11/21/09 Guggenheim Museum

Kandinsky at the Guggenheim:

I visited the Guggenheim Museum. There were long lines to get tickets for the Kandinsky Exhibit. Although the museum was crowded the exhibit was easily viewed. The Frank Lloyd Wright design allowed for adequate spacing of the art works in a way that it could accommodate large crowds. The spiral design was basically a long corridor which wound itself to the top. The viewers proceeded in an orderly fashion in one of two directions, bottom-up or top-down. The flow of viewers did not have to fight for optimal viewing position since each individual saw the art works in the same way. I found this to be less tiring.

Kandinsky was forced to move around to many places because of political and economic reasons. But, he never came to America, although he was invited to come, 'home' was always in Europe. Because of his 'inner need' to express himself through art, he never finished his university studies in law and economics. He believed that art should express the innermost feelings of the artist, a new spiritual reality. A vocabulary needed to be developed to allow for this kind of expression. Much of his inspiration came from the his association with Arnold Schoenberg, an innovator of contemporary music. As much as the twelve-tone system of Schoenberg was used to break away from traditional conventions, Kandinsky also wanted to break away from representational art and become more abstract. His first truly non-objective painting was "Black Lines" done in 1913:

His color palette was changing from vibrant primary colors to subtle pastel hues. This conveyed to me a truer sense of spiritual regeneration. A later work, Movement I (1935) demonstrates a sophisticated vocabulary:

In this colorful galaxy, ribbons of color float amid complex geometric structures against a backdrop of circles large and small. Their edges are irregular. By now Kandinsky has stopped using the compass to draw his favorite motif, he wants to achieve the evocative powers of the circle:

1) the circle is the most modest form, but it asserts itself unconditionally.

2) it is precise but an inexhaustible variable.

3) simultaneously, it is stable and it is unstable.

4) simultaneously, it is loud and it is soft.
5) the circle is a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.

--indeed, the circle is the ideal symbol for this image which suggests infinity.

"Yellow-Red-Blue" is an important painting of the Bauhaus era.

While teaching at the Bauhaus, he collected images of embryology, zoology, and botany. He used these images for his lectures and re-formulated them into his abstract vocabulary. Blending the natural sciences with formal abstraction and Surrealist elements, Kandinsky worked in a free-flowing style. A style in which I can appreciate freedom of form while retaining the motif of opposing forces that has always been pervasive in his work. I can feel how he is creating tension in his works and then finds resolution of this tension. So, it is free of conventions, a more personal style which is internally liberating and self-motivating. Kandinsky's view was that the "inner necessity" of artists could be translated into universally accepted statements that could offer a regenerative vision of the future.

November 13, 2009 MFA Show

MFA Show

Installation of show in the gallery space:

I think the overall installation of the art works was done well. The space was used wisely. Since there was a pre-dominance of art work on the walls additional partitions made sense, by increasing the amount of wall space where art works could be hung. This was done in such a way that the largest hanging piece had an unobstructed view from a distance.

The walls allowed light pieces to be hung. They were not solid enough to have heavier pieces of art to be hung on them. The mobility was important since the location of the art piece needed to be illuminated in the proper perspective. The light could cast a shadow from the piece making it very interesting.

I am interested in land forms. The black and white photos and videos of Megan Flaherty dealt with those land forms in a wonderful way. For me, there was a feeling of sentimentality similar to "film noir" only in photo style. The photos had low-key lighting creating a chiaroscuro effect. I love this effect since it accentuates the contours of the landscape and trees. The video that was presented did not achieve the same effect, but it did provide movement of the scenery to the landscape. Importantly, the arrangement of the three unframed photos on one wall with the video on the opposite wall worked well with the longer wall with the six framed photos in between. I like the balance on this side of the room, compared to the crowded opposite side of the same room.

Christopher's Guerra's pieces of 'Spaghetti' and 'Life forms' had a lighter feeling and playfulness about it. I loved the colors, especially the intense primary colors used on the objects suspended from the ceiling. He invited me to his studio to see how he made the pieces. The processes to breakdown the newspapers to be applied to the chicken wire seems ingenious. But, what was exciting was how he built up his canvas with the processed newspaper before applying the paint. He threw the processed newspaper on to the canvas. The two of us were excited that we were both using recycled newspapers for similar environmental reasons for our art works. Actually, we came up with some ideas that may be useful to me in the future.

Overall, most of the art works were interesting. I am very optimistic about the graduate students and their abilities. They have a fertile imagination. But, some of the pieces seem to be unfinished.

Additional Image Collection for BFA Thesis

Jaime K. An-Wong
BFA Thesis Image Collection



















Jaime K. An-Wong, Untitled, 2009

Experimental model for BFA Thesis sculpture.
Newspapers layered underneath soil and growing grass in a glass container.

Proposal for BFA Thesis

Jaime K. An-Wong

Proposal for BFA Thesis

I am concerned, as many people are, about the environment and the effect humans have had on it. We are the only species that can destroy all life on earth as we know it, and we are the only species that can save it. It is hard for me to express what art means to me. But, as I am working with my hands, I am thinking. Sometimes I am lost in deep contemplation and that is when I am closest to my soul. My other sanctuary is in the great outdoors. The more pristine the environment, the closer I feel to the truth. It is a place where I can gather my thoughts. At times, it arouses the subconscious bringing forth memories and emotional attachments associated with the past and present, but also, hope for the future.

In Aldo Leopold, we find a reverence for nature in the outdoors. Leopold gives you a sense that we have much to learn from observing nature and listening to it. Although we can learn most principles thru science, only thru contact with nature and contemplation do we gain that reverence toward it. And, then we gain the determination to preserve it. In doing so, we will be perpetuating our own existence. I believe that many of the principles we discover about life and behavior crosses most of the disciplines. In discovering these principles we are unifying all knowledge, called consilience. This is best described by Edward O. Wilson.

The earth beneath our feet or the land which we live on, has always had a special place in my heart. It is the well that I can continually go to for sustenance. It is always there for me, especially when I need it the most. Appealing to me in a different way is Land Art. Working in the wide open outdoors brings a very special setting and a complex set of environment factors to work with. One dilemma I have wrestled with is how to bring the same vitality and life to the indoors. However gradual and subtle the processes in nature are, I hopefully can bring a bit of it indoors. One very important aspect to Land Art is the need to “know the land” well through investigation of its physical forms and spiritually connect to the land beginning with its primordial stages. Whatever we do to destroy the environment we live in, the question is not whether the earth survives but whether we are on the land to enjoy it. I prefer to be present with my children or my children’s children.

Humans have battled against the elements from the very beginning of our history. We have survived all natural occurring obstacles thus far, but are we going to help ourselves from our own destruction? The photographer, Mary Mattingly, has a very specific but very dire prediction of the future. She is warning of the coming apocalypse. Mattingly is sure the land will be here, the only question is whether humans remain to enjoy it. Her photos and projects are attempts to bring attention and consideration of the inevitable. What are we going to do about it? With one scenario, climate change will bring a rise in sea levels inundating the coastal cities and lands.

-1-

In certain regions, such as the Netherlands, they have been fighting back the sea waters and claiming further land to build upon. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned and appreciated. The land needs to be appreciated and treated as one of our precious resources. Living in a sustainable way requires us to understand it and to stand up for the “land,” to be stewards of the land. In addition to the land, the materials we consume are of limited quantities. Do we have a responsibility to future generations to conserve some of the resources for their enjoyment? After all, most of us have a direct interest to this end, since we are talking about our children and their future offspring. Are we that selfish or can we find alternatives or at least recycle our precious resources?

I want to investigate the relationship of my artwork to humanity. Am I doing good? Am I doing something to help improve the human situation? I want to think big, about the natural forces that we all contend with, whether they are violent and powerful like a hurricane or whether it is gradual and slow moving as geological forces may be. More importantly, I want to have people look inward toward their psyche. It would be wonderful to be able to stir up enough motivation to get people to commit to the grand ideas that are out there. There are shared commonalities among all of us, so we are really in the same boat. The most assured path to transformation within us, is through self-examination by each individual. This is where art fits in. Art has the ability to reach “the masses,” and if successful, art will get them to commit to the cause. Only through collective means are we going to solve some of the global problems. We owe that to the future generations.

There are alternative paths to a better future, than our present materialistic, consumer-driven society. Think of the scale of the problem. The newspapers or soda cans were collected over a short two to three months this summer by our family. What is the scale of the problem for a small town, a large city, the state, or the country? What becomes of all the garbage and are there any other alternatives? We can be more creative. We just have to get people to consider it important to find the right solutions. It starts by contemplating about the problem and getting the critical mass to consider it important enough to commit to make the situation right. This is where art can be effective and it may excel in this role.

I had an opportunity to learn about the works of Steven Siegel last semester. One particular sculpture, “Scale” at the Abington Art Center, I followed for several years. “Scale” is an outdoor sculpture composed of recycled newspapers. It was expected to survive 15 to 20 years before decaying. The sculpture actually collapsed earlier. The idea of trees arising from the soil to be subsequently made into newspapers, and finally, the sculpture of newspapers will eventually decay and become part of the soil for future trees was an interesting life cycle. Steven Siegel had been greatly influenced by “deep time” and the geologic processes that are always at work. This aspect is apparent in his work. The question is can this translate into better stewardship of the environment.

Finally, the story of Arshile Gorky is very tragic, yet interesting to me. He had mostly taught

-2-

Jaime K. An-Wong

himself skills by studying the masters who came before him. Gorky’s own “distinctive art” comes only

when he re-discovers the memories and associated emotional overtones of his youth in Armenia. What aided this development was establishing his studio in rural Connecticut and also visiting a farm in Virginia. Being back in natural surroundings quickly brought out his creative abilities and inspired him to produce amazing art works. Although he came to a tragic end, I feel that nature and natural surroundings have a similar stimulus for me. But, more than anything else, it is being productive in art that sustains me. I am at peace with myself when I am in the studio. I have time to think and experiment. I want to make this a better place to be and this is where I find my piece of mind.

-3-

Jaime K. An-Wong

Annotated Image Collection for BFA Thesis Proposal

Jaime K. An-Wong
Annotated Image Collection for BFA Thesis Proposal

Walter De Maria, “The New York Earth Room,” 1977. Long-term installation at

141 Wooster Street, New York City. Photo: John Cliett. Copyright Dia Art Foundation.

Earth Room combines De Maria’s work as a minimalist, conceptualist and land artist

De Maria’s earth sculpture is especially interesting as an experience of the senses. On walking inside the apartment, the air has a different quality to it. It is humid, and the space smells reassuringly damp and earthy. The temperature of the space itself is very comfortable, regularized naturally by the soil and without the use of heaters. The earth stands in contrast to the combination of the white walls and naked lights. Only the glass stands between the artwork and the viewer and demonstrates the depth of the soil in the room.

Watered and raked once a week in order to keep it like it was during its first exhibition, the earth also has something barren about it: its richness and wetness contrast the fact that there is nothing growing out of it, no visible life.
















Robert Smithson, "Spiral Jetty," 1970

A monumental earthwork located in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. At one point it was submerged because of the rising water level in the lake. Recently, the "Spiral Jetty" has re-surfaced, but it now has a crust of salt on its surface and at the edges.

Robert Smithson, “Asphalt Rundown,” 1969

Smithson’s first “flow”, situated in an abandoned and mundane section of a gravel and dirt quarry in Rome. A large dump truck released a load of asphalt down a gutted and gullied cliff already marked by time.

Aside from Smithson’s interest in working outside of the gallery walls, he also had a strong interest in Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionist works. Jackson Pollock was known to lay his canvas on the floor, and he poured the pigment on the canvas to create many of his artworks. It has been noted by Robert Hobbs that Smithson takes the drip away from the canvas and in the outdoors he monumentalizes it in a slow ooze. There is some randomness in the process and how the finished work looks.

Leslie Shows, Display of Properties, 2009
Acrylic, paper, pins, and flags
28 x 43 ft.

Indoor sculpture in the spirit of Robert Smithson's Asphalt Rundown (1969), where asphalt was poured down a hillside from the tipped bed of a dump truck. Through the force of gravity, the asphalt's own mass determined its form based on the qualities of its sluggish materiality. Here, Leslie Shows uses paper to demonstrate the effects of gravity on the hanging strips of paper attached to the flags.






















Mary Mattingly, The New Mobility of Home, 2004

With this photograph, the future on earth is a forgone conclusion. This is one scenario of the impending apocalypse. Mattingly presents us with the "navigator" who is busy creating and utilizing adaptive technology to survive. The subject is wearing a "wearable home."

Waterpod Project, 2009

Waterpod™ is a floating, sculptural, eco-habitat designed for the rising tides. This was the brain-child of the photographer Mary Mattlingly. Another scenario of the apocalypse, is the rising sea levels due to climate change and the result of global warming. Many of the major cities of the world are located on the coast.

As a sustainable, navigable living space, the Waterpod™ showcases the critical importance of the environment and art, serving as a model for new living, do-it-yourself technologies, art, and dialogue.

The Waterpod demonstrates future pathways for nomadic, mobile shelters and water-based communities, docked and roaming. It embodies self-sufficiency and resourcefulness, learning and curiosity, human expression and creative exploration. It intends to prepare, inform, and provide an alternative to current and future living spaces.

In preparation for our coming world with an increase in population, a decrease in usable land, and a greater flux in environmental conditions, people will need to rely closely on immediate communities and look for alternative living models; the Waterpod is about cooperation, collaboration, augmentation, and metamorphosis.

Three Antennas at the Waterpod Project

The sculpture of the three antennas was first presented at the Venice Biennale. they are working antennas used to receive and transmit wireless communications, such as broadcasts, e-mails, and downloads of music and videos. The scuplture was installed on the Waterpod Project barge to be used. The Waterpod Project is a work in progress, with five artists to live on board for up to one year. They are to be self-sufficient; to be able to grow their own food, generate their own electricity, and to filter the water to make it potable.
















Photo by Jannes Linders, Aperture Gallery

This photo was from the Aperture Gallery. The exhibit was, "Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art." The Netherlands for many centuries have dealt with the rising sea levels to varying degrees. Of course, technology has brought new abilities to control flooding and has enabled the Dutch to claim land from the sea. If climate change brings about rising sea levels, then we can appropriate similar techniques to save our cities near the coast.

















Photo by Hans Aarsman, Aperture Gallery

Besides the activity on land, much of the human activity in the Netherlands take place on barges and ships.





















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken March 3, 2004

The sculptor, Steven Siegel, has used many types of recycled materials for his sculptures. It is interesting to me, how Siegel used newspapers in his outdoor sculptures. The sculptures are expected to last a finite amount of time. In this case, "Scale" was to remain erect about 15 years.

















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken October 2006

Here, only four years since "Scale" was erected, it started to collapse.
















Steven Siegel, Scale, 2002
Photo taken April 9, 2009

Finally, it has collapsed seven years after the scuplture was erected. The early demise of the sculptue was partially due to design and partially due to severe weather conditions.










Steven Siegel, New Geology #2, 1990

Although this newspaper structure was erected years earlier, it is still standing. According to Steven Siegel, if you look carefully at the newspaper, the newsprint is still readable. The slower decay of the sculpture is primarily due to the overgrowth of the structure by vegetation.

Arshile Gorky, One Year the Milkweed, 1944

Arshile Gorky lead a tragic but artistic life. Arshile Gorky, A Retrospective, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art made that very point. He came to the United States to escape the genocide of Armenians, only to lose his mother in the process due to starvation. His artistic skills were sharpened by studying the masterpieces of Cezanne, Picasso, Miro, and Roberto Matta. It was only thru Gorky’s reconnection with nature (his studio in rural Connecticut and Crooked Run Farm in Virginia) did he re-live and paint with emotion what he remembered of his youth on the farm in Armenia.

Annotated Bibliography for BFA Thesis Proposal

Jaime K. An-Wong

Annotated Bibliography for BFA Thesis Proposal

Bolender, Karin, “Into the Holocene: The Art of Steven Siegel”, Dutchess Magazine,

February 2000

-Steven Siegel is interested in the concept of “deep time.” It is a length of time so long that we

can not grasp or truly understand the events over that interval of time when we are standing in

front of its final representation at the present time.

-This concept began a career long artistic interrogation of the essential cycles of deposit and decay that underlie the making of the land.

Knight, Richard and Riedel, Suzanne, “Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience,” (Oxford

University Press, New York, 2002) ISBN 0-19-514943-2

-We are citizens of the biotic community.

-“Those who embrace the land ethic have the satisfaction of being in the vanguard of social

evolution, partaking in a uniquely human capacity. Leopold described the capacity of one

species to care about the fate of another as ‘a new thing under the sun.’”

Lehan, Joanna, “Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video,” (International Center of

Photography, New York, 2006) ISBN 3-86521-310-3

-Environmental impact is on the minds of most thoughtful people of our generation. The

book showcases the work of artists who are examining in a broad sense the environment and

humankind’s relationship to it.

-Nature is a source of a great deal of cultural anxiety. Nature has been ascribed with positive and

even spiritual values but the a paradox is presented since our present culture, dominated by a

notion of progress, is intent on the relentless destruction of nature. In 100 years, nature has shifted from something awesome and dangerous, which we need to be protected from, to something fragile, which we need to protect.

Leopold, Aldo, “A Sand County Almanac,” (Oxford University Press, New York, 1949)

ISBN 0-19-505305-2

About progress and modernization:

-We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.

-May be ‘climate change’ is nature’s way of taking back what we have abused, the land with its

rising sea levels.

-1-

Jaime K. An-Wong

McPhee, John, “Basin and Range” (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1980)

ISBN 0-374-10914-1

-Artists capture and distill countless aspects of our lives.

-After reading this book, Steven Siegel fully engaged the idea of “deep time.” The term relates to

geology, James Hutton first observed, then realized that the earth’s processes of erosive breakdown and uprising renewal had been going on, a never imagined time longer than previously suspected.

Norton, Bryan, “Searching for Sustainablility,” (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003)

ISBN 0-521-80990-8

Sustainable living:

-In terms of geologic processes and of life on earth, Bryan Norton narrates the story of the cranes migrating to the marshes of Wisconsin, as described by Aldo Leopold. The history of migrating cranes dates back to the time of glaciers, describing the formation of the pond and surrounding marshes, the ecological conditions that allowed the cranes to find a niche in Wisconsin. He recognizes that they have survived many earlier, gradual transformations of their habitat, and then laments how, in so many marshes, they had succumbed to human alteration of their habitat in just a few generations.

-Leopold’s aesthetic explanation: “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with

the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by

language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, as yet beyond the reach of words.”

-The espoused philosophy, is that nature does not make mistakes. In order for us to understand

we must take the time to observe nature and listen to what it has to say. We must live with nature

(in the wild) and to experience it. We will then be able to live in harmony with the environment

around us, in a sustainable way.

Phillips, Patricia C., “Wandering Through Time: The Sculpture of Steven Siegel”, Sculpture,

October 2003

-Steven Siegel makes great accumulations from small elements of a single material elaborately

layered and stacked into monolithic forms that often look like boulders or vessels, geological

formations or immense artifacts.

-Siegel uses recycled materials, the overwhelming evidence of voracious cycles of production and

consumption. A painstaking process of fabrication requires the artist and other willing

participants to engage in long periods of repetitive, yet thoughtful activity.

-2-

Jaime K. An-Wong

Siegel, Steven. 2003. http://stevensiegel.net

Studio Project: Wonderful Life (mixed media)

-The title is shared with the 1989 publication of the same title by Stephen Jay Gould. Evolutionary biology has rich parallels to the creative process and the development of craft. By letting simple materials follow their own obvious means of organization what exactly would evolve?

-This was Siegel’s attempt to bring the spirit of Land Art indoors.

Smithson, Robert, “Cultural Confinement,” in Art in Theory, 1900 -2000, ed. Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul, (Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts, 1992) ISBN 978-0-631-22707-6

-One of the principal strategies of Land Art was to move the work out of the confines of the

gallery towards a more directly critical relation to the modern world.

-“I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to

day apart from representation. The parks that surround some museums isolate art into objects

of formal delectation.”

-My hope is to bring some of this vitality indoors.

Smithson, Robert, “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects,” in Art in Theory, 1900 -2000),

Ed. Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul, (Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts, 1992)

ISBN 978-0-631-22707-6

About geologic and natural processes:

-The strata of the Earth are a jumbled museum. The sediments contain the remnants of history

over an interval of time, which are layered consecutively one on top of another.

-“In order to read the rocks we must become conscious of geologic time, and of the layers

of prehistoric material that is entombed in the Earth’s crust.”

-Oxidation, hydration, reduction, and dissolution are the major processes of rock and mineral

disintegration, “that could be turned toward the making of art”.

Wilson, Edward, “ Consilience: The Unity Of Knowledge,” (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998)

ISBN 0-679-45077-7

-The legacy of the Enlightenment is the belief that entirely on our own we can know, and in knowing, understand, and in understanding, choose wisely.

-At the core of consilience is the principles discovered in one discipline, such as in science, will also be true in other disciplines, such psychology or the visual art. Take for example, the physics of colored light (with different wavelengths) will apply in the visualization of color by the eye and interpreted inthe brain. The separation of colors by wavelengths holds true in seeing different colors in the eye. The perception of colors and the associated emotions generated are also consistent in physiologic psychology terms. And, for the artist the color in pigments are differentiated by the same characteristic wavelengths reflected off the canvas. The emotional attachments follow it an orderly and structured way as processed in the mind.

-3-

Jaime K. An-Wong

MFA Programs

Hunter College:

• School is located in New York City (midtown).
• It is much less expensive, because it is a state college.
• Easy access many contemporary art galleries and museums.
• For me, being a part-time student is an advantage.
• After graduating, there are greater opportunities to teach at the undergraduate level in Hunter College or Columbia University.

Mason Gross School of Art:

• School is located in New Brunswick, NJ, which close to home (I have a family of my own).
• I speaking with a past post-graduate student, he chose Mason Gross School of Art for its teaching style. He did not need to specialize, so there was greater exposure to various departments.
• The tuition is low, since it is a state college.
• Working as a Teacher's Assistant, was a valuable experience and it greatly reduced his costs. This experience helped him to get a job teaching more easily.
• One concern is the college depends on state support, so state budget cuts could heavily effect the art programs.

California Institute of the Arts:

• The program develops a strong conceptual foundation in the arts.
• It is very difficult to be accepted, since they accept only 4 students per year.
• The school has a personality of its own, very "Californian," and the teaching style is also different than most east coast schools.
• Once establishing an area of concentration, you are discouraged to change areas of concentration.
• Noted for it art theory classes and instruction. The school is known for music and performance arts.

Yale University:

• It is still difficult to get in, even though 12 to 15 graduate students are accepted each year.
• Each art depatment has its own building, so there is a feeling of isolation to each field of concentration.
• The critques are known to be brutal, there is a great amount of pressure on the students. It leaves the students emotionally drained, but they are stronger.
• Even in the graduate studies, the atomosphere is very competitive.
  

University of the Arts:

• The school is located in Philadelpia, PA. I am familiar with the school, since I was a part-time student there for a few years.
• Philadelphia has many of the advantages as New York is for the art student. There are a number of other art schools, in addition to the galleries and museums.
• The University of the Arts has a renowned glassblowing studio (one of my interests). Additionaly, there is a good sculpture and ceramics studio.

Oct. 17, 2009 Visit to Montclair Art Museum

Cezanne and American Modernism

A recent exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum tried to make connections of Cezanne's art and the American modern art movement. I was fortunate enough to be able to see last Winter, another exhibit about Cezanne at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It had a similar goal of showing Cezanne's influence on modern and contemporary art in general.

The French painter, Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) transitioned from the late nineteenth century impressionism to the twentieth century modern art. Paul Cezanne was friends with several French impressionists, but he mostly worked on his own. Most close to his inspiration was the land in southern France, particularly around Aix-en-Provence.

The painting, "Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry, 1897" was of particular interest to me. The composition of natural forms and the emotional qualities of color was immediately striking to me. "In the early 1880's Cezanne began his exploration of Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix with a series of studies and oils that depicted the mountain rising above the immense valley of the Arc River....complex rock formations dominate the foreground, while the distinctive silhouette of the mountain looms large in the distance. The painting appears to have been produced in intense summer light, when the deep orange of the sandstone cliffs contrast greatly with the dark green of the trees and the purple-blue sky. Mont Sainte-Victoire continued to motivate Cezanne until the end of his career, inspiring more than two-hundred compositions by 1906.

by Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the

Bibemus Quarry, 1897

Marsden Hartley, the American painter-critic, probably never met Paul Cezanne. He may have been first introduced to the works of Cezanne at the Stein's salon in Paris. For Hartley, "who wished to be liberated from the restrictions of their outmoded, academic educations, Cezanne was a challenging beacon of modernity and unhampered self-expression....Cezanne was also a significant model for the synthesis of dualities of form and color, the objective and the subjective, matter and spirit, and abstraction and representation, as he had fused intuition and intellect to achieve the logic of organized sensations."

In September 1926, Hartley, following in the footsteps of Cezanne, moved to the same chateau that Cezanne had lived in when he studied Mont Sainte-Victoire in the late 1880's. He drew and painted the mountain over and over again . Basing his series on Cezanne's depiction of the mountain seen from the Bibemus Quarry, Hartley felt and understood the sense of peace that Cezanne must have experienced. Hartley created a more condensed, highly contrasted image out of rougher, more vibrantly colored brushstrokes, which suggested the impact of more recent modern art developments such as the works of Henri Matisse or Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

by Marsen Hartley, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1927

When I look at Hartley's paintings the colors are exciting and vibrant, a little different from the colors used by Cezanne. The yellows were accented by adding other colors on top of it. This made it more dramatic and contrasting in style. He painted the strong Mediterrean light and the sculptural massing of landscape forms. I like what he says, " I belong naturally to the Emerson-Thoreau tradition and I know that too well. It is my native substance." This was Hartley's first and enduring source of inspiration. "Emerson championed direct encounters with verdant nature as the optimal source for spiritual revelation and artistic stimulation. Cezanne also advocated developing oneself and one's art through sustained contact with nature."

by Marsden Hartley, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1927

"Cezanne was lauded as an iconoclast loner, an artist who focused on a self-defined achievement rather than public acclaim. Cezanne proved to be a very potent source of artistic sustenance for this American modern artist."

Memorable quotes by Cezanne:

"Perhaps I came too soon. I was a painter of your generation more than my own... You are young, you have vitality, you will imbue your art with a force that only those with true feelings can manage. As for me, I'm old. I won't have time to express myself....The reading of a model and its realization are sometimes very slow in coming." I feel that Cezanne is talking directly to me!

"We must again become classicists by way of nature, that is to say, by sensation....I am old, and it is possible I shall die without having attained that great end." I am afraid of this ending, too.

"My age and my health will never allow me to realize the artistic dream I have pursued throughout my entire life. However, I shall always be grateful to the group of intelligent art lovers who have... sensed what I was trying to do to renew my art... one does not replace the past, one only adds a further link to it."

Chapter 3 in the Seven Days in the Art World

The Fair


Each June the most important contemporary art fair opens in Basel, Switzerland. I was fortunate enough to go the the 2009 Armory Show in New York. This is the only reference I can compare with Art Basel, when reading the chapter: The Fair. The Armory Show was at Pier 94, exhibiting new art by living artists, and Pier 92, exhibiting modern and contemporary art.


The exhibition hall for Art Basel is described as a black glass box on the outside, with a clear-glass circular courtyard on the inside. Three hundred gallery stands are split between two floors, each arranged in two concentric squares. The ceilings are high, and the walls are sturdy enough to support the heaviest works. Most importantly, the artificial lighting is clean and white.


At the Armory Show, the ceilings were very high, and the walls were only high enough the display the art works and to isolate each gallery space. As described for Art Basel, the lighting was bright, but not distracting or glaring, and it was white. Most of the time, I had spent at Pier 94 (with approximately 185 galleries), since the first time at the Armory Show, I wanted to see the "marque" artists. The time I spent at Pier 92 (with approximately 85 galleries) was still inspiring. So, this year (March 2010) I hope to spend more time seeing the exhibits of new art by living artists. There were a fair number of galleries from outside countries.

I did not realize from the Armory Show, but it seems clear in the "The Fair" that it is important for galleries to be represented at Art Basel. From the admission committee "The fair is significant from a prestige point of view. If a gallery is not admitted, people might think that it is not as important as another gallery that is." From the New York Times article (October 17, 2009), the Frieze Art Fair in London, England was well attended. Because of the economy, 28 dealers dropped out of this year's fair. But, there was no trouble replacing them. In fact, this year they had more exhibitors (164 exhibitors compared with 151 in the previous year).

For galleries and dealers, they view their primary role as choosing, mentoring, and curating their artists. Collectors may come and go, but a strong stable of artists with developing careers is essential to a gallery's success. Artists tend to view art fairs with a mixture of horror, alienation, and amusement. They feel uneasy when all the hard work of the studio is reduced to supplying the voracious demand, and they wince at the sight of so much art accompanied by so little substantive conversation. As explained by John Baldessari, "At fairs, gallerists are reduced to merchants, a role in which they'd rather not be seen by their artists."

But, Paul Schimmel comments on Takashi Murakami in the chapter, "The Studio Visit", "To experience Takashi, you have to experience the commercial elements in his work." "Takashi understands that art has to be remembered and memory is tied to what you can take home." I wonder if Takashi Murakami goes to the art fairs and whether he enjoys it?

Don and Mera Rubell responded to Sarah Thornton, "We meet the vast majority of artists, because when you're acquiring young work, you can't judge it by the art alone. You have to judge it by the character of the person making it." "Occasionally meeting an artist destroys the art. You almost don't trust it. You think what you're seeing in the work is an accident." "What we're looking for is integrity."

Oct. 11, 2009 Exhibit by Albert Paley

I attended the Albert Paley opening reception at the Grounds for Sculpture on October 10th, 2009 and on October 11th for the lecture by the artist.

Albert Paley is an American modern sculptor, renowned for his monumental metal sculptures. He has worked as a jeweler and a goldsmith. He challenges metals of all types to go beyond the rigid structures, that it usually represents, and to fashion more organic forms. His skills are grounded in working with metals in a super-heated state, where they are more plastic. He is able to manipulate the metals into more natural forms. This is one paradox, which he creates within his sculptures of rigid forms juxtaposed with more organic forms.

Albert Paley is very meticulous about the monumental sculptures and how it relates to the environment. This may be in the natural setting or in the architectural spaces where the sculpture is located. His other important consideration, is how the people viewing the sculpture will interact with it. Will the pedestrians walk around it ,or will they be allowed to walk through it, or will they be only able to view it from across the street?

The recent request from him was to erect a "gate" for a zoo. He was asked to place figurative elements representing animals, trees, and flowers in the massive sculpture. Models were built of the "gate" and each of the figurative elements individually. New skills were developed to form all of these elements.

"Drawing is very intimate. You focus all your energy on seeing something and understanding every element; it's a kind of hyper-realization." Albert Paley started drawing early on in his career, beginning at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He was interested in nature, in particular the forms exhibited in the natural environment. These images would some day work itself into the organic elements in his sculptures.

Most recently, Albert Paley has created large metal sculptures from the discarded materials from his previous work and from what is left-over at his source for iron and steel (from other projects). He may juxtapose steel "I-beams" with left-over steel cylinders and remains of cut-out sheets of steel.

I am a sculptor. I have used recycled steel for my sculptures. Skills were needed to bend steel rods and curved steel sheets. I am familiar with some types of welding, but I could learn a lot about the welding done by Albert Paley. This was an exciting weekend for me at the Grounds for Sculpture.

Quotes by Albert Paley:

"The sculpture is quite different from the actual animals. My intent was not to do a naturalistic rendition. Then you just cast an animal. With this there was an interpretive quality as well. Why should people experience anything? Why do we do what we do? Those questions are important."

"What I was dealing with was complexity and interlacing and interrelationship and - I just perceive things incredibly complex and I have all the skills and disciplines - that was evident in the metal, plus the demands of thinking, the demands of control, the demands of process and material."

"All my other work is abstract, non-literal. This time I was using technology to create a visual, literal vocabulary. You cut a piece of steel and it has an edge, but if you cut it a certain way it can look like fur or feathers. Serpentine forms become a snake weaving through a jungle or fish swimming in the ocean."