in memoriam

Courtesy Agência Brasil

Oscar Niemeyer 

1907 - 2012

    The world lost a legend yesterday -- Brasilia architect Oscar Niemeyer passed away in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the age of 104.

    While he designed many magnificent buildings and structures, I have always been partial to his designs for Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.

    Together with Le Corbu, Niemeyer defined a generation of the arts for me and first led me to an appreciation of the Modernist spirit and aesthetic -- a long journey for a prairie cowboy to make.

    Niemeyer changed structures and design in positive ways that will long outlive both him and those buildings.

    Thank you, sir.  You will be long remembered.

Painting the Place Between

from the collection …

Painting the Place Between

(01 Dec, 2012 – 17 Feb, 2013)

Minnesota Museum of American Art

30 Nov 2012, St Paul, MN

    I have not attended MMAA’s programming events for several years due to having moved to Chicago for school.  Let me say, their new Project Space at 4^th and Robert Street in downtown St Paul is exceptionally light and approachable, and the same artistic community I have grown to love and value over the years, was in appearance at the event celebrating core holdings representing Minnesota’s regional artistic heritage.  The theme of the show seemed to focus on a sense of place – an odd but fitting theme for a city celebrating the 150^th Anniversary of its rather dark history in removing Native American tribes from their homes along the Mississippi River and resorting to armed force to evict many of them from the state entirely.  The background cultural context is the approaching anniversary of the hanging of 38 (of 300 sentenced) Siouan patriots as traitors, the day after Christmas, and a growing sense of and appreciation for the presumed unrealistic goal presented by many Native American Minnesotans that the historic Fort Snelling be razed, its removal reopening emotional and cultural access by the Native American community to that area which had once been a cultural heartland for their civilization.

    Not since my time spent in Cape Town, South Africa, or more precisely, Tshwane, fka Pretoria, and Mbombela, fka Nelspruit, have I sensed such a salient, if silent, contestation of the sense of place in a wider, post-colonial geography. 

Song Yer Thao Field (2012)

    While the curatorial staff intended the show to “shape a vision of our natural space as mediated by the artist’s subjective experience and the shared legacy and aura of painting on canvas… offer[ing] up evidence of the role the painter plays in how we view and interpret our landscapes as common ground and shared legacy,” the question on everyone’s mind is by what right and to what extent is this legacy truly shared, to what extent is this legacy contested, and how do the arts impact or facilitate either geographic appropriation or multi-cultural resistance.  While the works by Betsy Byers, Bette Carlon, Jil Evangs, Andrew Wykes, and Phyllis Wiener definitely are in dialogue with the Western cultural canons, they are also dialoguing with American imperialist art traditions dating back to Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and even Ansel Adams.  All of the artists are perceived to be white Minnesotans, with the exception of Hmong artist Song Yer Thao whose Field (2012), rather than contrasting with the other works, lends stylistic support to that of Jil Evans, Phyllis Wiener and Holly Swift.  Still, one to left to ponder whether Fort Snelling has given up its cannon for the canon.

Book Review

More Pictures to Grow Up With  (1946)

by Katharine Gibson

   

    Most know that I am a used book aficionado.  No, I don’t mean rare books or first editions.  Not even pedestrian art critics make enough money for that sort of lifestyle.  Rather, I mean those books which are classics based on having been passed between at least two generations.

    In the world of art books, I found that going back to the pre-WW II days brings a refreshingly straight-forward perspective to the field.  You see, back in the day, art was understood by a relatively egalitarian populace to belong to all people – and all people were expected to have at least a basic understanding of art.   I find that two fields have declined precipitously since the war – being visual arts and poetry, but that much of the fault lies with the critics, the private galleries and the artists who arguably have cultivated a less approachable, highly elitist environment that has benefited only the gallery owners.

    Katharine Gibson’s pleasant book is aimed introducing art appreciation to the middle elementary school student.  She does not talk down to the reader but does rather, find aspects of art that might be more appealing to children.  Gibson starts with pets – introducing children to the world of art and its concepts through the agency of animals while dealing with complicated concepts such as the difference between art and design, artistic intent, choice of medium, and so on.  I greatly appreciate her review of the concept of narrative within a work of art, whether it be an Italian Renaissance painting, a French tapestry, and Egyptian tomb motif or a Greek vase.  By the end of the first chapter, a child (or adult for that matter) is well prepared for his or her first enjoyable trip to the gallery or museum.

en Pe'trett auf fäaschmiete

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mennonite Portrait wins 2012 British Taylor Wessing Prize

en Pe'trett auf fäaschmiete

 

© Jordi Ruiz Cirera, 2011-12.

And the prize goes to – a portrait of a Mennonite youth.  Yes, in fact, the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 has gone to London-based, Spanish photographer Jordi Ruiz Cirera for his hauntingly beautiful 2011 photographic portrait of a young Bolivian Mennonite, Magarita Teichroeb. 

Four to Watch

Four to Watch

   You will have to excuse my silence.  No, I did not stop noting and appreciating good art – in fact, some of the most interesting pieces have come out of the last twenty-four months.  Rather, I have been more pre-occupied with that other aspect of art and culture – the establishment and maintenance of narrative theory (in other words, grad-school).  While this has taken up most of my time, it is with relief and joy that I return to our conversation about the everyday, pedestrian enjoyment of the art that surrounds us.

   In this regard, I feel it somewhat necessary to re-establish some of my aesthetic tastes and leanings with you.  While I cannot provide you with an exhaustive, culturally critical analysis of the various regional and world markets, I have identified four areas that I feel are on the up-swing – pending their ability to maintain the necessarily social and political stability to foster the creative process and their ability to gain an audience.

    As the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games has demonstrated, the great games can serve as a ready catalyst for great artistic endeavors – and for generating the appreciative audience to support the works being presented.