NOTES ON COLOUR MIXING

Who's Afraid of...

2012-02-02T17:38:00.002Z

'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? no.2'/ 1967

Apocryphal story: one of the reasons behind Barnett Newman's naming of his 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?' series begun in 1966 was that he wanted to connect it to Jasper Johns' use of the primary colours and stencilling of the words onto his paintings around the same time (we might assume that it was also partly in homage, but equally to do with the challenge being laid down by the brash new painter-in-town.)

This is further embellished by the idea that the series was to initially have been entitled by Newman: 'Who's Afraid of Jasper Johns?', but Johns declined the invitation. All of this aside, Newman mainly talks in interviews about his title's connection to Neo-Plasticism.

There is much more besides I think...a very obvious connection is to the title of Edward Albee's play (1962), and Mike Nichols' film (1966) 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' The play premiered in New York, gaining equal notoriety once on screen, and Newman plays on its title because of this. Albee has said that he had used an actual remark (where he had overheard someone making a gag about Virginia Woolf and 'The Big Bad Wolf' song) and transposed this into the title and plot of his play.

The original song had become something of a popular hit by way of the Disney film 'The Three Little Pigs' in 1933, and was sung during the Great Depression as a way of lifting spirits. Newman's own father had also nearly lost his thriving sewing-machine and tailoring business at this time (another visual link could be made here to Newman's experience of 'zipped' lines of thread.) Newman himself saved the business and built it back up again- this was the reason he did not get round to taking up painting full-time until quite late in life. Newman must have remembered the song vividly because of this.

Cap it all with this, it's a real flight of fancy but a great game to play when watching 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' on screen: it's called 'Spot Newman's Zips' (one quite startling one, towards the end of the movie, where Elizabeth Taylor's Martha opens the back porch door to reveal a pure Newman painting.)

All of above from 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'/ Mike Nichols/ 1966

(And Click on Post Title for link to 'Who's Afraid of Jasper Johns?' at Tony Shafrazi in 2008.)

Subjects of the Painter

2012-01-19T19:36:00.000Z

Jeffrey Dennis is the first interview of 2012 in Subjects of the Painter. Click on Post Title or the SOTP link above.

The Artist Successfully Levitating in the Studio/ oil and charcoal on canvas/ 35.5 x 40.5cm/ 2011

Imagination Becomes Reality

2012-01-16T16:13:00.002Z

The publications that accompanied this series of shows (click on Post Title) are difficult to collect as a set now. However, the online archive provides a great overview of works included in this very interesting look at notions of expanded painting practice, which took place from 2005 to 2007 at ZKM, Karlsruhe.

Foreground: Tal R, 'Tit and Ditte'/ installation shot/ ZKM, Karlsruhe

Noblesse Oblige

2012-01-12T17:53:00.000Z

Click on Post Title for link to an article from a month or so ago on +BILLION- blog, for an interesting take on the positioning of painting within the curation of group shows. The 'obligation' it refers to (to place paintings within certain exhibitions) has got NOCM thinking about 'the Tuymans effect' that sprung perhaps from Documenta 11 in 2002; also remembering that he was included in that show along with very few other painters- Cecilia Edefalk, Leon Golub and (at a push) Raymond Pettibon.

Luc Tuymans/ Leopard/ 2000

Also, nice link here to 2004 interview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/tuymans_transcript.shtml

Happy New Year

2012-01-04T12:40:00.000Z

Eoin Llewellyn - Collisions - Interview

2011-12-07T21:11:00.001Z

Here is a recent video interview with Irish artist Eoin Llewellyn in his studio in Berlin on the occasion of his exhibition "Collisions" which was held in September 2011 in the Theatergalerie Bremen.

From Tomaselli to Keaton...

2011-11-21T16:16:00.005Z

'Painting Between the Lines' at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

Click on Post Title for nice show at Wattis in San Francisco. Also see below for a new entry in BEST LINKS: A Piece of Monologue. To explain: the Wattis show features Fred Tomaselli working in response to Beckett's 'Watt'. Coincidently, I then came across Beckett again in Artforum's November 'Top Ten' feature, which cites 'Film' (1965) by Schneider and Beckett, and starring Buster Keaton. Intrigued, I went looking for more information and came across A Piece of Monologue which features a Post on the subject of 'Film'. All connected in a very unconnected sort of way, but a good reason to highlight the exhibition, the film and the blog....

Buster Keaton on set of 'Film' (1965)

(see link to A Piece of Monolgue at bottom of page)

Niamh O'Malley: 'Model'

2011-10-17T13:04:00.001+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to this show. The framed works, in the entrance towards the gallery and in the main space itself, are as crucial to the reading of the show as the centre pieces of sculpture and projection. They create another engrossing layer to the viewing experience, where perception is caught between the images behind the glass and the surface of the glass itself. Whether the glass is tinted, or whether the inside of the frames and the media used to create the drawings have been treated with a carefully calibrated and closely matched monochrome range of media, is near impossible to work out. A hugely rewarding and engaging show.

The Painting Corner

2011-10-07T15:10:00.000+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to the new blog of the Fine Art Painting students and staff of the University of Ulster at Belfast. Linked with painttube Dublin and Paint Club London.

Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-67

2011-09-20T23:45:00.003+01:00

'Jasper Johns', contact sheet detail

If you can quickly skip the fly leaf recommendation by Piers Morgan (!?) then this new Taschen book is a rewardingly hefty and detailed feast of information and images. Photographs from around the LA art scene, on film sets and on the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery were amongst Hopper's many subjects. Click on Post Title for link to the exhibition at MOCA which preceded this book, shortly before the actor's death. MOCA's website also carries a nice blog called The Curve.

Civil Rights March

Berliner Liste 2011

2011-09-09T15:10:00.003+01:00

Exhibiting with the third space gallery, Belfast, at the 2011 Berlin Art Fair: Mark McGreevy, Dougal McKenzie and Mary McIntyre. Runs through to Sunday 11th September- click on Post Title for info. and directions.

Venice 1966

2011-08-23T22:47:00.003+01:00

Came across this old Studio International today, and was struck by the fact that it coincided with Venice 2011- thus, exactly 45 years ago, this was how the Biennale was covered by one of the major art mags of the time. It would be interesting to find out if the film was actually shown on the BBC and if it is still obtainable. I also notice that in amongst the various protagonists is Alan Gouk, the Belfast born painter. Click on Post Title to see work of his in John Moores 22.

Evelyn O'Connor

2011-08-04T02:13:00.000+01:00

Click on Post Title above for link to the latest edition of Subjects of the Painter.

Fumes of Formation

2011-07-10T12:50:00.000+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to this show at QSS Gallery, Belfast, running to July 29th; four recent graduates from Belfast, Cork and Limerick with interests in construction/ deconstruction of materials in painted and 3-dimensional formats. Evelyn O'Connor will be the next interview in Subjects of the Painter at the end of July.

Evelyn O'Connor

Colette Cronin

Christopher James Burns

Gerard Carson

Provisional Painting

2011-07-08T15:34:00.003+01:00

Raoul De Keyser: Untitled, 2006, oil on canvas, 351⁄2 by 493⁄8 inches.

'Provisional painting is not about making last paintings, nor is it about the deconstruction of painting. It’s the finished product disguised as a preliminary stage, or a body double standing in for a star/masterpiece whose value would put a stop to artistic risk. To put it another way: provisional painting is major painting masquerading as minor painting.'.

'Restless painters tend to work in several different manners at once or embark on new approaches in serial order.'

I came across this article sometime ago and thought some of you might be interested,

Cy Twombly

2011-07-06T01:06:00.000+01:00

Cy Twombly/ Untitled/ 2001

In the same week that Mary Beard trashes Robert Hughes' book 'Rome' (the same author of The Shock of the New and sometime writer on Cy Twombly also), the artist has passed away in his adopted city. As well as his paintings, I was always drawn to his sculptures and photographs, perhaps even more so. Click on Post Title for link to a very recent article on the photographs of Twombly.

The Artist's Shoes, Lexington/ 2001

Mary Delany's Cuttings

2011-07-03T22:22:00.000+01:00

Hand coloured and cut paper, circa 1772, perhaps the first actual collage works...The extraordinary story of Mary Delany's 985 botanical collages, which she began aged 72, could be this summer's best read. Canadian poet Molly Peacock interweaves bits of her own life around this extraordinary biography, with really incisive observations on what the medium of collage can achieve. One early comment, that this work raises questions about the difference between accuracy and realism, still has a strong resonance with why collage continues to be employed by many current practitioners. Click on Post Title for a bit more information on the entire collection which is kept in the British Museum.

Dovetail Rejoinder Fergus Feehily Wednesday 7:30 pm 6 July 2011

2011-06-27T00:14:00.002+01:00

2011-06-26T14:53:00.001+01:00

Not out until October but you can pre-order now...

Frank Stella... and the Simulacrum

2011-06-21T09:29:00.006+01:00

This is a text, that I keep coming back to, by the 'neo-geo' artist Peter Halley "Frank Stella... and the Simulacrum" Published in Flash Art, No. 126, January 1986. (Click on the post title) Halley argues that although Stella is seen as part of the modernist tradition his work "conforms closely to a model of post-modernism that is dominated by ideas of hyper-realization, simulation, closure, and fascination."

The video is an interview with Stella recorded 14 years earlier (simultaneously funny and obnoxious!)

New American Painting- blog

2011-06-18T13:48:00.001+01:00

Medulienka

2011-06-13T14:10:00.001+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to 1972 Munich Olympics U.S.S.R.v.U.S.A. Basketball Final.
The colour images broadcast by European and U.S. television did not allow for conclusive proof that Sergei Belov's foot was over the line when making the winning pass to Alexander Belov. The images broadcast by Soviet television were in black and white, which allowed for a clearer contrast magnification showing that his foot remained behind the line.
The work 'Medulienka' proposes that Belov bought his girlfriend a dress to celebrate his team's gold medal success, which is entirely speculative. However, a statement of fact is that Belov died only two years after his marriage, and six years after the winning basket of 1972, at the age of 27.

Medulienka/ 2011

Paul McKinley at the third space

2011-06-05T13:06:00.001+01:00

Paul McKinley's show, 'Palisade', deals with our attitudes and relationship to the landscape of historical sites which are sometimes also termed as places of 'Dark Tourism'. A compelling series of works which not only grapple with how the narratives of the sites can be depicted, but also finds ways of presenting the surfaces of the works as sites of conflict in themselves- several of the works balance finely between matt and glistening paint, drawing you in to picture spaces which are at once seductive yet uncomfortably haunting. Show runs to July 2nd. McKinley is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery in Dublin.

Now's the Time

2011-06-03T14:39:00.001+01:00

Amy Sillman/ Cliff 1/ 2005

Click on Post Title for link to a somewhat wistful but nevertheless great article by painter Amy Sillman in the new Summer 2011 edition of Artforum. It seems there's more in the air just now to do with AbEx, than with my previous reflections in Post May 18th that it was 80s painting that seemed to be resurfacing (although previous Posts April 12th and 13th, and August 18th had a bit to do with AbEx affairs.) There again, the legacy of the 'expressive gesture' in painting is certainly around a lot just now- maybe it's more a conjoining of AbEx and 80's Bad Painting that's in our time just now.

Eigse, Progress report

2011-05-20T09:53:00.004+01:00

Currently I am down in Carlow installing in VISUAL as part of this year's Eigse festival which opens on the 10th June, with the exhibition running until August. It's very exciting, the show is shaping up to be really interesting, so if anyone is about you should check it out!

2011-05-19T13:00:00.002+01:00

Hélio Oiticica

Helio Oiticica, Bolide 3 Caixa 3 Africana, 1963

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/arts/design/17oiti.html

Kostabi World

2011-05-18T20:42:00.002+01:00

Mark Kostabi/ Useless Knowledge

The James Kalm Report (click Post Title) catches up with Mark Kostabi. 'His' work always seemed to be on the cover of Flash Art in the 80s when I was at art college. I remember it better than Kippenberger's (see Post below.) In this time of Painting's undoubted revival (it will not last, but it will come back again, and then it will go again...) there's something in the air that feels like nostalgia for 80's painting. But it was 'bad' in every way, and perhaps now the 'Pictures Generation' that preceded it has more currency with contemporary art today. Still, can't help but liking the encounters that happen throughout James Kalm's report above.

Kippenberger and Picasso

2011-05-17T13:14:00.000+01:00

Martin Kippenberger/ Picasso Museum, Malaga

Nearing the end of its run now, this show (click on Post Title for link) encapsulates the myriad of approaches Kippenberger's practice took. However, there is a tighter focus brought to bear on the late series of paintings he made in response to particular images of the 'grieving Jacqueline' and also Picasso in his 'white trunks/ underpants'. These latter images were to inspire Kippenberger's own 'pants' self portraits.

Kippenberger/ Self Portrait/ 1988

His name is still often cited- particularly amongst current German painters- as an abiding influence. Less, probably, to do with the ethos of the 'bad painting' of the 80s which he dominated, but more to do with the sheer weight and presence of his massive output and personality. For me, the best part of the show was a large selection of his drawings made on hotel notepaper. Many of these appeared to depict, and predict, his death just a couple of years after they were made.

Black and Shaw

2011-05-06T13:58:00.000+01:00

George Shaw

Two divergent painters on the 2011 Turner Shortlist, George Shaw and Karla Black, make for a very interesting comparison of materials and methods. Click on Post Title for link to video, for an honest and intelligent appraisal of his work by Shaw himself. His show at Baltic is nearing its end, and interestingly a series of influential movies had been selected by the artist to accompany the show- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner for instance. This is common enough amongst painters- Peter Doig's Studio Film Club comes to mind- but a bit like artists listening to music in the studio, is this an over-played and unnecessary embellishment of the painters' process? The filmic narrative held within the rectangle of the screen, and the painted narrative held within the limit frame of a painting can have strong associations at times. But perhaps the strong influence that a movie or piece of music has on a painter is a soft option for fleshing out the concerns of a work.

Hot and Cool Extended

2011-05-04T15:47:00.000+01:00

'Otl's Gift'/ Detail/ 2011

Hot and Cool at the third space gallery in Belfast has been extended through to Saturday 14th May.

'Otl's Gift'/ Detail/ 2011

'People of the Future'/ 2011

Like Drinking Turps?

2011-05-01T20:38:00.002+01:00

Most people will have picked up the recent issue of Turps Banana to look at the very good interview by Gavin Lockheart with Peter Doig. I picked up my copy from the Douglas Hyde Gallery the other day and at the end of it all began to wonder why I had put TB on Best Links at the bottom of NOCM. The interview with the ranting John Hoyland is bad enough- not a word of it is worth repeating- with his general bad attitude about contemporary art, women painters in particular and women in general. But it led me to see how throughout the whole of this issue, not a single female painter features (unless you count the really quite good article on crime court artists which features two female illustrators) and not that many in other recent issues either. It's becoming a bit of a boys' painting mag, and uncomfortably so.

Dubliners no.1

2011-05-01T15:38:00.002+01:00

With the current renovations at the National Gallery of Ireland, the Jack B. Yeats Collection has been rehoused in a smaller, more intimate suite of rooms that give a stronger overall impression of the works on show compared to previously. Over at the Kerlin, Brian Maguire's 'Notes on 14 Paintings' brought me to consider formal and thematic links between the two, particularly in view of a recent review of Maguire's show which attempted to make parallels with Francis Bacon. It seemed off the mark to me at the time, and more so now. Yeats and Maguire are more comfortable bedfellows.

From the Jack B. Yeats Collection, National Gallery of Ireland

Brian Maguire at The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin

Dubliners no.2

2011-05-01T15:16:00.002+01:00

Alexis Harding at The Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

Shiva Linga at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

An interesting parallel runs between the Alexis Harding show at The Rubicon and the Shiva Linga paintings at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. The Shiva Linga paintings (each one made anonymously) follow a regular format on paper mounted on cardboard, and Harding has created an installation of paintings on cardboard covered, spiral bound catalogues. Both provide compelling takes on abstraction, albeit coming from quite different directions and with different intentions.

Prince of Irascibles

2011-04-13T16:51:00.001+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to Richard Prince's current show at Gagosian Paris. There is something worrying and incongruous, yet connected and timely, about the subject of the show. When you consider the passing of Hedda Sterne last week (see Post below), and the fact that she and de Kooning appear at either side of the back row of the Irascibles photograph, it seems to create a coincidental link with the Prince show. All of it seems to somehow position Sterne even more firmly as 'alone' within the group.

Last of the 'Irascibles'

2011-04-12T14:46:00.001+01:00

Hedda Sterne, who died last week aged 100, is perhaps best known as the lone female artist pictured in Life magazine's feature on The New York School in 1951. Click on Post Title for article in NY Review of Books last December.

We Need to Talk About Malcolm

2011-04-11T15:43:00.000+01:00

There is less sarcasm intended in this Post's Title (click on it for link to great interview) than the Post below, in as much as Malcolm Morley really was a 'problem child' who found his way out of it all through painting. That said, for altogether different reasons, there appear to be the same uncomfortable 'this is what I'll paint and I don't give a damn' motivations in his work as with Anton Henning below. It's just downright inelegant and awkward, but compelling nonetheless when you get into it. For me, Morley is one of the great intuative and 'intellectual' painters of our time (e.g. Age of Catastrophe, 1976) and maybe it's that sort of track record which has cemented a position from which he can do no wrong. There is much about his current show at Sperone Westwater (and other recent work) which may undo that reputation. But I do feel the need to talk about it....

We Need To Talk About Anton

2011-04-07T15:12:00.001+01:00

Click on Post Title for link to Anton Henning's current show at Arndt in Berlin. Running to April 20th, perhaps NOCM's Berlin correspondents will give a face-to-face view of the work.

The artist came up recently in a conversation I was having with artist and painttube contributor Susan MacWilliam. Curious about his most recent work (it's also coming to The Talbot Rice in Edinburgh sometime in 2011 I've read) I went looking for images and information that can be found on the Arndt website- including a downloadable PDF interview and catalogue. Well.....the images below came to mind immediately- it's a bit like Paul Devlaux meets 'on the cusp of Orphism' Robert Delaunay, with Duchamp's Sixteen Miles of String thrown in for good measure. That is probably the point though....

Ena Swansea

2011-04-06T14:01:00.000+01:00

Ena Swansea's 'gling hunks' has just gone in to NOCM's TOP 10 PAINTINGS. Click on image in Top 10 for link to more works at Arndt Gallery in Berlin. Her current theme has reminded me of A.L. Kennedy's 'On Bullfighting', which is part documentary of the subject and part autobiography of her own troubles at the time. A short, compelling read...

NOCM links with Paint Tube

2011-04-04T13:37:00.001+01:00

Notes on Colour Mixing is pleased to link with Paint Tube, the painting blog of post graduate students and staff at The National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland. Click on Post Title or go to Best Links at bottom of page.

the third space gallery

2011-03-26T18:08:00.000Z

Hot and Cool

2011-03-18T17:17:00.002Z

Proposition 1: We live in a heightened state of ‘image consciousness’. In 1979, whilst briefly in opposition, the Canadian politician Pierre Trudeau was advised by media studies guru Marshall McLuhan that by growing a beard he had ‘cooled his image by a few degrees.’ Hot and cool were terms that McLuhan used to distinguish between different forms of media communication (his use of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ took on very different meanings to those outlined in Proposition 2.) In the McLuhan sense, is painting today a hot or cool medium?

Proposition 2: By the early 1970s the use of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ in youth terminology was sounding outmoded. It was the time of Modernism’s dying embers, embodied in Otl Aicher’s geometric designs for the Munich Olympics and his sliding scale of warm and cool colours. It was also the last significant period of the protest song and mass youth demonstrations.

Proposition 3: In the terminology of Proposition 2 the distance runner Lasse Viren was cool, and also iconic. Training alone in the forests of Finland, rumours persisted that he engaged in ‘blood freezing’ to boost his RBC levels before a race.

Proposition 4: Paintings can still effectively co-habit the world of RGB screen imagery, with the painting’s ground providing a type of pixel structure. Painting potentially carries as many meaningful layers of narrative, when dealing with history’s events, as the screen does.

Ratso Rizzo

2011-03-08T12:58:00.004Z

Midnight Cowboy/ John Schlesinger/ 1969

Work in progress/ March 2011

There is a scene somewhere in the above movie which often slips into my mind- in fact, I am quite obsessed by it. At some point Ratso Rizzo appears in battered old white canvas sneakers, undermining his brave attempts to slick himself up. I am drawn to this type of thing, partly I think because white shoes will pick up and show the brushmarks of day-to-day existence. A terrible metaphor I know, but I'm glad to have an opportunity now to shod this one legged figure in a work of mine with a similar old white sneaker. Thank you Ratso.

Terry Setch

2011-02-26T15:56:00.005Z

Terry Setch RA features as February's Subjects of the Painter interview. Click on name above for link.

The Fold- A Painting Show

2011-02-04T03:04:00.005Z

VISUAL is delighted to present the work of four young Irish painters; Mark McGreevy, Diana Copperwhite, Gabhann Dunne and Sheila Rennick. Delving into the realms of fantasy and fiction, The Fold presents a montage of these artists works, illuminating paintings potential as a poetic form and it's enduring narrative qualities. Beyond the mundane and everyday this show makes visible, landscapes and scenarios that have emerged from the artists sense of the world, our existence folded into the mind of the artist only to be released on more poetic terms at his or her the hand. In these artists we encounter four practices with varying sensitivities, each channelling paints latent energy for its narrative possibilities.

VISUAL'S five main gallery spaces have been filled with a visual labyrinth of situations, hybrid characters and reflections on our human identity. The artist's works offer to the viewer alternate planes of thought and a glimpse at paintings bold potential to comment on our existence in a world that teeters on the fine line between chaos and order.

The Fold highlights the strength of contemporary Irish painting to the viewer.

Over the course of this exhibition VISUAL will be running a number painting workshops with the artists, for schools, adults and families. These sessions offer to the public the chance to learn techniques and processes from successful visual artists and encounter directly the ways in which each artist works.

The show is accompanied by a full colour catalogue with a text by Emma-Lucy O'Brien.

Subjects of the Painter

2011-02-03T00:54:00.001Z

Click on Post Title above for link to SOTP's first interview with London based painter Elizabeth Magill.

Elizabeth Magill/ C.C the C/ 2010

Parallel Universes

2011-01-24T12:45:00.000Z

Click on Post title for link to recent BBC Horizon programme called 'What is Reality?' The programme's ability to link many of its ideas with pictures, particularly holograms, made it a bit easier for me to get my head around the whole thing. The idea that even maths/ science boffins find inspiration and connections in the world of pictures and diagrams I found exciting. Here, by way of comparison, are two images of 'space'- one 'diagrammatic' and the other 'holographic'. It appears that parallel universes are always present in the art world!

Karen Kilimnik/ at Spruth Magers Berlin

Alistair Wilson/ at the third space Belfast

The Painters' Maxim

2011-01-18T21:46:00.000Z

Looking at a lecture by Malcolm Morley today (click on Post Title for link), he quoted something that Jasper Johns had said which struck a chord- it's really the only thing you ever need to know as a painter: "Do something, do something else. Do something else to that." When things are getting a bit tricky with a work, it's all you need to know.

Work in Progress

Who was Henry Darger?

2011-01-18T21:40:00.000Z

Tony Godfrey's 'Painting Today' again...Henry Darger is another great inclusion. Click on Post Title above for link.

Future Shock

2011-01-12T00:17:00.001Z

As my '1972' paintings progress, I've been looking out for any other stuff that connects with 70's culture. Black on green is a great colour combination, so it was really the style of the book spine of this 1974 edition of Future Shock that caught my eye to start with. One thing leads to another and it turns out that a documentary narrated by Orson Welles was made about Alvin Toffler's book. The documentary has a lot more going for it than the book....click on the Post Title above picture if you want to go back to the future....

Painting Today

2010-12-28T14:03:00.001Z

Almost impossible to get hold of following its publication in 2009, the 2010 second edition of Tony Godfrey's Painting Today may sell out just as quickly. It's certainly hard to resist, and with over 280 painters featured and almost 500 illustrations it may just satisfy those who have exhausted the pages of Phaidon's other seminal 'new painting' book Vitamin P. It's pretty impressive really, and a single author's take on things will always have a more idiosynchratic feel to it than, say, the collective 'multiple author' approach that Vitamin P took. There is one glaring omission from Painting Today- not featuring Richard Hamilton is a shocking oversight, particularly as David Hockney and Bridget Riley are mentioned. Interestingly also, the chapter on 'Neo Expressionism' (which was really Godfrey's forte back in the 80s) has completely air-brushed Sandro Chia out of the picture, which is also a mistake I think. The author obviously has a few personal favourites as well, the most surprising perhaps being Stuart Pearson Wright who actually opens the first main chapter and re-appears twice more throughout the book, which seems to overstate his importance more than a little I'd say. There are some really weird bits, like telling us that the seductive nature of Sarah Morris's work is heightened by the fact that she sometimes also paints high heeled shoes (?!!!) and also the inclusion of Chuck Close in the 'Post Feminism' chapter seems downright bizarre.

Surprising omissions are perhaps Dexter Dalwood and Andrew Grassie. But there are some great resurrections as well- Maria Lassnig looks in her proper place, as does Alice Neel. Ireland (Northern) is represented by the predictable Mark Francis (unfortunately the bio at the back has him hailing from 'Newtowark' ?) but a fantastic image of Elizabeth Magill's is a great inclusion. At a push you could also say that Ireland gets another shout through the inclusion of Alexis Harding.

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.

ELIZABETH MAGILL

2010-12-16T20:31:00.004Z

'Turn' 2010

Extended until January 8th 2011 at the Kerlin in Dublin CLICK ON RED HEADER TITLE ABOVE FOR LINK. Fantastic smaller works that seem to mark a real transition from recent 'wooded landscapes', with extended narratives coming to the fore much more strongly. Magill will be the first painter interviewed on Subjects of the Painter, coming in January 2011.

third space gallery 'end of 2010'

2010-12-13T18:01:00.000Z

Alistair Wilson

Dougal McKenzie

left: Alas, Snow White right: Medulienka

Mr. Storr and Mr. Nozkowski

2010-12-02T17:44:00.001Z

Click on Title above for excerpts of chat between Messrs. Storr and Nozkowski.....

2010-12-02T12:44:00.003Z

Here is a Painting by Mark, Choosing the wrong path, 2006, it reminded me of the image Dougal posted of Tuymans.

Also I have attached an image of Richters 'Doubt and Belief in Painting' by Robert Storr. If you are interested in Richter it is a great read, Tuymans whatever....

Tuymans' Palette

2010-12-01T14:52:00.004Z

'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.....

Progress Review

2010-11-24T13:17:00.003Z

I've put Progress Report on the 'best links' at the bottom of blog, I think I came across it through TCOP- anyway, it's a nice idea as it presents painters' work in progress through studio visits, with a bit of commentary and other info. I like this idea as it captures moments of the works that might not normally be seen in the final outcomes. On the other hand, not everyone is comfortable with letting people see the sometimes difficult journey towards the resolution of a painting. Here are some of my works in progress for show at third space gallery around April, including a 'difficult' painting which is bizzarely trying to be '1970s'. What a daft idea, but hey, I'll expose it anyway....maybe in time a sister blog called Progress Review can conduct Q and A's about what's on the go in painters' studios.

1972 Painting

Hot and Cool

Orientalism

Stan, the Pantsman

Jack Levine 1915-2010

2010-11-19T11:23:00.002Z

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.

Georg Baselitz, The Big Night Down the Drain

2010-11-19T11:18:00.002Z

Georg Baselitz, The Big Night Down the Drain

Vuillard

2010-11-17T16:39:00.002Z

Been looking a lot at Vuillard recently..amongst others.Particularly like this piece. Really interesting use of colour, space and figuration.

Missing Kitaj

2010-11-13T13:47:00.001Z

I look at R.B.Kitaj's 'Second Diasporist Manifesto' quite alot. He got it published just before his suicide in 2007. His early works are well known; the later works are very idiosynchratic and not as well received so far. I am fascinated by the late works, and wish he had stuck around a bit longer to do a third manifesto, and to do a bit more Jewish art painting, as he would have put it.

Yellow Bikini, 2006

G. Scholem, 2007

Burnt Wig Blues

2010-11-06T14:07:00.002Z

Cian Donnelly currently showing at the third space gallery in Belfast. Intensely layered, glowing colour and balancing between the sacred and the profane. Fantastic.

I'll Bring You To A Better World

2010-11-05T10:41:00.001Z

Study for ongoing body of work. Listening to Blondie 'Eat to the Beat' c.1979 in the studio, I liked the above line. Might use it as title for work, or might stick with 'Orientalism'...either way, two Japanese guys in white stetsons have wandered into this picture.

2010-11-03T20:18:00.001Z

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."

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4823&page_number=7&template_id=1&sort_order=1

Peter Burns

2010-11-03T11:26:00.005Z

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.

Bravo's Next Great Artist

2010-10-18T20:42:00.002+01:00

About a year ago myself and Susan were discussing what was then a rumoured 'America's Next Top Model/ProjectRunway/Pop Idol, type show featuring artists. This has come to be and I have to admit I have watched the entire series. Being an avid ANTM viewer I expected much of the same, fluff tv with the prerequisite bitching and backstabbing, this is exactly what I got, twofold. Sarah Jessica Parker is a producer on the show and makes a couple of appearances, professes to be an avid art lover and squeals quite excessively. Some of the work is ok and a lot of it is awful. It is truly hoffifying and yet compulsive viewing. Be warned!
(I know this is an unusual post for this blog but I had to share this)

The Worrying Duck

2010-10-12T16:09:00.001+01:00

Counter actions against painting 'technique', prevalent in a lot of recent painting and going right back to 'Bad Painting' of the 1980's, seems to me never bettered than in Asger Jorn's 'Detournement' works of the late 50's and 60's. His idea that '..painting is the sustenance of painting..' is still valid. Click on 'The Worrying Duck' heading to link to an interview with one of his daughters.....

the third space belfast

2010-10-03T23:15:00.000+01:00

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.

…not a statement

2010-09-25T18:34:00.002+01:00

Just came across this here: http://douglaswitmer.com/not-a-statement/

a statement by American artist Douglas Witmer

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.

Paint Your Own Pictures

2010-09-16T22:51:00.000+01:00

Tired of heavy theory? Too many nice 'coffee table' style painting books cluttering up your place? Pop into your nearest second hand bookshop where you might find this type of thing- when books were made for popping in your pocket for a handy read every now and then. When art books came from UNESCO, not Taschen!

Orientalism

2010-08-31T00:02:00.000+01:00

Drawings which are working towards bringing together scenes from 'Save the Tiger' (Jack Lemmon, 1972), Munich Olympics, 'What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen, 1966), 'Orientalism' (Edward Said, 1978), Tiepolo ('Tiepolo Pink', bio-novel, 2010), The Best of The Lovin' Spoonful (Kama Sutra Records, 1966)

Ab Ex Road Signs

2010-08-24T18:05:00.000+01:00

Now that the Belfast-Dublin road has completed, there will be fewer temporary sign alterations to enjoy......

Ab Fab

2010-08-18T14:24:00.000+01:00

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....

Some work I am checking out...

2010-08-11T12:26:00.009+01:00

Omer Fast, Delacroix, Elmgreen & Dragset and an amazing painting I found via the Art Newspaper.

Dana Schutz

2010-07-16T15:52:00.004+01:00

Went to Dana Schutz talk in DHG yesterday, really great work and refreshing to hear and see work without the heavy nonsense...

Painting and Photography

2010-06-28T15:39:00.003+01:00

Simply a comparison of images......

Work in progress...

2010-06-04T10:09:00.006+01:00

I guess it's about time I wrote a little bit here about my own work and what best to start with that my current work in progress...

These are three photos from the painting which I am currently working on. To give you an idea of scale it is 130 x 100 cm and as you can see it is painted in sections; irregular shaped interlocking generally squarish rectangularish blocky ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle like sections. This is the general process behind most of my recent paintings and with each piece I have photographed every stage of their development so at the end I have almost a readymade animation of the build-up of the image. This current piece is being painted on a pale green acrylic gesso ground which gives a nice balance to the tonal range of the image and also plays nicely with the types of digital glitches and interference that were in the original photo.

The original photo was found on a photo sharing website. Like all with all my recent work the source was someone else's photograph, found online while searching and surfing. I collect photos on an ongoing basis and categorise and catalogue them. When I find one that I wish to work with I attempt to make contact with the original photographer and request their permission to use their photo for my work. This is often met with complete surprise because I tend not to be asking for their "best" photos, in fact often they think I am asking for their worst. When each painting is completed I make a point of sending a photo of the painting back to the original photographer, and in some cases this brings the image back to its source in a way, see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chandramarsono/2987396471/

Neel and Pray

2010-06-01T15:49:00.003+01:00

I've just put Alice Neel into Top 10 Paintings, and then remembered that Elizabeth Neel is her grandaughter. V.good also.....and this month's Art Review (p.32) has it just right when it says "..might spell bad news for young practitioners of slantwise figuration: it'll outgun them in ways they can't easily learn from while making them look like throwbacks." Opens July 8th at Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Painting without edges

2010-05-31T16:21:00.003+01:00

Having just completed a visit to Sligo Art School as extern. to the 3rd Years, I continue to be impressed by the firm grounding in 'materials and grounds' knowledge provided by the painting tutors, which is often then pushed in new directions by the students. Here, a really innovative use of electrical tape (and chewing gum)takes painting beyond the frame.

Dougal McKenzie/ Allan Hughes: Who loves the earth? (a series of points)

2010-05-19T17:42:00.006+01:00

Catalyst Arts, Belfast. Ex-Directors' Show opens Thursday 20th May, to Saturday 12th June. Collaborative work shown here, combining themes of Robert Smithson's 'Wooden Hut' at Kent State University 1970, and 1972 Munich Olympics (the Rainbow Games).
Myself and Allan came together on this one due to a shared interest in certain events of early 1970's culture and politics.

Book Recommendation

2010-05-06T20:29:00.003+01:00

Inside the Painter's Studio by Joe Fig

"Inside the Painter's Studio collects twenty-four remarkable artist interviews, as well as exclusive visual documentation of their studios. Featured artists were asked a wide range of questions about their day-to-day creative life, covering everything from how they organize their studios to what painting tools they prefer. Artists open up about how they set a creative mood, how they choose titles, and even whether they sit or stand to contemplate their work." http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781568988528

Here's a google book preview just to get a flavour of it: http://books.google.ie/books?id=ZiLe3woEtmwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Inside+the+painter%27s+studio&source=bl&ots=nd5zhu8uVl&sig=_I8dtEDmi4EtLYNJYNxjEyQd8gg&hl=en&ei=rxjjS_2AMcHdsAaWkrwG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

2010-05-06T11:44:00.000+01:00

Isn´t this another version by Manet of said painting below Dougal ?? Derm.

Madame Manet

2010-05-06T11:42:00.003+01:00

Paint, Misbehaving???

2010-05-04T21:56:00.004+01:00

So this morning I came across this article called "Paint, Misbehaving"
You can read it here: http://blog.art21.org/2010/05/03/letter-from-london-paint-misbehaving
It begins "Writing about painting isn’t easy, simply because painting isn’t built to be written about." which grabbed me instantly. It then goes on to explain that "[...] writers writing about painting tend to rely on a checklist of clichés: the one about everyone thinking painting was dead [...] finding out it wasn’t. Or the one about painting lagging behind other forms of art because it isn’t brainy enough. Or the one about painting being challenged by photography, or besieged by video art, or troubled by conceptualism." So now you can add to that list: or they write about how difficult it is to write about painting.

But there is actually quite a bit of food for thought in this article particluarly here: "Some contemporary painters, admittedly, paint with an eye to their work’s transcription into a wall label or press release. [...] Similarly, a kind of ironic abstraction has tended to dominate painting in recent years, [...] That tradition slots in nicely with a dominant strain in other art practices, the tireless and joyless unpicking of modernist utopianism."
"Both strains in painting are hard to love, since they postpone or even nullify the principal joy of experiencing painting, which is looking at paint. The good news is that because of those think-first, act-later artists (who, you feel, might be happier not painting), there’s a certain amount of renewed attention given to painting in general."

The article goes on to look at the work of Angela de la Cruz, "asserting painting as an object in space, rather than as a window into a made-up world."

I think there is a lot of food for thought and maybe discussion here in this article or at the very least it's been a good excuse for me to add my first post to this Blog.

Who loves the Earth

2010-04-21T13:15:00.003+01:00

Waldi as work in progress, monochrome version. Text refers to a track title on Rhythmus 72 'Ostrock' album. Text will probably be removed, visually it works better as a typed page on my old red/ black ribbon typewriter.

Waldi

2010-04-07T21:19:00.003+01:00

Waldi was created as the mascot for Munich 72 Olympics by Otl Aicher. A Dachshund composed of the selected colours of the Games, which combined embraced the intention of the friendly 'Rainbow Games'. 'Dachs' is badger in German- the dog is shaped to hunt below ground in burrows. Much of the construction for Munich 72 used the rubble of WWII as hardcore, for the foundations from which a new Olympic city could emerge. I have cut out a template of Waldi for a small painting, the ink was running out in my printer.

Accidental Painting

2010-04-03T12:22:00.003+01:00

Manet versus Degas

2010-03-29T00:06:00.004+01:00

These two old dandies stuck it out in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and I like them for that. Some 'revolutionaries' like Courbet and Zola scarpered out of Paris before the siege began. This painting is somewhere in a Japanese private collection now. They fell out over it as Manet thought that Degas made his wife look plain and dowdy, and himself lazy and bourgeois- so he slashed it. Degas offered to return a small painting of plums which Manet had given him, but Manet told him to keep it. Degas took the portrait back to repair, but never got round to finishing it. They didn't talk much after the episode.

Google Image of Franklin Carmichael

2010-03-14T16:42:00.003Z

Is one course of action for 'image' painters to simply re-use any photograph that is of interest to them, sourced from the internet? Here is an image used by Peter Doig, of the Canadian painter Franklin Carmichael. I don't know where Doig sourced his image from, but it is out there amongst the millions available through Google Image. When I was at art college, working from photographs was frowned upon.

Wrestling Arena Munich 72

2010-03-10T23:15:00.001Z

Untitled work

2010-03-10T23:09:00.002Z

Second small painting after collage work, based on the wrestling arena at Munich 72 Games. I coincidently recall afterwards that some Israeli wrestlers were amongst the victims of the Black September terrorist attack on the Olympic village.

RHYTHMUS 72 COLLAGE

2010-02-07T00:03:00.002Z

From a series of collages, after Albers' technique, which may provide basis for paintings.

Rhythmus 72

2010-02-04T20:37:00.002Z

It's what was available in the DDR in 1972.

GAMES REPORT

2010-02-02T21:42:00.005Z

Cover of Volume 1/ Munich Games report. Features extensive design work by Otl Aicher, friend and student of Josef Albers.

MONOCHROME PAINTING

2010-02-02T13:18:00.002Z

Oil on linen, 46 x 55cm. Painted from monochrome photograph of Rhythmus 72 coloured card study.

1972

2010-01-28T20:48:00.000Z

Monochrome version of coloured card collage (method used by Josef Albers) based on the wrestling rings at Munich Games '72.