Studio View: 08/31/08

Peter Jones Quote

"A work of art, it seems to me, is basically something physical, inspired by an emotional impulse. It is personal, self sufficient and, though primarily made for the needs of its creator, available to all.
Feelings give birth to the work of art and afterwards the response of the viewer will be affected by the viewer's own feelings. Ultimately the work can only be judged by feeling and not analysis.
Unfortunately technique is the easiest thing to respond to and is often used as a yardstick for judgment.
Meanings too, although part of a work of art, are only the starting point; the value of the work lies in its complex whole.
All of which suggests to me that both access to and assessment of a work of art can come only through familiarity and sympathy."
Peter Jones 22-1-97.

New Painting

Cobweb Gray, 2008, acrylic and latex on canvas, 42x42 in.

Day Before Yesterday in Ney York

On Wed. Robin took the day off and we went into NYC to see a couple of shows.

The main reason for the trip was the big Louise Bourgeois show at the Guggenheim.

The show pretty much spanned her career with an emphasis on her Personages, Cells, and works carved from marble as well as a healthy sampling of drawings and other works on paper.

Next we walked a couple of blocks up to the Jewish Museum to see the Action/Abstraction show.This show presented the theories of Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg and illustrated them with works by the artists they championed. Most of the work was by Pollock and de Kooning but also on display were a few marginalized (women and African American) artists that Greenberg and Rosenberg couldn't have cared less about.

Highlights of the show for me were de Kooning's Gotham News and Black Friday (one of his very strong black and white paintings from 1948).
I also liked two very large paintings by Grace Hartigan and a nice blue and black painting by Lee Krasner that bore a heavy Matisse influence.

Lowlights of the show were anything by Clyfford Still.

A lot of the critical dogma presented in the form of letters and filmed interviews with the critics was rote but it was interesting to see the original posters and catalogs for the early New York School exhibitions as well as the materials that showed how the Ab-Ex movement was presented by the traditional media of the time---hint: think, painting chimp on the Today Show!

Progress on the Goldfinch

The top image is where we stand now...

Mystery Man

Can you name this man?
hint: He stole Whistler's girl and once refused a medal of honor from Napoleon III. Also looked something like Johnny Depp when he was young.

Answer: Gustave Courbet

Goldfinch Drawing and Joe Relaxing

Female Goldfinch, 2008

We are settled in to our new apartment in Yardley, PA. Some of us are more settled than others as you can see...

Gadsby Creson @ The P&H Artspace

New Studio in Philadelphia: 915 Studios

Here are some pictures of my new studio in Philadelphia.
It's about two miles from the Philadelphia Art Museum at 915 Spring Garden St.
Now the easy task of filling it with new work!
915 Studios

Toulouse Lautrec

Unfinished Paintings

I found these unfinished images on an old disc...

Merry Legs at Britwick (unfinished), 2004, oil on canvas, 48x60 in.

Robin and Joe Sleeping (detail), 1999, oil on panel, 11x14in.

New Work

All are: Untitled, 2008, acrylic and latex on panel. 12x12 in. and 12x16 in.

New Paintings

Both are: Untitled, 2008, acrylic and latex on panel, 12x12 in.

Emily Walls @ L Ross Gallery in Memphis

image © Emily Walls

New Paintings

Robin in France

Last week Robin took a business trip to Versailles and Paris.

Here are a couple of pictures...

Milton Resnick Quotes

Quotes from the book, Out of the Picture: Milton Resnick and the New York School, by Geoffrey Dorfman.

http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_4.2/resnick.htm

New Painting

Untitled, 2008, latex and acrylic on canvas, 42x42 in.

Seeming Self, 2008, latex and acrylic on canvas, 42x42 in.

Nozkowski Talk @ The Fisher Landau Center for Art

Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (4-41), 1983

Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (P-33), 2008

Last Sunday Robin and I made the one and a half hour drive to Long Island to hear a talk by Thomas Nozkowski at the Fisher Landau Center for Art.

The talk was in conjunction with the artist's mini-retrospective there that includes aprox. 32 paintings from the late '70's to the very recent.

Nozkowski is a very interesting painter. He bucked the system back in the '80's, when artists like Schnabbel and Salle were doing large scale works incorporating things like broken crockery, by painting small (22x30 in, 16x20in) paintings on canvas board.

Nozkowski only spoke for about 15 mins. before turning the floor over to questions. This was a little disappointing as I'd hoped he'd speak longer.

The audience of about 30? was typified by women in black with too short pants , funky shoes and square glasses and men with their heads shaved, accents, and square glasses. Also a smattering of students. Typically most of the questions included the phrases "the other" and "fetishizing studio practice."

The painter spoke smoothly about his working methods, how he arrived at his images and current trends in the art world. It was well worth the nerve wracking drive to see more of Nozkowski's work first hand and to hear him speak in person about his work and life as an artist. So, thanks to Robin for driving! Not counting the hair raising U-ie on Madison Ave.

Nozkowski has a show of aprox. forty recent paintings currently on view at Pace Wildenstein in Chelsea through May, 3rd. And he's traded in the canvas board for belgian linen now so he must be doing allright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOVfjWJUgdw

Nozkowski on YouTube

Nozkowski on a hike

New Painting

Deed of Mine, 2008, acrylic and latex on canvas, 42x42 in.