I was reading Tinkering with “Finished” Work in Edward Winkleman’s blog this morning and thinking about artists who are compulsive and aren’t able to let go, to complete anything.

In a way, nothing ever is complete, and probably, just about any work can be improved – but to what end?

Winkleman quotes a New York Times article titled Even if His Own Work Isn’t Broke a Brazilian Architect Fixes It by NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF :

“…But the greatest threat to Mr. Niemeyer’s remarkable legacy may not be the developer’s bulldozer or insensitive city planners, but Mr. Niemeyer himself.

It is not simply that his latest buildings have a careless, tossed-off quality. It’s that some of his most revered buildings — from the Brasilía Cathedral to the grand ceremonial axis of the city itself — have been marred by the architect’s own hand. And this poses an uncomfortable dilemma: At what point do we — that is, the public that idolizes him, his government and private clients — have an obligation to intervene? Or is posing the question an act of spectacularly bad taste?”

In architecture, work done isn’t really owned by the Artist, in most cases, and I’m surprised that anyone, including Mr. Niemayer, would be allowed to go in and modify his older designs.

Since nothing ever is done – the best thing to do is to make an arbitrary decision and stick to it.

Went to view a couple of shows tonight but had to dash out early; still, I got to see 4 or 5, on the same block of W.27th Street off 11th Avenue in Chelsea.  I’ll post about the first show Boyce Cummings @ Winkleman Plus Ultra.

Before I get into the Boyce’s opening, I had a short conversation with Gallery Owner Edward Winkleman, whose blog I’ve read from time to time. In fact, Winkleman posted on his own blog about tonight’s Boyce Cummings opening - and there are already 6 comments – amazing.  I’d be lucky to get even that many comments on ArtNewYorkCity.com, WebMetricsGuru.com or one of my SmartMobs.com posts – yet Edward gets much more than that on any single post – having upwards of 20 -30 comments per post.  Again – amazing, esp for an Art Blog – as most are not that highly trafficked – and the audience is pretty fragmented for art, anyway.

Asked Edward how he generates so many comments on his posts…..he said he keeps a long blogroll and clicks on each link once a day …that ensures that others on the blog roll see traffic coming from his blog and then goes back to Winkleman’s.  Good point…have to try that.

Winkleman uses sitemeter for basic blog stats – it’s the same thing i use on Webmetricsguru.com and it works fine.   We chatted for a couple more minutes and he asked me if I commented on his blog …which I think I did once, several months ago – he seemed familiar with ArtNewYorkCity.com.   Anyway - back to the Bryce Cummings opening..

This is a Boyce Cummings painting that is not photographed yet, and it’s pretty new (he said he just finished it) …. it happened to be my favorite painting in the show.  I asked Boyce to talk about what he working towards in this painting – which I don’t have the exact name for – but I think it’s “What’s Your Hook” or something similar to that.

Boyce’s painting explores that everything needs a “hook” now to succeed – or just to attract attension.   Actually, this painting reminded me a lot of Fred Stonehouse’s work – I can kinda hear the words as I look at the painting.  Maybe that’s why I liked the painting…I could “hear it”.   The color is clear – the painting happened quickly….most of Boyce Cummings works don’t take that long to do …but he’s exploring and I can see that.   The rest of the paintings in the show are best seen on http://boycecummings.com/ where they can be blown up.  BTW, here’s a picture of Boyce Cummings I took tonight with my Sidekick 3 mobile phone camera.

Boyce stood in front of one of his favorite paintings – (which I did not find a picture of on Winkleman’s or Cumming’s site – so I don’t know the name of it).   Here’s a description of the Bryce Cummings show that Winkleman wrote.

“…In seven new paintings and a large mixed-media wall installation, Cummings explores the workings of conflict in both visual art and human endeavors. Whether “high vs. low,” “abstraction vs. realism,” or “formalism vs. narrative,” themes and constructs of visual art parallel personal conflicts in our day-to-day lives—such as “man vs. nature,” nature vs. machine,” “winning vs. losing,” etc. Cummings blends these parallel arenas, resolving elements that we expect not to work together through an exquisite sense of composition. Representational and abstract elements within Cummings’ paintings demand to be connected on an experiential human level. But they consistently defy any sensible narrative, eventually leading the viewer to the realization that it’s the very fact that the elements are at odds with one another that serves as the glue that holds the compositions together.

On one wall of the gallery, Cummings has also collaged drawings, framed and unframed, with knickknacks and other found objects, forming an extensive installation that serves as a legend to the vocabulary of his paintings as well as its own expressionistic composition. With a broad range of styles and subjects, his drawings are mixed to reflect his personal choices but—like his paintings—the juxtapositions eventually lead the viewer along just so far before some compositional roadblock places their growing narrative in limbo, highlighting the experiential impact of conflict itself.

Boyce Cummings received his BFA and MFA from the School of Visual Arts. As a 2005/2006 Rome Prize Winner, he spent a year in Italy, but now lives and works in New York.

I stumbled upon Edward Winkleman’s blog and as this is ArtNYC, it’s good to know there are Art Dealers in NYC that are also blogging.  I’m surprised there is no RSS feed to select (perhaps Edward has not turned it on in his blogger console).

I also noticed there are many comments to Winkleman’s post, a sign his blog is fairly well read.  I guess being an art dealer helps. 

The PlusUltraGallery has some pretty impressive artists, judging from what I can see (some of these names are familar to me but I can’t recall where I first heard about the artists).

http://www.plusultragallery.com/fiore.html

http://www.plusultragallery.com/dalton.html

I find it frustrating that the future exhibitions don’t give a date when it’s happening – because I’d like to come to the next opening but I can’t figure out when it is going to be.  Edward, if you read this – please tell me when the next show is. 

Anyway, I really need to start reading Edward Winkleman’s blog and maybe commenting on it.  I have met and known many influentials in the Search Marketing world, but know few in the Art World – I’d like to know more.