I spent so much time looking at great art this week that I felt the need to put something back into my own work.  I absorbed more Friday night – with 3.5 hours of solid viewing of 4 major shows at the Metropolitan Museum – and many thoughts came to me – some I have yet to write down.

This is a long post …. I put a lot in it ….. hope you read it all the way though.

This afternoon we had a Black Model, fairly athletic, and I just sat down and painted him – no real pre-sketch – and 3 hours later – here’s what I ended up with (see below).

 

This is actually 18 x 24 – and I think it actually looks better when you click on it (to expand) but looks better still in real life.  I found it very hard to resolve parts of the models’ torso and I’m not really satisfied with the face.  Did the best I could – tried to make a picture that’s alive.

I’m aware that I have a lot of things in my paintings / sketches – guess that’s a reflection of my life – have a lot of things going on – a lot in my life.  As I viewed the American Painters in Paris show last nite at the MET, noticed John Singer Sargent had simplified all his compositions – they’re simple and abstract almost – easy to look at – easy to take in.  Made a note of that …..but I’m just the reverse – my work is not “easy” and there’s a lot going in inside of me and around me ….. my work should reflect that …. because that’s who I am right now.

Someone wrote me today about one of my studio views I did recently – they told me it’s good but I should think about getting rid of the scribbles and lines…. I wrote back that I think the lines and scribbles are part of me – and if this is a problem …how about Van Gogh’s studio drawings ….aren’t they full of scribbles too?   Anyway – I did not get a reply to that…that’s’ fine – who needs a reply ….I’m not going to change a thing about my work unless I want to.

And then I did another sketch / painting – spending another 2 or 3 hours on it.

I think of this painting – which I had a hard time with – as “The Red Cup“.  Had a real hard time – did not think I would – there are parts that are not resolved…and you know what … my life is that way …. so, maybe the Red Cup is a symbol of my life. 

In that case, I thought about how I might resolve the background, and in so doing, – resolve something in my life that’s blocked. 

One problem …. the background was too much the same as the foreground ….. in the painting (and maybe, there were too many things that were “the same” in my life ….. so maybe an adjustment is needed).  

Adjusted by popping out the space around the cup and trying to make the foreground more distinct.  Don’t know if it worked for sure.

Here’s something I want to share,  It’s something that may be unique to me, or it may not be. 

If it’s something that happens to artists and they just don’t talk about it, fine…then I’m just like everyone else. 

If not…than it’s something unique to me. 

Here it is – and I’ve never written about this – but I want to now.

When I paint – I feel the colors speak to me …. I see flashes of energy – sorta like beacons …. hints of where to put the next colors …what they should be.  I’ve learned to tune in and “listen” for the energy to communicate with me.

In the past, I would take a passive role – just waiting to see what would “pop up” …… today I decide what I want to let in and also work with things I want to be there – flashes of light or not – it’s a balance and what’s right for me.

However, I believe what I’m actually painting is ….  energy patterns – and the purpose of my art work is to free up energy …. just as ”freeing up energy” is the purpose of my life ……I’ve done that with the projects I work on (IE: at IBM, at any SEO project I’ve worked on, for any client).  Every client is really just a energy pattern …. and I see my self as a catalyst – working with the energy to free it up – transform it into something else.  That’s what I did with the Homepage of IBM – I made it into a Lead Generation Engine (which it always was…..really) rather than a weekly magazine…..and my paintings are really just that … energy patterns I’m working out. 

My managers have “figured” out I’m best at “solving problems” and I most want to have “continuous challenges” – where I have to come up with a solution.  The best use of my energy, in painting and in life – is to confront the most difficult problems. ..the more difficult … the more I like it.  

I’m really not good at “standardized reporting” and I’m not really that good at the “technique” part of painting …. I get restless and want to “jump ahead”.

As I work out blocked energy as Art, it works out in  Life …. and vice versa.  It’s not so weird…. think about it.  If you go to therapist and talk about your problems, and start working out feelings…don’t things usually get defined?  Don’t things eventually improve?  Well, we hope they do.   Same thing with Art…when you work it out on Canvas (or whatever your art form) ….. it’s also being freed up in your life.  You can face things in painting..which then brings you to face them in life….or you can face them in life ….and they will then come up in the paintings.

As far as the “mystery” …. well, I hope it’s there.  As much as you can explain -there’s always a part that can’t be explained …and should not be.

But suppose there really is an energy plane that communicates with us, just as the colors speak to me … will is speak to anyone?   Yes.

I believe the energy that speaks to me….would speak to anyone …. it’s energy - it wants to connect ….by meeting it half way…with an open mind and heart. 

OK, I just read it in the New York Times – but it’s been going on in Stamford, CT for at least 4 years - Traffic Boxes being painted with murals – murals that are good…. and they just happen to stop traffic.

“….What began four years ago as a tiny, grass-roots experiment to beautify the unsightly boxes that control traffic signals around town has become an unexpectedly impressive public art collection, with head-turning installations cropping up constantly to transform drab streetscapes into outdoor galleries.

About 50 of the city’s 190 boxes, once covered with graffiti, are now suitable for framing.

“They appear overnight,” said Renée Kahn, a local preservationist and a fan. “One weekend you drive by and there’s nothing, and the next weekend it’s suddenly there.”

It’s too hard for me to go and see all of them – though Stamford is not far from New York City – only 35 minutes on a Metro North Train.

I’m glad Stanford is doing something like this – I always hated going to Stamford, CT …. seemed so “faked” – not real or natural – especially downtown.  Maybe some Art around Stamford will bring life to the city…sure looks that way.

As I was leaving the  Metropolitan Museum this evening – noticed there was another show at the museum I had not seen Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s – decided to go back into the museum and spent the next 90 minutes fixated on a GREAT SHOW that was also Unique.

 

Otto Dix – Portrait of Anita Berber -1925 (left) and Portrait of The Art Dealer Alfred Flechtheim – 1926 (right).

In fact, New York City is full of great shows just now …. more great shows in one city at one time than ever.  This is going to be a long post ….. and if it gets too long, I’ll do a second post.

I was not aware that German Art in the 1920′s had a movement called “Verism”.  According to the show notes online…

“Although often romanticized as the backdrop for erotic cabaret shows and sexual licentiousness, German cities of the 1920s were actually in the throes of rampant unemployment, hyperinflation, and social panic. After the initial patriotic fervor for—followed by the crippling devastation of— World War I, a group of artists known as the Verists questioned their own involvement in the atrocities and focused on the country’s quickly changing social landscape and uncertain political future.”

I can imagine what it must have been like to live in Germany in the 1920′s – World War I was over, millions of German Solders were killed, but just as many came back injured – many lived on the streets - the economic and political climate was a mess and a  deep disillusionment and pessimism set in.  Yet, at this very moment, some of the greatest German Artists lived and thrived – and painted what they saw and felt – and that’s what this show is all about.  I’ll probably need to buy a catalog of this show as it made a very strong impression on me.

You can see some of the German Portraits here.

The show really could have been called….Otto Dix and his contemporaries – 1920 -1933.   Otto Dix’s work took up half the show ….and what a range of work….I bet the better part of Dix’s work from the 1920′s was sitting in a couple of rooms of the Metropolitan Museum.

One thing about all these artists …. Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Karl Hubbuch, Christian Schad and Rudolf Schlichter – they all could draw … very well …and in Otto Dix’s case – as well as Albrecht Durer.  It’s clear where the heritage came from… all the artists here are fantastic but Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and George Grosz are the only ones really know in the United States – and Beckmann is more well known because he had a following and several well known artists admire his work.   The other thing about these words are …they are very morbid.  

Verism appears to be a way to categorize people as a certain “type” and then paint them as a representation of the type of person the artist thinks they are… at least this is what I got out of the explanation given at the show.

Otto Dix – 1921 – Portrait of Dr. Hans Koch

The portraits are a representation of an “archtype” if you will, more than a specific portrait of person.  In this case, Dr. Koch’s features are distinct – but it’s his ”persona” or “archtype” that is being painted.  It’s more or less the same with the rest of the show.

There’s also a lot of drawings in the show – all of them are GREAT!

 

The collection of German Art assembled here is probably the most extensive of any I have seen and most likely, the largest body of German Art outside Germany.  And this is the very first show of “Verist” art.

You can see the rest of the show – you have till February 19th 2007 – I’ll go back to see it at least a couple of times in the next 3 months.

There’s so much more to talk about – and the rest of the artists …but I’m exhausted from seeing 4 shows in one day …I’ll try to write up American Artists in Paris 1860 – 1900 tomorrow.

Time for bed.

I saw 4 shows at the Metropolitan today – Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall—An Artist’s Country Estate was one of them.

    

Stained Glass Window and Imported Door Entrance to Tiffany’s uptown apartment, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany

I Never was really into Tiffany Stained Glass Windows, Tiffany Stained Glass Lamps, etc; it’s all around me and I see it in antique stores, in museum stores and it’s beautiful, but I’ve never really embraced Tiffany – and maybe I should, because Louis Comfort Tiffany was something else…. not just rich, but incredibly talented in a lot of different ways – and he did artwork in several media, and was proficient in several media and even his houses ….were designed as works of Art.

Not only were his houses “Art” but they were designed to produce “Art” and that includes pottery – meaning his house had a Kiln …..on Madison Avenue and 72nd Street…that’s right ….. his house was the equivalent of a modern Theme Restaurant …except it was just for him and his family.

A lot of times wealth is wasted on people that act like they don’t deserve it …. I got the impression from this exhibition that Louis Comfort Tiffany was wealthy and knew just what to do with it …. make his life into Art – and everything he touched – into Artwork.  According to the Times Article:

“Tiffany was born in 1848, the industrious son of a wealthy founder of the luxury-goods business soon known as Tiffany & Company. He set out to be a painter, touring Europe and the Mediterranean and becoming especially smitten with Orientalism. But he had more facility than originality, as the paintings and watercolors here attest. “  (Correct – as a painter he’d be but a footnote in Art History had he not done his decorative work – the work he’s really known for).

There’s probably more Artwork in the New York Times review of the Tiffany show than what I can produce.

“…..Reassembled here for the first time since Laurelton Hall burned to the ground in 1957, the Daffodil Terrace adds a fitting Temple of Dendur splendor to a strange and lovely exhibition. It has been organized by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Met’s curator of American decorative arts, and presents a series of beautiful objects in search of a ghost.

The Daffodil Terrace once connected the dining room and the gardens at Laurelton Hall, the grand estate that Tiffany built for himself from 1902 to 1905 on 580 extensively landscaped acres overlooking Long Island Sound. It is displayed here in an enormous gallery, along with the stained-glass windows whose trailing wisteria vines brought the garden into the dining room, and the imposing white marble mantel whose three glass mosaic clocks let diners keep track of the time, the day and the month. “

Laurelton Hall would have been a place I’d love to visit – it’s so comfortable – and the living interiors – well …… Louis Comfort Tiffany was ahead of this time.

OK……. his paintings, while technically good, don’t interest me … it’s the pottery and stained glass that is uniquely his.  

The Louis Comfort Tiffany show at the Met runs till May 20th, 2007 - a good 6 months – plenty of time to see it.

It’s not a show that I, personally, would have gone out of my way to see – since I was at the Met today … I spent maybe 20 minutes with Tiffany.