I might have caught this  Georges Rouault show earlier but I’m out of town and did not know about it beforehand.

I saw the Vollard show at the Metropolitan Museum late last that was referred to in the Michael Kimmelman article on the Rouault show in the New York Times.

Rouault has never really been one of my favorite artists but, overall, I have liked and responded to the work of his that I’ve seen – and I don’t respond to everyone’s work.

What is interesting - how unlikely anyone but Georges Rouault could have painted his work – it looks unique to me – and that’s a sign of greatness … that no one else could have done that work.

So, while I’ll miss the show, or have missed it – if I could have gone, I would.

I enjoyed viewing and listening to the Sigmar Polke slideshow and article in the New York Times tonight by Carol Vogel. 

Personally, I like the idea the artist’s work is being displayed and commented on, not so much Polke himself, being somewhat more guarding of his privacy – as he should be.

Carol Vogel bought up that;

“….Collectors and museum directors line up to buy virtually anything Mr. Polke produces these days. When a group of black-and-white drawings — blown-up studies of paint brush strokes and splatters that evoked celestial constellations — went on view in February at a cocktail party at the annual Art Show in Manhattan, they sold out within 10 minutes. “

And here’s the reason given (why his work is in such demand):

“…At a moment when no clear artistic movement or style dominates popular tastes, he is known as a master of the unexpected. And while often rooted in ancient mythology, philosophy and chemistry, artists and curators say, his work always seems new. The artist John Baldessari, 75, describes Mr. Polke as an artist’s artist. “Any one move can provide a career for a lesser artist,” he explained. “

Had not heard it said that way before – but I guess it makes sense – there’s so much going on right now in the Art World – it seems like there is no predominant art style – more like a bazzar.

“…His appeal also lies partly in his unavailability. Unlike Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst or Takashi Murakami, who work hard at maintaining their movie-star allure, Mr. Polke shuns the limelight and guards his privacy. He has been known to go for months without answering his phone, opening his mail or allowing visitors into his studio. “

While I would not want to be the person trying to get ahold of him….from the point of view of creating art, Sigmar Polke’s responsibility and focus is on his work, and his independence – and I think that’s the right focus. 

And, it’s a blessing when an artist, for a change, can call the shots – instead of the dealers, buyers, press, whatever.   I have always felt control of art ought to be in the artists’ hand – not some middleman, trader, museum curator or gallery dealer – however well meaning they may be.

BTW, Polke’s works look interesting too – would not mind seeing them in person – perhaps they are somewhere in NYC where I can see a few of his works.

It’s been on my mind to write a post about this – it’s sorta related to my work in online reputation management for Steven Vornea and Steven Anello over at CFA Capital Partners – but it’s available to Artists as well.  The idea is the same, just the application is different.

First you need to find a post on a well known, well connected blog (it helps to be notable in the first place – to do something that stands out enough that someone wants to comment about it).  Of course, if its’ Art we’re talking about – it’s best to find a well connected Art Blog like www.Drawn.ca,  but that might be hard to get – it really all depends on what kind of interest you can drum of with your work.

At that point, you need to figure out what kind of keywords you’d dominate on, or could dominate on – and that can take work – in the case of Steven Anello,  and  then, Steven Vornea, I picked keyphases that had to do with the textual content of their sites – such as: real estate,  commerical real estate and real estate financing.  In your case, it might be “Brooklyn Artists” or “encaustic Painting” or even you name (an artists name is their “brand”).

then, once you have your basic blog post in place – with the keywords that are dominating are linked with your audience – you can get othter bloggers to both link to the first post and also link to each other.    I did that with the following posts:

 Steven Vornea & Steven Anello – CFA Capital Partners – Unique lending solutions and commercial real estate analysis  should link, or be related to Steven Vornea & Steven Anello Manage CFA Capital Partners and Steven Anello: A Leading Innovator in the Financial Loan Industry

All three are different blogs and for maximum effect, I’d also link from each of the blogs to one of the other bloggers posts on the subject.

And when you think about it – it’s just this strategy that big corporate sites like Hanley Wood – with eplans.com, builder.com, etc are doing – you can’t get a link on those sites – they’re all part of a elaborate internal linking strategy that also supports the business.

When it comes to Art, we need to think about those things too…that’s my point.  If you want your work known by artists and the art community (and collectors) it helps to be linked from and link to many other art blogs – and to get them to link to the exact blog posts with the exact keywords you want to be found for.

I forgot to put this painting in my last post – so here it is now.  I feel like I got what I wanted and am stuck at the same time – like is should have been a bigger painting.

In a way, I wanted to suggest what I’ve been reading and thinking about and contrast it to what I thought about 20 years ago.  I put in The World View of Paul Cezanne by Jane Roberts and Eugene Delacroix’s Journal as the two books – along with a black sketch book of my own. 

I pulled in plant that I’ve seen in the studio before and and been a part of some of my other paintings over the last several months.

There’s things I like about this work, while feeling, at the same time, it’s too crowded – there’s too much going on here to be be contained in a picture this size.

I hung out at an art opening going on at the studio and then went over to the Postmark Cafe where I wrote this post.

Time to go home, I’m tired, drained.