Been busy this week and between a server outage last weekend and life - didn’t have a chance to post even though I wanted to.

Anyway, today I went with a friend to see Georges Seurat: The Drawings at MOMA that will be on till January 7th 2008 - I’m sure I’ll be able to see the show at least once more, if not twice.

I was surprised at the sheer number of drawings in this show, as well as some paintings.   According to the online MOMA site for Georges Seurat - The Drawings:

“…Once described as “the most beautiful painter’s drawings in existence,” Georges Seurat’s mysterious and luminous works on paper played a crucial role in his career. Though Seurat is most often remembered as a Neo-Impressionist, the inventor of pointillism, and the creator of the painting, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, his incomparable drawings are among his–and modernism’s–greatest achievements. Working primarily with conté crayon on paper, Seurat explored the Parisian metropolis and its environs, abstracted figures, spaces, and structures, and dramatized the relationship between light and shadow, creating a distinct body of work that is a touchstone for the art of the twentieth century and today.”

My favorite thing about the online Georges Seurat site is the online sketchbooks - 4 of them - and I’d wish for something like that for my own sketchbooks - it’s almost as if the entire skecthbook, and the experience of opening it and browsing, can be done online.

As far as the drawings in the show, it’s clear many were done at dawn or dusk and and often more satisfying than Seurat’s paintings.   

Personally, I think much of what was appealing about Georges Seurat in the last century was the theory of optical color mixing applied to art.   As an artist, I don’t always feel Seurat’s technique suits what he was trying to do - often the brushstrokes are not varied enough and the paintings, overall, seem to take a very, very long time to do - in many cases, with not that much to show for all the extra time trying to optically mix colors.

I think maturity as an artist, can mean, finding a way to work that suits what the artist is trying to do (IE: for Georges Seurat, it might be painting from life during early morning and dusk) and building a technique and approach out of it.

But that’s just my opinion. 

The latest painting of Amy Crehore is called “Deja Vu Waltz” and it was featured on Boing Boing today. 

Amy Crehore - “Deja Vu Waltz” (oil on stretched linen, 24″x24″, 2007)

I feel a lot going on in “Deja Vu Waltz“, many levels - an evolution in her own language of expression.  I like how Amy unveiled her latest work section by section - yesterday she showed a Detail of Girl From “Deja Vu Waltz“  and the Birdbath shortly before.  Each section is it’s own painting, like the Cat, Monkey, Devil and Clown.  

The Deja Vu Waltz imagery reminds me of a deck of Tarot Cards, and I’m wishing that Amy Crehore would illustrate and publish a Tarot Deck of her own.

I’ll offer my own interpretation of “Deja Vu Waltz”.  

The Devil is contained, bound to a cherry tree, wings are shown on the Devil because he’s a fallen angel.   The Goddess Diana is taking a bath, but it’s a bird bath while a Pomegranate Tree temps a Black Cat, that’s somewhat ambivalent about stretching to get something to eat (is it worth the effort?).

Meanwhile, the Clown is enraptured by the singing muse with the guitar (a Girl Guitar?) and nude singing muse is one of the most powerful figures Amy Crehore has painted; incredible energy and concentration were put into the girl singer who radiates energy, even as she has her eyes closed, as if she’s singing and playing while in a dreamlike or meditative state.

The Monkey is amused, enjoying the music and eating a banana (notice that Amy uses her familiar motif, arms and legs that morph from animal to human - and are also needed for the composition to work - thereby linking images with two dimensional composition and design).

There’s hope, because a flower springs up from the feet of the nude girl singer.

In Amy’s art, I interpret nudity as purity and while there is some eroticism, the woman figures are more evocative of a refined femininity, a purity with power.

I think Deja Vu Waltz was a difficult painting for Amy Crehore to paint - there’s so much in her paintings.   It’s been said that Painting takes effort to understand - a painting unfolds over time, at least, it should.   

When I look at a painting, often I imagine I’ve painted it and what it felt like - what does the painting feel like?  What would it have felt like to paint the singing nude? Look at the toes, all the attention paid to her toes and the feelings within.  Also, there’s a warmth that comes out at me, from the painting.

If you look at any part of Deja Vu Waltz, and spend some time with it, I think you’ll find the painting unfolds and holds inner meanings.

Edward Winkleman mentioned that “…Sotheby’s stock plunged something like 28% because of a lackluster sale of Impressionist and Modern art. ”

“….The speculation this morning is more furious than the bidding was last night, obviously, but it’s foolhardy to place too much importance on the outcome of one auction (especially in light of how well Christie’s had done the day before). The Dow Jones Industrial Average tank yesterday, oil is so close to $100/barrel we might as well call it that, and the dollar may very well replace firewood for a heating source in certain regions this winter. All of this very likely soured the mood in the room before the first lot was revealed. Once the Van Gogh was bought in, it snowballed from there.”

I’m thinking the real issue is a lack of liquidity in the Financial Markets right now - it may be that borrowing money to buy art is getting harder to do (using leveraged assets, etc .. not that I know much or anything about this subject).

I think Art reflects life, but not just the Art itself, but even the Art Market could be said, in Sotheby’s case, to reflect general market conditions.