Week 12: ANCHOR / REVERE

Matisse, Fenetre Ouverte, 1905

As discussed in class, the key word for this final week is ANCHOR--
with the following possible combinations:

ANCHOR / REVERE
ANCHOR / SOAR
ANCHOR / PRAYER
ANCHOR / EMBARK

All good combinations--each with its own implications--taking us to a different place.  Consider this in your concluding project. This time, you make the choice!

The Matisse (above) came at a point of great and open-ended exploration in his artistic life. Making a painting like this was in fact a risk. He had reached beyond the easily known--the easily acceptable--into new territory, following his own need, his own necessity. A view through an open window...
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Jorge Luís Borges:  “For me—simply because I'm a coward myself—bravery is an essential virtue.”
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The end of a semester  always has its own character. I used to conclude with EMERGE--a noble word, filled with possibility. But to me, right now, there's something almost pretentious about the self-immersion.  That this is a time demanding something more outward--facts as they exist, meanings that we share... Reaching for them, at the least...

Week 11: BRACE / TEMPT

Arshile Gorky, Unattainable, The Limit, 1947

Week 10: BORROW / CHARM

Joseph Beuys, Telephone, 1974

Of course, part of the work here involves a certain kind of seeing in. That was Richard Wolheim's phrase for how the painter makes a mark, and sees in it the sense of the figure he or she is pursuing. A particularly apt way of characterizing that relationship. (We can discuss this in class.) But what if the seeing in involves not so much strokes of paint, but an object in the world? Joseph Beuys was a master at this--his well-honed personal mythology, always on the lookout for situations in which it could be mirrored. (See photo of Beuys standing in concrete bunker on the coast of Ireland--or the photographs of his aktion at the Rene Block gallery in New York, I Love America and America Loves Me--with live coyote...

In fact, much of Beuys' work depends on photography--the way the work is pictured has a great deal to do with how we understand it. Usually a kind of grainy black-and-white in situ verisimilitude--which means that the photo above is unusual, having been shot in color (well, muted color) on a white seamless backdrop--which today of course invokes the world of advertising. Hence in part its charm...

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David Hammons provided a good balance... When I wrote the above, about Beuys, I hadn't been thinking about showing you his work. But after reading the NY show review (Holland Cotter, NYTimes), it seemed an important parallel... Along with out discussion of Duchamp's "house of mirrors." The subject in David Hammond's work (both senses of the word) is crucial...

Week 9: GLIMPSE / OVERHEAR

Well, it's Spring Break week--a little respite if not travel. So the word(s) follow accordingly. In semesters past we've done OVERHEAR--but this time I thought it would be interesting to combine that with something visual as well--so, GLIMPSE (catch sight of) in parallel. Both good for on-the-road or right-at-home...  (Highway 99 or Café Trieste...)

Glimpses and Overheard conversations...

Have a good break!

Week 8: VEIL / BEGIN

First, know that I was going to give you ENCOUNTER / BEGIN, but the two words implied a bit too much of a narrative. And I liked the ide of beginning emerging out of the hidden. So, VEIL / BEGIN. Either way, see where it takes you...
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Philip Guston began these drawings in the late 1960s, at a point in his work where something was waiting to emerge but he didn't yet have a sense of just what it was. His paintings from the previous decade will give you a sense of this--powerful, atmospheric, unresolved. He needed to find his ground again. And what lead him there were some seemingly very simple drawings. Deceptively simple.

Makes me think of the distinction made by art historian George Kubler (I'm quoting from memory)--that a tool, no matter how complex, is in the end  very simple, while a work of art, no matter how simple seeming, is ultimately very complex...
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REALLY good class last night. Looking at Martin Puryear's work, followed by your own projects. An upper, all the way. James Agee and Walker Evans, word and image--Manuel Álvarez Bravo (the great Mexican photographer), Dwayne Wayne (ok, I looked that up)... Mostly, everyone quite animated... 

Week 7: FOUND / DELVE

Martin Puryear

I told you a bit about coming across this image (in an ad in the NYRB) for a Martin Puryear show at the Art Institute of Chicago--and how the work can have different readings. We'll talk about this in relation to Martin Puryear's work in general--and the question (is this too grand?) of what makes something real?
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The Wall
Donald Justice


The wall surrounding them they never saw;
The angels, often. Angels were as common
As birds or butterflies, but looked more human.
As long as the wings were furled, they felt no awe.
Beasts, too, were friendly. They could find no flaw
In all of Eden: this was the first omen.
The second was the dream which woke the woman.
She dreamed she saw the lion sharpen his claw.
As for the fruit, it had no taste at all.
They had been warned of what was bound to happen.
They had been told of something called the world.
They had been told and told about the wall.
They saw it now; the gate was standing open.
As they advanced, the giant wings unfurled.

Week 6: RESTORE / Nourish / Feed

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Ionian

Though we have broken their statues,
though we have driven them out of their temples,
the gods did not die because of this at all.
O Ionian land, it is you they still love,
it is you their souls still remember.
When the August morning dawns upon you
a vigor from their life moves through your air;
and at times a figure of ethereal youth,
indistinct, in rapid stride,
crosses over your hills.

    

                                            C.P. Cavafy 

                                              

                                                                      Rae Dalven translation