3/04/2006

Mary Heilmann

48 comments:

Anonymous said...

MORE INTERESTING THAAM MOST OF WHAT I SAW AT THE WHITNEY YESTERDDAY. HAS ANYONE BEEEN TO THE 2006 BIENNIAL? IT SEEMED "ALL THEY WERE SAYING WAS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE" VERY SEVENTIES I THOUGHT. MAYBE THAT IS THE POINT THAT THE SEVENTIES ARE WHAT IS DRIVING US NOW.

Anonymous said...

formal anonymous ----
i don't get this painting.
color relationships? cropped cicular shapes? a dyptich? does the left feel as wide as the right via horizontals? the more questions, it becomes apparent that maybe something may be happening. please help me here....

Anonymous said...

its just color and paint and shape the end

Anonymous said...

I agree.

Anonymous said...

this is not the strongest of her work. look at other things, and there is more to her work than color, shape, etc. look at her furniture, ceramics, other paintings all together as one esthetic, its beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I don't know Mary, it seems to have an easyness and canter to its process, that som how makes it delightfull to experience. At least to its context on this blog. I hae never seen the work in real life, but might not like it at all. It seems to me that a good perfomance in second hand media is a almost a must for art works to become iconic or masterpieces, and thus maybe what we need is the opposite in order to have something that creates any truthfull experience...

-Thomas

Corny said...

I think her work is funny. She's a personal fav, i think theres a ironic wit with which she makes these paintings but not in a cold hard mean way. They seem to be a send up of abstraction and a continuance.

Corny said...

Thomas you say "a good perfomance in second hand media is a almost a must for art works to become iconic or masterpieces, and thus maybe what we need is the opposite in order to have something that creates any truthfull experience"

I like the sounds of this but just trying to figure out what you mean, I want to make iconic masterpieces so can you spell it out, we're a bit slow this AM.

Anonymous said...

once a guy said to me, mary heilmann is making a feminist critique of geometric abstraction. i thought about that for years. was it true? i'm still not sure. i like how they feel unafraid to be what they are, and yet informed by painting history. arent they kind of challenging in a sly way what "masterpieces" are? interesting to think of them w/ nozkowski. they make him look kind of fussy, dont they?

Corny said...

I think you could say they are a feminist critique of geometric abstraction, simmilar to Rachel lachowicz's strategy, but thats just one way of framing the work. Who knows what Heilmans original impulse was when she began painting this way. Ultimately the paintings transend the simplification of that critique.

Anonymous said...

anon, Who was that guy? I want to meet him.

Anonymous said...

it was josh decter

Anonymous said...

whatever happened to josh decter, one nevers hears of him anymore. and that was a good comment, i think true on one level, but there is more to her work than a critique of male abstraction. who are other painters who paint with this critique or attitude

Anonymous said...

Sillman maybe?

Anonymous said...

Heilmann makes tough paintings.

Anonymous said...

at least Mary s finally getting her due, a show at the new new museum etc. and finally rewards of a long career, still going strong. her work gets better and better, and is a tough painter i agree, what she does is REALLY hard to pull off right.

Anonymous said...

i heard mary is talented in the oral arts as well

Anonymous said...

you are disgusting

Anonymous said...

Painter, your blog is showing some interesting overlays/ overlaps. With Nozkowksi-Sweeten-Heilman I am getting the sense that you are a wonderful old school formalist that just loves paint. Bravo.

Anonymous said...

there's nothing disgusting about sex anonymous. you need to see a therapist - being good with a brush naturally extends itself to being good with ones tongue. lighten up, you need to get laid.

Anonymous said...

ringo, think you're right.
In the 60's "tough" meant no-nonsense, direct, unsentimental paintings. I think her work is ambitious in this way. The remark that it's a "feminist critique of geometric abstraction" is a backhanded way of saying she was making tough geometric abstractions, which she was.

Anonymous said...

i heard ringo has a huge member

Anonymous said...

it's true.

Anonymous said...

In grad school I wrote a paper on wit and humor in abstract painting and I covered her work. She would reference color schemes of things like Simpson's cartoon characters. Soft spot I have.

Anonymous said...

did you guys know that heilmann wrote a book, an autobiography, that is amazing, called all night movie or something like that.
i recommend it!

Anonymous said...

i may be going out on a limb here, but doesnt it strike anyone that the comments for a great artist like mary heilmann do not engender really intelligent or lively criticism, in fact some hostile and puerile sexual comments, but a young male painter, like lets say, Dave miko or almost anyone else here, gets huge response and debate. just a thought. is it sexism, ageism, or just plain dumbism. some genuine questions were raised in some of the comments on mary's painting, like gender and abstraction etc. but is this too complicated an issue for you guys and gals? and yes her book is amazing, all artists and art students should run out and get it.

Anonymous said...

I think it's harder to write, sometimes, about abstraction, especially beautifully simple and concise abstraction like this. Heilman's work is great and playful.

It's helpful with abstraction to know what the artist is thinking about - onesock, thanks for your info. I love the idea of writing a paper on wit and humor in abstraction. I want to read this. Maybe you have to surrender to your most basic visual instincts, allow pre-verbal reactions to swaths of woozy lime green and bumps of red, before you can get to good descriptions or gleaning of content. I don't know.

I hate to think that ageism is occuring. I really hope not. Certain work makes more comments due to controversy about the artist or where they're showing or irritation about their perceived project...

Anonymous said...

your right, natalie sweeten got few comments, her work isnt that interesting nor is she a controversial art world persona.

Anonymous said...

About ageism. I think it is a natural process--age hones things, articulates them, filters them through an exquisitely refined and knowledgable process--youth is about finding, redefining, upsetting, turning over. What happens is the difference gets reduced to dull v interesting or other simpler ways to consider. What I love is the choices of painting that range throughout.
Heilman is someone to know better, the work looks fantastic, but as MM points out it is a visual situation. That makes for delicious viewing but not necessarily easy to discuss. The use of black is exciting--almost like black light, but then the bumps, other colors are so painted, so not slick or flat. Love that.

Anonymous said...

does anyone have the title of this book she wrote? I couldnt find it on the web

Anonymous said...

The All Night Movie, Mary Heilmann, published by Offizen. look on amazon.

Anonymous said...

re: sexism - if you actually read the comments on that dave mikos posting you'll see that the conversations go everywhere and there's a thread about people crushing on him - so I don't think you can really play the sexism card. if anything people seem to really like this painting - most of the comments are supportive.

re: her work as being "feminine abstraction" i can see where that idea comes from but i'm not particularly buying that line of thought either. does that mean that all works that use bright colors and softer forms are feminine? that seems a little reductive and dismissive.

i'm a big fan of biomorphic shapes in abstraction - plus, she's got a great sense of creative inquiry throughout her work. i like the contrast between the lines of color on the swatches to the left vs the rounded forms on the right. the black shape is also intriguing in that it can work as a negative or positive shape. there's a freshness to her work that is invigorating.

Anonymous said...

OK:
Snyder @ Jewish Museum
Murray @ MOMA
Heilman @ New Mu
where's PAT STEIR????

Anonymous said...

i love heilman. i like the tiny orange drips into the black and that zig-zaggy line in the red and that same stuff happening on the side - all of those things that look so considered and so accidental.

JD said...

Yes, this is beautiful and exciting work. These can certainly be read as a feminist critique of "male" hard-edged abstraction, but I agree with many of the above comments: they are gorgeous pieces first, and the feminist thread hums along with everything else. It shouldn't define them. I love the way black becomes a vibrant color here. Straight edges become biomorphic, and curves assume a kind of hard-edged structure. The color is indeed "lowbrow," as someone mentioned. Funny, playful, serious. She rocks, in my book.

Dennis Matthews said...

Very boring, I had happened to accidently walk into an artist talk by her last year in NY. A friend of mine was talking shit about the work (I couldn't agree more) and Mary walks in with the owner or something and just laughs at us. But you know she's the joke.

Anonymous said...

This is one terrific artist who is still at the begining of the recognition she deserves and will receive in the years ahead.

Anonymous said...

Ok click on Dennis Matthews and you will see why this site has devolved into hating for haters. He's a student who "curates" shows at a coffee shop. Grow up, do this shit for a few years & maybe your student loans will be worth it.

Professor Mouth said...

I think Dennis' taste is crap, and his work is crap, but I admire him for at least posting his opinions under his own name and having his work available for the ol' quid pro quo. Even though I think said work sucks, It's a good deal more brave than most of the anonymous jackoff mouth-breathers on this site.

Prof.Mouth(P.Palermo, www.myuglyenergy.blogspot.com)

The next person who uses the term 'haters' will be beaten to death by my massive, swollen member. that is all.

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful painter. I very much like the work she has at PS1. It puts her in the proper context.

Anonymous said...

what contect is that? ps 1 show was good, but what do you mean exactly

Anonymous said...

hater! hater! hater!

Dennis Matthews said...

yeah yeah yeah i suck and i only curate shows at a coffee shop. that's my life and i have no other plans for it. where's all you guys' works? and why don't you post openly and have a link to your own art? mary heilman blows and these anons sound like they do too. i'll talk to you anons later i have to go back to my pointless life putting together shows in my spare time (like I haven't done this at real galleries?) and painting my stupid sucky pictures.

Anonymous said...

Sweetness I'm an actual working artist used to showing my work in places that don't smell like espresso. Hope Mary continues to amuse you and good luck with your loans.

Dennis Matthews said...

sorry for calling you a fuckhead but either way my loans aren't very much and i'm not sure why you insist on making this personal by saying that all i do is organize some showings of works in a shop that happens to serve coffee. i really don't think that it degrades the quality of work when the owners are nice good people and the participating artists are actually and acutely talented and we're all willing to work together to do something just fun on the side, so what's your problem anyways? its only something to do outside of this "art world" shit.
Dennis

Alise said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alise said...

This painting gives me life and lets me breathe. It has power, tenderness and depth. The colours are
at once hidden and available, they hint at new horizons and jumpstart my frozen heart. The shapes have an exotic rythm and seem to dance for me. A tantric dance of trandformation.

Alise said...

Correction: The last word on my previous comment is transformation.