i want to like his work but i dont. illustrations of "race issues". the only interesting thing for me IS that there are race issues in the work. i hate the way it looks.
These have a nice touch in person. The collages are great- very interesting. Somewhat D. Humphrey-esque in vision. Very creative. Too bad his new dealer's a putz (I had to say SOMETHING negative, I'm grumpy old man...)
there's a wonderfully demented quality in his work, a hyper-cheerful facade masking underlying tensions - don't think this can be lumped together with a lot of other pop work.
yeah, it's the demented quality! for me, the fact that they are so pop/coloring book makes them even more demented and weird. i think the look of them is really quite calculated and smart.
exactly - calculated in a good way - there'a good interview with him where he talks about painting with the bob ross tv shows as a kid! http://www.petitemort.org/issue02/16/
kinda reminds me of the painting version of jake and dinos chapman's -"Fuck Faces". and this brings up a larger issue about what having creepy clowns, or rainbow mummies and black children in a painting is an attempt at. For me it flips a giant middle finger at the race politics of the 1970's - remember Marlo Thomas and friends "Free To Be You and Me"? Or Jessie jackson's Rainbow Coalition. It seems like this guy thinks the aesthetics of those politics (integration, affirmative action, multiculturalism) can all go fuck themselves.
I have seen this work in person at studio museum in harlem and it's really ugly. he doesn't draw or paint very well, the colors are garish and hideous and i agree with the person who said the only interesting thing is, possibly, the subject matter. but that subject matter has been done to death, so why bother if it looks awful and is derivative and redundant conceptually?
i'd just rather there be less crap, produced by anyone. are you seriously saying that people should be less critical of black artists because the art world needs them to balance the scales? that seems like a pretty retrograde stance
it's like an animation cell from fat albert and the cosby kids + the wizard of oz, with acid.
is that girl stepping on the boy's foot? does she have her hand in the back of his head, like he is a ventriloquist's dummy? is he offering that flower to the viewer?
I used to work on elementary school textbooks, and this looks like a freaked-out version of the p.c. illustrations therein. But it's not enough to make me like them; they're not weird or evocative enough, visually speaking. In person they're very bland feeling, ironically.
He had a show recently at Fredericks and Freiser, and you can see more images on their web site, i find I like the images there much more than the image here that everyone is raging on. So he doesn't try to rehash AbEx in his paintings or tip his hat to the old masters, big deal, I thought art was about having a distinct vision and taking chances, which it seems to me he is doing. here here...
let there be more white people dripping drips. hail to the chief. USA USA USA...yadda yadda. seems like too many people like their paintings like their neighborhoods- white and familiar. racism rears itself through 'anonymous' heads.
I like lamar. His work is good. I would love one on my wall. I don't care what they look like. They bring on a smile and then a thought, a thought that carries on. If that is what he is aiming for he is right on. I would like to see something a little weird, something unexpected, but maybe that is just what I am getting as I start to second guess my own analysis again and again and again.
i want to like his work but i dont. illustrations of "race issues". the only interesting thing for me IS that there are race issues in the work. i hate the way it looks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.richardhellergallery.com/dynamic/artwork_display.asp?ArtworkID=691
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't suck.
yay Lamar! Don't let the stupid people get in your way.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i like lamar's drawings. his imagination is really out there. i also like his paper bag puppets.
ReplyDeleteI like hating the look of it-
ReplyDeletePainter.
ReplyDeleteI had a groove going but you ruined it.
They read nice as thumbnails (richard heller gallery site), but then 'click' and.....ouch,ouch,ouch!
ReplyDeletewhere is the image for the previous post? it is gone.
ReplyDeleteoh, i see. it is a joke? i am very dumb.
ReplyDeleteww I didn't know I posted a blank post and then people started making comments in it.
ReplyDeleteThese have a nice touch in person.
ReplyDeleteThe collages are great- very interesting.
Somewhat D. Humphrey-esque in vision.
Very creative.
Too bad his new dealer's a putz (I had to say SOMETHING negative, I'm grumpy old man...)
there's a wonderfully demented quality in his work, a hyper-cheerful facade masking underlying tensions - don't think this can be lumped together with a lot of other pop work.
ReplyDeleteyeah, it's the demented quality! for me, the fact that they are so pop/coloring book makes them even more demented and weird. i think the look of them is really quite calculated and smart.
ReplyDeleteexactly - calculated in a good way - there'a good interview with him where he talks about painting with the bob ross tv shows as a kid! http://www.petitemort.org/issue02/16/
ReplyDeletekinda reminds me of the painting version of jake and dinos chapman's -"Fuck Faces". and this brings up a larger issue about what having creepy clowns, or rainbow mummies and black children in a painting is an attempt at. For me it flips a giant middle finger at the race politics of the 1970's - remember Marlo Thomas and friends "Free To Be You and Me"? Or Jessie jackson's Rainbow Coalition. It seems like this guy thinks the aesthetics of those politics (integration, affirmative action, multiculturalism) can all go fuck themselves.
ReplyDeleteOther thoughts appreciated.
ummm, hello -'free to be you and me' rocks....
ReplyDeleteI dont know where I'd be if I didnt know that william wants a doll and that thats just fine or that its alright to cry....
I have seen this work in person at studio museum in harlem and it's really ugly. he doesn't draw or paint very well, the colors are garish and hideous and i agree with the person who said the only interesting thing is, possibly, the subject matter. but that subject matter has been done to death, so why bother if it looks awful and is derivative and redundant conceptually?
ReplyDeleteno disrespect was meant to free to be you and me in my last post. "i like what i look like and you're nice small, we don;t have to change at all"
ReplyDeletebut wouldn't you rather have more black artists in the art world?
ReplyDeletei'd just rather there be less crap, produced by anyone. are you seriously saying that people should be less critical of black artists because the art world needs them to balance the scales? that seems like a pretty retrograde stance
ReplyDeleteit's like an animation cell from fat albert and the cosby kids + the wizard of oz, with acid.
ReplyDeleteis that girl stepping on the boy's foot? does she have her hand in the back of his head, like he is a ventriloquist's dummy? is he offering that flower to the viewer?
this is a very weird painting.
I used to work on elementary school textbooks, and this looks like a freaked-out version of the p.c. illustrations therein. But it's not enough to make me like them; they're not weird or evocative enough, visually speaking. In person they're very bland feeling, ironically.
ReplyDeleteouch, you people are mean.
ReplyDeleteMandy
x
He had a show recently at Fredericks and Freiser, and you can see more images on their web site, i find I like the images there much more than the image here that everyone is raging on. So he doesn't try to rehash AbEx in his paintings or tip his hat to the old masters, big deal, I thought art was about having a distinct vision and taking chances, which it seems to me he is doing. here here...
ReplyDeletelet there be more white people dripping drips. hail to the chief. USA USA USA...yadda yadda. seems like too many people like their paintings like their neighborhoods- white and familiar. racism rears itself through 'anonymous' heads.
ReplyDeleteI liked the one or two of these I have seen in person.
ReplyDeleteI like lamar. His work is good. I would love one on my wall. I don't care what they look like. They bring on a smile and then a thought, a thought that carries on. If that is what he is aiming for he is right on. I would like to see something a little weird, something unexpected, but maybe that is just what I am getting as I start to second guess my own analysis again and again and again.
ReplyDelete-Thomas
This guy is light years ahead of Kehinde Wiley
ReplyDelete