7 Days in the art World-the Studio Visit

Takashi Murakami an interesting artist? He is a boss, a manager, a quality control specialist, a designer, a rich man and has more studios than he needs. Output is good to have in quantity but three studios in japan with hands working for Murakami laying out the blueprint of what needs to be done is this absurd?well yes indead. The whole production line art approach goes back hundreds of years to Rembrandt and Tintoretto, to modern times with Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Warhol. I would personally like for the artist to have less output as a production line but to put himself more into his art and instead of making it seem so dry and fabricated. I disliked the chapter. There is so much rubish about a ragamuffin looking sculpture called the "Oval Buddha". The sculpture looks fun just as his sculpture of the anime girl squirting milk out of her tits but it is dumb. is dumb good. I think we may have to ask one of his mushroom people with all the eyes. His work is superfluous. I think of it as eye candy. Maybe something used as a design for something or a public sculpture at a childs playground but not high art. Paul McCarthy and the Viennese Aktionist art more high brow. There is nothing wrong with this but he is important as an artist because he is on the cusp of high brow and low brow. Why he wants to be there I don't know.

7 Days in the Art World- The Crit

John Baldessari along with countless other artist(i.e Alvin Lucier, Judy Chicago, Sadie Banning, Michael Asher, Karen Finley, Peter Halley, Stan Douglas, Jim Shaw, Alan Kaprow,Jeff Wall etc...) make up the Cal Arts faculty and its visiting artist program from past and present. Their prominent alumni is a list of who's who including Tony Oursler, David Salle, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Mike Kelly and Lari Pittman. CalArts was founded by Walt Disney in 1961.
Michael asher's crits can last up to ten hours in length. People bring food,their animals, pillows ,blankets and snacks. The snacks of which are provided by the students being Critted.After ten pages of reading the article almost nothing is mentioned of the crit or its effect on the student. It does state "Crits may be opertunities to hash out communal meanings, but that doesn't mean that students finish the semester with uniform values.Asher feels that it is the students "Post Studio" class not his.
Crits that I had been part of usually have people just sitting around empty minded and full of useless ideas. its hard to hold a crit and evaluate someones work. It usually turns into a "I like this" or " I would do_____if Iwere you."these actions are useless and do nothing to increase the artists aim or ability. It is encouraging when the teacher is struck or intrigued by your work but negative feedback is usually thought of misunderstanding .
MFA stands for mother fucking artist announces a girl on campus. If she were in the crit I would had kicked her out. First because it is a pretentious statement. Second it is child like. and third someone of that mentality does not deserve the priviledge of being in a room with people who are serious about art. it is trite and banal to say the least. The text states"Successful crits become the basis of lifelong interpretive communities of art subcultures."Personally I think it is a lot of nonesense.
There is a book by the writer James Elkins called, Why Art Cannot Be Taught, and he has an extensive chapter on Crits. if anything is learned by crits or how they can be improved upon it is in that book not in 7 Days in the Art World.

Comments on the idea of grad school

Of Course I will go to grad school!!!I had gone to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as an undergrad and would love to go back for grad school. I haven't invested the time to look into the programs as I have been busy with other endeavors as of yet. But I will most likely go into a painting program as that is the field of study that my heart is grounded in.

Images of Jen Manning's work

MFA THESIS SHOW

Tom Raggio or better known as "put label here" as his work was posted as had two large paintings in the back of the main room. they reminded me of joan mitchell's work with very active paint splotches painted over other painted areas. with pencil and tape and drawings added into it. they had an effect on me that i can not place. but i felt the most emphatic paintings in the show belonged to him.

the small 8x10 paintings on panels by gabbe grodin reminded me of art i had seen from the museum of bad art in baltimore. thats not to say that they are bad but quite the contrary they sprung to mind the idea of how not to paint and what should not be done in painting which is exactly what i enjoy in painting as i myself had been painting for 17 years and am constantly trying to make myself in a phrase quoted by john cage "you know you've had a good teacher when you can learn how to forget to ride a bike". if you look at the end of the career of any artist they often deconstruct their painting style.

before learning zen mountains are mountains and men are men during the course of learning they get confused and after you have learned zen men are mean and mountains are mountains but a little bit elevated. that is a thought that runs through me like a river of knowledge would when it comes to a fork in the road. as yogi berra once said when you come to a fork in the road take it. and i think many of the mfa students are doing that. it seems as if though there is too much trying and not enough real art. there are 2 paintings that are beautifully painted but they call them a diptych when they are one painting just too long to be one painting. that i was in dislike about but the work was clean and boring. i do not know if the artist felt the work should be boring or if the majority of the artist in the show realize how boring their work is. should art be boring? that is a good question. is art meant to entertain. can it be both boring and entertaining. should it speak to the viewer and if so how pretentious should it be. for most entertaining art tries too hard and falls short.Eileen Behnke and Summer Baldwin are both good painters but their work doesn't say much one is pictorial and the other representational. i like these things but you can tell from the work that these are artist that need to grow and develop. didi i like the show?is that a relevant question? does it matter?art is meant to be looked at but is it meant to be enjoyed. when you start to enjoy it too much does it become office art or something that someone may want to hang over their couch?and why does this matter. these are thoughts that sprung to mind looking at the art in the exhibit and i still am working on my opinion of latoya.

the artist studio

random paintings(oil and water color on canvas)

anti paint paintings

the Fair from Seven Days in the Art World

The fair seems like a rat race and may the quickest most charming person win. It doesn't seem fair the way its laid out. Certain galleries prefer certain locations. and buyers stand at the gate for it to open like horses at a race.The dealers then decide in finality who the work goes to. I feel overall the fair is pretentious and out of control from what the book explained.

visit to the Princeton Art Museum

Upon going to the museum I had decided to look at the paintings I would usually not spend my time on but this time they fascinated me. The modern section is usually my choice of visit when I go to the museum but instead I chose to look at religious paintings and the depictions of christ in the works some showed christ with the proportions of a full grown man but minaturized. this reminded me of a sculpture by Charles Ray. Other depections of christ were just strange and they make you wonder how is this the ideal depiction of the lord's son? and at what age did he learn to read. Since one of the paintings has him sitting on mary's lap reading a book.

Museum Visit Review

Upon Visiting the Zimmerli Museum of art @ Rutgers I was please to see a show in conjunction with Exit Art(a non-profit gallery in NY). I have not visited Exit Art for many years and forgot of their existence but was surprised to see they were still around. The show involved digital prints by numerous "cutting edge" artist namely Terry Winters, Vito Acconci, Ann Hamilton, Carrie Mae Weems, and Glen Ligon to name a few.The show did not have any landmark work by these artist but instead works that showed a way into their process. Works that showed in essence sketchs of the artist greater final works. Sometimes in this manner of looking at artist traces its almost like looking at the underbelly of their finished work. All in all it was quite ennjoyable.

The second show i went to while in the museum was one on Woodblock Printing. Having done work in intaglio i found this show to be expansive on the little scope i have on printmaking. The prints dated back to 1890. They went through the changes that we have experienced in woodblock printing and also through various periods in the span of art from then til know. The most enjoyable piece i saw in the show would had been the Pinocchio piece by Jim Dine. It towered over you at slmost 8 ft high. The figure reminded me of Howdy Doody on a bad day with an elongated nose. and for some reason the Donald Judd work though I hardly even looked at it as with the Shirley Levine (of whom I have never been much of a fan) have a particular resonance that seeses to pass.

paintings that came out of my hands literally

gallery visits and rehabilitation

how did you feel about the gallery situation that we have upon us in the current moment?comment please

Interview with Jeniffer Manning

The interview was relaxed in the quaint studio of Jennifer Manning. I asked to see her most recent paintings and she took out about 4 canvases. They were store bought and about 18"x24" in size. They immediately hit me with the sensation i get when i see an Edward Hopper. The were representational but the content is what struck me. One painting had a child playing bumper bowling with noone in sight. just a weird snapshot of a solitary figure. But it was the nondescript nature of the room or rather the alley that the action was taking place in.
There was another painting of a Christmas tree with the presents at toe. This is that moment before the disaster occurs when everyone rushes to their gifts as children. It is a frozen moment of the impartialness to manifest its profussion to the balcony of our final jump. It was also painted in muted colors as the precursoral painting style was in. The paintings capture a warmth and nostalgic feeling of youth and the awkwardness of it.
When i had asked Jen when she had started to paint she said not until recent years (appx. 3yrs) but she has been drawing since she has been able to hold a pencil. That maybe the greater of her strengths. I had not seen any drawings in her studio but i recal in the previous year we had been in a drawing class together and i remember admiring her work she made during that duration.
as far as her technical prowess with painting she seems pretty straight forward. she told me of the medium she had used ad i had made a few recommendations i could make for other mediums she might like to try.
The conversation digressed into film and she told me she was fond of japanese anime (i.e. Miyazaki for the most part was the conversation).We spoke briefly of music and then we reached a point where we realized the interview was exhausted for that moment so we parted ways.

new museum visit and moma trip

i went to the new museum as suggested and i was completely let down. i have seen good shows there (also at their 2 old locations) and bad ones and sorry to say this one falls on the bad end. the curating more so than the subject matter peaked my interest the most. why did they choose to hang the large format pictures by clamps and frame the smaller black and white photos. that was perplexing.
on another note i had gone to the moma to see the james ensor exhibit and selections from the susan rothchild foundation of works on paper and was pleased with both shows. they were not only inspiring but diverse in their content.

alex bag video

The film follows the meandering talks of a pretend art student(as bag had created this while she was a student at the cooper union about a sva student). it seems to be a commentary on life at school and the way you fluctuate between thoughts about what you are doing and where you are at mentally during the course of your academic career. the interspursed parts throughout the piece after each segment seem to me to represent the wanderings of ones mind creatively during the interm period between semesters. sometimes good and other times a trainwreck but thats not always bad either.