Praeterita

From a letter by Van Gogh dated 20 August, 1882: "I feel that I can do even better by toiling away and trying things out, and I am absolutely determined to do better, no matter how much time or trouble it may take."   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Faith Puleston is a person who has recently become a follower of this blog. When I emailed her to thank her for doing so, I discovered that Faith had a career as an opera singer for many years from the 1960s to the 1990s, mainly in Germany. If you follow this link, you’ll see some great photos of her taking the lead in some pretty impressive roles (Amneris from ‘Aida’ at Covent Garden; Waltraute in ‘Gotterdammerung’; Octavian in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’): http://faithpuleston.net/html/ _stage.html I’ve loved opera all my life, and the voices that are required to sing opera (and Liede) are still my favourite kinds of voices (note to reader and bluegrass fan Ted Dawson: Sorry, Ted). Whenever anyone in the art world talks excitedly about multimedia art as if it’s the great new frontier, I always point out that opera was the first and is still the greatest multimedia art, combining singing, instrumental playing, acting (sort of), and all the arts of staged theatre. And almost all of it is the...

From a letter by Van Gogh dated 21 July, 1882: "What I would say with respect to the difference between old & present-day art is - perhaps the modern artists are deeper thinkers." He was thinking of Millet, and Courbet, and perhaps Monet, but still ...   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

It seems appropriate, in the 200th  post for this blog named after the autobiography (loosely called) of John Ruskin, to start referring to the great man and his works more often. I’ll begin by quoting the subtitle of ‘Praeterita’:    Outlines of scenes and thoughts, perhaps worthy of memory in my past life. Ruskin describes his first memory of being introduced to the art of painting as follows. When he was three and a half years old, his parents took him to have his portrait painted by the celebrated portraitist James Northcote, about which Ruskin writes: “I think it should be related also that having, as aforesaid, been steadily whipped If I was troublesome, my formed habit of serenity was greatly pleasing to the old painter; for I sat contentedly motionless, counting the holes in his carpet, or watching him squeeze his paints out of its bladders, -- a beautiful operation, indeed, to my thinking; -- but I do not remember taking any interest in Mr. Northcote’s applicat...

Another accordion book rolls off the Hartigan studio press: It was created using the same procedure as previous examples of its kind: take damaged photos of drawings, family photos, photos and drawings of mine buildings, and superimpose them on heavy printmaking paper; write a short phrase for each print, then lightly edit them so that they run together better; print text onto images; bish-bosh, sorted. Here is an example page:   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

From a letter by Van Gogh dated c. 14-18 March 1882: "If you become a painter, one of the things that would surprise you is that painting and everything connected with it is quite hard work in physical terms. Leaving aside the mental exertion, that hard thought, it demands considerable physical effort, and that day after day."   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Thomas Kinkade (sorry, that's too easy). Julian Schnabel. Marina Abramovic. Bill Viola. Roni Horn. Jeff Koons. Takashi Murakami. Damien Hirst. Damien Hirst. Damien Hirst. However, if Damien, who is known to buy lots of contemporary art, were to shell out for some of my work, he would instantly be removed from this list and installed at the head of the other list labelled 'Greatest Living Artists and All-Round Geniuses.'   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Number 28 in the series of Meditations on Art is on a painting by Frida Kahlo from 1954 (I think), in which I consider her entire life and oeuvre, and offer an irreverent comment on the 'cult of Frida', all in under two minutes.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

From a letter by Van Gogh dated 3 January, 1882: "It's gratifying, isn't it, Theo, when there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm seeing a little bit of light now. It's gratifying to draw a human being, something alive -- it may be damned difficult, but it's wonderful anyway."   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

In the final post from Art Basel 2010, guest blogger Deborah Doering considers work from the satellite fairs that co-exist with the main event. As if Halls 1 and 2 of Art Basel were not enough to satisfy my visual appetite, I also sampled selections of art at the smaller "satellite" fairs, Volte, Liste, and Scope, which I reached by a short tram ride from the center of Basel. I must admit that by the time I reached the satellite fairs I was bordering on visual overload and physical exhaustion. I took many photos, but failed to note names of artists and galleries as I had done at Art Basel. I did, however, have some very good conversations with gallerists at the smaller fairs, most of whom were very happy to speak with visitors. If you're interested in find out about the selling record at the smaller fairs, click on the following links: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34980/rain-and-exhaustion-keep-scope-from-soaring-at-basel/ http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/3...

Speaking of Ray Bradbury, as I was a few weeks ago , I was inspired a few years ago to produce a big linocut based on Bradbury’s story “The Illustrated Man.” The block is buried in a drawer somewhere, half-forgotten, and I only remember it whenever I see Sam Weller. At 24” x 18”, it’s fairly large. A print from the edition is now in the Ray Bradbury Archive, which is run by a dedicated chap in Indiana. I don’t think it’s too bad:   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

From a letter by Van Gogh dated 22 July, 1882: "What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity or an eccentric or an obnoxious person - someone who has no position in society and never will have, in short the lowest of the low. Well, then - even if that were all absolutely true, I should one day like to show by my work what there is in the heart of such an eccentric, of such a nobody." It's dangerous, and worst of all it runs the risk of hubris and pomposity for any of us to compare ourselves to Van Gogh at this moment in his life, not merely because of the difference in talent between any of us and the man who wrote this letter, but also because van Gogh indeed exceeded most of us in his obnoxiousness, particularly towards his family, and the families of the hopelessly unsuitable women with whom he fell in love. But there's an ironic tone in this self-description, too, which makes me still pause to say: "And yet .."   Subscribe to Praeterita in a ...

New prints.

Guest blogger Deborah Doering offers her impressions of the art exhibited in the main halls at this year's Art Basel in Switzerland. The huge, airplane-hanger-like Hall 1 featured "Art Unlimited" and also "Art Conversations/Art Salons." Both of these were among my favorite experiences at Art Basel, but even though l visited Hall 1 each day, I was not able to visit everything I wanted to see. "Art Unlimited" showcased artist installations which varied in size and scope. Annely Juda Fine Art Gallery of London showcased the work of Yuko Shiraishi (b. 1956, Tokyo) in a very original and thoughtful installation titled "Space Elevator Tea House": Shiraishi elegantly expresses her dual Japanese and English cultural influences by using a 1.5 x 2 meter tatami-mat as the basic dimension to build her art work. Unfortunately I do not have the space here to include all that Shiraishi wrote about her influences (Arthur C. Clark, Buckminster Fuller, ...

Moorish style entrance to apts.

Participant's photo: family at the Washington Monument, 1957 Monday night was the second workshop for the community memoir/public art project. We led seven participants through two hours of writing exercises, asking them to write at least a dozen one line moments of memory which were either directly related to the photos they brought along, or spinning off from them. With this larger group of people, things began to get interesting, and people were writing really moving things. One woman grew up in Canada, and most of her sentences related quite piercing and personal moments of a difficult childhood growing up in a large family as the youngest, somewhat put-upon sister. We wish we had more time to work with the material that people created, as we would in a full writing workshop. But because of time and budget, we have to content ourselves with getting as much as we can in a shorter session. It's been a good start, and after the next couple of workshops, the public art insta...

Chuck Gniech is a painter who lives in Chicago. He is a professor of art at the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago, where he also acts as curator for Gallery 180. Chuck has a blog, Chicago Fine Art , which is well worth looking at. His paintings are currently part of a three-person show at the Highland Park Art Center , which runs until July 22nd. I started by asking him about the work in that exhibition. 'Intuition,' 48" x 36", 2010 Philip : Your paintings currently on show at the Highland Park Art Center are from a series drawing on British megaliths. As an Englishman myself, I can attest to the power of these prehistoric objects. How did you become interested in them? Chuck : During one of my first trips abroad, I was staying with some friends in London and needed to spend some time alone. I got on a bus headed to the Salisbury Plain to visit Stonehenge and I was hooked. I went back to the States and read everything I could find on the prehistoric circles and m...

From a letter written in January 1882: "Drawing is becoming more and more a passion with me, a passion just like that of the sailor for the sea".   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

This week's Meditation - number 27 of the year - considers a work by the great Mexican muralist that he painted in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the end of the 1930s. I spent four days in Guadalajara in 2005, and loved the place. I hope it hasn't been affected by the terrible events of the drug war that has exploded since then.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Patty and I held the first workshop for the Community memoir project on Saturday, July 17th. To give some sense of the small town where this is happening, here is a photo showing the view from the back of the house that Patty and I own in Mount Carroll: Only 140 miles west of Chicago, but the only thing blocking the view are trees, horse stables, and small ponds. That's our house on the right, and that huge tree is apparently one of the biggest and oldest in the county.  Next, here is the Owen P. Miles Musem, home of the Historical Society that is our project sponsor, and where we are holding the workshops. Built in 1873 in the Italianate style, it was the family home of several generations of the wealthy Miles family: And here are a a few photos from the first workshop, showing photographs that people brought along, and some of the writing that they produced during the two-hour session: After the workshop ended, we went to the small downtown area to sit at a table and hand out ...