It’s Smart to Art!

Last week there was an array of art openings and art fairs in NYC. It’s such a great time to attempt to see everything. I say attempt, because there are not enough hours in the day (or space in the mind) to see it all. There’s the Whitney Biennial, the ADAA Art Fair, The Armory Show (which has gotten so big these days that it must contain every piece of art on the planet), VIP, Scope, PooL, Volta and Fountain Art Fairs. There’s also the off the beaten path fairs like The Art Boat, The Outsider Art Chair and The Art Kiosk. OK, I made those up, but the Fountain Art Fair did start out on a boat. 

I love viewing art. I do like how art can transport you temporarily to another place. Sometimes the other place is a world I don’t understand, but I like traveling there none-the-less. I like that looking at art can open up a dialogue for discussion. Whether you think the work you are viewing is beautiful, worthy of ownership (even as a fantasy), or just a piece of shite, it’s good to keep the cognitive brain cells active. Remember, it is just an opinion, unless it is your art.  

A few years ago, I was the curator of an exhibition that I titled Beauty Nothing More than the Promise of Happiness. The quote is from On Love by the 19th century French writer Stendhal. The book is a bit pithy, but I find in that sentiment a deceptively simple description of the art viewer’s potential reward. I hope you can find the time to look at some art and find some enchantment or happiness. 

 From The Whitney Biennial 2012:

One of the fantastic paintings by French artist Nicole Eisenman.

Another painting by Nicole Eisenman ( Leo Koenig, Inc.)

'From The Canyons to the Stars' by Joanna Malinowska (Saatchi Gallery).

 A live performance by the artist Dawn Kasper.

Erika Belle and Brian Batista at The Whitney Biennial preview.

From Rammellzee-The Equation,The Letter Racers:

Part of the installation by Rammellzee at the Suzanne Geiss Company.

 A painting by the late artist, actor and musician Rammellzee.

From The Fountain Art Fair:

I really wanted to buy this drawing, but alas...sigh.

One of the many small paintings by Brian Leo.

The "imploding biomorphic imagery" of Margaret Withers.

Katy Moran: Paintings

I first viewed the paintings of Katy Moran in London in 2006 at Stuart Shave’s then East End gallery Modern Art. I was instantly drawn into her painterly and extremely beautiful works. I could see that Ms. Moran particularly loved paintings and the sensation of painting. In her work, one can view a specific yet nonrepresentational survey of neoclassical and post-neoclassical painting.

Katy Moran  Big Wow 2007  Andrea Rosen Gallery

Ms. Moran employs varying degrees of figuration in her paintings. One might see the specific palette Eugene Delacroix used in his Odalisque, but with Moran there is no reclining woman. You may see the colors and movement of The Wave by Gustave Courbet, but you certainly will not see any water. Ms. Moran uses her signature brushstrokes to evoke elements of something finite, but leaves it to the viewer’s subjective eye to determine what that finite thing precisely is. Which is not to say she uses distortion, like Francis Bacon, for example; she deploys a similar methodical technique with a judicious use of color.

In the end her paintings feel somehow quite familiar while remaining rigorously unconfined. There are no bathers or gleaners or decorous damsels running toward a storm-swept abyss, but there is a powerful, deeply palpable presence that is universal for us all. 

Captain Beaky and His Band ll   2006  Modern Art

Lucas  2007  Andrea Rosen Gallery

 Facing Francesca   2006   Modern Art

The Fabulous Fifties!

The art historian and my dear friend Alan Rosenberg is the curator of a wonderful show, featuring American color prints from the 1950s. The exhibition is entitled ‘Image and Abstraction’ and it can be viewed at Good Design, a Carnegie Hill Modern furniture and Decorative Arts gallery located at 1305 Madison Ave.

This exhibition of rarely seen mid-century prints is showing through December 24^th, 2011. For more information, please go to: Image and Abstraction.com. Congratulations, Alan! 

Alan Rosenberg at his opening. 

One of the prints on view.

More art above an exquisite 1950s bureau.

Some period hand carved painted figurines.