Art Blogs - Artblogs - Contemporary Art Weblogs at absolutearts.com

Monday, April 28th

Drawing and Painting

In my last blog I was talking about my very early drawings, some of them dating back as far as the 1940s (and please forgive me for not having been able to replay to all the comments!). Today in this prolonged, enjoyable, common effort of ours to make this blog also a place where we share our thoughts and impressions on our work so to understand it better, I will try to say something about another group of drawings, this time a very recent one. It is a group of three drawings I made in 2007, a group that, if I am right, I have already had a chance to bring to the pages of our Absolutearts blog when they were not finished yet. Though this is the very first time I am talking about them here.

Alberto Sughi on 04.28.08 @ 10:18 AM EST [more..]

Thursday, April 24th

LET’S DO AWAY WITH “ART” -- Or I’ve got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.

ART:
1: skill acquired by experience, study, or observation 2 a: a branch of learning: (1): one of the humanities (2)plural : liberal arts b archaic : learning, scholarship3: an occupation requiring knowledge or skill 4 a: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced b (1): fine arts (2): one of the fine arts (3): a graphic art 5 a archaic : a skillful plan b: the quality or state of being artful 6: decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter
synonyms art, skill, cunning, artifice, craft mean the faculty of executing well what one has devised. Art implies a personal, unanalyzable creative power . skill stresses technical knowledge and proficiency . cunning suggests ingenuity and subtlety in devising, inventing, or executing . Artifice suggests technical skill especially in imitating things in nature . Craft may imply expertness in workmanship .

Walter King on 04.24.08 @ 07:44 AM EST [more..]

Monday, April 21st

THE ART OF EVERYDAY JOE

The title really gets to the heart of the matter. I am an "Everyday Joe," I write for the "Everyday Joe" and art is FOR the "Everyday Joe."

That's why my new book is called, "The Art of Everyday Joe: A Collector's Journal." Before you think I'm some huckster JUST trying to hawk a book,
please hear me out.

Unfortunately, some people in the art world make things more complicated than they need to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT talking about "dumbing
down" art. Art is expressive, multidimensional and often quite profound, but shouldn't people be free to see and feel whatever moves them? Shouldn't we
be able to break down the most complex work to its most basic, essential concepts?

Not too long ago, an art dealer told me that many people in the art world like to keep art shrouded in mystery ... held high on a mountaintop. Art is lofty and high-minded, but there's a big difference between profundity and pretense. We've done the snobbery thing for so long. Aren't we bored stiff with that?

Let's make art TRULY accessible for people. If we do this, we'll spark excitement and set off a renaissance. Let's talk about it, let's open our doors, let's be nice to people who nothing about art. Every single person is an opportunity to expand the reach of contemporary art. If you really think about it, this is more than just "pie in the sky." This is down to earth practicality. If the "Everyday Joe" thinks that art is actually available and affordable, they'll buy it ... and YOU get to eat tonight. Plain and simple. We don't need to complicate this.

Michael Corbin on 04.21.08 @ 07:10 AM EST [more..]

Thursday, April 3rd

Drawing the Line on Reproductions

For as long as the ability to reproduce art has been available, there have been those who have sought to use it for legitimate purposes and some for ill-gotten gain. There were numerous reports last month about a ring of crooks busted for selling $7 million in fake Picasso, Miro, Dali and Chagall prints. These reports come nearly on the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the conviction of Kristine Eubanks and her husband, Gerald Sullivan. That pair had been charged with selling $20 million in bogus art prints, many of which were made in their own professional giclée printmaker studio.

Personally, I enjoy the fact visual artists can reproduce their work and thus create a secondary cash flow from it. It gives them another price point and allows them to introduce their work to many more collectors as well. Seeing cases of fraud as mentioned above concerns me that visual artists creating legitimate reproductions will find themselves under unwanted scrutiny. As if it weren’t difficult enough to make a go of it already for most artists.

Barney Davey on 04.03.08 @ 08:00 AM EST [more..]