Kenneth Noland, 1924-2010

"FILM IS RHYTHM"

A film by Hans Richter
Germany 1921
B&W 3 Minutes
NOTE: Not the original audio.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009

Ellsworth Kelly
Green Triangle
Screenprint ed. of 100
36.5" x 36"
1971
((VIA Woodward Gallery))

Carmen Herrera

Carmen Herrera
Blanco y Verde
1966

The New York Times Art & Design section strikes again. Check out this article on Carmen Herrera, the 94-year-old minimalist painter whose first piece sold just five years ago. To paraphrase the philosophy of my teacher and mentor, Ron Nagle, Herrera is finally getting Cheese Now. This story reinforces the idea that unwavering commitment and quality are worthwhile pursuits within the art world, whether or not the art world says so. Massive thanks to Tim S. for the heads-up!

Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection

Anne Truitt
First
Acrylic on wood
1961

Check out Ken Johnson's New York Times review of Anne Truitt's retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum, “Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection.” Can't wait to see the accompanying monograph...anyone want to donate a plane ticket to D.C.?

JUDD LOVE

Ilya Kabakov, "School No. 6," 1993

Huge props to Anna K.! In this article she explores her new surroundings at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.

MY SIX-YEAR-OLD COULD HAVE DONE THAT

Get a load of this guy! Thanks for the heads-up, Dad...

Postcards Aplenty

December 2009 Postcards
Acrylic on watercolor paper, varied dimensions

R.A.C. Silent Auction

Check out the annual Holiday Arts Festival and Silent Auction at the Richmond Art Center this Sunday, December 6, from 12-5 PM. The benefit raises funds for the R.A.C.’s educational programs, exhibitions, and community art classes. I'm really happy to have a painting in the auction alongside many great artists and in support of a good cause.

Parking Attendant Booth, Berkeley

S.P. POSTCARDS @ HOLIDAYLAND

Altered vintage postcards
Mixed media, varied dimensions

If you're like me, you probably:

A. Have not done any holiday shopping
B. Do not have a lot of money
C. Feel numb and anxious upon entering large chain stores
D. All of the above

Thankfully there's a solution to this predicament for those of us in the East Bay: Holidayland at Blankspace and The Compound one week from today, November 27, from 6-9 PM! Wear plaid to show support for independent Oakland businesses, and have your picture taken with Paul Bunyan to benefit art programs in Oakland schools!

I am selling 50 customized vintage postcards for $3 each. They are each stamped and ready to send to loved ones. My friends know how much I enjoy sending postcards and this edition is very special to me. Hope to see lots of people - and plaid - out and about next Friday!

"Horizontal Lines"

This is a beautiful experimental film from 1962 by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. Note the music, courtesy of Pete Seeger. Thanks to Anna K. for the heads-up, hope you're enjoying Marfa!

Totes
Disposable Camera Photograph

Hallowed Ground

This is the Berkeley Free Market Building, at 2571 Shattuck Avenue. Richard Diebenkorn made his "Berkeley" series here in an upstairs studio between 1955 and 1956. These days the building is home to an art store and a bikram yoga studio on the ground level.

TRANS: form | color

Leonhard HurzlmeierOink
Alacquer/Varnish on wood2008
This is without question the best group show I've seen in the Bay Area since moving here two years ago. If you're in town, be sure to check it out at Meridian Gallery between now and December 19.

This is the third installment of "TRANS," a traveling show featuring works by nine artists from around the world:

Kasarian Dane (U.S.), Stephan Fritsch (Germany), Brent Hallard (Japan), Leonhard Hurzlmeier (Germany), Robin McDonnell (U.S.), Mel Prest (U.S.), Richard Schur (Germany), Nancy White (U.S.), and John Zurier (U.S.)

These artists share a heightened sensitivity toward color, physical painting structures, and the long history of abstract painting. As Peter Selz notes in an accompanying catalog, however, each artist has arrived at this style of geometric/minimal/abstract painting in their own unique way:

…These painters, calling themselves TRANS, meeting in person or on the Internet, found that they share a common interest in the painting process, pure, and often not so simple. Unlike previous groups, they share no common ideology and they certainly are not likely to publish a manifesto. And they all agree that it is the viewer's response, which completes the work…

It's worth noting that these artists sought out each other from the beginning and were not "picked" by a curator or gallerist. In the highly fragmented and nuanced world of contemporary art, it is refreshing to see this physical manifestation of shared, transnational visual concerns. It reminds us that one is never alone or without allies in his or her artistic pursuits, regardless of style and motives.

Construction Site, Yolo County, California

Damn Yankees

Franz Kline and Ludwig Sander at baseball game, ca. 1950-1
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
VIA The Parrish Art Museum

Today marks the beginning of that dark span of months widely known as the Major League Baseball off-season. In the meantime: hockey.

Daylight Saving

The Responsive Eye

This is too good to be true. Experience the 1965 Op Art exhibit, The Responsive Eye, with none other than Mike Wallace. WEIRD. Also note Parts II and III. VIA MINUS SPACE.

ABSTRACT PAINTING DISCUSSION at MILLS COLLEGE 11/4/09

Click the image for details...

Save the Last Dance for Me
Mary Heilmann
Oil on canvas
1979

Homer struggles to comprehend Marge's text paintings, 10/11/09

Desert Road
Helen Lundeberg
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 "
1960
((VIA Louis Stern Fine Arts))

Temp Tent, Yolo County, California

Morning, West Oakland

Oh That Is Such Classic Jen
Altered Screen Capture

Colbert vs. Munch, 9/14/09

The Train (1964) is an excellent film that you can currently watch for free on Hulu (or simply by clicking the embedded video above). In many ways, it can be seen as a prototype of the generic action thrillers that became popular in the 1970's and continue to dominate at the box office today. The excessive explosions, Nazi antagonists, and distressed damsels are all there. However, these tropes merely serve to enhance an already-good, entertaining film.

The story is a mostly-fictive take on the art theft that occurred within Nazi-occupied France. As the opening credits unwind, we see Nazi henchmen carefully packing and crating various stolen treasures of the French state. Here is a crate of stolen Seurat masterpieces:



The sets throughout the movie are beautiful and anyone who likes the sights and sounds of trains and rail yards will not be disappointed. It is, of course, no surprise when the downtrodden heroes foil the Nazi's plan to steal a train full of French masterpieces. However, the battle is won by a sequence of unexpected French trickery, and ultimately the good guys prevail by doing what they do best: painting. To make matters even more strange, "the glory of France" is saved as a result of some frenzied, Jackson Pollock-style action painting. Sometimes fiction is stranger than truth, and this movie makes efficient use of both.

Fall Ball
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
Altered Digital Image

John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective

“Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of 36 Attempts)”
1973

Two enthusiastic, three-dimensional thumbs-up for the Baldessari show currently on display at San Francisco's Legion of Honor (through November 8, 2009). Composed of over 100 prints from his "post-painting" period, the exhibit provides a puzzling and colorful experience. Baldessari's imagery and ideas generate a stark sense of contrast as one walks through the basement galleries beneath the Legion's exquisite vaults. The upstairs chambers, lined chronologically with old masterworks, become stoic showrooms to the L.A. guru's mischievous visual laboratory below. What results is a clever and thoroughly satisfying curatorial provocation that enhances both ends of an art historical spectrum.