August 2004 Archive

MFA, MFA not, MFA, MFA not…

If you’re picking the petals off daisies, trying to determine whether grad school in art is worthwhile, here’s what contributors Doug Witmer and Rob Matthews had to say on the subject, in answer to Roberta’s call for opinions: Matthews writes: I was once told “you only need to go to art school long enough to know you no longer need to be in art school” (image, top, one of Matthews’s “Dumbest Man over Knoxville” series, reviewed in post). Witmer writes: First off, I had an “ok” grad school experience. I feel like my work definitely developed and I met some ... More » »

Old friends and new

Here I will pull together a laundry list of end-of-summer things. Libby told you about the summer group shows at Fleisher Olman, Schmidt-Dean and elsewhere. See her posts here and here respectively. Schmidt-Dean‘s show is up to Aug. 31. Go see it for the works Libby mentions but also to check out the new painting by Mary Murphy (top image). Murphy’s last show at S-D was digital prints based on photographs run through Photoshop. The images were all grotesques — faces pulled apart and turned into rivers of flesh with eyeballs floating around like beach balls. Portraiture and self-portraiture, the ... More » »

Veiled meanings

I stopped in at the University City Arts League a few minutes ago to check out Michelle Marcuse’s show of encaustic paintings, “Hive and Hue.” The imagery was a mix of shapes that suggested landscapes and architectural interiors and exteriors delivered in a flattened out, up-against-the-canvas pattern, any suggestions of spatial depth removed except through the layering of the waxy colors. For the most part, the colors were pale and sun-bleached. The piece with the strongest composition was “Universe” (top right), which almost suggested a human stand-in figure, the ground below, the sky above and scary stuff. A suggestion of ... More » »

Tuesday this and that

From artnet… T-SHIRTS FOR KERRY Buy an artist-designed t-shirt and support John Kerry for president. Pierogi gallery in Williamsburg is mounting a display of custom t-shirt designs by over 75 artists, Aug. 23-27, 2004. The shirts are $30 apiece, with the proceeds earmarked for the Democratic National Committee. Among the artists are Polly Apfelbaum, Dike Blair, Mary Carlson, Rico Gatson, James Hyde, KK Kozik, Louise Lawler, Christian Marclay, Marilla Palmer, Laura Parnes, James Siena, Amy Silman, Jim Torok and many others. And from Pierogi… I couldn’t find any further information on the Kerry t-shirts, but this Pierogi event looks like ... More » »

Whodunit? Sweden and Philadelphia

The latest sally in the design-as-an-artform war arrived with my Sunday newspaper. There in the Ikea catalog were photos of the designers alongside some Ikea products and a brief selling pitch almost masquerading as a statement of purpose. I’m still deconstructing the craft vs. fine art war, but clearly the design vs. fine art war has eclipsed it or at least become the newest incarnation of the same thing. But back in the old craft war days, the issues were usefulness vs. pure aesthetics, female vs. male provinces, the subtext being that crafts didn’t require a stroke of genius and ... More » »

Just plain beautiful

Check out this photo on Cinque Hicks’ Bare and Bitter Sleep blog. Hicks has a new camera and he took the most fabulous shot of a lightning storm just north of Austin, TX. Hicks’ blog is on my daily reading list. He’s got a nice mix of studio ruminations and fresh responses to what he sees around Austin and elsewhere.

Whodunit? Norway and Philadelphia

Somebody (or bodies) stole Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” from its home in the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. The act was done right in broad daylight and in front of a bunch of gallery goers. Stealing art = bad. Read BBC. But somebody gave a loan of a tiny Vermeer, “A Young Woman seated at the Virginals,” one of the few Vermeers in private hands, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and it’ll be on view here until March for all of us to see. Loaning Vermeer = good. Read Inky. (username: lrrfartblog; password: artblog) Most interesting questions: Who loaned ... More » »

Nature, not

I’m back from the shore today, so that’s the end of my blog silence for the week. Ooops. There in my email was a bunch of blog response, including Sid Sachs defending Rothko from Rob Matthews’ flippant dismissal. Sachs wrote, “I guess you have never seen a Rothko retrospective. Rothko was one of the twentieth century’s greatest painters.” As for me, I salute both points of view, one for iconoclasm (everyone should smack an idol every once in a while) and one for caring so deeply. Here we have Post-Modernism and Modernism (respectively) crystallized! But down the shore, I cared ... More » »

Reading and singing the summer away

Good day to ye from the Jersey Shore where Libby’s family and my family are vacationing for a week. (We do this on a semi-regular basis and for Lib and moi it provides a daily walk on the beach that often generates breakthrough thoughts about what we’re working on — a nice bonus from all the oxygen and salt running through our systems.) Image is sunset from the Roberta family abode this week. I’m not going to tell you about shore art. Here instead is a snap of a souvenir treasure I picked up. (image lef) It’s the cover (a ... More » »

Rescue at Heathrow, London 6

Last entry in Rob Matthews’ London Journal Saturday July 31, 2004 The next morning we tubed to Harrod’s, the most over-the-top, out-of-control store in the world. “Egyptian” decorated escalators for 6 floors of shopping in a store that carried nothing but the most fashionable and most expensive goods in the world. Rumor is that no one in London buys anything at Harrod’s at that the only people keeping the store open are tourists and oil tycoons. Prada shoes were low-end at this place. We were there about 30 minutes, realized we weren’t going to buy anything and then left. From ... More » »