Month: January 2016

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman, “Untitled: Model for Trench, Shaft and Tunnel”, 1977. Charcoal, Chalk, Adhesive Tape and Pencil on Paper, 157 x 213 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Amsterdam

Born in December of 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bruce Nauman’s artwork spans a broad range of mediums, including sculpture, neon works, photography, video, drawing, printmaking and performance art. He studied physics and mathematics from 1960 to 1964 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later art from 1965 to 1966 at the University of California under sculptor and ceramicist Robert Arneson and painter and sculptor William T. Wiley. 

In 1964, Nauman gave up painting to dedicate his work to sculpture and collaborations in performance and cinema with painter William George Allan and experimental film director Robert Nelson. He also worked as an assistant to landscape and figure painter William Thiebaud. After his graduation from the University of California with a MFA, Nauman taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966 to 1968 and at the University of California at Irvine in 1970.

Much of Bruce Nauman’s work is characterized by his interest in language, the nature of communication, and the inherent problems with language as a communication. He made use of neon as a medium in many of his works through his career. Besides bringing new life to his assemblages of ordinary objects, neon connotes a sense of advertising. Nauman would use neon for his 1985 “Hanged Man” to emphasize its private, erotic imagery.

At the end of the 1960s, Nauman was constructing enclosed, claustrophobic rooms and corridors; upon entering, visitors would experience a sense of abandonment and confinement. His 1971 “Changing Light Corridors with Rooms” consisted of a long ,dark corridor with rooms at either end containing flashing bulbs timed at different rates. Since the mid 1980s, Nauman has worked primarily in sculpture and video, in which he developed both psychological and physical disturbing themes. 

Bruce Nauman has been represented since 1968 by the Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York and Galerie Konrad Fischer in Dusseldorf and Berlin. His work is in many public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Brandhorst in Munich, the Soloman R Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, and the Tate Modern in London.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, “Grapes”, Details, Qing Dynasty Stools, 2011, Collection of Larry Warsh, New York

By reassembling Qing Dynasty furniture, which was constructed by traditional joinery techniques without glue or nails, Ai transforms the meaning and function of these cultural artefacts. Here he reconfigures a collection of wooden stools into a group resembling an organically formed cluster of grapes. The arrangement serves as a metaphor for the relationship between the individual and the collective, signifying the deferral of personal interests to those of the community and state characteristic of China’s socialist history.

The linked structure of Grapes also recalls the idea of networks and communication, which are recurrent motifs in the Ai work. Manufactured by skilled craftsmen, this type of three-legged stool was used for centuries in China by all kinds of people – the rich and the poor, in towns and in the country. Every family had one, and they were passed on through many generations.

Class Comics, “The Pack”, Issue One

Class Comics “The Pack”, Issue One

“The Pack” #1 is written by Robert Fraser (The Initiation, Beautiful Dead, The Bromance) and breathtakingly illustrated by Class Comics illustrator , Nathan Sero. Using traditional illustration along with hand-painting water-color techniques in tandem with Photoshop coloring, Sero’s art is simply enchanting.

Class Comics is a publisher which issues several series of gay erotic comic books of high quality art, captivating characters, and exciting stories. Owned and operated by Canadian illustrator Patrick Fillion and writer Robert Fraser, Class Comics has been publishing their erotic comic books since 2000. In addition to the publishing of their own titles, the company has expanded their comic and art book collections to the French and German audiences through the European publishers Bruno Gmunder and H&O Editions.

Class Comics’ website is located at: https://www.classcomics.com

Sarah Amos

Sarah Amos, “Red Walk”, Collagraph and Monoprint, 2009

“The ‘flux’ of the work, it’s musical cadence if you like, is the fusion of palimpsestic markings as viewed from the air – the dotted contours, the ploughed fields, the beautiful spatial layering that has an almost Kandinsky-like effect – with the aesthetics of Japanese paper, matt black colour (that subtly glistens on close inspection) and the tactility of the surface of the work. These intersections produce images that have some outstanding resonances: vibrations of energy that ebb and flow around the gallery space.” – Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog on Amos’s “Red Walk”

Amber McCaig

Amber McCaig, Archival Pigment Prints, 2013

Left Image: “The Knight Errant”  Right Image: “The Knight”

Australian photographer Amber McCaig explores when history and storytelling converge in the colorful and elaborate world of Medieval and Renaissance reenactors. The Society for Creative Anachronism is an organization where thousands of dedicated people are committed to researching and recreating the arts, skills, and traditions of pre-17th century Europe. Members feast, fight, and dress all in the era of their choosing, often using the transformation to alter their own personalities and temperaments. Here one can choose who they wish to be and often craft a ‘hyper’ version of themselves in a way unavailable in everyday society.

McCaig’s interest in this transformative identity plays out in painterly photographs full of dark, deep tones and stoic poses. The mixture of portrait and still life act as potential clues to who these characters may be and every detail is constructed with great care. Unlike the every day social struggles and pretensions, Imagined Histories is a world where the past and future can be all one’s own.

Larry Vienneau Jr.

Larry Vienneau Jr., “Ravens Like Shiny Things”, 2010, Intaglio Etching, 5 x 7 Inches

Larry Vienneau Jr. is a  Professor of Art at Seminole State College of Florida. His beautiful prints of ravens are available for sale. Please visit his site to see more etchings and find information on his etching process. I have a space on my wall for some of these.     https://www.etsy.com/shop/RAVENSTAMPS?section_id=7757924&ref=shopsection_leftnav_2

Please credit the artist if you reblog these images. Thanks.

Damask Wallpaper and Man

Photographer Unknown, (Damask Wallpaper and Man)

Damask is a figured fabric with a pattern visible on both sides, typically used for table linen and upholstery. The name comes from the Middle English word ‘Damaske, an early form of the name of Damascus where the fabric was first produced.

The earliest paper wall-hangings imitated the tapestries that came before them and therefore the textile designs.  The earliest known wallpaper is thought to be a damask. It was found in Master’s Lodge in Christ’s College, Cambridge. It is traditionally dated to around 1509 but is more probably late 16th century. It has a pomegranate design derived from a fabric.

Hand-painting, woodblock painting and stencilling were the main techniques for creating patterns on wallpapers. This was up until 1700 when new methods were introduced. In 1840 roller-printing wallpaper replaced hand-printing techniques. This meant that production became cheaper and much quicker.

This new affordability trickled down to the consumer and the Victorian period saw a boom in damask wallpaper. Now, the aspirational classes could introduce damask into their homes. The early Victorian era was about strong colours and larger designs. In contrast, the following Edwardian period saw less colour and more subtlety.