Art and artists

A rare book of nothing /  by mirena

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of  Yale University published the Voynich manuscript online, which scientists assert (with 95% confidence) was made in the 15th century. It has about 240 pages of text and illustrations that have never been deciphered as to their meaning. The writing looks like a language, the illustrations look like plants, biological or cosmological diagrams but with no ...meaning. In the context of the 21st century this clearly is a work of art. Voynich manuscript

The power to feel /  by mirena

Painting is an active language. Pollock once told De Kooning "You know more, but I feel more". To feel and to observe are the two most powerful weapons an artist uses.. on himself. When you are out in the world you really see, you dissect the world down to the particles and reverse back through to the whole to construct a mental image, however distorted. You later bring these images to the canvas. In front of the canvas, you feel. To observe and to feel are somehow in a quantum entanglement, the better you observe, the better your ability to feel. You see a brick for what it is and then you really see it, for what it isn't, a sort of stereo vision which overcomes the senses. That's why if someone feels one, an artist feels ten. You need that feeling powers ten in order to get the feeling flick through to the brush ( or whatever tool is there ) and via the paint - onto to canvas and from there to the viewer. The feeling needs to have that power in order to travel.

The confusion is that art is about learning how to draw or paint, that ability to render some ( or even strange ) reality. I think art is about learning how to feel. To feel is a powerful narcotic and immensely seductive. It is the blue pill, and the red pill simultaneously.

Happy birthday, Picasso /  by mirena

One of the best rooms with art I have seen is the room right next to Guernica in Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. It's full of Picasso's studies for the great painting, a room full of discarded work. There are never perfect circumstances, there's only process where you allow things to happen sometimes to great discomfort.

Chelsea opens with color and glamour /  by mirena

It happens that every round of gallery openings in Chelsea has a different flavour. Last night the art world descended on Chelsea district in New York for the opening of almost 50 new art shows and new galleries as well. Perhaps we differ in our opinions on art but what we all agreed on is that it was spectacular, dense with art lovers and illuminated with color. Art world spectacular openings in Chelsea, New York

Mirror to the flower, one mundane thing and I discover Arvo Part /  by mirena

Rob List posted a few important thoughts to his blog, one is an interview with coppola, yes, the Coppola.  And also his own thoughts on art as a practice, a post titled Market worth on his blog. I am almost done with a drawing destined for San Francisco, ( I think ), and discover that I very much dislike hats and love Arvo Part .

Also, to emphasize the mood of the moment - one of the lyrical pieces of Jackson Pollock, where he really is at home and not fighting the black paint, a calligraphy of sorts:

Jackson Pollock at the Moma - Abstract Expressionist New York

The Seven I's of Why I Paint on Paper by Michael Brennan. A Manifesto of sorts. /  by mirena

It has been long since I read something that I feel is close to my own practice and how I feel about paper, drawing, my work, the world and my footprint on matter. And here is what Michael says:

"I went to paper after rethinking Thoreau’s Economy and reading about sustainability in From Cradle to Cradle.

I decided to work smaller because we live in an era when dumb things are getting larger (televisions, SUVs, McMansions) and smart things are getting smaller (smart phones, smart cars, smart cards). The generation behind me has been described as “platform agnostic”, meaning they’re willing to watch a cinematic wonder like Lawrence of Arabia on a palm-sized screen. I also prefer the face-to-face engagement that smaller works require—that is the modern interface.

I work exclusively in black and white because I like absolute contrast, and participating in the larger, global tradition of monochromatic painting.

I acknowledge that paper is the perfect surface.

I have come to loathe the wealthy and prefer to make high quality works more cheaply that anyone might afford.

I have become bored with the “grand manner” of painting and its heroic trappings. I felt that my most recent paintings were really drawings masquerading as paintings. Lastly, I’ve always been attracted to simpler, not minimal, more direct means of making art.

I have long maintained that if the artist isn’t surprising himself, he’s most likely not surprising anyone else."

Profound Richard Tuttle /  by mirena

"I have had two or three non-art thoughts in my life..."
"Art sustains polarities that cannot be sustained in the (real)world."
"Art accommodates the mystic."
"Art provides the viewer with the experience of reality. Art performs a "blimp". A line becomes a primary thing... Presents itself."
"A miracle belongs to the viewer."
"When you make art you access the back part of the brain(the animalistic part of the brain), and the animalistic gives us relief."
"The relationship between art and the viewer is a relationship more profound than marriage, than parent/child relationship. There is no pain, destruction and a reason for fear."
"Trust your work."

Abstract Expressionist New York /  by mirena

What a stunning exhibit at the MOMA tonight. I am not going to say it was well curated as I am not going to say MOMA is a good museum. It was genius, brilliant, inspiring world class art. I personally rediscovered Pollock and not because I found something new, I found the artist rediscovered himself. That's bravery in art and has very few masters. The paintings loved being together and brought out the best in each other. Just like mass and energy, energy brings more paint and more paint bursts with energy. What an opportunity to be with art, to feel it's power to change.

Jackson Pollock at MOMA Abstract Expressionist New York

A Great poem that inspired me /  by mirena

The Seventh (A hetedik) by Attila József translated by John Bátki

If you set out in this world, better be born seven times. Once, in a house on fire, once, in a freezing flood, once, in a wild madhouse, once, in a field of ripe wheat, once, in an empty cloister, and once among pigs in sty. Six babes crying, not enough: you yourself must be the seventh.

When you must fight to survive, let your enemy see seven. One, away from work on Sunday, one, starting his work on Monday, one, who teaches without payment, one, who learned to swim by drowning, one, who is the seed of a forest, and one, whom wild forefathers protect, but all their tricks are not enough: you yourself must be the seventh.

If you want to find a woman, let seven men go for her. One, who gives heart for words, one, who takes care of himself, one, who claims to be a dreamer, one, who through her skirt can feel her, one, who knows the hooks and snaps, one, who steps upon her scarf: let them buzz like flies around her. You yourself must be the seventh.

If you write and can afford it, let seven men write your poem. One, who builds a marble village, one, who was born in his sleep, one, who charts the sky and knows it, one, whom words call by his name, one, who perfected his soul, one, who dissects living rats. Two are brave and four are wise; You yourself must be the seventh.

And if all went as was written, you will die for seven men. One, who is rocked and suckled, one, who grabs a hard young breast, one, who throws down empty dishes, one, who helps the poor win; one, who worked till he goes to pieces, one, who just stares at the moon. The world will be your tombstone: you yourself must be the seventh.

I love the number seven plus you can find more great poems here: visit http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/590

On Louise Bourgeois /  by mirena

Today is a very sad day ( I am writing in the early hours of the next day but for me today hasn't passed yet ) - Louise Bourgeois passed away in her home in Manhattan, I was just telling a friend of mine last night that I finally had her number and wanted to call and visit her. And today was also the last day of Marina Abramovich's show at the Moma, where I practically moved in the last few days. It was my dream to talk to Louise since she adressed a number of issues I have always struggled with, and not just struggled I would say blackly terrified. Pain, fear, frustration and suffering, power, red. So often i am overwhelmed by anxiety and fear, I am terrified of power and pain, I could not casually look at violence or watch tv and switch between real and staged sufferings with a button. I learned from Louise how to use the color red, how to "give meaning and shape to pain".

An artist practices vulnarability and that's part of the trade, an artist often crosses to the other side and claws into the subconscious and that is a gift. Louise once said: "I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."

Art Mart Manifesto /  by mirena

I spent days in New York looking at almost all art fairs, including The Armory, Volta, Red Dot, The Independent on 22nd street, as well as Pulse and the Art Dealers on 5th ave. Also went for the Skin Fruit show at the New Museum, The Whitney Biennale ( stunning works on paper ), MOMA - where William Kentridge had a show I have seen and completely overpowers me every time, and where Abramovich had her pre-miere. Also went to be delighted in the works on paper at  the Museum of Art and Design. Just counting the number of galleries at the fairs, I saw about 350-400 galleries represented and that was just the most intense experience and very solid exchange of molecules. As a student of art I am very interested in process. I believe the process drives the outcome of a piece and allows the artist to bring a lot of power to the surface. Seeing Picasso's experiments, trials and errors to reach the final Guernica taught me a lot about process. In fact, I spent far more time looking at Picasso's sketches and thrown away work rather than Guernica itself. Process could be many things - studying Goya's black paintings at the Prado and studying their history allowed me to see the broader reach of process, where it also includes intent, and anguish. In the black paintings Goya used printers ink and I recognized that a solid enough process allows the artist to introduce and control seemingly "random" experiments. Just like in Martial Arts, once you have done your poomse about 10,000 times you feel confident leaping around a bamboo forest.

I also used to worry about the viability of paper as a medium but after seeing Bronzino's drawings at the Met I absolutely recognized the fact that the fragility of the paper in no way diminished the power of the line. The work was so moving and the rooms so crowded with breathtaking works that I never had that doubt again.

Most beautiful thing /  by mirena

Most beautiful thing happened to me at the Met - I went looking for "the Nose" ticket from the scalpers and in the confusion got... a standing room ticket... for La Boheme. Sometimes greed and unfavorable circumstances guard the doors to most wonderful places. Seeing opera, like art, moves me beyond the obvious, profane and the mundane and, of course, the most beautiful things happened while I wasn't looking. I got to meet absolutely delightful couple art collectors from Denmark and My standing room neighbors were ardent opera fans - There was the orthopedic surgeon exchange student from Tokyo, an ardent opera lover, and on right was an IT guy from HBO.

After first act we were standing around chatting about what we thought we liked so far when a really nice couple handed us their tickets on the way out.. leaving early. My Tokyo friend and I were grateful to the really nice people and got to see the rest of La Boheme first class ! La Boheme was the most moving music and singing I heard this year so far - it inspired me beyond the visual and the sensual. The soprano was world class and Rodolfo was great too. But most of all, I got too see the power of high class art to turn a "light" story into a grand excursion of the imagination and emotion.

Before.. and after:)

Happy New Year 2010 ! /  by mirena

Earth never stopped spinning for me in 2009, it started with a beautiful dance with most dear friends in a chilly square in Sofia. We danced a horo and made merry. Since then 10 years worth of things happened, but even more things didn't happen and the latter turned out to be really important unhappenings. I can only say I didn't get enough of my family and dearest friends in 2009 so I'd love to have more in 2010. The other almost as important event was of course seeing Picasso's Guernica in the Reina Sofia in Madrid, in the last days of December. along with it seeing Picasso's process while developing his ideas for the giantic piece - it was as if seeing Michelangelo carving a slave or Bernini growing Daphne's marble tree. "Effortless" Guernica took an enormous amount of rejection to make the perfect composition. My quick iphone notes from that moment:

"Reina Sofia . Dali, Picasso, popova, Magritte , Dali:) the masters had impeccable sense for composition. Broad strokes, Dali's paintings are very detailed and full of wonder. And finally the guernica by picasso - picasso's fury monochromatic with perfect sense for composition, I crave to get closer . Odd looks a bit like a collage. Increddible. This has been such an intense day so far. Seeing picasso's process was a very special / guernica looks effortless but took a lot of preparation and study. In hindsight now i understand why Guernica looks like a collage - He worked on and developed parts individually. Can't get enough of Picasso... My back is killing me:) but I am still on the second floor."

Picasso's Guernica

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