Art Gemütlichkeit

 Yesterday was a busy night for art-supporting Minneapolitans and St Paulites.  Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA) opened DIY Printing:  Presses Not Required, at the Project Space in downtown St Paul, and of course, the galleries and studios of Nordeast Minneapolis were open for First Thursdays.

    After a week of shoveling snow and, to be honest, still less than 100%, yours truly played it safe and spent First Thursday at the Northrup King Building with artists and friends.

    Despite recent weather, Studio 265 (Perry Ingli and Laura Donovan) was hopping with friends, collectors and casual viewers.  Ignoring the perils of sequestration, at least one art piece was also destined to change hands this night.

    Some who chose comfort and gemütlichkeit over the headaches of St Paul’s parking and construction scene include artist painter Kevin Wellington, of Plymouth, Karen Monson, Visual Arts Instructor at the Perpich Center Arts Education, Candy Kuehn, fiber artist, and Kuhn’s partner Craig Lucas of the Playwright’s Center Advisory Board in Minneapolis.

    Laura Donovan showed off her studio space to family and friends.  Credit for the night’s sale goes to Donovan.  

    Perry Ingli discussed plans and programs for artists and gave some impromptu advice to artists considering arts travel abroad.  Ingli was accompanied by a very charming and supportive Michael Greene.  

    Claudia Poser and husband, of Studio 394, also made the rounds.  Poser is currently publicizing her new memoir, Dreaming in German: A Memoir About the Meaning of Home, a tale of growing up in East and West Germany.

Smaller Can Be Great!

A younger artist friend from back home asked about recommendations for the small or rural art gallery.  It is a difficult question to answer.  I have worked with numerous projects that denote, list and explore galleries as cultural assets in terms of tourism and media, but most often, the smaller gallery and the rural gallery seem to act as a local arts incubator, a social outreach or an artisanal display more than they do a true arts center.

    As I am trying to consistently reinforce, there is nothing wrong with the artisanal center or promotional gallery and as such, I can only recommend a strong relationship be established between the local arts community, the chamber of commerce and the local technical schools and all efforts be made to market! Market!, Market!

    On the other hand, just as a small ethnic or rural community requires a church, mosque or religious center, each should have a fine arts establishment – merely for the survival of the spiritually creative soul.

    The most common arts venue in smaller communities seems to be the theatre – Ft Peck Theatre near Glasgow, Montana, Commonweal Theatre, in Lanesboro, Minnesota, the old Baliwick Theatre in Chicago, and the Minnesota Historical Theatre in St Paul,  and numerous other examples indicate how smaller theatres have become essential venues for the arts.  My observation is that the strongest of these theatres also seem to have tendency to include both locally reflective material and one or two more challenging or experimental pieces, along with the traditional performances of traditional favorites such as the Sound of Music, Death of a Salesman, etc.  While popular films such as Please Don’t Eat the Daisies andWaiting for Guffman tend to disparage small-community efforts in this regard, I often find smaller, more local, more-budget-conscious productions to be more intimate, more approachable, often more creative, and just as interesting as Chicago’s Wolf Trap or Minneapolis’ Guthrie.  What are the popular Fringe Festivals if not groupings of the smaller theatrical and cabaret-style theatre experience?

    Art galleries that seem to do “small” well are Klondike Institute of Art & Culture in Dawson City, Yukon, the original Plug-In Gallery (now a greatly expanded enterprise) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Chateau Park Museum – Art Centre in St Catharines, Ontario, Hamond Arts Alliance in Hammond, Wisconsin, the Swedish-American Museum (SAMAC) in Chicago, Dana Gallery in Missoula, Montana, and the arts pavilion at Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Defining Art

Aesthetics courtesy Mercedes Benz

Open Studios and Aesthetics:  

Artist versus Artisan

Have you ever gone to an art show or an open studio and been confused as to what is art and what is not, or as to who is an artist and who is merely doing craft projects?  If so, you are not alone.  While art might have been highly defined and organized at one point, it is no longer so.  Any definitions about art or as to what is art and what is not will be contradicted as quickly as they are established.

    Rather than worrying about defining art or even attempting to understand art, I find it more useful to consider developing one’s own aesthetic or appreciation of art and to then challenge oneself to find more and different types of art and artworks in which you become interested.

    For instance, I know that I really like the sculpture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.  At first, I thought that the sculptures of Ancient Egypt were weird and silly but as I learned to appreciate the relationship between Ancient Greek art and that of Ancient Egypt, I began to fully appreciate them both.

    On one of my first trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, I was amazed at how real the faces of some of the sculptures were from India and how similar they were to Greek art.  After doing some reading, I learned that much art from Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan was highly influenced by the Greek invasion under Alexander the Great.

    As I became more experienced, I learned to enjoy the differences as well as the similarities.  Viewing art is like any other activity – the more you do it, the better you become.  The better you become at viewing and interacting with art, the more you enjoy it.

    During this process, you will determine for yourself what is interesting and what is not.  This is your personal aesthetic.  

Painter Painter (2 of 3), Walker Art Center

Painter Painter

Walker Art Center

Minneapolis, Minnesota

02 Feb – 27 Oct, 2013

 

Part 2:  Context and Dialogue

 

Painter Painter has the potential of being both theoretically progressive and informative in terms of content (the works and artists displayed), and I was privileged to be attendance as Michelle Grabner, Jan Verwoert and Bruce Hainley led participating artists and the Center’s members in presentations and group discussion of the meaning behind the show.  (The following are excerpts and are incomplete and subjective, but these are the notes I was able to take and my best attempt at reconstitution.  The videos will be available at a future date from the Walker.)

 

    The context and dialogue of Painter Painter takes place in many places and in many media simultaneously.  The 02 Feb panel discussion was preluded by a revealing interview with curators Eric Crosby and Bartholomew Ryan by Cristina Travaglini in the winter issue of Kaleidoscope (www.kaleidoscope-press.com/current-issue/), on-line through individual artist blogs (http://www.walkerart.org/painter-painter-studio-sessions) and on-site via panel discussions, studio visits and personal artist interactions.

Painter Painter pt 1 of 3, Walker Art Center

Painter Painter

Walker Art Center

Minneapolis, Minnesota

02 Feb – 27 Oct, 2013

Part 1:  the process

Painter Painter has the potential of being both theoretically progressive and informative in terms of content (the works and artists displayed), and I was privileged to be attendance as Michelle Grabner, Jan Verwoert and Bruce Hainley led participating artists and the Center’s members in presentations and group discussion of the meaning behind the show. 

    For me, it was my first time in the new Walker Auditorium.  The room was cozy, intimate and perfectly theatrical – we could easily have been in any one of thousands of commercial theatre venues across America – only then we would have had sodas, popcorn and even more cushy seats.  This thought was to stay with me throughout the event – an interfering static.  The discussion resembled a business conference or trades meeting in a busy airport, complete with schedules, overhead announcements and stewardesses (my apologies to the volunteer ushers).

    The students and audience were professionally engaged and polite (and non-native), and we could leave the event with mandatory cookies and cocoa and a receipt for having attended a continuing ed seminar.  We were re-assured that our city has made its mark on the visual arts scene without forcing us to accept any major influence on our own more pedestrian life-styles.

Ed I. Koch, Mayor (1924-2013)

Ed Koch, the Man, the Myth, the Artistic Legacy 1924-2013

(edited 05 Feb 2013)

    We will all greatly miss Mayor Ed Koch – a man whose personality was as big as Manhattan – the man who probably has come closest to meeting every resident of said city and has represented the city to non-New Yorkers for decades.  He was, he always will be, bigger than life.  Even his passing, the day his autobiographical film opens to the public in theatres and the day Grand Central Station, a landmark he was instrumental, as Congressperson, in helping save from demolition, turned 100, and 11 years after the murder of Daniel Pearl, whose last words were prophetically inscribed on Koch’s tombstone, cannot but add to his personal legend.

    One of the many areas in which he had a direct impact was in the arts.  Koch was brilliant throughout his life in incorporating the media and performing arts into the life of the city and into his own publicity – creating a sort of natural cameo-style appearance genre that gave life and personality to the city through spokespersons such as him.  Koch gave many such cameo appearances including First Wives Club, Muppets Take Manhattan and Sex and the City.  Koch may not have been “mayor for life”, but he was definitely its “designated spokesperson for life.”

    Koch’s passion was seemingly for media and the performing arts.  He wrote a number of books, including a biography and is being hailed as the only mayor in America to have an off-Broadway musical biography.  An autobiographical film, Koch, opened in theatres on Friday.

    Politically, Koch took the helm of the city at a time when it was literally facing bankruptcy.  He installed affordable, responsible government and took the case for his policies directly to the people.  He turned the city around and is generally credited with helping inaugurate one of the city’s longest-running building and gentrification booms.

Paul Emsley presents Catharine, Duchess of Cambridge

When Royal Portraits go Bad

Emsley's controversial 2013 portrait

   Royal portrait commissions have a long history.  Henry VIII commissioned the English court painter Hans Holbein to go paint the otherwise unseen Anne of Cleves to determine whether or not she was marriage material.  Apparently, Holbein and her portrait thought yes.  Henry disagreed and art historians have long puzzled over how Holbein did not lose his head.

    Royal portraitist and first prize 2007 BP Portrait Award recipient, Paul Emsley is possibly grateful that times have changed (and that his subject is already safely married to William, Duke of Cambridge).

    Despite the Duchess’ polite claims to the contrary, her first official portrait as an HRH could have come off better.  Less polite critics have labeled Emsley’s effort as disappointing, even renaming the work, vampire princess, noting that the portrait more seemingly resembles the style of the popular Twilight films than a royal portrait.

   Why should we care?  Royal portraits do more than introduce a sovereign to his or her people, they are a record of the generations to which they belong.  Two hundred years from now, schoolchildren will visit the Royal Portrait Gallery for insights as to the lives and personalities of their great-great-great grandparents.  Kate's portrait is more than an idle curiosity to us for she is our ambassador to the ages and this is how she will be formally presented. 

Jonesing for Depth

Quinn's Planet, courtesy London Telegraph

Jonathan Jones Joneses for Artistic Depth

    In his 21 January review, Jonathan Jones, arts and culture critic for London’s The Guardian Newspaper, dropped the gauntlet over popular British artist Marc Quinn’s giant baby sculpture, Planet, and its installation in Singapore’s scenic Gardens by the Sea.

    Jones’ criticism is direct rather than rhetorical.  Does art need to be deep?  Inaccessible?  Clever?  Challenging?  How is it that we will choose to determine what is or is not considered art in a foundation-less (stated positively) Postmodern global culture? 

    I do enjoy The Guardian’s often thoughtful criticism, and appreciate Jones’ perspective in this case, but too often, I also wonder if The Guardian is not merely the UK’s contra-cultural, anti-establishment perspective – often appearing disagreeable merely to disagree. 

Quinn and Planet at Singapore installation, courtesy Artnews.com

    Indeed, there appears to be some disagreement with Jones’ perception.  Artnews.com confidently judges, “Planet is one of Marc Quinn’s most important works. The sculpture, which is a depiction of the artist’s infant son, appears to float above the ground and is a technical tour-de-force,” (Artnews, below).

    I think that in consideration of today’s cultural norms, Jones is being a bit hypercritical.  Consider the fate and present veneration of The Pearl, formerly at the heart of Manama, Bahrain. 

Cheaper by the Baker's Dozen

 1.      Francis Picabia, Volupté (1932), $130K

2.      Joan Miró, Femme (Femme debout) (1969), $4.5M -$8M

3.      Joan Miró, Femme, étoile (1942), $500K-$800K.

4.      Joan Miró, L’echelle d’évasion (Escape Ladder) (1939), $800K - $1.3M

5.      Joan Miró, Signes et figurations, $1M- $1.5M

6.      Joan Miró, Tête (1970), $800K - $1.1M

7.      Max Ernst, La Forêt (1934/35), $50K-$80K

8.      Max Ernst, Roter Gratenwald mit Sonne (Red Forest with Sun) (1936), $650K-$1M

9.      Paul Delvaux, ecce homo (la descendre de croix) (1949), $1M - $1.4M

10.   Paul Delvaux, La Première Rose (1947), $1.6M - $2.4M

11.   Paul Delvaux, Les nymphes des eaux (1938).  $5M-$8M

12.   René Magritte, A la rencontre du plaisir (1950), $2M-$3M

13.   René Magritte, La traverse difficile (II) (1946), $400K-$600K

14.   opt.  Edvard Munch, Robat pa sjøen (1904), $1M

 

Cheaper by the Baker’s Dozen

Or… if I had $10 Million Dollars … I’d Buy Us a … Miró, a Delvaux and a Munch

    I would never actually advise anyone as to what art they should or should not consider purchasing, but while reading Hedley Twidle’s interesting article about South African Nobel Literary Laureate John M. Coetzee in the Financial Times, I noted the advertisement for Christie’s upcoming Surrealist Art Auction in London (08 Feb, 2013), and could not resisting clicking on the teaser icon.  “Hmmm, I see…”

    Truthfully, I have a love and hate relationship with Surrealism, but many of the pieces in this particular auction draw closer to Modernism than to Surrealism, though all are definitely impacted by Surrealist forms and theory.  The first few selections in their slide show did not hold my attention.  They were fine, but not of the quality or the creativity I would expect for those prices.  But after imagining the excitement the wives of attorneys, Freshmen Congressmen and the other Long Island types whom I assume bid on such pieces, I caught a glimpse of Joan Miró’s Femme – a large, brilliant sculpture in black matte-finish bronze … And the expected price range for the piece?  A mere $4.5 million.  “Nice – I’d sure like to see the commission on that one,”  I thought to myself.

    Going through the slideshow catalogue, I noted several other Miró’s that I felt to be rather special and a few other works by other artists, ending up with a baker’s dozen-or-so that I felt would be well worth the trip to view.  The combined recommended minimum for the full dozen, roughly a cool $19.5 Millions – not really so bad if you really think about it.

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.