I was at a Photography opening last night, next door at the Brooklyn Artists Gym Gallary – I made a video of the event (below).

One thing about YouTube – they have some automation that goes though and takes off content when they think it’s copyrighted…somehow, that must have happened because I used the word “collection” in my video title.  I did not change it so it might happen again – in which case I’ll have to edit this post (again).

I spent all afternoon and most of the evening painting at Brooklyn Artists Gym; decided to do a large painting based on my study of trees in Paul Cezanne’s back yard, the one I did the first day I arrived in Aix-en-Provence 3 weeks ago today.

Here’s the painting – it’s done in Oil Pastel on Canvas and is something like 3 feet by 4 feet in size.

 

You know the study for this painting was Cezanne’s Back Yard, but the painting drew, somewhat, on the ideas I got back in Paris a couple of days before when I saw an exhibition of Pierre Klossowski at the Centre Pompidou.  Besides liking the drawings on paper (canvas to me) I found out that Pierre Klossowski was the brother of the painter Balthus.  While the sexual symbolism is not my thing – the feeling and quality of Klossowski’s work is my thing and decided, then and there, I would buy an expensive book (in French, no less) based on the exhibition, and find a way to use that insight in my painting when I got back to the New York.   And this painting of Cezanne’s Back Yard was my first attempt and using crayon, or Oil Pastel, on Canvas.

“..Pierre Klossowski, April 2-June 4, 2007 – The writer and philosopher Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001), a friend of Rilke and Georges Bataille, took up art on the prompting of Robert Lebel, André Masson and Alberto Giacometti. Centre Pompidou is to show drawings, prints and sculptures by Klossowski in Spring 2007. Klossowski also worked with a number of film directors, as writer or actor: with Pierre Zucca and Raoul Ruiz in the early 1970s and Pierre Coulibeuf, Michel Nuridsany and Alain Fleischer in the 1980s. A program of films in which Klossowski was involved will also be shown.”

While my inspiration may have started with Klossowski, it was mostly about my time in Cezanne’s last studio in Aix.   And here’s the movie I made just as got done working on this large painting – my hands all “green” with oily pastels, have drunk 4 glasses of Red Wine at an opening that happened at BAG last night – where I freely moved back and forth to the studio area and to the photography opening.

I was also thinking of the Van Gogh in the Clark Exhibition at the Metropolitan I saw the night before – how powerful it is (was).

I went over to the Metropolitan Musuem last night and spent an hour looking at the Clark Brothers Collection.  I tried to make a video but was not allowed to take any footage of the collection, itself.  

It’s getting harder to figure out what is and is not allowed in museums, since, more and more, they don’t want people to photograph anything and want to sell post cards and movies to make a profit themselves.

The quality of the Clark Collection, for many of the pictures – are unparalleled, and there are some excellent Corot and Renoir paintings.  Renoir is an uneven artist for me…most of his work reminds me of sicken sweet cough syrup – and yet, there are some superb portraits along with banal paintings of Renoir that I, personally, dislike.

There were also some Matisse paintings, that I don’t commonly see and a fantastic Van Gogh,  I think it’s called the Red Room.

I briefly went by the New York Genius Photography opening on Wednesday evening – liked the photos, many of famous people – in fact, all the photos were of famous actors taken 30-40 years ago curated by Lou Reed.

On another note – been so busy lately it’s been hard to write as much as I’d like – but I found I was sketching more – in my small notebook sketchpad.

After the New York Genius opening, I had dinner nearby and did two or three small sketches I’m pretty happy with.  I kinda thought about it and wondered if I’d every do anything with my sketches.

But it “came” to me, or the idea popped in my head, that I’m doing what I want to do (sketch) because I want to…and the act (event) of sketching something, or even thinking about sketching – changes the subject of what I’m painting.