Saturday, January 28, 2012

Blaine Capone - The Whelming Parts I & II.

I was delighted to receive a (personalized) catalogue of Blaine Capone's current exhibition in the post the other day.

The Whelming was designed to coincide with Prospect.2 (which incidentally closes this weekend) and is such a mammoth undertaking that it could only have been tackled in two parts. 

I'm gutted that I didn't get the chance to see either part in person, but for anyone that isn't quite as far away as New Zealand, you have until February18th to get down to Coup d'Oeil in New Orleans to see it.
Installation view of The Whelming Part I. Centre: Grandma and She 2009,

Installation view of The Whelming Part I. L-R: Harlequin 2011, Painter's Mother 2009, Ejector 2011.

Blaine Capone - The Whelming Part II
Jan 14 - Feb 18 2012

Coup d'Oeil Art Consortium
2033 magazine street, new orleans, la 70130
ph: 504.722.0876
hours:12-5 wed-sat   1-5: sun-mon
directions: google maps

Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award 2012 - Finalist.

Final Study for a Portrait of Salome with the Head of John the Baptist has been selected as a finalist for the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award 2012.


The exhibition, at the Whakatane Memorial Complex is open for 10 days, over the two long weekends - Auckland Anniversary weekend and Waitangi weekend.
Hours: Saturday 28th January daily until Sunday 5th February, 10am - 5.00pm and for the final day Monday 6th February 10am - 3pm.

Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award


Friday, January 13, 2012

Buying Art

     victor j webster

Anselm Kiefer: Il Mistero delle Cattedrali.

Anselm Kiefer: Il Mistero delle Cattedrali. White Cube, Bermondsey.

Anselm Kiefer's  'Il Mistero delle Cattedrali' at White Cube Bermondsey is the largest presentation of Kiefer's work ever made in London and spans 11,000 sq ft of gallery space.

If time had permitted I would have gone back to see it the next day, the day after that and so on.
I'm eagerly awaiting  the catalog , even though looking at photos of his work feels a little pointless. 


From the Press Release:

The title of the exhibition is taken from the esoteric publication by Fulcanelli (published in 1926), which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years. As with all Kiefer's work, allusions are never literal but reflect an ongoing interest in systems - mystical and material - which have evolved over centuries. Both title and exhibition reflect Kiefer's longtime fascination with the transformative nature of alchemy: 'The ideology of alchemy is the hastening of time, as in the lead-silver-gold cycle which needed only time in order to transform lead into gold. In the past the alchemist sped up this process with magical means. That was called magic. As an artist I don't do anything differently. I only accelerate the transformation that is already present in things. That is magic, as I understand it.'

All of the large-scale canvases on show use landscape as its starting point. Thereafter, Kiefer works on each of them rigorously and with intense physicality and some of the canvases are exposed to the elements. In addition, for this exhibition, many of the large-scale works have undergone an accelerated process of oxidisation. Consequently, images that may be seen to evoke the sublime are themselves subjected to the subtle but immense power of natural forces. 'You have to find a golden path between controlling and not controlling, between order and chaos' Kiefer has observed. 'If there is too much order, it is dead; if there is too much chaos, it doesn't cohere. I'm continually negotiating a path between these two extremes.'
As well as the over-arching theme of alchemy, Kiefer continues to wrestle with various history, notably twentieth century Germany. Among the most striking and monumental of all his recent motifs is that of Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. Finally closed in 2008, it is among the most charged and culturally loaded of buildings. Built in 1927 on land once belonging to the medieval Knights Templar, the airport was redesigned in the following decade as part of Albert Speer's master plan for the Nazi reconstruction of Berlin. The vast complex was intended as Hitler's gateway to Europe and as a symbol of his 'world capital', Germania. It was never finished but witnessed military activity during the Cold War and was seen by many as a forerunner of the airports of the late twentieth century, in its grandeur and ambition. In Kiefer's vast canvases, Tempelhof is transformed into a latter day cathedral, or a mystical site of aspiration, of absurdity, even apocalypse.

  Sprache der Vögel

 Tempelhof
 


 Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus

  Merkaba



Dat rosa miel apibus

  
When a sweaty palm, holding a poorly concealed camera fogs up the lens, the show looks like this.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Gerhard Richter: Panorama, TATE Modern.

 A couple of snaps from the Gerhard Richter show, Panorama at Tate Modern. The 'intriguing' angles are because you weren't allowed to take photos and I'm not that sneaky.



During and in the days since, I'm aware of just how much I preferred Gerhard Richter - Forty Years of Painting at SFMOMA in 2002. It is the first time I have seen two different survey shows by the same artist. There were certainly a couple of notable omissions at the Tate and I believe (but could be wrong) the 2002 show had more works (140).  For me, this was my first obvious illustration of the role/skill/influence of the curator.

Gerhard Richter - Forty Years of Painting, SFMOMA.

Monday, January 9, 2012

GESAMTKUNSTWERK: New art from Germany at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

Any disappointment at not having the time to make it over to Germany while I was back in the U.K for Christmas, was quickly ameliorated by the amount of German Art on show in London. 

GESAMTKUNSTWERK: New art from Germany at the Saatchi Gallery, Gerhard Richter - Panorama at Tate Modern and Anselm Kiefer - Il Mistero delle Cattedrali at White Cube, Bermondsey. The latter is Kiefer's largest ever show in London, was THE highlight of my trip and may be the best gallery show I've ever had the chance to see in person.


GESAMTKUNSTWERK: New art from Germany, Saatchi Gallery.

                       
Thomas Helbig

 Markus Selg

 Andre Butzer

 Gert & Uwe Tobias

 Gert & Uwe Tobias

 Georg Herold

 Zhivago Duncan

   Zhivago Duncan