On Tuesday night I briefly went by the Art Director’s Club and saw Secret Lives: Parsons Senior Thesis Exhibition – Art Directors Club.

Pretty impressed with the quality of the works on display and the Art Director’s Club was packed.

One thing that was different than what I usually see at shows I attend – several sketchbooks were sitting on tables, produced by the artists in the show, but considered much like a painting.

I loved the Barcelona and Modernity – Gaudi to Dali show at the Metropolitan that is running through June 3rd, 2007 – if your in town you really have to see this show – it’s one more of the series of FANTASTIC shows that have been put on by the Metropolitan Museum over the last year.  No Photography was allowed – but I can talk about it and the pictures and feelings are etched in my mind.

Coming into this show from the Roman Wing that I had seen just before - I felt every bit as happy with what I saw in Barcelona and Modernity.   I hope to go back two or three times by the time the show closes.

Here’s some of the images that Met has online that I liked the most in this show:

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
Interior of Els Quatre Gats Piccaso – 1899

La Vie (Life) Piccaso – 1903

Port de Barcelona Lluis Bracons – 1925

There’s a lot more that is not reproduced online.  I was looking at Picasso’s early work and comparing it to the other artists he befriended from Barcelona or nearby parts of Spain – and trying to figure out what works for me in his work vs. the others.

I came up with an idea that works for me – it’s not a new idea, that artists who appeal to me are the one’s that are using paint, or the art form, whatever it is, to capture feeling and transform it via painting.  Painters that are describing light, or redoing what a photograph does, more or less, might seem to have a lot of technical skill, but the work is boring.

Enough for tonight.

I spent about 75 minutes at the Metropolitan Museum this afternoon, as promised, and was very happy with what I saw of the New Greek and Roman Galleries.   Finally, the Met has housed Roman Art in a wing worthy of it’s large and, in the case of some wall paintings, almost unparalleled, collection.

I could tell you this – I will go back to the Roman wing often.   Having watched both seasons of HBO’s Rome, I feel as if I lived in Rome around the time of the early Caesars (who knows, maybe I did).    I’m sorry the show ended this season (I guess it was too expensive to produce more than 2 seasons) – I learned a great deal about Roman History that would  be difficult to really envision had I not watched the series, which covered the end of the Roman Republic, the Death of Caesar and the rise of Augustus.  Largely due to the series on Rome, I was able to appreciate Agrippa’s role in the early empire of Augustus Caesar, and some murals from one of  Agrippa’s Villa’s was on the walls of the Metropolitan, and in very good shape, I might add.

Here’s some pictures that I took today at the Roman wing of the Metropolitan – when I have information or thoughts about a picture, I’ll mention those ideas below the picture.

This is how the Roman wing looks like when you enter.

 

This Seated Muse was very powerful and the twisting and off-angle reminded me of the kind of thing I stumbled on in some of my paintings like Homage to Manet and a recent BAG Studio Study were by twisting and moving off center, I created dynamic movement in my work that’s not often there – much like what happened with this powerful stature from antiquity.

I think the part of a face is more interesting than the whole face in many of the ancient sculptures and this one caught my eye today.

 

Pretty powerful portrait of Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Emperor.

 

This wall painting reminds me of Brice Marden’s work – it also contains motif’s used in HBO Rome series quite often, including the Snake.

The Metropolitan has really delivered on the Roman Wing – Like I say, I’ll come here often, perhaps whenever I come to the Museum.

Been thinking about this a lot lately, but can’t seem to hold on to “it” when I can write about it – hope I can say it now.   The artist I am today, I was at 14, but I just did not know how to finish anything at 14, or 24, or 34 or after.   I had no real concept of what “finished” was – or how to complete anything.

In a way, every painting is already done in my mind, before I pick up the brush or pastel, or whatever; it always was that way – could not accept it earlier in my life.   In a way, everything I do now I did when I was 17 except one thing – I lacked a clear concept of what I wanted to achieve when I painted as a teenager and a young man – and I could not figure out what was me vs. being like the artists I admired.

When I paint now….it’s all me.  No matter who I admire – it’s my vision and my self development that I care about.  I think Self Development is the most “aligned” reason to paint today. 

So..if the painting is already done .. why does it need to be painted at all?  Because ….. the painting needs to be “realized” - the Artist needs to experience their own creation - yet it’s all done even before you pick up the brush; that’s my approach. 

I can stop when I see it’s done.. did not have that at 17.

In a way..the Trip to France I’ll be taking in a month or so…already happened.  I’ve been to Paris and Aix in my imagination – I’ve stood in Cezanne’s studio – and it’s as real, in a way, as if I had done it here, in physical world.

In fact, maybe my whole life already happened, and I’m just experiencing what already is. 

Maybe what we most need to watch out for is that we’re aligned to the path our life really needs to take – the rest should take care of itself.

Ok, enough rambling about Art.