Qu'est-ce-que-c'est!
So a piece of artwork, a sculpture to be precise, was stolen off of Bernie Madoff’s Montauk estate. This might be the work of the Earth Liberation Front. LOL!
Anyways here is the link to the article on MSN: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32891697/
Lets hope more white-collar criminals get the same treatment 
In Houston, TX three dubious lots of Dali artwork have been donated to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. The New York Times Article has all you could ever want to know about this little development of high kultur and second hand stores.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/arts/design/29dali.html?_r=1&ref=design
I for one hope they are real so that I can continue to shop the second hand stores of Philadelphia with a little chance for serendipity.
After visiting a certain Bush League MFA show and then going to the Brooklyn Museum for the Gustave Caillebotte show my wheels and gears, pulleys and levers started grinding, (Yawn! most decidedly.) and I came up with an original thought. Now if the Impressionists were avant-garde or whatever you would like to call their mode of expression what on earth should we call contemporary artists who flock to the institutions, schools and academia for patronage, protection, productivity and so forth? Well I would clearly state that the Salon, Academy, call it what you will, is back and even harder to get into than when Caillebotte was painting. Only now, one’s concept of the thing is what moves one forward, well yeah one could say that it was highly conceptual to just focus on the play of light upon the landscape as the Impressionists did. But I might argue that at least they had some skill and proficiency in the traditional art of representing something figural. Now it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aeQ3DmKU7A Anything Goes! I mean not to disparage anyone in particular but! my disdain for video pieces can only rise with the tide and fall, irrevocably into indolence. Video pieces are an indicator of sorts for the theme here. That the avant-garde has been institutionalized and is now fed three hot meals a day and given its’ cot to slumber upon. All of the rage, passion and fuel for any new movement must somehow go through a credibility game of conceptualization and a process of gross, misleading mystification in order to sparkle and find its’ place on stage. The revolution isn’t televised it is just hypnotised, made a commodity and sold to you in the form of an MFA, BFA or in Russia you can buy one at a subway station. But lets not leave it at that, here is a fascinating website that I found which lists hundreds of artists on its’ programmable site: http://www.indexhibit.org/participants/
In my Internet searchings I have found a French artist named Paul Helleu. He did fashionable portraits in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Most if not all are stunning pieces of art. Please check out this website to get a view of his work:
http://www.galleryofart.us/Paul_Helleu/
Enjoy!
Just to let you know: through July 5, 2009 there is an exhibition of Gustave Caillebotte’s paintings at the Brooklyn Museum. Caillebotte’s paintings are hard to find in major museums because he wasn’t forced to sell his paintings while he was alive. Please go if you can.
Here is the link to the exhibition’s website:
Here is a link to an article from Smithsonian.com on Michelangelo @ 500. It is interesting even in its brevity. And while I personally have never been to Italy or Europe for that matter it never hurts to look at digital images of an old master: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Measure-of-Genius-Michelangelos-Sistine-Chapel-at-500.html?utm_source=newsletter20090422&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=InsiderApril2#
Enjoy!
I found this volume at the Philadelphia Book Festival last Spring. While it is slim, it is highly engaging and interesting. It gives one a sense of the history and richness of Pennsylvania’s painting tradition. The Peales figure prominently, as they should, but also obscure Lancaster County housepainters are in the book and the Impressionists and Modernists are also there. What I found most interesting, though maybe not that surprising, was that Pennsylvania artists matured with the rest of the country and produced memorable landscapes and genre scenes in the 19th century. Reminiscent of the Barbizon school of France Pennsylvania painters, most notably Lloyd Mifflin Jr., painted lush scenes of lasting importance.
To purchase the book please visit the Pennsylvania Historical Association’s website: http://www.pa-history.org/pastudyseries.htm
There you can find a plethora of picture books that deal with Pennsylvania history. At this years Philadelphia Book Festival I will probably pick up more from the Association.
So I went to the Pennsylvania Impressionists’ exhibit at the Newman Gallery today. It was a brief but interesting affair. The Newman Gallery is located at 1625 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. I was not a little intimidated walking in there, I think it had to do with the price tags. Anyways, it was an enjoyable experience and I got to see some first-rate American Impressionism. John Folinsbee was the most represented painter from the school. Fred Wagner, Daniel Garber, Giovanni and Antonio Martino all had decent pictures hung in the upstairs gallery. The bulk of the paintings were from John Folinsbee. Who I find is an accomplished painter and draftsman. Harry Leithe-Ross has a couple of etchings in the show which are of museum quality. Overall it is an interesting show, I wish the Philadelphia Art Museum could put on a similar one.
So an R. Crumb exhibition blew into town the other week and a friend and I went to see it. I have always admired Crumb from afar, hell I even bought a couple Zap and Mr. Natural comix a few years back. But I have never truly thought of Crumb as a serious artist. That is until his series of Early jazz, blues and country greats came out. Even though we might only have a single picture or two of an artist, for instance Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton, Crumb, who is quite an avid 78rpm collector, really gets at the essence of the performer. Oh and he is one hell of an artist when it comes to these portraits. But as far as his underground work I am not all that interested in what he has to portray. Especially the late 70’s weirdness where he tries to squeeze everything into a single panel and then the next panel is just as cramped for space. His proportions are good and his lines express the right things at the right times but his content seems to be lacking a certain something. I can understand the weirdness coming from the times he grew up in but I don’t know if Crumb’s work has enough lasting qualities to make it to the 22nd century.
Something else I liked about the exhibition was the early comics that Crumb did with his brother. There was a Donald Duckyness or a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfism about them that was pretty cool to reflect on, considering his current work and style never really deviated from the peak underground years of the late 60’s. Overall the show was fascinating because of the glimpse of Crumb’s working methods and all that good stuff, and it is always good to see the originals of artists who have been mass produced.
If you are interested please check out the ICA’s website for the event info: http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/crumb.php
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