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/

Collage

Guitar, after March 31, 1913
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
Museum of Modern Art (967.1979)
Image: moma.org
Cut-and-pasted paper and printed paper, charcoal, ink, and chalk on colored paper on board, 26 1/8 x 19 1/2"

Collage is a fascinating technique in art, one I've found myself drawn to in my own work. I intend to focus this week's art on collage, with an attempt to highlight a great range of work. From torn pieces of paper seemingly randomly arranged to obviously deliberate constructions, collage provides the viewer with a dimensional experience. Most of us have memories of making collages in art class as children, oftentimes limited to cut or torn pieces of construction paper, yet how these individual shapes and pieces are placed and arranged on a "canvas" can lead to a wold of wondrous possibilities, from abstraction to representation. Collage began as an artist's technique in the 20th century so bear with me on the century limits for this week.

I'll start the week off with one of the artist's that is debated to be the inventor of the technique, Picasso. Click on the title, Guitar, and get the chance to zoom in the image, a better way to see the lines and detail of the collage.

Website dedicated to the art of collage, collageart.org

Cradle

Child's Cradle, c. 1895
J. & J. Kohn, Josef Kohn and Jacob Kohn (Austrian)
Ebonized bentwood, 80 1/4 x 56 1/4 x 25 7/16"
Manufactured by Jacob & Josef Kohn, Vienna. Gift of Barry Friedman
Museum of Modern Art 163.1993 Image: moma.org

I've seen this cradle at MoMA and always thought it was pretty fantastic. While it stands beautifully as sculpture on its own, when lined with thick cushions it served an infant pretty well.

"The sinuous and sensual design, with the elegant, curved forms of the cradle and the long vertical arm that supported draped netting, reflects the popular Art Nouveau style of the time. Such cradles could be found in stylish, bourgeois homes all over Europe." How I wish we still lived in such style.

Lonely Ones

To mennesker. De ensomme (Two Human Beings. The Lonely Ones), 1899
Edvard Munch (1864-1944)
Woodcut
Image and owner: Museum of Modern Art

I think this is my first repetition of an artist (See Munch) I discovered this wonderful woodcut today. A bit moody, a bit sad, I still find the image beautiful. The mood of the image is perfectly equal to Munch's preoccupation with dark themes in direct opposition to Impressionism. Munch, through simple forms (most specifically in his prints), creates strong emotions and attachment to basic themes such as love, death and anxiety.

The woodcut lends itself to a "cutting out" of the figures, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. Each is solidly their own as if they could be plucked out of the landscape. This, along with the moody desolation of the landscape, and the very specific space between them enhances the stark contrast between the land and the water. The image remains seamless where we still see two human beings in one moment despite their separation. Munch reused elements of his works, like the woman in this print. We also see her in the lithograph, Young Girl on the Shore, 1896.

I had a recommendation for a theme week of art recently. If there is anything that you would like to learn more about and discover more of (a movement, period of time, type of media, subject matter...) please leave me a comment, or email at alisonlilith@gmail.com. Don't forget to take advantage of the tags at the bottom of each post to see previously posted art that is connected to what you are looking at.

I still use brushes

I still use brushes, 1969
Arman (1928-2005)
(American, born France. 1928-2005) Brushes embedded in plastic, in acrylic box, 80 x 80"
Museum of Modern Art


Classified as painting at the Museum of Modern Art, Arman comments on the tradition of painting. I saw this work for the first time recently and was initially sparked by the dimension and color, not yet realizing that it was not a painting per say but objects (paint brushes) encased in acrylic. The detail was fascinating (see image to the right).

Arman worked with large accumulations of objects, rejecting the tradition of painting and sculpture yet continuing to comment on both through his work. The form of objects embedded in resin became a standard for many his works (About this artist, MoMA) Arman was also an avid collector.

Depth of Image

Collage, 1929
Joan Miro Spanish (1893-1983)
Conté crayon, gouache, ink, flocked paper, newspaper, abrasive cloth, and various papers on flocked paper, 28 5/8 x 42 3/4"
Museum of Modern Art

I am simply blown away by the online exhibition
of a current MoMA exhibition , Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting. First alerted to the show by a beautiful catalog received at work I meant to find a Miro for my blog. I promptly forgot as I am wont to do with the amount of art I see on a daily basis, but a search for a Magritte painting (which will surely come along after not too long) brought me to Miro and here we are (you just love to hear my pathways to selection don't you? :). Miro has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. His colorful, abstract and surrealistic paintings were always a draw for me, one of my favorite museums on my European tour in college was the Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona. As I got older I wasn't as sure, but some time spent with my broader art knowledge as well as exposure to a greater selection of Miro's oeuvre (drawings, collages etc.) my love for, appreciation and understanding of Miro grew.

I intended on sharing one of the colorful, rich paintings, but a perusal of the online exhibition encouraged me to share a work that showcases what museums are doing with images online and in turn focus more on the "Anti-Painting" part of the exhibition. Collages are wonderfully dimensional, something that is often difficult to get any grasp of unless you see it in person. The large images and zoom function are fantastic. You can see the ragged edges and wrinkles of the paper. The online exhibition also incorporates works that are not a part of the physical exhibition (a great way to complete a theme, discussion etc. as it is often the case that desired works could not be used for the show for various reasons, this particular work is not in the exhibition).

Another fantastic aspect of the online exhibition is the ability to present a group of works in more than one grouping. MoMA has presented the works as series (by both medium and subject), a chronology, an index, and most interesting of all by size. You can easily scroll through these rows, click on a work of interest, increase its size and read it's "wall label".

I've went on for a bit, haven't said anything about the collage! Check out the online exhibition and have fun! (It definitely works better in the full screen version).

Ocean

Vija Celmins (American, born Latvia, 1938). Untitled (Ocean with Cross #1). 1971.
Graphite on acrylic ground on paper
17 3/4 x 22 3/4"

Ocean begins a week with a focus on drawing. I was struck by this work when I first saw it at a show at MoMA. I've come across Celmins a number of times since and this work in particular again recently. The detail of the drawing is mind-blowing. This reproduction lends itself to the look of a photograph and this is not much different than seeing it at any sort of a distance in person. Once you move very close to the work you see that it is not a photograph (though I still needed a look at the label to confirm it was a drawing). Celmins has also created this image as a woodcut, just as incredible (maybe more so now that I am aware of the intensity it takes to get comfortable with let alone become adept at any kind of detailed woodcut).

Celmins is particularly interested in the artistic process which explains the attention she has paid to building up surfaces and tackling labor intensive printing processes such as mezzotint and woodcut. Celmin focuses on grand surface landscapes such as the ocean, desert and the surface of the moon. Her drawings and prints are soothing and beautiful.

Kirchner

Peasant Woman with Boy at Table (Bäuerin mit Knaben am Tisch). (1917).
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. (German, 1880-1938)
Woodcut, composition: 19 11/16 x 15 11/16" (50 x 39.8 cm); sheet: 22 7/16 x 17 1/2" (57 x 44.5 cm). Publisher: unpublished. Printer: the artist, Davos-Frauenkirch, Switzerland. Edition: 11 known impressions. Gift of Grace Borgenicht. © by Ingeborg & Dr. Wolfgang Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern
Museum of Modern Art

Current exhibition at MoMA is Kirchner and the Berlin Street. This work isn't related to the show, but definitely check the show out if you are in nyc and if not, check out the online exhibition. While online exhibitions are not as good as the real thing, the growth of them is an awesome way to get access more easily. Especially with thematic shows, being able to just sit and work through an exhibition with text is a great learning tool. Of course I was tipped off to this via a great catalog which I spent a little too much time with this afternoon. Now why did I choose this woodcut for today? If you haven't read or heard I am currently obsessed with prints and these dramatic black and white woodcuts blow me completely away (we're starting woodcuts next week and goodness knows what I'll do with the technique, if it is remotely showable, I'll share it).

There seems to be a problem with MoMA's website so I have no additional link to the image right now, but I'll include it when I can.

Negative Space

Untitled (Paperbacks)
Rachel Whiteread
1997. Plaster and steel, Overall 14' 9 1/8" x 15' 9" x 20' 8 3/4" (450 x 480 x 632 cm).
Museum of Modern Art

It has been brought to my attention that I've focused a bit on painting thus far so to break from that mold, I am going to spend this week concentrating on introducing some sculpture to the mix. Today's work is by Rachel Whiteread whom I've been intrigued by for years. Whiteread casts the negative space created by objects. Early works included the casting of domestic objects such as bathtubs and chairs (both of which were at the Sensation show I mentioned in the post on Jenny Saville).

I've seen this work at MoMA and find it is pretty fantastic. You can see the traces of shapes and colors of the bindings of the books. It starts out as intriguing, then a bit unsettling, trying to figure out where the books would be, then comforting, since despite the lack of the physical books, its amazing how their presence is still felt. If you check the link in the title, you can hear a brief bit of Whiteread explaining the work. I've seen many of Whiteread's works of the years, the Albright Knox purchased jointly with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the negative space of a staircase, Untitled (Domestic). This is also the first time I'd heard of a joint purchase, but apparently its becoming more common with the exorbitant prices of work today.

She won the Turner Prize for casting a victorian house.