by Marja-Leena

the art of seeing

Artist Anna Conti has been posting a great series this week on “Seeing” on her Working Artist’s Journal. Do go read it, it will help you understand art in a new way! I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I love the quote Anna recalls in the first part: You do not see with the lens of the eye. You look through that, and by means of that, but you see with the soul of the eye. (John Ruskin)

It makes me recall an intense experience I had once after a long and very satisfying life drawing class. As I was driving home, it seemed as if my vision was extra sharp and vivid, noting the finest details of the trees, sky, ocean, buildings and so on with unusual clarity and colour and emotion, like having super-vision!

This intensity of vision is to me a bit like the feeling I have looking at certain realist paintings of artists like Anna, and Canadians Christopher Pratt and Alex Colville.

July 20, 2004 in Being an Artist, Concepts 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

Print Exhibition in Philadelphia

Libby of Roberta & Libby’s artblog raves about an unusual print exhibition at the Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia:

“Several Steps Removed” is so terrrific and I have to share it. It’s all prints and plates or other matrixes used to create them, and if you want to know a little more about printmaking, or you just want to see some terrific stuff, this show is for you (I figure that includes everyone in our reading audience).”

Libby has posted several images from the show with great descriptions, more than the gallery’s site. She finishes by writing, “But after seeing this show, I’m convinced that all print making has a touch of alchemy.”

The exhibition was produced with the Philadelphia Print Collaborative. Their site is worth a visit to look at the images in their group portfolios.

July 20, 2004 in Art Exhibitions, Other artists, Printmaking Comments Off on Print Exhibition in Philadelphia

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis VIII

MM-VIII-(primo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VIII (Primo)
Etching, Drypoint & Hand-colouring
76 x 56 cm.

MM-VIII-(secondo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VIII (Secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VIII-(terzo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VIII (Terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VIII-(passages)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VIII (Passages)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

ABOUT this series

July 19, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks Comments Off on Meta-morphosis VIII

by Marja-Leena

British Museum exhibitions

Miriam Jones of scribblingwoman is visiting the UK and writes about some exhibitions she saw at the British Museum. Read her interesting comments then go visit the virtual tours (a wonderful invention for computer chair travellers like me!): The Enlightenment (note the neat rollover photoboxes – just run your cursor over the photos) and Living and dying. I too particularly like the Cradle to Grave installation piece. Then there’s the Matisse to Freud exhibition of prints and drawings, which unfortunately does not have an online tour. The Jim Dine piece is one of my favourites!
Thanks MJ!
P.S. Have you seen the Mummy: the inside story?
P.P.S. Want to see more Jim Dines?

July 18, 2004 in Art Exhibitions 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

more cows!

Another sighting of public art fauna has been made by Charles Downey of Ionarts – in Manchester, where they have cows! He’s referred to my post on public art fauna and how that trend has “befouled” cities around the world.
(Thank you, Charles )

July 17, 2004 in Culture Comments Off on more cows!

by Marja-Leena

Art Criticism

I have been following some interesting discussions on art criticism recently. First at Iconoduel, in the entry James Elkins on Our Moribund Critical Discourse Dan writes an excellent critique of James Elkins’ book What Happened to Art Criticism?

Then at Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green has a two-day (part 1) and (part 2) chat with Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz, whose book of his writings, Seeing Out Loud was published recently.

Tyler provides a link and suggestion to read the first six paragraphs to understand the context of their discussion about critics and having positions. I found this particularly interesting from an artist’s perspective.

Later, I found Anna L. Conti said go read Tyler Green’s interview! Today, Sally McKay writes: “Who’d have thought art criticism was such a hot topic?” referring to the James Elkin review.
So now I add my suggestion to read these articles and let me know what you think.

Update: July 16.04 The discussion continues at Iconoduel – Dan has read the books so is best able to write about them!

July 15, 2004 in Concepts 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

More Public Art Fauna

More public art fauna, right here in Vancouver and Victoria!

A few days ago I wrote about Public ART? in some American cities. I had forgotten about our Orcas in the City until I read Pete McMartin’s article “Whale-watching tour of downtown” in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun (unfortunately subscription only).

McMartin wrote: Zurich pioneered the concept of fauna as public sculpture, populating the city with a herd of fibreglass dairy cows – each of them decorated by local artists – to be auctioned off later for charity. Chicago did bulls. Toronto did moose; Saskatoon, pigs. Miami did flamingos, eight-foot-tall flamingos. Dublin…auctioned off one bovine clad in cut crystal for a record $233,000 US.

B.C. Lions society president Stephen Miller saw Rochester, N.Y.’s horses which inspired the idea for Vancouver and Victoria. According to the Orcas in the City website, the Orca was chosen to embody the West Coast and to highlight the fact that British Columbia is one of the best places in the world to view killer whales.

Have a look at the photos in the Orca Gallery. My personal favourite is ‘Orcasmic Voyage’ by Arnt Arntzen because it is the most unique and least decorative, using industrial materials as well as a head of a real Mayan figurine inside the periscope (this fact from McMartin’s article).

The project certainly has a lot of business sponsors and the cities of Vancouver and Victoria are listed as supporting sponsors, so some public money here as well, to support a worthwhile charity. Yet, I still feel a lot of these projects are more decorative than artistic, with a few exceptions like Arntzen’s. Perhaps it is harder to sell art?

Update: Visit today’s entry in Anna Conti’s Journal for a further discussion of “Is it Art?” She’s made up for my laziness by adding the links to the many fauna mentioned above, plus talks about San Francisco’s public art project Hearts!

Update July 19.04: Libby from artblog saw SF’s hearts and is not a fan of these objects which add up to just more visual clutter.

July 13, 2004 in Culture 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis VII

MM-VII-(primo).jpg
Meta-morphosis VII (Primo)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VII-(Secondo).jpg
Meta-morphosis VII (Secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VII-(terzo).jpg
Meta-morphosis VII (Terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MMVIIpassages.jpg
Meta-morphosis VII (Passages)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

July 12, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks 5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Self-Portraits

Charles Downey at ionarts writes at length about an exhibition he visited in Paris: Self-Portraits at the Luxembourg. These are about 150 artist self-portraits done in many styles spanning the end of the 19th century to all of the 20th, in a variety of media. Images for all of them can be viewed in Aperçu des Oeuvres.

As a printmaker, I was pleased to see a good number of prints done by the big name artists like Matisse, Miro, Kollwitz, Kokoschka, Klee, Hockney, Giacometti, Ensor, Dali, Man Ray. Another pleasant surprise for me was to see Finnish artist Helena Schjerfbeck included in this collection. Enjoy!

Update July 10.04: And here’s Downey’s review, part 2

July 9, 2004 in Art Exhibitions 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Public ART?

Pandas? Sheep? Pigs? Cows? What is going on?

Over the past few weeks I kept reading about pandas in Washington, then ever so humble* had a post about Sheeptacular Pittsfield in Massachusetts.

Yesterday dangerous chunky* referred to departing Seattle art critic Emily Hall’s article The Road of Good Intentions is Paved with Painted Pigs, about the state of art in Seattle, including their Pigs on Parade. Hall has now moved on to New York where they have the cow parade!

What they all have in common is that they are public art projects. But are they art, I wondered.

To help us answer that question, here’s an article by Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, Getting Cute With Art, As the District Trots Out ‘Pandamania,’ Is Something With Bite Too Much to Ask For? Here are some excerpts:

The panda project is described in all the city’s PR as an ‘exciting public art project’… to promote ‘excellence in the arts’ so that the general public can ‘gain a deeper appreciation for the arts.’ And the Pandamania ‘call to artists’ says that the ‘selection committee is looking for artwork that is dynamic and invites innovation.’

When an art critic hears words like that paired with painted pandas, it’s like waving a red flag at a bull in a china gewgaw shop. These projects eat up precious resources… that could be better spent on any number of other serious, ambitious art programs.

Washington has some of the most important museums in the world… and they attract art lovers from all over. For a city its size, it also has a surprisingly large and vibrant [art] community… who keep things humming on the local scene, and have been steadily pushing its standards up.

Many of this city’s leading art professionals.. are dismayed at the DCCAH’s role in launching Pandamania. It feels like the commission is saying, ‘There’s no need to face up to the challenges of real art; getting a belly laugh from tchotchkes will do just as well.’

There’s more so do read both the articles and let me know what you think – are they art or are they carnie?

*expired links removed

July 9, 2004 in Culture 1 Comment »