I was over at the Whitney yesterday for about two hours - maybe I’ve seen enough art for now and need to create some of my own.  

The Mark Grotjahn show in the Anne & Joel Eheenkranz Gallery on the first floor was interesting - I passed it on the way out and I see that picture represented on the Whitney’s site is the one I liked the best.

“…on view September 15, 2006 - January 7, 2007
Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Gallery, floor 1
Conceived for this exhibition, Mark Grotjahn’s cycle of “perspective drawings” pulls the viewer into a dynamic interplay between the large-scale works and the gallery space. A sense of space is evoked by the drawings’ multiple vanishing points, a convention used since the Renaissance to create the illusion of depth and volume. These perspectival referents both create the structure for and become the subject of Grotjahn’s art. The works’ formal organization finds a counterpoint in the modulations of color that play against the vanishing points to create vibrant, three-dimensional surfaces.”

The Albers And Moholy-Nagy exhibition was cool - but not really my kind of work - I can’t embrace it as much because it feels to much like a series of exercises or “experiments” that is more illustrative than actual painting (though I liked many of the Albers color field paintings anyway).  It’s sorta like the prevailing beliefs of the day were to experiment with colors and shape fooling the eye and brain into reading depth into totally flat color arrangements.  Fact of the matter - there is an “implied depth” in Joseph Albers paintings - but he does not push it as far he could have (by varying the sharpness of the edges between colors.  To me, if he had done that - his paintings would look less like “exercises” in color mixing and more like an interpretation of space.  But that’s just my opinion.

The Picasso and American Art show I have already seen twice and I briefly walked by but felt a little overpowered yesterday - got slightly dizzy but it all and went off to a different part of the museum and then saw the Hopper paintings on the 5th floor before leaving.

I also saw a few art openings on Thursday - nothing much worth writing about.

I have maintained, for  quite some time, that most of Rembrandt’s paintings were much cleaner looking when they were created than what we see in today’s museums. 

In fact, I have had a long going “laugh” when passing by the Art Student’s League in NYC, for example, that imitated Rembrandt’s dirty and low light colors when it was effect of age they were imitating.  I’m not saying there’s no reason to paint dark, low light painting - only that Rembrandt would not recognize, or approve of most of his work if he saw what it looks like today.  But that’s equally true of much of the art of the past where oils and varnish changed colors and transparency over time.

Well, here’s a Rembrandt that kinda looks like it did when it was first painted in 1661 and it’s being auctioned off at Sotheby’s here in NYC next month, January 2007.   The Photo is care of Sotheby’s, BTW.

“…This extraordinary painting is certainly one of the most important works by Rembrandt that Sotheby’s has ever handled. Over the past 20 years, the vast majority of pictures by the artist that have appeared on the market have dated to the 1630s and 40s – it is exceedingly rare to have one that dates to the 1660s. Works of this period, the last decade of Rembrandt’s life and a time of personal turmoil, are extremely intense, soulful and introspective.”

I got the information from Inside Art at the New York Times.

 

Been busy - lots of stuff to do - but not that many art openings going on this week and next in New York City due to the Christmas and New Years holidays.

I was not planning on going to the Life Drawing session at the Brooklyn Artists Gym last night - I only came by to see the new studio space that’s going to be available starting next month (January 07).  The new space, 10,000 square feet is a significant improvement over our current space, and most of it will be studio space in form or another including: huge wet area in the studio, large room for 3D and crafts, a wood shop, a metal shop, art storage, a gallery that has more wall space and an alliance with Brooklyn Writer’s Space to have a writer’s studio.  BAG is poised to become a vital Art Center in New York City.

Since I was already at my studio and a life drawing session was going on - I drew and here’s what I came up with the same model, Aveida, who I painted last time (see the first picture below - the oil pastel was done about 10 days ago).

 

Here’s my conte crayon and oil pastel on newspaper sketches of the model from last night - most were 5 or 10 minute sketches.

 

I may cover a opening or two tonight and some more museum shows over the weekend - hopefully I’ll spend the bulk of the next 10 days painting.