Charles Darwin gets a Hirst re- brand

Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species is now 150th years old and a special edition is due for release next month. Damien Hirst gets the cover honor

Hirst in his own words [the Guardian]:

The painting sits firmly in the tradition of "still life" and is made up of objects I've come to imbue with my own meanings, some of them Darwinian in origin, and that I guess are seen in other areas of my work. The painting has an X-ray-like quality to it, as if it is revealing something about the structure of the objects painted.

I suppose the work, in a modest way, acknowledges Darwin's analytical mind and his courage to believe in those ideas that questioned the very fabric of existence and belief in his time.

Discuss amongst yourselves. It's a very Schnabel moment - smirk.


Image: Copyright Damien Hirst 2009
hat tip: phronesisaical

The Brandeis-Rose scandal

In case you missed the urgent situation at Bradeis: Brandeis University has a projected annual budget shortfall of $10 million and is using that as cause to liquidate the entire collection at the Rose Art Museum?!!

Tyler Green on what is happening:

Yesterday, while perusing the website of a particularly well-respected newspaper, I saw that it said Brandeis was "forced" to sell its art museum's art collection because of a financial crisis. (The newspaper quickly came to its senses and changed its reference.) It reminded me that loose phraseology and blurry explanations of what's going on at Brandeis are effectively part of the problem. So to be clear: Brandeis is not forced to do anything. So far as we know, the university is not on the cusp of failure, insolvency or closing. It is not in danger of lacking the resources to care for the art in the Rose Art Museum. (As, say, Fisk University plainly was.) Part of the problem with the word and the conceit behind it is that it accepts this as natural and sensible: If the university is facing a declining endowment and a surfeit of donations, well then of course it would close its art museum and sell the art. Hogwash. It is no more logical that a university sell off the art in its art museum than it is logical that a university would sell the trees off this quad, the books out of its library, or the science labs in its engineering buildings.

Is this some kind of canary in the coalmine? A perverse and cynical move to cover some hidden financial gamble? Unethical for sure, perhaps illegal? Winkleman has more to say with additional links. A Facebook group has been created - Save the Rose Museum.

In closing here is the mission statement of the Rose Art Museum.

Mission Statement of The Rose Art Museum:

Founded in 1961, The Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University is an educational and cultural institution dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting the finest of modern and contemporary art. The programs of the Rose adhere to the overall mission of the University, embracing its values of academic excellence, social justice, and freedom of expression.

An active participant in the academic, cultural, and social life of Brandeis, the Rose seeks to stimulate public awareness and disseminate knowledge of modern and contemporary art to enrich educational, cultural, and artistic communities regionally, nationally, and internationally. The Rose affirms the principle that knowledge of the past informs an understanding of the present and provides the critical foundation for shaping the future. It promotes learning and understanding of the evolving meanings, ideas, and forms of visual art relevant to contemporary society.

image: Boston.com

our cherished apathy

Newsflash - Global warming is 'irreversible'.

A team of environmental researchers in the US has warned many effects of climate change are irreversible.

The scientists concluded global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted.

Their report.... appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Joseph Romm at Climate Progress has more:

NOAA stunner: Climate change "largely irreversible for 1000 years," with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe

Important new research led by NOAA scientists, "Irreversible climate change because of carbon dioxide emissions," finds:

...the climate change that is taking place because of increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop....

Alarmist hype? Perhaps, in terms of some model variants but so what. If even a percentage of this is accurate we should all be in emergency mode. These are not back burner scenarios. Collectively and politically however that is exactly what we are doing. Consider the recent Pew chart here.



That is the current priority list among surveyed Americans. Global Warming is dead last. It wasn't even truly addressed at the inaugural either. A serious PR campaign needs to get underway. I know everyone is worried about jobless, understandably, but this lack of concern or even interest is too big to ignore.

From the L.A. Times:

Even if by some miracle the nations of the world could bring carbon dioxide levels back to those of the pre-industrial era, it would still take 1,000 years or longer for the climate changes already triggered to be reversed, scientists said Monday.

....Over the long haul, the warming will melt the polar icecaps more than had previously been estimated, raising ocean levels substantially, the report said.

And changes in rainfall patterns will bring droughts to the American Southwest, southern Europe, northern Africa and western Australia comparable to those that caused the 1930s Dust Bowl in the U.S.

...."The policy relevance is clear: We need to act sooner, even if there is some doubt about exactly what will happen, because by the time the public and policymakers really realize the changes are here, it is far too late to do anything about it," [said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research].

top image: Boston.com
hat tip: FDL, MJ

dear friend

Get your pre-order legacy edition now!

[click to enlarge]

via John Cole

why not enjoy a few more moments from Tuesday

As always, The Big Picture at the Boston Globe delivers some incredible photographs.


image: Boston.com

the covers

After an incredible day yesterday, it really is sinking in...take a look at the covers. This is real.


via Ben Wikler

finally!

the day is here...

Suspension of Disbelief

"Suspension of Disbelief": A Photography Exhibition on Social Commentary" examines our ability, and sometimes necessity, to create new ways of understanding what lies in front of us. The exhibition will showcase photographs depicting alternative ways of thinking, through demystification and fantasy.

The Salena Gallery at Long Island University

Brooklyn Campus

January 20 – February 27, 2009

Reception January 22 6-8 pm

Curated by Eddy Steinhauer

Works by Kristi Steinke, William Mwazi, Katherine McDowell Peterson, Ned and Shiva Productions, Nikki Johnson, Cynthia Edorth, Lucas Thorpe.

from the press release:

On January 20, 2009 Americans will witness the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America – having elected a man who will become the first African American to take the highest office in the country. His improbable ascension is due in large part to the enormous galvanization of grassroots organizations – groups often sidelined when it comes to participation in national dialogues. Come January 20, 2009 the new President, indeed all of America who did or did not elect him, inherits two major wars, a severe economic recession, global warming and dwindling energy resources. A reasonable question to ask is "how will all of these problems be solved."

image: Jorge Rojas and Salena Gallery

the most loathsome

So yes, I'm posting another list for our dearly departed 2008. Sometimes a list comes along that is so scathing, brilliant, and timely you have to look to it for guidance and perspective. I present Buffalo's the Beast - 50 Most Loathsome Americans. This is a brutishly cynical masterpiece about our collective narcissism and dysfunction. In other words it's mean - you'll love it. THE TOP 50

43. You

Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American.

Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus.

hat tip: Jeffrey Weaver

Secretary of the Arts!

This is a timely idea. The creation of a cabinet level position to reassert the country's 
commitment to the  arts would be a huge step forward for a country in need of getting
back to the fundamentals of an open society.

Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to  appoint a
Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had  Ministers of Art or Culture
for centuries, the United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need
this and the country needs the arts-- now more than ever. Please take a moment to
sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.
SIGN HERE

um, the power of art

Excellent goof on Simon Schama's Power of Art.


via: Daily Dish

brand new start 09

2008 signoff

I think most of us are exhausted from 2008. Our world seems to escalate in randomness with each passing day. Let's hope 2009 brings less extremism of every order. Best Wishes!


image: Boston Globe

a dreaded year end list!

So we all hate the "best of" mantra but I could not resist posting at least one marker of the past year. It's a music list - I hear the rolling of eyes - but this is a fantastic list of good music to expand your ear. I'll confess that I'm pinching this off a friend with a few embellishments of my own. The list is really about music we gravitated towards as artists. I think you'll find some nuggets here that aren't the usual suspects on music sites. I'm too lazy to provide links but here is the list anyway - enjoy!

BON IVER –For Emma, Forever Ago

GROUPER –Dragging a Deer Up a Hill

FLEET FOXES –Fleet Foxes

VIVIAN GIRLS -Vivian Girls

MOUNT EERIE w/ Julie Doiron& Fred Squire- Lost Wisdom

Peel Show Hits and Long Lost lo-Fi Favourites, Vol.1

NICK LOWE –Jesus of Cool

THE NERVES-The Nerves EP

SIXTO RODRIGUEZ –Cold Fact

VALERIO COSI -Collected Works/Heavy Electronic Pacific Loop/We Could For Hours (w/ Fabio Orsi)
NNCK -Clomeim
FRUSTRATION -Relax
BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE -Dolores

Touch 7" series
THE FALL -Imperial Wax Solvent
SMITH & BLANEY s/t

TOUMANI DIABATE -The Mande Variations
JOSEPHINE FOSTER -This Coming Gladness
JONNY GREENWOOD -There Will Be Blood
EMERALDS -Solar Bridge
FANTASTIKOI HXOI -Kyriarxoi Tou Sympantos
ARVE HENRIKSEN -Cartography
INDIAN JEWELRY -Free Gold!
JUANA MOLINA -Un Dia
LEGOWELT -The Rise and Fall of Manuel Noriega
ONE MORE GRAIN -Isle of Grain
PORTISHEAD -Third
vOLCANO! -Paperwork
RICHARD SKELTON -Marking Time
RICHARD SWIFT -As Onasis I & II
Buraka Som Sistema -Black Diamond
Cambodian Cassette Archives s/t
Erik Friedlander -Broken Arm Trio
Kim Doo Soo -10 Days Butterfly
THE RASTER NOTON LABEL (pretty much everything they put out this year)

Concerning Bar Identity

Question- in a time of economic disarray, if the local bar moves does it retain any of it's prior identity? From the New York Times:

But if drinking and dining have always been a moveable feast in New York, is charisma cartable? Can the character of everything from venerable pubs to palatial eateries migrate with their names and owners? This portability issue has gained new urgency in a season of economic disarray, when property owners are less willing to extend the leases of even the most beloved old-timers. New York is so provincial, three blocks is a huge distance.

In New York, the cultural ramifications of a move are huge and the cross currents of the biggest building boom and economic crises in decades does not bode well for the local haunt or the over comfortable regular. Changing scene in Brooklyn has arguably eclipsed Manhattan. You find yourself routinely at a loss for all the new local spots mushrooming and at the same time lamenting that you now "hate the crowd" at most of the spots you've been anchored to for years. Here, the cultural turnover of a neighborhood has to be approaching the speed of light. It's not simply the old guard versus the transplants, it's the transplants versus the transplants too. I always assume that what makes a bar so great to be in is the place itself. A place built by the wear and tear of the clientele over the years. In New York, this often means a holdover from another era, heightening one's sense of legacy. In truth it is the balance of a predictable and familiar clientele with a storied room and bar. The local question is, will the "local" be part of the vernacular in the coming years in an atmosphere of rapid economic turnover and an increasingly transitory populace?


Hat tip: phronesisaical
Image: Rosemary's Tavern/NYMag

anatomy of a painting [6]

So I actually got a real shot of this piece at it's current stage. Not much to report other than that. Some minor tweaks to the grid are still in order but the next big issue is how best to activate the left quadrant of the painting and whether or not a figure(s) will be required. Also, I'm half considering the nuclear option of painting over the lower third entirely and rethinking that part of the painting. It's an ugly choice but I learned what I needed from the grid process even if it doesn't remain in piece. We'll see where the trail of dead leads.

new paintings

The WhiteNoise Suite (no.4), 2008

The WhiteNoise Suite (no.4), 2008


So I'm continuing the White Noise series that I started and posted about back in the summer. The top one is the newest (no.4) in the group which ultimately will number 9 I think. The second one is actually no.3 from the summer but I reworked the cloud/dust portion. I'm much happier with this result than previously. Each measures 24 x 18 in.

New paper works cont...

Here are a couple of more. These two are also oil on primed paper. 30 x 22 in. each.

New paper works

I'm finally getting around to documenting some work from the last few months. These two are oil on primed paper measuring 30 x 22 in. each. More to follow.

the muck

I've always been struck by the muck of the Auerbach studio. The horror of ever advancing paint droppings and dust. When you look at his process you see the endeavor of persistence and the growing density of failure. The record lays bare the accumulation of the years marking, scraping, poking, smudging, groping through the gray light where the act never changes. It's good to see examples of this kind of activity as a reminder to guard against the external pressures of an accelerated world of information. Such work addresses physical reality, the tension between process and intention.

Increasingly I'm experiencing a need for painters who have a permanent sense of the tangible. Making work that doesn't simply mirror our times or arranging signs/symbols but making work that is an independent entity in itself. Works that grow through a process which are still vitally indebted to their sources, but ultimately veer towards an independence from those sources. A separate existence from the artist - palpable, fully intact and ready to demand a response by the very nature of that existence.





image: Frank Auerbach studio circa 1984.

Dey Know ...Blago

This gets high points. Behold the evolution of the news cycle!



Via: Matt Yglesias

If I was high class.....

Sometimes you need a little APP....

Color Traits

I recently came across this project by Alan Woo which should hold some interest for artists. The above pie chart is the "color" of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Pretty cool.

Alan Woo:

Curious to see if there were any stark similarities or contrasts within particular films, Pie aims to create an incredibly simple and concise baseline of comparison of films trough one particular trait: colour. This project was also the result of my first explorations into processing. The outcome is a number of triptychs comparing various films of particular trilogies, directors or genres. A program written in processing captures each frame of each movie and essentially creates a 'pie chart' of the colours contained within each film producing a simplistic and abstracted representation. Each poster includes the film title, year, director, cinematographer, running time and occasionally, various surprising/unsurprising similarities.

If this kind of thing interests you, a good art related book on the culture of color is Chromophobia by David Batchelor.


I wonder what color Chelsea would be.....

Girls Write Now

The above clip comes via Maud Newton. I think you'll agree it is quite moving. Times are hard this year fro many of us but we should remember to find ways to support others, especially those striving to find a voice in a world that is often stifling and cruel.

Maud has this to say on the organization:

This year I joined the Board of Directors at Girls Write Now, an amazing organization that pairs talented at-risk teen girls with mentors — authors and journalists — who meet with them regularly one-on-one and support their writing.

What impresses me most is that the girls go on to college. So these mentoring relationships have the power to change the mentees’ lives not just for a few months, but forever. And while we’re focused on New York City right now, long-term we want to support disadvantaged girls across the country.

If you have a little to give, please do. A $25 donation will cover one of the girls’ costs for a quarter-season, and a hundred bucks sponsors her from start to finish, and into a completely different future.

If you can’t contribute now, please consider joining the cause at Facebook, to support us in spirit and remember us once change is jingling in your pockets again.

Additional reading: J. Courtney Sullivan’s article at the Times, “With Mentors at Their Sides, Girls in Need Write Their Stories and Find New Lives.”

feeling Baker Street

Not sure if it gets much better than this one.

Chris Jagers at Americans for the Arts

Art blogger and Slideroom guru, Chris Jagers is guest blogging at the Americans for the Arts blog. The subject is "Public Art", with Jay Sullivan, Professor of Sculpture and Chair, Division of Art: Meadows School of the Arts.

Here's and excerpt:

CJ: When I first asked you to do an interview with you about “Public Art,” what did you immediately begin thinking about?

JS: I first thought of Foucault’s idea of Heterotopias: spaces within a space, where a certain kind of special activity can take place, both within and also slightly outside of society. Classic examples of this are hospitals, insane asylums or graveyards. These are places where society can have safe conversations about things that they don’t want to deal with all the time or everywhere. Ironically, when I think about Public Art, I think about the Percent for Art Project and this notion that we seek to beautify train stations, airports and other things. There is a heterotopic feel about that. On one hand, it is defining certain structures (usually municipal) as being public in a way that other spaces (like major street intersections) are not. For instance, if I put a big sculpture at a major street intersection, I could get into more trouble (aesthetic) than if I put the same piece of sculpture in a train station—the spaces are “public” in different ways and we expect different things to happen there.

Of course, work like Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc” violated all this … it went into a public place which was owned by the government, a super public space. Yet, it did some things within that plaza that attacked pre-existing boundaries of that being a public space normally appropriate for such works.

CJ: How do these ideas relate to the administrative process of choosing a project?

JS: I have had a chance to be on a few Public Art review panels, and its very interesting to hear the discussion of the jurors who represent the community. And it is also interesting to see what is given as the agenda for pieces because these things are always supposed to address the community. Projects are supposed to be responsive to the place, but at the same time they are encapsulated in a way that can be easily ignored or marginalized. And when a piece is easy to “bracket off” visually, it becomes difficult to address the community. A thing may be there, but it becomes ancillary to the space itself.

Of course, art has always occupied a special place that is different from ordinary objects … so it’s always a negotiation. A negotiation with the public about goals, the role of the piece and which spaces are potentially available for art versus other public spaces which are viewed are more private. In the early stages, but even later, the artist doesn’t have too much say in all this, which is difficult–the panel is in some sense “guessing” who would be best.

crime scene

image: John Cole

Artist Lecture Series/Bidonville Cafe, Dec.7

The first Sunday of the month is upon us again and so another "slide show". I really encourage people to come out for some old fashioned art banter at Bidonville. The lecture series has been consistently good and I for one am glad to get another dose before the Holiday crunch fully descends. This month is Nancy Goldring and Zoe Pettijohn Schade and I think both are doing interesting work. So if you are not in Miami, stop by ...

Sunday, Dec. 7 @ 7:00 pm
Bidonville Cafe in lovely Fort Greene
Willoughby Ave. (b/w Clermont & Adelphi)
Bklyn, NY 11205
718.855.4515
G or C train to Clinton/ Washington and march north

This month's artists:

Nancy Goldring

“Foto-projection,” is a term I coined for a unique process I have been developing over the last 24 years. This approach proposes irreconcilable time frames, shifting vantage points, and changing moods, and corresponds to my understanding of human perception. Though itself a synthesis, each foto-projection represents only one of the many possible ways of depicting or evoking a place. When viewed altogether, the non-narrative sequence of images offers a personal system for ordering the multiplicity of experience.

“Goldring’s images are the tools of an understanding located in a discrete zone somewhere between philology and an impression of reality, an understanding that must never be lost…”

- Paolo Barbaro, from Palimpsest: The Photographs of Nancy Goldring

Zoe Pettijohn Schade:

The artist works from the tradition of painting textile patterns with gouache, while burying each repeating layer of imagery beneath other layers. The embedded and abstracted images rise to the eye in their own time like memories. The geometry of repetition has as much perceptual and psychological ramifications as the image. Working with historical decorative structures and personal imagery, a constellation of associations is woven through each painting.