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Roundup
Post #770 • April 7, 2006, 7:57 AM • 20 Comments
"In this exhibition, Katsushika Hokusai charges out of the dimness of art history as if on a golden chariot, glittering and clattering with genius, armed to the teeth in talent." Roberta Smith reviews Hokusai at the Freer for the NYT.
Larry Gonick's math cartoons. (Reddit)
Famous artist Dogberto. (Supergirl)
"I wonder when Bloggers will replace Art Students as the iconic losers of cinema." David Jacobs.
George Rodart again applies the dismal science to the art market with impressive results.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports on the blogosphere. (Cinque)
"My college philosophy professor, beside himself trying to explain 'essence' to callow undergraduates, finally brought in a print of Cézanne's Still Life with Apples. Holding it over his head, he announced triumphantly, 'Here it is, the thing itself, appleness!'" David Dillon reviews Cézanne in Provence at the National Gallery of Art for the Dallas Morning News.
Amazonian marble head found recently at Herculaneum, with painted eye intact. (G.p, with the Blog Post Title of the Week)
Leonardo grids by Rinus Roelofs. (Reddit)
Notice something different about nytimes.com? They switched the font to Georgia. Copycats.
Images in the music, like, actually in the music, of Aphex Twin. (Reddit) (Whoops, they blew up their bandwidth. Backup story at Wired.)
"And Moses said unto the children of Israel: 'See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And He hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. And to devise skilful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of skilful workmanship. And He hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of workmanship, of the craftsman, and of the skilful workman, and of the weaver in colours, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any workmanship, and of those that devise skilful works." Exodus 30:35 and following. Last week's Torah portion said that art is good. (Mom)
"If we are too parochial to sufficiently prize veteran British artists like Frank Auerbach, it is our loss." Michael Kimmelman, getting it right in the NYT. It's going to be my loss when his show comes down this weekend and I miss it. A friend of mine called me this week on his cell from Marlborough to tell me how awesome it is. He's bringing me a catalogue.
Bert Monroy, Photoshop god. (Reddit) Related: Animatables. Or Vegimals. Or something. (Digg)
Department of Skills: Cambodian (?) soccer ninjas. (Reddit) Chris Bliss. (Bricker) Finger breakdancing. (Kottke)
Administrative: Artblog.net now has a hand-rolled full-post Atom feed at http://artblog.net/atom. Please test if you feel so inclined. The times of the posts are a little off and I could use an assist. (Update: May be fixed, thanks to an ugly kludge.)
Opening this weekend: just about everyone.
3.
April 7, 2006, 12:12 PM
Gonik's cartoons are excellent. I have always thought that the best way to start learning any subject is through a children's book or a comic book.
Make it simple, make it clear, make it interesting and stick to facts.
4.
April 7, 2006, 5:53 PM
A Google Search for "The best artblog of the world" gives you the 3rd place out of 88.600 ;-)
5.
April 7, 2006, 7:06 PM
Hans, That's a nonsense search. "artblog" is the primary matching term
6.
April 7, 2006, 8:07 PM
Listen to George, Hans. He knows about nonsense.
7.
April 7, 2006, 8:17 PM
up yours
8.
April 7, 2006, 8:27 PM
#7 is not from me, needless to say. Most unbecoming, among other things.
9.
April 7, 2006, 9:17 PM
Was #7 authored by George in haste? As in, "Jack" was supposed to be the first word of the comment, not the name? Will we ever know?
10.
April 7, 2006, 10:09 PM
'Happening' originator Kaprow dies
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Allan Kaprow, an artist who in the 1950s pioneered an unrehearsed, nonverbal form of theater called a ''happening'' that was intended to shatter the boundary between art and life, has died. He was 78.
Kaprow, who taught for years at the University of California-San Diego, died Wednesday at his home in Encinitas. He had been ill for some time and died of natural causes, said friend Tamara Bloomberg.
Kaprow's happenings took place in real-life settings and involved unrelated or bizarre scenes acted out by willing participants. The audience was made up of people who happened to be there.
Born August 23, 1927, in Atlantic City, N.J., Kaprow called himself an ''un-artist.'' He was primarily a painter and sculptor working with found objects.
He is survived by his wife, Coryl, their son, Bram, and three children from a previous marriage.
11.
April 7, 2006, 10:39 PM
Sad. I had a friend who died from Encinitas... not a pretty way to go.
12.
April 8, 2006, 12:55 AM
(groans)
13.
April 8, 2006, 4:17 PM
Franklin.
I just returned from seeing Frank Auerbach's paintings at Marlborough Gallery here in NYC, I thought of you.
14.
April 8, 2006, 4:20 PM
What did you think of it, George?
15.
April 8, 2006, 5:19 PM
re #14: Franklin
We have a new leader, I put Auerbach right at the top of the list for the best painting exhibition I've seen this year.
The jpegs on the website don't do them justice Neither did the framing as everything was under glass. This disturbed me because "nonglare glass" changes the color from a distance (essentially it reduces the apparent saturation) This creates a bit of a viewing problem.
His paintings are all modestly sized, so you want to walk up close to view them but when you do, the "image" fragments into its component marks. Back up and the "image" reassembles itself. It is the image, a head, a torso or a cityscape which provides the visual structure for the paint, without it they would just be colored mush. However, from the paintings I don't think the fact he works from the model is as big a factor as it is made out to be. I can see how he might use the model to re-center himself with the painting. To me it appears that he relies on getting the paintmark "right" in order to resolve the painting. It is an odd sort of non-drawing drawing, a directional ordering of the marks which overall coalesce into an image, even if for only an instant. Although I am somewhat aware of the mystique of how he makes the paintings, they don't look at all contrived. There is no sense of fat paint exists for the "fat paint look" rather it seems an honest result of his process. I spent at least an hour in the gallery, so I looked really hard at "how he did it", all I can say is that it looks like he uses an additive-subtractive process for making the image and just stops when he gets what he wants.
Although the jpegs might help a bit in terms of deciphering the image, they do not give you any sense of the color experience. I think his color is very good, overall it is generally not that saturated appearing, although individual marks can be fairly intense. In certain areas of the paintings, the jpegs which might appear muddy, but the paintings have a nice luminosity physically. There is something to be said for oil paint, I don't think one could achieve the same effect another paint media.
I came away quite impressed.
16.
April 8, 2006, 5:24 PM
Hi Franklin
Just found this site. I have a question that maby one of you guys might have an answer to. Someone mentioned an artist the other day, and I forgot the name. Very big in the nineties, not at all aknowleged (xcuse my english when mistakes) before late 80 ties. He did Richard Prince like- stuff in the 70ties, was a biker and a friend of Cady Noland- died like two yrs ago. Antone knows who this is?
17.
April 8, 2006, 9:06 PM
Steven Parrino?
http://www.teamgal.com/parrino/press_release04.html
18.
April 8, 2006, 9:14 PM
Re: #12,
Too soon, Franklin?
19.
April 9, 2006, 1:30 PM
I like Art. I would like to see more pictures of different types of paintings and other Art on this website.
Have a nice day everybody!
20.
April 10, 2006, 3:59 AM
A blessing is due for those who made love to create love, and for those who witness death as it binds us all to each other - as parts of the familiar unknown...
1.
Jack
April 7, 2006, 9:40 AM
Ms. Smith sounds a tad breathless. Unless I'm seriously mistaken, Hokusai has been duly recognized for quite some time, as in over a century. He doesn't need the hyperventilating.