9/05/2006

David Kapp

33 comments:

Michael Cross said...

David Kapp has a way of making NYC look west-coast, somehow. His recent work (2005) has a nostalgic tone, like the city he is painting does not quite exist anymore. Its energy isn't quite there, or maybe his isn't. Odd.

zipthwung said...

hey phantomcock - is that an ironic name or are you a fan of sci-fi? Im a fan of sci-fi (i dont have patience for soft-fi, just hard-fi - which is to say speculative fiction involving interpersonal dynamics is like watching Oxygen, whereas the History channel has Futureweapons, which I like. I like the sci-fi channel - its more "the monster" channel though.)

This painting reminds me of the style of Diebenkorn - because of the self consciously deliberate hand look at the clean unfussy yet nuanced edges... the assured one stroke start on the three stroke motor.

Vincent Di Fate sci-fi meets the real world. Its cold, unlike the warmth of the painting before.
I dont like the style of either - too too.

arebours said...

it really looks Theibaud-ish,diebenkornish,west coast for sure...

kelli said...

Phantom: Mennonite, Gnostic, Cultural Feminist, Artist as Alcoholic or Orthodox. Let me know your belief system and I will pretend to agree with it. I share Aleister Crowley's birthday which strangely is also Kirk Cameron's. The stars have destined me to be contrarian or to beget a soccer team of children and encourage Christian to live out their faith. Not certain which.
I agree about Thiebaud who was pretty great.

kelli said...

I've clearly expressed my admiration for those artists. I admire Schutz and am irritated by the constant bitching and envy directed towards her. She's in MOMA because she deserves it. I was happy when the big gallery building opened on 27th. More opportunities for more people. Less orthodoxy and sameness. So why so bitter? Do you feel excluded or exploited? Inside or outside?

zipthwung said...

She's in MOMA because she deserves it.

WHo doesnt deserve it. And why not.
Maybe it sucks to sell paintings for lots and lots and lots of money. Maybe no one deserves a fate like that. Maybe museums are fucking charnel house pissoires fit for only the worst examples of toadying psycophants. Maybe the world is made up of winners and losers and museums are for LOSERS who think they are winning. Maybe Dana Schutz knows this intuitively but cant break free fo the shame spiral. I know I'd feel so much remorse I'd fucking puke before every performance, I mean opening.
Take your fairytales and shove em. Art is done while watching tv and drinking a beer. Reading is done on the toilet. Get real. WOrk is for suckers and hoes. I finally took a suppository and I think Im going to be fine.

kelli said...

Phantom I don't know who you are talking to. I am selling work and have shown at the Armory show and elsewhere. I'm irritated by the application of rigid rules to art. I don't think there should be a few master artists employing teams of assistants. I think the assistants should have galleries. I'm not a victim but I was outside of the system for a long time and think more people should be included and should keep the freedom to make what they want. I'm looking forward to my show too. And a lot of other people's shows. I like to see different things included in the system. And the type of bitter criticality (outside) and materialism ( inside) that limits artists angers me.

zipthwung said...

I take everything I said back. ALl of it. Including the punctuation. See ya suckers!

jerp said...

Vincent di Fate is great. And more retro: Chesley Bonestell.

The light in this DK makes that street seem to be in suspended animation - very day the earth stood still. I like seeing the city like this.

kelli said...

Phantom why don't you e-mail me if you want to talk about me instead of David Kapp; ulula123@aol.com
You can't really censor what I say here but you could scroll past it and if you read my comments you will notice I am often defending the artists.

no-where-man said...

well if we read this as a story as many have suggested on this blog, my first thought is suicide solution.

kelli is cool with me.

zipthwung said...

Phantomplanet, I hate you. Please send me some nail clippings.

I like cooly neutral urban cityscapes ( this painting doesnt give me a warm feeling at all - in fact I find it as alienating as a hotel lobby (which can be good but its not where I like to hang out), but as an outsider I also like cool planetscapes, and kick ass double bladed battle axes.

kelli said...

WTF?
As opposed to what omnisexual or pansexual like the pastry chef Stuart Townsend played on Will & Grace ( who got flour on everything and even slept with Rosario)?
I was literally the only person who had anything nice to say about Francesco Clemente.
I appreciate this David Kapp painting too. It reminds me a little of Estes too who has been sort of forgotten but was great.

no-where-man said...

um, there is a pretty common theory that we are all biologically bi and the rest is environmental.

jeff said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
kelli said...

Wow more of this? I've always been out even at jobs where it was not convenient. I don't like this narrow focus only on identity and limits placed on an artist's work. I said this in reference to Ellen Gallagher when people only wanted to talk about her race. Another artist I was positive about. Alternately I was irritated when the discussion of Lucian Freud focused only on a traditional feminist reading. One way of seeing it. Not the only way.

jeff said...

Hey Kelli, you know this person phantomCognition?
He or she seems to know you.
You show with Leo Koenig?

This persons getting to personal for my taste.

Anyway I don't think he,she knows what they are talking about, and on top they are spreading rumors.

I did that a while back on this blog, well they were not rumors it was about some artist with very rich parents.

Phantom are you a trust fund baby?

jeff said...

That pissed my off as well, as I don't think it does Freud justice to have this narrow focus in looking at his work.

Kelli are you the Kelli W. from LK's gallery?

If you are nice work.

kelli said...

Pdog it pissed me off too. I'm not totally a fan but don't like dogmatic one-sided interpretations of art.
This strange interlude is unfair to Kapp. People mentioned his development. What is the earlier work like?

kelli said...

And that was the second cackling phantom of the opera "goodbye for now". Until when? My nemesis pukes in the punchbowl at my cotillion?

youth--less said...

Dont let me piss you guys off. I just call em as I see em.

Your "arguements" didnt change my reaction.

Painter said...

Hello, I just got home and read this post . I had saved David Kapp images for awhile and was curious what people would have to say about his work. I had meant to post him last spring when his show was up but didn't get around to it. His images remind me a lot of a painting I grew up with by the watercolor artist Dong Kingman. Kingman travel all over the world doing city scapes. I would appricate it if we could talk more about this artist. Thanks.
There are a lot of good shows coming up...

no-where-man said...

i just read 81, might as well start out 2morrow - gondry sounds somewhat interesting.

kelli said...

There is also a good show up at Sva on Thursday. Maybe if people live uptown they might swing by there on the trip to Chelsea.

zipthwung said...

Well

I mentioned Diebenkorn, thinking of Thiebaud. SOme of us agreed that indeed, the poainting seemed to emphasize a "West Coast" sensibility in style and in tone.

My california dream movie has a soundtrack of proto-"grunge" echoing off the sun dappled walls of my gated bepooled community.

But you might have another fantasy of California - what it may be like - maybe Michael Bolton and a little green convertible MG on highway 1, solar winds through your perm. Or Yoga class at Esalen Institute

I think light is a function of the ocean, because its cooler, it refracts the light differently over there. It could also be the relatively dry air - meaning more diffusion in the light (sea fog).
Maybe its the mountains, too.

My (and some color psychologists no doubt) theory, is that palette choice could be cleverly linked to a sort of brand or totem - possibly an increasingly complex but codeified system of mind controll (language).

The totem pole could just keep getting longer as unto DNA. Or a NOSE. Learn learn learn. Jesus.
What is the California brand, man?

Introverted vs exxxtroverted?

I want to believe the US is divided in half or even thirds, like a brain.

David Kap is not an introverts introverted painter -his shtick might look contemplative to someone but not me. It looks easily adaptable to book covers - meant to be seen in an instant. Impressionism like this is for extroverted thinking. Introverts prefer allegory and more complicated spatial relationships.

Mind movies.
Just a thought.
I got some reading Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut.

SO hes a NYRKR doing California dream on NYC?

Or is he himself just doing his thing?
I smoked some irony so maybe all hes doing is painting colors next to colors.

No its not pastoral enough.
Urban pastoral.

Hitchcockian is closer - although I'd sneer if he was ACTAULLY in a wheelchair because if you are an artist you should learn to walk.

I travel OBE all the time (see Esalen Institute)

Cheese curls are great. MEtalic cheese, corn, salt, crunch. If it made you smarter to eat them I could self smart myself.

SO cheese curls are my suggestion for snacks. Thanks.

zipthwung said...

Giacometti did - surrealist imagination AND existential truth. David Smith came the same route. Some people call that maturation, I call it indoctrination.

Surrealism is the art of the DUMB masses and existentialism is more self conscious and thus managerial (meta-smart).

EXISTENTIAL ART

Although there is no truly self-professed movement calling itself this, existentialism naturally influenced numerous mid-century artists agreeing with existentialism's understanding of existence taking place as an isolated solitary phenomenon in an absurd world but nevertheless affording the freedom for one to define oneself. Simone de Beauvoir said in 1965 that for these artists existentialism seemed to "authorize them to accept their transitory condition without renouncing a certain absolute, to face horror and absurdity while still retaining their human dignity" (qtd. in Dempsey 176). So existentialism refers more to the mood and thought in the art rather than a distinctive and consistent style.

brian edmonds said...

Thiebaud and Chris Brown, which I'm sure have been mentioned before. Just to add to the Dana Schutz tirade above, I like her work for some reason. I am drawn to it like Cecily Brown and Jenny Saville but I dont think she is as good a painter as the two. I saw the painting where the girl is blowing her nose in Chicago and I was not impressed at all. I know she is a very good and competent painter but I really hate the subject matter sometimes. Like the painting on the surgery of Michael Jackson. Someone that has talent should find a better reference for her painting. The painting itself is well done but again, Michael Jackson? And please dont try to derive some deep meaning of it.

youth--less said...

You could go into any city in America and find someone who paints like this. Every one of them is influenced by Thibeaud.

zipthwung said...

KJ - just putting it out there. I wanted to call this painting "dumb" - like you sit in front of it and it is what it is - like a Dana Schutz without the dolls. I dont know anything about existentialism other than reading "No Exit" and pop-Sartre. "Stare into the void and you become it." Ramdom shit you know? No real program. I do know existentialism has been linked to everything from painting to sports drinks.

I dont see this painting as profoundly existential - but I brought up the introvert-extrovert idea because it doesnt do much for me, so I wonder why people paint like this.

Either:

Its the idea of being Thiebaud - the whole lifestyle, the romance, the Walker Percy Novel..

OR:

Its the need to create neat controlled mood-spaces within the chaos of urbanism?

Oriental fetish Zen modernism? White railed houses, lofts, the porche here

Scooby doo wah.

youth--less said...

he moved

zipthwung said...

Not far enough.

SisterRye said...

Thiebaud, as far as paint handling along the edges, but the color isn't as juicy, and the perspective not as vertiginous.

Chris Brown, because there are umbrellas and repetition, and an even handedness, and things rushing forward, but also not as good in the palette.

I wish this painting was just the red truck in the upper left, and the faint elbow jutting figure, just below the nose of the truck, the awning and not much else. It does give the cold sinking heart feeling of a traffic jam, so I want to honk or swerve around and cut someone off.

Sven said...

beating a dead horse but I believe kelli meant
“David Salle, Cecily Brown, Matthew Barney, Dana Schutz a long line of artists {[THAT]} loser slackers who can't draw without a projector have hated”

its the only way the syntax in the sentence makes sense;so shes defending them against loser slacker haters not equating them
thank you