Art as Authority

by Marilyn Mitchell



image: This Week in New York: twi-ny.com

Currently on view at the LACMA are two pieces by Richard Serra in their Broad Contemporary Art Museum. One is called “Band” (pictured above) and the other is called “Sequence”. Both were made in 2006.

For years I thought of Serra’s art as so overpowering physically that I called it ‘fascist art’. It always felt like his intention was to crush his viewers under the sheer weight of his enormous presence. Then in about 1996 I was viewing a piece of his at the Guggenheim and I realized how there is a delicacy to his work I had not fully appreciated.

"Band" - image taken during creation in 2006

Serra balances his pieces so carefully that they induce a slight sense of fear. This intentionally tentative resting posture may be seen as weightless as a dancer on their toes. I began to recognize how transgressive his work is since it attempts to defy gravity with steel.

The two works at the Broad are phenomenal, truly great pieces. They slither and glide into place so graciously, one almost forgets their tonnage. In order to install them an entire wall had to be removed and then replaced. If you can, skip through them – allow your body to be embraced by them – explore their rhythms and their surfaces. They bring your heart to your chest and you feel the thrill of being an explorer into these caverns of art. While zipping through them, I would glance up and notice the shape of the ceiling framed above me. It reminded me of how on dark moonless nights decades ago, my family would walk on country roads lined by tall trees and the only way to see ahead would be to look at the sky.

So perhaps I love these works because they can be associated with times of early wonder. But shouldn’t all art touch us in ways that stimulates that child-like joy at seeing?

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TONITE: 5 to 8 pm

www.sdmart.org/programs-events/summer-salon-series

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from the press release

FREE SPACE: A Street Level Look at Interfaces Between Public and Private
An Installation by Megan Willis

Film Screenings: friday, june 25th
7:00pm - Lost Book Found by Jem Cohen
8:00pm - The social life of small urban spaces by William H. Whyte

ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448

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by Marilyn Mitchell





Whether it conjures up the taste of super sweet icing or the chill of a summer ice cream cone on a blistering day, Richard Allen Morris’ work stimulates the taste buds. His work is probably the only art that makes me want to stick out my tongue and feel.

There are three reasons I think Morris is a stand out artist. Number one, he keeps inventing different works using his theme of thick, abstract paint. For a lesser artist, a few paintings in this direction and they would have run out of ideas.

Morris keeps shifting the harmonies, skipping through the variations and putting out interesting compositions each time. His inventive sensibility seems infinite. One of the signs of a true artist is that as they age, their works grow in confidence and creativity. Morris may not even be at his peak yet!

Number two, he is immune to trends. Morris works on an intimate scale. None of his works aims to overwhelm you with its size or dominate your visual field. Think about contemporary art and how it has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. Museums have grown to be larger than football fields to house the supersized contemporary mentality. His work is created on a humane scale so most works are no more than a foot long in any direction. There isn’t a soul that can say they cannot find room for a Morris. I, for one, would want one in every room.

Number three, each piece is distinct and resemble jewels of precious colors without the need to strive for perfection. Morris makes paintings which often exude pure delight. His titles let us know that they are not all fun & games. One called “Lament” does have a pensive and quiet feel. By being able to touch a wide range of emotional states, Morris finds limitless ways to work with paint.

R.B. STEVENSON GALLERY
7661 Girard Ave #201
La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
858.459.3917
Exhibition dates: June 11 - July 24, 2010

Spun by Art as Authority at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Richard Gleaves

When I first started writing for Art as Authority four years ago, it looked like a serious attempt to bring intelligent and committed criticism to the San Diego art community.

But as is evident to anyone who's read this publication in the past 18 months or so, the editorial ambience has grown progressively more toxic, so I'm out of here.

I plan to continue writing art reviews, but will be sending them to Andrews Arts, if they'll have me.

Life's too short for negative rhetoric.

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

from voiceofsandiego.org



Robert Pincus


Layoffs Hit Union-Tribune Newsroom

About 35 newsroom employees were laid off at The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday, the seventh round of job cuts in the last four years and the first under the newspaper's new editor.

The layoffs, part of a planned reorganization, included familiar bylines: nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette and veteran reporters such as Anne Krueger (East County), Jeff Ristine (Just Fix It), Leslie Berestein (the U.S.-Mexico border), Michael Burge (North County) and John Marelius (politics).

It continues the slimming of the newspaper, which since late 2006 has cut more than half its staff to combat sagging advertising revenues.

Other confirmed laid-off employees included:
Leonel Sanchez, reporter
Tovin Lapan, reporter
Ozzie Roberts, reporter
Bruce Lieberman, reporter
Jeff Dillon, SignOnSanDiego.com

Robert Pincus, [art] critic

David Gaddis Smith, foreign editor
Steve Adamek, copy editor
Martin Zimmerman, copy editor
Derrik Chinn, content producer
Marcia Manna, community news writer
Leana DeKock, sports desk

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Critic as artist — A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Critic as bootlick — Happiness is a warm puppy.

Critic as clown — The soul of a politician.

Critic as dinosaur — It's all good.

Critic as gadfly — Known to be extremely noisy during flight.

Critic as god — Lama sabachthani.

Critic as journalist — Human interest story.

Critic as monster — Click me.

Critic as player — The value added preposition.

Critic as scholar — You don't know anything until you write about it.

Critic as stylist — Clemency.

Critic as teacher — Socratics.

Critic as tipster — Check it out!

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 01:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

from the press release

Editorial note: the author is one of the artists.

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from the press release






Defying Expectations: Contemporary Native American Art from the San Diego Region

Oceanside Museum of Art
July 11 – December 12
Reception July 10, 5 pm


Breaking stereotypes of Native American Art, Defying Expectations: Contemporary Native American Art from the San Diego Region examines the work of four contemporary Native American artists. Featured artists include James Luna, Gerald Clarke, Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez, and Raymond Lafferty.

The exhibition opens with a preview reception on Saturday, July 10 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Admission to the reception is $10, and free for OMA members. Following the reception at 7:00 pm will be a performance by James Luna, Native Stories: Basically Factual with Maurice Caldwell and Raymond Lafferty.

Reservations are $25, $20 for OMA members, and $10 for students with ID. Seating is limited, reservations are required and can be made by calling 760.435.3720. Performance is for mature audiences.

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from the press release






Intimate Views: West Coast Drawing

Oceanside Museum of Art
June 12 – August 13
Reception July 17, 2 pm


Drawing, in all its diversity, is an end, not just a means. Intimate Views: West Coast Drawing presents drawings with varied “intimate” subject matter in styles ranging from photorealism, to total abstraction, and expressionism. West Coast Drawing is a collective of artists that work to provide inspiration, artistic support, and career advancement for outstanding artists working in drawing media in the San Diego area. For this exhibition each member has given careful study to the concept of “Intimate Views” and has used drawing to create a work of art reflecting this interpretation.

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Spun by Art as Authority at 09:20 PM | Permalink

Aside from being an unqualified success on its own terms, the most important takeaway from There Goes the Neighborhood is its revelation by example of how thoroughly exhausted the conventional forms are for community art events: the geographical containment on one street, the temporal isolation to a few hours, the bands on stage, the booths of art, ad nauseum. All this now looks done for — the sky's the limit.


David Krimmel talks about his urban wheat field during the Free Space walking tour of North Park.







Bombshell performs on the Bus. Sean Conway conducting.

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Marilyn Mitchell



Dr. V.S. Ramachandran & Roman de Salvo

The Bronowski Art & Science Forum has been a monthly event for more than 10 years, and used to take place at the Salk Institute. The events are coordinated by Ron Newby, and have often been attended by 20 - 30 people. The venue backed out and Ron was tasked with finding a willing and affordable venue. The Neurosciences Institute's auditorium is free but required a minimum audience of 100. Ron was concerned that the event would not meet the minimum number. With listings on Facebook and with the growing email community; Ron must have been greatly surprised when this Thursday over 320 people came to hear Roman de Salvo in conversation with Dr. V.S. Ramachandran. It literally was a standing room-only event.

They each had 15 - 20 minutes to speak separately and then they sat down together and the audience had a chance to ask questions. Roman showed at least a dozen of his works as a PowerPoint-type presentation. Many of his works are finely crafted sculptural pieces that juxtapose diverse materials and play on our sense of how things 'should' be. Some of his pieces are playful enough to create laughter. He said he enjoys working with the element of surprise and with irony. He called himself, "A conceptual artist that works with my hands".

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist and his talk was focused on his analysis of some so-called 'artistic universals'. He asked, "How does the brain respond to art?" He spoke of how we can all identify 'kitsch' yet stating what the difference is between art and kitsch is not obvious. He spoke of the concept of "rasa" — a term from India that means essentially spirit. He asked how does an artist capture rasa? Personally, that is a question that I find very intriguing. As an artist, if I create something that has a sense of its own life, I feel I have succeeded. In my opinion, rasa is not simply found in representational styles, though Rembrandt is someone that frequently was able to capture the rasa of his subjects. For abstract works, though, the masters gave extraordinary rasa to their works. Think of a Rothko or a Ryman and their works hum with a vital spirit unlike anyone else's work.

Ramachandran spoke of how one third of our brains are dedicated to visual perception, and how there are over thirty areas of the brain where visual information is processed. Our perception of visual information has been shown to alter our perception of many other things, including pain. I would go so far as to say that much of scientific progress can be attributed to our increasingly accurate visual understanding of the material world due to improved technology and the increased understanding of actual function. In other words, the understanding of processes is often due to our ability to see things better.

During their conversation with the audience, Roman posed the question, "What do we live for — moments of comfort or moments of intensity?" He answered that the moments of intensity experienced while creating his art are what he lives for and I would agree, the artist's path is generally not one of comfort.

The evening was a terrific success, and I look forward to more dynamic conversations between artists and scientists. Check out the website at http://www.bronowskiforum.org/Site/Home.html for more info.

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 12:48 PM | Permalink

from the flyer







There Goes the Neighborhood! is a four-day event that not only hopes to shed light on issues of art and its relationship to a specific community, but to also re-examine, through artistic interventions, some aspects of the neighborhood that are sometimes overlooked. There Goes the Neighborhood! has been organized by a group of artists, architects, and interested parties as a way to initiate a conversation about the dynamics of the neighborhood. Our intention, and why you are now reading this, is to include as many people in the discussion as possible. We hope to see to you there!

Please contact us with any questions or to RSVP for one of the workshops!

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"Thomas Kinkade is creating some of his most compelling imagery and the best art of his life, and we expect he will continue to do so for many more years,'' Frank Teruel, chief operating officer for the Kinkade family of companies, said in a prepared statement. "This is a positive step for Pacific Metro and the entire Kinkade group of companies.''

    — Kinkade manufacturing arm files for bankruptcy protection, San Jose Mercury News

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Drawing by Dennis commemorating the response she received upon barely beginning to express even the slightest reservations over Ed Ruscha.

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