On Kathe Kollwitz

I have been taking full advantage of all the art in the city and find myself madly running around just to catch exhibits before they close. One of my favorites so far have been the Kathe Kollwitz exhibit, now closed, which was going on the the Galerie St. Etienne in midtown. I've always loved her work from the very first time I saw them. I have never seen any in person, so this was a special treat for me. I found myself loving the work she completed earlier in her career, especially of when she was still training.

They are quite different from the drawings that she is more known for. These were more academic and meticulous, but not overworked. I found her linework so delicate and skillful and studied the confident stroke in each mark. Confidence and boldness rings through all of her drawings, but the earlier ones held a quiet confidence. The compositions were compelling and none were executed in an overly fastidious manner. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the work and could only find one image online.

Some of her more complicated themes depicting war, death, loss and suffering are reminiscent of a modern Goya near the end of the 19th century and at the turn of the 20th. She certainly had her obsessions. She explored these themes, along with the theme of self-portrait extensively throughout her career.

I learned that her father had recognized her great talent and excellent skills in draughtsmanship thus arranged for private instruction at a young age. How progressive. He believed in her exceptional skill so much that he did not want her to marry. He was afraid that marriage and the role of a woman in those times as a wife would demolish any hopes of her daughter's career. He was ahead of his time. Yet, despite marriage, she forged on.

I wonder if she is an influence on Kiki Smith? Some of her charcoal drawings remind me of Smith's own drawings (the feeling of the drawings, not the execution). Her images are fresh in my mind. I think about them extensively and carry them with me. I wonder how they will arise in the exploration of my own work and development.

What'll happen to Billyburg?

The New York Time wrote about the, often stigmatized, "trust fund babies" a.k.a "trustfunders" or "trustafarians" of Williamsburg -- 20 somethings who rely greatly on their parents to help pay for $2,500 rent lofts while they go after their passions and spend time in boutiques and coffeeshops off Bedford Ave. We all know how difficult it is to make rent and other essential living expenses in this city, while juggling jobs and having the time and energy to create work – oh yeah, and some sleep as well. It looks like the economy has hit Billyburg and many are moving out. The recession is definitely affecting the entire strata of the social pyramid. It doesn't seem like there's anyone untouched by this.

I couldn't get over the quote which, mind you, I thought was a farce and something more that I would more likely read off of The Onion than the New York Times:

Luis Illades, an owner of the Urban Rustic Market and Cafe on North 12th Street, said he had seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20s, who had never held paid jobs: They were interns at a modeling agency, for example, or worked at a college radio station. In some cases, applicants have stormed out of the market after hearing the job requirements.

“They say, ‘You want me to work eight hours?’" Mr. Illades said. “There is a bubble bursting.”

I know, I know...but schadenfreude is the entire point of the article...and this blog post. (I never claimed to be perfect.) Here's a link to the New York Times article. As an added bonus and for an interesting read on the hipster debate, check this out. Technorati Tags: art, art, recession, economy, Williamsburg, struggling artist

Be a Thief

If you're going to steal, be authentic and sincere about it.

cemetery art

I'm in a landscape workshop this weekend taking place at the Woodlawn Cemetery and it's fascinating to realize that there is an entire culture of cemetery art. The mausoleums are quite impressive, some of them even look like churches with beautiful domes. There is a gothic style mausoleum that is simply amazing. I love gothic architecture. Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, The Strauss family (old couple who gave up their "space" in the lifeboats at the sinking of The Titanic, Herman Melville to name a few, were buried there. The Piccirilli Brothers (The Maine Memorial, Central Park NYC) -- by the Columbus Circle entrance to the park -- were one of the many amazing sculptors (marble cutters and carvers) that contributed to the beautiful landscape and architecture of the cemetery. The landscape architecture is beautifully planned.

I'm definitely a fan of the Piccirilli Brothers. There's a beautiful figure (nude) sculpture called the Outcast, and it's this heart wrenching, painful pose where the male nude is so alienated that he digs into himself. How bleak. It pulled my attention from across the landscape and pulled me like a magnetic force. They are also responsible for the lions outside the main/central location of the New York Public Library, (for those who do not know what Lions I'm referring to but watched Sex and the City, The Movie, the library is where Carrie and Big were supposed to get married. She runs out of the library, horrified and there's a beautiful shot of her dress flying behind her as she runs down the steps like Cinderella. You see the majestic lions). I think that after this experience where I'm learning to draw outside the studio and come up with compositions that forces me to select and simplify from what's in front of me, I will head over to draw from their work.

As far as sketching from outdoors and daily street life -- something I've very interested in documenting" this landscape workshop has been very beneficial. Even though it's only been one day, it makes me think about how painting is really contrived and how selective you need to be. These are the artistic choices that make a painting unique. Even as a realist or naturalist, we edit and exaggerate. This is where creativity lives in realism. We need to edit. In art school, for training purposes, we copy and transcribe exactly what's in front of us to develop our skills and not give in to laziness or make excuses for not getting things right to the exact millimeter, but outside of the Academy (literally) I think practicing how to make these choices (while at the Academy) to is crucial my development as a draughtsman and artist. We are not cameras. Edward Hopper composed his New York street scenes, placed his diner in a dark street with no lights in the windows. This was an artistic choice. I live across a very tall building and never have I seen all the lights off in the building no matter what time of night. (I hardly see people too, but that's another thing). Even Antonio Lopez Garcia, I believe, despite his meticulous approach and way or working, edits something out be it the fence in the background of the quince tree in order to better focus on every leaf and fruit on that tree.

After meeting the wonderful tour guide who was very welcoming, I think I will spend a good part of this summer sketching in the park and coming up with a series of paintings. I'm interested in some of the mausoleum doors, the weeping angels, many things, though I have to work out the composition. For this weekend, however, I think I will force myself away from the figure and lean towards something more architectural, just for a change in subject matter. The figure pulls me too much and I want to try something new and different form what I've been doing at the Academy.

art for art's sake

In response to Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland's study regarding the role of the arts in school curriculum, I highly agree with their reasoning in support of the findings in their research. Art should be seen as a subject strong enough to stand on its own. Our society often rationalizes the subject of art as a worthy subject to study in school (excluding art schools, of course) only because it supports the other "more essential" subjects such as math and science (sometimes, literature).

Being a teaching artist at one time and going into public schools, my lesson plan for each session often had to list the multi-disciplinary aspects of each art lesson, which subjects my lesson was reinforcing, and more specifically, which specific skills such as reasoning, spatial intelligence, etc. I was teaching. I was there to teach art, not math through art, yet sometimes we had to tweak our lessons to help students prepare for their standardized tests. I found myself teaching the math in patterns instead of teaching the kids how to appreciate and see the pattern's aesthetic value through repetition and colors of say, Islamic Art.

I don't deny that learning how most compositions in paintings that we find pleasing almost always follow the golden section, is very fascinating and helpful -- especially when it comes to creating your own composition -- this fact should be seen as how math supports the art, the visual, instead of the other way around. Studying abroad in Europe, I also discovered that this unique perspective was very American. I found that my visual intelligence and creativity skills were severely impaired compared to those who were just out of high school (some were still in high school). I didn't think that this was due to talent/"artist genes," but more to the European outlook on art as a subject. Therefore, I did a lot of "catching up" and tried to make up for the lack of art I had in high school. One thing's for sure: they took art and art making seriously and it was a subject that was seen as equal as calculus or chemistry, not an extra class convenient to skip when you needed to go to the dentist and have your wires tightened.

Lastly, I believe this is the reason many people look at modern/contemporary art with a blank stare. (There are other reasons, of course, which is another topic and I won't get into now). High schools and universities do not teach us about visual intelligence. Most of us are not taught how to look at a painting and see. If the argument is, how will this help me in my life, the same can be said of calculus. Not everyone uses calculus in their career of choice, but we still have to learn it. Why should art be different? GEs often include such subjects like intro to Classics, Philosophy of Ethics & Morality, basic intro to chemistry, biology, physics, etc....., perhaps even art appreciation, but we do not have classes in visual intelligence. At least with writing -- I believe all schools have GE courses in expository writing, but many, many college graduates finish school without really learning the skill of basic essay writing despite the requirement. It's a deficiency in the system, more than with the individual. Many people enter the modern art/contemporary section on the MET or go into the MOMA and say, "I don't get it," or "I can do that," more often than they try to stand there in silence and think visually about, or really try to see what's in front of them -- especially when it comes to Rothko's color fields, abstract art, in general, and many contemporary pieces.

The same is true with some art buyers, they want to be told what to buy and instead of actually looking at the paintings, sculptures, photography, etc. themselves to see what they really like looking at and seeing on a daily basis. I mean, it's going to be a presence/part of a room in their apartment/house, so why not pick something you like instead of what something someone says you should like? But that's for another blog entry, for another time.