I love the colour. Especially the reflection in the water. I can't explain exactly why... I just do. The painting style really isn't my thing. It looks... kind of cobbled together I guess.
I think his paintings are lovely. This mythological boy-narrative is strangely compelling. There’s also something very touching about the slightly clumsy paint handling. Sort of a “Luncheon on the Grass” for gay teenage boys.
I think there is a lot more going on here. There is the echo of a Gainsborough landscape with the tension of subtle Dufresne like figures softly inserted. An intriging juxtuposition of form and styles carried off with real originality. This is fresh and draws you into the scene very gently. I like it and I have never seen this painter before.
shouldn't this be on black velvet? like really gay half man half horse black velvet by a finger painting monkey. or maybe not. no, actually probably. my poo has a better sense of tonality, why did this person even bother to wake up that day.
HB might actually want to do a Black Velvet painting--it could be a whole semi-ironic-tasteless-bathetic -glam thing that gay neo-expressionists are so often into.
"This mythological boy-narrative is strangely compelling."
yes, i agree, and i there are obviously classical allusions to be explored as well. the resemblance of the figure in purple to "bathing aphrodite" really highlights the prominence of the reflection in the water, don't you think?
Why is the "Miami thing" a big surprise? I get that you're being sarcastic and that you don't like HB's work, but you should clarify what that means w/r/t this particular painting...
Why is the "Miami thing" a big surprise? I get that you're being sarcastic and that you don't like HB's work, but you should clarify what that means w/r/t this particular painting...
it's a purple dressed man on a man-horse...with strangely perfect haircuts
i'm not scared of the man-horse, i just think it's dated and silly and a visually shallow expression, what does scare me is the thought that people view this in a gallery and while drinking wine find some deeper meaning that really doesn't seem to be there
I like the very woodsy aspect of this picture. It has qualities ( kind of magical) that fit in with the concept of forest as Other,the place where thingshappen outside the realm of normal daily life.
tension. it is all about the sense of tension, unease, anxiety and anticipation very softly done with nice historical references incorporated. clever and well done I say if you are not botherd by the light on the leg.
i went to school with this guy...total poser...no talent...makes me sad that people are spending so much time trying to figure out something that isn't there
Okay- I know everybody is making a big deal about the homoerotic stuff, whatever. But look at the figure in purple - what, anatomically, tells you that this is a man?
Sure, the upper arm is kind of developed, but the painting as a whole is far from precise, so I don't think that's necessarily indicative of gender.
Anon 9:44 - The man-horse symbolism is centered around the idea of Pegasus. It represents pure intellect, the unblemished, innocence, life and light, and is ridden by heroes.
Hernan Bas’s paintings explore the codes of dandyism and its subculture as a means to define sexual attraction. Bas’s paintings are small, frail and sensuously delightful; through their unassuming intimacy, they personify epic romance. Influence by historical painting, Hernan Bas’s images contemporaneity, their staginess and immediate familiarity suggest the melodramatic narratives of classic film. In Posing with Antlers, Hernan Bas paints a waif-like boy, flirtatiously hamming it up for snap shot laughs. Placing the viewer in the position of an unseen photographer, Bas sets a scene of predatory seduction.
The man-horse symbolism is centered around the idea of Pegasus. It represents pure intellect, the unblemished, innocence, life and light, and is ridden by heroes.
=shallow why not just paint a beautiful naked boy reflecting those traits if that's what he's after, oh yeah, talent
Heavily influenced by The Decadence period of literature, Hernan Bas’s paintings are inspired by well-worn pages of Wilde and Huysmans. “Why does homosexuality seem to make you pre-disposed to liking these things?” Bas questions. “As a result this work is tainted with Saint Sebastian martyr types, dying dandies and peacock feathers, all the materials that dictate a certain queer vocabulary." Hernan Bas’s style of painting emulates linguistic flourish. Impassioned brushwork and pastel hues bloom with poetic description; environments are set with the divine ambience of transience. Confined by fanciful etiquette, Hernan Bas’s figures allude to darker sentiments. Their posed innocence is but a thin veil of gentlemanly decorum.
This painting is amazing! Tense and creepy delivered with flourish and wit. The paint is handled in a pretty natural way, yet without any hints of being naive. It's like a laid-back mannerism tweaks the narrative with a bit of humor.
Might I ad that the pagan god Hern is the god of merchants, whos smell is sea salt, who's voice is that of clinking coins, whos mind is crowded like the marketplace.
A formal critique of this painting is beside the point.
It just looks like everything is made out of sheets of noisy black plastic,a la Fellinis "casanova" sea-if he tightens things up it could be a little more palatable,tress and all
I like it. I like the palette, very original. The theatricality is not really my thing - the figures (all fashion model-y) look pasted into a phony scene. But the saatchi bio actually makes sense in terms of what he is trying to say about "gayness". Kind of opposite of Picasso whose work is all about "straightness" (t&a, bullfights etc.) Which is why Bas' work is made stubbornly un-Modern. Does that approach initally shut out a lot of straight people? Maybe. But if they hang in there and try to understand where he's coming from, it might be somewhat rewarding. It's good to discuss this work in relation to Karen Heagle's too - a gay woman painter who just had a show at I-20.
Although it's naively executed the painting still exudes skill somehow, but not in the brushwork. It's so haphazard. I would have to see his work in person to comment further.
now this discussion seems to be going somewhere. this is a great blog sometimes but never in the morning. This painting is like what they used to say about Wagner's music. Better than it looks.
this painting.. in fact, most contemporary figurative painting, is really conservative. bound by tradition. unlike the truly groundbreaking paintings of today's neo-expressionists... free from all of history, except expressionism. those figures are way too drawn. less drawing and more painting. it's absurd that he would be looking at the ancients like goya and watteau. this makes the work old-fashioned and boring. if you are going to do something new.. you need to be copying revolutionary artists like immendorf, baseliz, dekooning, david park, and clemente. clearly, he is looking at the wrong books. this work has some nice mark making and paint smearing though. you can almost see his heart in this work.. if it did't have those stupid peoplecreatures standing there. and as i learned from my 70 year old professor, all great paintings look good upside-down. i am certain this would look horrible upside-down. it is way too bottom heavy. it just seems like he cares too much.. he's being too tentative. trying to appeal the market no doubt. real bohemian artists should give the finger to the market.. with painterly formalism. long live the strokes and the university of idaho painting department.
Formally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
Formally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
Formally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
I'm not sure I see the Karen Heagle connection--her work is observational post-Bay area stuff while Bas is more in a post-neo-expressionist version of a supple young-lad fashion fairyland.
I think Pasolini made much more of his passion for forbidden fairychild flesh and also made it so that it was accessible to anyone willing to think, rather than just to other people with the same proclivities.
annon 3:56 " free from all history post expresionism" would quickly beome very confining and conservative as you describe it. History is important to reinterpret and re-express and not simply ignore. There is no validity to a post-human history concept until there is no more human history. Until then history is is a vital part of humanity.
And clearly this guy is NOT "free from history" but simply uncritically taking what history gave him. the way kids who grow up hating who their parents hate aren't free from the past--they're slaves to it.
Exactly, I "hate" everything my parents "hated" just like you. I live only to "hate" the things my parents "hated" just like you.It is a lot of fun. And explains why I like this painter. Right!
i wonder what bas' work will look like in tenyears--will he actually change or will he, despitew a decades experience, still be "charmingly underskilled"
wade's show is paintings. i'm confounded by elizabeth peyton's appeal. no: i looked through her coffee table book, and realized that i really understood it for the first time -- it's about lust for fame. she cant draw or paint worth shit but the subjects do have glamor.
velasquez's surface is seductive, wangechi mutu's surface is seductive, but people who find hb seductive--i mean, do they also find piles of autumn mud seductive?
Do you folks really think Bas and Peyton "can't draw"? Have you ever applied paint to a canvas yourself? Maybe, perhaps, these 'painters' tend to let their technique of painting direct how the final outcome of the figure is represented... They're not just trying to fill in the picture as neatly or as accurately as possible! These things are INTENTIONAL. I guess that's what people mean by 'expressionism' in painting. It's a personal expression within paint handling that determines how the thing represented is interpreted. I wouldn't think that needed to be explained...
i contend thatElizabeth P can't draw--my evidence is that her drawings look EXACTLY like the drawings of people in every drawing 101 class since the mid-60s.
and even if that is onpurpose, it does make one wonder why anyone thinks they're unique--perhap just because collectors don;t now about 18year old artists
...and what is the point of 'learning to draw' better than a really talented 12th grader? Really? It doesn't make you a better artist. Just an artist that can replicate more realistically than certain other artists. I think if this was the goal of most artists, we would have a lot of finely tuned academic drawers as in Paris pre-salon des refuses, which would be just as boring as the art world now. I'm not a huge fan of what Peyton does, but she makes art the way she wants and a lot of people agree that they like it. Maybe about half like it for the wrong reasons, but about half actually really like her art. Same with Bas. You can say you don't like the work because you don't like painting or drawing that doesn't have realistic modeling. That's fair enough. But the argument that the work is 'bad' because the artist 'can't draw' is pretty 19th century.
anon 11:01 pm, YES peyton really CANT draw! this isnt about technical matters, i am not talking about drawing like ingres. she's just a bad draw-er in a modernist mode. the color, the lines, the composition, all indifferent, no risk taken, the actual seduction is entirely in the glamor of the subject matter. she uses drawing materials like they were make-up: prissy, the same every time, no risk whatsoever. just look at the way she draws people: they all look essentially alike. no character there. really weak work. what i am beginning to see in hernan bas, and why i'm talking about this here. the work is beginning to look generic, the figures all containing the same kind of charge everytime, i.e. they're starting to look logo-ish, all the same cute thin boys, all the same form of homoeroticism, a formula. he started out really interesting, inventive and juicy and full of wierd narrative. he's going downhill. it's getting glam. but not better. it's emptying out.
oh and my comment go double for anon 8:35 who i didnt see while i was writing this. this is not about the 19th century. it's about fresh vital drawing from now. and she isnt doing it. and neither is he. they're both sadly turning into mere fashion. sad because they're both really interesting. but as they get more famous and as noone asks for better work from them, and they are surrounded by admirers, the work is just weakening. look at the kippenberger drawings that were shown last year to see the opposite of this. those drawings, also by a famous artist, but not one who was just fashion, were genuinely sad, tragic, interesting. and not fussy. and not 19th c.
No one ever said where you can see Hernan Bas in the City. Does he have a show up? Does he have a gallery other than Saatchi? I would like to see his firery dreamlike strokes live with Passeo.
The comment that, although they allegedly can draw, EP and HB are failing to improve and keep making the same work points EXACTLY to the problem. If they could, in any real sense, draw, then each work would be a re-invention and a re-definition rewagrdless of issues of realism.
But they can't, and so each work is just a list of personality traits.
I read this entire post. good conversation about this artist. i enjoyed it. even some of the not so smart comments about ending history or ignoring it enirely.interesting blog i just found it this morning. good discussion of drawing and painting and art and this painter. thanks for puting this up. as a new ny painter, 3 months, it is helpful.
who cares if the figures 'look the same every time'. That means you're a 'bad' artist? What about Henry Darger? These types of qualifiers make no sense in terms of good and bad... and there's no timetable for reinvention. noone can really tell what fame and the temptation or money can do to an artist maybe unless you personally know them. Noone's really reinventing the wheel right now, so calm down. I thought Peyton's work in the '04 biennial looked really strong. Bas' work is shakier sometimes, but he's REALLY young. In like his mid-20's I think. Did you see any of Pollock's work from when he was 26? People grow up, get better, more consistent. I don't think Bas went backward in his current show... Why are some of you bloggers so quick to condemn? You're allowed to dislike something, but go see a lot of it, give it a chance. Or don't.
I think it matters if art looks the same over and over quite a bit. If you're going to see osmething you've seen before then there's no need to get out of bed and go see a showw-and that's what it's all about--Will it be worth it to get up and go look at these new things?
Well I want to go see some his painting live. It is not my style but I like the effect if not the technique. I think this was a very interesting discussion of his skill level and I want to see some of his earlier work and see what kind of progression i can detect and what all the criticism is about here.
Someone mentioned that the tree looks like an explosion. Someone else told me once that he thought trees were very, very slow explosions. I am sort of interested in this work as one of many examples of a contemporary Romantic or Symbolist approach. It is analogous to me with some of the work of Daniel Richter and Peter Doig, but really only on an immediate level. Some of the elements like the waterfall and the large tree on the right look like they could be just as happy anywhere in the composition.
I think Henry Darger's repetition makes it less interesting. He was in his own world (a very commendable place to be), but being schooled makes it different. I prefer it when artist's try to expand and learn with their work. I'm not criticizing this artist's work, I'm just talking in general. Darger was maybe making just one large artwork anyway. I want there to be intellectual engagement in artwork. Response to the world outside of the studio.
there are many ways to make art, all valid. go to school, don't go to school. change your style, don't change your style. I'm glad there's a range to look at and discuss. This artist makes me think of Belle & Sebastian... fey and mannered, like high school drama club. I think the painting technique is very much his own, he owns it, whether you like it or not...
about the drawing in this painting...is draftsmanship really more important than making a compelling painting? i think drawing is just a skill that can be used to make a painting, and it can either be used or not. a lot of contemporary art i've seen does away with drawing on purpose. being a good draftsman and being a good artist (painter) are two different things.
there does not have to be much drawing underneath a painting-- but if there's drawing in it, it should be"good"--whatever that means-- there is drawing in this painting and it is not good
Belle and Sebastian? Druids listen to Slayer, or at least I hope they do. I keep my bible in a pool of blood so none of its lies can affect me. Or is that effect.
Customers who like this will also want to purchase the Dead Poets society CD, featuring Adagio in D Minor on Glass Harmonica. Oh captain my captain.
i'd be able to take this picture much more seriously if it wern't so fussy--by expressionist standards--i mean, it doesn't stumble and search for it's subject--it was obviously all sketched out in advance and then filled in "roughly"
Where's Terabithia, and why do you need a bridge to get there?
What do Jess and Leslie have in common? What traits of their friendship do you admire and try to have in your own relationships? By the title alone, we know that Bridge to Terabithia will involve some type of bridge. But in this book the bridge isn't just physical. The bridge that Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke (the main characters) need to cross isn't only about geography.
They also take an emotional journey together. In this way, they cross a bridge from one place in their lives to another. Through their friendship and the bond they share, each character learns and grows.
Symbolic Bridges Relating this emotional growth to a bridge is called symbolism. Jesse and Leslie use their special friendship and their imaginations to cross the obstacle of being different.
critics who write about this guy seem to think there's something "sinister" about the poiunt of view in this work--but nobody on the blog seems to think so--including me.
if this is from the 'dandies pansies and prudes show' there was something sinister about the work and the crowd at the opening. the card is awesome and the size and dimensions of a page in artforum who made a point of signing the book huge.
Book Description "Musil belongs in the company of Joyce, Proust, and Kafka." (The New Republic)
Like his contemporary and rival Sigmund Freud, Robert Musil boldly explored the dark, irrational undercurrents of humanity. The Confusions of Young Törless, published in 1906 while he was a student, uncovers the bullying, snobbery, and vicious homoerotic violence at an elite boys academy. Unsparingly honest in its depiction of the author's tangled feelings about his mother, other women, and male bonding, it also vividly illustrates the crisis of a whole society, where the breakdown of traditional values and the cult of pitiless masculine strength were soon to lead to the cataclysm of the First World War and the rise of fascism. A century later, Musil's first novel still retains its shocking, prophetic power.
About the Author Robert Musil (1880-1942) was born in Austria and served in the Austrian army during World War I, after which he worked as a civil servant as well as a writer and journalist. He is best known for his monumental unfinished novel, The Man Without Qualities.
After going to galleries this week and seeing a number of paintings recently discussed on the blog--Essenheigh, Charlotta Westergren, Alison Fox, Miko, Nozkowski, etc, my original impressions from the jpgs did not necessarily hold true. Inka I didn't think was that interesting when discussed but thought the show was badass in person, for example. Miko was more interesting but Nozkowski dissappointed. Fox and Westergren were as snoozy as I had thought. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
I think there is something sinister about these paintings and it's connected to some of the other issues discussed so far--the lack of drawing, the hasty painting, the fussiness, etc--for me, the sinister quality comes from the feeling that the entire allegory was slapped together in painting form as a sort of ruse whose main purpose was just to get across these two naked little boys. like one of those bodegas that's actually a drug front. it seems like the artist is almost intentionally making a comment on how the veil of high culture is used--in this case with intentionally ridiculously academic references--to convey pictures of cute boys to aging homosexual collectors.
Whatever you want to say about the technique, the bird-chested emo-boy as centaur is an interesting image. His indifference to the boy in the flowing (unfurling?) mauve sarong takes this beyond the scope of just another pomo queer stunt. His one visible hand even appears to be groping for a pocket to slip into.
directing peoples' attention to one of those roaming-art-opening-photographer photos of the artist is the cheapest shot imaginable. nobody deserves that.
i think one of the most pomo things about this picture is that, unlike historical centaur pictures, these kids actually seem to be aware of the presence of a photographer off screen. old portraits had the subject aware of the viewer, but never mythological ones.
fine any picture. i don't see that as a 'cheap shot' did you put it next to the 'guy' lets just call him (Hernan Bas for now) in the front of that painting? there are distinct similarities.
I've got a secret. I get stoned. I'm watching what lies beneath and it put me in a confessional mood. I ate spaghetti from the pot - one pot cooking, its a total rush. There, I've said it.
These remind me of glass plate animation where you sort of smear the pigment around frame by frame.
Hernan you there? Do it. Or don't. Maybe I will. It will be straight het porn though.
ERNEST But what are the two supreme and highest arts? GILBERT Life and Literature, life and the perfect expression of life. The principles of the former, as laid down by the Greeks, we may not realise in an age so marred by false ideals as our own. The principles of the latter, as they laid them down, are, in many cases, so subtle that we can hardly understand them. Recognising that the most perfect art is that which most fully mirror
Truth and Beauty are the true objects of art, and of human history and destiny. They are the same thing and the sigular quest of human intelect and existance and therefore art which is after all only individual expression of our experience and aspriration. When we find truth we find beauty.
I think the queer is a little harsh on Bas. I would say explore. And I like his approach and process but I am not gay so may miss the point of resentment. But I do think Bas is effective at getting a discussion going on the issue even if he can't draw. So maybe el Greco is right. He could not draw either but he could converse.
Ronald Tavel wrote the scenario for Horse. It starred Larry Latreille, Gregory Battcock, Daniel Cassidy, Jr, with short non-speaking appearances by Warhol, Ondine and Edie Sedgwick - her first appearance in a Warhol film.
sucks, brokeback mountain, gay people at zoos. The sad thing is that Bas seems to really be trying to break these vantage points apart. His subjectivity is sentimental and carries most of the success of this painting. Formally: I must say that when I saw his work for the first time at a previous biennial I thought " oh great, peyton is finally making better paintings" I am not kidding, I honestly thought she had made his work. That said, I feel like the way Bas paints is not inventive enough. He pulls imagery from fashion magazines, it is obvious. And homoeroticism is rampant in fashion mags. So then I result in thinking about this act as a performative gesture. Content: That brings me to bas as a performative painter. Just as Kippenberger had nothing to do with commodity object making, in that all his work stemmed from a place of the performative, Bas's work makes you think of dandyism and the fag in modern day painting. Now is this enough to build an entire career off of? Perhaps not, but hopefully he will find other more challenging themes to delve into, ones that are perhaps not so self reflexive.
Brokeback? I do not think "gay" when I see this painting. In fact, prior to this blog I knew nothing about the artist. Does that matter? It doesnt' seem contrived, fashionable or sexy at all to me. Just akward, confusing and unspecific like adolescence.
These are really really really really bad paintings. What about that Holland Cotter review of this show? He actually stuck up for this guy! "Gay is a much bigger catagory than artist" !!!!?????
What does that mean? Just because someone is gay that gives them the right to claim 7 column inched in the NYTs with thier crappy crappy crappy art?
I've liked Holland Cotter in the past but that review may forever taint his critical opinion. Another writer once remarked to me "Oh Holland, his got such an agenda." I didn't thnk about it much, but now I will. Too bad too, Smith and Johnson need some better company.
But back to Bas. This guy makes Elizabeth Peyton look good!
Sloppy sloppy but always tight enough to seem like product. Like a Bob Ross impressionist painting.
ReplyDeletenail
ReplyDeletehead
lovely
ReplyDeleteI love the colour. Especially the reflection in the water. I can't explain exactly why... I just do. The painting style really isn't my thing. It looks... kind of cobbled together I guess.
ReplyDeleteLike El Greco's conservative, tradition-bound student
ReplyDelete" Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteLike El Greco's conservative, tradition-bound student "
Nothing new, nothing exciting eh?
Well, it's a matter of public record that there are a lot of americans who find "conservative" and "tradition-bound" REALLY exciting adjectives.
ReplyDeleteBut not this one.
Conservative? I don't know... a man in a dress riding another man...
ReplyDeleteThe style not the subject.
ReplyDeleteLog-cabin expressionism.
I think his paintings are lovely.
ReplyDeleteThis mythological boy-narrative is strangely compelling. There’s also something very touching about the slightly clumsy paint handling. Sort of a “Luncheon on the Grass” for gay teenage boys.
I am so sick of the "I-can't-make-a-painting-look-good-and-therefore-my-touch-has-pathos" trend.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lot more going on here. There is the echo of a Gainsborough landscape with the tension of subtle Dufresne like figures softly inserted. An intriging juxtuposition of form and styles carried off with real originality. This is fresh and draws you into the scene very gently. I like it and I have never seen this painter before.
ReplyDeleteI love the narrative in his work as well. I also think they are refreshingly gentle.
ReplyDeletethe colors remind me of tupperware from the 70's
ReplyDeletei just can't figure out why the ground under the front legs is glowing
Someone who likes your work saying it "Pulls you into the scene very gently" is the most powerful condemnation I can imagine.
ReplyDeleteshouldn't this be on black velvet? like really gay half man half horse black velvet by a finger painting monkey. or maybe not. no, actually probably. my poo has a better sense of tonality, why did this person even bother to wake up that day.
ReplyDeletethe glowing under the front legs is probably due to the same light source causing the left half of the tree to be in shadow.
ReplyDeletein fact, it seems likely that Bas or his assistant used photos of posed models with a strong light source as a reference
Could someone please post a little biographical information about this artist? I'm curious about Bas' prior work because I like this piece a lot...
ReplyDeleteHB might actually want to do a Black Velvet painting--it could be a whole semi-ironic-tasteless-bathetic -glam thing that gay neo-expressionists are so often into.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason...
http://snitzer.com/artistrepresented/bas.html
ReplyDelete1978 Born in Miami, USA
ReplyDelete1995 New World School of Arts, Miami, FL
Currently lives and works in Miami, Florida
Big surprise there.
"This mythological boy-narrative is strangely compelling."
ReplyDeleteyes, i agree, and i there are obviously classical allusions to be explored as well. the resemblance of the figure in purple to "bathing aphrodite" really highlights the prominence of the reflection in the water, don't you think?
I thought this blog was for NY Painters?
ReplyDeleteSo...it alludes to things that don't bite...yet it still bites...fascinating
ReplyDeleteWell he shows enoguh in NY. Whatever, he's here now, we might as well talk about his alluding-expressioning, seduction-narrative-implying ass.
ReplyDeleteto anonymous 9:01-
ReplyDeleteWhy is the "Miami thing" a big surprise? I get that you're being sarcastic and that you don't like HB's work, but you should clarify what that means w/r/t this particular painting...
He also has a place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and is part of the NY scene. He has a show up right now in NYC.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the Miami thing was some sort of vaguely homophobic remark
ReplyDeleteseriously. it's a guy in a purple dress riding a man-horse....
ReplyDeleteYou have to admit though that the horse-man has a great expression on his face - kind of bored? disaffected? - centers the composition
ReplyDeleteno, i think that the real anchor, expression-wise, is the figure behind him, the painting is clearly about the purple-dress guy
ReplyDeletehe's the one who looks like he has something on his mind
I AM SEEING LEOPARDS IN THE TREE!
ReplyDeleteNo - peacocks! I kind of dig how the trunks look like swinging tails.
Why is the "Miami thing" a big surprise? I get that you're being sarcastic and that you don't like HB's work, but you should clarify what that means w/r/t this particular painting...
ReplyDeleteit's a purple dressed man on a man-horse...with strangely perfect haircuts
I also sense homophobia which is surprising and disappointing. There's a lot of hate on this blog.
ReplyDeletethe color scheme makes my skin crawl - so chintzy
ReplyDeletethe whole thing seems so imbalanced
Yeah we dont need to go into homophobia here. what can be discussed about the painting itself without going into attacks and heresay
ReplyDeletethe man-horse looks like stephen malkmus and the other guy looks like eminem
ReplyDeletecoincidence? i think not
i'm not scared of the man-horse, i just think it's dated and silly and a visually shallow expression,
ReplyDeletewhat does scare me is the thought that people view this in a gallery and while drinking wine find some deeper meaning that really doesn't seem to be there
I like the very woodsy aspect of this picture. It has qualities ( kind of magical) that fit in with the concept of forest as Other,the place where thingshappen outside the realm of normal daily life.
ReplyDeletethis painting is GAY
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:27
ReplyDeleteThey probably served beer at this opening.
why is the man-horse a "visually shallow expression"?
ReplyDeletejust because Bas paints symbolism you don't care enough to take the time to understand doesn't make him "shallow"
tension. it is all about the sense of tension, unease, anxiety and anticipation very softly done with nice historical references incorporated. clever and well done I say if you are not botherd by the light on the leg.
ReplyDeleteanon 9:32
ReplyDeleteyeah, shitty beer :)
to anon 9:34-
ReplyDeletewhat are the historical references you're getting? i agree with your comment about the tension
very nice, subtle
I'm wondering - what is the signficance of the waterfall in the background? Is this a symbolic thing?
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember something about waterfalls from Jung...
um, what is the big deal here? this picture is sooooo boring.
ReplyDeleteplease, tell me about the depth in the man-horse symbolism
ReplyDeleteit's not that it's boring
ReplyDeleteit's that it sucks
why is he wearing a wreath? is it like a crown or something?
ReplyDeletei went to school with this guy...total poser...no talent...makes me sad that people are spending so much time trying to figure out something that isn't there
ReplyDeletei'm still waiting to hear about man-horse symbolism
ReplyDeleteOkay- I know everybody is making a big deal about the homoerotic stuff, whatever. But look at the figure in purple - what, anatomically, tells you that this is a man?
ReplyDeleteSure, the upper arm is kind of developed, but the painting as a whole is far from precise, so I don't think that's necessarily indicative of gender.
The only thing is the haircut.
he's just playing weird games with normal cards
ReplyDeleteInteresting commentary on Man's bestial nature - but to what end?
ReplyDeleteI feel like the scenery is superfluous.
BORED BORED BORED BORED
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:44 -
ReplyDeleteThe man-horse symbolism is centered around the idea of Pegasus. It represents pure intellect, the unblemished, innocence, life and light, and is ridden by heroes.
okay, but is the rider supposed to be "heroic" then?
ReplyDeleteNo, I think that the point is to blur the line between heroism and dandyism
ReplyDeleteI want to go back to the idea that the rider is intentionally androgynous
ReplyDeleteanon 942-
ReplyDeleteWreaths
circular - everlasting life, circle of family, God's unending love
on the door - Welcome
evergreen - Eternal life in Christ
Hernan Bas’s paintings explore the codes of dandyism and its subculture as a means to define sexual attraction. Bas’s paintings are small, frail and sensuously delightful; through their unassuming intimacy, they personify epic romance. Influence by historical painting, Hernan Bas’s images contemporaneity, their staginess and immediate familiarity suggest the melodramatic narratives of classic film. In Posing with Antlers, Hernan Bas paints a waif-like boy, flirtatiously hamming it up for snap shot laughs. Placing the viewer in the position of an unseen photographer, Bas sets a scene of predatory seduction.
ReplyDelete"immediate familiarity"? WTF?
ReplyDeleteThe man-horse symbolism is centered around the idea of Pegasus. It represents pure intellect, the unblemished, innocence, life and light, and is ridden by heroes.
ReplyDelete=shallow
why not just paint a beautiful naked boy reflecting those traits if that's what he's after, oh yeah, talent
Heavily influenced by The Decadence period of literature, Hernan Bas’s paintings are inspired by well-worn pages of Wilde and Huysmans. “Why does homosexuality seem to make you pre-disposed to liking these things?” Bas questions. “As a result this work is tainted with Saint Sebastian martyr types, dying dandies and peacock feathers, all the materials that dictate a certain queer vocabulary." Hernan Bas’s style of painting emulates linguistic flourish. Impassioned brushwork and pastel hues bloom with poetic description; environments are set with the divine ambience of transience. Confined by fanciful etiquette, Hernan Bas’s figures allude to darker sentiments. Their posed innocence is but a thin veil of gentlemanly decorum.
ReplyDeleteIn The Hero Centaur, Hernan Bas composes his painting with acute sensitivity. His rich palette flames with dreamy brushstrokes, forms swell and recede with controlled eroticism. Mythology bridges the gap between children’s fantasy and adult sophistication, adventure stories enmeshed in wanton intrigue and violent plots. Hernan Bas situates his characters amidst the turbulence of adolescence. Their sexuality has an aura of naiveté, an awkward expedition into the enchanted and unknown. Hernan Bas’s paintings are never explicit. Rather his romanticised scenes exist as metaphors for emotional flux. Wavering between virginal trepidation and gushy infatuation, they capture precise moments of seasonal youth.
ReplyDeletethis is one of my favorites right now, people rail against it becaues they're jealous of someone with real talent
ReplyDeletewhy can't you people just admit that it's enough for a painting ot look good
ReplyDeleteWow! Saatchi you can write!
ReplyDeletewhere is his show in NYC?
ReplyDeletethat only works if the painting looks good
ReplyDeletesophisticated content, adolescent technique
ReplyDeleteWhy have I not heard anything about Hernan Bas before this?
ReplyDeletethis is way too contrasty
ReplyDeleteI think you need to see his work in person to appreciate it
ReplyDeleteno thanks
ReplyDeletethis is just sad, all of it
ReplyDeleteThis painting is amazing! Tense and creepy delivered with flourish and wit. The paint is handled in a pretty natural way, yet without any hints of being naive. It's like a laid-back mannerism tweaks the narrative with a bit of humor.
ReplyDeleteanon, I love it when you say "this is way too contrasty , it's so pithy.
ReplyDeleteck, best critque yet. right on
ReplyDeleteSaatchi,"flames with dreamy brushstrokes"? Can a flame dream? Can you take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?
ReplyDeleteall the substances ,except the bodies,seem to have the same weight and density-he likes bodies-why does he bother with trees?
ReplyDeleteMight I ad that the pagan god Hern is the god of merchants, whos smell is sea salt, who's voice is that of clinking coins, whos mind is crowded like the marketplace.
ReplyDeleteA formal critique of this painting is beside the point.
ecu, I think the trees are for romance although you are right this would be interesting with the figures against a flat color surface a la alex katz.
ReplyDeletebut then it would be your painting annon 12:44 and not Bas's
ReplyDeleteIt just looks like everything is made out of sheets of noisy black plastic,a la Fellinis "casanova" sea-if he tightens things up it could be a little more palatable,tress and all
ReplyDelete"the woods are lovely,dark and deep."
ReplyDeleteI like it. I like the palette, very original. The theatricality is not really my thing - the figures (all fashion model-y) look pasted into a phony scene. But the saatchi bio actually makes sense in terms of what he is trying to say about "gayness". Kind of opposite of Picasso whose work is all about "straightness" (t&a, bullfights etc.) Which is why Bas' work is made stubbornly un-Modern. Does that approach initally shut out a lot of straight people? Maybe. But if they hang in there and try to understand where he's coming from, it might be somewhat rewarding. It's good to discuss this work in relation to Karen Heagle's too - a gay woman painter who just had a show at I-20.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's naively executed the painting still exudes skill somehow, but not in the brushwork. It's so haphazard. I would have to see his work in person to comment further.
ReplyDeletenow this discussion seems to be going somewhere. this is a great blog sometimes but never in the morning. This painting is like what they used to say about Wagner's music. Better than it looks.
ReplyDeletethis painting.. in fact, most contemporary figurative painting, is really conservative. bound by tradition. unlike the truly groundbreaking paintings of today's neo-expressionists... free from all of history, except expressionism. those figures are way too drawn. less drawing and more painting. it's absurd that he would be looking at the ancients like goya and watteau. this makes the work old-fashioned and boring. if you are going to do something new.. you need to be copying revolutionary artists like immendorf, baseliz, dekooning, david park, and clemente. clearly, he is looking at the wrong books. this work has some nice mark making and paint smearing though. you can almost see his heart in this work.. if it did't have those stupid peoplecreatures standing there. and as i learned from my 70 year old professor, all great paintings look good upside-down. i am certain this would look horrible upside-down. it is way too bottom heavy. it just seems like he cares too much.. he's being too tentative. trying to appeal the market no doubt. real bohemian artists should give the finger to the market.. with painterly formalism. long live the strokes and the university of idaho painting department.
ReplyDeleteidaho, that is where i went finally getting recognized
ReplyDeleteWHAT?
ReplyDeleteDid you read any of the previous comments, anonymous?
Yeah, Anon, let's rehash the 80's we can truly call ourselves bohemian revolutionaries. Whatever.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking....Brokeback Mountain!
ReplyDeleteFormally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
ReplyDeleteFormally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
ReplyDeleteFormally, this work is very self-referential. The subject matter begets the style/handling/color begets the subject matter. Why fuss it towards a more standard treatment? This is self-contained ...the language is individual, original, and fluent. I wish I were verbalising this better, because it is so important to meaningful expression....expression....expression....such a dirty little art term.
ReplyDeleteI do apologize for the triplicate.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I see the Karen Heagle connection--her work is observational post-Bay area stuff while Bas is more in a post-neo-expressionist version of a supple young-lad fashion fairyland.
ReplyDeleteI think Pasolini made much more of his passion for forbidden fairychild flesh and also made it so that it was accessible to anyone willing to think, rather than just to other people with the same proclivities.
Yeah! like Brokeback Mountain!
ReplyDeleteannon 3:56 " free from all history post expresionism" would quickly beome very confining and conservative as you describe it. History is important to reinterpret and re-express and not simply ignore. There is no validity to a post-human history concept until there is no more human history. Until then history is is a vital part of humanity.
ReplyDeleteAnd clearly this guy is NOT "free from history" but simply uncritically taking what history gave him. the way kids who grow up hating who their parents hate aren't free from the past--they're slaves to it.
ReplyDeleteExactly, I "hate" everything my parents "hated" just like you. I live only to "hate" the things my parents "hated" just like you.It is a lot of fun. And explains why I like this painter. Right!
ReplyDeletemy parents hated neo-expersionist also. it made it hard growing up. but now i just do what i want.
ReplyDeleteso, in full possession of your existential choice-palette, what do you think of this guy?
ReplyDeleteI like him. Figurines, forest and all.
ReplyDeleteAren't we all just slaves to our parents hates. Damn parents. Damn history. Damn figurative artist that went Idaho to study painting.
ReplyDeletei wonder what bas' work will look like in tenyears--will he actually change or will he, despitew a decades experience, still be "charmingly underskilled"
ReplyDeleteor will he find some charmingly underskilled assistants?
ReplyDeleteThis is a talented artist. Getting better. Buy now and hold!
ReplyDeletehb is just eliz peyton gay-man-style plus daniel-reich-slacker-style plus cant-really-paint-so-uses-popular-idea-of-"illustration"
ReplyDeletehey painter, there are a lot of good shows up now: judith eisler, kelley walker, wade guyton, charline von heyl, can we talk about those?
ReplyDeletesome people like elizabeth peyton
ReplyDeletei'm not sure who they are, or why, but they do...
isn't wade v a sculptuor?
ReplyDeletewade's show is paintings.
ReplyDeletei'm confounded by elizabeth peyton's appeal. no: i looked through her coffee table book, and realized that i really understood it for the first time -- it's about lust for fame. she cant draw or paint worth shit but the subjects do have glamor.
is that supposed to be a defense of her?
ReplyDeleteon the subject of hernan bas:
ReplyDeleteThese are--maybe--allegorical paintings.
Dave Hickey said once that pastoral allegory was often a vehicle for deeply unpopular political ideas.
Is homosexuality--in the context of the art world and the collectors of art--anything other than a deeply POPULAR political idea?
sewductive?
ReplyDeletevelasquez's surface is seductive, wangechi mutu's surface is seductive, but people who find hb seductive--i mean, do they also find piles of autumn mud seductive?
you can't be seductive to a fault. franz hals was the world's first dime-store billboard painter and i'm stunned that anyone likes his surface.
ReplyDeletebut there you go i guess--people who like mud like hb
ok, so then from here:
ReplyDeleteif you like billboard painting do you like kehinde w?
and if you like mud do you like baselitz kiefer schnabel?
i really didn't mean to be huffy, i was just honestly wondering about the connection of one kind of taste to another
ReplyDeleteDo you folks really think Bas and Peyton "can't draw"? Have you ever applied paint to a canvas yourself? Maybe, perhaps, these 'painters' tend to let their technique of painting direct how the final outcome of the figure is represented...
ReplyDeleteThey're not just trying to fill in the picture as neatly or as accurately as possible! These things are INTENTIONAL. I guess that's what people mean by 'expressionism' in painting. It's a personal expression within paint handling that determines how the thing represented is interpreted. I wouldn't think that needed to be explained...
i contend thatElizabeth P can't draw--my evidence is that her drawings look EXACTLY like the drawings of people in every drawing 101 class since the mid-60s.
ReplyDeleteand even if that is onpurpose, it does make one wonder why anyone thinks they're unique--perhap just because collectors don;t now about 18year old artists
ReplyDeleteSo--honest question--why not just look at actual 12th grader drawings?--they're cheaper, more various, and more plentiful.
ReplyDeletebut, for you, i mean, not for the market--do you like them?
ReplyDeletepaintings should work as paintings
ReplyDelete...and what is the point of 'learning to draw' better than a really talented 12th grader? Really? It doesn't make you a better artist. Just an artist that can replicate more realistically than certain other artists. I think if this was the goal of most artists, we would have a lot of finely tuned academic drawers as in Paris pre-salon des refuses, which would be just as boring as the art world now. I'm not a huge fan of what Peyton does, but she makes art the way she wants and a lot of people agree that they like it. Maybe about half like it for the wrong reasons, but about half actually really like her art. Same with Bas. You can say you don't like the work because you don't like painting or drawing that doesn't have realistic modeling. That's fair enough. But the argument that the work is 'bad' because the artist 'can't draw' is pretty 19th century.
ReplyDeleteanon 11:01 pm, YES peyton really CANT draw! this isnt about technical matters, i am not talking about drawing like ingres. she's just a bad draw-er in a modernist mode. the color, the lines, the composition, all indifferent, no risk taken, the actual seduction is entirely in the glamor of the subject matter. she uses drawing materials like they were make-up: prissy, the same every time, no risk whatsoever. just look at the way she draws people: they all look essentially alike. no character there. really weak work.
ReplyDeletewhat i am beginning to see in hernan bas, and why i'm talking about this here. the work is beginning to look generic, the figures all containing the same kind of charge everytime, i.e. they're starting to look logo-ish, all the same cute thin boys, all the same form of homoeroticism, a formula. he started out really interesting, inventive and juicy and full of wierd narrative. he's going downhill. it's getting glam. but not better. it's emptying out.
oh and my comment go double for anon 8:35 who i didnt see while i was writing this.
ReplyDeletethis is not about the 19th century. it's about fresh vital drawing from now. and she isnt doing it. and neither is he. they're both sadly turning into mere fashion. sad because they're both really interesting. but as they get more famous and as noone asks for better work from them, and they are surrounded by admirers, the work is just weakening. look at the kippenberger drawings that were shown last year to see the opposite of this. those drawings, also by a famous artist, but not one who was just fashion, were genuinely sad, tragic, interesting. and not fussy. and not 19th c.
No one ever said where you can see Hernan Bas in the City. Does he have a show up? Does he have a gallery other than Saatchi? I would like to see his firery dreamlike strokes live with Passeo.
ReplyDeletehis show is at daniel reich on 23rd
ReplyDeleteThe comment that, although they allegedly can draw, EP and HB are failing to improve and keep making the same work points EXACTLY to the problem. If they could, in any real sense, draw, then each work would be a re-invention and a re-definition rewagrdless of issues of realism.
ReplyDeleteBut they can't, and so each work is just a list of personality traits.
precisely!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI read this entire post. good conversation about this artist. i enjoyed it. even some of the not so smart comments about ending history or ignoring it enirely.interesting blog i just found it this morning. good discussion of drawing and painting and art and this painter. thanks for puting this up. as a new ny painter, 3 months, it is helpful.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do you think of Hernan Bas, new guy?
ReplyDeletewho cares if the figures 'look the same every time'. That means you're a 'bad' artist? What about Henry Darger? These types of qualifiers make no sense in terms of good and bad...
ReplyDeleteand there's no timetable for reinvention. noone can really tell what fame and the temptation or money can do to an artist maybe unless you personally know them. Noone's really reinventing the wheel right now, so calm down.
I thought Peyton's work in the '04 biennial looked really strong. Bas' work is shakier sometimes, but he's REALLY young. In like his mid-20's I think. Did you see any of Pollock's work from when he was 26? People grow up, get better, more consistent. I don't think Bas went backward in his current show...
Why are some of you bloggers so quick to condemn? You're allowed to dislike something, but go see a lot of it, give it a chance. Or don't.
I think it matters if art looks the same over and over quite a bit. If you're going to see osmething you've seen before then there's no need to get out of bed and go see a showw-and that's what it's all about--Will it be worth it to get up and go look at these new things?
ReplyDeleteWell I want to go see some his painting live. It is not my style but I like the effect if not the technique. I think this was a very interesting discussion of his skill level and I want to see some of his earlier work and see what kind of progression i can detect and what all the criticism is about here.
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned that the tree looks like an explosion. Someone else told me once that he thought trees were very, very slow explosions. I am sort of interested in this work as one of many examples of a contemporary Romantic or Symbolist approach. It is analogous to me with some of the work of Daniel Richter and Peter Doig, but really only on an immediate level. Some of the elements like the waterfall and the large tree on the right look like they could be just as happy anywhere in the composition.
ReplyDeleteI think Henry Darger's repetition makes it less interesting. He was in his own world (a very commendable place to be), but being schooled makes it different. I prefer it when artist's try to expand and learn with their work. I'm not criticizing this artist's work, I'm just talking in general. Darger was maybe making just one large artwork anyway. I want there to be intellectual engagement in artwork. Response to the world outside of the studio.
ReplyDeletekids,this has been exhausting,but so thoughtful(really)i give you all an a for this reasonably civilised and interesting discussion-vai numas,turma
ReplyDeleteThe trees have a celtic, drid feel to them. the pre-roman celts of gaul had avery elaborate tree worship religion which Julis caesar destroyed.
ReplyDeletethere are many ways to make art, all valid. go to school, don't go to school. change your style, don't change your style. I'm glad there's a range to look at and discuss.
ReplyDeleteThis artist makes me think of Belle & Sebastian... fey and mannered, like high school drama club. I think the painting technique is very much his own, he owns it, whether you like it or not...
if he owns it it's only because it was willed to him by about a hundred '80s expressionists
ReplyDeleteYes! History trumps neo-expresionist nihilism.
ReplyDeleteaccording to this thread, then, the Amazon.com solicitation for Hernan Bas' monograph would read:
ReplyDelete"Hernan Bas:Recommended if you like mud and Belle and Sebastian."
Nihilism's way more fun than a high-school drama club.
ReplyDeleteI love the fall, I love mud and I love Belle and Sebastian and I love these paintings.
ReplyDeleteThis Centuar would not be allowed to march in the NYC St Patrick's Day parade for you Celtic tree worshiping Durids. That is for sure.
ReplyDeleteabout the drawing in this painting...is draftsmanship really more important than making a compelling painting? i think drawing is just a skill that can be used to make a painting, and it can either be used or not. a lot of contemporary art i've seen does away with drawing on purpose. being a good draftsman and being a good artist (painter) are two different things.
ReplyDeletethere does not have to be much drawing underneath a painting-- but if there's drawing in it, it should be"good"--whatever that means--
ReplyDeletethere is drawing in this painting and it is not good
Belle and Sebastian? Druids listen to Slayer, or at least I hope they do. I keep my bible in a pool of blood so none of its lies can affect me. Or is that effect.
ReplyDeleteCustomers who like this will also want to purchase the Dead Poets society CD, featuring Adagio in D Minor on Glass Harmonica. Oh captain my captain.
The green man cometh. GO Narnia!
yeah...anyway...
ReplyDeletei'd be able to take this picture much more seriously if it wern't so fussy--by expressionist standards--i mean, it doesn't stumble and search for it's subject--it was obviously all sketched out in advance and then filled in "roughly"
ReplyDeleteA separate Peace?
ReplyDeleteYoung Tourless?
Terebithia!
Where's Terabithia, and why do you need a bridge to get there?
What do Jess and Leslie have in common? What traits of their friendship do you admire and try to have in your own relationships?
By the title alone, we know that Bridge to Terabithia will involve some type of bridge. But in this book the bridge isn't just physical. The bridge that Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke (the main characters) need to cross isn't only about geography.
They also take an emotional journey together. In this way, they cross a bridge from one place in their lives to another. Through their friendship and the bond they share, each character learns and grows.
Symbolic Bridges
Relating this emotional growth to a bridge is called symbolism. Jesse and Leslie use their special friendship and their imaginations to cross the obstacle of being different.
Thank you for that zip. That was special.
ReplyDeletecritics who write about this guy seem to think there's something "sinister" about the poiunt of view in this work--but nobody on the blog seems to think so--including me.
ReplyDeleteif this is from the 'dandies pansies and prudes show' there was something sinister about the work and the crowd at the opening. the card is awesome and the size and dimensions of a page in artforum who made a point of signing the book huge.
ReplyDeleteif you're feeling sinister.
ReplyDeletego off and see a minister.
so the work attracts sinister people?
ReplyDeleteBook Description
ReplyDelete"Musil belongs in the company of Joyce, Proust, and Kafka." (The New Republic)
Like his contemporary and rival Sigmund Freud, Robert Musil boldly explored the dark, irrational undercurrents of humanity. The Confusions of Young Törless, published in 1906 while he was a student, uncovers the bullying, snobbery, and vicious homoerotic violence at an elite boys academy. Unsparingly honest in its depiction of the author's tangled feelings about his mother, other women, and male bonding, it also vividly illustrates the crisis of a whole society, where the breakdown of traditional values and the cult of pitiless masculine strength were soon to lead to the cataclysm of the First World War and the rise of fascism. A century later, Musil's first novel still retains its shocking, prophetic power.
About the Author
Robert Musil (1880-1942) was born in Austria and served in the Austrian army during World War I, after which he worked as a civil servant as well as a writer and journalist. He is best known for his monumental unfinished novel, The Man Without Qualities.
After going to galleries this week and seeing a number of paintings recently discussed on the blog--Essenheigh, Charlotta Westergren, Alison Fox, Miko, Nozkowski, etc, my original impressions from the jpgs did not necessarily hold true. Inka I didn't think was that interesting when discussed but thought the show was badass in person, for example. Miko was more interesting but Nozkowski dissappointed. Fox and Westergren were as snoozy as I had thought. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
ReplyDeletelike sharks to the prey.
ReplyDelete"let's rehash the 80's we can truly call ourselves bohemian revolutionaries."
thats hot. it is all a matter of taste.
I think there is something sinister about these paintings and it's connected to some of the other issues discussed so far--the lack of drawing, the hasty painting, the fussiness, etc--for me, the sinister quality comes from the feeling that the entire allegory was slapped together in painting form as a sort of ruse whose main purpose was just to get across these two naked little boys. like one of those bodegas that's actually a drug front. it seems like the artist is almost intentionally making a comment on how the veil of high culture is used--in this case with intentionally ridiculously academic references--to convey pictures of cute boys to aging homosexual collectors.
ReplyDeletemiko in person was an entirely different animal than miko in jpeg--it was like comparing a trip to a jungle to a jpeg of a lion.
ReplyDeletebut i;ve seen bas in person and it looks exactly the way you'd expect it to look from the jpeg
Whatever you want to say about the technique, the bird-chested emo-boy as centaur is an interesting image. His indifference to the boy in the flowing (unfurling?) mauve sarong takes this beyond the scope of just another pomo queer stunt. His one visible hand even appears to be groping for a pocket to slip into.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.artnet.com/Magazine/people/smith/Images/smith11-17-18s.jpg
ReplyDeleteself portrait for a closeted artworld?
directing peoples' attention to one of those roaming-art-opening-photographer photos of the artist is the cheapest shot imaginable. nobody deserves that.
ReplyDeletei think one of the most pomo things about this picture is that, unlike historical centaur pictures, these kids actually seem to be aware of the presence of a photographer off screen. old portraits had the subject aware of the viewer, but never mythological ones.
fine any picture. i don't see that as a 'cheap shot' did you put it next to the 'guy' lets just call him (Hernan Bas for now) in the front of that painting? there are distinct similarities.
ReplyDeleteNext on SECRETS....
ReplyDeleteI've got a secret. I get stoned. I'm watching what lies beneath and it put me in a confessional mood. I ate spaghetti from the pot - one pot cooking, its a total rush. There, I've said it.
These remind me of glass plate animation where you sort of smear the pigment around frame by frame.
Hernan you there? Do it. Or don't. Maybe I will. It will be straight het porn though.
What were these painted on lame?
I love that.
ERNEST
ReplyDeleteBut what are the two supreme and highest arts?
GILBERT
Life and Literature, life and the perfect expression of life. The principles of the former, as laid down by the Greeks, we may not realise in an age so marred by false ideals as our own. The principles of the latter, as they laid them down, are, in many cases, so subtle that we can hardly understand them. Recognising that the most perfect art is that which most fully mirror
Truth and Beauty are the true objects of art, and of human history and destiny. They are the same thing and the sigular quest of human intelect and existance and therefore art which is after all only individual expression of our experience and aspriration. When we find truth we find beauty.
ReplyDeleteHey, Queer art, What if Bas is trying to explain or explore rather than exploit. Could you tell the difference?
ReplyDeleteThe trees. The trees are closing in. I just realized the trees are lurking and closing in. The figures are looking out, when the tres are closing in.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone but me remember, St. Martin and the Begger? El Grecco
ReplyDeleteexplain or explore or exploit? If he was explaining or exploring i think the pictures would be more different one to the next.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you're right though--they do have the sort of claustrophobic glam-sleazy atmosphere of a Dennis Cooper novel.
Somebody waaaaay at the begining did compare Bas to a conservative student of El Greco
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a painting found in a grandmother's house...except with two gay guys in it.
ReplyDeleteI would say more like; "Songs of Innocence". If you know what I mean?
ReplyDeletehow old are the people that are conversing on this blog?
ReplyDeletePasseo! You live. Save us! Have you seen this paitning, live?
ReplyDeleteEl Greco is over 30. That is for sure. The rest, I don't know?
ReplyDeleteHey, my grandmother was gay.
ReplyDeleteExplain? Explore? Exploit? And, can he draw? Which is it with this painter?
ReplyDeletePasseo, Love ya!
ReplyDeleteWhy does everyone under 30 hate El Greco?
ReplyDeleteI think the queer is a little harsh on Bas. I would say explore. And I like his approach and process but I am not gay so may miss the point of resentment. But I do think Bas is effective at getting a discussion going on the issue even if he can't draw. So maybe el Greco is right. He could not draw either but he could converse.
ReplyDeleteMARCH 1965: ANDY WARHOL FILMS HORSE.
ReplyDeleteRonald Tavel wrote the scenario for Horse. It starred Larry Latreille, Gregory Battcock, Daniel Cassidy, Jr, with short non-speaking appearances by Warhol, Ondine and Edie Sedgwick - her first appearance in a Warhol film.
The El Greco Show at the Met was great.
ReplyDeleteI learned that Greco means "Greek," and that El means "the." Museums are great.
I liked the colors, and I liked the triangular faces. I even liked the frames.
I've only seen gay people at zoos.
sucks, brokeback mountain, gay people at zoos.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that Bas seems to really be trying to break these vantage points apart. His subjectivity is sentimental and carries most of the success of this painting.
Formally: I must say that when I saw his work for the first time at a previous biennial I thought " oh great, peyton is finally making better paintings" I am not kidding, I honestly thought she had made his work. That said, I feel like the way Bas paints is not inventive enough. He pulls imagery from fashion magazines, it is obvious. And homoeroticism is rampant in fashion mags. So then I result in thinking about this act as a performative gesture.
Content: That brings me to bas as a performative painter. Just as Kippenberger had nothing to do with commodity object making, in that all his work stemmed from a place of the performative, Bas's work makes you think of dandyism and the fag in modern day painting. Now is this enough to build an entire career off of? Perhaps not, but hopefully he will find other more challenging themes to delve into, ones that are perhaps not so self reflexive.
Brokeback? I do not think "gay" when I see this painting. In fact, prior to this blog I knew nothing about the artist. Does that matter? It doesnt' seem contrived, fashionable or sexy at all to me. Just akward, confusing and unspecific like adolescence.
ReplyDeleteYes, these are piss-poor paintings, with content that is adolescent-hipster in feel. Me no like-y.
ReplyDeleteThese are really really really really bad paintings. What about that Holland Cotter review of this show? He actually stuck up for this guy! "Gay is a much bigger catagory than artist" !!!!?????
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean? Just because someone is gay that gives them the right to claim 7 column inched in the NYTs with thier crappy crappy crappy art?
I've liked Holland Cotter in the past but that review may forever taint his critical opinion. Another writer once remarked to me "Oh Holland, his got such an agenda." I didn't thnk about it much, but now I will. Too bad too, Smith and Johnson need some better company.
But back to Bas. This guy makes Elizabeth Peyton look good!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete