Matisse's "The Red Studio" is a gift that keeps on giving. I visited it today after a trip to Chelsea yesterday. Each time I see it, I think of different things.
Today I imagined how plain his picture might've been had he painted it more or less straightforwardly with the same general perspective lines and studio elements but with a more "natural" light.
But of course he didn't, and, fresh from Lisa Yuskavage's current exhibit, I love this juxtaposition I noticed. It may be a stretch (or a no-brainer), but the connection has something to do with abstract color organizing straightforward studio space in a surprising way.
@lisayuskavage@davidzwirner
#theredstudio
#matisse
#moma
Selections from the @brucemuseum exhibit of the Régis Krampf Braque Collection. Many of these paintings look completely fresh in today's context (100 years later!). I think he just got better and better.
Oh yeah, and a show stopping Matisse portrait of his young (early 20's) daughter, Marguerite, in the next room. He painted this during what I consider his most enduring & experimental period (1917/18).
#braque
#margueritematisse
This is the last significant "figurative" painting I made almost 2 dozen years ago. My third child was born that year, and I decided to get "more serious" and paint urban landscapes that I might be able to sell (nude self portraits didn't sell well).
I was interested in and probably fixated on this painting too long. I felt it was overdone. I was v interested in the self refexive idea of looking at myself looking at myself in my studio. It was the "reductio ad absurdum" of several similar paintings I was making at the time (the naked part was incidental).
Since then, figurative art had a revival and artists were painting autobiographical scenes but mostly from their head. Although I tried, I was never able to do that in a way that interested me. This was strictly from observation. You can imagine the mirrors I had to set up. I often needed to use at least two to get the point of view I wanted. I like that it was very geometrical. I used a tripod to hold up complicated viewing frames (that I added thread to in order to map out larger divisions of the architectural space. Colored tape was everywhere marking where the theoretical viewpoint projected on my studio floor, wall and ceiling (now it's accumulated on the walls astride my current paintings). It was obsessive.
I hung the large red cloth in the center of the painting (behind the foreground scene) as an inconsistent but necessary formal device to obscure the problematic deep dark recession of the studio (final picture). It prefigures the abstract paintings I'm making now.
"Double Self w/ Canvas III"
56x48" 2003
These are two shows I was very much looking forward to seeing and I was not disappointed. Both invite long looking.
Jugeli, at the beginning of her career, crashed into the art world from Tbilisi with recent work filling two galleries! @polinaberlingallery & @karmakarma9 The obvious question is where she goes from here. For instance, I'm curious what she would do with a smaller canvas.
Steve DiBenedetto @derekellergallery has been around town for a while and is a model/reminder for Tamo as he exemplifies the painter who never "arrives" but rather is always pushing.
@tamo__j@dibenedettosteve
I danced just enough 50 years ago to begin to closely follow certain choreographers & dance companies who caught my eye. I always appreciated the close connection between certain performances and architecture & painting.
Trisha Brown's remake of her "Set & Reset" and of Cunningham's "Travelogue" (involving L. Anderson, Cage & Rauschenberg) last week at BAM was an example. But I was recently completely blown away by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's 90 minute "Exit Above" at the @nyuskirball .
Perhaps it's a cliché (Cunningham did this in his own way) but her project is to remake dance from the bottom up; for instance starting with walking then adding geometry, numerical patterns, the natural world & social structures to fully articulate the body in space & time.
I'd never pretend to be in their company, but I'm noticing that my recent paintings point to a similar, austere direction - where precision meets raw, unfiltered energy. This painting is likely far from done but it's very exciting to me.
"Exit Above" & details
35x42" o/l
#anneteresadekeersmaeker
#inspiredbydance
#strippingdown
The truest thing anyone could say about Benjamin (30 today!) is simply that he LOVES life; from his first day on he seems to ask, “What do you have for me today?” 😀
His gratitude to merely be here, has enabled a deep generosity, and, for me, he’s a constant reminder of how precious every moment is.
In my day 30 was “over the hill,” but Benj is just getting started! 🏃🏃♂️
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN!
🎈🎂🔥❤️💥
@benjaminhicks
I've been working on then turning this painting to the wall for so long now that I began to wonder how it started, so I looked to see if I had posted this on Instagram before. I was surprised to barely recognize a version of it more than a year ago.
This is interesting to me because it shows how my work has changed. The last picture is of the same painting almost exactly a year ago. I obviously had been working on it for a while before that.
I could make some attempts at what is changing but I'd rather look at it in retrospect because none of it is deliberate.
"Untitled CXXII"; 35 x 42"
#neverdone
