10/01/2007

Matthew Blackwell

123 comments:

Painter said...

Matthew Blackwell @
Edward Thorp Gallery
210 Eleventh Avenue, 6th Floor
New York, New York 10001 USA

another-painter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
another-painter said...

Page 3: Naive Apocalyptic Painting Continues to Pound New York Galleries

youth--less said...

i think i can safely miss this one. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Jules deBalincourts show.

zipthwung said...

"et in Arcadia ego"

The phrase is a memento mori, usually interpreted as "I am also in Arcadia" or "I am even in Arcadia", as if spoken by personified Death.

the sentiment was meant to set up an ironic contrast between the shadow of death and the usual idle merriment that the nymphs and swains of ancient Arcadia were thought to embody.

I went through a similar transformation at around that age, as did my two daughters. It's a completely natural part of growing up, and I am rather dismayed by these precocious eight-year-olds who read The Economist and discuss Kierkergaard. It's nice that it is often a good book that triggers this sort of intellectual and emotional "growth spurt".

zipthwung said...

This place is like the army: the shark ethic prevails-eat the wounded. In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.

surfkook said...

Bad Dana Schutz take 5.

arebours said...

barney is going shark-finning-de other work looks like bum-ism is the new civil warism(michael cline)vs old furnas et al-

nat said...

If my kid made this painting I'd slap them and send them to bed without food.

Anonymous said...

I think they are quite fun, the ones I saw up at artnet. A little on the domestic side though that shouldn't detract from their pleasure and odd phone calls coming in the middle of the night.
Nat, if you really do have kids, and you scorned them to bed with a whisk, after repeating that 3 or 4 times, you'd have kids conformed like us, 'slapped brain dead'.

ec said...

These are wonderful paintings, for the strange ways he sees paint...there was a landscape in the back, yellow hills rising up, such a strange and sculpted face. I also love in the image Painter chose--the big green smiley--the way a gesture becomes a face.
They're a compendium of what is known to be sure, but the best of them create a world of their own. I like the character who gardens, he seems quite real.

ec said...

Space, space! Not face.

zipthwung said...

space is the place

whimsy is not one of my emotions.

Mark Barry said...

Similar to the Michael Cline or George Condo, Teletubbies. They catch your eye in a matter of fact way. Content.. I'll wait til I see them.

Anonymous said...

I heard Fischl talk about that sculpture once, it didn't make it any better or for that matter good at all, something about naked people falling thru space, then he didn't want to talk about sex.

Whimsy was not one of his emotions either.

Zip are you Fischl? Fischl are you Zip?

webthing said...

would be better with shadows. strange procession. false flag, or is it communis...a hiatus in quaintville, led by the piper of inverse sobriety. the show won't change the world, but it might alter your afternoon. which is finer?

zipthwung said...

no im not fischl. Im a bot.

Speaking of Fischly - was that sculpture ironic (as I read it), or is it on a level of say an unironic gold leafed buddha? I am afraid to ask (only Fischl knows Fischl).

But as EF is a product of his environment, lack of irony would lead one on a slippery slope of hubris that might end up in the lap of a Neocon, or the mind of an American Psycho, or both, depending.

Fischly's pathology doesn;t seem that deep - the kind that might lead one to write a book like Bright Lights Big City, or Less than Zero. Slaves of the City.

Awesome as those books are (Spy Magazine lampooned them ever so well) I think its interesting that
one has to be a part of the culture in order to satirize it.

For example, this painting revels in its blandness, its abject or slacker core. Like a kitten, its infantile musings give the hint of criticality while lapping up a saucerfull of honey sweetened milk.

Which means the painter swears allegiance to the flag for which it stands.

I find myself a tourist, and in that I suppose there is a great deal of theory - though I'd be duced if I can figure it all out.

But the same mind that appreciates "cuteness" might have appreciated the "irony" of Greydon Carter as a graduate of the precursor to Gawker.

A circuitous route to say merely that attitude becomes form, an I find this particular attitude effeminate, passive, twee and unless it sprouts ground glass from its surface upon live viewing, I'm afraid I can't endorse it.

youth--less said...

What a man...zzz
I do remember reading the very first issue of spy i think it was the one with the cabin boy on the cover and the title was biggest jerks in new york. I liked it for the typography, of course it was very influential in the designworld. I dont think helveeta was used. I remember the big deal was that alex isley mixed sans serif and serif faces. how postmodern that was! i do love the 80s.

isno't said...

Paintings are stretched Skin.
Confidence
and doubt.
In Miami for another week.
Miami is a gallery of stretched skin.

Strolling out the Raleigh Hotel
onto the beach and the models
in the photoshoot are confident
with straight white teeth and
easy smiles.......
boys and girls
giggles and spunky energy.
"Perfect. Sexy. HOLD IT!"
click.
Now its digital, see the results in seconds.

Next door,
The fat people rolling out of the Loews Hotel
onto the beach pulled their towels up around
their necks in front of the models
and stared
at youth,
glowing radiant forms
of different body shame.

But then there were those that let it all hang out
and wear it with confidence like
they are wearing the only brand
they would ever care to wear ...
themselves
...the all you can eat buffet butt
...the hate my job bed time ice cream tummy
...the talk bad about my spouse in front of the children fast food thick ankle
...the lost any ability to appreciate the smaller things in life bulbous worm fat face alcoholic
... the you act like your father green face receding hairline

There were thick and thin people
worrying what others might think
and if it would change how they are treated ..
holding back the light within ....

There were thick and thin people
confident in their skin with no body shame
and the sun was never higher in the sky
or hotter.

What we do to the body we do to the mind.
i wonder.

M. Blackwell's approach with paint
and subject matter
is so confident it makes me smile and relax
the skin of his paintings lets it all hang out ....
in front of the high expectation seen it all
grad school over educated dog eat dog
art world ....
he doubts, changes his mind,
then makes a bold red statement around it all
and tho I might privately wish he would pull
a shirt over his style of figuration

He is always photogenic.

www.wikihow.com/Be-Photogenic

(lol)

dubz said...

i saw this show today. it's really good. blackwell's no 20-something hipster naive painter wannabe - he's been showing for a long time and really mining cool territory. there is great control of subject matter, palette, and technique in these paintings. my only criticism is that there may be too many in the show... they are so dense individually that they start to cancel each other out a little. but not much. they are good and sincere in a way that most of the other painting shows that are on view now are not.

youth--less said...

Sorry to disagrree with that dubz--who is one of my favorites. But the way the feet are painted? I can't go where those feet are taking me.

zipthwung said...

yeah this one looks like its taking me to a parade with Madeline in paris but the ocean is jsut a kids mural.

The painter could be the angriest person on the planet or the nicesst and all I see is cynical maladaption.

Like Fischl. but I know I'm projecting. but its all subjective. So maybe I'm right. Oh look at the time. I'm late.

arebours said...

can understand that youngish people might find this juicy and fun,but others don't get too excited-maybe we need more baby-sexy-what else is left

arebours said...

this gallery has some judith linhares works ,flowers,that are really airy and not boring flower studies-her people,not so fond of-

CAP said...

Is Blackwell's bio at Thorp screwed or just avant garde?

CAP said...
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jpegCritic said...

this painting doesn't work for me.
But oh well.

But the Law offices of Matthew Blackwell,
i like. From an Search Optimized standpoint.
Though if you dig deeper, it makes even
more sense.

I do indeed like the inventiveness of the
other Blackwell images found on a Google search.

"Over Yonder...". What a beautiful title.
From the looks of thejpegs, I think it
may be worth a trip up 6 flights over yonder.

Nomi Lubin said...

90% of the time, I don't understand half of you.

Wait, I'm trying to quote that great Yogi line . . . . oh, it's completely inapplicable: 90% of the game is half mental.

jpegCritic said...

Nomi, You make a good point.

Does 90% of the art world have the MO to do just
that... To evade 'understanding', in order to
further evade a realisation that we are all
charlatans and rely on evasiveness as a device --
in the aim of inventing and investing in a
percieved power that for all intents and purposes
-- isn't really There? .... Are we all just
orchestators of motorcycles set to music? --
Driving on veritable plywood that is itself cheap
and amiss of any valuable and historically-
attainable cultural ground? Does 90 percent of us
do nothing more than reference ourselves?
It's a good game, though: Involving glass beads
which can at some times come out to be very pretty.

And sometimes, that may be enough.

webthing said...

evasion - now there's a topic.

For there to be only truth, there must be no question of it. But there is. Because we question the reality of truth we end up with lies. there is only truth when there is no question of it. but when there is no question, there is obviously no human around, for which one of us does not have a question? the truth and lies are entwined yin and yang. biology is plagued by virus, or else neither would develop. not developing is death (according to the basic parameters of life). But jpeg is right, the world is to some extent built on being duped. but in another way, you could say the world is built on playing up to the truth of the duped. Its very subjective. With 6 billion vantage points there really is no such core as understanding, rather there are many versions of it. A few of which, at this (that) particular point in space time, you can see reflected via multiple avatars 'in here'. What you come away with from that is not the truth to anyone but yourself, a relatively modern realization that ends in the western fear of power structures. and rightly so. questions are imperative.

but sometimes its nice to party. party means relinquish questions.
until tomorrow. if you ask questions at the party, you may end up as the pooper.

seems blackwell has decided not to let them poop it yet, though some of them look like they might be about to. except for the frog prince, but thats just because he's drunk and standing behind happy jane.

CAP said...

This is actually the second PNYC post on Blackwell (the first - Jan 06 – incidentally Heffernan Feb 06).
And the jpeg is from the last show rather than the current one, it seems.

Huh?

The festive/good times mood is much less in evidence this time around, but the big brushwork, vivid color and rambling drawing are still there. Trouble is, they’re a lot of other places as well. Surfkook reckons this is Take 7 on Schutz, but it feels like take 707 on a whole raft of painters. I agree with À Rebours – Furnas, Linhares, the big brushy deal, chunky drawing is practically a school in Kalm waters, waiting for the shark.

People wonder why someone like Saatchi latches on to Schutz rather than one of the others, but I think DS has more of a program, it’s not just painting as fun stuff, it’s knowing what stuff to have fun with and when to have it. You have to be serious about when you want to have fun. With Blackwell it looks much more indiscriminate – he can flaunt all these marks and techniques (a bit like Mocquet as well) and he has good targets in this show, but I just don’t think he matches them up as well as DS. The stuff is just that little bit too loose, even for loose.

I wonder if the problem isn’t with drawing? Forget the big brushes and bright colors for a minute and just look at the space and face for line and tone, maybe? Might point to the mannerisms or weaknesses in all that ‘painterliness’.

dubz said...

This painting is in the current show. It's not my favorite, but you should see them person before writing them off. They're weird and edgy and I like that he's not trying to be cool and make trendy marks. Also there are some great moments in the backgrounds and the color is fearless. I'm not saying he's my favorite painter in the entire world, but he's doing "his" thing rather than doing "the" thing, and I appreciate that.

Nomi Lubin said...

CAP, (or anyone) what does this mean: "the big brushy deal, chunky drawing is practically a school in Kalm waters?"

None said...
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Idon'tbathe said...

when I checked this show out this painting got me thinking about motley which is an adjective meaning "speck" from the Middle English mot or mote which in Middle Dutch can mean "sand".
:Sand is composed of diverse and often incongruous elements--hence, the term "motley crew", a phrase maybe describing the employees of an ocean going vessel.
when I got home I found a reference from 1748 from something called "Anson's Voyage" which speaks of "with this motley crew, Pizarro set sail." Motley has meant many-colored (like a patchwork) for centuries, and it's the colorful costume of a Fool. Motley (the noun) is cloth of vibrant mismatched colors. Motley (the adjective) borrows from the sense of a fool's costume, and a motley crew suggests a mismatched, raggle-taggle bunch of less than organized troops.
Whats "the" thing by the way.?

zipthwung said...

now that was perspicacious!

Rag Tag.
Which means the rabble. The common man. Not urbane. Not sophisticated. Yet this painter has "been around" so they must "know" the "truth."

What is the truth?

THat you can make a painting that is teeth grindingly cute.

Well thats my "thing"

One Macduff isn't enough to fluff the nutter butter matrix.

One truth is: my graphics card blew just after I uploaded a web thing - which is not an wan ton dere.

Double sens.

Detente is the way of things. I am in detente with life.

Precarious. Precariarity.

I must be doing good work or its not worth living. For.

Why is another stand in.

Tangentially to

How.

Brave innuendos!

Best not to stare directly at the subject.

What is poetry?

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Idon'tbathe said...

Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key

I lived in a place called Okfuskee
And I had a little girl in a holler tree
I said, little girl, it's plain to see,
There ain't nobody that can sing like me

She said it's hard for me to see
How one little boy got so ugly
Yes, my luttle girly, that might be
But there ain't nobody that can sing like me

Ain't nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain't nobody that can sing like me

We walked down by the Buckeye Creek
To see the frog eat the goggle eye bee
To hear that west wind whistle to the east
There ain't nobody that can sing like me

Oh my little girly will you let me see
Way over yonder where the wind blows free
Nobody can see in our holler tree
And there ain't nobody that can sing like me

Her mama cut a switch from a cherry tree
And laid it on the she and me
It stung lots worse than a hive of bees
But there ain't nobody that can sing like me

Now I have walked a long long ways
And I still look back to my tanglewood days
I've led lots of girls since then to stray
Saying, ain't nobody that can sing like me.

zipthwung said...

Hypersigl said...
Keep your heads down people. And burn the paper trail.

As the head of Nazi Germany's Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine, Strughold participated in a 1942 conference that discussed "experiments" on human beings carried out by the institute. The experiments included subjecting Dachau inmates to torture and death by being immersed in water, placed in air pressure chambers, forced to drink sea water and exposed to freezing temperatures. Strughold had denied approving the experiments and said he learned of them only after World War II.

Strughold was brought to the United States at the end of World War II as part of Operation Paperclip and subsequently played an important role in developing the pressure suit worn by early American astronauts.

Idon'tbathe said...

dude you here yet?

Anyway, when visiting New York City, avoid looking up and pointing at the buildings. I always suggest that you should walk like you were on a mission for God, and always have an expression on your face akin to finding your dog brutally gang-raped by rats, and you were out rat-hunting.

CAP said...

‘Mottle’ was also a bitchin’ painted finish at one time, second cousin to ‘Tortoise Shell’ – softer modulation, a bit more glaze. Cherished by dressers and decorators for that alcove or shelf that just wouldn’t budge. Then wallpaper came back and it was on to trade shows.

Rag roll went out with everyone except Schnabel. I would sometimes see them together at bus stops.

Some things are not too serious or literal Nomi, if it doesn’t make sense, scroll on by. They lighten the mood from time to time, I suppose. The Kalm allusion is as QQ says, and Kalm is an honorable man.

By the way what do you think of this post QQ?

None said...
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CAP said...

I always thought of Old Guy as that stock character in westerns, especially in saloon scenes, who calls out “Look out Sheriff, behind you!” only for the Sheriff to spin around, six guns blazing (a la Blackwater) and nail Old Guy along with various other bystanders, right between the eyes.

webthing said...

the truth was something that existed right up until the first human looked at the other, way back when, and said "no really, where are we?". this was the birth of the first story, the first lies (and all the versions). Culture was born. it was necessary. ever since, the same oscillation has continued between the two equal states of q & a. each bringing the protobeing closer and further away from the first lie. Though the first lie was only an answer to the first question, and before the question, there was truth. No q, and no a. The ability to ask of truth, perverts it. A party has the idea of truth in it because for a time, questions are set aside. Hence the myriad of cultural celebrations. But ideas are not always genuine. No 'thing' is genuine. There is certainly a scalar nature to authenticity. Heart counts. Sex is a great distraction from the question, and anything else that dulls the persistence of the question, is also a pathway to some modulation of the truth. But don't forget that lies strengthen the truth. Both are equally necessary.

Jeezus... Hear Ye, hear ye...

(chokes on sisyphus)

zipthwung said...

My grandpa died in Auschwitz. He fell off a guard tower.

They hate freedom. They do. They hate it. I hate their freedom. I do, I hate them. They pervert my sense of self. They make me wish I had a club foot so I could kick them to death. I hate their BS. They lie to me like animals who lie without guilt. I hate their mind controll tactics. I hate that I'm supposed to respond. I don't respond. I hate the tacit complicity of no response. There is no reponse. This is not a communication. This is a joke. I hate art jokes. I hate the freedom to tell art jokes. I hate people that pay for art jokes. I hate people who talk about art jokes as if they are serious. I hate irony. I hate people who tell bad jokes. I hate people who laud bad art jokes facetiously in order to get ahead. I hate coded networkd of ironic signifiers. I hate trying to get ahead. I hate art about getting ahead. I hate art about not getting ahead, in its tacit complicity. I hate complicity. I hate having to comply. I hate the freedom to comply. I hate the possibility this painting offers. I don't want to go there. I don't go there. I hate that that might be taken as a lack of sophistication. I hate people who keep an open mind, with their implied smug posture of superiority. I hate the implication that I feel inferior. I hate the idea that inferiority is masked by the grandiose in thought and deed.
I hate being confronted with hubris. I hate leadership. I hate fandom. I hate valorization of fandom. I hate effacement of leadership. There can be no grand gesture without qualification. I hate that. I hate the unqualified, who harass the popular. I hate the popular for repeating itself.

I love freedom from distraction.
By myself I am free of hate.

jpegCritic said...

but you gotta love air guitar

ec said...

I loved the Teletubbies and still would if they returned anew today.
Linhares has shown at Thorpe for years. Lucky Thorpe: she is great.
Blackwell's work suggests a desecration of what he holds most precious, 'tis true--in that sense the work short-circuits. It recalls Ralph Steadman a bit. But I don't need him to know all, his paint moves, surprises, convinces, I just want to see paint that's competent and conscious. He's got it. He's not "there" yet, his "moment" is ahead--in the work--but it's close.
I agree the show was insanely overhung to the detriment of the work.
Sometimes I wonder if there isnt' a sense of shame in showing painting, wanting to evade the white cube and predictability.
Enough already.
Take a look at the image again. The gray face is the best. The little feet, why not? Like the Jensens on Jetblue. Left hand corner problematic. But in general, the ragtag team functions as image and paint. The show overall is ambitious. Kudos to a painter painting.

no-where-man said...

you - people of painters.ny - often are a people that know no joy.

CAP said...

That’s pretty abstract, Webthing. I’m not sure how to reply and still be even remotely on topic.

Firstly, the Q&A T&F origin, from an evolutionary point of view, never strictly arises – man the social animal evolves language along with other learned behavior and truth is hardwired into the conformity. To lie is to break that. To even ask questions presumes shared language and objects, at least. So, if language, then objects and if one of these things is style say, then we have A Thing we can talk about and work with in other ways.

Most mathematicians are confident that numbers are real, part of the world and not the mind. Personally I’ve never seen a number four in the wild (although I suspect Zip’s holiday snaps will all be of tens, sighted at close range, on safari). So a style is as real as its members, as good as its discriminations that allow others.

But to say there is style is not to say there is The Style, on the contrary. To compare and party cultures similarly assumes we agree on what constitutes a culture, even as it begs qualification from persons, time, place, politics, history, etc. There is a cornel of ‘truth’ within the various versions, even though it rapidly diminishes with mitigating factors, but does this get us much further than agreeing to disagree? Usually this conceals some larger agenda.

If we’re trying to standardize a global culture – even just a western culture – the prospect looks futile. It’s like trying to regulate ‘competition’ or write the rules for ‘free’ trade. Logically, you can’t agree to disagree.

To stretch back to the topic now -

So can Blackwell’s ‘thing’ still be A Thing when it doesn’t do what other Things do? Is there The Thing that Blackwell must do to own it? These are actually traditional even classical questions. And my answer is there is No Thing if it does not conform to some of what other Things do; and if there is, then Blackwell does not yet own it until it does some of the things that other Things do not.

So far it isn’t and he hasn’t and as yet this is not just a matter of fashion, in my opinion.

jpegCritic said...

ec, if you really insist on taking a look at this image again, well then. It's the design that shows absence of pictorial consideration, because it hints at a snapshot-like behaviour, and I don't see any kind of content that makes such composition relevant to this artwork, or forwards any kind of pictorial stance on the subject. This picture is indicative of that kind of experience of -- when you're taking a snapshot, and you like the thing your looking at, and you point the camera, aiming at some sort of balance while in the end what you end up having a neutral compositional stance.. a dead picture. Only worse -- because it's painted as fine art, it reinforces said behaviour. A behaviour that I believe can be traced to the release of autofocus cameras to the public. How many pictures do we have to see that are informed, not by the shooter's vision, but by where the shooter points in order to achieve autofocus? Look in your jpeg archives. The faces are at the center. The subjecct is at the center. Lazy i tell you. It's a pandemic. It's a syndrome that leads to dead compositions such as this one; dead, and way too occupied with the pictorial center and forced inclustion of the 'subject'. As often in snapshots, the shapes cancel each other out unfortunately, and for that false directive of having to include every meaningul [cliche'd] element in the shot.

Look at that flag. It could've been a contender.

Or the grey face. Whatever. It doesn't stand a chance in this kind of neutered composition.

So as picturemaking goes from a design standpoint, this is dead, and seemingly uninformed and naive. I say seemingly, because I like the other images, and intend on seeing this show. But from my viewer-to-jpeg standpoint right now, this picture is downright bad. It's the painterly analog to a snapshot. And It's the composition that sends this down the drain, not the paint handling.

jpegCritic said...

And I'm sure that I'll end up
liking it if it were well hung,
But from the feedback so far,
I can probably count against that
possibility.

zipthwung said...

"it reinforces said behaviour"

and what is the point at this particular moment in history?

If I did it it would be an extremely angry gesture. I would feel like I was being deliberately sucky for the express purpose of sucking.

And why do that?
1) because you are bored and tired of excelling all the time (don't I know it).

2) Because the people that like this will buy it, and I can take that money away from them (selling as a political act).

3) Because i can devote more time to my "life in the marins." Very wide margins.

I was reading the Believer while taking a shit, and they had this interview of a slacker psych-folk? musician who said they got in a fight with a rock star at a sushi restaurant. The rock star didn't like the musician's dinner music.

Was it ironic? No I don;t think so.

I wish the story ended with the musician getting the shit kicked out of him, but instead it ended with a bullshit self righteous uncritical interview in the Believer. Fortunately it was time to flush.

zipthwung said...

One other idea - is this painting is critical of essentialist views of gender roles. In that sense it might go well with the infantile musings of Marcel D'zama, who's low rent William Steig rip offs answert the question:

is all art and childrens book illustration? with a resounding yes.

Fortunately Jaws is on. Close the beaches.

CAP said...

I can't believe you take your laptop to the toilet with you.

NOW WASH THAT KEYBOARD!

waste said...

I saw this show and had mixed feelings. Bit I don't see JPEG's compositional problem. The snapshot analogy doesn't make sense to me. I don't see any relationship, compositional or otherwise to photography. The actual center of this painting is pretty empty, and the weight is off-center.

Nomi- I don't understand a lot of what is said here either.

Anonymous said...

When painting is not 'shit easy' it's a camouflage, a battle uphill.

Idon'tbathe said...

i understand some stuff said here.
wifi shit;
When you bring your laptop into the bathroom with you, and place it on your lap as you are taking a shit...this way you can still talk on AIM/etc. and browse the internet, and brag to your friends how you are wiping your ass as you talk to them. Usually happens the morning after you've been drinking and have the infamous mud butt.
JOY!

None said...
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Idon'tbathe said...

The more you practice projecting your mind to gather information, the more accurate you become. However, it is best to practice projecting to real problem areas and correcting those problems. When there are real problems to correct, you will be more accurate. If you are just probing and there is no real purpose, eventually you will probably lose what ability you have.

CAP said...

Didn't Bob Dylan paint one of his album covers?

MartyMart said...

these pictures are wretched

None said...
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DarthFan said...

Good advice became proof of psychic power in this young man's mind. She also told him other things "nobody could have known," such as that he had once thrown up all over himself and crapped in his pants. He apparently had done this as a young man and didn't realize that she was describing a nearly universal situation for babies.

webthing said...

happiness? meh...

though there was a time back when i found galleries to be similar to the hospital, that has passed. in a world where i rarely ever felt i fitted in i found other artists, and by turns galleries, to be places of something common to what i wanted to be within in some weird way that was unclear, and still is. but under the cats claws, artists were starving and cussing each other. not all, some were like home. but put a bunch of hungry anything into a room and see what happens. why we were all there to look at this painting was not worth asking. but at least, we were there. something brought us there. it wasn't money coz we couldn't afford them. it was interest, it was some kind of belief. the recent work of blackwell might be garish, but its how it might be. and thank god the pretension and pursed sphincters have been relaxed a little for its imagery. its a painting with some weird kidlike musical appreciation, and its a stupid painting really, as in not scared, and you need that, coz you're too angry all the time. It's not necessarily relaxing to be told you're stupid. And how contrasting it was to be among the old world homerosity of fish and the kalm state of being among trees and holidays. Back on beach with the characters. Don't crap your pants if it doesn't suit you. I like horizons that are off. Some characters were added later, the beach was a stage. Without the characters there i'd be waiting for scarface to roll by. Hardliners don't like the Lacksy Daisy adj. Lacking spirit, liveliness, or interest. “Me yungfella won’t get up off hees lazy hole to do antin’, he’s a good for nahin’ lacksy daisy ...

Nomi Lubin said...

"Nomi- I don't understand a lot of what is said here either." (waste)

Aw, I'm not alone in my lowliness. Comforting.

ec said...

QQ: Seems to me what you say is almost right, but that he is not posturing, rather symptom of not quite there yet with the vision.
As to Jpegcritic's compositional objections, well that is a larger situation than this show alone will broach. But, going back to QQ, the slacker quality would dismiss construction in a more historical sense--almost, till you catch sight of some of the forms, which are downright masterful (see the show). I'm partial to that stacked space, but back to QQ think there's an impulse toward arbitrariness as a way to work against conformity. Hoping it will visually go somewhere.

Ryan Hancock said...

Dylan painted the cover for Planet Waves, and maybe one other.

webthing said...

has old guy retired?

CAP said...

I stopped using the tag Old Guy, for convenience (with my Blogspot account now). Announced this last post.

You could say he's retired, or just resting.

QQ:I just had a vague idea Dylan was a painter as well- Maybe Blackwell is more familiar with his work.

webthing said...

oh good, does he get a government pension?

abre los ojos, babies are sincere

CAP said...

OG doesn't exactly get a pension.

The government doesn't exactly get OG.

But OG is got a lot more than he gets.

Nomi Lubin said...

From Quisquilloso:

Nomi, I'll let the CAP'n speak for himself, but Kalm would probably be a reference to James Kalm, who writes for the Brooklyn Rail and has lots of videos of gallery walkthroughs posted on YouTube.

Yeah, I figured it must be him. But it sounded so derogatory. Not that I really know him; I've only watched a few of those videos. I've never read him; I don't know how he writes.

By the way, what do you think of the current post?

I don't enjoy commenting on work that doesn't interest me.

None said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I always thought qq was old guy too, I mean cap, same language style.
Kalm James' writing style is good, not genius but written like a painter so it's very easy to understand. I think that's important.
I know the sensible rule is not to post on things that don't interest but is that at all balanced. I mean the totally tangential alongside the devout, the pitter patter of little hooves around the iron's edge, primitive though we don't need electricity... and all that.

zipthwung said...

Then you should say what you mean.
I do; at least - at least I mean what I say -- that's the same thing, you know.
Not the same thing a bit! Why, you might just as well say that, 'I see what I eat' is the same as 'I eat what I see'!
You might just as well say, that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!
You might just as well say, that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!

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

So what exactly are you saying?

Something derogatory I hope.

waste said...

"the pitter patter of little hooves around the iron's edge, primitive though we don't need electricity... and all that"
Sorry, but I don't understand that.

zipthwung said...

Who am I talking to I don;t know. But I'm insulting waste directly, you can tell because of the midget.

Ten little Iron horses!

Is what cp said to me. By which I think

Rural Electrification Project...which could be derogatory, and in a broadcast medium would be quite something:

MPR10 Tagent Ultra Magnetic Pest Repeller

Turns the wiring of your house into a protective force field

The MPR10 works by transmitting a pulse through the electrical field that exists around the electrical wiring in any building.

Unlike ultrasonic deterrents which only work locally to the device and will not penetrate solid objects such as walls, floors ceilings, etc the MPR10 can protect all of your house by using the electrical wiring that exists within it.

The pulse irritates the nervous system of the rodents causing them discomfort and encouraging them to leave the property looking for somewhere more comfortable to live.

As the device utilises wiring which goes around all of your home to sockets, light fittings & switches etc, it is able to penetrate the areas you cannot see, ie wall cavities, floor spaces, loft areas, etc

zipthwung said...

i fyou don't know what the Rural Electrification Project is, you probably also would like to know that the internet was developed by DARPA but that it was not created to survive a nuclear attack, that's something of an urban legend.

jpegCritic said...

When I was a boy back in Tennessee,
I was told I was too young to understand,
but I can remember just like yesterday,
watching daddy’s head sink deep down in his hands.

I personally think it was about implementing a new
vector control program on board the death star.

zipthwung said...

I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made

right?

Idon'tbathe said...

hard to answer this question but, basically I think that art has always existed with, if not competed with popular culture. When the court was reading "The Canterbury Tales," the illiterates in the street were singing folk tales and watching jugglers and clowns and God knows what. It's always been this way and probably always will be.

right !

zipthwung said...

high and tight

arebours said...

I was busy painting some flowers the right color for the dutchess-but am afraid the tortillas ahm eatin are made with lard-how do I find out?(i dont eat ...lard0

CAP said...

You could ask Nigella for her recipe, or for something earthier, try Salma.

arebours said...

how greenwas my tortilla-remember when barney was an adjective and when my son dint have a tecate in the fridgerator that im gonna drink-they liked me in brookln tho-gotta get outta here-I suggest we do a exchange -like a adult student exchange-

arebours said...

remember when theresa duncan wasn't the most beautifuful woman in the whole wide world,and alice in wonderland was ...

CAP said...

Then again maybe just an 'a' on the end of the name will swing it.

jpegCritic said...

capz

capza

booya!

CAP said...

Maybe we should ask Webthing?

jpegCritic said...

ah you're right.
apologies for the rusty 90's style
branding. And the 90's booya™ expletive.

Branding skillz atrophied...
Must... Drop... paintbrush...

jpegCritic said...

and as norush says:
'You cant brand a force of nature'

CAP said...

Unless Force of Nature is a brand.

CAP said...

Sounds like most of the curators I know, Duke.

Would a posy or posse of Pinaults be any more palatable, or palliative, for a painter?

Idon'tbathe said...

but, so what ?
Higglenobblegog
Higgly
higgo
Higgs
higgs is god
Higgsy
higgung
high
high 9
high airs
high and dry
high and mighty
High as a kite

jpegCritic said...

So how's about that show
The Incomplete
at the Chelsea art museum?
99.99% complete with lipid-rich
wall hangings... I suppose the rest
of the .01% was actual wall space
(not to count the top floor, which
is closed off to the public).

two words:

food court.

jpegCritic said...

to leave with something positive:
Nearby, Thomas Eggerer at
Friedrich Petzel felt like a quiet stroll
on the beach..

CAP said...

All the installation views on the Petzel website are a total waste of time.

What a stupid idea!

isno't said...

Wow ....
argue for your limitations.
and sure enough.
they will be.
Yours.

You should not
have bane
in such a hüry.

zipthwung said...

existential valium

is not my mellow, tulips.

Not too cold to play at the beach.

You can call me owl

jpegCritic said...

There's a website?
You're right Cap'n,
That wouldn't
much of a stroll.

CAP said...

Yeah travel is dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tuGrEynG68&mode=related&search=

webthing said...

maybe this is the song these beachfools are being pipered along by (sponsored by pinault)

CAP said...

It's weird. When I visited the Petzel website earlier the page of images was different - really was just about 8 installation shots - no individual works.

But now there are the separate works beneath only about 4 installation shots....

Am I losing my mind?

jpegCritic said...

I overheard some old ladies snicker at
a particular vermeer hanging at the
Rembrandt show today: Said one
lady: 'oh, that's one of those [clearing her throat]
christian vermeers. Oh god...'
The other lady corrected her friend:
'You mean Catholic. Ughh... he was
into those early on'.

Painting is such a 'Catholic' medium.
What the f- were did they think they
were looking at? The Theses on the
Wittenberg Door? Primacy of the coded
image is everything for painting and
Catholicism alike.

Wandering amongst the crowd I couldn't help
but notice how most of the individuals had the
same look as those waiting in line to
receive the Body of Christ, or to touch
the worn toe of the Vatican's St. Peter statue....
Only they were lining up in front of Rembrandts.

Nice vermeers and Pieter de Hooch's.

jpegCritic said...

Christians turn the other cheek.

Catholics just pack a bowl
and a gun.

jpegCritic said...

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female...

Paul, you crazy gangsta in drag.

CAP said...

Is this one of those priceless shows where the lighting is reduced to around 1 foot/candle illumination, supposedly in the interests of preservation and insurance? (and even then the light horribly yellowed, such is their color temperature bias!)

I've given up fumbling around in the gloom at those, I can see more in a good scan, hard copy or on-line.

jpegCritic said...

There were vermeers in the permanent collection that I
loved... but were always placed in gloomy light. My
favorite in the met collection was finally brought to a
daring light level so that I could see every nuance.
I'm not going to look for link for it, but it's the one
with the maid sleeping, with a rectilinear composion.

I was surprised and very that they brought that canvas
to such a cool light level (i'd say around a perceptual
temp of 4500 Kelvin assuming perceptual temp at the
galleries for this type of work is around 3000K (d65
being true color rendering) And it lost some mystique,
and gained more for a painter trying to understand some
nuances.

jpegCritic said...

and there's no point in measuring
lumens or candles or whatever
intensity unless ambient light
doesn't come up to par, and
this show had adequate light.
Believe me. I'm a photographer
as well as a painter.

jpegCritic said...

Paul said...

Swing high, then swing low

jpegCritic said...

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/c/caravaggio/caravaggio_st_paul.jpg

CAP said...

It’s interesting you say you’re also a photographer JPEG, in light of your earlier criticism of the post. But it’s hard to make out your complaint since standard cameras don’t easily attribute Michael Jackson legs and Muppet heads to people.

So I wonder, is your criticism about the long lens effect – ‘flattening’ the sea behind them, or that the artist insists on picking out heads, even in a ‘wide-angle’ view, leaving bodies as stick figures, when some other formula might have been fresher or more interesting?

jpegCritic said...

It's the swing low-to-swing-high approach.

Shot 1:
Point, focus, oh but don't forget the
rule of thirds I learnd on ritz.com.

Shot 2:
Point, focus, oh but don't forget the
rule of thirds I learnd on ritz.com.

Shot 3:
Point, focus, oh but don't forget the
rule of thirds I learnd on ritz.com.

And so forth.

If you happen to shoot stick figures,
then you're just simply lucky, directorial,
or really keen on the decisive moment.

zipthwung said...

Rule of thirds is fine - but usually you just lose your vertical hold and its down the rabbit hole you go.

I agree with the photograph dealio - not many people doing foreground muddle ground background. Its shallow symbolic space and not a lot of cropping.

Agoraphobic paint handling.

I wasn't raised catholic so I dont understand this whole code stuff. Guess you had to be there.

Does the eucharist turn to flesh in your mouth?

Whats the punishment for false piety?

If people are snickering they want to be overheard. Another example of this might be the raised decibel level speech of status anxiety "I'm going to yoga class" for example.The existential loneliness inherent in such communications is painful, akin to watching the class scapegoat getting wilded at recess.

Is this painting wish fulfillment?

zipthwung said...

Im talking about figurative work. Lots of people doing architectural space as if space was the only subject worth dealing with. And who am I to disagree?

CAP said...

Architecture is for people or figures, after all. Even beaches conform to civic planning and regulations. You never really 'get away from it all'. You never really want to.

Ask Winslow Homer.

You always take what you need, never get more than one step ahead of the maddening crowd.

Idon'tbathe said...

Well, the crickets get it and the ants get it. I bet you the pigs get it. Yeah, even the plants get it. Come on now and get with it.

Anonymous said...

Conceptually the painting is interesting - Lucille Ball invades a Giorgio Morandi??

youth--less said...

madding crowd--it's maddening when everyone says maddening crowd

EA said...

que linda pintura!!!

Alana said...

hey man,

most painting is wish fulfillment.

if not all of it.

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