Artist: Jorge Villalba

White Squares Gallery in Las Vegas is where I first saw Jorge Villalba's work.

His painting The Kidnapping of Ganymedes I, 2004 is thrilling with its darkness and photo realism. Many of Villalba’s paintings are reminiscent of beautiful and perfect children, often in chilling poses or situations. Villalba’s work suggests an intentional instigation but of what is often disputed. When I went back there today to visit my friend C. The Kidnapping of Ganymedes I again beckoned my attention. I told C. how wonderful I thought it was and she said that the reaction of many visitors is one of outrage at Villalba's painting, which they view as child pornography?!?!

I think his paintings are brilliant, not lewd. To me the paintings speak more of dichotomies between naiveté and death or innocence and evil. Villalba’s paintings often depict children with faces that are perfectly angelic and totally realistic. The coloring of the children is almost always cast in a natural glow, with the backdrop often sparse and dark. Common in his paintings are brightly colored toys that are recognizable as contemporary.

Born in Spain in 1975, Villalba’s painting style and technique are clearly recognizable and defined. He is able to created works that are reminiscent of portraits or depict characters and events in times past, yet with an indisputable presence in this moment.

The Picnic (2008)

Hansel and Gretel (2007)

Here is the link for White Square Gallery in Las Vegas.

Originally founded in Berlin in 2008, WHITE SQUARE GALLERY is the first European gallery to open showrooms in Las Vegas, USA.


http://www.whitesquaregallery.com/las-vegas/artists/reminisce/jorge-villalba/works.html

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEME
WE LOVE YOU!!!




some photos of the flowers I brought indoors.

Artist: Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker (1956) is a British artist who originally trained as a painter but is known for her sculptures and installation pieces. In 1997 she was short listed for the Turner Prize which is named for the artist J.M.W. Turner and is awarded annually by the Tate institute to a visual artist under the age of fifty. Ms. Parker is recognized for her large scale installations where she suspends destroyed or altered found objects, as three dimensional art.

Ms. Parker’s work ‘Mass’ (1997) is part of the Phoenix Art Museums permanent collection and in my opinion one of the Museums best pieces.

The room which contains the installation could be larger and one is not able to walk around the piece, taking away from the installations full potential, yet hardly challenging its beauty. ‘Mass’ is made up of several pieces of charcoal suspended on transparent threads. The hanging parts are larger and denser in the middle and expand to smaller and more widely spaced periphery of a cube shape. It is actually the seemingly flawless shape of the cube produced, by fragmented pieces, which impressed me. The parts of the whole seem to be suspended not only in air but in time. There is the sense of an explosion contained within the invisible limitations of a box. The work is lit from above which further creates an airy atmosphere.

The plaque describes the work as coming from the fragments retrieved from a church struck by lightening and burnt to the ground in Lytle, Texas.
There is more to Ms. Parker’s artist mission statement in relation to ‘Mass’ namely that it is made by remnants of a Caucasian congregation which can be juxtaposed with a subsequent work titled ‘Mass (Colder Darker Matter)’ (1998) made from pieces scavenged from an African American church destroyed by arsonists.
Ms. Parker’s work has been described as 'Found Art' as well as 'Art Intervention', both categories of art that suggest the creation of a new art using previously existing art work.

Here is an interesting article about Ms. Parker:
http://www.damelioterras.com/MEDIA/01088.pdf

Textiles

I took these yesterday because the things around my house make me happy.

I love the colors of this pattern and also the hidden images.

Artist: Ernest L. Blumenschein

In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein

On now until June 14th 2009 at the Phoenix Art Museum is the first major exhibition of Blumenschein’s work since his death in 1960. A co-founder of the famed Taos Art Colony his art is recognized for it’s predominantly Southwestern influences.
Born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Blumenschein originally trained as a violinist following in his fathers footsteps. At the age of seventeen he won a scholarship to the Cincinnati College of Music and it was there where he began taking classes at the Art Academy as well. After studying in Europe, as all serious artists at the time did, Blumenschein took a momentous trip to the American Southwest in 1898. Upon a serendipitous discovery of Taos, New Mexico, Blumenschein cultivated a life-long relationship with the landscapes, native cultures and daily life in this region resulting in international recognition and numerous awards, even during his lifetime.

The exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum is magnificently arranged. Covering a large cross section of his earlier works, those commissioned by the Santa Fe Railway, works depicting the rituals of the Pueblo Indians and Hispanic populations as well as his vivid landscapes, one experiences a comprehensive summary of the artist and his work.

Among my favorite paintings in this exhibit were three displayed together on the far right hand side of the room. Titled: Green Aspen (1935), Enchanted Forest (1946) and Untitled- Decorative Landscape with Indians (1935), they depict a natural setting predominantly of trees. The information plaque described these painting as a representation of Blumenschein’s ‘mature style’ and sights the repetitious forms and ‘patterns of harmonious color’ as illustrations of this. The first painting ‘Green Aspen’ is a vertical pattern of trees with floret like foliage and a darker back drop of triangle shaped coniferous trees. The painting has an overlapping fallen tree in the forefront which, stark on its own, is further emphasized by it’s proximity to the largest of the three ‘tree’ paintings ‘Enchanted Forest’. The middle and largest painting is of trees but includes figures to represent a ‘Pueblo Deer Dance’. The plaque describes this painting as having originally been a representation of ‘The Fall of Adam and Eve’ and says that four years after first creating this work, Blumenschein chose to paint over it and change it to represent Native American culture. This painting is also linear and replicated in the painting of the trees however is less tame with its abundance of angled semi-fallen trees. The last painting made in the same year as Green Aspen and comparable in its size is the most columned having both the trees trunks and foliage in a straight stroke.

I was particularly drawn to the railway yard painting which Blumenschein exhibited in 1956 in an exhibition titled: 'The Chief Goes Through'. Commissioned by the Santa Fe Railway to created advertisements promising tourists ‘a peaceful and scenic destination’ Blumenschein also painted many canvases of the Albuquerque Railway. The lines and color that are used are similar in all the railway painting and the color pallet is emphasized by contrasting bright colors in representations of buildings, human forms and parts of the trains. ‘Railroad Yard- Meeting Called’ is a beautiful example of Blumenschein’s ability to create brilliant paintings. Using lines formed in similar tones with minimal organic forms, in this case smoke plums, and unassuming accentuated colors, as in the case of the figures attending the meeting Blumenschein creates a style which is both classic and modern.

My very favorite paintings of Blumenschein’s are his portrayal of Native American rituals, festivals and dances. Blumenschein uses an abundance of bright colors and emphasis by detailing some parts and blurring others. In ‘Moon, Morning Star and Evening Star’ (1931) he creates a scene with mountain backdrop, pueblo village centered and forefront figures gathered in a ritual ceremony. At the center of the gathering is a robust male figure extending his arms to the heavens. At his feet lay the bounty of a harvest. Many of the figures surrounding him are faced towards him while a handful are turned towards us, the audience. The shape the gathering produces is reminiscent of female genitalia and the ceremony is female in tone due to it’s subject matter.

Blumenschein is known as a contemporary artist whose art complimented the times. He ‘was neither conservative nor radical’. His subject matter was a largely untapped theme painted in the point of view of a European trained artist. The use of patterns and color in his paintings are testament to his modern art influences thus accomplishing a secure spot ‘in the traditional stage-between movements.’

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Development of the Taos and Santa Fe Art Colonies by Keith L. Bryant, Jr.

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa58.htm

Artist: Christian Boltanski

While in Madrid I saw my first Christian Boltanski installation and it took over all of my senses.
Having been wondering the Reina Sofia museum starting with the top floor, I followed my way around, one room after another, without a map.
I took an unsuspecting corner and was immediately overcome with a shiver. After a pause and an adjustment of my eyes; the dimly lit room took form.
My instant feeling was of having entered a walk in cooler and an instant after that it felt like a morgue. In an eerie burst of small coffins with black cloth draped over them was every natural person’s distress, children’s coffins. The ceiling hung with black electrical wires ending with exposed light bulbs. The seven coffins stood on stilts, at various heights, creating long shadows against the walls. The shadows and lights reflected off the small rectangular mirrors strewn about the walls. The center of the ceiling joined the thirteen lights which hooked and hung emphasizing bursts of light in various parts of the room.
To be sure I asked the attendant in Spanish ‘if the coldness was part of the installation’ and was told with a smile that it was.
I recognized Boltanski as the artist who took photos of dead people from Holocaust relics and titled his collages such things as ‘The Dead Suiss’ (1995).
His ominous art is a theme in Boltanski’s works as is the sense of loss. Born in 1944 to a Jewish father and Christian mother Boltanski grew up in fear, as his father hid under the floor boards of his family’s home avoiding Nazi detection. Growing up in a post WWII Paris, the influence this has on his art is undisputable however Boltanski has claimed that his art is neither Holocaust nor Jewish art.
Las Tumbas (1996) at the Reina Sofia has a shrine like quality to it that suggest it is representative of all wasted losses in all senseless wars, natural disasters, tragedies or accidents. It represents the past as well as foreshadowing the future giving a timeless unity and a uniform sadness to all human losses.

In 1991 Boltanski published a book titled “Sans Souci” which features photos of Nazi officers and their friends and families. The book implies as the Holocaust historian Christopher Browning has suggested in his book ''Ordinary Men,'' that these men and women were humans changed into evil murderers by an unavoidable human history. Of course history cannot help but repeat itself which leads one to question what role we could play in inevitable destruction.

Here is a great article about Mr. Boltanski:

http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue2/boltanski.htm