Comments on: Contemporary Art

By: NOIA

NOIA — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:29:41 +0000

[Lucy McRae and Noia] perform an alchemical experiment in the world of perception. Through the optical and auditory amplification of fluidic reactions, the artists bathe the space in an amniotic presence which conjures a clear view upon the delicate flow of awareness.

-PERFORMING-
Lucy McRae: Alchemist / Visual Artist
lucymcrae.net/

NOIA: Music / Microscopic Recording
soundcloud.com/noia/sets/albinoi/

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:43:32 +0000

Philip Guston IS still great. I also agree with you about the words on paintings. If a picture is worth 1000 words, I think anything with 1002+ is crowded. Sometimes I swear the only way to make art better is to regress a little bit. Creating art in a new way just because you can, at least in my opinion, doesn’t seem to have much honesty to it.

By: MarcL

MarcL — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:11:03 +0000

I always loved Kenneth Patchen’s picture-poems. New Directions just put them out in a new collection with a preface by Jim Woodring:

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Away-World-New-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811217574/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232064624&sr=8-4

By: Steve H

Steve H — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:14:54 +0000

I dropped out of being an art major in the seventies for most of the above reasons, plus I’m a crappy draftsman. Daub something and give it a title like MAN’S DILEMMA, and you’re an artist. Now computers have opened up doors that weren’t even invented then, and I make stuff again.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:50:27 +0000

Tom Wolfe also has a great chapter on Frederick Hart in his book _Hooking Up_. It’s very much the conflict between craft and the “little evidence of craft” you mention, especially when he discusses the Vietnam memorial.

“Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art” – Tom Stoppard

The van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is my favorite art gallery in the world. Nothing comes close to that place.

An Andrew Wyeth exhibition just opened here in Nagoya, that should be good…

By: Rudy

Rudy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:30:24 +0000

COOP, I like Irwin’s stuff okay, in a science museum kind of way. Sol Lewitt is a minimalist I like a little better.

As for words in visual art, I always think of what Beavis and Butthead would say when a music video had writing in it: “Words suck.” In the visual art context, words seem too cheap and easy, also they come from the non-visual half of the brain which seems jarring. I don’t recall any words in YOUR paintings!

I was looking at the van Goghs in the Met on my trip too. Those colors! And, ah, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Old fuddy duddy that I am…

By: COOP

COOP — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:23:58 +0000

It’s funny, because I was just reading a book about minimalist artist Robert Irwin, and thinking that you would really dig it. I think his work is beautiful and very satisfying.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree with you, except that I love paintings with words. It’s the sentences I can’t stand. (Jenny Holzer should be beaten with a thesaurus, IMHO.)

By: Jeffrey Kegler

Jeffrey Kegler — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:04:50 +0000

I second the recommendation of Tom Wolfe’s _The Painted Word_. It’s a short book packed with ideas. If you’re trying to figure out why modern painting wound up the way it did, Wolfe will tell you.

Wolfe also did a companion book called _From Bauhaus to Our House_. Before WW2, Western civilization was able to build buildings which were a pleasure to look at, work in or live in. After WW2, somehow it became impossible to erect anything that wasn’t either ugly and drab or weird and impractical. Wolfe tells how and why we got into this predicament.

By: rs

rs — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:59:46 +0000

old fuddy-duddy is right! LOL. Maybe there should be mandatory contemporary art appreciation for senior citizens!