Happy Happy Happy!
Happy New Year!
Picasso, Green still life (1914) (MoMa)
Picasso, Green still life (1914) (MoMa)
ConsiderA(R)Tions
Zoe Leonard in the very best of 2010!
Zoe Leonard
“Photographs” is the first major survey of the work of American artist Zoe Leonard. In addition to early works from the 1980s and 1990s, the MUMOK exhibition will include “Analogue”, a series of 412 photographs produced between 1998 and 2009 in which Leonard investigates the changes in the urban landscape and economy resulting from a rapidly advancing globalization.
Born in 1961 in Liberty, New York, Leonard is counted among the most outstanding figures in the art world today; in recent years she has consistently participated in international exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial and the documenta. The photographs Leonard has produced over the past twenty years reveal subtle discrepancies in our everyday life and draw out contradictions between nature and culture, the living and the transient, the local and the global. Both her color and black and white images feature a precise eye for details and for the overlooked.
Zoe Leonard is concerned with the language of photography in it’s various genres: aerial photography, scientific documentation, snapshots, fashion photography or documentation of exhibition display.She alternates point of view, perspective and distance by turning and shifting her gaze, and presents the photograph as a subjective document. Leonard also subverts the conventions of traditional processing and printing; she does not crop or retouch her photographs. Instead, her photographs always bear traces of their genesis. By incorporating the black border of the negative into the print, and leaving the spots and marks from dust, scratches or flaws in the negative, her prints allow the photographic process to remain visible.
Leonard directs her gaze at cities, railway infrastructures and Niagara Falls, she brings trees, fences, wax anatomical models as well as fashion shows and museum displays into focus. Her photographs confront us with situations that are not staged; they attentively remind us of our everyday life and occurrences in it that we take for granted, questioning thereby our viewing habits and conventions of perception.
Update!
Shame on me! I’ve been to busy working and doing other things besides sitting behind my computer..
But tonight is the perfect night to give you a small (very tiny actually) update on what I’ve been doing the last month; visiting exhibitions such as Public Private Paintings (Mu.ZEE, Ostend), Denmark (Mu.ZEE),
Besides these wonderful distractions my mind has been occupied by one man, and one man only; Jean Brusselmans. (For the moment) My true love and inspiration..
Jean Brusselmans (KMSKA)
Ensor (ING)
Thomas Schütte (MSK)
Daniel Richter (MSK)
Calder by André Kertész (Jeu de Paume)
André Kertész (Jeu de Paume)
Giuseppe Penone (Grand Hornu)
Giuseppe Penone (Grand Hornu)
Giuseppe Penone (Grand Hornu)
Giuseppe Penone (Grand Hornu)
Brussels Art Days, Brussels, Belgium, 12/09/2010
Brussels Art Days! www.brusselsartdays.com
Visited; Gallery Rodolphe Janssen – Wim Delvoye; inspired by a more catholic approach he wants to emphasize the contradictions in our society.
Gladstone Gallery - Sol LeWitt; Wall drawing 792, this work was spread over the two floors of the gallery. His early interest in art and architecture translates itself by the black rectangles and squares that are placed all over the gallery spaces.
Twig Gallery – Nathaniel Robinson.
Baronian.Francey Gallery – Wang Du; the artist was present at the gallery and he was working on his latest piece, a sculpture inspired by the hostage situation in Manilla.
Keitelmann Gallery – Lucien Herve.
Gallery Nathalie Obadia – Jessica Stockholder.
Art and landscape, Arpia vzw, Herzele, Belgium, 11/09/2010
About a month ago I was invited for the opening of the exhibition ‘Art and Landscape’ organized by Arpia vzw. The curator Luea Ritter found my dissertation on earth art and eco art through the university of Ghent and was interested in using it for the exhibition. I was pleased to hear that someone took the initiative to concentrate on art and nature in Belgium, as it is a very interesting subject.
The organisation is focused on art in the landscape, especially the interchange between the two. The dialogue between the artists and nature can be in a creative, critical or respectful manner. The first five artists are Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Bob Verschueren, Kari Joller, Maarten Vanden Eynde and Marie-Hélène Elleboudt. Especially the work of Bob Verschueren made an impression on me. He made an installation where he used an old tractor and branches. It is remarkable that he placed the branches by using only the laws of nature, without any help of other materials.
Bob Verschueren
Monet at Grand Palais, Paris, NYTimes
Richard Serra Sculpture Rusts in Bronx Yard, NYTimes
Henri Rousseau & Anish Kapoor, Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain, 19/08/2010
As some of you might know, Bayonne is only an hour away from Bilbao (Spain). So this was the perfect opportunity for me to visit the Guggenheim. Besides the permanent collection, the Guggenheim held expositions of Anish Kapoor and Henri Rousseau. I consider myself very lucky to have seen these two wonderful artists in such an amazing setting.
The work ‘The matter of Time’ by Richard Serra, has taken a permanent residence in the Guggenheim. Since the 1960 it was Richard Serra, and other Minimalist artists, who changed the relationship between sculpture and the spectator. For me it was impressive to experience the enormous impact that such an installation has on its visitors, just by walking through/under/beside it.
In cooperation with the foundation Beyeler in Basel, the Guggenheim organised an exposition of Henri Rousseau. One hundred years after his dead and with France only a few kilometres away, the choice for this French modernist was evident. There were only 40 works in the exhibition; the painter doesn’t have a large oeuvre. Besides from a few jungle paintings and the world famous ‘Football players’, there were a lot of portraits and scenes from Paris present. Rousseau is considered a key pioneer of modern art. His new method of painting-collage had a huge influence on artists such as Picasso. It’s an extraordinary fact that, although Rousseau never left France, he still was able to create such vivid and beautiful jungle paintings.
It’s the first time that there is a large-scale survey of Anish Kapoor in Spain. Last year the exhibition opened with a lot of praise at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Throughout the exhibition it became clear that the artist has experimented with materials and process. But Kapoor has a higher prepuce; he wants the spectator to experience a perceptual and symbolic depth in his works. At the beginning of his career he used reflective or tactile materials (pigment, blood-red wax, fibreglass, stone and steel) and his latest works are in cement. The most impressive work was ‘Shooting into the Corner’ were the artist has shot red wax across the museum space. It evokes a feeling of violence, dead, murder,.. The installation is a perfect example of material and process creating a larger meaning to the work.
“Material somehow always leads on to something immaterial” Anish Kapoor
Jeff Koons
Richard Serra, The matter of time
Richard Serra, The matter of time
Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau, Football players
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor, Shooting into the Corner
Anish Kapoor, Shooting into the Corner
Anish Kapoor, Shooting into the Corner
Anish Kapoor
Jim Shaw, CAPC, Bordeaux, France, 28/07/2010
My second visit, just a train ride away, led me to Bordeaux. At the museum of contemporary art (CAPC) is an exhibition of the American artist Jim Shaw. The artist doesn’t only paint but he also makes drawings, installations and performances. That he belongs to the same “group” as Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley is unmistakable when you see his works at the CAPC in Bordeaux. As McCarthy and Kelly, Shaw also has the tendency to capture the obscure side of the American psyche. He translates this in creating another universe, consumer society, political personalities, etc. The immense spaces of the museum are necessary to exhibit the works of Shaw because the canvases are almost 7 x 7m. Shaw’s work method has some similarities with the surrealist, as he got his inspiration from his dreams “Dream objects”.
Left: Pollock & Lollypops, 2007
This work, and the other two, represent finance, patriotism and religion, aspects that are very important in the american society.
Center: Landscape with Money and Corndogs, 2005
Untiteld (US Presidents), 2006
Ticker-Tape Laocoon, 2008
L'Océan, Le Bellevue, Biarritz, France, 19/07/2010
After my two month adventure in France I finally found some time to write about the last three exhibitions I visited while staying there.
I would like to start with the exhibition ‘L’Océan’ at the Bellevue in Biarritz. Not a very original theme for a city on the coast of France, but it definitely was interesting. The concept is simple; artists who reflect on the ocean and all its aspects. It’s a linear exhibition beginning at the 19the century and ending with contemporary artists.
Although the exhibition featured works of the famous Basques artist Ramiro Arrue, the emphasis wasn’t on French art but painters/sculptures/.. from all over the world. When visiting ‘L’Océan’ I noticed that some contemporary artist are inspired by the past such as Carmela Garcia who made a photograph quite similar to the works of Casper David Friedrich and Frederic Pardeau who was inspired by Jules Verne.
The reference to the ocean was clear in almost all the works. Some of them were very obvious such as Marie Amar who photographed objects in the sand and Bruno Lehaux & Philippe Lopez with their bleeding whale. The work ‘Océan 2001’ of Charles Sandisson caught my eye, as he created a sea of words. In this installation words and numbers represent the waves of the ocean. I also enjoyed the work ‘Things without name’ of Edith Dekyndt who placed a set of steps in the sea. Yves Chardoët closed the exhibition with the magical image of waking through a dark space filled up with glass jellyfishes.
Charles Sandisson
Bruno Lehaux & Philippe Lopez
