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03/23/2005: "NYC 3"
I’ve been in New York for a month and a half or so and I’m getting used to the subway, the crowds and my neighborhood. I think you should consider yourself a resident if you’ve done your laundry at least 3 or 4 times in a place. I’ve been here long enough to begin to reflect on my experiences a little. This is something that usually takes me a while and I need a little distance as I tend to suspend judgement on a place until I’ve had a time to sift through my own biases.
I remember when I was a kid thinking Carravaggio was great and El Greco not so great because he couldn’t draw as realistically. And I remember the experience of seeing El Greco in the flesh for the first time and how his color sang and his drawing seemed to float and quiver and dance in a way that gave me a sense of the religious fervor that he was trying to achieve for his audience. They are magical paintings.
The same kind of thing happens when you travel. Maybe you think you like or dislike a place right off but a few days or weeks later you begin to settle in and realize your first impressions were quite off. Greenpoint seemed trashy and even a little scary the first time I came here several years back. There are some desolate areas that one avoids late at night. But in general it’s been a great place to work. The woman across the street at the bodega where I get my smokes knew my brand by the 3rd or 4th day I was in town. A guy in the subway bumped into me - he was a little scroungy looking (a fashion statement I’ve learned to mimic as it keeps you from looking like a tourist and an easy mark) and then he turned and apologized. This took me by surprise. Normally I would check my pockets to make sure everything was still there. But I had the sense that he wasn’t a pic-pocket. The place is really very friendly until you are in competition for a seat or place in line. Then it gets a little testy. But I haven’t met the old angry New Yorker that I am so familiar with. He seems to have disappeared after 9-11.
My brother came to visit me for a week. He left on Saturday. He’d never had time in previous visits to see the museums or galleries. So I had the great pleasure to take him to the Met his second day in the city. Tim is also a painter - and a good one. He is a little more traditional than I am and works with the figure, landscapes and still life. He is the one who got me into art school.
He had a big agenda when he arrived so we hit the city everyday either to go to the museum, galleries or meet with other artists whom he had developed contacts with over the internet during the last few years. He made a date to meet Gabriel Laderman at the Met. Laderman is a painter whose connections include de Kooning, Helion, Derain and Leland Bell. He is also friends with Stanely Lewis and used to teach at Queens College.
We spent about 3 hours at the Met talking about the tradition of painting and what has happened to it over the last 50 years. We all agreed that something is missing. While there are a few artists still doing something that has visual content, a deep and informed sense of abstraction and understand how to draw and use that skill to make art, many are simply finding a hip or trendy image (oftentimes simply copying photos- still a curious activity in my mind) and blowing them up as large as possible. At first glance it seems like art. Until you compare the visual thinking to either classical or modern masters and you realize how much more they knew. The long statement explaining what the work is supposed to mean always forewarns me. When you have to tell someone what it is all about then the image isn’t working. Even those who haven’t got much education in the arts should get it. After all Shakespeare could play to the penny crowd in the orchestra as well as the private boxes in the balconies. But I’ve said it beforeÖthere is a lot of shallow crap out there these days. There are a lot of artists who think not knowing is better than actually knowing anything whether it is about materials, history, drawing or color. Then there are the new fresh from undergrad school Post Modernists most of whom haven’t got a clue what Post Modernism is about but because it is the trendy new word on the art streets they claim it. In fact it has come to mean almost anything you want it to mean and can be used against anyone you want to use it against. Knowing de Kooning could draw (was actually trained as an illustrator and graphic artist) and being able to see his drawing at work in the late abstract ribbon images is what it is all about. (MoMA has a particularly good one.) Who cares if you learn to see in school or in the museums or on the street (although not having the chance to see enough work by extremely great artists makes learning it on the street quite hard.)
We went to get some lunch, dropped by the French Consulate to see a small statue purported to be the only Michelangelo sculpture in the United States and then went on to the Frick for a few more hours. Laderman is old school in all the best ways. His work is not that dated for the most part, but he has that knowledge and tension in his work and his critical thinking that makes it stand out. He isn’t shy about speaking out in a museum. I think we had a crowd following us because they were learning more listening to Gabriel then from those damned recorders the museums rent. We had a great visit. I’m glad I had the chance to meet him. He’s one of the great art educators and painting teachers living.
The day before we’d dropped in to the 1st Street Gallery (another co-op like the Bowery Gallery) to see Eve-Mansdorf’s paintings. She is painting large figure interior scenes with a lot of finesse and light. Good stuff. We’d just seen Eric Fishcal’s work at Mary Boone so we had a great chance to compare someone who has a huge reputation against a more modestly known painter of similar subjects- that is figures in interiors. Fishcal’s work had grittier subject matter dealing with sexual overtones and violence while Mansdorf’s subjects were more family and friends, mundane reality but not boring paintings. Mansdorf is a better painter even if Fishcal’s subject matter is more titillating. He paints wealthy, beautiful and dysfunctional people. His work is often slick, sloppy (with no apparent upside) probably because he began to hit during the Neo-Exprssionist period in the 80’s. He’s not a bad painter. Maybe fame has it’s curses. It is too easy to simply make a lot of images to sell. Mansdorf’s work is quiet and positive in comparison. Beautifully painted and well crafted. If she has faults it shows up when she paints nudes. Then tend to feel posed and out of place while the scenes of friends at dinner or husband and wife in daily activity have a verity that is striking. They both work out of similar color palettes. If you are in New York check her at the 1st Street gallery. They are a little hard to find but once you get there the views of the West Side towards the docks are great.
Eve Mansdorf through March 26th
1st Street Gallery
526 W 26th St., Ste 915
HYPERLINK http://www.firststreetgallery.net www.firststreetgallery.net
I think 1st St. Gallery also has a group link through wwar.com
The Fishcal show is up at Mary Boone through April 27th.
We also went to see the new Museum of Modern Art after negotiating our way through the St. Patrick Day Parade and other festivities. I always like this museum and have many favorite pieces that I go back to visit again and again. I haven’t any thoughts on the new building and galleries. It doesn’t seem that different to me. Maybe there is more work up than before which is a plus. I’m sure it isn’t worth the huge hike in price from $10 the last couple times I went to the new tag of $20. Friday is supposed to be “pay what you like day” if you don’t think you can afford the price of an amusement park with no rides. But be fore warned that the lines are extremely long on Friday. Tim and I had a good visit but while he was here I didn’t get much painting done. I get to see him fairly often so I was actually relieved when he took off. I came here to paint. But no one who has a place in New York gets away without a few visitors from away. 
I’ve gotten a lot of work done though overall including the last two days since my brother left. Here is the piece I posted last time a bit closer to a conclusion. I’ve worked the value structure quite a bit darkening the back wall and therefore the entire key of the painting by casting shadows, matching then pushing the chromatic intensities in some of the hues on the floor and elsewhere. The Promesas create a screen of patterning that sits on the surface except where the small blue house image floats in two spaces both in front of the screen yet securely on the small cube by the bed. The dreamer is a bit more solid now as she sleeps in the golden light cast from the left wall. The piece has a strong sense of light at this point that it didn’t have a few weeks ago. Her doppelganger also has more mass and though weighty she seems to float just off the mattrice. The space is my sleeping alcove here in the studio with that great black and white bed spread. My wife posed for me when she was here. It is close to complete as I mentioned but I will always reserve the right to go back into it over the next few weeks before I feel completely satisfied. 
I’ve also gotten another larger piece started. This is just preliminary underpainting and now has a long way to go. These figures are invented rather than drawn from life. This time the Promesas will be added later in the progression of the painting rather than from the start. I often times work both ways. Painting behind the screen of patterned images is more limiting but creates a tension in which anything you do must sit properly in tension with everything else from the very start. The later addition of the grid or screen (it isn’t always a true grid) allows me to build a composition first then figure out how the patterned surface will work best and what I can do with them in relation to the painting idea.
I often find it hard to talk about the subject matter in my work. They are visual poems and in that sense can’t be translated into words. Otherwise I’d write them instead of paint them. And while I can talk about metaphorical and spiritual imagery it is easier to discuss how they are painted, or technical issues like color or drawing or space. This new piece is called “Pesos para Besos” loosely translated “Money for Kisses.”
I’m a little more than half way finished with my time in Brooklyn and already beginning to regret not setting it up for a 4th month. I like it here. I could live here. I’m going home for a week on Wednesday. I have some business to attend to in Columbus. I’ll be back beginning of April and look forward to spring in New York.
