Two other things- there's one whole chapter devoted to 'Dresden and Leipzig' which really just shows off again Godfrey's penchant for Neo Expressionist type painting, and there's far too much 'pseudo Pop' Chinese contemporary painting. But over-all, as I said, it's a hard-to-resist book.
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Painting Today
Two other things- there's one whole chapter devoted to 'Dresden and Leipzig' which really just shows off again Godfrey's penchant for Neo Expressionist type painting, and there's far too much 'pseudo Pop' Chinese contemporary painting. But over-all, as I said, it's a hard-to-resist book.
Thursday 16 December 2010
ELIZABETH MAGILL
Monday 13 December 2010
Thursday 2 December 2010
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Tuymans' Palette
'Belgian artist Luc Tuymans is widely seen as having contributed to the revival of painting in the 1990s.' So says the David Zwirner press release relating to the gallery's current show of Tuymans' work (click on Title for link.) The consistently insipid pallor of his palette has certainly always been suggestive of a medium struggling out of its sick bed. But therein lie the limitations of his frame of reference. As a 'history' painter Tuymans' has a lot to say; but is it just me who finds all those earthy colours a real drag. As for the countless imitations of his pale, washed-out palette, don't get me started.....
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Progress Review
Friday 19 November 2010
Jack Levine 1915-2010
http://gregcookland.com/journal/2010/11/11/jack-levine-the-last-interview/
I discovered Jack levine's work about 15, 16 years ago, came across a great publication of his work in waterstones of all places. Never seen it again though. Was extremely disappointed not to see any when we where living in NY, his work is in the Brooklyn Museum, Jewish museum, Moma, Met and Whitney and couldn't find one. I know he was coming back into vogue in the last few years as some curators were putting his paintings into political themed exhibition in the U.S.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Vuillard
Saturday 13 November 2010
Missing Kitaj
Saturday 6 November 2010
Burnt Wig Blues
Friday 5 November 2010
I'll Bring You To A Better World
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Factum II looks almost identical to Factum I, hanging next to it, but what this pair of works shows is actually the uniqueness of any given work of art. Just as the days evoked by the calendar pages glued to the canvas may follow each other but are never the same, two brushmarks may look alike but are always different. During a period when spontaneous invention was a valued principle in painting, Rauschenberg worked on Factum I and Factum II simultaneously, shuttling back and forth, detail by detail, between the two works, playing the pictorial game of making them match. The irony, as he surely well knew, was that ultimately each work would retain its stubborn uniqueness. As Rauschenberg has said, "The things all paintings have in common are paint, and color, and some means of application. With that standard you can make any two pictures appear either alike or different. I don't think whether they are alike or different is really very interesting."
Peter Burns
Peter Burns joined our studios (Talbot Gallery & Studios) and stayed for around a year. He has recently updated his website and it is looking really good. It's refreshing to see a painter embrace humour, art historical references and undercurresnts of darker themes with such aplomb and such a sharp wit. I will be showing with Peter and Mary Noonan in Roscommon Arts Centre in 2011 and having looked through Peter's site I think it has given me the kick I needed this week to keep pushing my own work.
Monday 18 October 2010
Bravo's Next Great Artist
(I know this is an unusual post for this blog but I had to share this)
Tuesday 12 October 2010
The Worrying Duck
Sunday 3 October 2010
the third space belfast
Mark McGreevy's new show of paintings at the third space gallery in Belfast has been extended, so there's no excuse for missing it or not giving it another visit (as I did on Friday past.) Cian Donnelly paintings next up later this month, so two great shows back-to-back.
Saturday 25 September 2010
…not a statement
A painting is not a statement. It is the evidence of painting.
Painting is a relationship. The relationship is ongoing. To paint is an act of devotion in the relationship.
I want to believe that in the relationship of painting the act of painting is its own reward.
I want to believe that the relationship of painting, when one devotes oneself to it, extends beyond the boundaries of a painting, however indefinite or unmeasureable this extension may seem to be.
I want to believe that the relationship of painting values inquiry over conclusion.
To attempt to be conclusive in painting is to attempt to make paintings that are, in effect, statements.
Attempting to make a statement with a painting undermines the idea that painting is a relationship.
These words are a statement and they are not painting.
Thursday 16 September 2010
Paint Your Own Pictures
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Orientalism
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Ab Ex Road Signs
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Ab Fab
These summer months have been blog light for me, not at the computer much... in Edinburgh's Inverleith House at Botanic Gardens there're always nice curatorial connections made between the inside of the gallery and its setting. Good programme of stuff always on offer (saw Victoria Morton show there at Easter) and currently it's Joan Mitchell, who you can trace right up to Cecily Brown and Elizabeth Neel I think. Sparse hanging but good selection of works from all over....
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'Belgian artist Luc Tuymans is widely seen as having contributed to the revival of painting in the 1990s.' So says the David Zwirn...
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Wonderful installation decisions and paintings in Christopher Hanlon's 'A Stone In A Cloud', at Domo Baal, London. Through to 4...
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Almost impossible to get hold of following its publication in 2009, the 2010 second edition of Tony Godfrey's Painting Today may sell o...