Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Franz Kline: In Color














































Franz Kline (1910-1962) is often pigeonholed as a "black and white" painter. Above is a selection of work by the Ab-Ex master in which color merges with gesture and at times takes center stage.


Monday, November 21, 2011

Done Paint Done @ The Drawers Gallery in London


Done Paint Done
curated by Karl Bielik
Featuring work by: Paul Behnke, Karl Bielik, Marcus Cope, Inga Dalrymple, Patrick Galway, Emyun Kang, David Small, Marianne Spurr, Gavin Toyo, Sabine Tress
w/ performances by boyleANDshaw and Lark.

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 1, 7-11 PM
Closing Party: Sunday December 18.

The Drawers Gallery
438 Kingsland Road
London E8

Friday, November 18, 2011

Time Flies: Rose, Rodin and Camille

Auguste Rodin, 1862

Portrait of Young Woman (Rose Beuret), The first bust Rodin did of her when she was twenty-one.

Mignon (Rose Beuret), 1869

Rodin at age forty, ca. 1880

Portrait of Rodin by Alphonse Legros, 1881

Thought (Camille Claudel), 1886

The sculptor, Camille Claudel

Eternal Springtime, 1884, by Rodin

The Fall of an Angel, 1885, by Rodin

The Eternal Idol, 1889, by Rodin

Rose Beuret, 1890, by Rodin

Rose Beuret, 1890, by Rodin

Bust of Rodin, 1888, by Camille Claudel

The Farewell, 1892, Rodin's last portrait of Camille Claudel

Rodin walking with his dogs in Meudon, Val-Fleuri

Rodin surrounded by his works in his studio museum.

The Monk, by Rodin based on an engraving by Prud'hon

Rodin, 1917

Rose Beuret in profile over the years. 

Rose Beuret by Henry Tonks

Rodin and Rose Beuret (Mme. Auguste Rodin)

The bide and groom (Rose Beuret and Rodin) 1917

Daphnis and Lycenion, 1885, by Rodin

Psyche-Spring, 1885, by Rodin

Avarice and Lust, 1885, by Rodin

The Kiss, 1886, by Rodin

Rodin on His Deathbed by Pierre Choumoff

Friday, November 11, 2011

Brooklyn College MFA Open Studios

Aidan Sofia Earle, At Nostrand, 2010, Found objects, mixed media, 50 x 62 inches.


Boylan Hall Floors 4,5, and 6
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210

Hours:
Friday, November 18, 6 - 10 PM
Saturday, November 19, 1 - 6 PM
Monday, November 21, 10 AM - 2 PM



Thursday, November 10, 2011

Bob Thompson (1937-1966): A Most Visionary Painter

Thompson in Ibiza, 1962
(c) the respective photographer/ The Whitney Museum of American Art

Ornette, 1960-61, 81 x 77 in.

Black Monster, 1959, 57 x 66 in.

I got into a groove...where the subject matter was monsters. The whole thing was involved in a sort of poetry and the relationship was like man and woman to nature and beasts.
- Bob Thompson

Le Poignarder (The Star), 1959, 50 x 60 in.

Thompson in his studio on Rivington Street, NY, ca. 1964
Photo (c) Charles Rotmil

1961(?) in Paris...saw him in Left Bank hotel studio- we talked and turned on, I dug his new candy-bright colored style making Poussin-esque space, flat colors surface amorphism delineating 3-D figures...I thought him the most original visionary painter of his days, a first natural American psychedelic colorist.
- Allen Ginsberg

After El Greco's Annunciation, 1960, 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.
Gouache on photo reproduction.

Saint George and the Dragon, 1961-62, 89 1/2 x 81 1/2 in.

I think painting should be like the...like the theatre... [T]he painters in the Middle Ages, and the Rennaissance...were employed to educate the people...they could walk, and see what was happening...I am not specifically trying to do that...but, in a certain way, I am trying to show what's happening, what's going on...in my own private way.
- Bob Thompson

Garden of Eden, 1963, 10 x 8 in.

Thompson (l.) with Ornette Coleman in Thompson's studio, NYC, 1965
(c) the respective photographer/ The Whitney Museum of American Art

Inferno, 1963, 24 x 20 in.

I wish people would stop talking so much- always criticizing this, that...Tonight is consisted of putting down Balthus, science fiction or other far-fetched things - Why do we often...speak of things that would...take a grand amount of knowledge to discuss with any depth? Terms thrown about like clothes of an untidy boy.
- Bob Thompson

Parnassus, 1964, 20 x 30 in.

St. Matthew's Description of the End of the World, 1964, 72 x 60 1/8 in.

Bob and Carol Thompson in Ibiza, 1962
(c) the respective photographer/ The Whitney Museum of American Art

One time I brought my students from the Dayton Art Institute to New York for a field trip. Bob gave a four hour lecture in his studio starting at three A.M., after we had been at the Five Spot listening to Thelonius [sic] Monk. After the lecture, Bob and I drove to Staten Island just to ride over the new Verazzano [sic] Bridge...Bob painted the whole next day and well into the night. No sleep for 36 hours...
- Jay Milder

Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea, 1964, 9 x 12

Satyr and Maiden, 1965, 10 x 20 in.

LeRoi Jones and His Family, 1964, 36 3/8 x 48 1/2 in.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take.
- James Baldwin

In the studio, 1963
Image (c) Fred W. McDarrah

...it is neccessary for me to utterly repudiate so-called good painting in order to be free to express that which is visually true to me...My aim is to project images that seem vital to me...images...that seem to have meaning in terms of feeling...
- Bob Thompson


*Above images and text are taken from the catalog "Bob Thompson", published on the occasion of the exhibition "Bob Thompson" at the Whitney Museum of American Art, September 25, 1998 - January 3, 1999.
All content (c) the Whitney Museum of American Art.

catalog available here.