Speaking at the NY Studio School last night, artist Ron Gorchov recalled seeing a frustrated painter friend kicking work off a balcony in the mid-1960s. At that moment it occurred to Gorchov that "It's important to do something you really want to do." For Gorchov, the elusive goal has been to get fields of color to float in a room. At 78, he feels like the work he's doing is the "most fluent and fertile of my life." Gorchov first came to New York in 1953, meeting Mark Rothko on his second day here. It was a different time, he explained, and meeting famous artists was as easy as going to their bars. At the end of meeting Rothko, Gorchov made an overture and said they should get together soon. Rothko balked, saying "No. Have a few gallery shows. It's a small place, and we'll meet." When Gorchov tried to get an introduction to painter John Russell through a mutual friend, the friend said no. "Nobody would introduce each other," Gorchov explained. The atmosphere was competitive. "They were all jealous of each other."...
Or didn't, depending on what 'it' is. Golub's work is ugly. During the 1960s, while American boys were being sent overseas and the Vietnamese were getting fire bombed, the New York art world became ever more interested in minimalism and formal approaches to art that were divorced from the reality of people's every day lives. But Golub, working in Chicago, insisted on engagement. He achieved renown painting scenes of mercenaries, killers, victims of napalm attacks, anonymous third world fighters, and dogs attacking (like the drawing below). I was fortunate enough to hear Golub speak in 2000, four years before he died. I found him charming and erudite. He was a man with a lot to say. But a show currently at Ronald Feldman (until Nov. 15) demonstrates the limitations of his approach....
I returned a book of writings by German artist Gerhard Richter to a friend today. The book, called "Gerhard Richter: The Daily Practice of Painting, Writing from 1962 - 1993," is a compilation of Richter's notes, interviews and exhibition writing. As much as I dislike Richter's especially German pretense to objectivity, and as much as I find his subjects boring, and his approach half impotent, his writing is challenging and engaging. What follows are some of the best quotes I found in the book. Some I agree with; some are nonsense. The idea that art copies nature is a fatal misconception. Art has always operated against nature and for reason. All we can represent is an analogy, which stands for the invisible but is not it. To believe, one must have lost God; to paint, one must have lost art....
Sharon Butler (of Two Coats fame) has a good piece in the Brooklyn Rail about how artists now have better options to do short runs of books because of digital technology. Until recently, publishing options for artists, unless funded by dealers, publishers, grants, or trust funds, have been limited. In theory, book projects were aimed at bypassing the gallery system to the artist's economic advantage, but in practice, the need for outside funding simply added another gatekeeper. Enter cheaper digital resources like Lulu and Blurb. If I can ever finally finish my presidents project, perhaps this would be a good outlet?...
Two shows worth seeing in Chelsea close tomorrow. Judy Glantzman's work (pictured above) features layered images of body parts -- faces, hands, feet -- in mysterious, mandala-like configurations. (Sorry for the crappy photo -- it really doesn't do this work's subtle shimmer any justice.) Sometimes the figures emerge from unprimed canvas in the colors of bruised skin. Faces turn into other faces, spout tears which become animals, and then out of the shape will form a bird. If it sounds strange, it is. Sometimes the paintings are like a Renaissance sketchbook, with exuberant lines searching for forms. Judy Glantzman at Betty Cuningham Gallery, through Oct. 11. Jeronimo Elespe's work can be the reverse, like forms searching for a subject. He creates his small oil on aluminum panel work over long periods of time, layering colors and shapes in a way that ends when masses start to develop. I like this his work is so small (yes, that's my beefy finger next to one of his landscapes). It's quite intimate, and the process of attention shows in waves as layers emerge, one over the other. Elespe works from memory, which alters how things look as people and places start to...
This is why art isn't philosophy. Vik Muniz, the artist famous for recreating iconic artworks in different media and then photographing it (think the Mona Lisa in peanut butter and jelly) has moved on to a kind of sculptural painting that recreates the backs of great works of art. The photo below should help demonstrate how lame and uninspired this idea is....
Go west! Don't go west! Alison Elizabeth Taylor's bind
Artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor came to the NY Studio School last night to talk about her work, which is full of contradictions. It's full of wildness, but also tight control. Sometimes her work, which these days is made of different shades of wood veneer, seems stilted. Sometimes it seems crazy and out of control. Her medium itself demands purposefulness and planning, but her imagery is wild and seems very personal. When she was talking about her early work, she called them her "anti-history paintings." Of course, to have such a thing means you feel burdened by history. The object of disaffection becomes a kind of controlling factor. Call it a theme....
I love to complain about Zagat's. It can be so glib. It's subject to the whims and trends of finicky diners (especially in New York). I hate how it's such a shorthand for food, reducing everything to a numerical score. All too frequently the score is a reflection of what a bunch of diners think about what the New York Times critics think. A friend of mine likes to mock restaurants that put a big "Zagat Rated" display in their front window. "It's like saying 'We're in the phone book'! Who cares? It's meaningless!" Nevertheless, in the jungle of NYC kitchens and tables, it can be a useful guide. I'm happy to see Queens is represented well in the latest version of the guide, which gives major props to Trattoria L'incontro, Sapori D'Ischia, Sripraphai, and Tournesol....
Painter Julian Hatton spoke last night at the NY Studio School about his work, some of which I review here. Hatton spoke about his experience of nature, frequently invoking his childhood in Michigan, where he said there's about two months of good weather each year. He contrasted the cold, flat landscape there, across the lake from Fond du Lac, with his experiences on the east coast, in Maine, and also in Brittany, France. He recalled painting in the late winter and early spring in France and seeing how cold the colors in that landscape are. Then, one day in early June, he experienced the entire landscape awakening with color. He connected Bonnard's experience in the north of France with the cold color palette that becomes very warm and intimate. Hatton said he'd never experienced anything like it, and clearly there was an affinity for that liveliness in a cold landscape....
