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Thursday 2 August 2012
Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz Plus Reversed 1960 Oil on canvas 189/6 cm x 148 cm (74 5/8 in. x 58 ¼ in.) Gift of Mari and James A. Michener, 1991
Plus Reversed is a key example of what has been called Optical art or Op art in the United States—a painting whose color and pattern conjunctions cause involuntary perceptual effects in its viewer. Here the artist paired the complementary colors of red and green in repetitive patterns of plus-shaped signs, reminiscent of the voltage symbols on a battery. The juxtaposition of colors intensifies their vividness and induces a flickering retinal effect. The patterning creates a further reverberation of its own by changing colors as it expands outward, suggesting movement.
Barnett Newman, Adam, 1951-52
Tate Gallery:
From the mid-1940s Newman had been preoccupied with the Jewish myths of Creation. The vertical strips in his paintings may relate to certain traditions that present God and man as a single beam of light. The name Adam, which in the Old Testament was given to the first man, derives from the Hebrew word adamah (earth), but is also close to adom, (red) and dam (blood). The relationship between brown and red in this painting may therefore symbolise man’s intimacy with the earth.
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Yinka Shonibare, Headless Man Trying To Drink, 2005
National Museum of African Art: This sculpture presents an incongruous situation—a man who is headless trying to drink from a water fountain. The absurdity of this scenario is reinforced by the patterning of the man’s costume, which features the doubled motif of an abundantly flowing tap and water glass. His elegantly tailored late Victorian costume suggests he is someone of note—a well-to-do gentleman of colorful taste. Jaunty red trousers and green bows on his patent leather shoes lend a foppish note to the figure and extend Shonibare’s longstanding interest in the notion of the “dandy.”
Shonibare typically presents his sculptural figures minus their heads. In doing so, he makes playful reference to the French Revolution and the beheading of members of the ruling elite. The absence of heads also removes references to individual or racial identity in his figures.
The man’s inability to drink from the tap is particularly ironic in the present era. Water shortages, drought and climatic shifts have affected various parts of the world; and leading environmentalist David Suzuki, for one, proposes that the world’s future wars will be fought over water, not land. This work is Shonibare’s only “animated” sculpture to date, featuring a water pump and running water.
Tuesday 31 July 2012
The Best, and Worst, Blogs Start with the First Word
The Best, and Worst, Blogs Start with the First Word
by Carolyn HendersonAs with anything, the best way to start is by commencing – a parked car doesn’t move if you don’t turn the key – and the easiest way to start with your FASO blog is to take advantage of the “Blog This Artwork!” feature on the side of the individual Art Portfolio Page you fill out every time you add a new art piece to your site. [...]
Read the rest of this article at:
http://fineartviews.com/blog/47006/the-best-and-worst-blogs-start-with-the-first-word
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This excerpt appears courtesy of FineArtViews Art Marketing Newsletter by FASO,
a free email newsletter about art, marketing, inspiration and fine living for artists,
collectors and galleries (and anyone else who loves art).
For a complimentary subscription, visit: http://www.fineartviews.com
Monday 30 July 2012
Fernando Botero, Dancing in Colombia, 1980
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Botero’s art often depicts scenes of leisure in which people are shown drinking or dancing. Though his satirical renderings may seem humorous at first, they are often laden with social and political commentary. “Dancing in Colombia” depicts a lively café scene. The room seems overcrowded with seven musicians, two dancers, and a jukebox. Details such as the floor littered with cigarettes and fruit and the exposed light bulbs on the ceiling suggest that this particular café is rather seedy, attracting clients of a decadent and perhaps immoral nature. One can almost imagine the odors of sweat, tobacco, liquor, and cheap cologne that fill the space or the rooms upstairs that can be rented by the hour, although none of this is explicitly communicated. Curiously, there is a vast difference in demeanor between the two groups of figures. The musicians stare blankly and seem to be part of an inanimate still life arrangement. They are the backdrop for the inexplicably smaller couple who dance before them with wild abandon, hair and legs flying. Like other works from this period, the surface of this painting is extremely smooth, with few traces of brushwork; color is muted, although small areas of red, yellow, and green appear garishly bright.
Sunday 29 July 2012
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