck Arnoldi, Iva Gueorguieva, Anita Bunn, Susan Sironi, Jim Ganser and many more.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patssi Valdez: Mementos</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/carhartt_elaine_portraits.html"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Elaine Carhartt: Portraits</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/griffith_james_natural_selection.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James Griffith: Natural Selection</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm </span><br />
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<br /><br /> </span><br />Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-53981015470307887542012-10-19T11:14:00.002-07:002016-07-29T10:31:52.603-07:00Art. Books. Art Books. Book Art: An Embarrassment of Riches<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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Art. Books. Art books. Book art. I have lived most of my adult life near the intersection of these two worlds, as an artist, diarist, voracious reader, art-gallery/art-book-store director and blogger about art and books. You could say it is my happy place -- and for the last two weeks my proverbial cup runneth over! <br />
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Artists, always sensitive to cultural changes on what seems to be a cellular level, have turned to books as medium, just as books are losing their dominance as conveyors of information, while maintaining or perhaps even gaining importance as aesthetic objects. <strong><em>Book Art: Iconic Sculptures and Installations Made from Books</em></strong>, published by Gestalten in 2011, features the work of 46 artists who use books as a medium -- cutting, slicing, carving, gouging, stacking, suspending, rolling and otherwise manipulating these mass-produced works into one-of-a-kind precious objects. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3899553667/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3899553667&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a> to buy <em>Book Art</em> from Amazon.com.)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />In her introduction to <em>Book Art</em> Christine Antaya states: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">By Gene Epstein from <i>Book Art, </i></span><br />
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"Artists who have opened their eyes to the interplay of structure and format within the book, a feature largely taken for granted until texts became available through different media, have been exploring this using the scalpel and the knife. Sentences are cut and peeled out to create new contexts and more fluid meanings for narratives; words are erased; the shapes of books are returned to the organic matter from which the paper they are printed on first came."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1aWsa6oSDUnXQzYxuovbG3nshlGT2dUdzZJoqb_mjLZkAeDnOluiUNLY_ksuM6v_u3tNdADZ2sy6BlxMZcsBMF5lNTG2DzuBoUJchzckKV_hhMeOBP_tr9khz3GLi3Rs-pAyGv8H98Q/s1600/pages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
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Another happy foray down the art/book rabbit hole is an exhibition I attended last week, <em><a href="http://www.artcenter.edu/williamson/" target="_blank">Pages</a></em>, on view through January 13, 2013 at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design here in Pasadena. <em>Pages</em> displays the work of contemporary artists who use books and pages as mediums, alongside manuscripts, documents, doodles and other forms of written or printed pages from the 15th century to the 21st. <br />
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New York artist Robert Kushner’s <em>Scriptorium: Devout Exercises of the Heart</em> consists of hundreds of drawings and paintings of foliage and flowers on antique book pages and covers, and is hung salon style with pins on a wall that spans the entire depth of the gallery space. Opposite the wall is a row of six vitrines displaying pages from 15th and 16th century <em>Herbals</em>, the neat calligraphy and herbal illustrations quietly foreshadowing Kushner's impressive installation. <br />
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Three stunning wall pieces by Echiko Ohira made from cardboard, tea-stained paper, glue, and tea-stained sketchbooks provide sophisticated visual counterpoint to objects such as a placemat from a restaurant in Altadena covered with handwritten scientific formulae by Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Fineman, and large wall-hung copies of pages from a first edition of Mark Twain's <em>Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County</em> with Twain's handwritten edits and marginalia. <br />
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</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kWesMBhui9jToDfiG1BtZf6rOtakO-hIJeiue_HE2IJkIbTFDw3u10rXdhV5mHMBoh_dK5S06mARr_HmxNkEoeXzJwA_F12v8Fc6hoAHu-LgFcfBYkCZ0I2Nxp6U0AuMqOW4G_9dxA/s1600/museum+of+innocence+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kWesMBhui9jToDfiG1BtZf6rOtakO-hIJeiue_HE2IJkIbTFDw3u10rXdhV5mHMBoh_dK5S06mARr_HmxNkEoeXzJwA_F12v8Fc6hoAHu-LgFcfBYkCZ0I2Nxp6U0AuMqOW4G_9dxA/s320/museum+of+innocence+cover.jpg" width="168" /></a>All of which brings us to my third and final harmonious convergence in the art/book matrix. In my last post I wrote about Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk's recently released book, <em><a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/orhan-pamuks-innocence-of-objects.html" target="_blank">The Innocence of Objects</a></em>, a catalog of his museum that opened last spring in Istanbul -- a museum that Pamuk conceived in tandem with his novel, <strong><em>The Museum of Innocence.</em></strong> I told myself I didn't have time to read a 500+ page novel, then immediately downloaded and devoured it. It is a mesmerizing tale of lost love and obsession. Having the museum catalog to refer to is icing on this masterful cake. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307386244/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307386244&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a> to buy <em>The Museum of Innocence</em> from Amazon.com. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SE63Z2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002SE63Z2&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a> to download for Kindle.) <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Anita Bunn: Detour</em></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through October 28<br />Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, October 28, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 3-4, 2012</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/adams_lisa_benefit.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Benefit Exhibition & Sale for Lisa Adams</em></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be among the first to select works at benefit prices by Los Angeles luminaries such as Laddie John Dill, Ed Moses, Kristin Calabrese, Larry Bell, Chuck Arnoldi, Iva Gueorguieva, Anita Bunn, Susan Sironi, Jim Ganser and many more.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Patssi Valdez: Mementos</em></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm<br /><br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/carhartt_elaine_portraits.html" target="_blank"><em>Elaine Carhartt: Portraits</em></a><br />November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm<br /><br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/griffith_james_natural_selection.html" target="_blank"><em>James Griffith: Natural Selection</em></a><br />November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm <br /> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="goog_917685605"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_917685606"></span></span><br />Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-34805069196351130602012-10-04T16:31:00.002-07:002016-07-29T10:33:08.906-07:00Orhan Pamuk's "The Innocence of Objects:" An Amazing Catalog About a Real Museum Based on Fiction<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419704567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419704567&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here to purchase <em>The Innocence of Objects</em> <br /> from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419704567" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a week that has strongly reinforced my belief that large international art fairs, however else you want to defend them, are the worst possible, most sterile environments ever conceived for viewing art -- the amazing book that I now have before me, Orhan Pamuk's <strong><em>The Innocence of Obects </em></strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419704567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419704567&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank">(click here to purchase from Amazon.com)</a><em>, </em>makes me want to stand up and shout! It is a triumph of intimacy over sterility, depth over superficiality and humanity over inhumanity. It is also the most perfect intersection of art and literature that I have ever encountered.<br /><br />Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk's 2009 novel about lost love and the obsessive collecting of objects, <strong><em>The Museum of Innocence</em></strong>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RPKSBA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004RPKSBA&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank">(click here to purchase from Amazon.com)</a> was conceived simultaneously with the idea of creating a bricks-and-mortar museum to house the objects collected while writing and researching the novel. The museum, which opened to the public in Istanbul earlier this year (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/books/orhan-pamuk-opens-museum-based-on-his-novel-in-istanbul.html" target="_blank">click here</a> to read <em>The New York Time's</em> coverage of the opening) is housed in a modest 19th century house. The Innocence of Objects beautifully catalogs the museum's collection and in Pamuk's own words, tells the story of how the museum came to be. Pamuk writes: <br /><br />"The more objects I collected for the museum, the more the story in my mind progressed. Sometimes I'd spot a teacup I wanted in an acquaintance's house or inside the old cupboards where my mother kept the pots and pans she no longer used, her porcelain, her sugar bowls, and her trinkets for display, and one day I'd take it without telling anyone that it was destined for the museum."<br /><br />The museum consists of 83 numbered display cases, each referring to a chapter in the novel: assemblages of bric-a-brac, items rummaged from junk stores in the back streets of Istanbul, photography of old Istanbul by Turkish photographer Ara Güler, illustrations by Pamuk himself (a former painter) and others, and convincing molded plastic food made especially for the museum.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6CbEW8YRgU1IzKhyjgrkhaWHXGnMlEcnKjF9zxSp-i71tz8EiJ-zVn3yQPTcAJXHPvzJo1RAXXGzfymBq93NZS6bFjb3M0Ia4OtGLGba64Tz_ZsVrTyGgNFCV7AexQEnKO1P52PM0-w/s1600/InnocenceOfObjects_p258-59_lo-res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6CbEW8YRgU1IzKhyjgrkhaWHXGnMlEcnKjF9zxSp-i71tz8EiJ-zVn3yQPTcAJXHPvzJo1RAXXGzfymBq93NZS6bFjb3M0Ia4OtGLGba64Tz_ZsVrTyGgNFCV7AexQEnKO1P52PM0-w/s640/InnocenceOfObjects_p258-59_lo-res.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Museum of Innocence, Istanbul, Turkey, photo credit: Refik Anadol. Abrams.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pamuk writes about conversations between himself and the novel's main character, Kemal, taking place in the museum's penthouse, an actual bedroom that the fictional Kemal inhabits -- so convincingly that the already fuzzy lines between reality and fiction become even more blurred. The caption beneath a photograph of the bedroom reads:<br /><br />"Kemal first told me what he had been through over the course of three hours in a restaurant. When I decided to write a novel about his love for Füsun, we inevitably became friends. On many a night over the seven years between March 2000 and February 2007, I sat in the attic on the chair on the right and listened to his story." </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3QdgeseQ6eLliN1w3EhrUpZ2qMDJO0J9awpiCosFy0YwKIOJqk4iLnSjpxAAzkce91GNXK4k2dqTspYKZLCKPaXmdiMx9yO-lXDAvwmenZeLJb8H5lxd67FJfSRJudlqJfSZnea0xw/s1600/InnocenceOfObjects_p120_lo_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3QdgeseQ6eLliN1w3EhrUpZ2qMDJO0J9awpiCosFy0YwKIOJqk4iLnSjpxAAzkce91GNXK4k2dqTspYKZLCKPaXmdiMx9yO-lXDAvwmenZeLJb8H5lxd67FJfSRJudlqJfSZnea0xw/s640/InnocenceOfObjects_p120_lo_res.jpg" width="427" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Box 22. <em>The Hand of Rahmi Efendi.</em> The Museum of Innocence, Istanbul, Turkey, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">photo credit: Refik Anadol. Abrams.</span></td></tr>
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<br />In his tale of how he came to create the museum, Pamuk asks himself the question: "Why has no one else ever thought of something like this, of bringing together a novel and a museum in a single story? . . . If someone made an Anna Karenina Museum, finding a way to display the material world of the novel, I'd come running." He decided that if he were going to realize his museum, he needed to write a manifesto. What resulted is an 11-point " Modest Manifesto for Museums" that everyone in the art and museum world should read. I will end with the last last two points:<br /><br />10. Monumental buildings that dominate neighborhoods and entire cities do not bring out our humanity; on the contrary, they quash it. Instead, we need modest museums that honor the neighborhoods and streets and the homes and shops nearby, and turn them into elements of their exhibitions.<br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. The future of museums in inside our own homes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419704567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419704567&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a> to purchase <em>The Innocence of Objects</em> from Amazon.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307386244/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307386244&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20">Click here</a> to purchase <em>The Museum of Innocence</em> from Amazon.com.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></strong><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>Anita Bunn: Detour</em></strong></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through October 28<br />Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday, October 28, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/brown_conversations_october_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>Panel Discussion: Contemporary Art Conversations #13</em></strong></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday, October 7, 4-6pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contemporary Art Conversations #13 will include critics Shana Nys Dambrot, Ezrha Jean Black and Peter Frank, artist/writerJohn O'Brien. The panel will be moderated by art historian Betty Ann Brown.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>Patssi Valdez: Mementos</em></strong></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm<br /><br /><strong><em>Elaine Carhartt: Portraits</em></strong><br />November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm<br /><br /><strong><em>James Griffith: Natural Selection</em></strong><br />November 18 - December 23, 2012<br />Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br />Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-19094105019713021532012-09-26T11:53:00.001-07:002012-09-26T11:57:22.540-07:00Short Takes: Kaleidoscopic Wonders<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to <em>Wikipedia</em>, the term "kaleidoscope" was coined in 1817 by its Scottish inventor, Sir David Brewster, while he was performing experiments on light polarization. Brewster arranged for manufacture of his invention, intended as a science tool. The kaleidoscope was an instant hit -- over 200,000 sold in London and Paris in the first three months. After its initial success, Brewster believed he would make money from the kaleidoscope, but unfortunately, a fault in his patent application allowed others to copy his invention. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's sophisticated computer imaging allows for endless experimentation with kaleidoscopic effects. In the following clip, <em>Not As It Seems,</em> video segments are manipulated with kaleidoscope and mirror computer effects to create wondrous new worlds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37796708" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />If you prefer something more low tech, check out this beautiful video by Spanish designer Osman Granda.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/13511432" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />This next video is from the American Folk Art Museum. Senior curator Stacy Hollander introduces us to artist Paula Nadelstern's amazingly detailed kaleidoscopic quilt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BuwJV6p6deU" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />It's almost impossible to think about moving images and kaleidoscopic effects without </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Busby Berkeley's musical extravaganzas coming to mind. I found this wonderful montage of Berkeley choreographed film clips set to the music of Artie Shaw.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kIO9y1xMPIA" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />What would a blog about kaleidoscopes be without a trip to the world's largest one? If you've ever travelled through the Catskills, you've no doubt seen the signs -- and some of us have even stopped to experience this Woodstock-inspired wonder.<br />
<br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="414" scrolling="no" src="http://www.travelchannel.com/Embedded?id=5970387388f97310VgnVCM1000003409330aRCRD" width="600"></iframe><strong>Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html" target="_blank"><em>Anita Bunn: Detour</em></a><br />
through October 28<br />
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, October 28, 2-5pm<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/brown_conversations_october_2012.html" target="_blank"><em>Panel Discussion: Contemporary Art Conversations #13</em></a><br />
Sunday, October 7, 4-6pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>Contemporary Art Conversations #13</em></strong> will include critics Shana Nys Dambrot, Ezrha Jean Black and Peter Frank, artist/writerJohn O'Brien. The panel will be moderated by art historian Betty Ann Brown.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><br /><em><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html" target="_blank">Patssi Valdez: Mementos</a></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><em>Elaine Carhartt: Portraits</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br />
<br />
<em>James Griffith: Natural Selection</em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Closing Reception & Holiday Party: Sunday, December 23, 2-5pm</span><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-8407506091076632072012-09-19T10:25:00.004-07:002016-07-29T10:35:02.547-07:00A Film and A Book Shed Light on the Enigmatic Francesca Woodman<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IHH4H0/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007IHH4H0&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B007IHH4H0&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click here to purchase<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IHH4H0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007IHH4H0&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>The Woodmans</em></a><em><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007IHH4H0" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></em>
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from Amazon.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We see a naked young woman lying on the floor in the corner of a sparsely furnished room. Generously sprinkled on the floor all around her is a white powdery substance. As the young woman begins to rise she turns back to look at the black silhouette her body has left on the floor. She gets to her feet, walks toward the camera and out of the frame. We hear someone whisper "what a wonderful shape" and then louder with a girlish giggle, "I'm really pleased!" In that instant it becomes apparent that the girlish voice and giggles of the model are also those of the creator of the intriguing short video, photographer Francesca Woodman.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a few short years, at the age of 22, Woodman would end her own life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fascination with Woodman's suicide has added to the allure and mystique of her reputation but also clouds our understanding of her work. Was she a precocious prodigy who began shooting photographs at age 13 and within a year was working on a mature, masterful body of work? Or was she the main character in a gothic tragedy that has reached mythic proportions? Or perhaps both?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje09SFUbtyMKNb6lLFSVcX6p14m1e51MIKT06W3qloE10seTgR1Mc6Ko-AKk0-gPmNoR4aUEYjyZIkn5b6BMbflRUh2BLpqpSeiP2-E61ByexaCgp3uIL0L8l9OiR5u4qAY93LgwYOoQ/s1600/078+Untitled+Boulder+Colorado+1976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje09SFUbtyMKNb6lLFSVcX6p14m1e51MIKT06W3qloE10seTgR1Mc6Ko-AKk0-gPmNoR4aUEYjyZIkn5b6BMbflRUh2BLpqpSeiP2-E61ByexaCgp3uIL0L8l9OiR5u4qAY93LgwYOoQ/s640/078+Untitled+Boulder+Colorado+1976.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Francesca Woodman, untitled, Boulder, Colorado, 1976</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the 2010 documentary, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IHH4H0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007IHH4H0&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>The Woodmans</em></a>, Francesca's parents Betty and George, both artists themselves, reflect on the life and death of their daughter. The film is lushly illustrated with Francesca's photography, videos and journal entries, as well as interviews with family members, classmates and friends. At the beginning of the film her father states:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I think it's hard to draw a line between Francesca being a provocative person as a choice -- I'm going to provoke -- and simply being provocative by her nature. I think she had quite a vivid sense of being an actor in her own drama, and that sense of being an actor in a drama gave her a skill in terms of, how should we say, organizing drama, making it work."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qu9LSFFnn54" width="600"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George gave Francesca her first camera when she was 13 years old as she was going off to boarding school. By the time she entered the Rhode Island School of Design three years later she was already well on her way creating a very sophisticated visual vocabulary. RISD Classmate and friend Sloan Rankin recalls:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"She came with the idea that she was a photographer, nearly everyone else who comes doesn't know what they're going to be yet and they choose from the 19 different areas of study. She came knowing. She was a photographer and she didn't want to take 2-D and 3-D Design classes, so she had some hideous moments in class and even the teachers would ask me to go and rescue her from running away from these classes."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another former RISD classmate, Catherine Chermayeffeff, recalls:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"There was a real rock star quality about Francesca because she was so ambitious, so talented and so driven and so focused that you, that it was shocking. She had this enormously sophisticated eye and was incredibly original."</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714844306/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714844306&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0714844306&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janechafinsbl-20" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click here to purchase<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714844306/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714844306&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>Francesca Woodman</em></a><em><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0714844306" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></em>
<br />
from Amazon.ecom</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
Chris Townsend, in his Introduction to Phaidon's lush monograph <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714844306/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714844306&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>Francesca Woodman</em></a><em>,</em> begins the task of placing Woodman's work in an art historical context:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Woodman never understood herself as a fully realized artist, even if that is how we see her now. When she died in 1981, aged only twenty-two, she was still learning, still absorbing influences, still exploring what she wanted her work to do and testing the directions it might take. We tend to see the work very differently: what was intended as a student exercise, we may apprehend as an independent project; what was a raw experiment, we may understand as the finished article; we may perceive it in the wrong contexts, or understand it as the work of an artist in full control of her materials and her medium, rather than as part of a process by which she was coming to terms with both."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other essays in the book look at Woodman's work through the lenses of the American Gothic, Surrealism, Feminism, Post-Minimal Photography and Self-Portraiture.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJhslvlGBR0FMSs3hDGqnnTDGSnZW-JUV6TWQiatBNHI5KEfXXx046olO81vq4-xyZYhyphenhyphenjU4Y7ASNhz-7Z-h5CEgLPqfULvLXQxTG-C9b4mI4BaED9-JpC1E1dTXmcR3XHhnFUTLJRQ/s1600/109+From+Space2+series+Providence+RI+1977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJhslvlGBR0FMSs3hDGqnnTDGSnZW-JUV6TWQiatBNHI5KEfXXx046olO81vq4-xyZYhyphenhyphenjU4Y7ASNhz-7Z-h5CEgLPqfULvLXQxTG-C9b4mI4BaED9-JpC1E1dTXmcR3XHhnFUTLJRQ/s640/109+From+Space2+series+Providence+RI+1977.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Francesca Woodman, from Space 2 series, Providence, RI, 1977</span></td></tr>
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why did this beautiful, talented young woman throw herself off the roof of a building in New York City? We may never know the full answer to that question, and a note she wrote to Sloan Rankin after an earlier suicide attempt does little to add to our understanding:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"After three weeks and weeks and weeks of thinking about it I finally managed to try to do away with myself as neatly and concisely as possible. I do have standards and my life at this point is like very old coffee sediment, and I would rather die young leaving various accomplishments, some work, my friendship with you and some other artifacts intact, instead of pell-mell erasing all these delicate things."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IHH4H0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007IHH4H0&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>The Woodmans</em></a> from Amazon.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714844306/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714844306&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20" target="_blank"><em>Francesca Woodman</em></a> from Amazon.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at
Offramp Gallery</strong></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img align="left" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aOS7kDKjKdJUEAon4FJDH35csIjqkH1L0apm_vNpNGEtBTpfab_TAHFVEMLmkGtO4nqgLmDgTGzjj2JjiRoTWU7HhCoR7s1HocRF-B3QyKTHyFJVEaUKnh8mktWUMwRwM8ZThwZzWQ/s200/Palm_2_stroke_bunn.jpg" /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September 16 - October 28,
2012</span><br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Anita Bunn:
Detour</span></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday,
September 16, 2-5pm</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday,
October 7, 2012, 4-6pm<br />PANEL DISCUSSION</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/brown_conversations_october_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Contemporary Art Conversations
#13</span></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moderated by Betty Ann
Brown<br />Panelists: Peter Frank, Shana Nys Drambot, Ezrha Jean Black, John
O'Brien</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2288bb;"> </span></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s1600/2007-my-room-copy.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2288bb;"><img align="left" border="0" closure_uid_pfnpg4="4" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s200/2007-my-room-copy.jpg" /></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23,
2012</span><br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Patssi Valdez:
Mementos</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday,
November 18, 2-5pm<br /><br /><br /> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-49069296843413642402012-09-07T11:21:00.002-07:002012-09-07T14:42:42.017-07:00An Interview with Patssi Valdez, An American Painter<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Patssi Valdez, <em>Sunday,</em> 2011, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">acrylic on canvas, 72" x 30"</span><br />
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Los Angeles artist Patssi Valdez has gained international attention in the last few years, primarily from her early performance work as a member of the group Asco. Asco was recognized in a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011, <em><a href="http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/asco" target="_blank">Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1987</a></em>. Post-Asco, Valdez has had a very successful "second" career as a painter. I sat down with her earlier this week in her studio. <br /><br />JC: You've gotten quite a lot of attention in the last few years because of your participation in Asco. Let's talk about how you made the transition from the brassy performance-based political art you did with Asco to becoming a painter more focused on your internal world.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
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PV: Before I met the men that I worked with in Asco, I had grand ideas about being a great painter. But then I worked around Willie [Herrón] and Gronk and they seemed to paint so effortlessly while I had to struggle. I was not a good colorist at all, I couldn’t mix color properly -- I always say that I made mud paintings. So that’s why I worked in installation, performance, and all these other mediums.<br /><br />JC: And yet my memory is that as a painter, in your first painting show at Pico House Gallery in 1989, you sprang full blown -- Athena from Zeus’ head -- an accomplished painter right out of the box.<br /><br /> PV: When I got out of art school, where I focused primarily on photography, I started teaching kids at Plaza de la Raza and I had to give lessons. They asked me if I would teach painting, so of course I said yes – I needed the job – then I panicked and went to the library looking up assignments, how to mix primary colors – and along the way I taught myself color theory.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9vMgnzzGdqDluzsc_3XdOodk1CIYUKYM8S1x688tnS6f_K3tdSSAqcznj0PGpDXoIE62vlXsoOXs2Z6E-zvmtbmK8tjfbxhxu-6ZYEy4J8Cu_Pn1kJy3V6xgHX093FU07xZ9gBYsHQ/s1600/The_Crying_Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9vMgnzzGdqDluzsc_3XdOodk1CIYUKYM8S1x688tnS6f_K3tdSSAqcznj0PGpDXoIE62vlXsoOXs2Z6E-zvmtbmK8tjfbxhxu-6ZYEy4J8Cu_Pn1kJy3V6xgHX093FU07xZ9gBYsHQ/s400/The_Crying_Tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Patssi Valdez, <em>The Crying Tree</em>, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60"</span><br />
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Then one day I went to the David Hockney Retrospective at LACMA with a friend and I said, “I think I could do that.” My friend thought it was the funniest thing, that I would have the nerve to say that! It was inspiring. It was like Truth or Dare. So I went home and bought all this paint and canvas and started on this body of work. <br /><br />After I had finished a few, I thought “Ok. Who’s the harshest critic in the world? Who’s the friend that will tell you the truth and let you have it?” The answer was Gronk. <br /><br />So I picked up the phone and called Gronk and told him I had something to show him. He came over and he was real quiet, pensive looking. All he said to me was “you need more paint.” I thought, ok! that means they’re not horrible, that means they passed the Gronk test, I think I can show them to the world.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a align="right" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3775730036/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3775730036&linkCode=as2&tag=janchasoffgal-20" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img align="right" border="0" height="200" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=3775730036&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=janchasoffgal-20" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click here to purchase<br />
from Amazon.com<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3775730036/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3775730036&linkCode=as2&tag=janchasoffgal-20" target="_blank">ASCO: Elite of the Obscure:<br /> A Retrospective 1972-1987</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janchasoffgal-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3775730036" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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catalog from 2011<br />
exhibition at LACMA <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janchasoffgal-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3775730036" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" target="_blank" width="1" />I had done a lot of collage work and photography but nothing ever sold. I lived very frugally. Then I had that first painting show at Pico House, with no expectations of selling anything, and suddenly I had people coming up and asking how much was this painting? How much was that one? So many people were interested that I finally said “whoever gives me the check first gets the painting,” and I went home with my little purse full of checks! That was the beginning of making money and selling my work. I never looked back. I was no longer in Asco, I was done with art school and I just forged ahead.<br /><br />JC: What impact have the museum shows have had on you? Do you feel you have become mainstream?<br /><br />PV: First of all, I feel it has legitimized me as an artist – not as a <em>woman</em> artist or a <em>Latina</em> artist, but as an artist. <br /><br />Have I entered the mainstream? I believe I haven’t. Asco, maybe, but me individually as a painter, my real passion -- I’m hoping that someday I can have a major retrospective of my own. People don’t know the whole range of my work. I’m an installation artist, I’ve been a performance artist, I was a photographer for ten years, I make short films, I do iPad drawings, I sculpt and I paint. I have all these bodies of work and my dream is to be able to see them together in one museum space at the same time. That’s my dream. So, to the museum world out there: Can we start working on that, please? [laughing] While I’m still on planet Earth?<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In the following video Patssi Valdez and Vyal Reyes transform a Lexus into a work of art.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">JC: What's in your immediate future?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PV: I’m ready to start a new body of work. I have these big empty canvases and I’m reevaluating what I want to say and how I want to say it. I want to find a dealer, representation.<br /><br />I didn’t have to struggle financially for years, but when the economy tanked, and I was no longer with a gallery, that’s when the trouble started. I had been on a roll for years. Now I’m struggling again. Thank god I have a couple of supporters who believe in me, who believe in me 100%. They make all the difference in the world.<br /><br />My mother always says to me "you have all these angels daughter." And I say "don't I mother?"<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patssi's upcoming schedule:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patssi Valdez: Mementos</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(gouaches, ceramics and site-specific installation)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.muac.unam.mx/webpage/index.php" target="_blank">Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo</a>, Mexico City, Mexico</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>ASCO: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1987</em> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">03/21/2013 – 09/01/2013</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img align="left" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aOS7kDKjKdJUEAon4FJDH35csIjqkH1L0apm_vNpNGEtBTpfab_TAHFVEMLmkGtO4nqgLmDgTGzjj2JjiRoTWU7HhCoR7s1HocRF-B3QyKTHyFJVEaUKnh8mktWUMwRwM8ZThwZzWQ/s200/Palm_2_stroke_bunn.jpg " /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September 16 - October 28, 2012</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anita Bunn: Detour</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, September 16, 2-5pm</span><br />
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Sunday, October 7, 2012, 4-6pm<br />PANEL DISCUSSION</span><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/brown_conversations_october_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contemporary Art Conversations #13</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moderated by Betty Ann Brown<br />Panelists: Peter Frank, Shana Nys Drambot, Ezrha Jean Black, John O'Brien</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s1600/2007-my-room-copy.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s1600/2007-my-room-copy.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img align="left" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s200/2007-my-room-copy.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 18 - December 23, 2012</span><br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patssi Valdez: Mementos</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm<br /><br /><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-25375643556899741842012-08-28T07:06:00.001-07:002016-07-29T10:36:00.915-07:00Self-Portraits: When Artists Turn Their Gaze Inward <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Summer is winding to a close and Offramp Gallery is ramping up for its fall season. I'll be back blogging full time next week. In the mean time I want to get the ball rolling by re-posting a popular post from March 2011. </em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>-- Jane Chafin</em></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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One of the things that distinguishes us as humans is the need to leave our mark behind, to say "I was here, I mattered." We see evidence of this as far back as 10,000 years ago when our ancestors first stamped and stenciled their handprints on cave walls. More formal self-portraits start appearing as early as 2300 BC in ancient Egypt, carved on the tombs of the Pharaohs. But self-portraiture didn't become fully established as an art genre until the Early Renaissance with the advent of the manufacture of affordable flat mirrors. Luckily for us, artists have been gazing at themselves in mirrors ever since.<br /><br />Phaidon Press's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714843849/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714843849&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20"><em>500 Self-Portraits</em></a> is a visual orgy, a must-have art book for anyone who is interested in the history of portraiture. This is a book you will pick up over and over again for the sheer joy of browsing. From classical to modern, naïve to sophisticated, mannered to irreverent, haunting to humorous -- it's all here in this one affordable volume.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c6qF5CCuYztDnsf7lcVQ-Z7k8zCegCaWzSnXRvbwiWgiGtZhnXFJKE-aDrkADCXCING55GDJl0KOH0CKI_Gq73Llg6US90P9Dm9xkODNEYWe7vNvOlAafOII_EjNjNihm7kHyPe1YQ/s1600/Caravaggio_Bacchus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c6qF5CCuYztDnsf7lcVQ-Z7k8zCegCaWzSnXRvbwiWgiGtZhnXFJKE-aDrkADCXCING55GDJl0KOH0CKI_Gq73Llg6US90P9Dm9xkODNEYWe7vNvOlAafOII_EjNjNihm7kHyPe1YQ/s400/Caravaggio_Bacchus.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Caravaggio,<em> Self-portrait as Bacchus</em>. Oil
on canvas,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">670 x 530mm (26 3/8 x 21"). Galleria Borghese,
Rome</span></span></td></tr>
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The reproductions in <em>500 Self-Portraits</em> are presented in chronological order from Ancient Egypt to the present day. A new version of a classic first published in 1937, the only text is a brief introduction by painter and writer Julian Bell (grandson of Vanessa Bell), in which he states:<br /><br />"Self-portraiture is a singular, in-turned art. Something eerie lurks in its fingering of the edge between seer and seen. Looking over the faces collected in this book, we may be disconcerted by the cumulative intensity of so many wary, wondering, self-surprised eyes. Yet what unites the individuals gathered to stare is that they are all artists. People, that is, prepared to set down their self-examination in markings that may be examined by others."<br /><br />Included are five self portraits by Durer, one of which he did when he was only 13-years-old, as well as a beautiful ink drawing of him completely in the nude, leaving little to the imagination. There are ten by Rembrandt, a prolific self-portraitist, showing him chronologically throughout his life, and two by a very pretty young Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun from the late eighteenth century. <em>Self-Portrait, Turning by Nadar</em>, is an early albumen print foreshadowing the later work of Eadweard Muybridge. It shows the artist in twelve separate panels as he turns toward and then away from the camera. There are two self-portraits by Chardin in his quirky head-gear and spectacles; and one done in 1906 by German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, <em>Self-Portrait on my Sixth Wedding Anniversary,</em> where she depicts herself partially naked and pregnant.
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If you prefer your art history with more explanatory text, then another affordable volume from the Taschen Basic Genre Series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/382285462X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=382285462X&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20"><em>Self-Portraits</em></a>
by Ernst Rebel, may be perfect for you. It looks at 35 self-portraits in depth, ranging from the mid-12th century to the present. Each of the 35 paintings is accompanied by a brief bio of the artist and an insightful interpretation of the work depicted. In his essay, "Artists in the Focus of Their Own Eyes" Rebel provides an historical framework for the paintings and reflects on the changing role of the artist in society. <br />
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He states: "Self-portraits are testimonials in which the artist's ego as his own model and motif at the same time relates to other people. Artists depict themselves as they want to be seen by others, but also as they want to distinguish themselves from them."<br /><br />Self-portraits included are <em>Moses and the Burning Bush</em>, an early glass painting by Master Gerlauchus who depicts himself painting an inscription asking for God's mercy; James Ensor's <em>Self-Portrait Among Masks</em>; Velasquez’s famous <em>La Meninas</em>; as well as ones by Max Beckmann, Diego Rivera, Lucien Freud and many others.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
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September 16 - October 28, 2012<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/bunn_anita_detour.html" target="_blank"><strong><em>Anita Bunn: Detour</em></strong></a><br />Opening Reception: Sunday, September 16, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Sunday, October 7, 2012, 4-6pm<br />PANEL DISCUSSION<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/brown_conversations_october_2012.html" target="_blank"><strong><em>Contemporary Art Conversations #13</em></strong></a><br />Moderated by Betty Ann Brown</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Panelists: Peter Frank, Shana Nys Drambot, Ezrha Jean Black, John O'Brien</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s1600/2007-my-room-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVH1EfumtMZWtSTIwV-LQw19tg8Q0u5KJrThfaZE-IsVvQ4YJihTXss7RWRv1PB9lxg6lFg5VcmfSSa0iyz4tQdTo2qPX4Au_YV2pCcWjiSzKIySQ1NUfFEiqCUaT6LvRFwyhZ5DJCQ/s200/2007-my-room-copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
November 18 - December 23, 2012<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/valdez_patssi_2012.html" target="_blank"><strong><em>Patssi Valdez: Mementos</em></strong></a><br />
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 18, 2-5pm</span><br />Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-74699306206722015182012-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:002012-07-25T15:04:13.211-07:00Hyperrealistic Sculpture: From Death Masks to Madame Tussaud and Beyond<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ever since our prehistoric ancestors first picked up chunks of limestone and carved crude female figurines some 20,000 years ago, we humans have been trying to depict the human form in three dimensions using everything from wood, stone, clay and bronze, to modern synthetic materials such as silicone, polyurethane, fiberglass, and polyester resin. The following series of videos takes a look at some of the processes involved in creating hyperrealistic reproductions of the human form -- from the sublime to the ridiculous.<br /><br />Seventeenth-century Spanish polychrome sculpture was intended to appear as lifelike as possible. The following video produced by the Getty Museum offers a glimpse into the complex processes involved in creating the life-like statue, Saint Ginés de la Jara.</span><br />
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<br />In 1835 Madame Tussaud established her first permanent exhibition of wax sculptures in London. Wax Museums continue to be a popular form of entertainment today. This Discovery Channel's <em>How It's Made</em> video shows how these wax figures are made. <br />
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<br />Australian-born hyperrealist Ron Mueck's sculptures reproduce the human body in all its minute details while playing with scale to produce disarmingly powerful images. The following three videos give an in-depth look at Mueck's processes. <br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTy5cORM3CI" target="_blank">Click here for Part II</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Nh3SBzY658w&NR=1" target="_blank">Click here for Part III</a><br />
<br />To end on a lighter, if more macabre note, this video by Putrid Pictures gives a twisted take on the time-honored tradition of death masks. From ancient Egypt to modern times, death masks have been created as a way of immortalizing the flesh of the human face before it begins to rot away.<br />
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<span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_75ZEFw1k0u8xBaedrqSsZ0hPlj93cqimd64g9xag3bhjt4_coMEOwSA9jM3fb_Tm4wV-9czteqO6cfIwLTEoL79Ot2BYgJPe4awZPic1Q_A_395xu-QP6FQ2n_-nxI_2ijnpe2R9iA/s1600/cover_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" closure_uid_ba7p0e="4" closure_uid_zg0l7d="8" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_75ZEFw1k0u8xBaedrqSsZ0hPlj93cqimd64g9xag3bhjt4_coMEOwSA9jM3fb_Tm4wV-9czteqO6cfIwLTEoL79Ot2BYgJPe4awZPic1Q_A_395xu-QP6FQ2n_-nxI_2ijnpe2R9iA/s320/cover_small.jpg" width="145" /></strong></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday, August 5, 2012, 3pm<br /><strong><em>LOU BEACH 420 Characters</em><br />Reading & Book Signing<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou_book_signing.html" target="_blank">Click here to RSVP</a></strong></span></span></span><br />
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& Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Closing Reception, Reading & Book Signing:
Sunday, August 5, 2-5pm</span></span></span></b></span><br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>June 24 - August 5, 2012</b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/willis_jay_ring_of_fire.html" jquery16306833318281560367="3" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Jay Willis: Ring of
Fire</span></a></i></b></span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Closing Reception: Sunday, August 5,
2-5pm</span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b></b></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-27955477253118645682012-06-29T09:12:00.001-07:002016-07-29T10:37:12.921-07:00A Fun, Informative and Oh-So-Sexy Book on Erotic Art<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfCsSr0oY1iFive4u2nX0AvmfMg3GL43dWmaalQWwtlsXIe2P_wN2uPLx-Yj7REeQRUcmkkmKy9ocJcLyGxUOkjhYJ_eXE-Si4fYWI18azDTor_VKfbdgXqedL1U2MZF7UyxsI4czRg/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfCsSr0oY1iFive4u2nX0AvmfMg3GL43dWmaalQWwtlsXIe2P_wN2uPLx-Yj7REeQRUcmkkmKy9ocJcLyGxUOkjhYJ_eXE-Si4fYWI18azDTor_VKfbdgXqedL1U2MZF7UyxsI4czRg/s200/cover.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>How to Read Erotic Art</em> <br />
By Flavio Febbraro and <br />
Alexandra Wetzel <br />
© Abrams Books, 2011<br />
<a alt="" border="0" height="1" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419701134/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419701134&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419701134" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" target="_blank" width="1">Click here to purchase from<br />
Amazon.com</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was skeptical when I saw the title of Flavio Febbraro's handsome volume, <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a alt="" border="0" height="1" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419701134/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419701134&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419701134" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" target="_blank" width="1"><em>How to Read Erotic Art</em></a><em>.</em> That's all we need, I thought -- more dry, cerebral artspeak to take all the fun out of erotic art. So I was very pleased to discover that the texts in <em>How to Read Erotic Art</em> are written in straight forward prose that give historical, cultural and psychological insights into the many eras and cultures in which the work was made, educating and enhancing viewing pleasure.<br /><br />From the Venus of Willendorf's voluminous naked body to the ambiguous sexual traits of Louise Bourgeois's sewn soft sculptures, <em>How to Read Erotic Art</em> presents 220 illustrations of beauty, love, lust and sex through the ages. The end of antiquity and rise of Christianity marked a clear dividing line in Western art's depiction of sex. Portrayal of the seemingly uninhibited lustiness of the ancients disappears in the west, while Indian art, on the other hand, more than fills the gap.<br /><br />Most of the erotic images since the Middle Ages were directed at and interpreted by the male gaze, hence the preponderance of female nudes and male artists. I counted only seven women of the 200+ artists represented, five of whom were from the 20th century. </span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2B1jczy65EbI379zCY79niR3kmNlgmFylw43duwTVhoeXEkAZuSVYGfNnv8Rr9W1AkfHMZsGoULFyQVA5ALo7nusoe5QwAbTqPHUxavCJcqZ8O7shhPnFu-e6N1rRBqVipyet9ZgGw/s1600/witches.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2B1jczy65EbI379zCY79niR3kmNlgmFylw43duwTVhoeXEkAZuSVYGfNnv8Rr9W1AkfHMZsGoULFyQVA5ALo7nusoe5QwAbTqPHUxavCJcqZ8O7shhPnFu-e6N1rRBqVipyet9ZgGw/s400/witches.png" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">Hans Baldung Grien, <em>Three Witches,</em> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">1514. Chiaroscuro print on paper, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">30.9 x 20.9 cm., </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">Vienna, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">Graphische Sammlung Albertina</span></td></tr>
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A detail from a sarcophagus from the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, <em>The Reawakening of Osiris</em>, shows Osiris lying on the ground, semen spurting from his penis so high that it actually leaves the frame of the picture.<br /><br />A 530 BC frieze from a tomb in the Etruscan city of Tarquinia, <em>The Tomb of the Bulls</em>, shows two men engaged in an act of sodomy while a bull, head lowered, seems about to charge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A beautiful marble from the second century, <em>Sleeping Hermaphrodite</em>, a Roman copy of an earlier Greek sculpture, shows what appears to be a voluptuous young woman stretched out on a bed. Closer inspection reveals that this figure, besides breasts and female curves, also has male genitalia.<br /><br />Homo-erotic and lesbian scenes, such as Thomas Eakins's <em>Swimming</em>, showing naked young men in an idyllic landscape and Toulouse-Lautrec's <em>The Kiss,</em> depicting two women on a bed locked in an embrace are included.</span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCvxjlXi8_LbcXy6Peu_9qfZ8bwIyLII1cgD1lWan2_fl9MummmyE4h5Bxj6Oq0rZaKNKelQiPzuYgsUO8cFzgKIKFkJi1R1Cgkow7LbYcBMsFvlMpep7hOQB_6RT90OR_evBGyYCUA/s1600/Warren+cup3.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCvxjlXi8_LbcXy6Peu_9qfZ8bwIyLII1cgD1lWan2_fl9MummmyE4h5Bxj6Oq0rZaKNKelQiPzuYgsUO8cFzgKIKFkJi1R1Cgkow7LbYcBMsFvlMpep7hOQB_6RT90OR_evBGyYCUA/s400/Warren+cup3.tif" width="342" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">The Warren Cup,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">AD 5-15. Silver Skyphos, 11cm (h.). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">London, British Museum</span></td></tr>
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Prostitutes are well represented, from the sacred, such as the Indian Devadāsi, and a 14th century tapestry, <em>The Great Whore that Sitteth upon Many Waters</em>, to the profane, such as Vermeer's <em>The Procuress</em>, showing the exchange of money between concerned parties, and Otto Dix's <em>The Salon I,</em> depicting four scantily clad prostitutes at a brothel. <br /><br />Numerous close-up details from the main images reveal a wealth interesting information. An enchanting oil painting from 1470, <em>The Spell of Love</em>, is accompanied by a detail that shows an otherwise naked witch wearing only <em>poulaines</em>, extremely long-toed pointed (and may I say, downright kinky) sandals worn by both men and women of the era. Another detail shows a drawing by Picasso in which a woman's menstrual blood has turned the water in the bidet red. A colored Japanese woodcut print shows a woman using a large dildo attached to her heel.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMESdqWMSc79OyaWnzKcA1ehk1WdzsJOYTfCRdjhrNy4awVXJnmoHd2_kG2cgANekZYPghh7_IbCtaoRxH_S32OjkkcQh647kHN4U0VjtBue3HXLYQe0927MDsT2imjXWW1fJejBhbzg/s1600/hokusai_small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMESdqWMSc79OyaWnzKcA1ehk1WdzsJOYTfCRdjhrNy4awVXJnmoHd2_kG2cgANekZYPghh7_IbCtaoRxH_S32OjkkcQh647kHN4U0VjtBue3HXLYQe0927MDsT2imjXWW1fJejBhbzg/s400/hokusai_small.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">Katsushika Hokusai, <em>Dream of the Fisherman's Wife</em>, 1814, woodcut from <em>Kinoe no komatsu</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">(Young Pines), 31.5 x 147 cm., London, British Library</span></td></tr>
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<br />The lush illustrations together with the texts depicting androgeny, homo-erotica, lesbian love, heterosexuals, hermaphrodites, prostitutes, witches, rape, seduction, bacchanalia, orgies, sacred and profane love, and more, make <em>How to Read Erotic Art</em> an informative, fun, and sexy addition to any collection.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a alt="" border="0" height="1" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419701134/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419701134&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419701134" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" target="_blank" width="1">Click here to buy from Amazon.com</a></span><br />
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<a alt="" border="0" height="1" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419701134/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1419701134&linkCode=as2&tag=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1419701134" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1"><br />
</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSWMV_SMSEUZrt_A0kqjPyhkiLOU9OumotDPAagiWhDSLzLCj9AaliIMjhM0p5ZJZWiBh6XjjS23EOsyjYdlaImbMDEDNeGtQrxV00RxMkpQDr2W6OyDu-y85aUiX7IExA4D4kbvFQA/s1600/beach_lou_lo_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_ba7p0e="2" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSWMV_SMSEUZrt_A0kqjPyhkiLOU9OumotDPAagiWhDSLzLCj9AaliIMjhM0p5ZJZWiBh6XjjS23EOsyjYdlaImbMDEDNeGtQrxV00RxMkpQDr2W6OyDu-y85aUiX7IExA4D4kbvFQA/s320/beach_lou_lo_res.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b></b></span><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>June 24 - August 5, 2012</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16306833318281560367="2" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Lou Beach: Stories &
Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div>
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Closing Reception, Reading & Book Signing: Sunday, August 5,
2-5pm</span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUB1n-Jzu9kBh30hWxru2R_vM6GrgUDZafIsF1tIUVKavENNmQ7ouFbV2YHQ-3rZKift_klT-yQpK7XsQgwtCntw_GKagWqYN4LT2-DnXEvoILxvnPaP-oqMsjdZUZEj5fQa1cfkTnSg/s1600/willis_jay_in_garden_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_ba7p0e="3" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUB1n-Jzu9kBh30hWxru2R_vM6GrgUDZafIsF1tIUVKavENNmQ7ouFbV2YHQ-3rZKift_klT-yQpK7XsQgwtCntw_GKagWqYN4LT2-DnXEvoILxvnPaP-oqMsjdZUZEj5fQa1cfkTnSg/s200/willis_jay_in_garden_2.JPG" width="150" /></a> </em></b></span><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><em>In the
Garden</em></b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>June 24 - August 5, 2012</b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/willis_jay_ring_of_fire.html" jquery16306833318281560367="3" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Jay Willis: Ring of
Fire</span></a></i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Closing Reception: Sunday, August 5,
2-5pm</span><br />
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3pm</b></span><span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>LOU BEACH </b></span><span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>420 Characters</i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou_book_signing.html" jquery16306833318281560367="4" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Reading & Book
Signing</span></a></span></div>
</span></div>
<br /><br /> </span></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-87175036692803569732012-06-11T16:33:00.002-07:002012-06-11T16:35:52.054-07:00Short Takes: Paint in Motion<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this week's videos I went to various video sites and typed in "paint." A theme quickly emerged: <em>paint in motion.</em> This first video, <em>Tall Painting</em>, shows a painting by Holton Rower in progress as cup after cup after cup of multi-colored paints are poured on top of a two-tiered pedestal and allowed to flow on to the floor in an eye-popping kaleidoscopic ooze.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Street artist Blu, in collaboration with David Ellis, takes the notion of paint in motion up a notch and shows us what a lot of paint, patience, imagination and a video camera can do.<br />
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/6555161" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />Next we have <em>Metronomy,</em> an unofficial music video of <em>On The Motorway</em> by Jul & Mat. This time the canvas is set in motion as paint is applied, resulting in a high-speed moving Rorschach test.<br />
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/5092349" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, Petros Vrellis</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> has digitized Van Gogh's <em>Starry Night</em> and set it into motion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/36466564" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /><br /><br /> <strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSWMV_SMSEUZrt_A0kqjPyhkiLOU9OumotDPAagiWhDSLzLCj9AaliIMjhM0p5ZJZWiBh6XjjS23EOsyjYdlaImbMDEDNeGtQrxV00RxMkpQDr2W6OyDu-y85aUiX7IExA4D4kbvFQA/s1600/beach_lou_lo_res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSWMV_SMSEUZrt_A0kqjPyhkiLOU9OumotDPAagiWhDSLzLCj9AaliIMjhM0p5ZJZWiBh6XjjS23EOsyjYdlaImbMDEDNeGtQrxV00RxMkpQDr2W6OyDu-y85aUiX7IExA4D4kbvFQA/s320/beach_lou_lo_res.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>June 24 - August 5,
2012</b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16306833318281560367="2" target="_self">Lou Beach: Stories &
Pictures</a></i></b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24,
2-5pm</span></div>
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In the Garden</em></b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>June 24 - August 5,
2012</b></span></div>
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/willis_jay_ring_of_fire.html" jquery16306833318281560367="3" target="_self">Jay Willis: Ring of
Fire</a></i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24,
2-5pm</span><br />
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Sunday, August 5, 2012,
3pm<br />
</b></span><span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>LOU BEACH </b></span><span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>420
Characters</i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Arial10" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou_book_signing.html" jquery16306833318281560367="4" target="_self">Reading & Book
Signing</a></span></div>
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</span></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-749642636626751832012-05-28T16:47:00.002-07:002016-07-29T10:37:57.393-07:00A Book About Paris Has Its Way With Me<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJF5UkwF-FzCHCDSkRkxv6XVTMgcCmePmzZFTUBiO7xFztyITLs0gocINsx_sXTqj5JJMrvYHCNPTOSZq6V47pyTAo5wrFrqUa3IVvGE3GQjSIYB1vFhVZ0VBHkBJguWNfx7kCsJySA/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJF5UkwF-FzCHCDSkRkxv6XVTMgcCmePmzZFTUBiO7xFztyITLs0gocINsx_sXTqj5JJMrvYHCNPTOSZq6V47pyTAo5wrFrqUa3IVvGE3GQjSIYB1vFhVZ0VBHkBJguWNfx7kCsJySA/s320/cover.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836502933/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836502933" target="_blank">Click here to purchase from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3836502933" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taschen has had its way with me again. This time it's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836502933/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836502933" target="_blank"><em>Paris: Portrait of a City</em></a><em>,</em> a voluptuous oversized volume of photographs of the city of my dreams, a visual feast covering 150 years of Parisian history and culture that put me in a prolonged trance-like state. Glancing at my notebook afterwards, I saw that I had jotted down notes about so many events, artists, writers, photographers, entertainers and architecture that I had almost re-created the index -- that's how rich this book is.<br /><br />We see a photograph of Toulouse-Lautrec surrounded by a grouping of his paintings and a naked prostitute in the bordello he frequented; Brassai's portrait of a beautiful young Salvardor Dali in his studio; Man Ray's group portrait of the "Bureau for Surrealist Research;" another Brassai of Pablo Picasso in his studio seated next to a huge pagoda-like potbellied stove; and Edward Steichen's portraits of Rodin and Matisse with their work.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkPXs6miAFiFwqyT7h1UdH0hXBC7WHuDsgwp3bM32OEPoCpvtWGysIDzcRwaKyur6vhy2YBitePRE-znpORt6C03sONrOWzdDNBJahd4J-87XAkfs03ygyj5Sx5vqTC0UxmJHNyxdrbg/s1600/preview_fo_portrait_paris_03_1111301042_id_523023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkPXs6miAFiFwqyT7h1UdH0hXBC7WHuDsgwp3bM32OEPoCpvtWGysIDzcRwaKyur6vhy2YBitePRE-znpORt6C03sONrOWzdDNBJahd4J-87XAkfs03ygyj5Sx5vqTC0UxmJHNyxdrbg/s400/preview_fo_portrait_paris_03_1111301042_id_523023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Toulouse-Lautrec in the bordello he frequented in Rue des Moulins, shown with his paintings of its “residents”, 1894. © Bibliothèque nationale de France.</span> </td></tr>
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<br />We see an 1855 photograph of construction on the Louvre Palace, on the order of Napoleon III who decided to connect it to the Tuileries Palace making it the largest palace in the world. A 1942 image shows empty frames hanging in the museum, artists' names and titles chalked on the wall behind them, their contents having been removed and stored in a secret location when war was declared.<br /><br />A four-page fold out shows the successive stages of construction of the Eiffel Tower; while the endpapers show a more modern view of the tower, Frank Horvat's 1974 <em>Shoe and Eiffel Tower,</em> the tower itself dwarfed by a woman's ankles and shoes. There is an eerie black and white photo of Hitler posing in front of the tower during the German occupation. More upbeat images show a woman hanging precariously on the edge of the tower, skirt flared out in the wind, while another captures the tower in silhouette against fireworks during the 1989 Bicentennial of the Revolution.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOWs0xWRQ2r1hxt5wu2HjDZzRt-Y8Z9H7f5gz8KjYZ2ZXnna_LBvfuWnDChzfoZ4r_Ai0IpCQphb6NDwXoDYb5W2soAPQXuQWMh9PGUcjK143KWkNmZNnhEKvK56GfU7txuqVfkuPTw/s1600/preview_fo_portrait_paris_02_1111301042_id_523008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOWs0xWRQ2r1hxt5wu2HjDZzRt-Y8Z9H7f5gz8KjYZ2ZXnna_LBvfuWnDChzfoZ4r_Ai0IpCQphb6NDwXoDYb5W2soAPQXuQWMh9PGUcjK143KWkNmZNnhEKvK56GfU7txuqVfkuPTw/s400/preview_fo_portrait_paris_02_1111301042_id_523008.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> One of the most spectacular accidents of the age occurred at the Montparnasse railway station: a train from Granville, travelling at somewhere between 40 and 60 kph, was unable to stop: it careered through the buffers, off the platform and through the façade of the building, from which it fell onto Place de Rennes below, 1895. © Antonin Neurdein/Roger-Viollet</span></td></tr>
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<br />There is Nadar's first aerial photo of Paris taken from a balloon, the first ever photo taken with a Kodak/Eastman camera, Lee Miller's <em>Paris in the Snow</em>, Cartier-Bresson's <em>Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare</em>, and Rene Jacques' <em>The Tarring Machine</em> with its ghost-like image of Notre Dame in the background framed between two lamp posts.<br /><br />Coco Chanel, Kiki de Montparnasse, Josephine Baker, Brigitte Bardot, Collette, Bijou, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Sarah Bernhardt, Simone de Beauvoir, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Renoir, Balzac, Orson Welles, Sartre, Yves St. Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld are all represented. We see the Moulin Rouge, Cafe Les Deux Magots, dirigibles, balloons, expositions, revolutions, occupations, celebrations and much much more.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWCuPDFN2Ws8Q_lOliyawuUqVl9cWgcQIcLWm6grJxyQgObPsIPVUXmykk9mccy1uAsxh-3xZ4GxkCzr6qgL5M9fYUeiXCwlth0mxMUQY0zm-b4JbcHI-q2-9W4rxA1Z6e2MoCp-Nzw/s1600/preview_fo_portrait_paris_12_1202171126_id_541697.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWCuPDFN2Ws8Q_lOliyawuUqVl9cWgcQIcLWm6grJxyQgObPsIPVUXmykk9mccy1uAsxh-3xZ4GxkCzr6qgL5M9fYUeiXCwlth0mxMUQY0zm-b4JbcHI-q2-9W4rxA1Z6e2MoCp-Nzw/s400/preview_fo_portrait_paris_12_1202171126_id_541697.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The actress La Pradvina, Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 1911. Photographie JH Lartigue © Ministère de la Culture-France/AAJHL.</span></td></tr>
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<br />The 500 photographs are accompanied by an index of the more than 150 photographers' biographies. Essays by editor and author Jean Claude Gautrand, one of France's distinguished experts on photography, in English, French and German round out this amazing book.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836502933/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janchasoffgal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836502933" target="_blank">Click here to purchase from Amazon.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /><br />Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3,
2012<br /><em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Chuck Feesago:
Retention</span></a></strong></em></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Closing Reception &
Artist's Talk: Sunday, June 3, 2-5pm</span> <br /><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012</span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">D.
Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</span></a></i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Closing Reception
& Artist's Talk: Sunday, June 3, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span><br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br /><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">Lou
Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24,
2-5pm</span><br />
<br /><br /><br /><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-50731176005871129782012-05-17T14:49:00.000-07:002012-05-17T15:17:37.891-07:00More on the Questionable Authorship of a Certain Urinal<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a practicing artist for 15 years. During 10 of those years I worked at the LA Municipal Art Gallery, a 10,000 square foot venue that exhibited a never-ending parade of contemporary art. I was relatively young and didn't have the self-confidence to give voice to the questions in my head, a running monologue that told me that a lot of what I was seeing and hearing smacked of The Emperor's New Clothes. I stood mutely by in a prolonged state of bewilderment.
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEike-2C5RF9juDrOuJBwLhyphenhyphenCAD99opoGcvx2c5Y8FIhyphenhyphen3z5kq2ldKgpd5B05Kik4pnySirEltHkDqI94Z0umnn7KeYWPfAX5JlBAbxX2FTTdERdjP6Po-kJWf5Qq7J9frAMY_ASYCsohA/s1600/437px-Duchamp_Fountaine_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEike-2C5RF9juDrOuJBwLhyphenhyphenCAD99opoGcvx2c5Y8FIhyphenhyphen3z5kq2ldKgpd5B05Kik4pnySirEltHkDqI94Z0umnn7KeYWPfAX5JlBAbxX2FTTdERdjP6Po-kJWf5Qq7J9frAMY_ASYCsohA/s200/437px-Duchamp_Fountaine_crop.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Fountain</em> by R.
Mutt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">Photo:
Alfred Stieglitz</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I left painting and the art world behind and fled to New York to do other things. But that nagging voice wouldn't leave me alone. It was, and still is, a driving force in my opening Offramp Gallery and writing this blog. I'm still looking for answers.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is in that spirit that I find myself semi-obsessed with the topic of my last post, <em><a href="http://janechafinsofframpgalleryblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/duchamps-urinal-maybe-not.html" target="_blank">Duchamp's Urinal? Maybe Not!,</a></em>
in which I wrote about research that questions the authorship of the iconic urinal. In his short book on contemporary/conceptual art, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1475088434/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janchasoffgal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1475088434" target="_blank"><em>Con Art - Why you should sell your Damien Hirsts while you can</em></a>, British art critic Julian Spalding cited two sources that had "proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt" that the urinal was not Duchamp's.
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was able to find and write about one of his sources, Irene Gammel's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GAN3BY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janchasoffgal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003GAN3BY" target="_blank"><em>Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity--A Cultural Biography</em></a><em>.</em> I was not able to track down the work by Spalding's other source, Dr. Glyn Thompson.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The day after I published the post, I received an email from Dr. Thompson, directing me to the "missing" evidence and giving me permission to publish and link to a shortened version of it. <a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/thompson_glynn_jermandem.pdf" target="_blank">Click here to read Thompson's essay</a>. Like Gammel, Thompson makes a very convincing case for Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, not Duchamp, being the artist behind the urinal. Thompson addresses what I call the "smoking gun" letter to his sister where Duchamp clearly states the urinal was submitted by a female friend, evidence that has been dismissed by other scholars who speculate that Duchamp was lying to his sister as part of a larger ruse:
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">". . . set against the style and content of every other letter of Duchamp's which has been preserved there are no grounds whatsoever for doubting that he was telling his sister the truth, especially given the trivial nature of an event which would, in his opinion, make no sense to anyone outside the hot-house of the New York avant-garde."
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXQb7D0f2l0uXQwQj_IbF6KeajtxDCG1AMFnubFxhInj3npzK_R19GvQEbASCZ0RX9-0SmorBWEFMAgFW0PO75eI2rqDfyAt_38nAbgSweoppvq7EJL3VCjq-by7g7m-rljFvjTok6Q/s1600/urinal_replica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXQb7D0f2l0uXQwQj_IbF6KeajtxDCG1AMFnubFxhInj3npzK_R19GvQEbASCZ0RX9-0SmorBWEFMAgFW0PO75eI2rqDfyAt_38nAbgSweoppvq7EJL3VCjq-by7g7m-rljFvjTok6Q/s1600/urinal_replica.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Fountain</em> 1917; 1964 artist-authorized <br />
replica made by the artist's dealer, <br />
Arturo Schwarz,based on a photograph<br />
by Alfred Stieglitz. Porcelain, <br />
360 x 480 x 610 mm. Tate Modern, London.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one knows the whereabouts of the original urinal. It disappeared shortly after its one and only public appearance. The ones we see enshrined in museums today are from the edition of eight replicas that Duchamp commissioned in 1964, some 47 years after the initial appearance and almost as many since he had stopped making "retinal" art. Some of them have sold for astronomical prices.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple years ago I was at MOMA in New York looking at an exhibition of conceptual works from the museum's permanent collection. One piece consisted of an ordinary vertical window shade laid out on the floor. There was some explanatory text saying that the artist had had an epiphany of sorts as he removed the blind from an empty studio and carried it across the hall to his studio and placed it on the floor exactly like it was displayed at MOMA. The piece was titled "The Middle of the World." Really? (I suspect marijuana was involved.)
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My BS sensors were on high-alert when I caught the eye of a sophisticated looking gentleman across from me viewing the same piece. As our eyes met, we both rolled them upwards in a gesture of shared incredulity and walked away.
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes a window shade is just a window shade. Sometimes a shark in a tank is just a shark in a tank. Sometimes a "masterpiece" in a museum is just a replica of a found object of questionable origin.
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You could argue that Duchamp's ready-mades, whether the urinal was his or not, made us look at art differently and made us question centuries of conventional art wisdom and that it was a good thing, opening the door to whole new ways of creating art. But what does it say when museums and collectors spend millions of dollars for replicas of that found object half century later and a cult of worship develops around it? Aren't they then institutionalizing a baser set of values than those Duchamp brought into question in the first place?
</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upcoming at
Offramp Gallery</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXl7pkzcG7NXznfVJuhqIPXPvt-iRKnVueynSmIj3bYBtGj1-12p16yNdTChLIbNrBpKiTqp_LC8Ocvdj6-gxCIkLg6RN4oo8jDnb2ilftXVf7uH05m06lUerd6ELslDi1N1IRVYjAow/s1600/screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXl7pkzcG7NXznfVJuhqIPXPvt-iRKnVueynSmIj3bYBtGj1-12p16yNdTChLIbNrBpKiTqp_LC8Ocvdj6-gxCIkLg6RN4oo8jDnb2ilftXVf7uH05m06lUerd6ELslDi1N1IRVYjAow/s320/screenshot.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 19, 2012<br /><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/santarromana_rememberers_screening.html" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><strong>Joe Santarromana: The Rememberers</strong></span></em></a><br />Special Screening: 7pm<br />(the Gallery and Blog Store will open at 6pm)<br /><strong> </strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong></strong>
</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s1600/CIFretention004_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong></strong></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3,
2012<br /><em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Chuck Feesago:
Retention</span></a></strong></em></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, June 3, 2-5pm</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012</span><br />
<div>
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">D.
Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</span></a></i></b></span></div>
<div>
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, June 3, 2-5pm</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></div>
<div>
</div>
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">Lou
Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span><br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24,
2-5pm</span></div>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-18811929546664873432012-05-02T15:18:00.000-07:002012-05-02T15:50:05.796-07:00Duchamp's Urinal? Maybe Not!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwLaxOOveB5cpuSljkTIyrTFMMhJQwHRom__d4VrOi9IHW9F_Ml3wwv0Ok93nLpxekFYd2m12hRWSsOFEZmGw3j0-o8asqzqQ9ISxAqL7JIdtpM1cgcWYFr978pk7TKlgEGheIEAHPA/s1600/437px-Duchamp_Fountaine_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwLaxOOveB5cpuSljkTIyrTFMMhJQwHRom__d4VrOi9IHW9F_Ml3wwv0Ok93nLpxekFYd2m12hRWSsOFEZmGw3j0-o8asqzqQ9ISxAqL7JIdtpM1cgcWYFr978pk7TKlgEGheIEAHPA/s200/437px-Duchamp_Fountaine_crop.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Fountain</em> by R. Mutt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Alfred Stieglitz</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently read an <em><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/04/damien-hirst-fires-back-at-critic.html" target="_blank">LA Times</a></em> article about a public feud between artist Damien Hirst and British art critic Julian Spalding, the latter of whom had written a short book, <a ?="" _blank?="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1475088434/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janchasoffgal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1475088434target="target="_blank" ><em>Con Art - Why you should sell your Damien Hirsts while you can</em></a>. I thought it might make an interesting blog topic, so I downloaded and began reading Spalding's book, a no-holds-barred polemic on contemporary/conceptual art.<br /><br /> When about half way through I read this:<br /><br />"[Duchamp's] apotheosis was consummated in 1999 when the Tate Gallery bought his urinal, called <em>Fountain</em>, for $500,000, to celebrate the century of art they thought he'd done so much to create. Unfortunately for the Tate, <strong>the urinal wasn't his</strong>. The latest research . . . <strong>has now proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt</strong> -- that the urinal wasn't submitted to the Society of Independents exhibition in New York by Duchamp but by the redoubtable Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven." [emphases mine]<br /><br />Wait . . . What?? Forget the Hirst/Spalding spat! Who the heck was Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven? If what Spalding claimed was true, why wasn't that the headline? I needed to dig deeper.<br /> <br />Spalding cites two sources to back up his claim, Irene Gammel and Dr. Glyn Thompson. I immediately ordered a copy of Gammel's 2002 cultural biography <em>Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity</em> and began to read about this amazing, overlooked artist and poet who was light years ahead of her time.<br /> <br />Born Elsa Plötz in 1874, the future Baroness arrived in Berlin in 1893 ready to experience life in the extreme. Gammel writes:<br /><br />" In a dazzling odyssey of sexual roles and experimentations she now began to armor her personality, emerging as a tough sexual and artistic warrior in her conquest of the modern city. Her ambivalence as androgyne allowed her to test a stunning range of erotically charged positions -- young ingenue, female flâneur, erotic art worker, priapic traveler, chorus girl cum prostitute, actress, cross-dresser, lesbian, and syphilitic patient -- all in a span of just a few years."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven</td></tr>
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The flamboyant Elsa eventually follows her second husband to America after faking his suicide to escape creditors. When he leaves her in 1913, she makes her way to New York City, the same year as the Armory Show in which Duchamp's <em>Nude Descending a Staircase</em> becomes a <em>succès de scandale</em>.<br />
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Now 40 years old, Elsa Plötz Endell Greve marries Leopold Karl Friedrich Baron von Freytag-Loringhoven (a short-lived union) and the Baroness is born. On the way to the wedding Elsa finds an iron ring on the street and calls it <em>Enduring Element</em>, her first piece of found-object art. This is a full two years before Duchamp and Picabia arrive in New York and Duchamp coins the term "ready-mades."<br />
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Elsa plunged headfirst into New York's avant-garde artistic circles. When she met Duchamp, 13 years her junior, she immediately fell in love and began her pursuit of him. Duchamp resisted her advances, causing her to refer to him as her "platonic lover." The two lived in the same apartment building for a time and were well acquainted. <br />
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The key piece of evidence in Gammel's compelling case for why the urinal may have been Elsa's is a letter Duchamp wrote to his sister in April 1917 in which he states:<br />
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"One of my female friends who had adopted the pseudonym Richard Mutt sent a porcelain urinal as a sculpture; since there was nothing indecent about it, there was no reason to reject it." (When he speaks of not rejecting the urinal, Duchamp is referring to the fact that he was a board member of the Society of Independent Artists who chose work for the exhibition.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a ?="" _blank?="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GAN3BY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janchasoffgal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003GAN3BY "target="_blank" >Click here to purchase <br />from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janchasoffgal-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003GAN3BY" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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Is this the smoking gun? Gammel stops short of saying so, careful to point out that final, conclusive evidence is missing, but "there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence that points to her [Elsa's] artistic fingerprint."<br />
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As for Spalding's other source, Dr. Glyn Thompson, I wasn't able to find anything published except an online PDF of a 2008 doctoral thesis for the History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds School of Fine Art, titled <em><a href="http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/902/1/uk_bl_ethos_496515_vol1.pdf" target="_blank">Unwinding Duchamp: Mots et Paroles à Tous les Étages</a></em>.
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It is well beyond the limits of my time to read Thompson's entire thesis, so I tried keyword searches ("urinal," "fountain," "baroness," "elsa," "freytag-loringhoven.") to see if I could find the corroborating evidence Spalding cites. I couldn't.<br />
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Given the urinal's enormous influence twentieth-century art, I would very much like to know Spalding's further substantiation that "has now proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt" that the Baroness, and not Duchamp, was responsible for the iconic urinal. If you know of this evidence, you can email me at jane@offrampgallery.com and I'll report it in a future column.<br />
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Is Spalding right when he claims "Duchamp stole the idea from, of all people, a woman to cement his reputation. He then commissioned a set of replicas to sell -- cast of a copy of a found object! They sit like thrones in the major collections of modern art around the world." If Spalding is right, how does this alter your view of Duchamp and his legacy?<br />
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May 19, 2012<br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/santarromana_rememberers_screening.html" target="_blank"><strong><em><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Joe Santarromana: The Rememberers</span></em></strong></a><br />
Special Screening: 7pm<br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">Lou Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></div>
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</div>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-60725591789748186402012-04-25T15:22:00.001-07:002016-07-29T10:39:01.463-07:00David Hockney's Bigger Message<div align="right" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td align="right" class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500238871/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500238871" target="_blank">Click here to buy<br />from Amazon.com</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know whether to love or hate this book for being so inspiring. Many times while reading it, I had the impulse to close my gallery, stop writing this blog, and return to making art. Martin Gayford's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500238871/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500238871" target="_blank"><em>A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney</em></a> chronicles discussions between the art critic and artist over a ten year period, giving the reader unique access to this inventive artist's process and his ongoing experimentation with new media. Why does this book make me want to make art? Because Hockney has never stopped <em>seeing</em>, has never lost touch with the primacy of making marks and striving to represent reality in ever more vivid and inventive ways.<br /> <br />Whether working with traditional oil paints or on an iPad, drawing is at the heart of what Hockney does:<br /><br />"I thought one of the saddest things ever was the abandonment of drawing in art schools . . .You can't teach someone to draw like Rembrandt, but you can teach them to draw quite competently. Teaching someone to draw is teaching them to look. When it was given up, I kept arguing with people. They said we don't need it any more. But I said that giving up drawing is leaving everything to photography, which isn't going to be that interesting."<br /><br /> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-MXSQdMHGsE" width="600"></iframe><br /><br />Gayford and Hockney's conversations range from Monet, Turner and Constable to printmaking, theater set design, fax machines and copiers. The contrast between the landscape of Hockney's current home of Yorkshire in Great Britain and his Los Angeles home of 20 years is as central to the discussion of Hockney's development as an artist as are the new mediums he embraces. When the iPad was released in early 2010, he immediately started investigating the possibilities, making daily drawings of the Yorkshire landscape: <br /><br />"This is a real new medium. You miss the resist of paper a little, but you can get a marvellous flow. There are gains and losses with everything. So much variety is possible. You can't overwork this, because it's not a real surface . . . You can put a bright, bright blue on top of an intense yellow. But you still have to think in layers as you do with lithographs, watercolours, any kind of prints. But there are other big differences in how you can work. The iPad is like an endless sheet of paper. You can adjust scale for ever."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/28508515?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br /><br /><em>A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney</em> is a fun and insightful read, richly illustrated with reproductions of Hockney's and other artists' work, as well as photographs of the artist working. We see Hockney at the height of his artistic powers, bringing to picture-making the accumulation of a lifetime of seeing, working, studying and always moving forward.<br /> <br />As for me -- am I going to close up shop and return to making art? Not today, but I could try to carve out some time every morning for an iPad drawing . . . or wait for the feeling to pass.<br />
<br /><a ?="" _blank?="" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500238871/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0500238871target=target=" target="_blank">Click here to buy from Amazon.com</a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upcoming at
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s1600/CIFretention004_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_r0i88n="5" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s320/CIFretention004_1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3,
2012<br /><em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Chuck Feesago:
Retention</span></a></strong></em></span><br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">D.
Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</span></a></i></b></span></div>
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2-5pm</span></div>
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May 19, 2012<br />
<a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/santarromana_rememberers_screening.html" target="_blank"><strong><em><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Joe Santarromana: The Rememberers</span></em></strong></a><br />
Special Screening: 7pm<br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">Lou
Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></div>
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<br /><br /><br /><br /> </span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-37496167731513927282012-04-18T15:56:00.008-07:002016-07-29T10:39:51.077-07:00In Praise of the Intensely Visual: Fishes, Birds and Artists, Oh My!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbn2oNszspfe0LJq5SAFWfOxK5etYN1WuWuyZYYYSZx9jtVtADWBLhnnS3pSqpLhpEjncbPbi0_1oUO-E5GS9PkS68qrepMr84RiaSdedtQbGgs5IqBkiQGvUZx3RxuZwD0vHlxfM10A/s1600/va_fallours_fishes_GB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbn2oNszspfe0LJq5SAFWfOxK5etYN1WuWuyZYYYSZx9jtVtADWBLhnnS3pSqpLhpEjncbPbi0_1oUO-E5GS9PkS68qrepMr84RiaSdedtQbGgs5IqBkiQGvUZx3RxuZwD0vHlxfM10A/s200/va_fallours_fishes_GB.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836505193/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836505193" target="_blank">Click here to buy from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3836505193" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I had to define my mission as a gallery director and blogger about all things art-related, it would be to put the visual back into Visual Art. Rarely am I interested in conceptual art where the visual is secondary, non-existent, or in a state of forced servitude to an idea. It bores me senseless and even makes me angry. I also have little patience for bad drawing and painting. I don't want to be shocked, grossed out or repelled by overly-slick work. I want a heightened visual experience, well-crafted work that speaks to me viscerally, raises my consciousness or makes me see in a new way. I want to leave a museum or gallery with a sense of wonder and discovery, not the grumpy state I often find myself in. I want that feeling I used to get sitting for hours on the floor of the college library pouring through art books.<br />
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Now that I've put forth my manifesto, I want to talk about a book and a video that both fit the bill.<br />
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The book is Taschen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836505193/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836505193" target="_blank"><em>Tropical Fishes of the East Indies</em></a>, a volume of natural history illustrations from the early eighteenth-century. The original drawings for this eye-popping catalog of marine fauna were made by Samuel Fallours, who was in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Fallours swore that all the original colored drawings were done from life and were faithful to nature -- even the mermaid! Lucky for us, Fallours was an imaginative artist with a bent toward the fantastic. Brilliant colors and fanciful flourishes make these images a triumph of science-meets-nature-meets-imagination.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh82Qpuh6KCD_56nG_fsHnK2yDXvwuWzL_16cZSk99t1sAckKTYDZY35hdNuuELe9L5NAiO2jVhL0bMLrRKTgIAhqY3nnv6MzdQ0tVrCCuF-ZD10dWOyomHaC4h5KtO1n5oCSqS5RoNBw/s1600/va_fallours_fishes_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh82Qpuh6KCD_56nG_fsHnK2yDXvwuWzL_16cZSk99t1sAckKTYDZY35hdNuuELe9L5NAiO2jVhL0bMLrRKTgIAhqY3nnv6MzdQ0tVrCCuF-ZD10dWOyomHaC4h5KtO1n5oCSqS5RoNBw/s640/va_fallours_fishes_02.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">57. Sorte d’Ican Svangi, Pterois antennata (Bloch, 1787), Spotfin Lionfish</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> 58. La None bardée d’Amboine, Pygoplites diacanthus (Boddaert, 1772), Regal Angelfish</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> 59. Rouger Piquet, Coris gaimard (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824), Yellowtail Coris</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> 60. Le Harang Rayé, Lutjanus bengalensis (Bloch, 1790), Bengal Snapper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> 61. Petit poisson, Gomphosus varius (Lacepède, 1801), Bird Wrasse<br />
Courtesy Taschen </span></td></tr>
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The book itself in printed on heavy textured paper and faithfully reproduces an original manuscript down to the smudges and bleed-through from other pages. An accompanying booklet contains illuminating essays on the history of the plates as well as an appendix identifying each specimen. Buy this book for your collection! You won't be disappointed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQhjVPWwN8RQDP5fQzxBc4xTFk1UGRJXlaYRUirgyQU3OUq2w42X2Fea8VZZHpJ24loKmEEwYnscHQwBRK0bc2N1MtWNnURi0RoeUsrg0nHjFmRuXzWV9vxjTKSi9yWvGu8YeeBCIuQ/s1600/va_fallours_fishes_08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQhjVPWwN8RQDP5fQzxBc4xTFk1UGRJXlaYRUirgyQU3OUq2w42X2Fea8VZZHpJ24loKmEEwYnscHQwBRK0bc2N1MtWNnURi0RoeUsrg0nHjFmRuXzWV9vxjTKSi9yWvGu8YeeBCIuQ/s640/va_fallours_fishes_08.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">390. Femme de Mer, Syrene, ? Dugong dugon (Muller, 1776), Dugong<br />
Courtesy Taschen</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3836505193/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3836505193" target="_blank">Click here to buy <em>Tropical Fishes of the East Indies</em> from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=3836505193" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><strong>The Rememberers: Art & Memory</strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Los Angeles artist Lisa Adams' work also draws from nature -- fractured, impure, urban, twenty-first-century nature. Working from her studio in an industrial area of the city, Adams' has created her own wildlife sanctuary in the form of a window bird-feeder. Joe Santarromana uses it as a jumping off point for his beautiful video vignette of Adams, part of his series <em>The Rememberers: Art & Memory</em>. </div></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/40434947" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.lisamakesart.com/" target="_blank">Click here to learn more about Lisa Adams</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/channels/289598" target="_blank">Click here to see more of Joe Santarromana's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rememberers Series</i></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somewhat Related Animal Videos</span></strong><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to end with two video clips of nature's marvels. The first, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moonwalking Bird</i>, shows the brilliantly colored male manakin bird<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"> strutting his stuff a la Michael Jackson! The second captures the first ever </span>footage of the barreleye fish -- complete with transparent head.</span></div></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eI_quJRRGxk" width="600"></iframe><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Zoygy-8PTtU" width="600"></iframe><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</span></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s1600/CIFretention004_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s1600/CIFretention004_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbWa5GpegNEOpks69uzrzYJFe_LGd0geozpOd0pRcoF3jHO1D4ADIaRGxpSFrQaky-LtbQUvsQvcQ93vAvguQsc6Be98xjcBTMGA4AdFVnwHAVOFjUKwxJTHHDL17n4xDWh-Od8XOFg/s320/CIFretention004_1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012<br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Chuck Feesago: Retention</span></a></strong></em></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012</span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">D. Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</span></a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span></div><br />
<div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;" target="_blank">Lou Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24, 2-5pm</span></div>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-12975814795029554642012-04-04T11:55:00.000-07:002016-07-29T10:40:45.586-07:00How to Conquer Your Creative Demons<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gk1h0doHCCT80YRqkjsa2jyAsgkxltN0LoXLgnKq3g9sll2ZXFT4yNlqm88v5tVLrVLzBVpnQ36MwNJliq6eLnWqEHqQRig3RO0DzS4sfdrJ2CihjdC88y8E6OODC-2qtPG9sFtrqQ/s200/war_of_art_cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="125" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936891026/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1936891026">Click here to purchase<br />
from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1936891026" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Creative Block. We've all had it. I'm trying to work through it as I write this sentence -- negative thoughts, distractions, rationalizations, avoidance and procrastination all dance before me, trying to get me to do anything but write. It's a beautiful day. I should be outdoors gardening, not hunched over my keyboard. But here I am. I sit down, drink coffee, play with my cats, play a couple of games of Scrabble Blast, and eventually start to write. Everything else melts away and I am magically "in the zone."</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his 2002 book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936891026/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1936891026">The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles</a> </em>author Steven Pressfield defines the powerful enemy that keeps us from doing what we should be doing, and names it <em>Resistance:</em></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. . . Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet . . . To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="321" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/2979728?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just how powerful does Pressfield think this enemy is?:</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. . . Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas."</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pressfield takes the reader on a journey through the many manifestations of Resistance, from self-doubt and procrastination to fear, identifying and offering advice about how to overcome them:</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Grandiose fantasies are a symptom of Resistance. They're the sign of an amateur. The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come. . ." </span></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lhz3JMg6xVY" width="600"></iframe></div></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found Pressfield's short chapter on <em>Resistance and Fundamentalism</em> particularly interesting. While he may be over-simplifying, I think he's on to something: </span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art. This does not mean that the fundamentalist is not creative. Rather, his creativity is inverted. He creates destruction. . . To combat the call of sin, i.e., Resistance, the fundamentalist plunges either into action or into the study of sacred texts. He loses himself in these, much as the artist does in the process of creation. The difference is that while the one looks forward, hoping to create a better world, the other looks backward, seeking to return to a purer world from which he and all have fallen. . . When Fundamentalism wins, the world enters a dark age."</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following video shows how one artist got over her creative block.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="250" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14698308?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="600"></iframe></span><br />
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<em>The War of Art</em> is packed with wisdom, wit, humor and advice, and delivers that kick in the pants we all sometimes need to get off the couch and get to work. Whether you're an artist, writer or entrepreneur, whether you read this book cover to cover or pick it up and read random bits, <em>The War of Art</em> will help you recognize and work through your creative demons.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936891026/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1936891026">Click here to purchase <em>The War of Art</em> from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1936891026" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Upcoming at Offramp Gallery</strong></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNLcy1yAeOVVHYErqcZ0liyK0Lpa_nCbipABGtJHooRzor9KP9w6_xHHaGLFanRSGZPcsgiAVftBRpGlKuJn9zOFpTThHSKAYDttIWmv1y2wxEkMPu6oW1CCg1k5QBsMscQvDU1_PCQ/s1600/artificial_hatch_composite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_4t7wq9="6" closure_uid_h3ixfr="6" closure_uid_m0kcn6="6" closure_uid_nmude8="4" closure_uid_rgigm2="5" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNLcy1yAeOVVHYErqcZ0liyK0Lpa_nCbipABGtJHooRzor9KP9w6_xHHaGLFanRSGZPcsgiAVftBRpGlKuJn9zOFpTThHSKAYDttIWmv1y2wxEkMPu6oW1CCg1k5QBsMscQvDU1_PCQ/s200/artificial_hatch_composite.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 4 - April 15, 2012:</span><br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/White_John_Recent_Works.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #888888;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John M. White: Recent Works</span></span></a></strong></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012<br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Chuck Feesago: Retention</span></a></strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span> <br />
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<div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012</span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">D. Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</span></a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span></div><br />
<div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br />
<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_self"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Lou Beach: Stories & Pictures</span></a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24, 2-5pm</span></div><br />
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</span></div>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748381278522885077.post-41765260250017508262012-03-29T12:37:00.001-07:002016-07-29T10:41:34.520-07:00"Strapless:" The Scandal that Rocked the Nineteenth Century Art World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgXHMWni16-xdYCeCVITWo3kSxFd8TKxzIzur6r8ggiFJBzhCg02GB-L-DhqY3iV9_eJnR5u6M3v-TZyL8-S2Z7Hq9Jfw0PZQiQSTOqdqaPO7s_JZFIPEwiE-PqtGatJcIV5SsW1-bg/s320/strapless.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="211" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158542336X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=janechafinsbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=158542336X">Click here to purchase from Amazon.com</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=janechafinsbl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=158542336X" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the era of the <em>parisienne</em>, the professional French beauty, famous world-wide for her looks. Whole lives were devoted to it. Some went so far as to have their skin painted or enameled, a practice which sometimes led to facial paralysis, blood poisoning and even death. One social observer noted, "In Paris, half the female population lives off fashion, while the other half lives for fashion."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the late 1870s a stunningly beautiful <em>parisienne,</em> Amélie Gautreau, dominated the social landscape. Madame Gautreau was born Virginie Amélie Avegno in New Orleans to French Creole parents. After her father was killed in the Battle of Shiloh, Amélie's</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> mother moved her young daughters to live in Paris. Amélie began her ascent into Parisian society after marrying the wealthy Pedro Gautreau in 1878.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amélie captured the imagination of many young aspiring artists, chief among them John Singer Sargent, who became obsessed with the beauty and pursued her relentlessly in hopes of painting her portrait. He knew a successful portrait of Gautreau would result in future commissions from the rich and famous of Parisian society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Deborah Davis's 2003 dual biography, <em>Strapless</em>, plots the course of the lives of two people whose stories will be forever woven together in this story of art, celebrity and scandal. The cast of supporting characters includes Richard and Cosima Wagner, Henry James, and Oscar Wilde. Davis vividly paints her own picture of life in nineteenth century Parisian society and the scandal that rocked that world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After getting her to agree to sit for the portrait, Sargent struggled for months with what he called "the unpaintable beauty and hopeless laziness of Madame Gautreau." Eventually, "he condemned Amélie, who hated remaining motionless, to one of the most tortuous poses in art history. He had her stand with her right arm leaning tensely on a table that was just a little too short to be a comfortable source of support. Her face turned sideways to draw attention to her remarkable profile, while her body pointed to the front. The muscles of her neck strained to keep her head at its awkward angle."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkUmEwmUgn5BMdf_KkaPmcEVkoO-IdSIF2TEuPvndix97qgA1E3AB9a-40z7rW1dGBfRLHBsvGpyvp-DiNE3KaGD1VOpi_pluvGeTB9HjCT3S8sA-0rnWM6-i9nh9Z2AQJHvOtI5Yxg/s1600/Madame_X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkUmEwmUgn5BMdf_KkaPmcEVkoO-IdSIF2TEuPvndix97qgA1E3AB9a-40z7rW1dGBfRLHBsvGpyvp-DiNE3KaGD1VOpi_pluvGeTB9HjCT3S8sA-0rnWM6-i9nh9Z2AQJHvOtI5Yxg/s640/Madame_X.jpg" width="326" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Singer Sargent, <span class="fn"><i>Portrait of Madame X</i> (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1884, oil on canvas, 234.95 × 109.86 cm (92.5 × 43.3 in), Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sargent finished the portrait in time for the 1884 Salon, the most important art show in the world, with thousands attending daily. He had painted the famed beauty in a chic black dress and had no idea of the scandal that was about to erupt over his depiction of a strap dangling off Madame Gautreau's bare white shoulder. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nudes were everywhere in the 1884 Salon: "though highly idealized, even the most 'classical' nudes must have seemed erotic to Salon audiences. Women in the nineteenth century tended to cover their flesh in public with layers of clothing, from buttoned-up gloves to floor-length hems. Salon exhibitions provided easy access to sexual images that were not part of daily life. And artist knew that their nudes, however sanitized or decorous, were titillating. they placed them liberally in their paintings, often in such settings as forests and courtrooms where it made no sense for their subjects to be naked."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why the scandal over a mere fallen strap? According to Davis:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The public's judgment was loud, quick, and definite. What a horror, people exclaimed. She looked monstrous and decomposed, some said. The painting was indecent. Amélie's exposed white shoulders and décolletage -- without a breast in sight -- disgusted them. And that fallen strap! Was it a prelude to, or the aftermath of, sex?"</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1OGpgJvIwe2tyq-aGLH0OtWjfDzPvuxQk7sY51HgcENPqnCrgPubPmtrfyPruG_Ah-H5QUgGQmYPBrQrBXGci6sR9-HHtPup4LX9kYoJYfPv0XurZ1Nwcy-tHuvMTuyfgtvVzCcWDA/s1600/sargent+in+studio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1OGpgJvIwe2tyq-aGLH0OtWjfDzPvuxQk7sY51HgcENPqnCrgPubPmtrfyPruG_Ah-H5QUgGQmYPBrQrBXGci6sR9-HHtPup4LX9kYoJYfPv0XurZ1Nwcy-tHuvMTuyfgtvVzCcWDA/s640/sargent+in+studio.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Singer Sargent, in his studio with his painting <i>Portrait of Madame X</i>, black and white photographic print, 21 x 28 cm, circa 1884, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian, photographer unknown.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sargent's career would go on to survive the scandal, while Amélie's reputation would never fully recover -- she was no longer the "it girl." As soon as the Salon ended, Sargent took his painting back to his studio and repainted the strap in its upright position. Many years later in 1915, when Sargent sold the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he requested that Amelie's name not be associated with the portrait. That is when it officially came to be known as the infamous <em>Portrait of Madame X.</em></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNLcy1yAeOVVHYErqcZ0liyK0Lpa_nCbipABGtJHooRzor9KP9w6_xHHaGLFanRSGZPcsgiAVftBRpGlKuJn9zOFpTThHSKAYDttIWmv1y2wxEkMPu6oW1CCg1k5QBsMscQvDU1_PCQ/s1600/artificial_hatch_composite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_uid_4t7wq9="6" closure_uid_h3ixfr="6" closure_uid_m0kcn6="6" closure_uid_rgigm2="5" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNLcy1yAeOVVHYErqcZ0liyK0Lpa_nCbipABGtJHooRzor9KP9w6_xHHaGLFanRSGZPcsgiAVftBRpGlKuJn9zOFpTThHSKAYDttIWmv1y2wxEkMPu6oW1CCg1k5QBsMscQvDU1_PCQ/s200/artificial_hatch_composite.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 4 - April 15, 2012:</span><br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/White_John_Recent_Works.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #888888;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John M. White: Recent Works</span></span></a></strong></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012<br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/feesago_chuck_retention.html" target="_blank">Chuck Feesago: Retention</a></strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><div></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">May 6 - June 3, 2012</span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/hester_d_jean.html" jquery16305091521554857168="18" target="_self">D. Jean Hester: A Rope Let Down From Heaven</a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm</span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">June 24 - August 5, 2012</span><br />
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<span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.offrampgallery.com/beach_lou.html" jquery16305091521554857168="19" target="_self">Lou Beach: Stories & Pictures</a></i></b></span></div><div><span class="size10 Helvetica10" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Opening Reception: Sunday, June 24, 2-5pm</span></div></span>Jane Chafinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254558444677895488noreply@blogger.com0