another painting

another, my painting.

2006 Guggenheimers

Somebody I knew from back in the day has won a Guggenheim for poetry - Daisy Fried! Wow! I knew she had some books and was doing well, and that she had won a Pew a number of years ago, but.. wow! She was friends with my roommates, The Knife And Fork Band, and then started working at the bookstore. She was really great, so I am happy for her.

Now I've googled The Knife And Fork Band and they are still together! We had a big two-story four-bedroom apartment, with an open space on the second floor where they would practice. My room was just off this and I would paint my Humbertos while they were practicing, so much creative energy. They are/were sort of folksy, so when they weren't practicing I'd crank Nirvana. It was 1991.

Compelled to google all the art Guggenheimers, here they are -

Olive Ayhens, Artist, Brooklyn, New York: Painting
Markus Baenziger, Artist,
Hilary Brace, Artist, Santa Barbara, California: Drawing
Marco Breuer, Photographer, Hudson, New York
Peter Fend, Artist, Berlin, Germany: Visual art
Judy Fox, Artist, New York City: Sculpture
Dana Frankfort, Artist, Long Island City, New York: Painting
Daisy Fried, Poet, Northampton, Massachusetts; Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence, Smith College: Poetry.
Maria Elena González, Artist, Brooklyn, New York: Sculpture and installation art.
Katie Grinnan, Artist,Los Angeles; Lecturer, University of California, Irvine: Sculpture.
Cynthia Lin, Artist, New York City; Guest Faculty in Visual Arts, Sarah Lawrence College: Drawing and painting
Wilbur Niewald, Artist, Mission, Kansas; Professor of Painting Emeritus, Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri: Painting.
Roxy Paine, Artist, Brooklyn, New York: Sculpture.
George Quasha, Video Artist, Barrytown, New York: Video
Paul Sattler, Artist, Greenfield Center, New York; Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Skidmore College: Painting
Carl Sander Socolow, Photographer, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Photography
Jeff Talman, Sound Artist, Brooklyn, New York; Assistant Professor of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College: Sound Art
Anthony Tasset, Artist, Oak Park, Illinois; Professor, School of Art and Design, College of Architecture and the Arts, University of Illinois, Chicago: Sculpture.
Jackie Tileston, Artist, Philadelphia; Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania: Painting.
Hilary Wilder, Artist, Houston; Instructor, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Painting and installation art

I am only familiar with four of these artists. There are so many artists!!!

a shunga painting

This is my ukiyo-e shunga painting. Ukiyo-e was a style, and shunga is the term for the erotic examples. Most examples of ukiyo-e are woodblock prints, but this is an original painting.

It was given to me maybe fourteen years ago (or so) by a girlfriend in Philadelphia, before I had any idea I would end up spending so much time in Japan. I think she got it very cheap someplace, and just thought I would like it. I had always assumed it was a print also, and never looked at it closely until after I'd spent a number of years in Japan and became more familiar with the art and culture.

I took a washi papermaking workshop, learned about the screens and all that stuff, and so a few years after that on a trip back to the States pulled out my old shunga to take a closer look at the paper. This was probably the first time I ever took this thing out of it's archival matting, although I had never even had it framed, and when I held it up to the light and looked at it from the back I was very surprised to discover that it wasn't a print, but a painting. You can see all the brushstrokes (the paper is very thin). That really blew me away because this thing is FINE. Those hairs and eyebrows and eyes and everything are extremely fine. Here it is at about life-size, look at the features. Now, here it is much larger.

Look at those eyes and eyebrows! Look at her hairline. You can even see a couple hairs on her nipple, some underdrawing, and places where the artist made corrections. It is incredible.

I took it to the museum a couple years ago and was told that those notches along the bottom mean it came from an album, a book of pictures, but that person was not able to identify who the artist might have been. There are no markings, signs, or seals on the piece.

Does anybody know anything? The museum curator I met with was not enough of an expert on ukiyo-e to tell me much more than I already thought, and museum policy forbids appraisals. I would like to show this to a real EXPERT, and also find out how much it might be worth.

painting

my painting.

Morris Yarowsky, second post

Yesterday I mentioned to a friend that Morris Yarowsky had passed away, not knowing if they even had any relationship, and it turned out that this friend had helped Morris pack up and move his studio from Fulton Hill to Baltimore. He wasn't aware Morris had died.

Getting home tonight I find that a friend of Morris has sent the following e-mail -

"I saw your notes about Professor Yarowsky on your blog. I was Morris' good friend and I was very heartened to see the kind words of his former students. I have sent the comments from your blog to his wife and son. I would be very interested to know of any memorial efforts and if you need any assistance re any memorial material please let me know. I have attached the obituary which appeared in the Washington Post this week."

Dennis shared (in the previous post's comments) that VCU/PAPR is preparing a book with drawings and memories and photos. Materials can be dropped off to Richard Roth at his office, or email rroth@vcu.edu for more info.

Below is Morris' Washington Post obituary, followed by the comments from the previous post. Please feel free to leave further comments, the will probably be forwarded to his family.

Obituaries, Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Page B07, Morris Yarowsky, Artist, Professor -

"Morris Yarowsky, 73, an artist and art professor, died of pancreatic cancer March 20 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson, Md. He lived in Towson.

Mr. Yarowsky taught painting, art theory and criticism at numerous schools, including Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond for the past 35 years, commuting there from his homes in Montgomery and Howard counties.

His work was shown in galleries and museums in the United States and Israel. An abstract impressionist, he borrowed images from popular culture to create a signature style. During a 1984 show at the old Anton Gallery, Washington Post critic Paul Richard said, "Yarowsky, who was painting in San Francisco in the 1950s, borrows without shame from Popeye and Picasso, from Gorky and Guston, but his paintings are protected by their subtle, knowing wryness."

He was born in Pottsville, Pa., and graduated from Dartmouth University. He received a master's degree in philosophy from Columbia University, then moved to the West Coast, where he received a master's degree in fine arts from what is now the California College of Arts in Oakland, Calif., in 1959. Mr. Yarowsky began teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute and became its dean.

In 1970, he moved east and began teaching at VCU, from which he retired in 2005.

An amateur musician since boyhood, Mr. Yarowsky played viola in string quartets and the Richmond Community Orchestra.

His first marriage, to Harriet Yarowsky, ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Pei Feng, of Towson; a son from his first marriage, Max Yarowsky of New York; two stepsons, Steve Wang and Mike Wang, both of Los Angeles; and three sisters."

Comments from the previous post -

Dennis Matthews said...
hey martin, i received an email from Roth about last week, it was actually about 3 weeks ago. Very sad, he will be missed most definitely. He went pretty quickly from what I hear, he had been sick for a little while. Let people know that they are preparing a book with drawings and memories and photos. The stuff can be dropped off to Roth at his office or they can email rroth@vcu.edu for more info. Dennis

w said...
Sorry to hear this - I enjoyed his painting and criticism classes. I liked his work too...

martin said...
i enjoyed his class also. he was very open-minded and supportive.

tmmartin said...
Very sad to hear this news. He will be missed.

Anonymous said...
Once he said "Painting is like the piano," meaning it's limited, but vast. I hope he said this to lots of people.

vgriswold said...
I am sorry to hear about Prof. Yarowsky's passing. His criticism courses profoundly affected my attitudes and approach to making and viewing art. He was a great teacher.

Stefan Abrams

Saw this show of photographs in Philadelphia last month, but haven't posted on it for so long because I forgot the photographer's name - his name is Stefan Abrams!

We took a walk over to the Fabric Workshop/Vox Populi /Asian Arts Initative building after visiting the PAFA galleries. Vox had, I think, three different shows up - but this was my favorite. All of the photos are of people sitting in cars and just... intently thinking. What are they thinking about? So serious. Then you realize that it is all the same car and start to understand the reflected lights and realize that these photos were taken at an auto show or inside a car dealership. The exhibition was called Auto Show; I'm glad that I don't usually read anything about a show before first looking, it's better to get it yourself.


These are my cell-phone pictures of the artist's pictures, go to this vox pop page and hit his images to see them better. Much blacker, sharper, and more starry.


They are in a very public place, sitting inside a glass-enclosed something everybody is staring at, but most look so contemplative.


Maybe he is even thinking about something else, something other than the car. Something he's hoping for, or regrets.


Curve of wheel, curve of brim, curve of fur-lined hood. Black, brown, and gold. Glass, fur, cloth, plastic, sparkly ring. Diagonals of brim, telephone antenna, and finger.


She is remembering something. The car at the auto-show is a magic thinking machine. If I were an alien observing a car show, that's what I would conclude.


Lost in thought.

some various things about art, PLUS

Nonesuch Call To Artists - Nonesuch is holding an open call for the next show, Thrift Store Art Edit. They are looking for "recycled" art - something you found or got at a thrift store and made art out of. A re-worked painting, a screen-printed or embroidered clothing, sculpture. Anything! Deadline is May 3rd for the opening May 5th.

producto placemento - a long while back I was sent a copy of Calvin Tomkins' Rauschenberg book Off the Wall, with the understanding that I would mention it on the world-famous trend-setting anaba - but I never did. I only read it. Then a few weeks ago the same publisher sent me another book! I got a nice big artbook called Calder/Miro, all about their friendship, full of images. I'm so surprised they sent me another book when I didn't do anything about the first one - so... THANKS Sam!

I can't find the Calder/Miro book on their site, so no link, sorry. I've enjoyed them both, took a lot of notes on the Rauschenberg, and am getting some inspiration from the Calder/Miro book.

more on producto placemento - they must have sent that Rauschenberg book to every artblogger because I saw it everywhere!!! It was even very heavily lifted from in Michael Kimmelman's NYTimes review of the Rauschenberg show.

plea for more producto placemento - hello digital camera company? computer company? maybe local giants Phillip Morris or Capital One would like to sponsor anaba? mmmm, cigarettes and credit cards, so nice! love them!


Chris Ashley - this is such a good artblog. He posts excellent html drawings almost every day, and sometimes makes longer posts about art that he is thinking about. This recent post on Gainsborough's brushstrokes was so invigorating and informative; it was good to see and think about in relation to the Katherine Bernhardt painting posted on PaintersNYC at about the same time.


The following week Chris posted the above Tao-chi painting, to show how that had informed some of his own recent work. That was exciting to see because I have also looked at this Tao-chi painting; you can see the same mountains and a little guy here, the dots and a little guy here (the guy in the shack is hard to see, he's on the left), more dots and the person becomes the mountain here. It is fun to see where paintings come from - Wendy White has posted some of her work in comparison with a Frederick Church I've never seen, although I think she discovered the Church maybe after she had made the painting. That happens a lot too.

Chris Ashley's essay on the Tao-chi painting is here.


Chris Ashley, La Loma (Berkeley Painting #4), 2006, oil and aluminum Rust-oleum on clear acrylic on linen, 23 x 17 in

Sarah McEneaney - Sarah's show at Tibor De Nagy opens April 27th. Yay to Sarah McEneaney!

Hungry Hyena came to Richmond.


I found a detail of my rainbow painting on the ADA site. This is one of those paintings that I never got a slide or a good picture of, you may have seen bits and pieces of it in other posts. Peter Halley's hand is in front of that little figure here. I like her thread hair.

He'll Draw You - this artist named Brock will draw you. You send him a photo or a link to a photo and he'll make a drawing and send it to you. He's a student in Idaho and is doing it for fun, networking, and practice.

Race Photos!!! - Not art, sorry. Ham, I am. 49 minutes, 13 seconds!!!

Rachel Hayes

Rachel Hayes is showing some GOOD STUFF at ADA Gallery -


Polka Dot Mystery Box - What is it??? I don't know, it is a mystery. This backpack-bag is open on the bottom, but that's okay because on the moon there is zero gravity.


detail, looking inside at the dots.


Blasts - this photo is from an installation at the Fahrenheit Gallery in Kansas City, but she's got some blasts up at ADA. They are like superhero things to me; graphic, energetic, colorful and plastic - like Batman Pows! and Kracks! and reminiscent of the insignia on some of the characters: Superman's S, Flash's lightning bolt, The Riddler's question mark.

Also like the (stars part of the) flag or a shot-up building. That's an interesting combination - the American flag, cartoon heroism, and violence.


Soft Ice - a school of giant shower-caps or jellyfish, they are fixed on the wall but give the impression of being ready to move, ready to breathe. Round but floppy.

That's sculptor Tim Devoe looking at them, he's good too.


Not sure what this plastic layered picnic tarp is called, but isn't it nice? Anni and Josef Albers' space station honeymoon quilt. I stole this last photo from Warren Craghead's drawer.

This is the same Rachel Hayes that made the excellent looking Sculpture Center installation. She makes big installation things and can do good smaller stuff like what she has at ADA. I am not into her "drawings" at all - small works on paper with collage - but love almost everything else. She must be super busy right now; she's got this show up and is included in 1708 Gallery's upcoming Pulse show, and will also have her graduating thesis exhibition very soon (she is a VCU MFA).

Rachel received one of the four 2005-2006 Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowships in Sculpture, along with Danielle Riede. Panelists were Mark E. Brown, David Furchgott, and Greg Henry.

Morris Yarowsky

Someone told me today that recently retired VCU professor Morris Yarowsky passed away last week.

dumbo show

Photos from the DUMBO show! Curated by Jessica Hough!


Douglas Paulson and Ward Shelley's labyrinth workshop of stored ideas.


João Onofre video of a vulture flying around his studio. It sounds great clawing around on the floor, like a tap dancer.


Byron Kim painting. Text is written in the white part, but too faint to see here. He made I don't know how many paintings like this every day, painting the weather and sky and adding a little diaristic text at the bottom.


Chrissy Conant's confessions.


Tom Burkhardt's shelf, and he has a video to the left of this.


That is my painting in the sort of center way back there!! My wall of funny/sad letters is on the left. Byron Kim's paintings are on the right. Douglas Paulson and Ward Shelley's boxes are in the foreground. You can't see my photographs in this shot, they are on the wall behind that column to the left of my painting.


My collection of letters. I have a lot of space!

As seen in TIME OUT NEW YORK and THE NEW YORKER!

THANK YOU Jessica Hough, Joy Glidden, and Chris Herbeck!!!!

Hali Emminger

It is Student Show Season! The Anderson Gallery is FULL of a juried selection of undergraduate work, and next will host two consecutive thesis shows (the work of the graduating MFA's). I think the first year grad students also have candidacy shows going up somewhere.

Hali Emminger has some of my favorite work in the show. She's the same artist that did the Goat Boy I flipped for last year, so I was very happy to see more good stuff from her. Also very much enjoyed the work of Jeremy Carpel and Ella Watson. Not sure if I will make another anaba post on this show, but you can see their work and some of the other student's stuff on this flickr set of the vcu student shows. I'll add more photos to the set after the other shows open.


Goat Boy - This is the Goat Boy I talked about last year!!! He isn't in the show, just thought I would show him to you now that I know how to post photos.


Scorched Ball - The open interior is cardboard, but the outside is different from every side. All of those little round shingles are like bread or something, underneath are plastic bags. The white top is a blanket, and there are feathers on the other side. It is kind of like an ostrich or an emu on it's skinny legs, or maybe a comet with a limp puttered-out tail.




Mirror Cushion. The mirror part is a soft bulging cushion. Something from fairy-tale world, the tiniest bit sinister. A void.

Diana Al Hadid

The AIM show I saw a couple of weeks ago has been reviewed in (the Westchester edition of) the NYTimes by Benjamin Gennochio, who has some very positive things to say about Diana's work -

"A wonderful installation-sculpture by Diana Al-Hadid (born in Syria, living in New York City) disrupts the prevailing two-dimensional bias. Prominently placed in the middle of the main room, it looks like an outsize disintegrating phonograph or a melting marzipan flower of some sort. Frankly, I have no idea what it is. But it announces a young artist of unusual imagination and creativity. This is by far the most ambitious, thoughtful and original work of art here."









Gennochio also like another piece I talked about, Alison Ward's funny burlesque wolf video -



"Alison Ward invites us to step into a peep-show booth to watch short films of go-go dancing predators chasing seminaked women through the woods. It is a spoof of horror movies, partly, but also a caricature of childhood fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. Framed mock movie posters surround the viewing booth, announcing coming attractions. I can't wait to see them."

AIM 26, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse (at165th Street), through July 2. Information: (718) 681-6000 or bronxmuseum.org

Gertrude Abercrombie, again maybe, plus

Yesterday I included a bunch of stuff after those Gertrude Abercrombie paintings, but then it all got lost somehow. I will try again.

Those two paintings posted below were not included in the excellent show of Chicago artists (Ivan Albright, Roger Brown, Jim Nutt, Ray Yoshida) I saw at PAFA last week, I found those two pictures after looking her up. Abercrombie was represented by Self-Portrait of My Sister, 1941 and Girl Searching, 1945.

I also took crummy illicit cell-phone shots of the Suellen Rocca and Barbara Rossi paintings. Mike Martin, you would have liked that Barbara Rossi; it's acrylic under plexiglass, with many many little dots and dot-lines painted on top of the plexiglass. There is space between the plexiglass and the painting, so all the tiny dots cast tiny shadows. Kind of Jonathan Lasker, kind of Jovi Schnell, in braille.

It is nice to return to a city you haven't lived in for many years and run into people everywhere. Chuck More was sitting on the steps of the PAFA Museum, waiting for a friend. His gallery has closed, I think he is now dealing privately or something. It was SUPER to see my old figure drawing teacher from PCA, Al Gury, inside the museum. I hadn't even noticed him, he was walking by and recognized me. Al was an EXCELLENT teacher, so encouraging and supportive. A favorite. Al is now the head of the painting department at PAFA! Wow!! Al said that another one of my favorite teachers from that time is also teaching at PAFA - Renee Foulks. The title is not quite correct (unless she changed it) on her gallery's website, but that's me in one of those drawings! That's weird to see.

Also ran into Lamont Steptoe on the street and learned that he was a 2005 American Book Award recipient! Lamont and I made the pilgrimmage to Ground Zero together in October 2001. Lamont has been at it for a long hard time. Congratulations to Lamont!!

RELATED: Roberta's post on the show here, curator Robert Cozzolino's response here.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Just spent a long time on stuff that got DELETED!!! Ugh, I hate that!

Short Version: This is Gertrude Abercrombie.

More later... maybe...

Marshall Glasier, for FB

Marshall Glasier.

Matt Connors via Barry Hoggard, plus

Matt Connors painting photographed and first posted by Barry Hoggard. I didn't get anything from this when I saw the show, but looking at Barry's photo I am into it. Why? Sometimes I see things I like on-line that are disappointing in life, and vice-versa. I should have looked at these Connors paintings longer, I think. Barry also has some good photos of the Chris Dorland paintings.


Elana Herzog piece photographed by Barry Hoggard. This is one of the artists I liked from Surface Charge.

dArt

dArt international on... Richmond.

Three articles -

Steve Rockwell's main article on... Richmond, here. Recent VCU grad Steve Jones has an article on VCU, but no link. VCU visiting artist Cece Cole reviewed at VCU's Solvent Space (link is NYArts, which published the same review; the dArt article doesn't have it on-line).

I think we can safely say that Richmond has been covered. No stone was left unturned!

Thanks dArt! Congratulations must also go out to Joe Seipel, for his selfless promotion of... Richmond art and artists! I think. Throw that man a towel!

what?!? no anaba mention???

Halprin Was Here.

This is where Richmond's Lawrence Halprin Fountain and sculpture garden used to be.

Here comes trouble. I'm hungry! Let's chow down on some art!

Lawrence Halprin's Ira Keller Fountain, in Portland.
Lawrence Halprin's Levi Plaza Fountain, in San Francisco.
Lawrence Halprin's Freeway Park Fountain, in Seattle.

Lawrence Halprin Fountain Saved!.... in Olympia.
Lawrence Halprin Fountain Saved!.... in San Francisco (not the Levi Plaza one, a different one).

Maybe we can make up for this by having Maurizio Cattelan bury something under the new museum, I mean, three-story glass atrium? Wow, what a coup! A Maurizio Cattelan! Buried right under our own three-story glass atrium!

PAFA visit, #1

Went to the PAFA Museum on Sunday, maybe the most gorgeous museum ever? I've visited many times, but this time I was visiting with an architect, and she pointed out all sorts of things I had never thought about or noticed; like the exposed red I-beams with their little white flower flourishes, the vestigial outlines of removed chair rails, the fact that some of the woodwork was not original and that the "wood-grain" we were looking at was in fact trompe l'oeil painted to match the original stuff nearby. She even (with permission) opened and closed the pocket doors.

Every architect with hopes or plans to ever design a museum should visit this building. Frank Furness was a STAR, and he created something over-the-top EXTRAORDINARY, but it is also a great place to see art (form follows function?). We couldn't help but think about the gazillion dollar VMFA expansion - and how they have completely maxed out their window/glass allowance, the triple-height atrium, and the destruction of Lawrence Halprin's fountain and sculpture garden. Someone please update me if it has somehow been saved, or if you have destruction photos you would like to anonymously send.


This painting is INCREDIBLE. Please understand how good it is by knowing that this photo was taken with the same shitty cell-phone camera used for most of my photos, and look at the clarity and light. It is a big painting.


It's like Richter, one hundred years before. I don't have my notes with the artist's name, I'll have to update later.

UPDATE: Daniel Ridgway Knight(1839-1924), Hailing the Ferry, 1888, Oil on canvas, 64 1/2 x 83 1/8 in.


Noah's Ark. Noah detail. Penguin. Everything is solid.

UPDATE: Charles Wilson Peale, Noah and His Ark (after Charles Catton), 1819. Click on that title to see a non-cellphone image.


See the bat? See the whale's spout?


Horace Pippin, Abe Lincoln, the Good Samaritan, 1943. Saw a great Horace Pippin show here years ago. I think that might be the show being reviewed in Sarah McEneaney's imagined portrait of Ed Sozanski, that is definitely a Pippin in the background.

Look at that Black Avenger in this Horace Pippin painting. That is so weird. I'd like to see that on Monument Avenue.


Edwin Dickinson, Andrée's Balloon, 1928. Click on the title and then click on that image to see it much better.

more later...

PLUS: Did you know that Frank Furness nominated himself for the Congressional Medal of Honor... and WON!

Edna Andrade

After Saturday morning's race I jumped on my bicycle to hurry home for a shower and catch a ride to Philadelphia. The Art Alliance was closed for the day but they were setting up for a wedding reception so I got to see that Carson Fox is included in a small group show there. Carson's show at 1708 Gallery opens April 7th. Also saw that Susan Jamison is featured on the cover of the Mid-Atlantic edition of the Gallery Guide! Congratulations, Susan!

After the Art Alliance I walked down the street to the Print Center and saw an exhibition of Edna Andrade prints. Edna was born in 1917 and is still painting. She's well-regarded in Philadelphia but NOT NEARLY as well-known elsewhere as she should be. Her next show at Locks Gallery opens April 21st.


Moon Clouds, 1970 - yes, my colors are not the greatest; can i get a blog sponsor to buy me a camera?


Silver Turn, 1971 - i think these prints are $1,600 apiece, from original editions of 35.

(i might have mixed the titles up)

YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THOSE IMAGES TO SEE THEM BETTER.

Sesom was here. Plus... did it!

Walked into a bathroom Friday night and saw sticky evidence of the existence of Sesom. He is seeping into the world, maybe, looking for vegans to recruit. The colors in reality are better - yellow, white, and pink. I need a real camera.

PLUS: Did it! I ran a 10K Saturday morning. I never ran in a race before.

time: 00:49:13!!!
overall: 1391 (out of 20,000+)
overall in division: 177 (men, age 35-39)
overall in gender: 1131