blouinartinfo:

6 Artists Who Made It Big After Turning 70

manpodcast:

Sophie Calle is the lead guest on this week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast! Download the show and see images of artworks we discussed.

fjsdlafkj:

sophie calle—from the series ‘voir la mer’.

I found people in Istanbul who had never seen the sea before, despite living in a city surrounded by it. Then I took 15 people of all ages, from kids to one man in his 80s, to see it for the first time.

I went with each person individually, such as this man in his 30s. Before we arrived I made him cover his eyes. Once we were safely by the sea, I instructed him to take away his hands and look at it. Then, when he was ready – for some it was five minutes and for others 15 – he had to turn to me and let me look at those eyes that had just seen the sea.

Edouard Manet, Portrait of Emile Zola, 1868. Looking at the role of the artist in society.

(As featured in Judith Rodenbeck’s Modern Art lecture)

samspratt:

I graduated from art school 2 years ago, here are some things I think I’ve learned. In the words of my current client, Donald Glover: “I’m not saying this thing is true or not, I’m just saying it’s what I learned.”

1. “Creativity Is Recession Proof” were the words plastered over the novelty…

Really interesting advice. Number 7—“There are a lot of people more talented than you, that’s something you should know, but never accept”—is something I really struggle with. I know that there are a lot of people more talented than me, but I’ve pretty much accepted it.

(via ofart)

Alighiero Boetti

(b Turin, 16 Dec 1940; d Rome, April 1994). Italian conceptual artist and writer. According to his own mythologized account, his fascination with the qualities of ordinary materials began during childhood. Although the extent of any orthodox artistic training remains unrecorded, by 1964 he was making objects and silhouette paintings of familiar items, influenced by such Turinese contemporaries as Michelangelo Pistoletto and Mario Merz. His first one-man show (1967; Turin, Gal. Stein) included large objects made from materials such as corrugated cardboard, whose very ordinariness undermined orthodox notions of art. From the outset he participated in ARTE POVERA exhibitions and Happenings, in which a generation of Italian conceptual artists reinvented a world then in political turmoil. Boetti’s self-reflexive brand of Arte Povera was typified by his notional ‘twinning’: by cutting a second image of himself into a photographic self-portrait (Twins, 1968; see 1986-7 exh. cat., p. 19) and by inserting ‘e’ (‘and’) between his names, stimulating a dialectic exchange between these two selves. Boetti’s major project of the 1970s was The 1000 Longest Rivers of the World. He published the randomly poetic results in a catalogue and inscribed them on a related canvas (1970-77; see Boetti, 1978, p. 41). Several other alphabetical or sequential pieces explored esoteric signs and language as classifier. International travels broadened his vision, reflected in Map (1971; see Boetti, 1978, p. 37), with countries filled with their flags, and in the group of brightly coloured tapestry squares, each containing a letter, made by traditional means in Afghanistan. The random massing of the 100 versions of ORDINE DISORDINE (each 175*175 mm, 1973; artist’s col.) was most effective in summarizing a world vision of polarities. During the 1980s the chaos of mass culture was suggested in larger tapestries crammed with heterogeneous details. (Oxford Grove Art)

blouinartinfo:

A new solo show by Bill Viola, “Bill Viola: Liber Insualrum,” will make its only stop in the U.S. at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. This is an excerpt from his video “Ascension” (2000).

Bill Viola (born January 25, 1951) is a contemporary American video artist. (Wikipedia)

Vija Celmins, Starfield I, graphite on paper, 1982

Vija Celmins (b. October 25, 1938), American painter, sculptor, object-maker and draughtswoman, of Latvian birth. In 1944 her family fled to eastern Germany, eventually settling near Esslingen am Neckar (Baden-Württemberg) in the west. In 1948 they moved to the USA, staying briefly in New York before resettling in Indianapolis. Celmins spent much time drawing and painting at school and at home, although she did not yet speak or write English. She studied painting at the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis (1955–62) and regularly visited New York to see the work of the Abstract Expressionists. After attending the summer session at Yale University, New Haven, where she met a strong community of students and artists, she decided to become a painter (1961). She then attended the University of California, Los Angeles (1962–5). From 1966 Celmins took photographs as subjects for paintings. In painted and drawn works since 1968 she drew upon photographs from books, magazines and those taken by herself, including views of the sea, desert and constellations. In such works as Moon Surface (Luna 9) No. 1 (1969; New York, MOMA) she carefully built up and layered marks to create a distance between photograph and painting, also calling attention to the paper surface. Her persistent attention to the psychological implications of the artistic process in relation to the formulation of images made the images objects for contemplation. One of her most visually and conceptually challenging works is To Fix the Image in Memory 9 (1977–82), a series of 11 stones, both real and cast-bronze, painted with acrylic. (Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press)

Oskar Schlemmer, Triadic Ballet Set and Costume Design Sketch (on a letter to Hans Poelzig), January 25, 1933.

Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923 he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working some time at the workshop of sculpture. His most famous work is “Triadisches Ballett,” in which the actors are transfigured from the normal to geometrical shapes. Also in Slat Dance and Treppenwitz, the performers’ costumes make them into living sculpture, as if part of the scenery. (Wikipedia)

blouinartinfo:

From Math Teacher to Adult Film Extra, The Unexpected Early Jobs of 30 Art Stars: http://bit.ly/10HjeZI

10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent

In case you were concerned about artistic skills. This is a viable excuse.

(Source: theyoungdoyley, via ofart)

Alighiero Boetti

Alighiero Boetti

MOMA NYC: July 1–October 1, 2012

This retrospective, organized in collaboration with the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Tate Modern in London, will be the largest presentation outside of Italy of works by Italian artist Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994) to date. Working in his hometown of Turin in the early 1960s amidst a close community of artists that included Luciano Fabro, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, and Michelangelo Pistoletto, among others, Boetti established himself as one of the leading artists of the Arte Povera movement.

Jasper Johns, Three Flags, encaustic, 1958, Whitney Museum of American Art

Johns, Jasper, 1930-, American artist, b. Augusta, Ga. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp in the mid-1950s, Johns attempted to transform common objects into art by placing them in an art context. Along with his close friends Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham, Johns eschewed the idea of the artist-hero and embraced the experimental, the accidental, and the everyday-aesthetic approaches that became extremely influential in contemporary arts. His flags and target images executed from 1954 to 1959 heralded the pop art movement. Other recurring motifs, which continued into the 1960s, include his beautifully delineated numerals, letters, and maps of the United States. Acclaimed for his painterly touch, Johns based his technique on the informal brushwork and texture of abstract expressionism, sometimes attaching literal elements such as rulers and brooms to the canvas. His bronze castings, such as Beer Cans (1960), are also derived from common objects. His critically acclaimed abstract crosshatch paintings of the 1970s were followed by the allusion-filled, self-referential works of the 1980s and 90s, e.g., the four Seasons (1985-86), which use recurrent motifs as symbols to pull the viewer into engagement with the works. Many of his spare paintings of the early 2000s incorporate real or painted catenaries (curves created by cords hanging from two points), others echo the flagstonelike motifs he used several decades earlier. Throughout his career, Johns has also created drawings and a variety of prints. (Columbia Encyclopedia The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/)

Oskar Schlemmer, Triadic Ballet: Figure-Plan of Dancers Wearing Costume, ca. 1924-1926.