A Tool

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009
Caleb Larsen
8"x8"x8"
Acrylic, custom electronics, programming, internet connection, online auction.







image: ebay http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=190367275705

Description: "This object perpetually attempts to sell itself on eBay" (from description on, you guessed it, eBay)

Thank you to a friend to alerting me to today's art of the day. As can be expected, "art" is an interesting term in this context. Just looking at the photo, it looks like a shiny box, minimalist maybe? Ah, but wait! This is no ordinary box. I struggled to categorize this work for my picture files (sculpture, conceptual art, digital media?). I went with sculpture because I was too lazy to create a folder for conceptual art and am not sure I'll add much to the folder since I rely a bit on visuals for this blog. I still wanted to bring this to the attention of a few more because I find it pretty fascinating (this does not necessarily mean I like the work, that's what is wonderful about art I think).

So what is this thing anyway? To briefly expand on it's description as perpetually attempting to sell itself on eBay, yes, the artist has the work for sale on eBay. The duration of the sale is 7 days. Once the item is sold it changes hands. The new owner (who is referred to as the collector which I question since it is likely it won't stay in this person's hands forever) is then required to put the object up for sale once again. There you have it. There are a slew of rules and regulations to follow once in possession of the object (I'd rather just call it a box) and those are what fascinate me the most. I highly recommend reading them here.

The best clause:

1. Any failure to follow these terms without prior consent of Artist will forfeit the status of the Artwork as a legitimate work of art. The item will no longer be considered a genuine work by the Artist and any value associated with it will be reduced to its value as a material object and not a work of art.

This is the first run of the sale, currently being sold be the artist. I would be interested in seeing how sales go in the future.

Good times.

Modern Painters

Modern Painters (from 1873), 2008
Brian Dettmer
Altered Book
9 1/8 x 7 x 6 3/4 inches
image: Kinz + Tillou Fine Art

I am not sure if I've shared one of Dettmer's altered books yet. I was reading an article about writing and manuscripts in Timbuktu and quickly thought of finding an altered book for today's art.

I, like many, used to have a particular reaction to works such as this. As a librarian, reader and book lover I found it difficult to see what many would call the destruction of a book. Over the years I've become not only okay with it but find the resulting works of art fascinating. This is all that Brian Dettmer does, he is a sculptor but his material is not just paper but existing books. Most of the books he uses are old editions of encyclopedias and atlases. Mass produced volumes that over time just get pushed away. Why not create a new and much less static life for this object?

This particular work is not one of the most amazing in aesthetic but I chose it because of the book itself, Modern Painters by John Ruskin. An interesting play between text, art, the old and the new. I have a lot of more trouble with the use of this 19th c. volume, a classic in the history of art (it appears that the 1873 should be 5 volumes and is currently selling for between $200 and $500 depending on condition). I am unsure as to why he only used 3 volumes (earlier editions had less volumes) unless there was an 1873 3 volume set published. Anyway, the set wouldn't be considered rare and once you spend some time looking at Dettmer's work you stop seeing any form of destruction. The term, "altered book" is fitting, especially when the artist retains the semblence of a book. When you still know it's a book, the object retains a variety of lives and meanings.

Mobile matrix

Gabriel Orozco (Mexican, b.1962)
Mobile Matrix, 2006
whale skeleton, graphite
Exhibition December 13, 2009 - March 1, 2010 at the
Museum of Modern Art Exhibition website
images by me

So, I've definitely got art on the brain. I managed to get to 4 museums during my 3-day NYC jaunt last week (I always aim for more but museum fatigue is not a myth!) Most falls into the contemporary realm so I'll scatter my new fascinations with some early periods!

Always interested in what I will find in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art, I was intrigued by Orozco's Mobile Matrix. Created for the Jose Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City, the installation was de-installed and re-installed in MoMA's atrium. The skeleton of a great whale was excavated from a beach. The cleaned up skeleton was then covered in concentric circles of graphite.

Orozco had used graphite on bone before, Black Kites 1997

Interview with Orozco on the making of Mobile Matrix

Some fantastic shots http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyclovesnyc/4189469944/in/photostream/

Winter

Paolo Ventura (Italian, b.1968)
Winter Stories #9
image: http://www.paoloventura.com/work/winter.html

By all appearances this image just looks like a photograph of a bookstore from the past. Looks can be wonderfully deceiving. The scene is actually a miniature set constructed, a diorama, and photographed by the artist. One of a series called "Winter Stories", this image serves as a scene from a story. The images are quiet and beautiful, “Winter Stories,” "referring literally, to the season depicted, but also, more figuratively, to the final season of one’s life. Ventura conceived of the photographs as representing the recollections of an old man as he looks back during his final moments" (Art in America, Nov. 2008, Jean Dykstra)

Art Box

Richard Shaw
Pastel Cabin on Paint Box, 2009
glazed porcelain with overglaze decals 8.5 x 15 x 11 in.

One thing I will miss about cataloging when we finally get our new cataloger is the time spent with our new books. I should still notice interesting and fascinating art when it comes through me but I may not be flipping through as many pages.

Richard Shaw does very cool things with ceramics and i love his play on the materials and techniques of art. Using porcelain in a unique way yet staying traditional in some ways to material and concept. Fun!

Architecture of photography

Luisa Lambri (Italian, b.1969)
Untitled (Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, #18), 2008
Laserchrome print
Edition of 5 and 1 Artist's Proof
29 1/2 X 25 inches
image: luhringaugustine.com

Installation shot from the exhibition, Luisa Lambri Jan 10-Feb 7, 2009

at Luhring Augustine Gallery in NYC.

I cam across the photography of Luisa Lambri today while researching artists who use light and space in their work. Lambri works within specific architectural spaces, abstracting these spaces to a point where they are only known by the title of the work. Without the title we see the shadows, lines and focus of a corner that could be anywhere. It's fascinating to discover how particular Lambri's choices are, choosing well known architects and their buildings. Architectural space is layered within her exhibitions, as she takes careful care in how her photographs enter an exhibition space, how they are hung, and where they should reside within the architectural space of the gallery. You can see more works from this exhibition here: http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=current&object_id=218# and more... but I am particularly attracted to the one I've chosen today. It is the same space as in other photographs but I feel that the shadows and lines in this image create the fullest, most complete, almost painterly effect.

Press Release

Bronze McDonald's

Zhang Hongtu
Mai Dong Lao, 2002
cast bronze
same size as actual McDonald containers
edition of 10
image: http://www.plumblossoms.com/jidachun/maodanglao.htm

Mai Dong Lao is the Chinese pronunciation of McDonald's.

麦 (mai) is wheat or a general term for wheat, barley, oats, rye, etc.
当 (dang) means appropriate, to serve as, or to be used as.
劳 (lao) means to work or to labor. (http://goodcharacters.com/blog/2007/04/05/mcdonalds-mai-dang-lao/)

A humorous use of the traditional Chinese medium bronze to create an object of American pop culture.

Chinese Artists: Reinventing Tradition
Reading Zhang Hongtu

Cafe Baby

Wonder Seated, 2008
Mark Bercier
30x40 in.
image: http://cafebabyneworleans.com/artwork.php

Another artist discovered on our road trip, we wandered into a gallery called Cafe Baby in New Orleans. We had quickly fallen for some small paintings of flowers in the front window. (Hope to buy one some day). The gallery was full of wonderful whimsy and luck for us, the man sitting at the desk was the artist. He proceeded to tell us all about Cafe Baby, his unique signs and symbols which he uses in his work and his wonderful obsession with old and handmade paper (the flower paintings are goauche on handmade paper). He opened up his other gallery 2 doors down and we had a wonderful time chatting about art and New Orleans.

More of Mark's work

Dogwood Basin

Dogwood Basin, 2008
Nancy Blum
30 basins cast out of bronze mounted on platforms.
Charlotte Area Transit System Rail Line, Charlotte, NC

The inspiration for all of Nancy Blum's work is flowers and botanicals, from large scale drawings to public works, she reinvents the beauty of the flower in myriad ways. I think these water fountains are just wonderful. She transforms the delicate nature of, well nature, into a variety of materials, from ink to porcelain to bronze. Blum was commissioned to do this work, the state flower of NC is the dogwood. Public transit is a popular arena for art commissioning. Many transit systems have a programs dedicated to commissioning art for their stations, vehicles etc. Nancy Blum - public art See earlier blog post on another public transit art work.

I've tried to share a variety of types of art that have nature at their base. From painting and photography to ephemeral earth art and sturdy, utilitarian public art. In all these works, the artists are reconstituting what they see in nature, immortalizing it in a photograph, abstracting and infusing it in paint, rearranging its aesthetic in nature and casting its likeness in a bronze waterfountain. We are reintroduced to nature through the artist's eyes, hand and material.

Light and Space

Light and Space III, 2008
Robert Irwin (1928-)
Installation, Indianapolis Museum of Art
fluorescent lights

Left image from blog: Modern Art Notes
All other images by me, ALH.

A recent visit to Indianapolis for a conference provided me with a visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This installation by Robert Irwin is the first permanent commission by the artist. I am always fascinated by light in art but do not always like the structure and composition of installations. The incorporation of Irwin's tubes of light into the functional escalator a great sight to see. My own photographs show more of an interest in varying the frames of what I am viewing, breaking up the overall installation view. The installation is 3 stories. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to travel the escalators so the full depth of the work (10 ft. or so) I did not experience. Looking at the it from the atrium space it can appear flat. Modern Art Notes.

I am intrigued by the manipulation of light and space, only recently learning about Irwin, though James Turrell is one of my favorite artists.

Dahlia

Gaillardia Cosmos Dahlia, 2005
Robert Kushner
Oil, acrylic, gold leaf, silver leaf, mica and glitter on Japanese screen, 69 x 68 3/4 inches

A discovery through a small catalog at work, I've quickly fallen in love with Robert Kushner's work. It took me awhile to narrow down just one work so please visit the links and see the wonderful array of paintings that Kushner has created. Beautiful, rich color makes these paintings pop. Kushner often reuses old Japanese screens and doors as his "canvas" but the Japanese influences spread throughout his choice of base for his painting. While these themes are inherent what is beautiful and makes these paintings unique is Kushner's western traditions in his style of painting. His florals are bold and his composition is seemingly random, the structure one would associate with a Japanese painting is loosened in Kushner's work. Dimension is created through different styles of flowers, from simple outlined flowers to multi-colored depth.

It is fascinating to know that Kushner started out as a performance artist in the 1970s, whose creation of costumes were the beginning of his attention to decoration and ornament. One can see the decoration and ornament of his current floral paintings in not only the color, structure and subject matter but also the use of materials beyond traditional paint to include gold leaf, glitter and more. Kushner was a part of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. Artists created work of complex and brightly colored patterns.

The White Dress

The White Dress, 2003
Vincent Desiderio
oil on linen
62 3/8 x 67 5/8 in.

Vincent Desiderio is one of my favorite painters. I wandered into a show at the Marlborough Gallery while gallery hopping and ended up spending the remainder of my afternoon there. I noticed a group of people following someone around who appeared to be giving an informal tour. I tagged along only to discover that the man giving the tour was Desiderio himself! I still have the card from the show with this image on it, as well as the exhibition catalog.

A delicate, beautifully handled painting, Desiderio's technique is exquisite (and detail incredible, as you can see in other works). Focused on the figure, you are drawn up and down the lines of her body despite its mostly being hidden beneath the dress of white. Despite this the dress remains as the curve of her leg creates a life in the shape and folds of the dress. As opposed to the flesh filled up close reality of the work of Jenny Saville, Desiderio works from a more sentimental place in his painting of figures, the identity of the sleeping woman is removed as we see the image as a whole.

Leffingwell, Edward. "Allegories of painting: in large-scale, elaborately worked canvases, Vincent Desiderio presents ambiguous narratives that refer to his life, our times and the history of Western art" Art in America (Feb 2005).