Cy Twombly

Hmm, came across a pretty interesting artist on the MoMA website just now.  In contrast to the last post, this guy has so much meaning and depth and conceptualization in his work that it kinda makes me feel like a total dummy, and not just because I can't think of anything as good, but also because I don't even understand the work when its written out in front of me.




Untitled, New York 1953. / Wood, wire, twine, nails, house paint, and wax on cloth, 15 x 9 7/8 x 4 inches (38.1 x 25 x 10.1 cm)

 
Untitled, New York 1954. / Wood, cloth, twine, wooden spoons, oil crayon, house paint, and wax, 80 x 13 7/8 x 11 inches (203.2 x 35 x 28 cm).


 
Untitled, Bassano in Teverina 1980. / Wood, nails, clay, metal and paint, 79 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 15 5/8 inches (202.7 x 59 x 39.7 cm).


 
Untitled, Formia 1981. / Wood, cloth, cardboard, cord, paint, screw eyes and nails, 59 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 13 1/4 inches (152 x 88.4 x 33.6 cm).

Twombly's work is pretty esoteric.  There are supposedly some subtle references to classic myth and literature.  Honestly, I don't know my Greek mythology and symbolism well enough to ferret the meanings from his work....some people supposedly can.   I can see reference to Greek architecture and ruins, but for the most part his sculptures look utilitarian to me--like old dirty tools that were pulled from some collapsing barn in the Midwest.  The rickety structures and worn exteriors do seem like ruins and remnants.   

Will Cotton

Found a really amazing still life artist.  It seemed somehow fitting to choose Will Cotton since Christmas is a week away and some of his paintings are images of gingerbread-like houses and candy arraignments.  His paintings transport the viewer into a fantasy word that is somehow very familiar.  It is someplace that as children we have all fantasized about.  They have written songs, fairy tales, and cartoons about worlds where landscapes and structures are made of edible sweets and chocolate flows languidly through river beds.  He even creates a "heaven" of pillowy wisps of cotton candy where perfect female nudes lounge with all the innocence of sexless angels (so, of course it's highly erotic).


Nut House, 2012, oil on linen,  82x96 inches




Alpine Ruin 2008 Oil on Linen 60 x 84



The Consummation of Empire 2008 Oil on Linen 84 x 56


Okay, enough with the gingerbread houses. Ya Will Cotton can paint a mean gingerbread house, we get it!  On to the nudes. Nothing seems to get more people riled up than the female nude.  And nothing pisses off a feminist more than an outrageously attractive and thin female nude. Will Cotton has both! Feast your eyes on the flesh...err I mean candy and ice cream.



 
Ice Cream Donna II, 2011


Fairy Floss 2010


Cotton Candy Clouds 2004


Cotton paints in a highly realistic style.  His paintings often look like photographs, which he works from often after he has created a mini landscape of treats and sweets. His paintings are large scale which also allows him to execute a high level of detail in his work with little to no impasto, or painterly style.  His subjects, especially his nudes are pretty interesting in that he does not try to hide the fact that he is simply creating a fantasy world where women (perfect, young, fertile women mind you) are perhaps the ultimate treat.  Each pink, saccharine nipple is the cherry on top if you will.  His work kinda reminds me of Jeff Koons' in some ways.  His recent dive into the pop music scene cements that thought.  He was the inspiration for Katy Perry's California Gurls album art.  And he has done several paintings of Katy dress in sugary costumes.

 I kinda like Cottons work though.  I find it pretty shallow, yes, but I don't like when critics dismiss someones skill or there art simply because it is shallow or void of intellectual depth, or assume that because they can paint realistically then the work must be devoid of meaning.  At some point Will is expressing something that is as much a part of being human as wallowing in the misery of intellectual consciousness, or lamenting over the trials of being a woman in "a man's world".  He's commenting on the fantasy, desire, appetite  He's unabashedly acknowledging that as humans (male or female) a very real, very primal part of us loves looking at soft skin, round breasts, perky nipples, bare legs, exposed abdomens, shoulders, chests buttocks, etc..  His work is about the ultimate human indulgence! just as pertinent in our society today as human consumption, human cruelty, human greed, and so on.  Now, I don't know if Cotton sees it that way, if not, then ya, his work is trite and obnoxious. 

Tobias Putrih

So, I recently finished the Art 107 cardboard box self portrait project.  I didn't do a great job.  Well, I did an okay job, but it was not my most creative hour. I ended up with what everybody else ended up with "This is what you see on the outside, this is what the REAL me looks like!"  It was almost as if the limitlessness of the cardboard box as a material intimidated and stunted me.  It could also be that I had a god damn stop motion film production on the brain.  Any who, I came across the artist Tobias Putrih who has done some pretty neat things with corrugated cardboard recently.  His work also really reminds me of the artists who do book carvings and various book art.

 

Macula Series A&L, 2005

 cardboard, dimensions variable 

Macula Series, 2005



Re-projection: Hoosac, 2010 mono filament & spotlight


 “Soap Film Models,” 2010, wire and soap

The work of Tobias Putrih has something very familiar about it.  His use of the everyday, the ephemeral, and the disposable would fit nicely into our 108 class curriculum.  I thought I was going to talk about the cardboard sculptures because they loosely pertain to a project in 107, but my gosh, that last image of the "soap film models" would have made a pretty mind blowing skeleton-skin project. 

The sculpture appears to be pretty large (don't have the exact dimensions for this piece)  It is a wire structure that hangs from the ceiling.  The lines are curvilinear, organic and biomorphic, while at the same time there is a rigid, structurall facet to this piece that makes it quite architectural (as is typical for much of Tobias' work).  The viewer is actually invited to dip the sculpture into a vat of soapy water via a system of pulleys.  When the sculpture is pulled from the bath.  Shimmering, iridescent, films of soap span the spaces between the wire.  The idea idea of the soap film model comes from the work of famous architect Frei Otto, who actually used the soap film to visualize the smallest surface area needed to close a structure frame.  I like this piece because one, its frustratingly cleaver, two, the viewer gets to interact with the art and that is just good fun, three bubbles are pretty, and especially delicate against the heavy black wire of this sculpture, four, this sculpture is in a constant state of change. 

Kentridge

So I don't know exactly what is happening but it has happened twice now.  I get a post nearly complete, save it as a draft and then get back on line later and it has completely lost all the work i had previously done! For some reason three of my Gregory Sale images that were on my blog for weeks have just disappeared.  I don't know what is going on, but its about to piss me off.

So, I started looking at some more of William Kentridge's work since in a lot of ways, my final project is going to emulate his....I made a kinda disappointing discovery though.  He has also made some stills of a woman (wife) climbing into a bath tub.  I don't think I should be too surprised. The bathing nude is basically its own genre.  At least he did not make a movie about bathing, just a few drawings.


Untitled (video transfers). 2002
Charcoal, dry pigment, and gouache on paper (series of nine)

So I like what Kentridge said about this work is response to the idea that it fits into the classic genre of bathing nudes "The model become intimate rather that allegorical, objective or idealized."  Good, that is exactly what I hope to get across in my short film!  Sure it's not an original idea, an original media, or an original means of animating, but oh well, I want to do it.  I think it will speak to people.  I think it will be an absolutely momentousness amount of work, so if nothing else, I have the struggle.

Weighing... and Wanting.  1998

for the film Sobriety, Obesity & Growing Old (1991)

Kentridge is best know for his short film that he began creating in the late 1980's.  His more recent work does not seem to be in film form, but rather in exhibitions.  He has worked in sculpture, created an opera, and a series of tapestries out of netting and ripped construction paper.  His sketching and drawings are often highly gestural.  He says himself that often times the marks he put on paper do not have to be accurate, but they need to stand for some observation.  In the image above, two figures, a man and a woman, lay in a small pool or puddle in the center of the picture plane.  The horizontal movements in the image leave the viewer with a sense of stillness and calm but definite sadness.  I'm not sure but I think there are bovines in the background.  The woman is naked, rotund, and appears to be very sad. It looks as if the man is comforting her.   

Altelier Ted Noten

Just found a really cool artist on art.sy his work kinda reminded me of my body project implant (only his work is comprised of Gold and Diamonds and looks 1000 times better, but still).  The series was called the "Seven Necessities" 2012. I'd better post all seven images I suppose.

Seven Necessities - Glasses for a Woman on the Warpath, 2012

14K gold, mountain crystal

6 ^7/10 × 5 ^9/10 × 2 ^2/5 in

17 × 15 × 6 cm Noten’s spyglasses are the perfect device for a woman on the warpath. The nylon sunglasses contain many hidden compartments, one of the arms houses an aggressive crystal ice pick. A golden eyebrow completes the story.

Seven Necessities - Chatelaine, 2012

Nylon, glass with PARADISE, diamond, gold

5 ^1/10 × 7 ^1/10 × 2/5 in

13 × 18 × 1 cm Chatelaine is French for ‘mistress of the castle’. The word refers to an 18th and 19th century item: women in charge of their estates wore a decorative clip of long chains holding important household items about the waist. Noten’s chatelaine consists of both functional and decorative items, which testify of the present. The woman who wears it can for instance satisfy her hygienic needs, as there is a portable urination device, which allows her to pee while standing up. But there’s more: she can also show off her wealth and status with the credit card fan. In total there are 12 different modular items, which serve to personalise the chatelaine of her dreams.

 I really want to talk about this piece. I looked up the chatelaine and its one of those archaic items that are just fascinating.  I feel like I want to make my own chatelaine now...maybe use it as a self portrait project. 

Seven Necessities - Beauty Mask, 2012

Nylon, syringe from glass, needle 22K gold-plated, zirconia, glass bottle engraved with flowers-inside towel to disinfect, 18K golden capsule, rubber gloves

6 ^3/10 × 5 ^9/10 × 3 ^1/10 in

16 × 15 × 8 cm  The white mask is a replica of the face of Nefertiti (ca. 1350 BC), the Royal wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, who was considered a remarkably beautiful woman. Some say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, others claim the perception of beauty depends on hard facts, such as the ideal proportions. Noten created a Nefertiti-mask with tiny holes to inject either ‘botox’ of ‘filler’ in the face that hides behind the mask. The injected fluids will subsequently sculpt the face according to the rules of perfect beauty. In case the beautifying operation does not succeed, a golden suicide pill offers a last resort.

Seven Necessities - White Gun, 2012

Nylon, USB-stick with various images of men, mirror-glass, acrylic bullet containing diamonds silver necklace, 14K white gold hairpin, white lip-gloss, tablets

9 ^4/5 × 4 ^7/10 × 1 ^3/5 in

25 × 12 × 4 cm ‘The weapon of beauty’ is presented in a new shape: Noten’s Dior 002 Gun White Edition. This contemporary must-have gadget is produced on a 3-D printer, then retrofitted with hand-tooled details and loaded with all the ammunition a woman needs to survive the war between the sexes. The gun conceals a 4-gigabyte thumb drive for snapshots, personal data and corporate secrets; it also hides a Dior lip-gloss, a sparkling diamond, various white pills and other necessities any worldly woman would like to carry with her.

seven Necessities - Purse of Wonders, 2011

Crystal ball, mirror-glass, silver 22 K gold plated-lock system and drug paraphernalia, 14K gold (engraved wedding ring); 18K gold decoration-lipstick container and lotion dropper. Spermwhale lotion, Swarovski zirconia's, red lipstick (Chanel) / Alka Seltzer powder-champagne bottle

11 ^4/5 × 13 ^4/5 × 5 ^1/2 in

30 × 35 × 14 cm In need of the sperm of a whale oil, known for its anti-wrinkle properties? One can find the precious substance in the Purse of Wonders, as well as other wonders, such as lipstick, drug paraphernalia, a wedding ring, and a crystal ball to predict the near future.

Seven Necessities - Trophy Helmet, 2012

Nylon, rabbit fur, leather, silver 22K gold-plated, acrylic monocular, glass loupe

15 ^7/10 × 12 ^3/5 × 11 ^4/5 in

40 × 32 × 30 cm Noten’s Trophy Helmet is the ultimate showpiece for a woman on the hunt. It represents both her valuable possessions as well as her resolve to obtain them. The beautifully crafted helmet displays the collection of rings, as well as the tools that enabled finding these symbols of eternal love, including a radar device and a telescope.

Seven Necessities - Chastity Belt, 2012

Silver 22K gold-plated, diamond, video player

13 × 9 ^1/10 × 7 ^9/10 in

33 × 23 × 20 cm

Okay, I pasted all of the explanations of the objects because I feel like it is important to know all the gadgetry that come concealed in the purse or the gun for instance.  I kinda wish that there had been an explanation for the camera lens on the chastity belt, but i'll just assume that its acting as a security camera.  Anyway, I really like this work.  It's clean, white, sexy, glamorous, and luxurious.  These implements are clearly meant for an elite class of women in a shiny, beautiful, but horrible distopian future.   These seven items are also more like consumer goods than art in some ways. I want to own these things like I want to own nice leather boots, gold jewelry, and foreign cars.  Noten is commenting on a certain class, and type of woman I think--you know that ones that used to bathe in the blood of virgins, but now just apply face cremes that contain the placenta from endangered species or stem cells from human fetus. 

From looking at Noten's other work (he was first a jewelry maker) its kinda hard for me to know what his intentions are for his work.  I think he is taking adornment to the next level obviously, but he is still creating many pieces of wearable art that I'm not sure contain much irony.  So in some ways I'm not sure that he is always poking fun at the insanely rich and vain women out there. Perhaps in some ways I think he is still pandering to them...After looking at more of his work I kinda have a bad feeling about Noten, like he really kinda believes in the time and place where these beautiful pieces would belong...

But that would be crazy. I think his Fine Art work is often times making fun of the uber wealthy.  He just does it in a pretty sneaky way sometimes.  Sometimes not though (see golden suicide pill in Beauty Mask).

Dale Chihuly

I figure that if I do one blog post a night I should be able to get this assignment done by the end of December.  I really like that the blog assignment is due after the stop animation film.  I think that is HUGE. Also, I did not do any over break because turkey makes me sleepy.  

I don't know if Dale Chihuly is viewed by the art community the same way that a Jeff Koons is or not.  They are both extraordinarily successful artists (I think you know you have made it in the art world when you are in the process of suing or being sued), but just looking at Chihuly's background and credentials I personally think he is pretty legit.  He has studied in Europe, taught, established a glass school, and has pretty much created and dominated the avant-garde glass work field.  Similarly to Koons, he no longer has as much of a physical presence in his work as he did in his younger days, but unlike Koons, Chihuly lost an eye and all of his shoulder strength in two separate accidents preventing him from blowing glass.

Chihuly's work is innovative, striking, beautiful and thought provoking.  He has several different exhibition  themes, but the ones I really love and really want to discuss are his garden and green house exhibitions.  I love the idea of these glistening and brightly colored organic forms popping up from the ground, or out of pools of water and looking both completely at home in their environment and yet completely fantastical at the same time.

Scorpion Tails and Bamboo 2008,  Dessert Botanical Garden, AZ

Purple Frog Foot Installation 2004, Atlanta Botanical Garden, GA

Tiger Lilies 2005, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, FL

Yellow and Red Striped Herons 2005, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, FL 

So Great!  These sculptures all come from Chihuly's glass series called "Flori," Italian for flower of course.  And specifically they are in the "outdoor series".  I think I like the this particular sub series the best out of all of his works.  This series speaksto me and stimulates my imagination the most.  The glass really does fit in perfectly with the environments seen here.  Extreme environments such as rain forests and deserts are host to such amazing flora anyway that at times Chihuly's work almost complements the the other plants more than it promotes itself.  I saw this especially in the desert botanical garden.  Even though Chihuly is old and fat now and way to rich and has a wife that is waaaayyy to hot and young for him, I still really love his work.

Malia Jensen

Got on the old artsy and decided that I would check out some ceramic work.  I stumbled across Malia Jensen and she has some really interesting, really beautiful--and pretty funny in many cases--art works.

Purse
7" x 20" x 15"
polyurethane resin
2001

Young Bucks (more fucking dear art)
10.5" x 5" x 5.5"
bronze, walnut base
2010

Crystal Beaver
4" x 2.25" x 7.5" each
lead crystal
2010

Bedroll
10" x 16" x 14"
cast ceramic
2005

Perfect Circle
2" x 24" x 24"
cast ceramic
2012

I suppose I'll talk about the young buck sculpture because I think its funny and it reminds me of Sportman's Warehouse or Cabela's art.  There is sooo much art work out there  depicting is some species of cervid!  I don't know if that was the joke, but that's what got me.  The deer are also engaging in some odd animal behavior that does actually happen when young deer are both excited and confused.  I would love to see a painting of such a scene hanging in a Cabela's store (the look on hunter's faces...priceless).

The sculpture is relatively small (could be displayed on a table or shelf in one's home) the materials are cast bronze and a wood block that is acting as a base for two bronze deer.  The subject of the piece are male deer as seen by the number of points on their antlers, and they are also in velvet.  One of the male deer has mounted the other and is attempting (in vain) to mate.  The deer figures are representational, but not necessarily naturalistic.  They appear to be stylized by the artist.  Its actually hard to see this in the horrible picture I pulled from Jensen's website.  The wood block has been cut and smoothed on five of the six sides.  The top side with the deer attached has been left ruff and untouched.  

Malia Jensen grew up in Oregon and now resides in Brooklyn.  Her career as a "recognized" (I had to put that in quotes because even I don't know what that means exactly) artist began on the early 1990's.  She is a sculptor primarily  but has also a series of New Yorker style cartoons.  She works in tradition materials such as ceramics and bronze, but has also worked in with rubber fabric which she pulled over deer and elk taxidermy forms, or silk fabrics that she sewed around young trees.  She is known for her work that is both comical, but slightly sad if you delve deeply into the meanings.  Her subjects are often times animals either domestic or wild.  It has been speculated that her rural roots in Oregon contributed to the heavy use of nature and fauna in her art.