LinkLuv: On beauty and art 30 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Beauty, Modern culture.4 comments
I’m pretty caught up in the logistics of moving/selling the house and don’t have much time to be blogging right now, but a few things in an article titled Beauty and Desecration: We must rescue art from the modern intoxication with ugliness seemed to be worth excerpting.
At any time between 1750 and 1930, if you had asked an educated person to describe the goal of poetry, art, or music, “beauty” would have been the answer. And if you had asked what the point of that was, you would have learned that beauty is a value, as important in its way as truth and goodness, and indeed hardly distinguishable from them. Philosophers of the Enlightenment saw beauty as a way in which lasting moral and spiritual values acquire sensuous form.
At some time during the aftermath of modernism, beauty ceased to receive those tributes. Art increasingly aimed to disturb, subvert, or transgress moral certainties, and it was not beauty but originality—however achieved and at whatever moral cost—that won the prizes.
In a seminal essay—“Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” published in Partisan Review in 1939—critic Clement Greenberg starkly contrasted the avant-garde of his day with the figurative painting that competed with it, dismissing the latter (not just Norman Rockwell, but greats like Edward Hopper) as derivative and without lasting significance. The avant-garde, for Greenberg, promoted the disturbing and the provocative over the soothing and the decorative, and that was why we should admire it.
This last quote is interesting to me mainly on account of many previous bloggy discussions with friend and artist Timothy Jones, who finds abstract (or, more specifically, non-objective or non-representational) art to be decorative. Read the article in it’s entirety via this link.
I haven’t finished the article, but printed it off in hopes of doing so later this week.
Wire drawing of espresso machine 22 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Drawing, Northwest Arkansas, Sculpture, Siloam Springs.add a comment
My friend Joel Armstrong recently created the following wire drawing of an espresso machine for the Cafe on Broadway in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
Sculptures of clouds 22 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Sculpture.2 comments
With the warmth of Spring I’m working on sculptures of clouds and thunderstorms again. In the past, I’ve found it difficult to find any kind of artwork depicting thunderstorms. On a whim this morning I Googled cloud sculpture and ended up with some reasonable results. The following is a gallery of some of these three-dimensional works, in large part so I can find them again if I want to. Works included in the gallery are by (in order of the gallery images, left to right) Jim Day, Diane MacLean, Laura Shults, Rob Fisher, Charles Goldman and Sonja Henrixson.
Materials used in the sculptures include wool, fiberglass, wire, wood etc.
Easter Morning 12 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Painting.add a comment
a painting titled Easter Morning, by Jim Jangket, for Easter morning
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
— John 5:24
Mad potter in Arkansas 8 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Art vs Craft, Artist profile, Ceramics, Craft, Found objects, Handmade, Sculpture.1 comment so far
A month or so ago I dug a hole in my front yard for a new mailbox post. The dirt looked a lot like clay, so I saved a few hunks and fired them in the kiln.
They came out a bit soft and quite crumbly, not surprising, but they more or less turned into Arkansas rocks. They look very similar to the stones found on a lot that’s just been graded for construction.
George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi, dug a lot of his clay locally in Mississippi. My father told me recently that Ohr sometimes took dirt out of the middle of the road. He’s one of a few historical characters I’d like to meet (another off the top of my head being G.K. Chesterton). The bisqued, scroddled Orh pot below shows off some of his raw materials.
Image from Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art.
Patron on a postal salary 18 March 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Business of art, Creative catalyst, Non-representational art, Northwest Arkansas, Patronage.add a comment
I finally finished reading Mako Fujimura’s latest essay. On the last page he mentions the Vogels, art collectors of very modest means. I Googled “Vogel collection” to find a little more biographical information on these renowned patrons and learned quickly that a documentary about the couple is due out in June.
Mako points out that “The Vogels were not Guggenheims [or, if I might add for my Northwest Arkansas readers, Waltons] with inherited endowments, nor were they hedge fund managers with millions of dollars to spend: remarkably, they were civil servants who worked at postal offices . . . ” From the website for Herb and Dorothy, the aforementioned documentary:
He was a postal clerk. She was a librarian. With their modest means, the couple managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history.
Meet Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, whose shared passion and commitment defied stereotypes and redefined what it means to be an art collector.”
The Vogels have pledged 2,500 works — stacked away in boxes and tucked under their bed — to 50 museums in 50 states. Most of their contemporary collection possess a minimalist aesthetic. They bought pieces decades ago from virtual unknowns that are now important modern artists: Robert Barry, Sol LeWitt and Richard Tuttle are among 170 different artists in their personal gallery.
Your own aesthetic may not be drawn to such minimalist and non-representational art, but trust me when I say there are other artists out there you will like. There are more stories like Herb and Dorothy’s waiting to be told, and waiting to be created. Visit your local gallery today. Find something you like and can afford and buy it. You’ll be making an investment not just in a financial sense, but in a cultural sense.
A friend mused recently to me: “We may not see a Wall Street boom again for a long time, certainly not in our life time.” Because of the banking crisis and possible nationalization of them, we may end up with a long protracted recession at best (which would make the U.S. more like Japan, by the way). Possibly so, but what if in lieu of a Wall Street boom, we “invested” in different capitals, capitals of the gift economy . . . we learned from artists and nature what it means to have sustainable growth that re-humanizes, rather than a expedited, de-humaized growth . . . Had we known that our 401(k)s will be “201(k)”s as one commentator recently put it, would we have reconsidered our investment in something more generous, more life giving than protecting our wallets?
Read more about the couple and the documentary in this Washington Post article.
New Work: Storm at night 3 October 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Ceramics, Found objects, Salvage, Sculpture.add a comment
Here’s a new mixed media work combining the the smaller and more abstracted clay forms I was working with earlier in the year with the carved wood platforms that I started giving attention to during the summer.
I’m calling this Storm at Night on account of the dark blue glaze on the top. White low-fire clay body, salvaged cedar with a red oak stain. Probably about 14 inches long.
Abstract art in a church, meditative? 1 October 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Architecture, Art, Art and faith, Christianity, Color, Interior design, Non-representational art, Painting.4 comments
I’m back from a bit of a whirlwind trip to California. The first three days were a bit on the crazy side especially. Lucky me I’m sick too, which isn’t all that unusual after I come back from busy travel. Unfortunately.
Makoto Fujimura posted some photos to his blog (he posts very rarely) yesterdayish of a new installation of his own in a New Haven church.
The church looks pretty plain other than Mako’s glorious installation. I’m curious to know if readers find this very abstract painting meditative or not. One of my first thoughts in looking at the above photo was how much more spiritually engaging the space is with that large gold and blue nihonga work than without, and even how much more engaging it is than most other common altar items.
Thoughts?
Genius Grants 2008: Weaving straws and grass 24 September 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Art vs Craft, Artist as genius, Craft, Fiber, Found objects, Installations, Sculpture.add a comment
I suppose I should mention this year’s genius grants, awarded this week, since this blog contains a category called Artist-as-genius. Regular readers know that I hold a certain disdain for the term. I haven’t entirely fleshed that disdain out properly, but a very good example of where it came from can be seen in the somewhat raunchy film Art School Confidential.
Looking at the list of winners yesterday afternoon I was a bit surprised. They’re all over the place. The stage-lighting designer, music critic and architectural preservationist were pleasant surprises.
Two artists will be taking home the $500,000 purse, a sculptor and a fiber artist.
The fiber artist is another surprise. Mary Jackson is a basket weaver. How wonderful that such a traditional and humble craft is included in this list, a list that might commonly include the rocket scientists we so like to mock.
In contrast to that is Tara Donovan. I mentioned Donovan with some skepticism in this January post. Donovan’s work is sometimes mass-produced and makes use of common household objects.
I like the above work by Donovan, titled Haze. It’s made from drinking straws. I wonder what Mary Jackson could do with drinking straws. Weave them, I imagine, as she does with grass. An interesting connection between two very different artisans.
Improvisational realism 29 July 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Ceramics, Imagination, Photography, Sculpture.3 comments
As I get into some larger and more realistic clay sculptures of thunderstorms an interesting paradox presents itself.
Working from photographs in order to sculpt a storm requires approximately 63% extrapolation. The photograph shows me one angle of the storm which I’m able to adequately reproduce, but there may be roughly three sides not visible to the photographer from that particular angle. A storm is large enough that a person isn’t able to photograph it from all angles. If you’re far away to see the entire cell, you probably won’t have time to drive around it before it’s dark out, the storm merges with other clouds nearby or actually dissipates.
It’s somewhat of a thrill to sculpt, even from a still image, such a dynamic form. Recreating these supercells in clay (or, perhaps, wood) is basically 37% abstract rendering and 63% conjecture. I have no idea what the other side of the storm looks like, nor do I know the shape of the anvil from the top. The work requires me to imagine what the other side of the thunderstorm looks like.
In the short time I’ve been working in this way I’ve really come to enjoy this process, the paradox of realism and imagination. A week or so ago I described it in my own mind as improvisational realism, as I worked on the sculpture above. I’m eager to keep working in this vein, although there are a number of technical details that will need to be worked out a long the way.
I’ve already cracked the anvil on the pictured work. While turning it over onto a towel in order to hollow out, it laid at an angle which bent the moderately moist edge too far. I attempted to repair it and am praying that it doesn’t crack when fired. The thin edge of the anvil protruding from such a solid piece of clay is asking for trouble as it is. This particular shape was formed through subtractive and additive processes; toothpicks were used to add strength while the work sets up. It will probably take at least five, probably ten of these forms before I find the best way to fabricate them. It doesn’t help that I’m using a clay body (Steve’s White) essentially devoid of grog. The next one will, instead, be a mixture of clays from the reclaim bucket (low-fire white, raku and a mid-fire buff) that will contain a significant amount of grog in comparison, probably better for sculpting these fairly tenuous forms.
I have roughly five hours in this one already.
