Hope, 2008

The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston has the first retrospective of the artist Shepard Fairey, best-known for creating the image of Obama which circulated during his campaign.

Obey Icon, 1996

Fairey’s career really took off with the creation of an Andre the Giant sticker in the 1980s. Called “Obey Giant,” it began a 20 year international campaign to disseminate his works of art as broadly as possible. Influenced by corporate America’s advertising strategies and consumption of images, he utilizes streets, museums, and the internet. He uses a bold, graphic style and repetition of imagery with a strong use of text. His influences are varied from the 1920 Russian Constructivists to the American Social Realists of the 1930s to 1960s Pop art, Warhol in particular. His street work, however, is the cornerstone of his artistic practice.

“My hope was that, in questioning what Obey Giant was about, the viewers would then begin to question all the images they were confronted with.” -Shepard Fairey. He himself questions the use of marketing and advertising in a Capitalist society. He makes his work easy for the general public to understand and by placing it in public spaces, it is accessible to all.

War by Numbers (detail), 2007

Fairey is a master of appropriation and his works beg the viewer to think about the message he is trying to convey. One of the most powerful images in the show is War by Numbers Installation from 2007. The work denounces the combat in the Middle East. In it, a young girl holding a rose and a grenade, dominates the left side of the large-scale work while bombers fly over her head. In another work the text reads, “Capitalism without discretion is an ugly religion.” His message is impossible to miss.

Fairey also takes Warhol imagery such as Marilyn and the soup cans and makes them his own utilizing the Andre the Giant image somewhere in the work. He is an avid music fan and also has been skateboarding since 1984; both have influenced his work.

Just as murals have served as a platform for expressing political concerns throughout history, so does Fairey’s billboard and public work. His viral campaign began without the use of the internet. And his manifesto states it best, he strives to “Reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment.”

Tellez, Letter on the Blind, For the Use of Those Who See, 2007

Also at the ICA is an exhibition on view until October 18th called “Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video.” Only one of the five highlighted videos really captured my attention. To be honest, it stole my heart. Javier Tellez, the artist, was born in Venezuela and now lives and works in New York. His video,Letter on the Blind, For the Use of Those Who See from 2007 was extremely moving and very real. Based on an Indian parable called “Six Blind Men and the Elephant,” this work features six blind New Yorkers who one by one are invited to go touch an elephant in what appears to be a vacant parking lot or playground and speak about what they “see.” Some are afraid and some are simply in awe of the giant beast. As the wall text explains, “Each gesture reveals how they face the unseen and the unknown.” Filmed in black and white the six people sit away from the elephant and take turns walking toward it and interacting with this unknown beast. Then the director shows a close up of the elephant while the blind person describes what the experience was like. I entered the video at a point when a large black man encounters the elephant and is so touched by his experience that he leans in and claims, “he can hear the life coursing through the beast’s veins. He has allowed me into his personal space and I feel honored.” It was deep.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A quick weekend trip to Boston turned out to be art-filled with a visit to the MFA, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the ICA. Making its only stop in the US, the show of Venetian masters was quite fascinating; I learned a lot. As my friend whom I was visiting pointed out, the exhibition was probably a great deal more interesting to me based on the fact that I have spent a lot of time in Venice and have seen many of the masterpieces by these gentleman in situ. I am familiar with some of their work but never gave any serious thought to the influence they had on each other which is what this show is all about.

The works are thematically grouped enabling the viewer to easily see the differences and similarities in subject matter, style, and technique among the three artists. In fact, the artists rarely signed works because their individual styles were so easily recognizable. While of different generations there was enough overlap that they competed for work, clients, as well as fame. These three artists were best known for moving from painting on panels to canvas utilizing its texture to create works with subtle colors, wonderful surfaces, and capturing a raw emotion rarely seen before in the works of their predecessors such as Giovanni Bellini under whom Titian apprenticed.

Titian, Venus with a Mirror, c. 1555

Tiziano Vicellio (1488-1576), better known as Titian, developed a masterful technique for creating luxurious textured fabrics, flawless, porcelain skin, and harmony and balance in his paintings. In my humble opinion, no one was better at painting mythological subjects than Titian. Unlike Florentine early Renaissance painters such as Botticelli, early works by Titian were subtle and only included key elements such as the figure of Venus and a small shell in the work, Venus Rising from the Sea. He became well-known for his “bella donna” works of idealized beautiful women that were popular in early 16th century Venice. He emphasized patches of color instead of contour or line to depict form. Venus with a Mirror from 1555 graces the cover of the catalogue and for me it is the star of the show. It is the absolute epitome of beauty and the fur and velvet are rendered perfectly. In 1513 Titian became the official painter of Venice.

Tintoretto, Self-Portrait, 1546-47

Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594) was given the nickname of Tintoretto (”little dyer”) because it was his father’s profession. By 30 years of age he had come into his mature style. His brushwork and chiaroscuro was unlike that of any other artist of his time. The loose brushstrokes he used evoked high drama and emotion in his paintings. There is a spectacular self-portrait of the artist on view from 1546-47 which demonstrates his confidence. His piercing eyes stare out at the viewer from the darkened background challenging those who thought his technique was too loose and too far removed from the known canons of art to be accepted. Once a pupil in Titian’s workshop, Tintoretto was cast out because Titian feared that the young artist might surpass him in talent. Unlike Veronese, Tintoretto presented himself as anti-Titian. His tremendous skill is demonstrated in one work in particular in which a woman’s distorted form is shown in her reflection on a saint’s armor just as it would be in real life. I saw hints of El Greco in Tintoretto’s style which makes sense as they were roughly contemporaries. Tintoretto was very influenced by Michelangelo’s sculpture in the human forms he created on the canvas. Energy pulses throughout Tintoretto’s work.

Paolo Caliari (1528-1588), better known as Veronese (meaning from Verona), pledged allegiance to Titian adopting similar compositions and types of figures. His work is my least favorite as it seems to follow the norms of the time. He combines elements of both Titian and Tintoretto but unlike his peers, his work leaves me uninspired.

All three artists painted portraits which originally just showed the sitters’ heads but eventually showed three-quarters and then whole figures. These works provided the artists with an opportunity to show off their virtuosity at depicting luxurious materials such as leather, fur, and armor. Though Tintoretto veered from Titian in his religious and mythological works, he used the same dark background that Titian did in order to focus on the faces and clothes of his patrons.

Veronese, Iseppo da Porto and his Son Adriano, Veronese, c. 1551/Galleria degli Uffizi

There is a wonderfully sweet pair of large portraits of a husband and his son and a wife and her daughter by Veronese hanging in one gallery for the first time since their creation.

As Titian aged his brushwork loosened which was clearly an influence of his biggest rival, Tintoretto. It is obvious from the works on view in this exhibition that a little competition is healthy in the development of an artist. As the show is now no longer on view in Boston, my advice is to go to Venice and see the real works for yourself.

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

I have been wanting to go to this museum for many years. Isabella Stewart Gardner was an avid collector of art. Born in New York, she married John Lowell Gardner, Jr. who was from Boston in 1860. They traveled which introduced Isabella to art from all over the world. Armed with an inheritance from her father, and advice from connoisseurs like Bernard Berenson, she began to buy and soon needed a house that could hold all of her treasures. Her husband died in 1898 but Fenway Court still opened in 1903 as a museum. Remarkably, the museum remains almost exactly how Isabella left it–and it is eclectic indeed.

Central Courtyard

Surrounding a central courtyard, rooms house works by John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Matisse, James McNeil Whistler, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Sandro Botticelli, and Giotto. There are stained glass windows, statues, leather wall coverings, chairs, tables, tapestries, glass works, sarcophagi and there is even a chapel on view. It is quite an experience. If in Boston, it is worth a visit.

Exterior of museum

This is an interesting article from a recent Miami Herald. If you have the time, it is worth a quick read as the author makes some valid points:

Noguchi Museum

The Noguchi Museum, opened in 1985 as the first and only museum in the United States to be founded by an artist during his lifetime and dedicated to his work, focuses first and foremost on Noguchi’s influence on art and design of today. Situated in Queens it is not the easiest spot to get to but for $5, a shuttle that leaves every hour from 70th and Park provides a hassle-free mode of transport. In room after room, Noguchi’s masterful technique with stone and bronze is showcased in works from the 40s to the 80s. During the 1940s he used paper models to aid in the creation of his large biomorphic sculptures. Some of these plaster maquettes are currently on view in the space.

The museum is chock full of his freestanding works in steel, iron, bronze and stone. Also prevalent are his table sculptures and models for his public works such as playgrounds and commissioned public sculptures (many of which were never realized).

Noguchi Museum Garden

I went because every Sunday in the summer in their lovely sculpture garden they have a concert at 3pm. I saw the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (which consisted of 2 violins, a viola, and a cello) who played meditative classical music; it could not have been more soothing.

Recently there was an article in the NYT about art viewing and how most people don’t take enough time to stop and really appreciate a work of art. Michael Kimmelman wrote that while at the Louvre, “almost nobody, over the course of that hour or two, paused before any object for as long as a full minute.” Most people barely broke their stride in order to get through the museum and “see” everything. This reminded me of a time I was in Italy. A man was videotaping his museum experience with his family. As I watched him I took joy in the fact that I do not own a video camera for this reason alone–the man never once removed the camera from his face in order to view the artwork with his own eyes. He spent the entire visit to the museum looking at the art through the camera lens….sacrilegious.

He also explained that we rely on the wall text to tell us what we are supposed to get from a work of art. This is exactly what I tell people to avoid. Wall text is helpful when it comes to context, especially with conceptual art, but art is a personal experience. Kimmelman reminds us that, “Artists fortunately remind us that there’s in fact no single, correct way to look at any work of art, save for with an open mind and patience. If you have ever gone to a museum with a good artist you probably discovered that they don’t worry so much about what art history books or wall labels tell them is right or wrong, because they’re selfish consumers, freed to look by their own interests.”

Kimmelman goes on to explain that because of all our modern day distractions we hardly do anything with the focus or intensity that people used to. How sad, I thought as I read this but also how true. I think about how much art I try to fit into a month and I wondered how much am I missing out on. So I vow for the rest of the summer to stop and smell the roses. Whatever you are up to this summer, I hope you are slowing down to enjoy it.

Article: New York Times, “At Louvre, Many Stop to Snap but Few Stay to Focus,” Michael Kimmelman, August 3, 2009

Wave Hill looking out on the Hudson

Wave Hill is a cultural center and public garden in the Bronx. It is absolutely beautiful even though it was overcast and rainy on the day I visited with my ArtTable group. For many years Wave Hill has worked with artists to showcase their work either outside in the garden or in their gallery space. Past collaborators have been Robert Irwin and Ursula von Rydingsvard. The gallery currently has an exhibition in which work has been created based on artists’ response to the natural setting of Wave Hill as it is on the Hudson River. They reflect on the river itself as well as the huge impact it has had on art.

One artist chose to paint in the method of the famous Hudson River School artists over newspaper clippings about the cleanup of the river. Another chose to create an installation with animals and objects from the natural habitat of the area. I particularly enjoyed two video works. One, “Crossing” by Anna Tsouhlarakis, is a work about exploration. She took city cruises in both New York and London and videotaped her profile as she experienced these rides. You can hear her own thoughts, someone reading Henry Hudson’s impressions of his journey to the New World as well as the tour guide’s voice on the audio of the work. Tsouhlarakis exposes the superficiality of seeing places in present times and how we hit the famous spots and consider that all we need to see in order to have experienced a place. Tsouhlarakis was at Wave Hill to speak with my group. She received her MFA from Yale, lives in Washington DC and her website is www.naveeks.com.

Another video called “Currents” by Lorenzo Clayton and Jacob Burckhardt alludes to interaction with indigenous peoples. It includes two separate shots of the river on a horizontally split screen over the fireplace in one of the main galleries–one runs in one direction, the other the opposite. There is a clock on the wall hanging over the piece alluding to the time and tides that effect the river. Words such as “interdependence,” “conflict,” “integration,” and “acculturation” flash upon the screen.

Nicholas Galanin lives in Arkansas and uses tribal objects that have been turned into tourist objects in his work. In “Imaginary Indian” he uses toile wallpaper with scenes of people frolicking in nature and in front of it he hangs these “tribal objects” painted in exactly the same pattern as the wallpaper.

Currently the Bronx Museum is celebrating the centennial of the Grand Concourse. The Grand Concourse, one of the grand boulevards of New York, was designed in 1892 by Louis Risse to provide access from Manhattan to the large parks of the Bronx. It runs four miles through the Bronx and has some of the finest examples of Art Deco buildings in all of New York. Jeff Liao’s work hangs in the main gallery documenting the Bronx as it looks now–to some extent. He photographs hundreds of images with an 8 x 10 camera, scans, and Photoshops the pictures to create one image. In one of the largest works on view he includes the Bronx Courthouse and the two Yankee Stadiums (old and new) side by side. The images were captured from the roof of the Concourse Hotel, a famous place where many of the Yankees including Babe Ruth lived. Using 20-30 images with no flash, he is able to include a mix of afternoon and evening light that is brilliant in the final work. Also on view are four horizontal works in which every building along the Concourse is photographed and documented.

Also celebrating this wonderful path from Manhattan to the north is a project by Irish artist Katie Holten. Holten had a residency at the Bronx Museum and then entered the competition for the Grand Concourse project. She selected trees to mark along the side of the road with plaques. An audio guide, accessible via cell phone, accompanies the markers. At each stop visitors can listen to local people reflecting on what the Grand Concourse and the Bronx mean to them. I have not yet taken this tour of what is called the “Tree Museum,” but I intend to before the summer is over. A neat way to discover a neighborhood I am not familiar with. Here is a link to the site that tells more about it: http://www.treemuseum.org/

In and Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976 has some big name artists in it as well as some artists you have probably never heard of. While there were a few works I really enjoyed, I felt like for the majority of them, you kind of had to be there. Conceptual art which used language as a primary material flourished in a number of European cities such as Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Milan, and Amsterdam during this period. With the Stedelijk Museum’s program in contemporary art and the “progressive social climate of the city” European and American artists felt at home in Amsterdam. Most of the works in the show were first shown in Amsterdam shortly after their creation. Artists included are: Allen Ruppersberg, Ger van Elk, Bas Jan Ader. Jan Dibbets, Gilbert and George, Lawrence Weiner, and Sol Lewitt.

Dibbets, The Shortest Day at My House In Amsterdam, 1970

One of my favorite works in the show was a large photo by Dibbets, an artist interested in representing the physical world across spans of time. In The Shortest Day at My House in Amsterdam, he photographed the view from his window at eight minute intervals from dawn to dusk on the winter solstice in 1970. It documents subtle changes but the overall impact of the work is quite impressive. There is also something poetic about Dibbets’ 5 second video on view called Vertical Blinds in which the blinds simply open and close; it is meditative.

Gilbert and George, The Tuileries, 1974, Charcoal and paper

Gilbert and George created The Tuileries in 1974, a “paper sculpture” which consists of a room commissioned by gallery owners in Amsterdam in which 8 pieces of paper as well as 3 chairs and a coffee table are drawn on with charcoal. It is an impressive if non-functional work.

Buren, Demultiple, 1973

In another section of the show is a clever work by French artist Daniel Buren. Demultiple from 1973 is acrylic printed on cloth in his famous striped pattern that he uses in all of his work. In this piece he took a large piece of fabric he had painted on and cut it into 68 strips. Each strip was sold individually, accompanied by a certificate requesting that the work be hung in an empty space the size of the original fabric at the exact location it originally occupied. So cool!

Roman Ondak, Measuring the Universe, 2009, image courtesy of Randall Scott

For MoMA’s performance exhibition series, Slovakian artist, Ondák has created Measuring the Universe, a work in which viewer participation is essential. Over the course of the show attendants mark the heights of museum visitors on the gallery walls along with their first names and the dates the measurements were taken. The show began as a space with empty walls and over time the gallery has accumulated thousands of black marks, all at around the same height on the wall. In addition to inviting the viewer to participate in the work of art, it “turns the domestic custom of recording children’s heights on door frames into a public event.”–on view through Sept. 14th

Pétersson, Earth, 1994-2009

Sadly this show is no longer up but it was so great I decided to write about it anyway. Upon entering the main gallery there is a large screen on the far wall. In front of it is a large black shallow rectangular surface filled with water. In Pétursson’s Earth, sound reverberates through the room to create constantly changing ripples in the water so the pattern on the screen is always shifting and morphing. A constant hum from the speakers makes the experience one of the whole body.

Dream, 2004

On view in a smaller gallery is Dream from 2004 which consists of a low frequency sound which reverberates through a clear bowl of water creating constantly changing patterns in a circular form. Light projected from beneath the bowl shines on the ceiling. The artist says about his work, “I am always trying to capture phenomena, such as sound, water, fire, shadow and light, and channel them along new grooves, turn them into something other than what they are.” He is one of Iceland’s most prominent artists and he represented Iceland in the 2001 Venice Biennale. The pictures definitely do not do this work justice; you need to experience it for yourself so if you ever get the chance, it is worth the effort.