Jane Chafin's Offramp Gallery Blog

Pacific Standard Time Shines the Spotlight on a Veteran Artist: An Interview with John M. White

2012-02-29T09:35:00.001-08:00

John M. White has been making art for a long time. A fixture on the Los Angeles art scene since the early 70's, and honored last year by a retrospective at the Armory Center for the Arts, John M. White's considerable contribution to contemporary art in Los Angeles is further acknowledged by being included in four of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time exhibitions.

Throughout his career, White has focused on three major areas of work: performance art, installations, and drawing and painting. White's work has always been cross-disciplinary, seamlessly blending object-making and performance. In today's art world, there's nothing unusual about that, but when White was getting his MFA at Otis Art Institute in the late 60's, it was almost unheard of.

John M. White, Performance Guide, 1969, Ink on Paper, 28" x 32", courtesy of Sylvia White Gallery

I spoke to White earlier this week about those early days.

JC: How did you initially become interested in performance art?

JW: I was a student at Otis and I met Joan Hugo, who was a librarian there, and she was quite hip for Otis. She was connected to a lot of performance work that was going on in New York.

JC: When was this?

JW: I was at Otis from 1965-69. She would take one or two students under her wing every year. I was warned about her, in a nice way. If you really wanted to find out what was going on in the contemporary art world, you went to Joan. So I introduced myself to her and we became friends. She realized that I was looking at different things, other than painting and making objects, and that I was also interested in doing things live. One day she posted a flyer on the school bulletin board saying that performance artist Yvonne Rainer was in town, that she was a dancer and was looking for helpers. I didn't respond because I'm not a dancer. But then Joan asked me why my name wasn't on the list. She said "it's not dance, but it's called dance."

So I signed up and went down to this abandoned Cadillac showroom. Yvonne was very interested in common movement, and wanted a bunch of people to follow her around and emulate what she was doing. Very simple instructions. We met a couple of times, about 50 of us, and I began to really fall in love with the idea of just walking, then getting on the ground and rolling around and getting back up and just doing common things. That to me was very acceptable.

John M. White, Performance Guide: Boulder Delivery, 1970, Ink on Paper, 28" x 32", courtesy of Sylvia White Gallery

Next I went up to Dwan Gallery with Steve Paxton and he said he'd like to use me in a piece. "Just hold on to my body and as I walk around the audience, talking to the audience, you just hold on to my sweater." I said ok, so we did that and the audience went crazy, they went nuts, they were clapping -- there were about 200 or 300 people in the audience. Then he took me outside, we walked around the block and then came in the back way, did the same thing again and the audience went absolutely crazy again. I kept saying to myself "What is this?" It was wonderful.

So I took both Steve's and Yvonne's workshops at an abandoned warehouse in Venice when they came back in town a year later. This was my sophomore year at Otis. We tried lots of different things. I remember a really break-through piece when Steve asked me where I worked. I told him I worked in a brewery in Azusa from midnight until 6:30 in the morning. He then asked me what I did there. I said "well I do a lot of hard labor until about three in the morning and then I come into a room and I take a newspaper and I put it over my face and I fall asleep for a couple of hours on a bench." He suggested I make a piece out of it.

About a month later Steve and I went down to Del Mar to this huge factory and warehouse. I got about 15 stacks of left-over newspapers and put them in a big circle and went to the audience said I needed about 20 people to work in the piece. I pulled them aside and said I was going to cover them with newspapers and they were to count to 1000 and get up and leave. So they laid down in a circle and I asked the rest of the audience to take the newspapers, crinkle them up into a ball and throw them on top of the performers. We made this gigantic stack of crinkled newspaper, lit by one light from above which made it look very dramatic and then we all sat down and waited. One by one the performers got up and left.

We thought it was over when someone said "my husband's still in there!" We called for him and nothing happened. He had fallen asleep! So we woke him up and it was really a nice way to end the piece. Everybody laughed. It was a good audience participation piece as well as a sculptural form, and also live. It was called Paper Pile. It looked very good, it was very beautiful. So that was my initiation to performance art.

John M. White, Mind Field III, 2009, Ink on Paper, 23" x 36", courtesy of Sylvia White Gallery

JC: So from then on you did performance as well as drawing and painting?

JW: Yes. While I was still at Otis I started making paintings called Floor Plans for Performances, but when I titled them that way, Otis wouldn't let me graduate. They said they weren't a dance school and they weren't a theater school. They loved the paintings, but they hated the titles. So I changed the titles temporarily -- I called them untitled painting #14, things like that, and then I was able to graduate!

I realized that I was a little bit different. The feeling in LA at the time was that you were either a performance artist and you did live things, or you were an object-maker and you did drawings, paintings or sculpture, and the two camps didn't get along with each other. That was completely foreign to me. I'd do a performance and then I'd do some drawings based on the performance and I'd go back and forth. They fed each other.

I had major problems with it, getting gigs and things like that. I was actually disallowed from a show I was going to have in a nice gallery on La Cienega because the other artists said I was a performance artist and warned the gallery to be careful about showing me. I got a call from the owner of the gallery and he said "I'm sorry, we've decided not to show you." I found out a few years later that all the other artists had gotten together to push me out.

JC: Fast forward to the last couple of years. You've had a retrospective at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and you are represented in four Pacific Standard Time shows around LA. What has this meant to you?

JW: With Pacific Standard Time, I think they were trying to highlight a lot of artists like me who were under the radar. I think the older you get, the further under the radar you get if you haven't established yourself early on. So for me Pacific Standard Time has really been a godsend in terms of my public career, but I always work anyway. I don't care if it's public or not. But it has given me a chance to do a lot of things I wouldn't have career-wise.

John M. White, Solimar Beach Elements, #3, 2010, Acrylic on Panel, 23"x36". courtesy of Sylvia White Gallery

JC: One of the four shows you're represented in was the performance you did for It Happened At Pomona: Art of the Edge of Los Angeles 1963-1973 at the Pomona College of Art Museum in January. The other performances were by Judy Chicago and James Turrell. You received a glowing review in the LA Times.

JW: That was very interesting. They called me up about redoing a performance from 1971. It was a group of football players. I had 34 people in the audience and six football players and I choreographed their movements.

JC: That was Preparation F?

JW: Yes. I've never done a re-do of a performance, so when they called I told them I didn't think that it was viable. But then they called back and told me they had forgotten to tell me about the budget -- a very healthy budget. My response was "you're kidding?!" And then I said yes. They had found my price!

I came down one night for rehearsal and I asked where the football players and the coach were. I was told they were upstairs waiting for me. So I went up the elevator and I went into this room and these kids went crazy, cheering me, jumping up and down. I had just gotten out of the hospital and I was on a cane, so I went limping in and it was very dramatic. The coach had whipped them into a frenzy. We did a rehearsal and I saw that these guys were ready to go. They had studied the piece from the 70's, from the notes and photos, and they were ready to do it in a big way. It was a match made in art heaven. It has inspired me to get back into performance. I've made a couple of drawings and paintings based on that performance in Pomona already.

JC: The LA Times review must have been very validating.

JW: I was sitting here in the studio and someone called and said "bravo, John!" I said "bravo what?" He asked me if I had seen the LA Times. I hadn't, so I stopped painting and went and got one, and here's this big beautiful color photograph from my performance on the front of the Calendar section. It was not exactly validation, that's not what I'm looking for, but it was wonderful.

JC: Where does your self-validation, for lack of a better term, come from? What has kept you working all these years regardless of how your public career was going?

JW: That came from my first teacher -- he ran a private art school in his house in San Francisco and that's what he taught. I lived there for three years. He was a very strong figure.

JC: That was Giacomo Patri?

JW: Right, the Patri School of Art Fundamentals. He was a consummate teacher, an extraordinary person. He taught us to work our way through things, to do it ourselves and not to worry about getting famous or discovered. He said it was a blessing to be able to enjoy what you're doing.

I was going to become a brewmaster like my dad, and I just stumbled into his school, started taking a class, and before I knew it, I had moved in. I stopped working at the brewery and learned how to exist on almost nothing. I lived there like a monk. I've been making art ever since.

Click here for more information on John M. White

Upcoming at Offramp Gallery

March 4 - April 15, 2012:
John M. White: Recent Works
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm

Sunday, March 25, 3pm:
Betty Ann Brown reading & book signing
from her new book, Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life

May 6 - June 3, 2012:
Chuck Feesago: Retention
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm

Lou Beach's "420 Characters," a Perfect Marriage of Creativity and Media for the 21st Century

2012-02-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Lou Beach's 420 Characters is the perfect book for today's multi-tasking, time- and attention-challenged, media-gorging, art and literature lover (like me). Limited to 420 characters (including punctuation), each of Beach's very short stories started life as a Facebook status update. Vividly distilling experience into a haiku-like framework, Beach's stories are narrative gems -- evocative, surreal and dreamlike -- the opening scene of a movie by your favorite director as you sink into your seat in the darkened theater:

"We were on a tour boat in Boston Harbor. A candy wrapper escaped from some kid's hand, scuttled our way across the deck. Russell pinned it with his boot, bent over, picked it up. A gust of wind snatched it from him, sent it out over the water. An old woman said: 'Shame on you, littering.' My brother's neck went red. He got that look that could clear a barroom in Quincy. He sighed, winked at me. 'Yes, ma'am,' he said."

Infused with atmospheric depth and populated with myriad characters, Beach's stories range from comedy to irony, tragedy and surreal montage:

"Shot by a monkey, Elsa leaned against the banyan, held a bandage to the wound. They'd entered camp just before dawn, made off with a pistol, some candy bars, and a Desmond Morris book. We counted as six shots rang out, one of them finding poor Elsa's arm. Relieved that the simian was out of ammunition, we packed up. On the way out of camp we noticed a monkey on the riverbank, hammering at a snake with the gun."

The handsome hardcover book is in and of itself a small treasure. Designed after a vintage volume in Beach's personal collection, the red cover is embossed with a gold leaf monogram, the stories printed on heavy paper and illustrated with surreal collages by Beach, also a well known artist and illustrator.

Lou Beach, The Fall, collage

Lou Beach, World of Men C, collage

Audio recordings of the stories by Beach's friends, actors Jeff Bridges, Ian McShane and musician Dave Alvin, are available on the book's website.

The book was chosen as one of Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2011. In the following video, Beach is interviewed about 420 Characters for the series, Author Interviews @ amazon:

Don't hesitate to buy this book! Whether you read it all in one sitting or pick it up occasionally to savor a story or two, 420 Characters fires on all cylinders -- fine writing, fine art, beautiful design -- and will not disappoint.

Click here to buy 420 Characters from Amazon.com

Upcoming at Offramp Gallery

Artillery Editor Tulsa Kinney's Last Interview With Mike Kelley

2012-02-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Like most of the art world, I was stunned when I learned of artist Mike Kelley's suicide last week. The most recent issue of Artillery magazine, with the strange close-cropped photo of Kelley on the cover, had been on my coffee table for a couple of weeks, Kelley's piercing blue eyes staring out at me, almost daring me to ignore him. As soon as I heard the news, I immediately sat down to read editor Tulsa Kinney's interview with Kelley, an interview that would turn out to be his last. Did the article hold any clues of the tragedy to come?

From the first line, "EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! ART STAR STOPS MAKING ART!" the interview was eerily prescient. Kinney writes: "It got quiet toward the end of our interview, and if I didn't know better, I might even say he seemed a bit melancholy that late morning." In hindsight, it almost reads like a case study in depression. These things are always so much clearer in hindsight.

Mike Kelley was an artist who enjoyed success beyond what most dare dream of. He was beloved by an almost cult-like following. Why would he do the unthinkable? What had brought this popular, talented, and sensitive man to that darkest of all places?

Having been through the suicide of a close family member, I know all too well the agony, grief, anger and guilt that survivors often feel. I hoped Tulsa's story might shed some light on those questions for those Mike Kelley left behind.

Tulsa and I sat down on Saturday afternoon in Pasadena to talk.

JC: When did you first decide you wanted to interview Mike Kelley? You said you felt an "urgency" to have him in the February issue, even though you said you didn't really have a hook for the interview at that point.

TK: I had wanted to interview Mike for a long time. Usually when you do a feature on someone, there's something else happening and that's why you write about them. But when I decided I wanted to interview Mike, he didn't have anything major going on that could be considered a hook. I just felt like I wanted him on the cover. I felt like it was time. A few of my staff members were very unenthusiastic about it.

JC: Why?

TK: One of the younger staff members thought that he was too old-hat, and that nobody knew who he was. Even my husband was kind of a naysayer. But I held my ground. I don't have really any other reason for wanting to do it, I can't explain it, I just wanted him on the cover this issue.

JC: Did it have anything to do with that issue of Artillery being your first national one?

TK: No, not consciously.

JC: But you finally found a hook for the article?

TK: Yes, right before the magazine came out, Kelley got accepted in the Whitney Biennial, and it was for the eighth time! So it was perfect.

JC: When and how did you approach him about the interview?

TK: I emailed him around the first of November, but I didn't hear from until a couple of days later. And when I did hear from him, he presented me with a whole laundry list of reasons why he hated my last issue! He said he was still going to do the interview, because he was a person of his word, but he was pissed off!

He said there was a lot in that last issue that interested him (this was the one with the burning bank on the cover), but he was not happy with the Detroit article and he was not happy with the Ed Ruscha article that John Tottenham wrote that was critical of Ruscha's recent show at the Hammer. He was very upset about that.

At the end of the list, and I think this was what he was unhappy about the most, was the gossip column. My gossip columnist had written some not-so-nice things about Mike. I usually don't mess with that content, because if I go in there and whitewash everything, then we don't have a gossip column. The gossip columnist called him a "paragon of perv" and some other things and Mike was really pissed off about that. What Mike wrote to me about it, his rebuttal, was hilarious, and at the end he said "Tulsa, how can you print such crap? Cancel my subscription."

So I was very nervous and I thought I wasn't going to get my interview. I could tell he was hurt. He's a real sensitive guy. That was something that I learned about him.

JC: When did the interview take place?

TK: November 14

JC: So many things in the interview seem to foreshadow this tragedy. I'm going to read a couple of quotes and ask you to react: "It got quiet toward the end of our interview, and if I didn't know better, I might even say he seemed a bit melancholy that late morning."

TK: Right. I really held back in my copy. I was really concerned, I've been around mental illness and I could see that he was very depressed. In my original notes I had written "he seems deeply depressed" and there were other notes that I didn't even want to put in.

JC: Again, reading from your interview: "When I asked him if he ever believed in Heaven and Hell, he responded deliberately, in his deep, gravelly Detroit accent, 'No. I never believed in anything.' He seemed sad when he said that, with a faraway look in his eyes."

TK: We were seated on either side of an L-shaped couch and he just looked straight ahead and answered me in monotones, "yes, no, I never believed in anything, it was a load of shit." He seldom looked at me and it was very eerie, very sad.

JC: In the letter to your readers that you wrote shortly after his death you wrote: "I needed to wrap up our interview as I felt I was taking too much time from Mike. Out of nowhere, he just blurted out that he was going to stop making art."

TK: Afterwards my husband said "why didn't you talk about that? That's your story." But the whole interview was so emotional, and he dropped that bomb just as we were wrapping up, and I just had to stop. He went into a lot of personal stuff with me that I was not really expecting. I knew I was going to ask probing questions, but I didn't know he was going to cooperate so much. And then he had been so pissed off at me, I thought he was going to be an asshole, which he wasn't. It was more like he was resigned. It was like "just take me, take whatever you want." It was way too heavy. I didn't know him that well.

Before we started the interview that day he said he wanted to see a draft before it was published. And I said, "Mike, no, come on, you know I'm not going to agree to that." He said "well I want to see the quotes. I really want to see them. I don't want to come off looking like an idiot." I wanted to say no, but I felt like I had to give him something because he was so pissed off about the gossip columnist. So I said okay.

That interview was so intense, and what was really sweet of him was that he had two books for me, one was a catalog for his Kandors exhibition and the other was his Destroy All Monsters book. I was so touched -- this guy was so pissed off at me and then he's giving me the interview of my life and he's giving me these books. I just looked at him and thanked him and apologized again for the gossip column. Tears actually welled up in his eyes and said, "that really hurt my feelings. That really hurt." That's when he told me he was having problems with his girlfriend and that he didn't need that kind of shit. Then I said "I'm so sorry, what can I do?" to which he replied "you can retract it! That's what I want! I want you to retract it!"

I said "Mike, if we have a feature on you, a cover and then a retraction, it's going to look like I'm kissing your ass." But then I reluctantly said okay. I felt I had to, so I worked it into the story.

I had a lot of trouble writing this piece. His staff kept contacting me saying Mike really needed to see the quotes. So I finally sent them to him around December 22 and he read them, of course, very out of context. He was livid. He said "Tulsa, I had no idea you were going to print all this. I just told you that to give you an idea of where my art comes from. I can't handle this, this is way too much." He even said "I'm not a fucking movie star or a personality, I trusted you, I had no idea this would be so raw. No way about the Gagosian stuff, why would I allow my career to be jeopardized?" And that's kind of interesting, because at that point he was still thinking about his career.

So I let him fix the Gagosian quotes, because I didn't want to jeopardize his career either. We went back and forth, but in the end, when I got the quotes back, he had hardly touched them. I was astounded. I thought I was going to have to rewrite the whole article. He left in the stuff about his dad disowning him, he left in the part where he said he was going to quit making art and he made sure that I added the stuff about the Detroit project. And then one thing that was really strange, in the passage where he talks about having to get out of Detroit or he would go insane, he added "I had a nervous breakdown." He added that.

JC: Skipping forward, a month later, to the photo shoot in December. You said he was more upbeat that day?

TK: Yes, he was kind of charming, cute. I was joking around with him, asked him if he gotten a facial, his skin looked brighter, he was laughing. He seemed very giving and had a great sense of humor.

JC: I want to ask you about that cover shot. It's an unflattering shot and very intense. Why did you do it that way?

TK: Tyler Hubby is the photographer and he was very excited to shoot Mike Kelley. Mike insisted that we were just going to do headshots. Mike didn't want to smile, he was just staring right in the camera, and I did say to Tyler "get up close, get a close one." I don't know, I just wanted that option. I like close-ups. When my art director, Bill Smith saw it he said "this is clearly the favorite. It's terrifying, but it's intense and that's what you want." To look at it now, it's heartbreaking, just fucking heartbreaking.

JC: After the article was published, did you hear from Mike at all?

TK: I was very, very worried, of course, because at that point I know he's ultra-sensitive. I emailed him and told him the magazine was out and did he want me to bring some copies by. I had them delivered the next day and I was just waiting and waiting. Finally he wrote back, just one line: "Tulsa, I got the mags. Thank you. I read the article, it reads good, my cover photo looks like a mug shot."

That's all he said and I really couldn't tell if he liked the article or not. I was hoping for a little bit more from him, but it was very perfunctory.

JC: Was that your last contact with him?

TK: Yes.

JC: And that was early January?

TK: Yes, around January 9th.

JC: How did you hear the news of his death?

TK: I got a phone call from a good friend and he just said "Mike Kelley's dead. He killed himself." I was shocked that he was dead, but I wasn't surprised that he had killed himself. This was Wednesday around noon.

JC: You mentioned that you'd felt something like survivor's guilt, "If only I'd done this or if only I'd done that."

TK: Right. You always feel like you're the person who maybe could have done something. I had heard he was at an art event in Eagle Rock on Sunday, and I thought maybe if I had gone there I could have cheered him up a little bit. I'm not thinking I could have saved Mike Kelley. But I thought, maybe I should have reached out to him. I could tell he was really depressed.

JC: Ultimately, it's no one's fault. Suicide is how you die from depression, just like a stroke is how you die from high blood pressure. But it's common to feel that way.

TK: Right. With me it was more of a fleeting thing, maybe I didn't do as much as I should have done. He was really depressed.

JC: I assume you will you be covering his death in your upcoming issue.

TK: I am hoping to tap into a lot of his close friends and give them each about 200 words to write about him, instead of one big obituary.

JC: Anything else you'd like to add? It must feel strange to find yourself in the position of having done the last interview with Mike Kelley, an artist you admired so much.

TK: I don't think I've really processed it. I had to go right to work, answering the phone, putting something on the website. I went right into work mode and that's what I've been doing ever since.

Click here to read Tulsa Kinney's interview with Mike Kelley.

Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery

Through February 12, 2012:
Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Through February 12, 2012:
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

March 4 - April 15, 2012:
John M. White: Recent Works
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm

Sunday, March 25, 3pm:
Betty Ann Brown reading & book signing from her new book, Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life

May 6 - June 3, 2012:
Chuck Feesago: Matter of Perspective
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge

2012-02-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Click here to buy Prints and the Pursuit
of Knowledge from Amazon.com

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe is the catalog from a recent eponymous exhibition at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum. (The exhibition is currently on view at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, through April 8, 2012.) Weighing in at a hefty 6.5 pounds and sporting an embossed reproduction of the head of Albrecht Durer's Rhinoceros on the soft-bound cover, this catalog delivers a fascinating look at the scientific technology of the sixteenth century and the celebrated artists who participated in it.

In her introduction, Prints as Instruments, curator Susan Dackerman describes her vision for organizing the exhibition:

“This project emerges from the tradition of Bildwissenschaft, the German branch of visual studies that encompasses images and objects across art-historical hierarchies of subject and media, without a predisposed notion of high and low art forms. Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge treats images and objects that have been neglected in the art-historical discourse because they were considered in aesthetic terms with little attention to their content, or were relegated to such other fields of study as cartography, astronomy, or the history of medicine – even though most were created by recognized artists who also produced work in genres considered more legitimate by art historians.”

In the following video, Dackerman provides further insight into the exhibition:

Exhibition Overview: Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe from Harvard Art Museums on Vimeo.

The flap prints by Heinrich Vogtherr the elder referenced in the video above were undoubtedly the high-tech anatomical representations for their time. To view them in a contemporary context, you can download a free app for your iPad or iPhone. The app lets you tap the image to reveal each of the flaps and provides an English translation for the text. For instance, if you tap on the "Matrix" flap you will learn that "the uterus is a vessel specified by God the Lord, in which the small children are received, nourished, and formed into a human body."

There are prints in the catalog that make you happy you live in the 21st century, such as Hans von Gersdorff and Hans Wechtlin the elder's Instruments for Use in Cranial Surgery, shown below.

Hans von Gersdorff and Hans Wechtlin the elder, Instruments for Use in Cranial Surgery, in Gersdorff, Field manual for the treatment of wounds, Strasbourg: Hans Schott, 1540. Book with woodcuts with hand-coloring. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the SmithKline Beckman Corporation Fund, 1949-97-11. Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Other things haven't changed that much from the 16th century. The Invention of Copperplate Engraving image takes me back to my printmaking classes at Otis, the main difference being the clothing and the absence of women.

Unknown engraver, after Stradanus (Jan van der Straet), Invention of Copperplate Engraving, from Nova reperta (New inventions and discoveries of modern times), c. 1599–1603. Engraving. Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, BF.1998.9.9. Photo: Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston.

Among the most beautiful of the prints is Albrecht Durer's woodcut Rhinoceros. The following video explains the appearance of the fanciful second horn on the creature's shoulders.

Object Discussion: Dürer's Rhinoceros from Harvard Art Museums on Vimeo.

The 442 page catalog contains over 100 reproductions of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings; maps, globe gores, and globes; anatomical flap prints; and paper scientific instruments used for observation and measurement, each with accompanying text. Hours of delight, discovery and illumination are guaranteed.

Click here to buy Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge from Amazon.com

Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery

Through February 12, 2012:
Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Through February 12, 2012:
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

March 4 - April 15, 2012:
John M. White: Recent Works
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm

Sunday, March 25, 3pm:
Betty Ann Brown reading & book signing from her new book, Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life

May 6 - June 3, 2012:
Chuck Feesago: Matter of Perspective
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm

Short Takes: "Art" Videos

2012-01-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

On those maddening days when I get blog-block and can't come up with a suitable topic, I often go to YouTube and type in "art" (but only after I've watched a few Doc Martin bloopers or cute animal videos). It never fails to lead me on a strange and wonderful journey. Today's meanderings took me through food art, hand art, and healing arts.

This first video combines two of my favorite subjects, coffee and art.

Staying in the food art category, watch as Phil Hansen paints the "Mona Greasa" with burger grease.

I hope that didn't "grease you out!"

And now for some hand art.

This amazing video of shadow hands is actually a VW commercial in praise of the hand-made.

One of the search results that always comes up for "art" is Dr. John Tsoi, "the acupuncturist, the herbalist, and of course, the artist." He has hundreds of these videos online and in many of them he does his artwork blindfolded. I always end up wondering if this guy is for real!

But this artwork of Dr. Tsoi's has to be my favorite. (The video is almost unwatchable at over nine minutes long, but you'll get the idea in the first minute or so.) MFA programs, take notice!

Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery
Through February 12, 2012:
Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Through February 12, 2012:
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

March 4 - April 15, 2012:
John M. White: Recent Works
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 4, 2-5pm

Sunday, March 25, 3pm:
Betty Ann Brown reading & book signing from her new book, Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life

May 6 - June 3, 2012:
Chuck Feesago: Matter of Perspective
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm

More on Artists and the Future of Books: An Interview with Kirk Pedersen, Founder of Zero+ Publishing

2012-01-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

Zero+ Publishing founder, Kirk Pedersen (standing) at
Photo LA, January 2012, with Anna Mendoza and art critic
Peter Frank (seated).

Last week I talked about some amazing ways artists are repurposing books. Some of you were upset that anyone would cut into or alter a book, even to transform it into a unique work of art. The sad news is that libraries and bookstores are throwing out, burning and otherwise disposing of books by the dumpster load. (You can read about it here and here.)

The good news is that the future of books, having lost their monopoly as conveyors of information, lies in aesthetics. There will always be a market for interesting, beautiful books -- and artists are, of course, leading the way. Zero+ Publishing, an art book publisher located in Claremont, CA and founded by artist Kirk Pedersen, is collaborating with artists, making limited edition books that push the definition of what a book is or can be.

I caught up with Kirk Pedersen at his booth at Photo LA last weekend. Besides running a publishing company, Kirk is also an artist and Professor of Fine Arts at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA. I asked Kirk how he went from being a painter and teacher to starting his own publishing company.

KP: In 2004, I went to Bangkok, southern Thailand and Cambodia, primarily for a vacation. I didn't go there as an artist or as a photographer. I went back to Bangkok in 2005, and on one particular day I had an epiphany and knew that I would create a photo book and it would be called Urban Asia and it would be in two volumes -- that was all very clear to me. It wasn't until I started working on the second volume in 2009 that I decided to publish other artists' work. So the intention with my first book had nothing to do with the idea of publishing for other artists.

JC: How many titles does Zero+ have now?

KP: Close to 15, each in a limited edition of 1000. With all of the titles we have some sort of packaged smaller edition option, such as a clamshell box, or a deluxe box, that is signed and numbered by the artist.

JC: How do you select the artists whose work you publish?

In most cases the choice of subjects is curated by my vision of this company, but there are other ways, like in the case of street artist Above who a friend introduced me to in Portland. I wasn't familiar with his work, so I googled him, liked his work, and decided I would like to work with him. We sat down to talk and he said he really liked everything we talked about in terms of design and ideas, but he had two publishers in New York who were already interested in working with him. He subsequently met with both, then called and said he wanted to work with me. The difference was that I told him we would print 1000 copies total, using the best paper we could get and that he would have a lot of control over what the end product would be. Most publishers give the artist no control.

That's one of the things I love about publishing. You're working collaboratively with artists and there is a flow of creativity. It's a great process. As an artist you're often working in your studio in isolation, but as a publisher you're constantly in communication with other artists. I like that very much.

BLAINE FONTANA: AMALGAMATE DELUXE BOXED EDITION (Edition 10 / 2 AP)
Box was hand-made by the artist with reclaimed wood and the cover has a CNC routed logo with cast resin – signed/numbered. 14 x 14 x 4.5” (35.5 x 35.5 x 11.43cm) / 14lbs. (6.35kg) Contents: Signed/numbered/embossed book - 11.25 x 11.25" (28.6 x 28.6cm), Hand-finished signed/numbered six-color silkscreen print – 11 x 11” (27.94 x 27.94cm), Vannen/Fontana watch, 6 – 6 x 8” postcards, Mini wood sculpture (signed/numbered) – approximately 9” tall (22.86cm), Retired brush cast in resin box, Giclee print (signed/numbered) – 11 x 11” (27.94 x 27.94cm), COA

JC: You've created quite a buzz at Photo LA with your deluxe boxed editions, especially Blaine Fontana's Amalgamate. I've watched you put on your white gloves and reveal the contents to many fascinated fair-goers. I've even seen a few take out their wallets and purchase the remaining copies of the edition, as well as the artist's proof.

What was the inspiration for making these custom box sets?

KP: I'm a book collector and I've purchased a lot of books that come in special packaging -- books that have prints or some element of surprise to them. So I wanted to up that idea even more by having these be unique handmade boxes, something that very few people in the publishing world have done. I'm a collector and ultimately I wanted make deluxe editions that I would want to own.

Deluxe Edition Amalgamate Box Set Process from Blaine Fontana on Vimeo.

JC: What other deluxe editions do you have coming up?

KP: I have a book coming up with LA street artist Cryptik -- he works with a lot of eastern images, Buddha, Gandhi, etc. Inside the box will be incense, an incense burner and candles that are custom carved by the artist. Each box will have the artist's script on it. All of the contents will be customized by the artist. I don't know everything that will be in it yet, but because of the overwhelmingly positive response of the fair, I have a lot of new ideas that I don't want to talk about at this time.

JC: So you're being cryptic about Cryptik! I guess we'll just have to wait.

Thanks for taking the time to talk about Zero+. We'll be eagerly anticipating your future projects.

Click here to learn more about Zero+ Publishing.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

January 20, 2012
Offramp Gallery Director Jane Chafin will be participating in a panel discussion at the 17 Annual LA Art Show at the LA Convention Center on Friday, January 20 at 4pm: A MATTER OF DEGREES -- MFA, PhD in Art: Is it all BS?, sponsored by Artillery Magazine. Other panelists include: Betty Brown, Tucker Neel, Austin Young and Anuradha Vikram.

   January 8 - February 12, 2012
   Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
   Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

January 8 - February 12, 2012
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Artists and the Future of Books

2012-01-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Bookworm, 1850, by Carl Spitzweg

It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I am a bibliophile. I've not yet reached the point of bibliomania, which Wikipedia defines as "an obsessive-compulsive disorder involving the collecting of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged, and in which the mere fact that an object is a book is sufficient for it to be collected or loved," but I'm not ruling it out for my old age. I love books, I live surrounded by them and never thought I would live to see the current changes in technology that have many referring to them as obsolete.

I personally don't believe books are becoming obsolete, but I do believe they're going through a transition. Freed from utilitarian bonds as conveyors of information, aesthetics are what will carry books into the future, and not just as relics of a bygone era. There will always be a place for beautiful books. Artists and other creative types, always sensitive to cultural change, are already repurposing books with stunning results.

I first came across the notion of altered artists' books a few years ago when I did a studio visit with Los Angeles artist Susan Sironi. I was totally captivated by what she was doing and continues to do with books. Using a subtractive process, she carefully cuts through books with a scalpel and transforms them into objects of wonder.

Susan Sironi, untitled (Alice, foot), 2011, altered book

Susan Sironi, Hanging By A Thread, 2010, altered book, 12" x 18"

Perhaps the best known of the altered book artists is Brian Dettmer. In the following video Dettmer talks about the information revolution as well as his artistic process.

And then there's this video which has been making the rounds on social media this week. See what happens inside a bookstore at night when no one is watching.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

   January 8 - February 12, 2012
   Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
   Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

January 8 - February 12, 2012
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Natural Fashion; Infighting Among the Art World's One Percent Continues

2012-01-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

Many of you wrote to thank me last summer when I posted a video (see below) of Hans Silvester's stunning photographs of the painted people of the Surma and Mursi tribes in Southern Ethiopia. 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.

To take a closer look at Silvester's work, I ordered a copy of Thames & Hudson's 2009 paperback version of Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa. The book contains 160 of Silvester's astonishing color photographs and is accompanied by an essay, Art and the Body, also by Silvester.

According to Silvester:

"These body paintings are totally free, and yet they never repeat themselves, and there is no underlying system. Each one is extraordinarily fresh. The technique and skill of body decoration, with its infinite variations, is learned at a very early age, with mothers painting their babies. But it is adolescents who devote themselves most avidly to this activity. Some of them are immensely talented. They have a highly original sense of colour and form, whereas others can by clumsy and need to start all over again."

Silvester believes that the absence of mirrors, until very recently, may have contributed to the freedom of the tribes' creativity. There was no self reflection, only the approval (or disapproval) of others in the tribe.

Inevitably, the tribes are being discovered by the outside world and are becoming tourist attractions, intensifying and altering the practice of body painting. In one Mursi village, tourism already has a strong foothold. According to Silvester:

"Then the 4x4s arrive, at about 10 a.m., the natives are ready to welcome them, sporting their accessories and bodies painted for the occasion. This somewhat surreal show lasts until around midday, and then the tourists depart and 'performers' are paid in local currency . . . The money is immediately converted into alcohol or weapons, two flourishing trades. The whole business reeks of tragedy."

Tragedy indeed.

Click here to buy Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa from Amazon.com

* * *

Ilya Repin (1844–1930), Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky's duel. Illustration.
Watercolours, white lead, and Indian ink on paper. All-Russian A.S. Pushkin
Museum, St. Petersburg.

British artist David Hockney took a very public swipe at YBA Damien Hirst earlier this week. According to this article in The Independent, posters for Hockney's upcoming show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London read "All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally." Hockney confirmed on Radio Times that the dig was directed at Hirst saying "It's a little insulting to craftsmen, skilful craftsmen."

Starting next week, Hirst has an exhibition of his "spot" paintings opening at 11 Gagosian Galleries worldwide, most of which were made by assistants. Hirst was unavailable for comment.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

   January 8 - February 12, 2012
   Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
   Opening Reception: Sunday, January 8, 2-5pm
   Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

January 8 - February 12, 2012
Megan Madzoeff: Cut it Out!
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 8, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

The world's first commercially produced
Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley for
Henry Cole in 1843

I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from blogging to enjoy the holiday (and to clean out the garage which is starting to look like an episode of Hoarders). I want to take this opportunity to thank you for reading, clicking and responding to my various musings on art this past year, and to wish you a wonderful holiday season! See you in January.

Here's my favorite French Christmas carol performed by Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1982 (thanks Kendra for reminding me). Enjoy!

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

January 8 - February 12, 2012
Bianca Kolonusz-Partee: Countries of Origin
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 8, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

January 8 - February 12, 2012
Megan Madzoeff:Cut It Out!
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 8, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, February 12, 2-5pm

January 20, 2012
Offramp Gallery Director Jane Chafin will be participating in a panel discussion at the 17 Annual LA Art Show at the LA Convention Center on Friday, January 20 at 4pm: A MATTER OF DEGREES -- MFA, PhD in Art: Is it all BS?, sponsored by Artillery Magazine. Other panelists include: Betty Brown, Tucker Neel, Austin Young and Anuradha Vikram.

Myron Kaufman's "Horse Scents" | Feud Update: Is The Art World's One Percent Imploding?

2011-12-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Myron Kaufman, Big Bertha Gives Birth, 2011,
acrylic on canvas, 18" x 24"

Congratulations to Offramp Gallery artist Myron Kaufman, on the publication of his first short story, Horse Scents, in Bomb Magazine. Horse Scents, which is also illustrated by Myron, is the offbeat story of a man who falls in love with a horse. It begins with a touching introduction by Myron's son, filmmaker and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. If you're familiar with Charlie's work, you're about to learn that in the Kaufman family, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Hold on to your hats -- it's a wild ride.

Click here for Part I of Horse Scents

Click here for Part II of Horse Scents

Click here to learn more about Myron Kaufman

* * *

Feud Update: Is The Art World's One Percent Imploding?

Last week I blogged about a public feud that had erupted in the upper echelons of the art world. The emperor is suddenly naked and his minions are scrambling to publically cover their asses. Mud is being slung far and wide.

Here is a recap of where things stood when I posted last week:

*Son-of-a-billionaire art collector Adam Lindemann had written in the New York Observer that he wasn't going to Art Basel Miami Beach because he didn't want to be "seen rubbing elbows with all those phonies and scenesters, people who don’t even pretend they are remotely interested in art . . ." And then he went.

*Advertising mogul/art collector and owner of the Saatchi Gallery, Charles Saatchi threw his hat in the ring with an article in the Guardian stating,""Even a show-off like me finds this new, super-rich art-buying crowd vulgar and depressingly shallow."

*New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz jumped in and neatly analyzed the feud with an article titled: The Prince of the One Percent [Lindemann] Would Like You to Know That Buying Art Is Less Fun These Days.

On Wednesday evening Lindemann responded to Saltz by posting this article, Columnist Adam Lindemann Responds to the Critics of “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!” on GalleristNY. Lindemann defends his actions by saying that his article was "meant to stimulate dialogue" and ends with another promise I'm sure he has no intention of fulfilling: "Nonetheless I apologize to any and all of you who in sympathy with him have taken offense, and so that we may be friends again I promise that I will never attend another art fair, buy another work of art or express my views in print."

Early Thursday this video of a secret meeting of Jerry Saltz & Charles Saatchi in a sauna appeared on FaceBook:

On Friday afternoon Jerry Saltz suddenly called for a truce in a FaceBook post:

"Not that it matters to anyone; but it matters to me - so I want to get this on the record. I have met Mr. Adam Lindemann. I like Adam Lindemann. I bear [sic] him no grudge.

"He and I disagree on a lot of stuff. He had his say in print; I had my say in print. We had a critical cat-fight in public (always good to watch critics go at it). But I'm okay with him; and look forward to going at it in print again, or not. Kumbyeya"

German artist Anselm Kiefer got his hands dirty in this article in the Guardian. He started out taking the high road:

"Art is difficult," says the 66-year-old firmly. "It's not entertainment. There are only a few people who can say something about art – it's very restricted. When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not. Buying art is not understanding art."

But then he lobbed this grenade, using Charles Saatchi's own words against him:

"It sounds as though Kiefer, who was born in the Black Forest but has lived in France since 1991, endorses Charles Saatchi's view that the art world is eurotrashy, vulgar and masturbatory. 'He described himself, no?' says the artist, laughing uproariously. '[These days] art becomes fashion, it becomes [financial] speculation, but Saatchi started it.'"

Mom, he started it!

Finally, this article about son-of-a-car-salesman artist Damien Hirst appeared in the LA Times: Damien Hirst prepares to unleash another blizzard for buyers. In January, Gagosian will fill all eleven of its galleries worldwide with Hirst's "spot" paintings, about 300 altogether, the vast majority of which were made by his assistants.

Hirst defends the ubiquity and inflated value of his assembly line work by saying:

"You also have to ask yourself as an artist, 'What would be more appealing … to have made the Mona Lisa painting itself or have made the merchandising possibilities — putting a postcard on everyone's walls all over the world? Both are brilliant, but in a way I would probably prefer the postcards — just to get my art out there.'"

It's the merchandising, stupid!

Stay tuned.

Is the Art World's 1% Unraveling?; A Fantastic Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

2011-12-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of weeks a feud has erupted in the upper echelons of gazillionaire art collectors. Three articles making the rounds on social media are at the center of the controversy. First there was Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now! by son-of-a-billionaire art collector Adam Lindemann, in the New York Observer in which Lindemann emphatically states:

"I’m not going to Art Basel Miami Beach this year. I’m through with it, basta. It’s become a bit embarrassing, in fact, because why should I be seen rubbing elbows with all those phonies and scenesters, people who don’t even pretend they are remotely interested in art?"

And then emphatically re-states:

"How many celebrities will I meet? How many mega-collectors will I greet? How many curators will I schmooze and how many artists will I chat up? None, because I’m not going."

Then he promptly did go Miami and did do all of the aforementioned things he said he wasn't going to do.

The next to enter the fray was advertising mogul/art collector and owner of the Saatchi Gallery, Charles Saatchi, with an article in the Guardian: The Hideousness of the Art World. At least Saatchi is self-deprecating as the pot calls the kettle black:

"Even a show-off like me finds this new, super-rich art-buying crowd vulgar and depressingly shallow."

New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz jumped in yesterday and neatly analyzed the feud in his article, The Prince of the One Percent Would Like You to Know That Buying Art Is Less Fun These Days:

"It looks like the art world has entered an ugly finger-pointing period. Call it the Shoot the Wounded Phase: Players at the top are starting to accuse each other of being craven, cronyistic bad actors. Everyone knows something bad is brewing, that some end or explosion is imminent amid the obscene prices, profligate spending, celebrity-artist worship, obnoxious behavior of the rich, and art as entertainment. People are showing up to say, 'It wasn’t me. It was him! It was her! It was them!'"

Stay tuned -- I'm sure we haven't heard the end of this one.

* * *

Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

Albertus Seba (1665-1736) was a Dutch apothecary and passionate collector of natural specimens. After a lifetime of collecting, he commissioned various artists to make copper-plate engravings of his specimens which were first published in several volumes, some posthumously, between 1734 and 1765. Using reproductions from a rare hand-colored original belonging to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Taschen brings us yet another luscious and affordable coffee table book, Albertus Seba: Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Eye-popping displays of birds, butterflies, snakes, seashells, sea urchins, exotic plants, crocodiles, crustaceans and more, ignite the imagination and leave us in awe of the diversity of the natural world as well as the engravers' skill in producing these beautifully detailed plates.

In her essay, Albertus Seba's Collection of Natural Specimens and its Pictorial Inventory, Irmgard Musch writes that in Seba's day, "Doctors and apothecaries were pioneers of the empirical sciences, which had been growing significantly in importance since the Renaissance. Unlike today, medications were not synthetically made but mixed together from natural constituents. A whole range of traditional recipes were available to those versed in the art of creating remedies from animal, vegetable and mineral ingredients. But many did not stop there. They continued the search for new methods, collecting natural specimens from distant lands, studying them, and testing their potential uses. Their passion for collecting and researching often extended beyond immediate pharmaceutical applications. In many instances apothecaries started major natural history collections and contributed personally to the growing knowledge of nature."

Arrow squids/Flying squids; 7-8 Ovum, Sepia eggs; 9-10 Sepiidae, Cuttlebone of a sepia. Credit: Taschen

Albertus Seba was so passionate about collecting that he would meet ships as they pulled into harbor in Amsterdam and buy specimens from all corners of the globe directly from sailors before they had a chance to disembark. Snakes and mammals were preserved in jars of alcohol, often resulting in distortions in form and coloring that we see in some of the plates. Seba's success as an apothecary and reputation as a collector was well known, even to the Russian tsar, Peter the Great, who often bought medicines from him and eventually bought the entirety of his first collection.

Albertus Seba, Volume I, Plate 39; 1 'Didelphis marsupialis', Southern common opossum, credit: Taschen

Among the thousands of specimens depicted, there are few interesting anomalies thrown in: siamese goat twins, a flying dragon, a mythical seven-headed hydra and a fictive (and very convincing) metamorphosis of frogs into fishes. Three essays round out our understanding of Seba's life and the scientific value of his collections, but it is the plates themselves that provide endless fascination.

credit: Taschen

Click here to buy from Amazon.com

A Coffee-Lover's Dream Gift; Andy Warhol Survey Results

2011-11-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

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

Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Andy Warhol Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who responded to last week's survey "Andy Warhol: Genius or Killer of Art?" I asked you to rate Warhol's work on a scale of one to ten. The graph of the results (below, figure 1) shows a couple of interesting things, the first of which is that Warhol is a polarizing figure. Out of the 127 responses, 25 (19.7%) rated him as a ten, while almost the same number, 23 (18.1%) rated him as a one.

figure 1

If we leave out the extremes (1 and 10) in the second chart (below, figure 2), and then look how you rated his work, it becomes obvious that most of you don't think highly of the work itself. It peaks at a three and descends from there.

figure 2

What I'm taking away from this, and from the many comments you left (see below), is that you think Warhol had a huge influence on contemporary art, but not so much for the quality of his work (only one or two respondents actually defended the work itself) but for the change he ushered in. Or as Marshall McLuhan put it: "Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it." For better or for worse, Warhol was decidedly that.

Andy Warhol by Jack Mitchell

I think the debate will continue on whether or not Warhol's influence on art was primarily a good one. I agree with most of you that he knocked down barriers and allowed for an expansion of our definition of art. But, as Marshall Mc McLuhan also stated, "Art is anything you can get away with." It's the "getting away with it" part that bothers me about Warhol's legacy. I believe much of the contemporary art world suffers from a serious case of the Emperor's New Clothing, especially the art market that places so much value on Warhol that he accounts for a staggering one sixth of all contemporary art sales.

Here are a few of your comments:

Pro-Warhol

"I am a huge fan of Warhol. Not so much that it has incredible merit for its technical aspects but most assuredly because it makes one ponder. Art for me has to stir up controversy and he most certainly achieved that status."

"He was on the ground floor of appropriation art, now ubiquitous. But it is not at all a dry conceptualism--witness his popularity--but something ravishingly stylish, with an iconic, high modern classicism and Matisse-on-acid color that does so much to redeem the general kitschiness of the psychedelic aesthetic."

"Is art a soothing, comfortable arm chair after the toils of the day, as Matisse dreamed about? Is there only that one dimension? Should work not conforming to that definition be torn down? We don't need the self-indulgent grunts of arrogant and wayward elites, do we? Maybe we should just reject the entire 20th Century."

"He completely derailed the pre-existing canonical narrative of art history, defrocked its 'priesthood'; and liberated artists and art to move in many new directions via every medium and formal strategy under the sun. He's as important as Brueghel."

Anti-Warhol:

"I owned a Warhol and got bored with it early on. Delighted to sell it."

"Personally, I can't help but agree with the assessment that Warhol's serious work ended in 1968. When his retrospective was at MOCA, the earlier work seemed radical, the later just commercial. I loved the deKooning quote, "You're a killer of art!". I just saw de Kooning's retrospective at MOMA in New York. He reminded me of how great art can be. One can't help but think that Warhol's enormous influence has had a negative effect on today's art."

"He was an ad man. There's a need for that, but I'm not certain it's in fine art. He was a master manipulator of the media and creator of self image. An ad man."

"It has as much real substance as a can of Campbell's Soup. That is why collectors love him. He doesn't challenge the status quo in any way and the status quo is to make art = easy money."

Bada bing, bada boom

"I remember going to Pittsburgh and while there I visited the Andy Warhol Museum. A friend asked, 'How was it?' I responded, 'I liked it for 15 minutes.'"

Click here to see the survey results

Andy Warhol, Killer of Art? / Small Books, Big Ideas

2011-11-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

I ran across this article from Intelligent Life Magazine, "A One-Man Market" by Bryan Appleyard that leads with the following staggering statistic: "Andy Warhol is an art-world colossus whose work accounts for one-sixth of contemporary-art sales. How did that happen, and is he really worth it?"

Of the Andy Warhol Foundation's role in the creation and preservation of the Warhol "bubble" the article states:

“'The problem is', says Georgina Adam, 'that the foundation wants Andy Warhol to be a high artist with high ideals, they want him to be like Leonardo da Vinci. They don’t want to think that he just signed a lot of stuff without even looking at it, but he did.'”

My personal opinion is that Warhol's work is highly overrated. Yes, he was an icon and a celebrity, and influenced many artists, but was his influence a good thing? Was it the end of the notion of mastery, depth and emotion in art? When you put aside Warhol's very public life and get down to his work, I find it too easy, superficial and vacuous. I expect more from art.

Here's a video I posted last year of art critic Robert Hughes chatting with billionaire collector Alberto Mugrabi. Hughes very easily reduces Mugrabi to babbling inanities about why Warhol and Richard Prince are great artists. Hughes makes a great case for contemporary art suffering from The Emperor's New Clothes.

Willem de Kooning is purported to have shouted to Warhol across the room at a party: "You're a killer of art, you're a killer of beauty, and you're even a killer of laughter." What do you think?

Click here to rank Andy Warhol's work on a scale of one to ten.

Click here to see the survey results.

Small Books, Big Ideas

I’ve had to use great restraint not to order more than a handful of the 50+ titles available in Wooden Books’ handsomely designed, lavishly illustrated main series. Tagged as “Small Books, Big Ideas,” each of the 6” x 7” volumes has exactly 64 pages. One-page chapters are illustrated with a veritable cornucopia of black and white reproductions of engravings, drawings, graphs and charts. For now, I’ve narrowed it down to two titles that I think will be of special interest to you as artists and art-lovers: Perspective and Other Optical Illusions, and The Golden Section.

Perspective and Other Optical Illusions by Phoebe McNaughton

Author Phoebe McNaughton begins her small volume with a brief history of classical perspective -- man’s attempt to create the illusion of a three dimensional world on a two dimensional plane. From ancient Egypt to the Renaissance, from one-point, two-point, and five-point perspective, to orthographic and oblique projections, McNaughton lays out the basics.

Etchings from Albrecht Durer's Underweysung series illustrate the use of drawing machines from the 16th century, machines that utilized grids and glass to help artists better imitate perceived reality. Chinese paintings from the 13th and 17th centuries illustrate atmospheric perspective. We see how a pinhole camera obscura, used by Vermeer and others, projects perfect reverse images onto a darkened wall.

McNaughton then moves on to optical illusions, things that trick the eye. Prints by Dutch artist M.C. Escher are used to illustrate renderings of impossible objects, figure and ground flipping and rotational perspective. There are diagrams that seem to move and swirl, a stereogram that magically turns into a 3-D image if you align the dots and stare “through” it, as well as depictions of rainbows, moon bows, haloes and glories.

Relativity, by M. C. Escher. Lithograph, 1953.

McNaughton goes on to pose philosophical questions about the nature of reality. Synesthesia, auras and chakras are all touched upon as examples of unusual ways of perceiving reality. Plato's cave is sited.

You won't be bored by this little book -- you'll return to it time after time, as a refresher course in perspective, as a jumping off point for philosophical reflection, or for the pure pleasure of looking at the illustrations.

Click here to buy from Amazon.com

The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret by Scott Olsen

Author Scott Olsen opens The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret with a promise:

"If you are willing to proceed step by step through this compact little book, it will be well nigh impossible not to grasp by the end a satisfying and stunning glimpse, if not deeply provocative insight, into Nature's Greatest Secret."

With that promise, Olsen takes us on a voyage of discovery that starts with the earliest references to the golden section by Plato and Pythagorus to the nature of consciousness itself:

"It is possible then that consciousness may reside in the geometry itself, in the golden ratios of DNA, microtubules, and clathrins. . . Clathrins, located at the tips of microtubules, are truncated icosahedra, abuzz with golden ratios. Perhaps they are the geometric jewels seen near the mouths of serpents by shamans in deep sacramental states of consciousness."

You'll learn about the numerical expression of the golden section through a simple series of whole numbers, commonly referred to as the Fibonacci Sequence:

"Although officially recognized later, the series appears to have been known to the ancient Egyptians and their Greek students. Ultimately Edouard Lucas in the 19th century named the series after Leonardo of Pisa [c. 1170-1250], also known as Fibonacci (son of the bull), who made the series famous through his solution of a problem regarding the breeding of rabbits over a year's time. . . Fibonacci numbers occur in the family trees of bees, stock market patterns, hurricane clouds, self-organizing DNA nucleotides, and in chemistry."

From Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Libri tres de occulta philosophia.

You'll see the golden section at work in classic works of art such as DaVinci's The Annunciation, Van Gogh's The Beach, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Salvador Dali's Sacrament of the Last Supper. We see examples of the golden section found in music, philosophy, science and mathematics and more.

Author Olsen delivers on his promise with this lavishly illustrated, accessible guide to the golden section and its presence in the world around us.

Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: A Luscious -- and Affordable -- Must-Have Art Book

2011-11-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

As soon as I saw Taschen’s luscious volume Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 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.

Inside the box, the book itself is soft bound Japanese style with a silk-like cover, and printed on folded paper allowing printing on only one side of each sheet. The 118 ukiyo-e prints were reproduced from a series of original wood-block prints in the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo, one of the few complete series consisting entirely of impressions from the first run. Later editions, many of which found their way to Europe, were printed with fewer color blocks and did not display the delicate color gradations of the original prints.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858,
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo #107, 1857,
"Fukagawa Susaki and Jūmantsubo", Brooklyn Museum

Each of the prints is accompanied by descriptive text, and a map showing all 120 locations depicted is included. An essay by Melanie Trede, Edo: Images of a City between Visual Poetry and Idealized Reality, gives a picture of life in mid 19th-century Edo and Hiroshige's role as an artist in it. The essay details the history of the creation of the prints, including the importance of the woodblock cutters, printers and censors who had to give their seal of approval to every image:

"After the publisher had commissioned the print, the ink drawing had, following a decree of 1790, to be submitted to the censors and given the round seal of approval. In the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, this seal is placed, together with a date seal, either at the top of the print or on the left, outside the image. . . . Following the appearance of a print with 72 different colours the previous year, a censorship law of 1842 restricted the number of colours to eight. Hiroshige's series demonstrates that the colour limitation also had its positive sides."

So sophisticated were the printing techniques used by Hiroshige, that some of the original images, such as the carp banners in Suido Bridge and the Surugadai Quarter, and the eagle plumage in Fukagawa Susaki and Jumantsubo were printed employing expensive mica dust that created a silvery shimmer. The eagle’s talons were printed with animal glue to produce a deep shine.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858,
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo #107, 1856,
"Kinryūzan Temple, Asakusa (Asakusa Kinryuzan)",
Brooklyn Museum

In her essay, Melanie Trede states:

"It is to the printers that the series owes numerous visual effects, such as the subtle gradations, known as bokashi, which give volume to an area of colour, or express effects of perspective or light and make each print unique. There are various forms of bokashi, for example atenashi bokashi ("not-indicated colour gradation"), frequently used in this series, in which the cloudlike colour gradation is applied to an area of the woodblock not indicted by the artist, for example in the sky or water surfaces."

The prints, which depict over a hundred views of mid-19th century Edo (now Tokyo), were incredibly popular in their time and each was printed between ten and fifteen thousand times. Hiroshige chose to use a vertical format for the scenes, novel in its time for landscapes. The prints depict temples, shrines, public parks, famous trees, pure landscapes, rivers, canals and bridges, throughout the four seasons. Some reflect current affairs, such as the depiction of a reconstructed Edo, rising from the ashes of the 1855 Ansei earthquake in which approximately 10,000 people died.

Of particular interest is the influence Hiroshige’s prints had on European art in the late 19th century. Both Vincent Van Gogh and James McNeill Whistler found inspiration in Hiroshige’s landscapes. Van Gogh went so far as to copy the prints Plum Park in Kameido and Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake, acknowledging Hiroshige in the titles of the paintings.

Left, Hiroshige: Plum Estate, Kameido 1857; from "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"; 13.25 × 8.625 in (33.7 × 21.9 cm); The Brooklyn Museum.
Right, van Gogh: Japonaiserie, 'Flowering Plum Tree' (after Hiroshige), Oil on canvas, 55 × 46 cm (21.7 × 18.1 in); Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Click here to purchase Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo from Amazon.com

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Click here to read the LA Times review of Susan Sironi: New ABCs
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October 23 - November 20, 2011:
Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Short Takes: David Lynch's Big Fish; A Trip to the Moon; How to Save $60k in MFA Tuition

2011-11-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered where the dark genius of filmmaker David Lynch comes from? Lynch's 2006 book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity 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 Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks to Inland Empire. Catching the Big Fish 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. Here are some pearls of wisdom from Lynch:

"Ideas are like fish.

Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.

I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there. There are fish for business, fish for sports. There are fish for everything.

Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level. Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field. The more your consciousness -- your awareness -- is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch."

Lynch, who has meditated twice a day for over 35 years, describes how it has helped him overcome negativity:

"When I started meditating, I was filled with anxieties and fears. I felt a sense of depression and anger. . . . I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It's suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it starts to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.

Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they're like poison to the filmmaker or artist. They're like a vise grip on creativity. If you're in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas."

Lynch gives the following sage advice for realizing our own creative visions:

"Stay true to yourself. Let your voice ring out, and don't let anybody fiddle with it. Never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. And meditate. It's very important to experience that Self, that pure consciousness. It's really helped me. . . . So start diving within, enlivening that bliss consciousness. Grow in happiness and intuition. Experience the joy of doing. And you'll glow in this peaceful way. Your friends will be very, very happy with you. Everyone will want to sit next to you. And people will give you money!"

Sign me up!

Here's an ad for Parisienne cigarettes that Lynch directed in 1998:

Click here to buy Catching the Big Fish from Amazon.com

* * * * *

Speaking of wonderfully bizarre films, I came across this article about the color restoration of Georges Melies’ 16-minute 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), and a documentary that is being released about it.

The documentary, The Extraordinary Voyage by Serge Bromberg, which closes with the restored hand-colored version of A Trip to the Moon, will have its world premiere November 11 at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (the restored short itself debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year).

For those of us not in New York City, the black and white version will have to suffice until a distributor is found for the film or it is released on Blu-ray. Not to worry -- it's amazing in black and white!

* * * * *

My blog post from earlier this year MFA: Is It Necessary? -- The Debate has by far been the most widely read one, receiving the most hits of any of my posts by a two-to-one margin. It has been reposted on many blogs and seems to have taken on a life of its own. It's obviously a hot topic of interest to many of you, so I want to pass on the following essay, What I Learned in Grad School, by artist, instructor and curator, Quinton Bemiller. Bemiller wants to save you the high cost of MFA tuition.

What I Learned in Grad School
by Quinton Bemiller

People have debated, literally, whether or not MFA degrees are necessary, whether or not attending grad school is necessary for serious artists and so on. I have many students who are never going to go to grad school for art. The reasons vary. Yet, many of these students desire to further their education.

Honestly, grad school teaches you things that are far different than undergraduate education or individual classes in art. A BFA teaches you how to make art. An MFA teaches you how to be an artist. With or without formal education, one must learn both.

So, I am going to save you the $60,000 in grad school tuition I am currently paying off (with interest) and cut to the chase. Here is what I learned in grad school (each point comes from a particular experience or instructor):

1. Your work is the most important thing. The quality has to be exceedingly high. Do this and the shows, reviews and sales will follow.

2. You are in competition with other artists, dead and alive.

3. The only voice you should hear in the studio is yours.

4. Know art history and contemporary art as it applies to your own art.

5. Be present as you make your art. Be in the moment and honestly connect to each and every step in the process of making your art.

6. Guard your reputation as an artist. Donʼt show your work just anywhere. Donʼt sell your work to just anyone.

7. Teachers/artists never share all their secrets. Some things you have to learn on your own.

8. Assume you are great and that you will accomplish great things. Make choices about your art and your career with the confidence of knowing that you alone call the shots. What kind of art career do you want? Do that.

9. Artists are like crabs in a cage, pulling down all the others trying to climb out!

10. You need to be completely, madly in love with the art you are making.

11. Donʼt fight battles that have already been won.

12. Get beyond yourself to think of solutions that are unexpected.

13. Know what the driving force is in your work, the main concept or premise on which all other things are built.

14. Serendipitous opportunities will arise, so be sure you are prepared for them.

15. Donʼt make art for an audience or “the viewer”. Make work that is sincere and let the chips fall where they may.

16. Recognition does not always come from those around you. Sometimes you will find more recognition far from home.

17. After you are an accomplished artist, it often takes ten years for anyone to notice.

18. Your peers will do more to help advance your career than anyone else.

19. Your work need only touch one person. That alone can make things happen for you.

20. Despite intellectualism, there seems to be a factor of simple attraction that makes people excited about an artistʼs work.

Quinton Bemiller

Quinton Bemiller is a painter, instructor and curator in Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include the Armory Center for the Arts, Torrance Art Museum and Offramp Gallery. He earned his MFA at Claremont Graduate University, BFA at The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University and AA at Pasadena City College. He can be reached at quinton.bemiller@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
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October 23 - November 20, 2011:
Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

A Prelude to Halloween

2011-10-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

Detail of Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement" (Sistine Chapel), between 1535 and 1541

I woke up in a nightmarish state recently, haunted by a news image of a bloodied, terrified Moammar Gadhafi being beaten and driven away to his brutal death. The image morphed to the eerily similar self-portrait of Michelangelo with flayed skin in his monumental Sistine Chapel fresco, The Last Judgment. I stumbled to the kitchen for a glass of milk to ward off the evil spirits. I prefer my demons in a slightly less anxiety producing state, without the existential meltdown. All of which leads me to my favorite holiday, Halloween, that festive time of year where we dress up as whatever our imagination dictates to celebrate death, evil, monsters, and other inhabitants of the dark, freak-show side of life.

I've put together a few videos to help you get in the mood.

Let's start with the most amazing pumpkin carvings I've ever seen, created by sculptor Ray Villafane.

This next video, Disney's 1929 "The Skeleton Dance," part of the Silly Symphonies series of cartoon shorts, is classic, early, black and white Disney animation. At the stroke of midnight four skeletons embark on a musical romp through a graveyard until a rooster's crow at dawn sends them scurrying back into their grave.

What would Halloween be without the costumes? This next video was produced by the Metropolitan Museum for its wildly popular Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition. McQueen often referred to himself as "the Edgar Allan Poe of fashion." He was certainly one of the most brilliant costumiers of our time.

Click here to see more MET videos of McQueen's runway shows.

Last, but not least, is a happy little Halloween song that my goddaughter recommended to me by actor, singer and comedian Steven Lynch.

Happy Halloween!

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
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October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm
November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Origami and Fractals: The Shadowy Worlds Between Art and Mathematics

2011-10-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

I watched two short documentaries this week about visuals that exist in the shadowy world between art and mathematics. The first film is from the PBS's "Nova" series, Fractals, Hunting the Hidden Dimension. The second is Vanessa Gould's 2009 documentary Between the Folds, a fascinating look at the history and evolution of the world of paper folding.

Fractals, Hunting the Hidden Dimension tells the fascinating story of how mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot came to discover the mathematics of fractals. Always considered outside the mainstream of mathematics, Mandelbrot was one of a group of "oddballs" hired by IBM in 1958 to develop the then fledgling computer field. Mandelbrot was fascinated by a problem presented to him about noise created by transmitting computer data over jammed phone lines, often resulting in data not getting through. When he looked at the pattern of the noise and zoomed in on a small area, he was surprised to find how similar the small area was to the whole.

Mandelbrot thought classical mathematics was great for describing forms with smooth edges and curves, primarily man-made forms, but found it lacking when it came to describing rough-edged forms as found in the natural world. Once he started pointing out fractals in nature, he was usually confronted with the response "of course!" Many of us associate fractals with the eye-candy of psychedelic posters and videos, but fractals are all around us in the natural world in the form of leaves, trees, lightning, blood vessels, mountains, clouds and even galaxies. Mandelbrot was eventually able to write a formula, "the Mandelbrot set" for the repeating "self-similarity" of the patterns within patterns within patterns that he discovered.

The fractal shape form of a Romanesco broccoli

Mandelbrot's discovery of fractals was eventually put to practical use in the first-ever computer generated special effects sequence in a feature film (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), as well as the small fractal antennae that are used in cell phones and other electronic devices.

After watching Gould's film about origami, Between the Folds, I went into high procrastination mode and instead of sitting down and writing this blog as I had intended, I found myself folding a large sheet of paper into a hyperbolic paraboloid. (I did this mainly for the bragging rights -- it's not as difficult as it sounds.) What I learned from this little exercise was how easily one could be seduced by the endless possibilities of something as simple as folding a sheet of paper. Gould's film chronicles the work of 10 artists and scientists who took the plunge, abandoning careers and hard-earned graduate degrees to devote themselves to origami.

Akira Yoshizawa (1911-2005) is considered the father of modern origami. Self-taught, he abandoned a factory job to devote himself to the study of paper folding. He supported himself working odd jobs and by selling soup door-to-door. He was the first origamist to keep his paper moist while folding, allowing him to make softer, more organic looking figures. He made some 50,000 models in his life time, none of which he ever sold.

The film looks at other modern day practitioners whose styles range from realistic to abstract, kinetic to work by le Crimp, a group of French origamists who make their forms from randomly crumpled paper, and a teacher in Israel who uses origami to teach geometry to children.

Perhaps most interesting is the amazingly gifted father/son team of Marty and Erik Demaine.
Erik Demaine was home-schooled by his father Marty, a single parent, sculptor, glass-blower, self-taught computer scientist and avid puzzle maker. Erik entered college at the age of 12 and got his PhD at the age of 20. He was the youngest professor ever hired at MIT and two years later was a recipient of the MacArthur genius grant. Together, the Demaines have pushed the boundaries of what origami can be -- from saving lives by designing folds for air bags to looking for cures for diseases by folding proteins.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
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October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm
November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

The Outer Limits of Visual Experience

2011-10-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have always had a fascination with the outer limits of visual experience -- outsider art, mental illness and art, psychoactive drugs and art. What happens as artists when our "cerebral reducing valve," as Aldous Huxley termed it, is stuck in the open position? How do we classify these works in the canons of visual art? Do we in the West tend to undervalue the visionary, the hallucinatory, the spiritual in art?

Rather than trying to answer these complex questions, I've put together a series of videos that addresses some of these issues and, I hope, provides food for thought.

If you follow the instructions on the screen of this first video, you will experience a brief and very real visual hallucination at the end. Nothing scary pops out at you. If you are prone to seizures or are afraid of this sort of thing, I suggest you skip this video.

This next video is about a series of nine drawings done by an artist under the influence of LSD 25 as part of a government research program in the 1950s.

This video tells the story of English artist Louis Wain (1860-1939) who was well known for his anthropomorphized drawings of cats. He developed late-onset schizophrenia at the age of 57 and continued to draw increasingly psychedelic cats.

This last video is of Chinese choreographer Zhang Jigang's Thousand Hand Bodhisattva (Guan Yin). While technically this is a dance performance, I think you'll agree that it qualifies as an intensely visual experience.

Panel Discussion Video

Thanks to everyone who showed up last weekend for our panel discussion Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

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October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm
November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

A Trip to Boston and a Documentary Add to My Gardner Museum Heist Obsession

2011-09-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), The Concert, ca. 1664,
Oil on canvas, 72,5 x 64,7 cm
Stolen from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

I was in Boston for a couple of days last week. On the top of my list of things to do there was my first ever, long overdue visit to the fabulous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Adding to the mystique of the beautiful outside-in Venetian palazzo that Gardner herself designed and its dazzling array of masterpieces and artifacts, was my curiosity about the still unsolved 1990 Gardner Museum heist. Thirteen masterpieces, including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, were stolen. Some were slashed from their frames -- frames that still eerily hang where Gardner originally placed them.

After my visit, I arrived back in L.A. pleasantly haunted by the history-laden cobblestone streets and cemeteries of Boston, and decidedly under the spell of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Finding Rebecca Dreyfus's 2006 documentary about the Gardner heist, Stolen, was the perfect segue from an all-too-short vacation back to my hectic life.

In an interview, Gardner biographer, Douglass Shand-Tucci, sets the tone for the present day visitor and echoes my own feelings: "The Gardner Museum is now touched with evil as a result of the robbery in a way that has deepened the experience going through it. Many people made it into a pretty postcard kind of place. Mrs. Gardner was not a pretty postcard kind of person . . ."

The story of the heist is set against a background of grainy black and white footage of turn-of-the-century Boston, voice-overs of Gardner's letters read by Blythe Danner, and the ongoing investigation of fine art detective Harold Smith. Adding to the complexity of the investigation, we intermittently hear snippets of voice messages left on a tip line -- even one from a who woman claims the culprits were John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The Beatles did it!

We learn about Gardner's motivations for amassing her collection:

"They say that Isabella Stewart Gardner is the original Victorian salvage hunter. She'd go off on a rummage hunt, often a salvage hunt. Mr. Gardner would be, at times, very upset. She wouldn't leave a note at the hotel, she'd be out looking for her favorite pieces of salvage that she could save and then resurrect them. Broken columns, balconies, fireplaces from Northumberland, were in attics and basements of churches, stained glass windows from 1150 a.d., [unclear] Cathedral covered with vestments and cobwebs, and she recycled all the things in Europe that no one seemed to care about."

In a letter to her art agent in Europe Stewart wrote: "Dear Berenson, I suppose the picture habit, which I seem to have, is as bad as the morphine or whiskey one. And it does cost. I am drowned in a sea of debt. You would laugh to see me. I haven't had but one new frock in a year."

Titian, (1490–1576), Rape of Europa, 1559-1562, oil on canvas, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

A museum docent recounts Gardner's frame of mind after acquiring Titian's Rape of Europa:

"One evening so ecstatic, after a wonderful dinner party in the Titian room, she swirled into a frenzy and said, 'Tis I who have hopped upon the back of Zeus and become Europa, the mother of Europe' and left her ball gown. Of course as we all know in the portrait the goddess is upon the back of Zeus flying around the heavens in a night gown. So Mrs. Gardner disrobed her ball gown, ran through the long gallery back up to her dressing room on the fourth floor, changed into another gown and came back downstairs. So, for posterity, the green moiré fabric, Worth’s Paris gown, is in the wall, under the Titian as sort of a replica and souvenir of the enchantment that Bel Gardner felt when she received and purchased her Europa. She was ecstatic with joy."

We meet dicey characters from the underbelly of the art world such as master art thief Myles Connor, antiques dealer and ex-con, William Youngworth and, through a Scotland Yard connection, reformed art thief, Paul "Turbocharger" Hendry. Much speculation surrounds the role Boston mob boss and then fugitive Ray "Whitey" Bulger may have played in the caper:

"In 1990 at the time of the Gardner heist, Whitey Bulger was the absolute lord and master of the Irish underworld. . . . Whitey Bulger had a dark presence that cast a very long shadow over Boston. Chilling is the word. . . He ruled through violence and intimidation and fear. . . . In this town, if a consortium of thugs pulled off the Gardner heist, Whitey Bulger would hear about it in two seconds flat. "

By the end of the film, the investigation has widened to include IRA connections and never realized plans to use Senator Ted Kennedy as a go-between to negotiate for return of the stolen work. Art detective Harold Smith stayed on the trail of the theft until just a week before he died in 2005, and many others continue the hunt to this day.

Ray "Whitey" Bulger was arrested by the FBI in June of this year and is in custody in Boston charged with 19 counts of murder. Some speculate that Bulger knows the whereabouts of the stolen Gardner paintings and is using the information as a get-out-of-jail free card.

We can only wait and hope!

Click here to rent or learn more about Stolen.

Click here to read my review of Ulrich Boser's 2009 bestseller, The Gardner Heist.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Discovering the Highwaymen: Florida’s Outsider Artists

2011-09-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about writing a weekly art blog is that I’m always on the lookout for hidden gems of art history – or in this case, outsider art history -- that come as a wonderful surprise to me, much like finding buried treasure. So I was delighted when I logged on to Netflix recently and up popped a suggestion for a film I might like titled The Highwaymen: Florida’s Outsider Artists. The description read:

“This documentary focuses on a piece of American culture that is rarely spoken of. The Highwaymen tells the tale of a group of young African-American, self-taught landscape artists from central Florida in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In a time of segregation, the men traveled the region selling their detailed paintings from the trunk of their cars. Today, the paintings, originally sold as 'junk art,' are virtually priceless.”

My curiosity went on high alert and I rented the DVD asap.

The nearly hour long film credits the birth of this outsider movement to a group of artists in Ft. Pierce, Florida who had little to no formal training. “They painted Florida back country scenes mainly – coastal savannahs, hard-wood hammocks, tannin-stained rivers, almost always topped by expansive skies, capacious clouds and bold strokes of dramatic colors.”

Central to the development of the Highwaymen was white artist, A.E. “Bean” Backus, often referred to as the dean of Florida landscape painters. Backus studied painting at Parsons in New York and soon brought the Hudson River Style to the big skies and Everglades of Florida. Despite the predominant racial prejudices and segregation of the 50’s and 60’s, Backus was willing to help any young student who wanted to study to become an artist.

One of the first African American artists that “Beany” took under his wing and taught his painting techniques to was Harrold Newton. Newton learned quickly and would sometimes paint as many as three or four paintings a day. No respectable gallery would show the work of an African American artist, so Newton began going from door to door, often bartering his work for rent, medical treatment, groceries or gas.

In 1955 an art teacher at Ft. Pierce’s segregated Lincoln Academy recommended another student to Backus, a young African American man named Alfred Hair. Hair is often credited with being the founder and spiritual leader of the Highwaymen.

Hair wasn’t satisfied with the painstaking brush painting of Backus or selling an occasional piece of work. He wanted to speed up the process and make money. So he developed a technique of painting faster using a palette knife with looser strokes. He painted on inexpensive construction materials, primarily Upson board and later Masonite. Old window and door frames were used for framing.

To gear up production, Hair soon began recruiting neighborhood kids to work for him, many of whom went on to become the original group of artists now referred to as the Highwaymen. They saw painting as the road to financial freedom and churned out work, factory-style, at an amazing rate, with some claiming that there are over 200,000 Highwaymen paintings in existence. Why work in the fields picking oranges for $6 a week, when you could sell a single painting for $10-$15?

Hair, well on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming a millionaire, was tragically murdered at the age of 29. His group of followers were deeply affected by his death and lost some of the momentum he had created. They continued to paint, however, and the original 26 members went on to become inducted in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.

Prices for the paintings of the Highwaymen sky-rocketed in the early 2000’s, primarily as a result of bidding, buying and selling on EBay. Some of the works by the original 26 members of the group now sell in the five-figure category.

Click here to learn more about the Florida Highwaymen

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Classic Edvard Munch Film; Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance; MFA Debate Video

2011-09-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Director Peter Watkins’ classic 1974 film Edvard Munch is a rich and complex look at the life of the angst-ridden Norwegian artist in his native Kristiania (now Oslo), from roughly 1884 to 1894, the formative years in his early career. Filmed in the style of a documentary, period characters speak directly to the camera in their native Norwegian with English subtitles, while the film is narrated in English. Artfully interwoven are scenes from Munch’s childhood, of his older sister and mother dying of tuberculosis (a disease that almost claimed the young Edvard as well), Munch’s love affair with the married “Mrs. Heiberg,” as well as the political and philosophical debates of the era.

("Edvard Munch" was originally created for Norwegian television in 1974, then edited and re-released later as a DVD. This is the only trailer I could find and the scenes it contains are not in the DVD; the subtitles are in Greek, rather than English; but it does capture the feel of the film.)

In 1884, Kristiania was the capitol of Norway and was ruled by the middle class, the bourgeoisie, which was politically conservative and Protestant. Prostitution was legal and managed by the police, yet there were no child labor laws. Nearly one third of the industrial labor force was made up of boys and girls working as much as 11 hours a day.

Nihilism, anarchy and the works of Karl Marx were sweeping across Europe. Munch identified with a group of young bohemians, radical writers, artists and students, who believed in free love and the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. They also believed that all evil could be traced to Christianity.

In answer to Christianity's 10 commandments, Munch's Bohemian group published nine of their own. Among them were: to never borrow less than 5 kroner; to never wear celluloid cuffs; to never fail to make a scandal in the Kristiania Theater; to never regret; to sever all family bonds; and to take one's own life.

Edvard Munch, Fourth version of the painting The Sick Child, 1907

Much of the film focuses on Munch's work "The Sick Child," a painting about the death of his sister. "Illness, insanity, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life," Munch would later recall. The break-through painting came from the deep soul-searching of this period of his life and is often sited as the first Expressionist painting. The painting was strongly attacked by both the press and the public.

This hauntingly beautiful film is long, nearly three hours, but captivating. It deftly avoids the usual pitfalls and stereotypes of depicting an artist's motivation, soul searching, life and work. It ends too abruptly, however, and gives no hint of Munch's long career and life to come.

Click here to buy Edvard Munch from Barnes & Noble

Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance

The timing of the release of Zero+ Publishing's monograph, Lisa Adams: Vicissitudes of Circumstance, could not have been better for us. The book arrived the same week as the opening of Offramp Gallery's Lisa Adams: Born this Way which runs at the gallery through October 9, 2011.

The beautiful hardcover book contains 30 color plates of Adams' oil paintings along with an introduction by Los Angeles writer Ezrha Jean Black and an essay by theatre and art critic James Scarborough.

Click here for more information and/or to order the book.

MFA Debate Video

The post I did on the debate I participated in last summer MFA: Is it Necessary? has by far gotten the most hits and re-posts of anything I have written to date. But the post only gives my side (con) of the debate. So, as promised, here is the Artillery Magazine video of the entire debate. My esteemed opponent is art collector, Marlene Picard. (She gets a real zinger in on me in her first rebuttal. Touché, Marlene!)

Click here for more Artillery Magazine videos and debates.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Remembering Aron Goldberg; Offramp's First Art Fair

2011-09-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

What a blur of a two weeks it's been since I last blogged! Offramp Gallery participated in our first art fair, we prepared for an upcoming show at the gallery, and sadly, I lost a good friend, artist and former painting teacher, Aron Goldberg.

As a tribute to Aron, a gifted artist and brilliant man, I'm posting the following video which was produced as a preview of a 2009 solo exhibition mounted at Offramp called Aron Goldberg, a Life in Self Portraits. Aron was suffering from Alzheimer's at the time (you will see this clearly reflected in his later work) but was still lucid enough to appreciate and enjoy this last exhibition of his work during his lifetime. R.I.P dear Aron.

The fair that Offramp participated in was Flag Stop Art, An Alternative Contemporary Art Event. It was held at a Lexus dealership here in the Los Angeles area. Inside were curated and juried shows. Outside were 50 storage PODs, which were available at a very affordable price to artists, galleries, curators and artist/curators. Offramp showed its eight represented artists in three PODs. It was a challenge to install in the 8' x 16' spaces, and exhausting work, but very rewarding in the long run. We made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about taking our show on the road.

I was asked to speak on one of the panel discussions, The White Walls are Shifting: Innovative Models of the Contemporary Art Gallery. I was specifically asked to speak about Offramp Gallery's business model. A transcript of my remarks follows.

I've always thought that art and business make for strange bedfellows. Call me old fashioned, but I still believe that art is supposed to be transcendent, to speak to the human condition and not be all about money -- in other words, it's the opposite of selling cars or hamburgers.

It seems to me that the art world has worked very hard in the past few decades to force art into standard business models with an emphasis on branding, marketing, celebrity, trade fairs, investment and profit -- and as a result, we've lost touch with some of the loftier reasons we got involved with art in the first place.

That's one of the reasons that I was so happy to be able participate in FlagStop -- it's not primarily commerce-driven. Events like these give artists, curators and galleries a chance to strut their stuff without breaking the bank.

That having been said, if you haven't yet seen Offramp's three PODS, we have some very nice things for sale.

My gallery experience came from the ten wonderful years I spent working at the Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park. We all wore many hats at Barnsdall and as a result, I learned just about everything about the logistics of putting together exhibitions and running a gallery.

Of course, Barnsdall is not-for-profit, so what I didn't learn at Barnsdall was how to sell art. (All too often it seems as if Offramp's business model is also not-for-profit.) How do you sell enough art to support yourself and your artists without selling out, without seriously compromising your ideals? It's a huge challenge and I'm still working on it. Check back with me in a couple of years and I'll let you know how it's going.

For those of you who don't know, Offramp Gallery is located in a wonderful rambling old house with a large garden adjacent to the 210 freeway in Pasadena. The inspiration for starting Offramp Gallery came as much from the house itself as from my need to do something meaningful with my life. The house used to be a bungalow and a ballet studio which were eventually joined together by a large living room. The old dance studio has high ceilings and skylights and as soon as I saw it I knew it would make a perfect art gallery. The house has a history in the neighborhood as a cultural center and I'm happy to be continuing that tradition.

Since Chaz and I live in the house, everything the gallery does -- the gallery, the art, the visitors, and the events -- becomes an extension of our home & social life. It's a wonderful way to live. The art we show is, by necessity, on the smaller side -- it's work that would fit into your home, and that you don't need to build your own personal museum to house.

Our overhead is relatively low, since we don't have to pay rent on a separate gallery space and do most of our marketing digitally. I can't over-emphasize how important digital marketing has been and continues to be for Offramp's growth. We aggressively maintain our email list, keep our website up to date, and stay actively connected to friends, fans and collectors via social media and blogging. It's relatively inexpensive and very effective.

I've run Offramp for three years without a salary, supported by a modest inheritance, my wonderfully generous life partner, Chaz Alexander, as well as friends and the multi-talented, hard-working artists who show at Offramp. I'm very optimistic that Offramp will turn the corner in the next couple of years and become profitable. In the meantime, I can honestly say that running Offramp has been the most wonderful, most rewarding, three years of my life.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm

September 11:
Opening Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm
Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

October 30:

Reading and book signing: Author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, 3pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11: ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Summer Break

2011-08-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

I'll be taking the next two weeks off from blogging. I'm not taking a vacation (I wish!) but need more time to prepare for a busy fall season at Offramp Gallery. I'll be back on September 6.

I want to leave you with this video of Hans Silvester's photographs of the painted people of the Surma and Mursi tribes in Southern Ethiopia. The images transport me to a beautiful dream of summer which will have to suffice for a vacation for now. Enjoy!

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm

September 2-4:
Offramp Gallery at FLAG STOP 2011: an alternative contemporary art event

September 11:
Opening Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pmOctober 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm
Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation

December 4-11:ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Art Fair Survey Results; Art Heists; An Ode to Art Supplies

2011-08-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

Art Fair Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Art Fairs: Love Them or Hate Them? survey. 81% of the respondents identified themselves as artists; many wearing more than one art-related hat. Only one respondent claimed to know nothing about art.

I asked respondents to rank how they felt about different kinds of art venues on a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being "Hate them," 4 being "Love them." As you can see from the figures below, "Museums and Not-for-Profits" came in the highest, with an overall ranking of 3.53. "International Art Fairs" didn't do nearly as well, coming in second to the last in popularity with an overall ranking of 2.21. The least popular choice was "Internet Shows and Fairs" which had a ranking of 1.77

3.53 Museums & Not-for-Profits
3.31 Alternative Spaces
2.91 Commercial Galleries
2.44 Pop-up Shows and Fairs
2.26 Auctions
2.21 International Art Fairs
1.77 Internet Shows and Fairs

When I asked if a small gallery like Offramp Gallery should participate in international art fairs, 62.5% picked the common sense answer "Try one and see how it goes." Only 8.9 percent chose "Go for it," with 28.6% telling me to "Stay home."

When I asked for comments, I got some great advice, warnings, opinions and everything in between. One respondent who identified him/herself as an Art Dealer/Gallerist lamented:

"I can not afford to do the fairs. They are destroying my business, but I would participate if I had the money."

Another Art Dealer/ Gallerist was more enthusiastic:

"I was the co-director of a fair and had a booth as a result. It was a fantastic, exhausting experience and I added 500 folks to my mailing list. It's not for everybody; but is it is an important model. Don't expect big sales immediately."

And then there was this from an artist:

"Since much art has become a commodity, such as cars, fur coats and jewelry, and art fair is the right place for it. It doesn't deserve any better. A fine gallery showing great works shouldn't resort to join the trash."

A respondent who identified him/herself as an Art Buyer gave the following advice:

"I think you should investigate the return on your investment before plunging in. Why go if these events are not profitable?"

That last bit of advice goes straight to the heart of my dilemma. Are there figures available for average ROI (return on investment) for Art Fairs? I haven't been able to find any. What about the non-sales advantages like exposure and building the gallery's reputation and email list? How do you measure the more intangible returns?

Thanks again for your help. You've given me a lot to chew on! I don't see any major fairs in the budget for Offramp this year, but I'll keep you posted.

Click here to see the survey results

Art Heists

You may have heard about this weekend's heist of a Rembrandt drawing valued at $250,000 from a hotel in the Los Angeles area. You can read about it here and here. Thieves, probably working in tandem, distracted the curator and simply took the drawing off the easel where it was being displayed. Easy work if you can get it. Fencing it is another matter.

According to author Ulrich Boser's 2009 bestseller The Gardner Heist, famous stolen paintings are almost impossible to sell. Instead they are used as a type of underworld cash or bond, traded for guns, drugs or jewels.

The Gardner Heist is a fascinating true-crime whodunit about the largest art heist in history is a wild ride through the underbelly of the art world -- a dangerous place described by experts as the "Lost Museum" where enough stolen artworks exist to make the "Louvre seem like a small-town art gallery in comparison."

Click here to read my review of The Gardner Heist, first published in February.

Update: According to Forbes, the stolen Rembrandt has been recovered in a church in Encino, CA after an anonymous tip. Click here to read the story.

Ode to Art Supplies

Even though I haven’t been a practicing artist for a long time, my pulse still quickens when I walk into an art supply store or get the Utrect catalog in the mail. Remember the excitement of getting that first box of 64 Crayola crayons? Or the first set of colored pencils in the box that stood up like an easel? Or sketchbooks, brushes, paint, ink, linoleum cutters, markers, vine charcoal, pastels (oh, the pastels -- so yummy!), damar varnish, turpentine, clay, palette knives, pristine white stretched canvases, and on and on and on?

I've put together a series of videos showing how some of these art supplies are made. Seeing the raw materials -- mounds of powdered pigments, vats of gooey bright yellow, cotton rag chopped and beaten to a pulp to make paper -- is as exciting to me as walking into Pearl or Blick. Enjoy!

(Ok, technically not art supplies, but too yummy not to post)

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way

September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm

September 2-4:
Offramp Gallery at FLAG STOP 2011: an alternative contemporary art event

September 11:
Opening Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm

October 2:
Panel Discussion: Sunday, October 2, 3pm
Sincerely Whose? Authenticity, Irony and Uncertainty in Contemporary Art

October 9:
Closing Reception for Lisa Adams: Born This Way, 2-5pm
Book Signing for Lisa Adams's Monograph: Vicissitude of Circumstance, 2-3pm
Artist's Talk by Lisa Adams, 3pm

October 10-22:
Closed for installation

October 23:
Opening Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm

November 20:
Closing Reception for Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk by Susan Sironi, 3pm

November 21 - December 3:
Closed for installation
December 4-11:ArtZone 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, December 4, 2-5pm
Closing Reception: Sunday, December 11, 2-5pm

Short Takes: Art Fair Survey, James Ensor, Chinese Mask Changing, and More

2011-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Survey: To Fair or Not to Fair?

As the director of a commercial art gallery, I was slightly disturbed by this article on The Art Newspaper's website last week: Gallery System is Structurally Weak. According to the article: "a new report by the non-profit dealers’ federation Cinoa finds that fair-led and online business is taking over as the main source of revenue. . . . Gallery visits are declining as the art market expands to new international centres served better by art fairs or electronic media."

And that's where my ideals come crashing headlong into economic reality. If there's one thing I've learned in the three years since I opened Offramp Gallery, it's that selling art is not easy. The idea of taking our show on the road to a larger audience by participating in art fairs is very tempting, even though I find attending the fairs a sterile and depressing experience. (One artist told me that the only time she ever stopped off at a bar by herself on the way home from anything was after visiting an art fair at the LA Convention Center.)

Using the same branding/marketing models for art that we use for cars, appliances and pharmaceuticals really bothers me. Isn't art supposed to operate on a higher plane and be the antithesis of, say, a gun show? Commodification of art is certainly not a new topic for debate, but I think it's as relevant now as it has ever been.

Participation in the fairs is also very expensive. I looked at the costs of booths at three of the upcoming fairs in LA. The least expensive was a 144 sq. ft. booth for $5,500, the most expensive, a 940 sq. ft. booth for $37,600. If you need more space, you are encouraged to inquire.

That's a lot of money for a small gallery like Offramp to risk in these volatile economic times. So -- I'd like to know how you feel about art fairs. Love them? Hate them? If you're a dealer or a gallerist, I'd love to hear your experiences and welcome your advice -- is it worth the risk? Should I dive in or stay away?

I've put together a short survey to get your feedback. Thank you in advance for participating. I will share the results with you soon.

Click here to take survey

James Ensor

I wanted to share this deliciously dark YouTube video which was filmed in Belgian painter James Ensor's (1860-1949) house in Ostend and set to the music of Siouxsie Sioux.

Chinese Mask Changing

Speaking of masks, my YouTube meanderings led me to discover this video about the 300-year-old tradition of mask changing performed in Chinese Sichuan opera.

Face Painting

On a lighter face-changing note, I found this video, the "Amazing Face Paint Art of James Kuhn." I love the pineapple guy at 0:34, the Lichtenstein lady at 1:08 and the guy eating the hot dog at 2:57.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Lisa Adams: Born This Way
September 11 - October 9, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, September 11, 2-5pm
Artist's Talk, Vicissitude of Circumstance Book Signing & Closing Reception, Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm

Rebels in Paradise by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp

2011-08-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

On a recent sunny summer afternoon, with the demands of running an art gallery and writing a weekly blog weighing heavily on me, all I wanted to do was sit in the garden and watch the figs ripen. What I didn't want to do was read another dry, didactic book about art. Much to my delight, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp's recently released Rebels in Paradise: the Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, is the opposite of that -- entertaining, informative and fun to read. It was the perfect escape.

Drohojowska-Philp introduces all the major players of the 60's Los Angeles art scene in straight-forward prose that makes you feel you are a guest at a very interesting dinner party. Anecdotal information about who knew whom, who hung out together, where they grew up, how they came to Los Angeles, their romances, their battles, their relationships with galleries and collectors, tell as much or more about the spirit and free-wheeling creativity of this period than any academic analysis.

Central to the early development of the LA art scene is curator and museum director Walter Hopps, who along with artist Ed Kienholz founded Ferus Gallery in 1957. The suave Irving Blum replaced Kienholz when he left the gallery a year later to concentrate on making art. Hopps and Blum famously took a chance on a young Andy Warhol, giving him his first gallery showing of his Campbell's Soup can paintings.

Andy Warhol, Campbell Soup I, 1968, courtesy of Wikipedia

The night before the opening of the Warhol exhibition, actor Dennis Hopper threw a party for the Ferus crowd in his West Hollywood home, where Warhol met movie stars and actors including Robert Dean Stockwell, Sal Mineo, Suzanne Pleshette, Peter Fonda and Troy Donohue. The party prompted Warhol to say that it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. "Vacant, vacuous Hollywood was everything I ever wanted to mold my life into. Plastic. White-on-white. I wanted to live my life at the level of the script of The Carpetbaggers."

Warhol's Ferus exhibition was followed a week later by the opening of a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum (PAM). After the opening and a quick trip to Las Vegas, Duchamp returned to PAM to play chess on the board set up in his exhibition. Walter Hopps' nineteen-year-old girlfriend, Eve Babitz, was invited by photographer Julian Wasser to be photographed playing chess with Duchamp. Babitz stripped naked and sat down at the table with Duchamp, Wasser photographing the surreal scene using Duchamp's famous The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even as a backdrop. The event prompted Man Ray to say that "there was more Surrealism rampant in Hollywood than all the Surrealists could invent in a lifetime."

And that's just Chapter One.

As the decade progressed and Pop, Mininmal and Conceptual art movements began to define the LA scene, Barney's Beanery became the de facto clubhouse for Ferus Gallery artists Ed Kienholz, Robert Irwin, John Altoon, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, Ken Price and Billy Al Bengston. Kienholz reminisced: "We didn't talk the art out . . . If we sat around in the Beanery, we talked about who was a good fuck and where we were going to get six dollars so we could buy gas for a car to go to the Valley and get drunk. . . . I don't know that I've ever talked to Bob Irwin about art in my life."

We learn how a young David Hockney, never having driven a car when he first arrived in LA, got his license and bought a Ford Falcon for $1,000. "He managed to get on the Santa Monica Freeway, but, not knowing how to get off, wound up driving all the way to Las Vegas, where he won some money at a casino and then drove home the same night."

We hear the disturbing story about wealthy art collector Frederick Weisman's encounter with Frank Sinatra in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills hotel:

"Frank Sinatra was hosting a dinner party for Dean Martin at a nearby table. Weisman complained that Sinatra's party was making too much noise and making anti-Semitic remarks. . . . Accounts differ about what happened next. Marcia, who was not there, said that her husband was hit with a blackjack by Sinatra's bodyguard. An eyewitness claimed that Sinatra threw one of the telephones kept in the Polo lounge booths at Weisman's head. Weisman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a fractured skull and remained in a coma for months. The LAPD wanted to make an arrest but Marcia received anonymous threatening phone calls warning her not to press charges."

Architect Frank Gehry sums up the spirit of the time saying of the Ferus artists: "I was in awe of what they were doing. . .California was about freedom because it wasn't burdened with history. The economy was booming because of the aircraft industry and movie business, and things were going up quickly. Everybody could make whatever they wanted. . . . That's what democracy is about. Democracy didn't say everybody has to have taste."

Click here to buy Rebels in Paradise from Barnes & Noble

Update on Jade Bemiller Benefit at Offramp Gallery

I want to personally thank all the artists, buyers, donors and volunteers who came out to help Jade Bemiller in her fight to beat leukemia. I'm happy to announce that we raised over $9,000 for Jade.

Upcoming at Offramp Gallery

(Offramp Gallery will be closed for the month of August.)

Lucian Freud: Man With a Blue Scarf by Martin Gayford

2011-07-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

I was saddened to hear of the recent death of painter Lucian Freud, arguably the greatest painter of our age. I reviewed Martin Gayford's wonderful book about Freud: Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud in December and am re-publishing it here as a tribute to him.

R.I.P.

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

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

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

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

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

Click here to buy the book from Barnes & Noble (Offramp Gallery receives a small commission from each sale)

Ongoing at Offramp Gallery
Closing Reception, Sunday July 31, 2-5pm
Benefit Art Sale Supporting Jade Bemiller's Fight to Beat Leukemia
July 17-31, 2011

Participating Artists:

Lisa Adams, Frank Alvarado, Elonda Billera, Quinton Bemiller, Wilhelm Bleckmann, Richard Bruland, Anita Bunn, Elaine Carhartt, Marilyn Cvitanic, Joyce Dallal, Jason Dawes, Asad Faulwell, Chuck Feesago, Pat Gainor, Sandra Gallegos, Janice Gomez, Mark Steven Greenfield, James Griffith, D. Jean Hester, Stanton Hunter, Kathryn Jaroneski, Denise Johnson, Myron Kaufman, Bianca Kolonusz-Partee, Kimi Kolba, Nicholette Kominos, Linsley Lambert, Pamela Lewis, Patricia Liverman, J.J. L'Heureux, Meg Madison, Megan Madzeoff, Tony Maher, Amy Maloof, Kristan Marvel, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Tom Norris, Feclicity Nove, David Pagel, Laura Parker, Josh Peters, Mei Xian Qiu, Frederika Roeder, Susan Sironi, Veronica Stensby, Theodore Svenningsen, Jackie Tchakalian, Sophia Tise, Rebecca Trawick, Ruth Trotter, Michelle Wiener . . . and more.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

September 2-4, Offramp Gallery will be participating in Flag Stop, an alternative contemporary art event. We will be showing gallery artists in three PODS.

Susan Sironi: New ABCs: Altered Books & Collages
October 23 - November 20, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 23, 2-5pm

Artists Step Up to the Plate to Help a Child in Need

2011-07-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

When Offramp Gallery artists Megann Zwierlein and Quinton Bemiller welcomed their third beautiful, healthy, daughter into the world earlier this year, the mood was celebratory and life was good. The family was thriving. Baby Violet was perfection. Oldest daughter Lillie, 6, was about to complete first grade and was excited to have been chosen as a Princess in the local Camelia Festival. Middle child, Jade, had started pre-school and was loving it. She was a perfectly normal four-year-old, except for the occasional pains in her leg, which her parents and doctor dismissed as growing pains.

Jade

Just about the time baby Violet turned two months old, Jade woke up one morning at 3am crying because her leg was hurting. Nothing would ease the pain so Megann and Quinton took her to the doctor. X-rays were taken to see if there was a fracture to her bone. Nothing showed up on the x-rays and the doctor told them to continue to give her over-the-counter children’s pain medication.

When Jade was still crying at 5pm, Megann and Quinton took her to the emergency room where more blood was taken. This time the blood test came back slightly abnormal. They were told that Jade was most likely having residual effects from an earlier viral infection, causing the pain in her leg and the mild anemia that her blood test indicated. She was given a stronger pain medication and finally fell asleep.

But the pain in her leg persisted. If she was supposed to have her pain medication every four hours, she was crying at three hours. Two days later, she was taken back to the doctor and more blood was taken. This time they were told that Jade had severe anemia and iron supplements were prescribed. Given Jade’s healthy diet, Megann and Quinton were certain something more serious than anemia was wrong and took matters into their own hands.

Quinton took the numbers from Jade’s full blood work-up and did an internet search. He wasn’t happy with the results. According to his amateur research, the numbers all pointed to something serious that was causing her bone marrow not to function properly. They called the doctor again, who, sensing their concern, referred them to Children’s Hospital, where more blood work and a grueling full-body bone scan were done.

As soon as the tired and worried family returned home from that first visit to Children’s Hospital, they got a phone call saying there was abnormal activity in Jade’s left femur and that she needed a blood transfusion ASAP. They rushed back to the hospital, where Jade was admitted as a patient. By this time, she was lethargic, wasn’t eating, wouldn’t walk and her lips were the same pale color as her face. She was going downhill fast.

After the transfusion, bone marrow extraction and other tests, the family spent a restless night at the hospital. And then finally, after another excruciating day of waiting, a diagnosis: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Jade would need extensive treatment including two and a half years of chemotherapy. The news was almost more than the parents could absorb. Megann describes feeling like she had been “hit by a ton of bricks” and that everything seemed surreal. She and Quinton both felt like they were living someone else’s life. The anxiety and disbelief were overwhelming.

Jade drops off a self portrait (with hair) that she painted for the benefit exhibition

Megann and Quinton do not have private health insurance. Quinton is a part-time teaching artist and Megann is a stay-at-home mom/artist. The girls’ health care is covered by the State of California for now, but if Quinton’s salary increases or Megann goes back to work, they will most likely find themselves in the unenviable position of losing state coverage and having to buy private insurance, to say nothing of paying for childcare for three kids.

The good news is that ALL is now the most treatable form of childhood leukemia, with about an 80% survival rate (as opposed to 0% 40 years ago). Jade has finished her first round of chemotherapy, or induction, and is now officially in remission. But she still has a long way to go, including two more years of chemotherapy with the inherent risks of infection, side-effects and a compromised immune system.

Meanwhile, news of the diagnosis spread fast. Everyone wanted to help. Offramp Gallery was scheduled to be closed in July and August, so it was a perfect time to have a benefit exhibition. I sent out a call to Offramp artists and they responded enthusiastically, happy to have a chance to help. Word spread and by the time we opened the doors at the opening reception last Sunday, we had 115 donated works of art from 75 artists.

Food, drink and advertising were also donated. We had full-time volunteer help for the five days it took to put the exhibition together (thanks again everyone!). So far we’ve raised about $5,000 in art sales, silent auction bids and donations – more than half from artists buying other artists’ work. The exhibition continues through the closing reception on Sunday, July 31 and we hope to add significantly to the amount of money raised by that time.

Click here for a website devoted to Jade's fight where you can contribute money, keep track of her progress and learn more about leukemia.

MFA: Is It Necessary? -- The Debate

2011-07-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in survey I posted a few weeks ago about whether or not MFAs were necessary in becoming a successful artist. (Click here to see the results.) Your opinions were invaluable to me as I crafted my presentation.

The July 10 debate was part of Artillery Magazine's ongoing series "Artillery Sets the Standard," and was held at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Many thanks to publisher Paige Wery and editor Tulsa Kinney for inviting me to participate. There were four debates and made for a lively and informative afternoon (the free vodka didn't hurt).

The debate was: "MFA: Is it Necessary?" I was debating the "con" side of the question. The format was a four minute presentation, followed by a two minute rebuttal, a one minute rebuttal and a 30 second conclusion. When Artillery posts the full video of the debate, I will post it here. Meanwhile, here is the text of my presentation and conclusion along with my Power Point slides.

Hello. My opponent has made some interesting points, some of which I'll address in my presentation, others will have to wait for the rebuttal.

I don't have a degree in anything -- I dropped out of college in my Junior year. I felt I was wasting my parents' money, majoring in marijuana and guitar.

A degree is not something I look for when selecting artists for Offramp Gallery. The bottom line is always the work. I look for work that's honest, creative, original, skillfully executed and intensely visual. It's supposed to be VISUAL art after all.
Everyone has an opinion on this subject. But I wanted data, facts to back up my point of view.*

First of all -- The only situation for which you are required to have an MFA is if you want to teach studio art at the university level. There are precious few tenured teaching positions available and competition for them is fierce. Most artists I know end up chasing adjunct jobs across several counties and/or have an unrelated day job.

Then I looked at the artists I've shown at Offramp. 48% have MFAs. So, there is no advantage, no disadvantage.

But what about other commercial galleries? I spent an insane amount of time researching artists from several successful commercial galleries. You may be surprised at what I found.

LA Louver: 56% have MFAs

Blum & Poe: 55%

Ace: 41%

Gagosian 34%

If you put those numbers all together (including Offramp), only 40% of the artists have MFAs.

Next I looked at ArtFacts.net which ranks over 200,000 artists using a special algorithm based on which galleries and museums artists have shown at, with whom, etc. I looked at their top 50 living artists -- and of those 50 top living artists only 11 out of 50, or 22% have MFAs.

Typical costs for a two year MFA in studio art are: $28,000 -$73,000 and a three-year program would be $41,000 -$109,000. That's a lot of student debt to carry after graduation.

I also put together a little survey and sent it to my email list. I asked the respondents who were artists to what degree they were able to make a living as an artist. As you can see there wasn't that much difference between artists with or without an MFA.

I looked at the Pollock-Krasner Grant recipients for 2009-10. Out of 75, 40 have MFAs, or 53%. Again, no clear cut advantage.

So, from all the statistics I was able to put together there seems to be no distinct advantage to having an MFA -- for getting a gallery, showing in museums, for making a living as an artist and for getting grants.

And what are these schools teaching? I personally think there is an over-emphasis on dialog and an under-emphasis on content. We're teaching artists to TALK about art. Anything is art as long as you can justify it using the codified language of academia. As my friend Ted says, there's no good art, no bad art, just an endless dialog about art.

Finally I want to quote New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz in a recent article about the Venice Biennale and what he calls "Generation Blank":

"It’s work stuck in a cul-de-sac of aesthetic regress, where everyone is deconstructing the same elements . . . A feedback loop has formed; art is turned into a fixed shell game, moving the same pieces around a limited board. All this work is highly competent, extremely informed, and supremely cerebral. But it ends up part of some mannered International School of Silly Art. "

I couldn't agree more, and I do believe that MFA programs are largely to blame.

Conclusion:

To go over my main points again:

My research shows that an MFA doesn't give you an advantage in getting into commercial galleries or museums, making a living as an artist or getting grants.

It's very expensive and saddles you with student debt that you have very little chance of paying off by working in your chosen field.

Save your money, live your life, read, travel, pay attention, learn to think for yourself. Work hard, look inside yourself and make yourself the best artist you can be.

Oh, and BTW, I won :-)

*A word about my research: it is completely unscientific and was limited by time and resources. I included only living artists and excluded artists for whom I couldn't find enough information. I feel I just scratched the surface, but results were fairly consistent across the board.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Benefit Art Sale Supporting Jade Bemiller's Fight to Beat Leukemia
July 17-31, 2011
Opening Reception, Sunday, July 17, 2-5pm
Closing Reception, Sunday July 31, 2-5pm

Participating Artists:

Lisa Adams, Frank Alvarado, Elonda Billera, Quinton Bemiller, Wilhelm Bleckmann, Richard Bruland, Anita Bunn, Elaine Carhartt, Marilyn Cvitanic, Joyce Dallal, Jason Dawes, Merion Estes, Asad Faulwell, Chuck Feesago, Pat Gainor, Sandra Gallegos, Janice Gomez, Mark Steven Greenfield, James Griffith, D. Jean Hester, Stanton Hunter, Kathryn Jaroneski, Denise Johnson, Myron Kaufman, Bianca Kolonusz-Partee, Kimi Kolba, Nicholette Kominos, Linsley Lambert, Pamela Lewis, Patricia Liverman, J.J. L'Heureux, Meg Madison, Megan Madzeoff, Tony Maher, Amy Maloof, Kristan Marvel, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Tom Norris, Feclicity Nove, David Pagel, Laura Parker, Josh Peters, Mei Xian Qiu, Frederika Roeder, Susan Sironi, Veronica Stensby, Theodore Svenningsen, Jackie Tchakalian, Sophia Tise, Rebecca Trawick, Ruth Trotter, Michelle Wiener . . . and more.

Amazon.com Abruptly Gives Offramp and Others The Axe

2011-06-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received an email from Amazon.com informing me that all California Associate Program contracts might be cancelled if the governor signed a bill into law requiring Amazon.com to pay sales tax on online sales. I woke up to another email from them this morning notifying me that the governor did sign the bill and that said contracts were terminted as of yesterday. They gave us less than 12 hours notice.

SO . . . As of yesterday, if you purchase anything using the Amazon.com links on this blog, Offramp Gallery will not receive a commission. I'll keep you posted on how this affects the blog.

Thanks,

Jane

The Barnes Foundation: The End of an Era

2011-06-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, July 3, the doors to the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, PA will close. Its priceless art collection will be taken down, wrapped and shipped to its new home in Philadelphia, a mere five miles away. Barring some last minute reprieve, the Sunday closing in Lower Merion marks the end of the Barnes Foundation as it was created and endowed by its founder to be, and another victory for greed, power and money über alles.

To fully understand the gravity and significance of what is about to happen in Philadelphia, Don Argott’s 2010 documentary, The Art of the Steal is a must-see. The film, as entertaining and suspenseful as any who-dunnit, maps out the complex machinations of what has been called the world's largest art theft since World War II.

Albert C. Barnes’ Post-Impressionist art collection is estimated today to be worth approximately $25 billion. The collection includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, and 7 Van Goghs. The Barnes Foundation was never intended to be a museum. Barnes' will left specific instructions that the foundation would remain a school and that the work would never be loaned, moved or sold after his death.

Vincent van Gogh, Joseph-Etienne Roulin, 1889, 66.2 x 55 cm, The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

The Art of the Steal paints a vivid and convincing picture of an Albert Barnes who was infuriated by the ignorance of the cultural elite in Philadelphia, an elite who had publically ridiculed his art collection when it was first shown. Barnes is quoted as saying “Philadelphia is a depressing intellectual slum” and “the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a house of artistic and intellectual prostitution.” The film portrays Barnes' attitude as the driving force for creating his foundation in Merion, vowing that the "provincials” in Philadelphia would never get their hands on it.

In its rebuttal to the film the Barnes Foundation glosses over Barnes’ hatred of Philadelphia society saying simply: “Any suggestion that Dr. Barnes situated the Foundation in Merion in order to keep it away from the area's elite or conservative art establishment is entirely unfounded.”

I'm not convinced.

Barnes died in a car crash in 1951 and control of the foundation was left to Lincoln University, a small, under-funded, African-American school. The job of running the foundation fell to Barnes’ right-hand person, Violette de Mazia, who ran the school as Barnes had intended for the next 30 years. Upon de Mazia’s death in 1988, Richard Glanton, president of the board of Lincoln University, decided to take control of the Barnes. Understanding its revenue-producing potential, Glanton set out to get the Barnes the worldwide attention he felt it deserved.

Paul Cézanne, Nature morte au crâne, 1895-1900, 54,3 x 65 cm, The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

Claiming that the building housing the collection had been neglected, Glanton proposed selling off some of the art to pay for the cost of the repairs. Objections were raised that selling the work was illegal and unethical according to the terms of Barnes’ will and the plan was abandoned. Glanton then came up with another plan, to tour the collection worldwide to pay for the repairs, also in direct opposition to the terms of the will. This time, however, Glanton prevailed and the first major attempt to chip away at Barnes’ will was a fait accompli.

With the entire world now clamoring to see the Barnes collection, politicians, huge charitable trusts, rich socialites and tourism boards (all of whom declined to be interviewed for the film) swarmed in and fought to gain control of the collection and move it to Philadelphia. Eventually, $150 million was raised to fund the new facility in Philadelphia -- more than enough money to address any problems that the Merion location presented.

Henri Matisse, Le bonheur de vivre, Oil on canvas. In the collection of the Barnes Foundation. 175 x 241 cm

Fighting these powerful forces were a handful of artists, Merion residents, historians and lawyers. Interviewed in the film are LA Times critic Christopher Knight; Julian Bond, whose father, Horace Mann Bond, was the first black president of Lincoln University; John Anderson, author of Art Held Hostage; former student Jay Raymond and David D’Arcy, correspondent for The Art Newspaper. D'Arcy states:

“My feeling about Philadelphia is that it doesn’t do itself justice saying ‘we need to be a world-class city’ by stealing an art collection and bringing it down to what I call a ‘McBarnes’ in downtown Philadelphia.”

Henri Matisse, whose large site-specific mural, The Dance II, 1932, is being moved to the new facility in Philadelphia is quoted as saying: “The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America” . . . until Sunday.

Click here to buy the DVD from Amazon

Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's survey, "MFA: Is It Necessary?" Click here to see the results. Be sure to look at the comments -- lots of interesting opinions and anecdotal information. As I mentioned last week, I've been invited to participate in a public debate on this topic as part of Artillery Magazine's debate series, Artillery Sets the Standard, here in Los Angeles. I'll be posting the text of my argument after the July 10 debate. (Hint: I'm arguing the "not necessary" side.)

Ongoing at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz has been extended through Sunday, July 3.

MFA: Is it Necessary? Take the Survey

2011-06-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take a week off from writing my regular column, in part to do research for an upcoming debate I've been invited to participate in. The debate is part of a series, Artillery Sets The Standard, presented by Artillery Magazine on July 10 at The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles.

My topic is "MFA: Is It Necessary?" To flesh that out a bit: Is it necessary to have an MFA in Visual Arts (or equivalent degree outside the US) to have a successful career as an artist?

As part of my research I've put together a brief survey and would love to know what you think. I'll post the results next week. Thank you in advance for participating!

Click here to take survey

In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger by Jessica Yu

2011-06-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

When does a documentary about an artist become a work of art in and of itself? When the documentary is Oscar winning director Jessica Yu's hauntingly beautiful In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger. First released in 2005, Yu spent five years bringing this reclusive artist to life on film.

Henry Darger was born in Chicago in 1892 and spent much of his childhood in a home for feeble-minded children. As an adult, he lived a solitary life, supporting himself as a janitor, living in a single room. Upon his death in 1973, hundreds of paintings, many of which were over 10 feet long and double-sided, a 15,000 page single-spaced novel, an autobiography, and thousands of pages of journals were discovered in his humble room. Sadly, no one, except Darger himself, had known this work existed.

Fortunately, Darger's landlords, Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner, recognized the value of the treasure trove they had stumbled upon, and took charge of his estate. Darger is now considered one of the 20th century's greatest self-taught artists.

In writing and illustrating his monumental novel, The Realms of the Unreal, Darger created a rich and complex imaginary world for himself. The novel tells the story of the Vivian Girls, seven sisters who are princesses of the Christian nation of Abbieannia who lead a child slave revolt against the evil Glandelinians.

Many of the paintings depict naked hermaphroditic girls, which at first glance makes their beauty disturbing. However, as filmmaker Yu paints her portrait of Darger's life and work, his innocence becomes apparent. Just as his Vivian Girls were virtuous, Darger strove to be like them, attending Mass and taking Communion every day. Yu leaves us not with lingering doubts about Darger's sexuality, but rather with a deep sense of mystery about who Darger really was.

176 part two. Jennie Richee waiting for the rain to stop as they cannot see Manleys headquaters through the rain shroud, Henry Darger, (1892 - 1973), Chicago, Illinois, Watercolor, pencil, carbon tracing, and collage on pieced paper, 24 x 108 1/4", Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York, Museum Purchase, © Kiyoko Lerner, 2001.16.2A,B, Photographed by James Prinz

Yu draws almost exclusively on historical and autobiographical information about Darger, letting viewers draw their own conclusions about him. There are no interviews with art historians or psychologists. Yu deftly weaves together parallel threads of Darger's life: readings from his autobiography, the scant documentary material from his real life (there are only three known photos of him) including interviews with the few people who knew him, and his life's work. Dramatic readings from his novel are brought to life by artful animation of his illustrations, sound effects, and music. The film features narration by Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine, as well as music by Tom Waits.

Parallel texts from Darger's autobiography and novel provide insight into the bleakness of Darger's real life circumstances and how he transformed them into the rich world of his inner life.

From the autobiography:

"I do not remember the length of time I remained in the Mission of Our Lady's Home, but one part of the last year I was taken to be examined by a doctor who said my heart was not in the right place. Where was it supposed to be? In my belly? I did not know it at the time but now I know I was taken to the doctor to find out if I was really feeble-minded or crazy. Had I known what was going to be done with me I surely would have ran [sic] away . . . During the cold, windy, threatening late November day, I was hustled on to the Chicago and Alton Unlimited train and brought to some kind of home for feeble-minded children outside of Lincoln, Illinois. If I had known the cause of me being sent to that children's nut-house, I sure would have never forgiven those at the Mercy of Our Lady home. I, a feeble-minded kid. I knew more than the whole shebang in that place."

176 part two. Jennie Richee waiting for the rain to stop as they cannot see Manleys headquaters through the rain shroud, Henry Darger, (1892 - 1973), Chicago, Illinois, Watercolor, pencil, carbon tracing, and collage on pieced paper, detail, Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York, Museum Purchase, © Kiyoko Lerner, 2001.16.2A,B, Photographed by James Prinz

From the novel:

"In this story, for more than 43 years, child slavery existed in the Calverinian country. Hundreds of thousands of children torn from their parents, made to work themselves to death without getting a cent, and horrors upon horrors, almost equal that of perdition. . . To free the children, the Christian nation of Abbieannia wages a four and a half year war against the godless Glandelinian slave owners. Leading the child slave rebellion are the seven Vivian girl princesses: Daisy, Hettie, Violet, Joice, Jennie, Angeline and Catherine . . . They shunned evil ways, not through fear of their parents but through fear of god. They were always willing to do as they are told, going to Mass and Holy Communion every day and living the lives of little saints. But their lives, for at least a number of years, were to be all of sorrow."

Since his death, Darger's work has been shown worldwide and commands huge prices at auction. The room where he lived was preserved by his landlords until 2000, when Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago took possession of the contents of the room and recreated it as an installation at the Center which is now open to the public. Darger is buried in a cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois. His headstone is inscribed "Artist" and "Protector of Children."

Click here to purchase from Amazon

Ongoing at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk, Sunday, June 26, 2-5pm

Press for Doo-Dahz:

ArtScene Preview 6/1/11
Visual Art Source Preview 5/20/11
Huffington Post Preview 5/11/11
LA Weekly Preview 5/13/11
Artweek.LA Preview 5/9/11

Artspeak Quiz: Real or Randomly Generated?

2011-06-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Wiktionary defines "artspeak" as "the specialist vocabulary associated with art and artists." I might add to that definition, ". . . characterized by intellectual posturing and meaningless, self-referential signifiers." Everyone claims to hate artspeak, yet it doesn't seem in any danger of becoming a lost language anytime soon. Art magazines, exhibition catalogs, artists' statements and grad school art departments continue to crank it out at a furious pace.

So I decided to have a little fun with it. I designed the quiz below to see if you can tell the difference between actual quotes from an art magazine and those from two random artspeak generators.

The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator asks you to type in any five digit number, click "Create," and "enjoy your ready-made Critical Response to the Art Product (or CRAP). " The Market-O-Matic 1.0 [fine arts version] is more like a game of Mad Libs, letting you choose words or fill in the blanks and then hit the "Crank Out the Crap" button to generate an artist's statement.

The "real" art quotes I found by searching the online archives of a leading national art magazine using keywords from my randomly generated artspeak. See if you can tell the difference:

Which of the following pairs of quotes is from an actual art magazine? (Answers appear below after the video.)

1.
a. With regard to the issue of content, the reductive quality of the figurative-narrative line-space matrix makes resonant the eloquence of these pieces.

b. Hancock's talent lies less in the originality of his tropes and more in his deft adulteration of our culture's organizing memes, presented here in an entertaining meditation on the relationship between creativity, sustenance, and asceticism.

2.
a. As a consequence of the reductive parameters of these conservatisms, such as rigid canons, fixation on objects and absolute field demarcations, activist practices are not even included in the narratives and archives of political history and art theory, as long as they are not purged of their radical aspects, appropriated and coopted into the machines of the spectacle.

b. Helmut Kremling's work investigates the nuances of vibrations through the use of stopframe motion and close-ups which emphasize the mechanical nature of digital media. Kremling explores abstract and correlative scenery as motifs to describe the idea of cyber-intuitive artifice.

3.
a. With the synergy of the electronic environment, the mind is reaching a point where it will be free from the body to transcend immersions into the parameters of the delphic reality.

b. His morphing forms, use of motifs, and flattened spatial dimensions bring to mind the stylized and reductive nature of classic cel animation and low-bit computer graphics.

4.
a. ... but while prior explorations of the erotics of violence—and its larger cultural implications—have been the subject of both profligate veneration and generous satire, here the only complications to the libidinal theme are those supplied by irony and farce.

b. The mind creates, the body accentuates. In the trans-gender reality, art objects are calculations of the musings of the mind -- a mind that uses the body as an organism to deconstruct ideas, patterns, and emotions.

5.
a. Work of Proto-Art in the Age of Artificial Reproduction contains 10 minimal dhtml engines (also referred to as "soundtoys") that enable the user to make morphing audio/visual compositions.

b. The disillusionment with the idea of “progress,” the stylistic promiscuity, and the correlative critique of “sincerity” that we associate with postmodern attitudes were up and running in him far in advance of the zeitgeist.

This video was created by Ivy Creek Stoneware for Clay Times Magazine.

quiz answers:
1. b, 2. a, 3. b, 4. a, 5. b

News

Congratulations to Offramp Gallery artist Anita Bunn. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art photography department recently purchased a series of her prints. The series consists of four photo-lithographs of selected stills from the digital video Measure (2008), which were made by Anita in collaboration with Francesco Siqueiros of El Nopal Press.

Ongoing at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011
Closing Reception & Artist's Talk, Sunday, June 26, 2-5pm

Press for Doo-Dahz:

ArtScene Preview 6/1/11
Visual Art Source Preview 5/20/11
Huffington Post Preview 5/11/11
LA Weekly Preview 5/13/11
Artweek.LA Preview 5/9/11

Breaking the Taboos of Blackface Minstrelsy

2011-05-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

When I first visited artist Mark Steven Greenfield's studio a few years ago I felt as if I'd been dropped into a mine field loaded with taboo, political correctness, and liberal guilt. I found myself face-to-face with large sepia-toned prints of white actors in . . . blackface! These repugnant relics freaked me out -- I honestly didn't know how to react. There were eye charts superimposed on each photograph, not the usual mix of letters for checking vision, but some sort of text. I slowly sounded them out: S-O-T-E-L-L-M-E-W-H-O-S-T-H-E-N-I-G-G-E-R-N-O-W-?; W-H-A-T-C-H-O-O-L-O-O-K-I-N-A-T-M-U-T-H-A-F-U-C-K-A-H-? The messages left me reeling. I suppressed a strong urge to exclaim "I'm not lookin' at nuthin'" and run for the door!

I didn't run, but after the initial jolt, I had to examine my reaction. How had this artwork had such a disorienting affect on me and evoked so many emotions -- shock, guilt, fascination, repulsion, shame, fear, and confusion? What did I really know about blackface minstrelsy? The subject has become "disappeared" to the point that most of us know little about it aside from its racist implications.

Mark Steven Greenfield, from blackatcha series, Nightmare, 2001, Iris print, 38" x 24"

Mark maintained his cool and maybe even took a little pleasure in my discomfort. He had been through this many times, not just with white folks like me, but also with blacks, including angry family members. I knew I wanted to show this provocative work at my gallery, but I needed to understand my reaction to it and be able to intelligently discuss the work with others. Mark suggested I read John Strausbaugh's Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture.

First published in 2006, Strausbaugh's book is a taboo-busting, eye-opening look at race relations and popular American culture. Strausbaugh takes us on a fascinating ride through the history of blackface and its pervasive influence -- from the first Africans brought to Portugal in 1441 as exotic curiosities, to slavery, white actors blacking up for Shakespeare's Othello, the wildly popular minstrel shows of the 19th century, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Jim Crow, Vaudeville, Rock, Hip-Hop, Blaxploitation films, Negrobilia, Gangsta'Lit, Ebonics and more.

In 1832, a white ghetto boy from New York, T.D. Rice, began performing his song Jump Jim Crow, dressed like slave with black grease paint and absurdly wide red lips, while shuffling across the stage in the character of a Southern Negro. He became the first blackface superstar, and for the next half century minstrelsy would be the dominant form of American entertainment.

"However shameful we find it, blackface has played a large and integral role in the formation of American popular culture. It existed before the heyday of the minstrel show, and has persisted long after the minstrels faded away . . . Although it was certainly racist, it was sometimes something other than that, a reflection of the complex of neuroses and pathologies that mark relations between Whites And Black in America -- a complicated web of love and hate, fear and guilt, attraction and repulsion, mockery and mimicry."

Mark Steven Greenfield, from Doo-Dahz series, Portrait of Rosetta Duncan, 2010, pen & ink on Duralar, 36" X 24", currently on view at Offramp Gallery through June 26, 2011

According to Strausbaugh: "Simply condemning it all as an entertainment that pandered to White racism does not begin to account for its complexities, its confusion, its neuroses. It simultaneously laughed at and wept for Southern Blacks. In the years leading up to the Civil War, minstrel songs proposed both pro-and antislavery positions. After the war, minstrel performers were as likely to be actual Blacks as blackfaced Whites."

With the wave of immigrants pouring into American at the turn of the 20th century, New York City became the famous "melting pot." Many ethnic groups had to learn to live side by side and accept each other's differences. Much of this was accomplished through humor, reflected on the Vaudeville stage. Black actors in blackface shared the stage with other broadly played ethnic stereotypes. Most of the light-skinned ethnic groups managed to blend in with white America, but the stereotypes persisted for Blacks:

". . . it cannot be doubted that the images of Blackness that were most familiar to many White Americans into the twentieth century were not Blackness at all, but some version of blackface. Blackness as interpreted and re-created by White people, often in mockery, but sometimes in genuine and sincere imitation."

From Black Like You: "The cakewalk is one of those intriguing confluences of Black and White American cultures. Blacks on the plantation had developed it as a satire of their White masters. Their backs stiffly arched, their butts held tight, they strutted, bowed, and twirled their canes in a blatant parody of the way tight-assed, stiff-necked White folks moved. White folks loved to see Black dancers execute a fine cakewalk, and demanded to be taught how to do it, apparently unaware that they were being mocked."

Everyone should read this book. It is an invaluable guide through the mine field I encountered on first viewing Mark Steven Greenfield's work. A broader understanding of blackface makes me squirm a little less, gives me new insight into race relations and popular culture in America and lets me look beyond the indignities blackface engendered without forgetting them.

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Currently on view at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011

Thomas Hart Benton: An American Painter

2011-05-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article about a 1951 Thomas Hart Benton painting that sold for nearly $1.9 million at a Southeby's auction. The painting, Flood Disaster, was created to highlight the devastating flooding of the Kansas and Missouri rivers in July 1951 that killed 17 people and displaced more than half a million residents. The painting seems timely in light of the current flooding of the Mississippi River. It also seems to eerily foreshadow the destruction we're seeing from Sunday's tornado in Joplin, Missouri -- the town where a young Thomas Hart Benton worked as a cartoonist for the local newspaper.

Ken Burns' America: Thomas Hart Benton paints a portrait of a hard-working, hard-drinking man full of contradictions. Born into a political family, he was named after his famous great-uncle, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, champion of Manifest Destiny. Benton's father was a U.S. Congressman who wanted his son to follow in the family footsteps to become a lawyer and a politician. But from an early age Benton wanted to be an artist and later said of his father: "that I should even think of becoming an artist gave him a sense of outrage. It would never do for a Benton to descend so low."

Thomas Hart Benton, Flood Disaster, 1951, Courtesy Southeby's

Benton left home at 17 and got a job as a cartoonist for the Joplin American newspaper, in Joplin, Missouri. Convinced he could make a living as an artist, he demanded to go to art school. Instead, his father sent him off to military school, determined to drive the art out of him. When his son proved a failure at military school, the elder Benton relented and sent him to the Chicago Art Institute. From there Benton went on to study in Paris and ultimately landed in New York where he tried his hand at all the artistic "isms" of the early 20th century.

Drawn to the compositional principles of the Renaissance masters, Benton's breakthrough came with his discovery of Tintoretto's method of sculpting wax figures and lighting them to use as models for his paintings. For the next 55 years, Benton sculpted clay figures for every painting he painted. He abandoned any theoretical constructs of painting and embarked on a three dimensional story-telling that he believed was purely American in character.

He began to roam the rural areas of America making drawings of the people he encountered. He churned out paintings and murals at a breathtaking rate. He enjoyed success but was not without his critics who derided him as a "regionalist," a label that he proudly adopted and that has stuck to him to this day.

Fed up with the New York art world, which he saw as "morbidly narrow, highly critical of innovation and under the domination of homosexuals," at the age of 45 Benton moved back to Missouri to become the head of painting at the Kansas City Art Institute. He had dreams of making Kansas City the new Athens of America, dreams for the heartland that were never realized.

(There was no trailer available for the Ken Burns film.)

Benton fell out of favor after World War II and continued his battle against New York and the dominance of Abstract Expressionism. How ironic that a former student, Jackson Pollock, should become the most famous Abstract Expressionist. Pollock claimed he had learned nothing from his old teacher, saying that "Benton had come face to face with Michelangelo and lost."

And yet Pollock craved the approval of his teacher. Benton's sister, Mildred Small, recalls: "He [Pollock] used to call Tom, in the middle of the night, always was, asking, well, really begging for Tom's approval. He felt attached to him always, I think. And Tom never gave it. He said 'Jack it's all right, whatever you want to do -- successful, you're successful, don't bother yourself about it, it's all right.'"

Benton remained in Kansas City until his death at the age of 85. On a January evening in 1975, he finished his dinner and went out to his studio to sign a mural he had just completed. He was found on the floor in front of the lower right hand corner of the unsigned mural. His grief-stricken wife of 53 years, Rita, died 10 weeks later.

Ken Burns' documentary, first broadcast in 1988, masterfully tells the story of Benton's high-powered life, artfully weaving together interviews with art critics, family and friends, original footage of Benton and reproductions of his work. You hear from both fans and foes of his work and legacy. Whether you're familiar with Benton's work or not, the film is a highly entertaining and informative look at a truly American artist.

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Currently on view at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011

In My Opinion: The Jury is Out on Juried Exhibitions

2011-05-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

"In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane." -- Oscar Wilde

Have you ever walked through a juried art exhibition and wondered what the jurors were smoking when they awarded the prizes? Let me phrase that another way: Have you ever walked through a juried art exhibition and not wondered what the jurors were smoking when they awarded the prizes? How could that piece of crap win first prize and this other wonderful gem go totally unnoticed? Surely the jurors were pushing their own evil money-making agendas, awarding prizes to artists whose work they personally own to raise the value of their misguided investments.

I recently participated on a jury for the first time and will try to shed some light on the process. The exhibition was a small fund-raiser with artists paying a modest fee to enter their work in the competition. The jurors weren't told the names of the artists unless they had signed their piece on the front, in which case it was obvious. (Note to artists -- consider your reputation before signing your piece for a juried show -- anonymity could work for you or against you!)

My fellow jurors included another art dealer and a well-known art writer. There were about 60 pieces in the show: paintings, drawings, photography, assemblages, and sculpture. The work ranged from amateurish to accomplished, and the subject matter from crying Jesuses to artichokes. Our job was to award first, second and third cash prizes. Where to begin?

We decided to view the show separately and jot down a list of pieces that we liked, marking what we thought were the top five. Once we had made our lists we settled down to discuss our choices. I mentioned up front that my gallery represented two of the artists in the show and recused myself from voting for them (even though they were, of course, my favorites). I didn't mention their names or which pieces they were.

I was asked to go first -- what piece did I think should win first place? As soon as I mentioned my choice, the other two jurors got quizzical looks on their faces and jumped up to look at the piece again. They both came back shaking their heads. My ego was slightly bruised, but I kept my composure and we moved on.

Then the writer revealed his first-place pick and the same thing happened -- the other juror and I got weird looks on our faces, jumped up to look at the piece again, and came back shaking our heads. And then, unbelievably, it happened a third time with the last juror's pick. There was no consensus. So we crossed all three of those pieces off our lists and not one of our individual picks won a prize!

We then tried another approach that worked much better. Was there anything that appeared on each of our top five lists? There was one piece that did, and we decided to award first place to that artist. It was the only piece that all three of us agreed on. After a reasonable amount of time deliberating, the second and third place prizes were each decided by two jurors liking the piece and the third not objecting. And that was that.

The whole process took about an hour and was relaxed and congenial. I didn't pick up on any hidden agendas or aggressive behavior. Quite the contrary, I felt we were all very open about the kinds of work we liked and didn't like -- and no one seemed to take any of it personally. What did I think about the results? Not the three I would have picked, but they all had a certain level of integrity that I was fine with.

So the problem, as I see it, is not juror bias -- everyone has a point of view and it's impossible to put it aside. The challenge of a jury is in building consensus, or rather, resolving many points of view. Wikipedia defines consensus decision-making as a "process that seeks not only the agreement of most participants but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections."

Or as Margaret Thatcher once put it: ". . . consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies . . . it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects."

So the next time you find yourself wondering what the jurors were smoking when they awarded those prizes, the answer might be consensus. Is consensus a bad thing when it comes to art? Or is it a healthy democratizing counterpoint to the commercial gallery system, where one person's vision rules supreme? Let me know what you think.

Currently on view at Offramp Gallery

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz, Opening Reception, Offramp Gallery, Sunday, May 15, 2011

Brunelleschi's Dome

2011-05-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

It was considered the greatest architectural puzzle of its age. Many said it couldn’t be done. Nothing even close to its size had been built since antiquity. It would have a diameter of 143 feet and would exceed the span of the Pantheon in Rome which had reigned as the world’s largest dome for over 1000 years. The dome for Santa Maria del Fiore, the new cathedral in Florence, would not only be the widest dome ever built, it would also be the highest.

But who could build it? And how?

On August 19, 1418 the Opera del Duomo in Florence announced a competition:

“Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome of the Cathedral under construction by the Opera del Duomo – for armature, scaffold or other thing, or any lifting device pertaining to the construction and perfection of said cupola or vault – shall do so before the end of the month of September. If the model be used he shall be entitled to a payment of 200 gold Florins.”

Ross King’s 2000 national bestseller, Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture tells the tale of how a 41-year-old goldsmith and clockmaker, Fillipo Brunelleschi, won the competition and devoted the rest of his life to solving the monumental puzzles of the dome’s construction.

A model of the vaulted dome, considered sacrosanct by the Opera, had been in place since 1367. Neri de Fiorvanti’s bold design rejected the use of external supports such as flying buttresses which were considered ugly and awkward by Italian architects. Instead, he designed the double-skinned dome to be supported by a series of internal circumferential rings that would make the dome seem to rise skyward without any visible means of support.

The problems faced by Brunelleschi were practical but daunting: how to support the weight of the massive dome without external support, how to safely build it without scaffolding, and how to hoist an estimated 70 million tons of building materials several hundred feet above the ground and put them into position with pinpoint accuracy. Brunelleschi’s winning proposal for building the dome not only did away with any external support, it also did away with the wooden centering used for building even the smallest of arches. His daring ideas combined with his penchant for secrecy led many to consider him a madman.

Author Ross takes Brunelleschi’s enormous challenges and sets them against a background of bitter rivalry, political intrigue, Black Plague, imprisonment and war, weaving a fascinating tale of against-all-odds achievement. You begin to understand the scope of ingenuity, tenacity and determination that Brunelleschi possessed to have accomplished the seemingly impossible.

Keep in mind that this is the 15th century – you couldn’t make a phone call or two and order the required building equipment. Before construction could begin, Brunelleschi had to design and build a hoist to lift the huge weight of the building materials hundreds of feet off the cathedral floor. This complicated hoist, just one of many machines Brunelleschi invented for constructing the dome, went on to become one of the most celebrated machines of the Renaissance.

And consider the working conditions! The masons worked in a small space between the two skins of the dome, reached by climbing stairs the equivalent of 40 stories high to work each morning. They carried their tools and lunch with them, forbidden as they were from using the hoist. There was no system of scaffolding to break a fall – the masons moved around the outer layer of the cupola on narrow platforms made from willow branches supported by wooden rods inserted into the masonry, the only thing between them and a drop of several hundred feet to certain death. And yet, despite these conditions, only one worker died in the 16 years it took to build the dome.

After 140 years of construction, Santa Maria del Fiore was finally consecrated in 1436. A 1000-foot-long raised wooden platform, bedecked with flowers, was erected to carry Pope Eugenius IV safely above the crowds for the ceremony.

The dome, however, was not complete. The exterior surface had yet to be tiled and the facings of colored marble would take another generation to complete. The lantern at the top of the dome had to be designed and built. Yet another competition was announced, and again Brunelleschi’s design won.

The first stone of the lantern was consecrated in March 1446. Brunelleschi died a month later after a short illness. He was 69 years old and had worked on the cathedral site for more than a quarter of a century. Ross ends his tale by saying of Brunelleschi: "In his unquestionable brilliance the writers of the Renaissance found their proof that modern man was as great as -- and could in fact surpass -- the ancients from whom they took their inspiration."

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Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery

Quinton Bemiller Mural Unveiling
Sunday, May 15, 2-5pm

Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 15, 2-5pm

Short Takes: Herzog's Cave; Picasso's Guernica; Brueghel's Wedding Dance

2011-05-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Filmmaker Werner Herzog gives us rare access to the cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc in southern France, with his fascinating 3-D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The limestone cave contains some of the earliest known cave paintings in existence, perhaps from as long as 30,000 years ago. The cave is pristinely preserved due to a landslide that sealed the cave 20,000 years ago, and the quick action of the French government after the cave was discovered in 1994. Access to the cave is limited to a handful of select scientists, so if you're not one of them, this film is the best way to see what can only be described as a magical place.

Speaking of 3-D: After reading this article in the Huffington Post last week about the 74th anniversary of the battle that inspired Picasso's dramatic anti-war statement, Guernica, I stumbled on the following video, "A 3D Exploration of Picasso's Guernica." Unlike Herzog's film, you don't need special glasses to view this one.

Inspired by the royal wedding last week, I went to the Art Authority app (click here to read my review) on my iPad and typed in "wedding." The results led me to The Wedding Dance by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, painted in 1567. I doubt the Royals in Buckingham Palace were having any more fun than these lusty peasants in the great outdoors. And check out those codpieces!

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, "The Wedding Dance", circa 1566, Detroit Institute of Arts

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
Mark Steven Greenfield: Doo-Dahz
May 15 - June 26, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 15, 2-5pm

Mark Steven Greenfield, Portrait of George Walker, 2010, pen & ink on Duralar, 36" X 24"