by Kevin Freitas
The complete video taped session of the "Meet the Press" panel discussion, held at Art Produce Gallery several weeks ago, can now be viewed online. It is a discussion that is absolutely needed and far from being over. You can link to the videos here.
A quick poll:
by Kevin Freitas - thanks to KAI ONE for the video discovery
It is only fitting to conclude this year’s CowParade event – banished to La Jolla Shores and suffering from unprecedented economic woes, general lack of interest and a theft – by offering yet another point of view on the relevancy of public art to its public. This time by Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes irascible commentator and opinion maker who asks, “When did bright colored plastic cows, pigs, and rabbits get to be art?” Firmly stating, “I don’t like most of the stuff passing for art and it’s everywhere” while prattling off a litany of sculptors and cities that have allegedly peddled this kind of stuff.
Rooney calls for a return to more traditional sculpture (meaning “something he can understand”) citing as an example that “a writer ought to be able to write simple sentences before he tries to be a poet” as the camera pulls back from a larger-than-life bronze casting of General Grant(?) to reveal an abstract sculpture by Mark di Suvero in the same park. As proof, he shows us an earlier work by Picasso – a torso carved in marble, and then a later work in steel, the “Chicago Picasso” situated in Daley Plaza. “Picasso earned the right to do anything he wants”, says Rooney. Indeed he did.
by Kevin Freitas
from The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
by Kevin Freitas
by Kevin Freitas
Anjali Gupta raises an interesting question at this year's College Art Association's annual conference, the topic: Can Anyone Be a Critic? The Collision between Traditional Criticism and Blogging. You can read what she has to say on the subject, by visiting the Texas Visual Art online blog at Glasstire. Is Blogging Criticism? is of course, of great interest to me since I try to do just that, and do it here on Art as Authority in blog format. I think it's a fair question and would myself, answer yes, believing that criticism should adapt to different mediums and technologies (emphasis on the non-traditional), as much as art has, in the last twenty-five years.
So, how would you answer? Feel free to leave a comment if your thoughts run beyond a simple yes or no.
photo by p*rock
sculpture by French artist César
by Kevin Freitas
Taking a direct cue from Edward Winkleman's blog and a recent poll he conducted, I decided to find out, who's potentially reading Art as Authority. So, as The Who start singing in my head, Who are you, ... I really wanna know. kf
I woke up in a Soho doorwayA policeman knew my name
He said 'You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away'I staggered back to the underground
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwin' punches around
And preachin' from my chairchorus:
Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
etc.
(image: senatorpeter6)
by Kevin Freitas
(curatorial statement, California Center for the Arts, Escondido for "Innocence is Questionable")
Conceived to promote and encourage dialogue, reflection, and social interaction about San Diego ’s artistic and cultural life, the exhibition, Innocence is Questionable, will celebrate the accomplishments of six renowned local artists: Jean Lowe, Ernest Silva, Raul Guererro, Iana Quesnell, May-Ling Martinez, and Yvonne Venegas, all recipients of the 2006/2007 San Diego Art Prize. By bringing awareness to the contemporary landscape and our place within it, each artist struggles with time and its impact on community, place, and the individual. By looking at historical precedents, mapping the physical environment and documenting the interconnectedness of all things, each artist explores one’s own history—how it’s constructed, where it begins and ends. Using the familiar, and sometimes the banal, to draw the viewer in, they make reference to the subtle complexities of an idealized image of the past in the face of the reality of the present. Ultimately, what each of these artists question is whether or not the folly of the world is the responsibility of man? California Center for the Arts, Escondido March 1 - May 31, 2008
USS San Diego - 1915
(image: The California State Military Museum)
"Jane Birkin" - Julien Schnabel
by Kevin Freitas
Anne Ellaway, Sally Macintyre and Xavier Bonnefoy may not be household names to you and me, and you’re not likely to know what they do as a profession – Ellaway and Macintyre are the Senior researcher and Director of the MRC Social and Public Health Services Unit, at the University of Glasgow and Bonnefoy is the Regional adviser for WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany. However, they just might know what leads to obesity in adults, other than the classic reason which is the imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, but you add to that the newest factor they have surmised is tipping the balance and you get - GRAFFITI ! Yep, you read it here first folks.
The co-authors findings were published in 2005 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. which is part of the BMA or British Medical Association. The authors hypothesized that “areas which are pleasant with lots of greenery and few incivilities might encourage people to take exercise and thereby influence levels of obesity.”
(BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.38575.664549.F7)
Those “incivilities” they’re referring to would be in short, litter, graffiti and dog shit. Most of the data that they based their study on came from the LARES study (Large Analysis of European Housing and Health Status) realized in 2002-3 and conducted in eight European countries “varying in their wealth, culture, and history.” The eight cities and countries were Angers, France; Bonn, Germany; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal; Forli, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland and Vilnius, Lithuania.
