I am generally in the camp, to much too soon. But in Alison Fox’s case I enjoy seeing the growth in her work. I think she has the potential to be a really great painter.
I am not well-versed in abstraction, but she really seems to do a LOT with it. She works the formal elements, especially color, in a way that triggers an emotive as well as an intellectual response.
what i find interesting is that in the 70's and 80's there were a LOT of people working like this, they were all ignored (a good portion of them women), although some of them were good. how come the context that this work is put in, makes this work relevant today? to me, although skilled it looks like too many other artists of a certain camp. people have no memory, and act like she has discovered something. just asking.
God these are awful and you need to have freaking amazing work if you are going to marry Zach Fuer. Part of a long history of female dilettentes who work in the arts because of who they are married to or the daughter of. Not progress & not very good either.Everyone thinks it & nobody says it.
this was the best one in the show. her work is innocuous. irrelevant. blah. the funny thing is, there was another abstract artist in that show, doing very similar work, but they were really really good.
Don't know if you guys saw this string last year, in another blog, about Alison Fox. It's interesting -- the kinds of reactions certain relationships elicit.
I like the ambiguous sense of space in her work. The colors seem intuitive, which i like. hard edge with painterliness, nice compliment to Heilman. When I look at these womens' works I think of Prunella Clough who did it all.
Wow, I just read the whole exchange on anaba. it was a knockdown, dragout brawl. very exhilarating. i highly recommend the read. and everyone was right. zach was right to be pissed at the assumptions people were making, but also wrong not to ackowledge the realities that who you know is oh so important.
alison's paintings are somewhat interested but mostly still derivative. in a few years she might be worth paying attention to. all the the conversation regarding zach, careerism, too young too soon, connections etc is just pitiful. so many bitter artists. if you can't succeed, it's because you can't paint, period. stop finding fault in those with a career, regardless of how they managed to acquire it. truly pitiful.
all of the above is true, except i really cannot stand the attitude that those who dont have careers are not good artists, bitter etc. it is so wrong and simplistic on so many levels. you should be ashamed .
"if you can't succeed, it's because you can't paint, period. stop finding fault in those with a career, regardless of how they managed to acquire it. truly pitiful. " Really. So you can manage to acquire it in a different way than being able to paint?? You contradict yourself because what you are saying is absurd and PITIFUL.
I think people here need to chill the fuck out. It's not like Alison is some huge fucking star. She is a promising young painter getting some attention. And you know what? The attention she is getting is comensurate with the quality her work. Her paintings are modestly priced and she has a modest folowing of patrons. She shows at a small gallery and has gotten some good press. So what you guys are really pissed about is that she has a nice in to the artworld. While most of us are sitting outside the party trying to figure out how to get in, she gets to waltz in. Too fucking bad. You know what, that has nothing the fuck to do with Alison or her work. Yes there is nepostism in the artworld. Yes most people writing in here are under appreciated if not alltogether cutout of the artworld. That sucks. But Alison Fox is not the problem. Get over it.
someone said they look very struggled with. is that automatically a bad thing? that is something i like about this medium, being able to make something that looks like it may have been struggled with, but which may also be full of grace.
the paintings at sikkema really show a clear investigation - i feel like she's interested in three-dimensional space, and trying to arrive at it through subtle surface tension.. i like the little glimpses of imagery that she's imposing an abstract language on (or maybe she's subjecting them to abstraction, either way). maybe that's not something entirely new, but there's still a lot to be explored... i like where they're going.
What's it about? What is any painting about? Today "what's it about" is one fashion or another, they die and get recycled over and over. When you go back into the past, "what's it about" becomes blurry, you end up looking at the painting as a painting.
What's it about? Staking an identity, making something recognizable.
Alison is young, her paintings are still searching for their own identity. There is nothing wrong with that.
I saw an big excellent abstract painting at atm last week in a group show. It had a big lime green area. It might still be up. It wasn't a Fox painting. I can't remember who did it. Anyone?
Yes, let's talk about the painting. I think Roberta Smith's comments really hit it: "This ham-handed Cubism almost cries out for a larger canvas. Still, this compression is effective; when things are less cluttered, the paintings devolve into generic abstraction. The smaller, much tamer "Sweet Adeline" could have been made by dozens of painters at any point during the last 30 years."
Without the context of a Chelsea gallery, these paintings are incredibly generic. I can imagine seeing them in a local gallery in some beachside resort town, between the fish windchimes and the scrimshaw.
I don't think the problem is that they aren't "about" something, they just don't indicate any particular talent or skill or ideas. And ya gotta have at least two outta three.
Connections might help, but it's interesting that all the examples of nepotism I see mentioned are of women artists. AS IF men didn't get shows from who they know, marry or screw. Just another way to make art by women seem undeserving of critical attention.
Lame paintings. Crummy color, ham fisted, recycled abstraction. No space, no tension, they are stiff and clumsy. This painter is lucky to have a gallery. The whole show at Sikema was pretty lame.
i don't think this blog is what painternyc was intenting it to be. it's become a place for anonymous artists to attack showing artists. this is becoming about anger, not criticism. The last few artists have been shafted by these new posters. the best comments (negative and positive) are coming from bloggers with thoughtful sites and real identities (i.e. WW, Martin, zipthwung, etc), if you risk the scrutiny of having your work public, it may lead to a more thoughtful dialogue instead of attack, attack attack. no reason to be afraid, I'm sure if Fox, Brad, Mcgrath and Su-En can take it, so can you. Kookooroo, the comment "Some beach-side resort town, between the fish wind-chimes and the scrimshaw. " is a good start to a real conversation. Alison Fox paints Kitsch - katchina's, rugs or sailboats and is playing on 'hobby painting'. I think it's a very interesting issue; does painting Kitsch, or subjects found in 'low' or 'amateur' art exclude you from making work that is considered 'high art' or serious work. ok, how about some real responses instead of attacks or name calling. also, do a little research about what 'ham handed' means in an art historical context before trying to use it as an insult.
I love her use of color and her free approch to painting. She just maps out a little space and works with in it, I envy this abilty to work so freely. She makes painting look fun. Like maybe it is possible to be a painter and still have a good time with it for years to come.
All of your examples of thoughtful bloggers, long-winded anonymous, were positive comments. Are people not allowed to dislike something here? That doesn't make you a hater. I went to the Sikkema show and didn't see any rugs or sailboats - just abstract paintings that did feel a little generic to me. I think 'kitch' and 'generic' are two different things. If you can elaborate on your statement that would be wonderful. As of right now, I can't see making typical abstract paintings as a comment on typical abstract paintings as really being interesting or productive. But that's just me.
she had a bunch of paintings of sails (check out the sail on the sikkema website, pretty clear). they all started off based on boats. you can see the hull of a boat and some sails in this one. her show in LA was all katchinas. i think she's playing with some kind of hand made jim shaw painting, and taking it one step further, I image shaw always would have liked to paint while laughing, as opposed to just lauging and editing, this paintings seem very funny and the kind of abstraction that would be pleasurable to make. It's great to see something tiny, and pretty much unloaded used to start a painting as oppose to some forced grand narrative. she comes up real simple. did you see the dan colen paintings in gagosian's bathroom. same idea, but more hip then dorky like alisons. also, I think she has some relation to josh smiths name paintings. the idea of abstraction being hard to mean something is kind of silly, just because you have a naked woman spraying pee and a picture of bush stepping on arabs, only means you've got a picture that might mean something, not a painting with 'meaning'. illustration and representational content do not equel meaning, it just makes it a little easier to read, but then again, photos are the easist to read, and who on this blog would say they have more meaning then painting. glad to see the name calling limited to 'long winded', much nicer then retarded.
'this paintings seem very funny and the kind of abstraction that would be pleasurable to make.'
Funny how? Like 'Seinfield' funny, or 'in a relationship with other abstract painting' funny, 'cause that's not really that funny anymore. And pleasureable to make? All painting is pleasurable to make - it's not ditch-digging. And looking pleasurable hardly qualifies as interesting.
'It's great to see something tiny, and pretty much unloaded used to start a painting as oppose to some forced grand narrative.'
Humble subject matter. Like a tree, or a portrait, or a set up of apples, but then you abstract it, noone's ever done that...
'the idea of abstraction being hard to mean something is kind of silly,'
abstraction is hard to mean something, but when it does, it's very rewarding to the viewer. Maybe this work means something to some people, but to me it seems to mean something only in terms of strategem within Painting. Nothing to do with ideas outside of painting or profound emotion or feeling.
Nothing personal against her or anything, just don't think she's hit on it yet.
And how can you call out people for posting anonymously and then post anonymously yourself, anonymous? That's being a hypocrite, which is much worse than being a bitter artist in my book.
i went to the b. sik opening. i really like the show alot. including the kara walkers in the back which was super great. literally the ONLY thing in the whole gallery i really really didnt like or find worthy of being there were this persons paintings. didnt know who she was or was married to. its the honest truth.
I'm new to this blog and new to this painter but I do want to see more of her work. It seems fresh, inteligent, a little aukward but in a nice way, there is real feeling at work here. I'm going to go see the show and come back here.
I agree. This is someone with something to say who is still in the process of finding her voice and it is kind of exciting to find someone who is still becomeing something. I also want to see more after my first look and thank this site for introducing this painter.
For me the key to abstraction is the ability, very rare, to evoke both an intellectual and emotional response in the construction of shapes and the application of color. This artist has it and I agree it is still in the early or mid stages of development. I do not know how old this artist is or how long she has been painting but this is a real talent that I bet will grow.
wow the last few people have been real blowhards! go back to your community college teaching posts. the person who said painting can never be unpleasurable can go to hell. try doing it for a living. try doing it with doubt, with serious inquiry, all day. or struggling to do it at all. painting is pleasurable. painting is not pleasurable. cooking is pleasurable. cooking is not pleasurable. how you can say it's not like ditch-digging - well, i know how you can say it, you don't do it seriously. painting is ditch digging. that should be someones fucking title except it sounds affected. this place has become a bourgeois circle jerk, and i lament that more for the sake of Painter than i do the fact that its become rancid and back biting. all these people expounding so fucking earnestly make me want to throw up. make me want to give up painting more than nepotism and cocktail parties. except that i'm not going to give up, because i'm already in there. and it's going well. and i don't feel apologetic. it's hard, it's not. some painters on here are good, some are not. some cardiologists are good, some are not. i'm also shocked by the poor quality of some spelling on this blog.
Painting is easy. Keeping all of the different anonymous people on this post seperate is hard. I do it by the spelling. The bible says "by their spelling you shall know them." Try teaching in Community College sometime.
The bottom line on Allison Fox is when you see her work you want to see more. She is like a good page turning novel. What comes next? See w.w. comments above. Right on!
Painting is hard. Blogging is probably way too easy.
I've posted many times as anonymous on this blog. And I'm the one who posted the link to the anaba string. I did it in part out of curiosity and also to learn what people had to say about the issue in general, and of course in response to a previous poster who was showing interest in the issue -- which has everything to do with painting. (The state-of-the-market of painting, for me, *is* a painting issue, because painting, at this juncuture, would probably not exist, if not for the market). I also thought that this link was of particular importance because I thought the Zach Feurer's retort (if it was zf) was so eloquantly put; and that it was a point of learning regardless of who thought who was lying, or what. His statements of building community was inspiring, in fact. I think that the anaba string should be recommended to anyone who has any interest in the business of painting -- not only because it's so hillariously entertaining, but because it provides a candid insight to those who are either new in the scene, or are not privy to such a scene. (Besides, Kunty Bush is just plain sexy!)
Sorry about bringing this up to those who wanted to just talk about the painting; Sorry that Alison Fox has become a fulcrum of anger -- It wasn't the point. Like a previous poster said, she has become a symbol. Unwittingly, and probably undeservedly. Sorry I have nothing to say about Alison Fox's work. I'm not qualified.
Lastly I agree wholehartedly with the anonymous blogger, who disparaged anonymity (the 'long-winded' one) ... At least Ms. Smith had a name attatched to her criticisms. Hey, anonymous blogger, you've inspired me to soldier-up and get a name!
woooooh, threats of violence. the last great triumph of anonymous bloggers. don't be so sure, anyway i'm not going to show you pictures of my scars. you've truly got me trembling.
Good point! Was there a "market" for cave drawings? Alison is a good example of painting because she is a painter. Her painting has a natural expressive quality which is very appealing.You feel like you can connect with her thoughts and feelings.
Hey! KooKoo most of Roberta Smith's columns could have been written by anyone else with a bad headache over the past 30 years. Roberta is the untimate follow the heard reviewer. When is the last time she picked a fresh new talent out of a crowd? Roberta thinks the Whitney Biennial is cutting edge art.
The only assertive feminism I see here is a good woman painter gaining confidence in her painting and that seems threatening to some of the boys around town.
To, Rainer Wolfcastle, I went to Sikkema to see Kara Walker and thinking she would blow the group show out of the building and it was not a smart move to have them together and not fair to put someone like Alison in that position. But I was wrong. It somehow really worked together and I think Alison Fox holds her own. Alison has a very natural,calm and confident grace of style which presented a powerful contrast to the ferociousness of Kara Walker in the next room. They very strangely complimented each other. Like Walker is about the Civil War and Fox is about Reconstruction. Anyway thats "what it was about". Try it you will like it. Or, you won't.
Anon, You are right. I thought the same thing. Did not think the two shows would work well together and was surprised that they did. This ends up being a vey interesting combination at sikkema and I agree fox hanges in there well.she is interesting.
look at huge NYT support, (favorable coverage) for Whitney Biennial which is an artistic disaster. but no one dare say so in public. while they can attack or even worse ignore very good emerging painters like alison and inka.
I have only heard people say the Bienial sucks in public. It is awful and boring. I think because it had so few Drawings and Paintings. It had no heart.
I thought the cave drawing comment referenced the fact that true (honest)painters paint what they want (have) to paint. They paint to express themselves. What is important to them. Just as the cave dwellers were not painting for a market but to express themselves. If they are lucky and good they find their audience, while they are still alive. Some painters paint not for themselves but for the audience/market and get rich doing it but that does not last. The true art is that which is a true expresion of some genuine aspect of human intellect, emotion and shared experience, love,fear,beauty,despair. The discussion here was is alison fox a painter or painting for the market? I think she is a painter.
how can alison fox have a 20 person waiting list for her paintings (from last year's new york magazine article, a quote of her gallery ATM), when at sikemma show every painting except one was available? has that waiting list been lost?
right on passeo. people only paint because there is a market. no money no paintee. cave man was a no talent religious nut. glad you set him strait. no more cave man discussion around here.
hey dummy. do you know how wait-lists work? it's a list of people who express interest in buying a work once they see the other works are sold. the dealer then offers to people on the list. if they pass, it gets offered to the next client. considering the show has been up since saturday, and the paintings are wet, I doubt the dealers would have had time to presell the works. you often see works from a first show selling quicker since there is no wait-list and the dealers can just sell to people who come in off the street, having the list slows things down since you have to wait for people to get offered and then move on to the next client if they passed. plus, is selling or not selling a painting any kind of value judgment? my god, that crap across from Fox's was all sold out, and we won't even remember that artists name in a week (I've forgotten it today).
I like the fact that this painter was able to stimulate such a wide rangeing discussion of her painting and painting itself. I would like it if I could do that. If people would look at a painting of mind and start to discuss and argue all night over whether I have a primordial urge to paint or if I am just directing my painting at a predetermied target audience in the current art market. Nobody talks about me and my paintings that way so this is cool. even yoda shows up here with references to the dark side and the battle with the art Empire.
I agree great posting and at times great conversation. about the best i've seen. there are some nut cases here but that just adds grit and a touch of reality to the discussion.
I thought passeo went off a bit on the poor cave man. I don't think he intended to exclude all other forms of expression, like music, poetry, dance and wood carving from the discussion of art. I think his point about some painters/artist being driven to paint/express themselves their way regardless of the current market for their work is a good one. If they are good at what they do their chances of finding others who like it or get it are good. The Johnny Cash movie makes that point very well. And of course caves with paintings sell for more than those without.
how could 20 people pass on paintings in three days? any good dealer only offers a work to one person at a time, then if they pass they offer it to the next client. if you offer 10 people the same painting at the same time you end up in trouble.
Dear Passeo, Thank you very much. It is rare in the blogosphere to recieve a sincere apology. I agree to a large extent with Marshall McLuhan in Undertanding Media, that the media is the message. Which is to say whatever media we use to communicate changes the very content and character of the communication itself. In useing the cave drawings I was attempting to use a shorthand to convey that artistic expression at its best is essentially intuitive and spontaneous to the individual doing the creating. I believe this is true even in cave drawings regardless of the social environment. Michelangelo painted and sculpted for Popes but his interpretation of even dictated subject matter was still spontaneous and individual and the same was true of the cave painters. It is that individuality of interpretation and expression that makes it art. Anyway you did call me "naive and absurd" among other observations which I hope were misplaced because I was not describing the historical context of cave drawing but the individual human creative process. When all I was trying to say was I thought Alison Fox has some natural talent for painting and I think she needs to stick with it and on that we agree. And probably a lot more.
theodoro, What do you mean? Can you explain nada membership? How does a show that will be meaningless in a year relate to nada membership? I'm a new painter trying to understand the art business. They don't teach it in school. I'm learning a lot on this blog though. People talk about evrything here. Its a fun place.
Oh! thanks. now I'm sorry I asked. feel dumb. glad to be anonymous sometimes. I'm trying to be more sophisticated at least in public if not on the blog. nice of you to clue me in though. I'm learning.
Well I mean I picked up on some of that attacking this painter because of who she is married to and i found it really offensive and would not want to be apart of it even by accident. I really like her work and went to see the show after seeing it on this blog. I loved the whole show and also think there has been a lot of good discussion about it here. So I came back to check out the new post.I liked the way this group show was put together with the Kara Walker solo.
Something like a folksy modernism here, with allusions to an archaic form of bourgeois liberalism thrown in for good measure. A wineglass wearing morning dress.
121 comments:
I am generally in the camp, to much too soon. But in Alison Fox’s case I enjoy seeing the growth in her work. I think she has the potential to be a really great painter.
Turn the Beat Around
530 West 22nd Street, New York NY
March 4 -– April 1, 2006
They Glow
Fox's werk rocks too!
Fox's werk rocks too!
this is a better one, but overall the ones at sikkema are really weak.
I am not well-versed in abstraction, but she really seems to do a LOT with it. She works the formal elements, especially color, in a way that triggers an emotive as well as an intellectual response.
Before I pass online judgement ~ What is the size of her work? The scale (if small) would place her in one camp ~ and if they are large in another.
what i find interesting is that in the 70's and 80's there were a LOT of people working like this, they were all ignored (a good portion of them women), although some of them were good. how come the context that this work is put in, makes this work relevant today? to me, although skilled it looks like too many other artists of a certain camp. people have no memory, and act like she has discovered something. just asking.
God these are awful and you need to have freaking amazing work if you are going to marry Zach Fuer. Part of a long history of female dilettentes who work in the arts because of who they are married to or the daughter of. Not progress & not very good either.Everyone thinks it & nobody says it.
looks like student work to me, color is awful.
she had one of the better paintings at the last nada.
http:www.flickr.com/photos/43686206@N00/70354506/in/set-1514097/
nice green, nice scale, and nice space. i would like to see more, it is the only one i have seen.
this was the best one in the show. her work is innocuous. irrelevant. blah. the funny thing is, there was another abstract artist in that show, doing very similar work, but they were really really good.
Don't know if you guys saw this string last year, in another blog, about Alison Fox. It's interesting -- the kinds of reactions certain relationships elicit.
http://anaba.blogspot.com/2005/03/all-thats-wrong-plus.html
I like the ambiguous sense of space in her work. The colors seem intuitive, which i like. hard edge with painterliness, nice compliment to Heilman. When I look at these womens' works I think of Prunella Clough who did it all.
Wow, I just read the whole exchange on anaba. it was a knockdown, dragout brawl. very exhilarating. i highly recommend the read. and everyone was right. zach was right to be pissed at the assumptions people were making, but also wrong not to ackowledge the realities that who you know is oh so important.
Can we just talk about Alison's paintings.
did anyone see the show yet?
the paintings just don't seem to be ABOUT anything...
is that too much to ask for?
alison's paintings are somewhat interested but mostly still derivative. in a few years she might be worth paying attention to. all the the conversation regarding zach, careerism, too young too soon, connections etc is just pitiful. so many bitter artists. if you can't succeed, it's because you can't paint, period. stop finding fault in those with a career, regardless of how they managed to acquire it. truly pitiful.
there are a lot of abstract painters ---many of them female, who are making much better work. these look very struggled with and amateurish.
all of the above is true, except i really cannot stand the attitude that those who dont have careers are not good artists, bitter etc. it is so wrong and simplistic on so many levels. you should be ashamed .
honestly, I'd still like to hear more about these paintings if anyone knows what's going on with them, what they are about, reasons behind them etc...
"if you can't succeed, it's because you can't paint, period. stop finding fault in those with a career, regardless of how they managed to acquire it. truly pitiful. "
Really. So you can manage to acquire it in a different way than being able to paint?? You contradict yourself because what you are saying is absurd and PITIFUL.
I think people here need to chill the fuck out. It's not like Alison is some huge fucking star. She is a promising young painter getting some attention. And you know what? The attention she is getting is comensurate with the quality her work. Her paintings are modestly priced and she has a modest folowing of patrons. She shows at a small gallery and has gotten some good press.
So what you guys are really pissed about is that she has a nice in to the artworld. While most of us are sitting outside the party trying to figure out how to get in, she gets to waltz in. Too fucking bad. You know what, that has nothing the fuck to do with Alison or her work. Yes there is nepostism in the artworld. Yes most people writing in here are under appreciated if not alltogether cutout of the artworld. That sucks. But Alison Fox is not the problem. Get over it.
yeh! so there
someone said they look very struggled with. is that automatically a bad thing? that is something i like about this medium, being able to make something that looks like it may have been struggled with, but which may also be full of grace.
the paintings at sikkema really show a clear investigation - i feel like she's interested in three-dimensional space, and trying to arrive at it through subtle surface tension.. i like the little glimpses of imagery that she's imposing an abstract language on (or maybe she's subjecting them to abstraction, either way). maybe that's not something entirely new, but there's still a lot to be explored... i like where they're going.
I thought"sillmanish" before I knew where this was showing-its whateverwhateverwhatever-anemic
What's it about? What is any painting about? Today "what's it about" is one fashion or another, they die and get recycled over and over. When you go back into the past, "what's it about" becomes blurry, you end up looking at the painting as a painting.
What's it about? Staking an identity, making something recognizable.
Alison is young, her paintings are still searching for their own identity. There is nothing wrong with that.
Is it my imagination or does ATM have two Chelsea galleries?
ATM definitely has 2 chelsea locations right now, one on 20th and the other on 27th
Bunko Boy:
'anonymous, take a look in the mirror. '
Thank you for the most unintentionally hilarious sentence I've read all week.
Painters aren't stupid. People are.
I saw an big excellent abstract painting at atm last week in a group show. It had a big lime green area. It might still be up. It wasn't a Fox painting. I can't remember who did it. Anyone?
You know who's a really great painter?
SAMANTHA Fox.
Very sexy too.
Yes, let's talk about the painting. I think Roberta Smith's comments really hit it: "This ham-handed Cubism almost cries out for a larger canvas. Still, this compression is effective; when things are less cluttered, the paintings devolve into generic abstraction. The smaller, much tamer "Sweet Adeline" could have been made by dozens of painters at any point during the last 30 years."
Without the context of a Chelsea gallery, these paintings are incredibly generic. I can imagine seeing them in a local gallery in some beachside resort town, between the fish windchimes and the scrimshaw.
I don't think the problem is that they aren't "about" something, they just don't indicate any particular talent or skill or ideas. And ya gotta have at least two outta three.
Connections might help, but it's interesting that all the examples of nepotism I see mentioned are of women artists. AS IF men didn't get shows from who they know, marry or screw. Just another way to make art by women seem undeserving of critical attention.
Lame paintings. Crummy color, ham fisted, recycled abstraction. No space, no tension, they are stiff and clumsy. This painter is lucky to have a gallery. The whole show at Sikema was pretty lame.
I'm not harshing her out because of her conections. I don't care about that stuff.
kookooroo and : /, can you post a link to your work?
anonymous, can you? don't be a moron. i don't need to point out how obviously retarded your request is, do i?
Alison, get off this blog, now! You're all grown up now -- you know these ruffians aren't good enough for you!
i don't think this blog is what painternyc was intenting it to be. it's become a place for anonymous artists to attack showing artists. this is becoming about anger, not criticism. The last few artists have been shafted by these new posters. the best comments (negative and positive) are coming from bloggers with thoughtful sites and real identities (i.e. WW, Martin, zipthwung, etc), if you risk the scrutiny of having your work public, it may lead to a more thoughtful dialogue instead of attack, attack attack. no reason to be afraid, I'm sure if Fox, Brad, Mcgrath and Su-En can take it, so can you. Kookooroo, the comment "Some beach-side resort town, between the fish wind-chimes and the scrimshaw. " is a good start to a real conversation. Alison Fox paints Kitsch - katchina's, rugs or sailboats and is playing on 'hobby painting'. I think it's a very interesting issue; does painting Kitsch, or subjects found in 'low' or 'amateur' art exclude you from making work that is considered 'high art' or serious work. ok, how about some real responses instead of attacks or name calling. also, do a little research about what 'ham handed' means in an art historical context before trying to use it as an insult.
She is holding her own.
This is a really strong image. Congrats Alison Fox on being such a tough lady.
go ALISON!!!
I love her use of color and her free approch to painting. She just maps out a little space and works with in it, I envy this abilty to work so freely. She makes painting look fun. Like maybe it is possible to be a painter and still have a good time with it for years to come.
All of your examples of thoughtful bloggers, long-winded anonymous, were positive comments. Are people not allowed to dislike something here? That doesn't make you a hater. I went to the Sikkema show and didn't see any rugs or sailboats - just abstract paintings that did feel a little generic to me. I think 'kitch' and 'generic' are two different things. If you can elaborate on your statement that would be wonderful. As of right now, I can't see making typical abstract paintings as a comment on typical abstract paintings as really being interesting or productive. But that's just me.
she had a bunch of paintings of sails (check out the sail on the sikkema website, pretty clear). they all started off based on boats. you can see the hull of a boat and some sails in this one. her show in LA was all katchinas. i think she's playing with some kind of hand made jim shaw painting, and taking it one step further, I image shaw always would have liked to paint while laughing, as opposed to just lauging and editing, this paintings seem very funny and the kind of abstraction that would be pleasurable to make. It's great to see something tiny, and pretty much unloaded used to start a painting as oppose to some forced grand narrative. she comes up real simple. did you see the dan colen paintings in gagosian's bathroom. same idea, but more hip then dorky like alisons. also, I think she has some relation to josh smiths name paintings. the idea of abstraction being hard to mean something is kind of silly, just because you have a naked woman spraying pee and a picture of bush stepping on arabs, only means you've got a picture that might mean something, not a painting with 'meaning'. illustration and representational content do not equel meaning, it just makes it a little easier to read, but then again, photos are the easist to read, and who on this blog would say they have more meaning then painting. glad to see the name calling limited to 'long winded', much nicer then retarded.
retarded also has value.
who is painting forced grand narratives? That sounds cool, would love to see that.
maybe Munch?
http://z.about.com/d/painting/1/0/x/K/cc-svalentine4.jpg
hey :/
You painted that? That sucks!!! I'm embarassed just looking at it!!!
:/ is that really you?
:/ is that really you?
:/ , I'm sorry to hear about your aunt.
'this paintings seem very funny and the kind of abstraction that would be pleasurable to make.'
Funny how? Like 'Seinfield' funny, or 'in a relationship with other abstract painting' funny, 'cause that's not really that funny anymore. And pleasureable to make? All painting is pleasurable to make - it's not ditch-digging. And looking pleasurable hardly qualifies as interesting.
'It's great to see something tiny, and pretty much unloaded used to start a painting as oppose to some forced grand narrative.'
Humble subject matter. Like a tree, or a portrait, or a set up of apples, but then you abstract it, noone's ever done that...
'the idea of abstraction being hard to mean something is kind of silly,'
abstraction is hard to mean something, but when it does, it's very rewarding to the viewer. Maybe this work means something to some people, but to me it seems to mean something only in terms of strategem within Painting. Nothing to do with ideas outside of painting or profound emotion or feeling.
Nothing personal against her or anything, just don't think she's hit on it yet.
And how can you call out people for posting anonymously and then post anonymously yourself, anonymous? That's being a hypocrite, which is much worse than being a bitter artist in my book.
i went to the b. sik opening. i really like the show alot. including the kara walkers in the back which was super great. literally the ONLY thing in the whole gallery i really really didnt like or find worthy of being there were this persons paintings. didnt know who she was or was married to. its the honest truth.
I'm new to this blog and new to this painter but I do want to see more of her work. It seems fresh, inteligent, a little aukward but in a nice way, there is real feeling at work here. I'm going to go see the show and come back here.
I agree. This is someone with something to say who is still in the process of finding her voice and it is kind of exciting to find someone who is still becomeing something. I also want to see more after my first look and thank this site for introducing this painter.
For me the key to abstraction is the ability, very rare, to evoke both an intellectual and emotional response in the construction of shapes and the application of color. This artist has it and I agree it is still in the early or mid stages of development. I do not know how old this artist is or how long she has been painting but this is a real talent that I bet will grow.
wow the last few people have been real blowhards! go back to your community college teaching posts. the person who said painting can never be unpleasurable can go to hell. try doing it for a living. try doing it with doubt, with serious inquiry, all day. or struggling to do it at all. painting is pleasurable. painting is not pleasurable. cooking is pleasurable. cooking is not pleasurable. how you can say it's not like ditch-digging - well, i know how you can say it, you don't do it seriously. painting is ditch digging. that should be someones fucking title except it sounds affected. this place has become a bourgeois circle jerk, and i lament that more for the sake of Painter than i do the fact that its become rancid and back biting. all these people expounding so fucking earnestly make me want to throw up. make me want to give up painting more than nepotism and cocktail parties. except that i'm not going to give up, because i'm already in there. and it's going well. and i don't feel apologetic. it's hard, it's not. some painters on here are good, some are not. some cardiologists are good, some are not. i'm also shocked by the poor quality of some spelling on this blog.
Painting is easy. Keeping all of the different anonymous people on this post seperate is hard. I do it by the spelling. The bible says "by their spelling you shall know them." Try teaching in Community College sometime.
The bottom line on Allison
Fox is when you see her work you want to see more. She is like a good page turning novel. What comes next? See w.w. comments above. Right on!
the work of alison fox provokes dialogue.
I would love a show with Mary Heilmann, Alison Fox, Cheyney Thompson and Anna Conway together with all new work. Rock my world!
This blog has featured some interesting dynamics.
Painting is hard.
Blogging is probably way too easy.
I've posted many times as anonymous on this blog. And I'm the one who posted the link to the anaba string. I did it in part out of curiosity and also to learn what people had to say about the issue in general, and of course in response to a previous poster who was showing interest in the issue -- which has everything to do with painting. (The state-of-the-market of painting, for me, *is* a painting issue, because painting, at this juncuture, would probably not exist, if not for the market). I also thought that this link was of particular importance because I thought the Zach Feurer's retort (if it was zf) was so eloquantly put; and that it was a point of learning regardless of who thought who was lying, or what. His statements of building community was inspiring, in fact. I think that the anaba string should be recommended to anyone who has any interest in the business of painting -- not only because it's so hillariously entertaining, but because it provides a candid insight to those who are either new in the scene, or are not privy to such a scene. (Besides, Kunty Bush is just plain sexy!)
Sorry about bringing this up to those who wanted to just talk about the painting; Sorry that Alison Fox has become a fulcrum of anger -- It wasn't the point. Like a previous poster said, she has become a symbol. Unwittingly, and probably undeservedly. Sorry I have nothing to say about Alison Fox's work. I'm not qualified.
Lastly I agree wholehartedly with the anonymous blogger, who disparaged anonymity (the 'long-winded' one) ... At least Ms. Smith had a name attatched to her criticisms. Hey, anonymous blogger, you've inspired me to soldier-up and get a name!
passeo
you should switch your name to snoozeo
woooooh, threats of violence. the last great triumph of anonymous bloggers. don't be so sure, anyway i'm not going to show you pictures of my scars. you've truly got me trembling.
The world is round. DOn't forget it.
Amy Sillman?
Is she here posting?
jeez - sour grapes for miles and miles....
This girl has got something special and needs to keep going.
Well, Alison releases enough steam in her paintings to get the gender engines running so she is doing something right.
This is a painter who can connect the heart and the head. I like what I see and hope to see more.
"painting, at this juncuture, would probably not exist, if not for the market"
Wha?! Totally absurd!
Good point! Was there a "market" for cave drawings? Alison is a good example of painting because she is a painter. Her painting has a natural expressive quality which is very appealing.You feel like you can connect with her thoughts and feelings.
Hey! KooKoo most of Roberta Smith's columns could have been written by anyone else with a bad headache over the past 30 years. Roberta is the untimate follow the heard reviewer. When is the last time she picked a fresh new talent out of a crowd? Roberta thinks the Whitney Biennial is cutting edge art.
Is it posted somewhere where this painter is currently showing? I can't find it and want to go see to work live.
I don't get the gender war over this painter. Is there some screaming feminism here I'm missing? What is wrong guys?
I think guys like her work anyway I do.
'Alison is a good example of painting because she is a painter.'
Case closed.
Interesting discussion. Very interesting.
The only assertive feminism I see here is a good woman painter gaining confidence in her painting and that seems threatening to some of the boys around town.
To, Rainer Wolfcastle, I went to Sikkema to see Kara Walker and thinking she would blow the group show out of the building and it was not a smart move to have them together and not fair to put someone like Alison in that position. But I was wrong. It somehow really worked together and I think Alison Fox holds her own. Alison has a very natural,calm and confident grace of style which presented a powerful contrast to the ferociousness of Kara Walker in the next room. They very strangely complimented each other. Like Walker is about the Civil War and Fox is about Reconstruction. Anyway thats "what it was about". Try it you will like it. Or, you won't.
Anon, You are right. I thought the same thing. Did not think the two shows would work well together and was surprised that they did. This ends up being a vey interesting combination at sikkema and I agree fox hanges in there well.she is interesting.
many friends has alison.
defend her honor they must.
kookoo and yoda, anon is right Roberta and NYT are corporate art central.
look at huge NYT support, (favorable coverage) for Whitney Biennial which is an artistic disaster. but no one dare say so in public. while they can attack or even worse ignore very good emerging painters like alison and inka.
I have only heard people say the Bienial sucks in public. It is awful and boring.
I think because it had so few Drawings and Paintings. It had no heart.
it has no soul
the whitney biennial is like that old song nowhereman; "dosen't have a point of view, knows not where he's going to. isn't he a bit like me and you?"
s-s-s-s-samantha FOX!
wow 102 coments. good or bad, alison is the most talked about painter in nyc (and 1/20th the price of inka). go alison!
ha 105!
"many friends has alison...defend her honor they must."
"... 1/20th the price of inka"
Painting and the market are inseperable... and I'm a
proponent of it.
To the anon who can't make a connection
between the two: The idea is not as absurd
as you may think.
I think I'll buy me a Fox to hang across from my Dzama.
And Anon-- "market" for cave drawings?
Here's one you could probably afford:
http://z.about.com/d/painting/1/0/x/K/cc-svalentine4.jpg
I thought the cave drawing comment referenced the fact that true (honest)painters paint what they want (have) to paint. They paint to express themselves. What is important to them. Just as the cave dwellers were not painting for a market but to express themselves. If they are lucky and good they find their audience, while they are still alive. Some painters paint not for themselves but for the audience/market and get rich doing it but that does not last. The true art is that which is a true expresion of some genuine aspect of human intellect, emotion and shared experience, love,fear,beauty,despair. The discussion here was is alison fox a painter or painting for the market? I think she is a painter.
Is Alison Fox a painter?
mediocre.
how can alison fox have a 20 person waiting list for her paintings (from last year's new york magazine article, a quote of her gallery ATM), when at sikemma show every painting except one was available? has that waiting list been lost?
They're holding out.
I think you've stumbled onto something detective anonymous...
right on passeo. people only paint because there is a market. no money no paintee. cave man was a no talent religious nut. glad you set him strait. no more cave man discussion around here.
me paint horse
now
twenty horse wait list
people mushing around with twee triangles,try treeangles,talk about post art-jesus.
hey dummy. do you know how wait-lists work? it's a list of people who express interest in buying a work once they see the other works are sold. the dealer then offers to people on the list. if they pass, it gets offered to the next client. considering the show has been up since saturday, and the paintings are wet, I doubt the dealers would have had time to presell the works. you often see works from a first show selling quicker since there is no wait-list and the dealers can just sell to people who come in off the street, having the list slows things down since you have to wait for people to get offered and then move on to the next client if they passed.
plus, is selling or not selling a painting any kind of value judgment? my god, that crap across from Fox's was all sold out, and we won't even remember that artists name in a week (I've forgotten it today).
talk about your paleolithic discussion of wait-list. I like this painter no matter why she is painting and would buy if i could.
regarding waitlist.
if as anonymous explained is true, then all 20 of these people passed on these paintings.
hmmmm collectors passing on all these, strange?
I like the fact that this painter was able to stimulate such a wide rangeing discussion of her painting and painting itself. I would like it if I could do that. If people would look at a painting of mind and start to discuss and argue all night over whether I have a primordial urge to paint or if I am just directing my painting at a predetermied target audience in the current art market. Nobody talks about me and my paintings that way so this is cool. even yoda shows up here with references to the dark side and the battle with the art Empire.
I agree great posting and at times great conversation. about the best i've seen. there are some nut cases here but that just adds grit and a touch of reality to the discussion.
I thought passeo went off a bit on the poor cave man. I don't think he intended to exclude all other forms of expression, like music, poetry, dance and wood carving from the discussion of art. I think his point about some painters/artist being driven to paint/express themselves their way regardless of the current market for their work is a good one. If they are good at what they do their chances of finding others who like it or get it are good. The Johnny Cash movie makes that point very well. And of course caves with paintings sell for more than those without.
Thanks to those who tried to keep me from being dismembered by passeo while I was sleeping. At least we agree that Alison is a painter and a good one.
I don't agree to that.
how could 20 people pass on paintings in three days? any good dealer only offers a work to one person at a time, then if they pass they offer it to the next client. if you offer 10 people the same painting at the same time you end up in trouble.
Dear Passeo, Thank you very much. It is rare in the blogosphere to recieve a sincere apology. I agree to a large extent with Marshall McLuhan in Undertanding Media, that the media is the message. Which is to say whatever media we use to communicate changes the very content and character of the communication itself. In useing the cave drawings I was attempting to use a shorthand to convey that artistic expression at its best is essentially intuitive and spontaneous to the individual doing the creating. I believe this is true even in cave drawings regardless of the social environment. Michelangelo painted and sculpted for Popes but his interpretation of even dictated subject matter was still spontaneous and individual and the same was true of the cave painters. It is that individuality of interpretation and expression that makes it art. Anyway you did call me "naive and absurd" among other observations which I hope were misplaced because I was not describing the historical context of cave drawing but the individual human creative process. When all I was trying to say was I thought Alison Fox has some natural talent for painting and I think she needs to stick with it and on that we agree. And probably a lot more.
theodoro, What do you mean? Can you explain nada membership? How does a show that will be meaningless in a year relate to nada membership? I'm a new painter trying to understand the art business. They don't teach it in school. I'm learning a lot on this blog though. People talk about evrything here. Its a fun place.
Theodoro, is just mean. He is saying that about the nada membeship because Alison is married to someone involved in nada.
Oh! thanks. now I'm sorry I asked. feel dumb. glad to be anonymous sometimes. I'm trying to be more sophisticated at least in public if not on the blog. nice of you to clue me in though. I'm learning.
Well I mean I picked up on some of that attacking this painter because of who she is married to and i found it really offensive and would not want to be apart of it even by accident. I really like her work and went to see the show after seeing it on this blog. I loved the whole show and also think there has been a lot of good discussion about it here. So I came back to check out the new post.I liked the way this group show was put together with the Kara Walker solo.
Something like a folksy modernism here, with allusions to an archaic form of bourgeois liberalism thrown in for good measure. A wineglass wearing morning dress.
I didn't see this as any worse or better than anything else in chelsea.
i know that ic ould probably just google this, but where does alison fox show?
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