by Bob Martin | Sep 30, 2010 | Art, Creativity, Drawing, Film
art21 presents on PBS Oct. 21“Anything is Possible” William Kentridge.
In trying to make sense of what is going on around me and inside of me, I forget that the world doesn’t owe me an explanation nor does it owe me an outcome that I will be satisfied with. Artist live in a realm of make believe where anything is possible and nothing needs to be explained or justified. William Kentridge provides a reminder that it is not necessary for us to know and understand everything. It’s all make believe and we should enjoy what can be enjoyed.
With all the viewing media options available to us, It is my wish that we don’t lose sight of PBS and there continued efforts to help educate us. Thanks PBS.
by Sandy | Sep 21, 2010 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Creativity, Museums
I love textiles. Texture and color just spurs imagination. Remember “Tie Dye”? It did not begin and end in the 60’s – the dyeing continues and the San Francisco de Young Museum’s presentation called “To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color“, explores the past and also brings us up to date.
“To Dye For features over 50 textiles and costumes from the Fine Arts Museums’ comprehensive collection of textiles from Africa, Asia and the Americas. A truly cross-cultural presentation, the exhibition showcases objects from diverse cultures… historical pieces are contrasted with artworks from contemporary Bay Area artists. The exhibition highlights several recent acquisitions, including important gifts such as a pair of ikat-woven, early-20th-century women’s skirts from the Iban people of Sarawak, Malaysia and two exquisite hand-painted and mordant-dyed Indian trade cloths used as heirloom cloths by the Toraja peoples of Sulawesi, Indonesia.”
“To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color” * until 1/9/11
de Young Museum
Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA
(Image: coat by Oscar de la Renta)
by Sandy | Sep 16, 2010 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Creativity, Museums
Born in Armenia, Arshile Gorky, 1902-1948, escaped the tragedy of war and genocide by moving to NYC where he taught himself to paint. He is considered one of the founders of “Abstract Impressionism”. 
“At a time when the American avant-garde privileged originality over traditional working methods, Gorky was a nonconformist who developed his personal vocabulary through a series of intensive apprenticeships to the styles of other artists, including Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, and Joan Miro, before developing his own unique and deeply influential visual language in the early 1940s. Gorky’s prominence in the New York art scene led him to befriend Andre Breton and Roberto Matta-fellow emigres and key figures in the surrealist group-who came to have an enormous impact on Gorky’s mature style.“
“ARSHILE GORKY: A RETROSPECTIVE” * Until SEPT 20, 2010
MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
by Sandy | Sep 8, 2010 | Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Creativity, Museums
I was recently able to get to the Museum of Modern Art, NYC and visit one of my favorite paintings again.
“Starry Night”, makes me smile, makes me want to get up close. I swear that the swirling stars are infused with some sort of electrical current to make them look like they are about to fling themselves off the canvas. I expect to hear a sizzle when I lean in.
I think Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was able to recreate “night” brilliantly – no pun intended. Fortunately for us, he did a lot of paintings and so many of his landscapes show his treatment of evening light.
According to a museum catalog, he “attempted the paradoxical task of representing night by light. His procedure followed the trend set by the Impressionists of “translating” visual light effects with various color combinations. At the same time, this concern was grafted onto Van Gogh’s desire to interweave the visual and the metaphorical in order to produce fresh and deeply original works of art”.
(Just an aside – Had a conversation with someone speculating what would have been the outcome if Van Gogh had taken his medication consistently, would he have “seen” things the way he did? I assume that he painted what he “saw” – exploding stars, riotous color and all. If he were sedated, would his visions have been different? I don’t know.)
by Sandy | Aug 16, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Creativity, Exhibits, Museums
The Clark has an exhibition exploring the connection between the work of Picasso and Degas called:
“Picasso Looks at Degas”. 
“Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked that “good artists copy; great artists steal.” Throughout his long and prolific career, Picasso often made works of art in response to his predecessors, “quoting” famous compositions by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Manet, and others in his own paintings. In his youth, contemporaries also noted the influence of Edgar Degas in Picasso’s paintings of cabarets and cafés, portraits, women bathing, and ballet dancers—subjects that had come to define the older French artist’s work.”
Picasso Looks at Degas – until September 12, 2010
The Clark – The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA
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by Sandy | Aug 5, 2010 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Cable, Creativity, Events, Writers
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year on Saturday 8/21 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. This one day event will offer “authors, storytellers, spoken word and poetry performances, musicians, exhibitors, children’s book authors, emerging writers, publishers, booksellers, panel discussions, editors, book reviewers…”
The Los Angeles Black Book Expo (LABBX) * August 21st * 11:00- 5:00
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