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Jun 29, 2005

Florian Süssmayer does photo-realistic paintings. Unlike most of the painters that I linked to before, his paintings focus on details of objects. Just click on the links. Many of those paintings and sketches show the surfaces of beergarten tables. (thanks, Felix!)
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Jun 8, 2005

Have a look at the Museum of Modern Art’s utterly cool Russian Avant-Garde Book! (seen at swens blog)
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Jun 5, 2005

Little Boy: The Arts of JapanÂ’s Exploding Subculture, on view at the Japan Society in New York (thru 24 July 2005), has generated quite the splash, with the big question being: “What is this all about?” Given we’re dealing with what is called “pop art”, it’s inevitable to encounter the following. First, the reaction of many people who think that this kind of art is basically a joke, and second, some kind of grandiose manifesto written by one of the leading proponents, explaining the vision behind it all. Notice how these two aspects almost seem to go hand-in-hand. Add to that the fact that New York has seen pretty much everything, and you got all the ingredients for some excitement in the art world. I’m not sure what to make of all of this, but I think I can say the following. I don’t think that art necessarily has to be something that requires an enormous effort. If you want to define art that way, you’re restricting it to a craft. Not a good idea. But I’m also quite wary of grandiose manifestos, especially if they contain some sort of idea that foreigners won’t get this kind of art anyway. Having said all that (not much, actually!), there’s an excellent review in the New York Review of Books, written by Ian Buruma, whose book Inventing Japan, 1853-1964 I can’t recommend too much. If you want to have an online look at some of the artists participating in the show, check out Takashi Murakami (interview, bio, more samples), author of the aforementioned manifesto and driving force behind the show, Chiho Aoshima, and Yoshitomo Nara.
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May 31, 2005

“I write computer programs to create graphic images.” - Jared Tarbell - These images are quite fascinating; and they possess an unusual beauty. (thanks, John!)
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May 10, 2005

Robert Bechtle is a photorealistic painter whose work are currently on view at SFMOMA. Find more samples here, here, here, and here.
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May 2, 2005

“The history of the world as blood bath. East German painter Bernhard Heisig has been honoured and vilified by turns.” - story
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Apr 21, 2005

I admit I am no expert as far as painting is concerned, but I’ve noted an increase in the number of painters doing photorealistic work. Given that even photo-eye got a little confused I thought I’d post some links. Note that when you look at the individual biographies, many of the painters linked to below are actually quite young. Tim Eitel’s paintings are very photorealistic and have already generated some attention beyond his native Germany. Lauren Hegele’s works contain an extra element of humour, and many of them are dyptichs. Lorraine Shemesh’s subject matters are more varied. Her Painted Pools are nothing but amazing. To use photographic comparisons, if Joel Peter Witkin did SX-70 manipulations he’d end up at what Jenny Saville is painting (note, however, that that website seems to be a tad unreliable). It’s interesting that photorealistic painting also seems to cover areas as does photography. For example, Lars Käker (also see this page) specializes in portraits, while the works of David FeBland will probably appeal to fans of street photography or Henri Cartier-Bresson. And while this list defeinitely is not complete in any sense of the word, space here is; so as a final entry let me point out Chuck Close (in order to get an idea of his standing see, for example, this page). (many thanks, Lauren for sending many of the extra links!)
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Mar 24, 2005

Jakob Boeskov is a Danish performance artist. Apart from being behind Danes for Bush - an Ali G-style joke - he is up to all kinds of weird things, including Empire North, a fictitious company, which supposedly produces sniper guns to tag people etc. In the spirit of true performance art, Jakob Boeskov went to the fair “China Police”, a real fair all about… well, that’s easy to guess. Those able to understand German can find the details in an article in Spiegel magazine. For those unable to understand German: He got scared after a day, after having got too many serious offers from all over Asia, Qatar, and South Africa.
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Feb 21, 2005

John Zoller’s photographic work doesn’t have much to do with regular photography, but the results are quite appealing anyway. (thanks, John!)
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Feb 7, 2005

You spend 12m US dollars on a piece of art only to find that it is literally decaying. What to do? This might not be the kind of problem that most of us have on a daily (or anyother sort of) basis. However, for some people this problem exists.
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Jan 27, 2005

Today, there was another attack on the Flick Collection (story [in German only]). Read an older article on the controversy. A large group of German artists and intellectuals also just published a full-page ad in one of Germany’s most respected newspapers, blasting the show. In a sense, the controversy about the Flick Collection gives an almost quintessential example of how Germany is still struggling with its past. I personally side with the protestors. Flick’s behaviour is nothing but disgraceful and disgusting - I guess that runs in the family.
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Jan 20, 2005

When the Nazis came to power, most contemporary art was banned and removed from museums and private collections (and sold abroad for the financial benefit of the Reich). What the Nazis really wanted to see they put into their House of German Art. BTW, the building survived World War II and still serves as an art museum. However, now they have actual art there (and good one, too). In any case, if you ever happen to be in Munich look around a little bit. Munich is one of the feew places where you can still see Nazi architecture (but don’t ask the locals - they’ll deny it).
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Jan 20, 2005

Ilkka Halso (also see this page) is a Finnish artist whose work - as far as I understand it - stages Nature, for example by creating photos (on the computer) that show pieces of Nature in a museum. (thanks, Tobias!)
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Jan 18, 2005

I wasn’t aware of the full extent of the controversy about David Hockney’s theories. Fortunately, Luke Strosnider emailed me to fill me in. The other day, I had posted the entry “Computer analysis of a 17th century painting shows that the artist did not, as has been claimed, use optical devices to project a perfect image of the scene onto his canvas. The researcher behind the analysis believes his findings undermine many aspects of a theory recently put forward by the painter David Hockney.” - story You can find more background about this on a page of resources in Believer Magazine. The current edition of the magazine also features (or more accurately: reproduces) a six-page hand-written fax that Hockney sent to the New York Times (which, following the shoddy journalistic behaviour they have been showing lately, they didn’t publish). As Luke writes “in the fax, hockney very eloquently refutes the idea that his theory is in need of being proven/discredited. instead, he seems to think the emphasis is more on getting people to relate to the history of image-making as a history of optics. he also brings up many other fascinating points - it’s riveting.” (thanks, Luke!)
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Oct 21, 2004

David Fried works on photography and other art forms. I really like his photographic work. This page has a good overview for those too lazy to surf.
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Jul 19, 2004

Check out The Complete Guide to Isometric Pixel Art and learn how to create little computer people. (thru things magazine)
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Jun 5, 2004

Having been very busy with a visitor this past week I almost missed the big fire that destroyed “a vast swath of British art spanning the past half century, including more than 50 major works by the great abstract painter Patrick Heron.” (story) There are photos of some of the lost art work here. You can read about Tracey Emin’s reaction here, and Jonathan Jones argues that “we have lost at least one irreplaceable masterpiece”.
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Apr 9, 2004

Along with Aleksandr Rodchenko, El Lissitzky was the Soviet-Union’s most important constructivist.
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Apr 9, 2004

Aleksandr Rodchenko’s “attention to so many forms of design - from architectural design to the design of furniture, stage, clothing, exhibitions, posters, film captions and books - reflects the fundamental nature of Constructivist theory which effectively transcended these distinctions into broad creative principles.” (find another very nice exhibition of his work here)
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Mar 22, 2004

Excellent comparison of Bacon’s work with older paintings/masters. (thru vigna maru)
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Feb 7, 2004

Lucian Freud is one of my favourite painters. Those famiiar with modern art will undoubtedly notice similarities between Freud’s work and that of Francis Bacon (here they are in a single photo). The BBC has a series of interviews with Freud.
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Jan 20, 2004

People like to talk about the “painterly qualities” of photographers. So why not talk about the “photographerly quality” of painter Eric Fischl? OK, “photographerly” doesn’t sound as good as “painterly” but you know what I mean. BTW, I read that the paintings are based on actual photos that Eric Fischl took, using hired actors as props.
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Nov 15, 2003

And while at it (where “it” stands for “looking at Italian sites that only speakers of Italian understand”) have a look at Corrado Zeni’s paintings.
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Oct 18, 2003

Have a look at the paintings by Alex Kanevsky.
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Oct 18, 2003

It’s hard to be a provocative artist these days, isn’t it? We had the “Piss Christ” - which, entirely predictably, pissed of fundamentalist Republicans - and we’re getting our daily dose of sex every day, like when our next-door neighbour receives a Victoria’s Secret catalogue in the mail and we can’t refrain from having a brief peek. Enters Belgian artist Wim Delvoye who “invited Belgian friends to paint parts of their bodies with small amounts of barium and then have sex in actual medical clinics.” Oh, the glory of European health care! Wim Delvoye then turned the so-called “sex-rays” (how witty!) into mock church windows - some of which you can see here - and into (sort of) old-fashioned prints - some of which you can see here. Please note that if you’re one of those ultra-fundamentalists the photos are as (s)explicit as it gets - a statement that, I’d like to add, isn’t supposed to say anything about their actual value. I think some of those prints got shown in New York City but, how unfortunate for the artist!, people must have been too obsessed with their “war on terrorism” to get offended. Or maybe next time Wim Delvoye should explore religion coz, you know, photos about sex are so yesterday.
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Oct 16, 2003

While being in Frankfurt, I went to see an exhibition of 15 of Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules at the utterly fabulous Frankfurt Museum for Modern Art (more information). That show is a total must for anybody who’s even remotely interested in modern art.
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Sep 7, 2003

Making glue collages has become a rare art form - which makes Feike Kloostra’s Glue Books all the more interesting. (thru ashleyb.org)
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Aug 20, 2003

If you want to amuse yourself read this article about prehistoric art and imagine that all those artists who left us the works described here were surrounded by a mob yelling “I could do that!” or “We don’t to give them any more money! They should all get a proper job!”
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Aug 18, 2003

You really need to bring some time to browse through the Posters from the WPA. (thru speckled paint)
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Aug 3, 2003

pretty serendipities noted a canning similarity between paintings by Amedeo Modigliani and photos by Loretta Lux. How odd is that?
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Jul 7, 2003

Check out nifty web magazine ventilate.ca - the current issue has an interview with Sacha Dean Biyan.
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Jun 29, 2003

Martin Herbert discusses Outsider Art and ‘Insider’ Art. (thru artnotes) PS: I wish he had made the following sentence the first sentence of his essy: “It’s a safe bet that Sam Taylor-Wood has never cleaned a toilet in her life.” That would have been priceless.
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May 22, 2003

William Wegman is mostly known for his photos of dogs. No comment on those. But he’s also a painter, and here it’s getting interesting. Here’s an dinteresting review of one of his shows in New York - which includes a bunch of examples to look at. The show featured oil paintings Wegman did around found postcards.
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May 15, 2003

Interestingly enough, even though the exhibit of Soviet-era posters is coming from the very university I’m working at, I actually found it through The Solipsistic Gazette (which seems to be everybody’s darling weblog - so check it out!).
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May 1, 2003

John Haddock has some of the coolest art I’ve seen in a while: computer game style drawings of real and fictional events (example above) and pornography with the actors removed. (via consumptive.org)
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