Mark Tobey, Famous Artist

Edge of August, 1953, Mark Tobey.
Casein on composition board, 48 x 28" MoMA

"I wouldn't wish fame on a rat!" Mark Tobey, after winning the most prestigious Venice Biennial City of Venice prize.

Mark Tobey (1890-1976) was an abstractionist whose interest was centered on form. That is profoundly confusing to me, since my own feelings about abstraction are that form would be almost the last element the artist wants.

Tobey is the guiding light of the Northwest School artists, and pre-saged Jackson Pollock.

Mark Tobey

A short synopsis of his achievements:

Tobey won international acclaim for his work towards the end of his life. He became the first American since James Abbot Whistler (1834-1903) to win the Painting Prize at the Venice Biennale, an award he won in 1959. In 1961, he had a retrospective showing at the Louvre in Paris, an extraordinary tribute to the work of a living artist. These landmark achievements were followed by a major exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1962 and, in 1974, another major show at the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Art critics and historians in the United States have long been uncertain exactly how to categorize Tobey. Many gave Pollock most of the credit for creating the all-over style. Others have suggested that Tobey's internationalism and even his religion have so far kept him from being accepted in mainstream art circles.

Reference.

Short Bio via the Peggy Guggenheim.

Long bio via Washington State's HistoryLink.

Committee Mark Tobey.

MoNA (Museum of Northwest Art)

Rothko at Other Blogs

Black on Gray, Rothko, 1969/1970

Sometimes our peerage out in Blog-land have more valuable resources than the web at-large.
What follows are some very interesting links for our artist, Mark Rothko, from unlikely sources:

1. O SECULO PRODIGIOSO
A very nice, clear collection of jpegs from the Rothko corpus. A must see.
I particularly like Tentacles of Memory, which reminds me of a Mark Tobey type of work.

2. A not-as-yet published monograph about Rothko, by French author Geneviève Vidal. She considers that Rothko, by his universal dimension, is "the painter of our becoming".

"Monumental dimensions, a totally frontal perspective, and loud colors characterized their output." Vidal

3. Looks like I've found my Thinking Blogger award recipient: Lessons in Art Appreciation, by blogger "Outre". Her live journal may be on hold, but she has given us a shotgun blast of artist after artist after artist. I like that.

"the fact that one usually begins with drawing is already academic. We start with color", is a Rothko quote that she brings to us.

4. If you will be in Israel soon, visit the first Rothko retrospective, co-curated by our editor, Dr. Christopher Rothko. Also has input from Rothko's daughter, Kate Rothko Prizel. The announcement is as follows:

The American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is pleased to announce that the first retrospective exhibition in Israel of works by Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970) will be on view from March 29 through June 30, 2007 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s Sam and Ayala Zacks Pavilion.

I just signed up for an e-mail alert for Mark Rothko entries on Google. Watch out, world.

Links:

http://www.jewishculturela.org/2007/04/03/
first-rothko-retrospective-exhibition-in-israel-on-view-at-
the-tel-aviv-museum-of-art-through-june-302007/

http://oseculoprodigioso.blogspot.com/2007/03/rothko-mark-expressionismo-abstracto.html

http://perso.orange.fr/vidal.genevieve/rothko/

http://community.livejournal.com/the_art_lessons/4685.html

The River Revisited

The Lazy River

19" x 25"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

I didn't like the color on the earlier photo, so we re-shot The Lazy River last week.  This one is more accurate.

Why not add Satchmo?

Why are these people having so much fun?  I think concerts are fun, but these peeps are swingin'.  It's 1958, which is a good vintage.  I was born in 1958.  

The Newport Jazz Festival (Rhode Island) was started only four years prior to this performance by Louis Armstrong.  I looked at their website.  It looks like a faded simile of it's once fantastic self.  Like a bag with all the gas let out.  I don't know how you top The Satch, anyway. I think they rate his performance as their high water mark.  

Maybe I'm waxing too nostalgic about it.   Although I avoid, like the plague, the subject of sympathy in my art, I do like it in music.  I'm not much of a music person, to be sure.  I don't know which end of the horn the sound comes out.  This guy: Sippican Cottage, knows a lot about music, and he comments on it all the time.  If you aren't reading his blog, you are missing out on the best prose in the interweb-osphere. 

About second number 23 in the video, you see this Caucasian lady (we used to call women ladies back then, but for a host of reasons that has fallen out of favor) start to mouth his lyrics.  That moment in the song, and it is early-on, you see the audience has totally boughten into his performance.   They are wrapped around his little finger, and that finger will be pushing valves on his blare like no other performer we remember.  He was called, "Pops" by his friends, and we all felt like his friends.  But, his music was anything but "pop."  It was Jazz, in all its glory: the music we listened to before that rolly type came ashore from a foreign land.  It was American, and it was crazy, free and wild.  

Don't get me started on the Fifties, either.  Those were salad days for American art.  Mark Tobey, Jackson Pollock  and Willem de Kooning were putting their expressionist versions of the same ideas as Louise on canvas.  Abstractionist notes and marks were colluding to turn our culture on its ear.

Are you still on your ear?  Just wondering.  Maybe your art, or your music, needs a little goose in the posterior.  Mr. Armstrong would approve of that.

Louis Armstrong.

NJF.
The River Series.

Artist, Know Thyself

Photo: Lorie Klahn

"Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."
Ann Landers.

Self Understanding is imperative to the risk-taker. Often, I look to my days as a rock climber for analogies to explain something. When I did the daredevil sport, and it came time to try the next harder grade, it was only when I could do a thorough self-diagnostic that I knew I was ready to advance. Energy? Check. Fitness level? Check. Equipment? Check. Weather? Maybe, well okay-check.

The artist may advance his images with greater confidence if he knows what his limits and abilities are. When you began the painting, you were envisioning a Michelangelo. In the end, for some reason, it turned out as a Klahn. Not that it's bad, but still not what you envisioned!

"Trust not yourself,
but your defects to know;
make use of every friend
and every foe."
Alexander Pope.

Do I mean introspection? Navel-gazing? Not too much. We are not writing philosophy; we are making pictures. Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said, "...the shallow know themselves"? But, a little self-awareness of, for instance, the will to finish a particular painting might be good to have. You may ask yourself, "Do I care enough about trees-in-a-glen to make this image really speak?"

Some self understanding will keep you against that day when the nay-sayers come about and denounce your work. "If I ever decide to buy something like that, stop me!" "Everyone can't be Rembrandt!" "Art is okay for you, if you can make a living at it!"




Why do you make this art? Are you strong in yourself? Do you feel the art in your bones? It might be good to know the why of it for when that day of doubt arrives.

"To reach any knowledge of oneself is a rare and precious bonus. Most people live to the end in doubt and uncertainty. What a torment! It's not a matter of finding the right path, but of finding one's own path, as Nietzsche said, 'Become who you are.' Alas! for [sic] one moment of certainty, how many hours of doubt!" Henri Edmund Cross

I think that having a solid "first person authority," knowing what you think, understand and believe, can help in making your art unique and authentic. It is one piece of the originality puzzle that all artists seek to solve.

Have you ever had the experience of revisiting a painting that you haven't looked at for a while, and discovering that it has a trace of van Gogh in it? You didn't know you had that in you, and you are wondering how that happened. There is no end to the delight of self discovery through art.

"I know...that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas," Albert Einstein.

Another common phrase for the self-seeker is "Don't fool yourself". Once in a while, use some tools for checking in on your own ideas and beliefs about yourself. Sometimes, the mirror is a good device, and sometimes it is the mirror of a friend that tells the truth.

Have you ever overheard others speaking well of you? I hope you get the chance, as it is a wonderful thing to hear un-solicited praise. And, at the same time, the truth can be helpful when it's not exactly praise.

Another fun example of third party input is to secretly observe people looking at your art. I once posted some cartoons on a bulletin board, and a friend of mine made sure that I stood ten feet away and watched reactions. Didn't Mark Tobey make a point of going to his own openings in disguise?

Next Post: I'll be asking you to add your traits-to-be-gained. What are your desired traits for the artist's life?

References:

Stanford on Self Knowledge.
Extreme self-thought.

My Discoveries

Pinks & Greens
7.8" x 6"
Pure Pigment Pastel
Casey Klahn

Let's get out and about, as they say, and visit some great art & artist's sites that I have recently discovered. I make these discoveries over time, and it's a slow process. I haven't got a clue what I am looking for, just things that appeal to me artistically.

First, blogs that are new (to me):

1. Ann McMillan's blog, Fresh from the Easel. Ann is a California pastellist who really has the landscape down, with a fresh and colorful perspective. I have never met Ann, but hope to someday. Her web site is here. Don't miss Blue Barn.

2. Lisa Call. Lisa isn't really new on the block, but I did add her blog to my links recently. She is an important figure in the world of art blogging, with a well crafted site and killer quilts. I don't have a lot of fine craft stuff on my blog, which reflects my personal tastes in general. Don't get me wrong, I have crafter friends on the circuit who I respect greatly. I collect Raku pottery, myself. Ancient art was as much about the clay pot as it was about the picture. And quilting is as much a part of Americana as Country Music, and by that I mean authentic. I guess I will require a whole set of posts at some point to fill out my links to craft web sites.

Artist's web sites (AKA artist's without blogs, or AWB):

1. Jean-Michel Blanc is a French artist with a web site entitled: Art Pastel. I will take the privilege of sharing his entry quote here:

" The use of bright and warm colours in order to give a presence to the landscapes,
the individuals and situations in daily life. Put into scene, spontaneous and privileged
instants which we would like to live, " JMB.

I really like Jean-Michel's large scope in his cityscapes, and his personal color choices. He also has a strong unity to his figure work that is refreshing.

2. Eric Merrell. Another of those Californians! Eric has a pleasing twist on colors, and he pins this talent to well organized shapes in the landscape. And, he is prolific in his range of subject matter. Enjoy this sea stacks offering in his painting, Stability.

Sites that I label, "About Art" are third party sites such as museums, art news sites, and art commentators/critics. Here are my recent additions to my links:

1. Venice Biennial, and Florence Biennial. The Venice venue (or set of venues) is a long standing (established in 1895) showcase for important world art. Our local boy, Mark Tobey, made a splash there in 1959, and the big city art clutch us still trying to live that one down. Time for another one of those, I'd say. The Florentine venue is juried by the "most authoritative in the world", according to it's Wikipedia entry. Is there any other city in the world with a foundation in art like that of Florence?

2. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice creates a nexus with the Venice Biennial by hosting the American Pavilion.

And, before I finish, I want to draw attention to Wolf Kahn's new works in pastel. They favor green, at one time, and others favor yellow. Really great work!

Blog Direction

Slowly, now, I return to the land of blogging. My art fair blast is through for a while, and I am re-entering home and studio life in beautiful Davenport, Washington.

Family life, the never-ending maintenance cycle of our old house, and soon-pending guest visits are priorities, now. The blog will be a little less so. But don't worry. I always have something to say.

Katherine Tyrrell has asked for a (detailed!) post on my framing, which you have been able to view at the Endless Summer Art Fair for the past several weeks. That will be fun and easier for me now that I have some photos to show of my framed work.

New directions with my art are on the docket. Also, I wish to continue with my Abstract Expressionists. Perhaps they will need to be interspersed with my personal stuff, since I have so much to post on. Also, look forward to seeing my posts on "our men" here in the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest School (Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, etc.).

Stay tuned, kind readers.