Rough Drafts

My soon to be (self) published book is in it's rough draft. The subject, so far, is about intuitive process and color choices. I am spending so much time with the writing and formatting of the book, and with preparation for my first art fair of the summer, that I am going to put a "hold" on the historic Abstract Expressionist posting.

Don't worry, I'll still be reading and studying up on the famous artists. Have you found that the busier you get, the more important it becomes to still read?

The first "rough' text:

Red Veiled Forest
14" x 19", Pastel
Casey Klahn

Red curtained forests are a staple of my images created in the early part of the decade beginning in 2000. Don't assign too much meaning to the red in them; to me it's just an attractive color! The challenge comes in trying to make a believable landscape-one that reads as a landscape without too much thought on the part of the viewer-without pushing the red subject over the top. Will it hold up? Will it be a balanced composition?

Repetition is an old and venerable artist's tool. How much can this idea yield? Anything good enough for a successful painting must also have more than one story to tell. For me, the red theme has also provided a unifying element to the works made in these few years. And the lessons learned about controlling intense pigments have been invaluable.

Red Veiled Forest is an image that no matter how I tried, I just could not repeat. Some of the techniques used are understandable in formal terms. A partial sky, a few areas of paper peeking through to provide a depth to an otherwise (intentionally) flat composition. Alternating bands of temperature "compliments". These things are repeatable.

But it turned out that I couldn't even get close to the structure or composition again with any amount of success. Nothing else looked right. So balanced, so deep and full of red, so mysterious. I decided that it should remain in my own collection, thinking that some day I would understand the key to the mystery of how to make a painting like this.

Memorial Day

Last year at this time
I was overseas attending a Memorial Day service at the American Cemetery in Florence.

Memorial Day, and a mixture of thoughts borne to me by my readings and my memories are giving me pause.

My Mark Rothko book has arrived in the mail, and I have mixed feelings as I open it to read. Christopher Rothko, a psychologist and the late artist's son, has organized and published The Artist's Reality, Philosophies of Art from a long stored manuscript written by the late artist.

Imagine the labor that went into this book. Christopher was left an orphan by his father's sudden suicide in 1970, and his mother Mell's passing only 6 months later. Can there be any doubt as to the trauma felt by the six year-old boy after his father slit his own wrists? On top of the emotional loss came the endless and brutal legal battles over his father's estate.

The Jackson Pollock and Vincent van Gogh stories have also made sobering reading for me of late.

What's more, I also just finished watching Flags of Our Fathers. The kids and I were renting a Sponge Bob classic, and I spotted the Clint Eastwood flick. The idea of the movie came from the James Bradley book, which is a post-mortem research by the son of one of the famous servicemen who raised the US flag on Iwo Jima. I had trepidation seeing it, because of the historical redaction that is beginning to torture our historical memory of the great conflict of my father's generation. It turned out to be a faithful and, IMO, an honest story telling of the dramatic events surrounding the Iwo Jima saga. The same February of 1945 that this Pacific Theater battle was being fought, my own father was in combat in a far less publicized theater of the global conflict: Northern Italy.

A year ago this Memorial Day I was honoring my late father's service in the Second World War at the US Cemetery in Florence, Italy. My dad, Kenneth Klahn was in the famous Tenth Mountain Division, which was a super-elite organization that created a great legacy in battles known by the names of places: Riva Ridge, Mount Belvedere, and the Po River.

Maybe the memories of my own father has a little to do with my emotional connection to Christopher Rothko's story. He, too, is remembering his father's life.

Links:

Flags of Our Fathers-Movie
Florence American Cemetery
Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley's book about his late father, John "Doc" Bradley.
Tenth Mountain Division

The Duke

It's telling that even the The San Fransisco Chronicle can't help but dish out praise on The Duke's birthday. Good on them.

Wayne gave us the mythic American man.

Does that sound like nothing? Are we not impressed? Then try watching the last minute of Ford's "The Searchers" or "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949) -- or Hawks' "Red River" (1948) or "The Shootist" (1976), Wayne's lovely valedictory -- and see how it makes you feel. I predict one minute of cold skepticism followed by heart-in-mouth awe. John Wayne is in our collective bloodstream.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/25/DDGRHQ0E2K1.DTL

Happy 100, John Wayne

"Westerns are closer to art than anything else in the motion picture business" - John Wayne

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I hold that the premier art form of the USA is the motion picture. And the most enduring movie star of all time is the great John Wayne, who would have been 100 years old tomorrow.

Don't worry, I'm not going to turn my art blog into a movie site. But I couldn't let this landmark day go by without a salute to The Duke.

Congressional Gold medal

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Born in Winterset, Iowa on May 26th, 1907, this quintessential American man would go on to make over 175 films, become the only person ever to be posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 1969 he earned his industry's top merit, the Oscar for Best Actor. That was for his role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.

Quotes:

"As far as I'm concerned, Americans don't have any original art except Western movies and jazz."

— Clint Eastwood

"Fill your hand, you sonofab!tch!" John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn (True Grit)

Links:

Clip (Real Play) from "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon":
http://www.jwayne.com/media/she_wore_a_yellow_ribbon_T1.rm


My favorite TV commercial of all time:

Tagged Again!

The meme where bloggers are tagging each other to produce 7 factoids, and then tag 7 others, has come back around to me. I am opting not to play according to the rules, as I don't want to be a "double-dipper" in the well of tag mammon.

Tina Mammoser, London Artist, has tagged me this time. So, because I really like her blog site and her art, I will do a tag-back. Maybe that will become a new rule for this game: "If tagged a second time, the taggee may tag-back the tagger".

I introduce Tina Mammoser, who is an American ex-pat in London. Check out her wonderful web site as well.
She does contemporary abstracts in acrylic, which remind me of landscapes in the broader sense.

We are probably long lost cousins, I think. Her work involves water because she has always lived by the water. I get up-tight when I get too far from a body of water-something to do with growing on at the Pacific coast. She is exploring horizontals, while my own landscapes find interest in vertical elements. Can you tell I really love her work?

Rothko Record

White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)
81" x 55.5"
Mark Rothko

On May 17th, 2007, this Rothko painting sold at auction for $72.8 Million. That more than doubles the record auction price for a post-war era painting, which was $27.1 Million
(De Kooning, Untiltled XXV, 1977).

Love him or hate him, Rothko is absolutely original in many ways. There is a pleasing unity to his color field paintings that immediately place my thoughts on the colors, the painting and the canvas. The interaction of the colors is attractive, yet remain in the abstract realm-giving no "handle" to hold onto except the experience of looking at the painting right now.

Rothko Vision

No. 3/No. 13 1949
Mark Rothko

We are studying the Abstract Expressionists at The Colorist. Jackson Pollock has been covered, and we continue now with Mark Rothko.

His book from the grave, The Artist's Reality, arrived from Amazon late last week, and I find it interesting that I agree with what I've read so far of this great "color field" painter's philosophy.

I offer the following principles or vision for abstraction from the introduction of the Rothko book:

1. Unity
2. Generalization
3. Ideas
4. Emotion

What are your thoughts when you read these "abstract" words?

Link Love

Here's a quick shout out to my friends at FLA, Nicole Caulfield and Katherine Tyrell.

Nicole, who draws a mean cup of coffee, has included me in her favorites links. Katherine has uncovered the new blog at The Pastel Journal, and graciously included me as one of the blogosphere's pastel bloggers. "We few, we happy few..."

I did get in a comment on the PJB's thread where one can nominate their favorite pastel work of all time. Guess which one I chose?

If you picked Degas, The Singer in Green, you were right!

American Art Collector

Hill with Red Sky
12.5" x 9.5"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

Today, I received word that my artwork, Hill with Red Sky will be published in the next American Art Collector, Alcove Books. The book is sent to museums, galleries and other venues, but other limited distribution is provided through Baker & Taylor. I have a number of copies myself, and could be talked into selling you one, but numbers are very few, sorry.

I have enjoyed having my artwork published in the West Coast edition for the past three years running, and vouch for the very high quality of this eclectic showcase of art of various media. The next issue will be a nation wide version, rather than regional.



http://www.alcovebooks.net/index.html
http://www.btol.com/

Note: I am reviewing the options available to me for self-publishing a book featuring my
Colorist American Landscapes. My goal is to make books available to my patrons only, and to keep the distribution small. Because I don't produce prints of my work, I am exploring the book medium as an alternative way of providing access to my art for more patrons. Any ideas or experiences with self publishing out there?

Edmonds Arts Festival

Pink Forest
7.3" x 5.3"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

This work, Pink Forest, has been juried in to the Edmonds, Washington Arts Festival Gallery. The festival, where I will also have an outdoor booth, is in it's Fiftieth year. The scenic city of Edmonds anchors one of the numerous ferry lines in the Puget Sound region.


If you would like to get an early look at the Gallery installation, the Preview Party provides the opportunity:

EDMONDS ARTS FESTIVAL PREVIEW PARTY
We are inviting patrons to preview and purchase art in the Juried Gallery by attending the Edmonds Arts Festival Preview Party on Thursday June 14th. Over 600 loyal patrons of the arts attend this event, which includes dinner, drinks, and entertainment. For more information contact Edmonds Arts Festival Juried Gallery email: festivalgallery@comcast.net.

See this blog for my outdoor booth number when the information becomes available.

Mark Rothko's Posthumous Book

The late Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is my favorite of the Abstract Expressionists. Allow me to share the following quotes; one from a National Gallery of Art bio and the embedded quote from the artist, himself.

One of the preeminent artists of his generation, Mark Rothko is closely identified with the New York School, a circle of painters that emerged during the 1940s as a new collective voice in American art. During a career that spanned five decades, he created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting. Rothko's work is characterized by rigorous attention to formal elements such as color, shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale; yet, he refused to consider his paintings solely in these terms. He explained:

”It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.”

Rothko is everywhere on the web taken out of context as saying "There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing". Of course, when read in context we see that he absolutely asserts the opposite.

Further to the subject of letting the great "color field" painter speak for himself, his son and daughter, Christopher and Kate Rothko have published The Artist’s Realities, Philosophies of Art, Mark Rothko, 2004. Walmart. Amazon.

The artist died by suicide, and apparently left a royal mess of his affairs. His estranged widow, Mell, died the following year, only exacerbating the legal disarray of their estate. The fallout from all of the hassles is said to have been so overwhelming for the Rothko offspring, that the handwritten notes that later comprised this memoir were not discovered or read for decades. I found this great, great piece quoting Christopher about his feelings while organizing the manuscripts.

As a matter of marketing and presentation, it's a lucky turn for the unlucky progeny of the artist. Who doesn't love to "discover" the long-lost history of a great man? It remains now for the art historians to review the writings of the "Theologian of the Abstract Expressionists" and give them some context within the broaden understanding that we have of Rothko's vision.

Rothko

Personally, I'd like to find a box of van Gogh's long-lost letters to his sister.

A blogger in Seattle has a short take on the book.

Links:

http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothkohttp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothko_Case

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4529520

http://smallpressures.blogspot.com/2006/02/artists-reality-philosophies-of-art-by.html

http://www.estatevaults.com/lm/archives/2004/10/14/he_was_in_my_hands_in_some_strange_way.html

Tagged and Bagged

Mount Rainier, Washington 14, 411 Feet

Tagged & bagged.

That's what they say at the morgue when they "process vics".

I have been tagged by the Graywaren artist, Maggie Stiefvater. A tag is a type of meme, which is the blogger version of chain mailing.

But, since linkage is the way ahead for the blogger, I heartily accept her "Tag".

Ahem. 7 Random facts/habits about me:

1. I am a "Mr. Mom" to my 5 year old boy and 4 year old girl.
2. Their mom, I, and the 2 rug rats live on 32 acres in Eastern Washington, on a farm where I have no neighbors in my line of sight.
3. If you are not squeamish about (non-gratuitous photos of) animal blood, a link to my just finished Turkey Hunt is here. 19 pounds, 9 inch beard (the turkey!)
4. Last year in May - June I went to Northern Italy to walk the same ground that my late father fought on in World War II. I went with veterans (and family-members) of his unit, the U.S. Army's Tenth Mountain Division.
5. I once held Bill Gates (yes, The Bill Gates) by his short hairs on a rope 61 feet in the air. We were doing the rope work for a photo stunt which was published in National Geographic in October, 1995. The article was titled The Information Revolution, and I made $750. Maybe I should have held him up for more...
6. Where I grew up, the average rainfall was over 10 feet a year.
7. I have summited Mt. Rainier in Washington State 5 times, and I used to be a mountain guide.

Now, the rules want me to select 7 more bloggers to tag. Who shall I pick on?

1. Robert Chunn of ALLA PRIMA has a hefty set of blog links that I keep finding around the net. He has a strong hand at drawing, and I like his primary colors and graphic sense.
2. Agnes Caldwell at Lines and Sidelines. She is a regular reader of The Colorist, and a dedicated drawer.
3. Marina Broere at Introspection. She's a new blog acquaintance and in another group that I participate in.
4. Lisa Bachman at The Studio News is into Piet Mondrian and has taken one too many trips to the Mondrimat, I think. (Just kidding, Lisa!)
5. Emma Pod in Portland, who is also a habitual drawer and was kind enough to link to my blog.
6. Syngibjörg. For obvious reasons - I dig having readers from really out there locations like Iceland!
7. Elizabeth Love in New Zealand. I can't get enough of her colorful art, and I value her spiritual direction in her abstract art.

Whew! That was hard to do, because I wanted to send shouts out to bloggers who I don't get comments out to often enough. These are excellent artists and blog writers who I hope you'll check out soon. I just have to remember to tell them all now, that they have been "tagged".

Links:

http://alla-prima.blogspot.com/

http://linesandsidelines.blogspot.com/

http://marinabroereart.blogspot.com/

http://bachmanart.com/wordpress/

http://www.stephen.com/mondrimat/

http://emmapod.blogspot.com/

http://nzart-lizzie-l.blogspot.com/

Teri Horton's "$5 Pollock"

There is a pretty hefty backlash that has accompanied the abstract movement. It's just a crock and a hoax - an elaborate promotional "smoke and mirrors" show, if you ask the detractors. What good is art that is about nothing?

The latest installment from the naysayers is the Teri Horton Five Dollar Pollock story. Her story is well covered in the news media, and it's a knee-slapper. Did the retired lady truck driver inadvertantly buy a forgotten Jackson Pollock painting? She found the big canvas at a thrift store, and bought it for her friend as a joke for 5 bucks. An art professor from the local college gave her the clue that it might be a Jackson Pollock, and her retort is classic: "Who the #@*^! is Jackson Pollock?"

So, here is our dear Teri, holding onto this (virtually worthless to her) painting that maybe could fetch up to $140,000,000 if she can just find the right sucker buyer for it. I am doubled over in laughter watching clips of this lady and a host of arts professionals tearing their hair out trying to make up establish a provenance for it.

Was there a fingerprint on the Five Dollar Pollock that corresponds to known Jackson Pollock fingerprints? Evidence from his Long Island studio, and from a JP in the Tate museum apparently match. But, the hard-headed and harder-hearted arts experts disagree. Fingerprints don't mean anything to museum curators or art appraisers that have seen the painting.

This woman is trailer trash, basically, to the snobby snobs of the art world, and the ghost of JP himself could appear to them and say: "It's mine!" and they still wouldn't buy it from the likes of Teri Horton. Take it as an article of faith - you can't trade with the high brows if you don't smell like money already. That's the message of the story Horton is putting forth, anyway.

If a Pollock really could be purchased for $5, then what is the real intrinsic value of a big canvas covered with drips? If he were any good, why couldn't he just paint a figure, a faerie or a piece of fruit, like any other normal artist?

It all comes down to provenance, in my humble opinion. No signature on the work? Then, if the artist Jackson Pollock painted it, and didn't sign it, then he was devaluing it, himself. Then, he failed to destroy it, which is the accepted norm for artists. It seems that our Teri Horton was offered 9 Million dollars for the piece, but refused it as too little. Bad move.

Artists today have powerful tools to establish a paper trail for their work: signature (DUH!), jpeg, date of creation, list of showings, commentary from first and third party sources, receipt of sale with value established, names of owners, etc. All these things are data that helps to tag that artwork down through history.

Teri's Five Dollar Pollock is a byproduct of the Antiques Roadshow era, where any schmuck can fall off a turnip wagon and come up smelling like a rose. Rags to riches, as it were. Don't be angry at the art world, Teri. Brush up on your pitch!

The bigger lesson is the commentary on modern art that this episode reveals. The rank and file don't like the art, don't care for the artists that much and really dislike the highbrow art world that surrounds this whole mess. But, I have found out that there is a similar current in society that doesn't like any art, abstract or real. The artist today, and the army of other people who make their livings from art, have a ways to go before they have the exalted place in society and civilization that they picture for themselves. Maybe one start may be to reach out to the Teri Hortons of the world, somehow. A little proof of value wouldn't hurt the artist any.

I liked what this commenter had to say regarding the Five Dollar Pollock and Horton's problems with it:

"Ultimately, it does not matter if the painting is a Pollock or not. The value of it is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. There is no intrinsic value of any 'Art' piece. There is no MSRP in the art world. She was offered 2 million dollars for it, so that is what it is currently worth (if that offer even still stands). If she rejects that offer and /or it is rescinded, and there is no other offer, the painting is worth 5 dollars. plain (sic) and simple. This is economics 101. 'Art' is no exception."

Posted by pmfaricy on Sun, May 6, 2007 9:17 PM ET

Another Blogger's opinion:

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2006/11/what_teri_horto.html

POLLOCK

The Ed Harris Movie About

Our Artist

See the trailer for Pollock, here. Two thumbs up says Casey Klahn of Davenport, Washington. Of course, this comes from a guy whose standard movie fare is Scoobie-Doo and Cinderella. Any "grown-up" movie will float my boat, I guess.

As I was watching this DVD, first on our old Magnavox, and then on a little 13" red Dora The Explorer TV which seemed to run the disk better, I took notes to share with you. At first, I was fairly critical, probably because I wanted something else from the movie. I wanted a run through of the Who's Who among Abstract Expressionists.

They did feature Lee Krasner, of course. In fact Marcia Gay Harden won best supporting actress for her role as Pollock's artist "stand-by-your-man" wife. Val Kilmer puts a face on Willem DeKooning. Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, and Betty Parsons are important non-artists in the plot. Other artists featured were William Baziotes, Franz Kline, and Helen Frankenthaler, but I missed the references to them. Perhaps I needed name tags on them.

My interests run more towards JP as a member of the Abstract Expressionist movement. That's probably because he's not my favorite artist of that group. I have focused on him first this month because of his historic place in the AE-ists. He is the most famous one, after all. My favorite? Mark Rothko. Go figure. He's the one who masters color in abstraction, IMHO.

In short, I first had trouble with the movie's stereotyped take on Peggy Guggenheim, who was the super-rich patron and gallery owner. Typical power wielding, "you totally need me" gallerist that pulls the strings. Same with Clement Greenberg, the famous art critic biggie who "made" Pollock what he was.

But, after watching the tragic life play out, I did begin to soften my criticism. Ed Harris is a good student of the artist, who only chose to try his first effort at movie direction because nobody else had the understanding level that he did of the great American artist. And then, he took his movie all the way to academy award acclamation. Not bad for a beginner - I would say the parallels to the originality of JP are there.

Go rent this movie if you haven't done so already. It's a rare contemporary movie about the courage of artists who live to paint originally, at any cost.

Trivia Note:

Mark Rothko entries on Google - 1,040,000
Jackson Pollock entries on Google- 1,430,000
"Casey Klahn" entries on Google- 1,510
I have a long, long way to go...

(data collected May 9th, 2007 @ 9 AM)

Pollock Links & References

The Colorist
About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947
Jackson Pollock

Update May 28th., 2008: See also The Jackson Pollock Researcher for the comprehensive and current links on Jackson Pollock.

Originality was the hallmark of Jackson Pollock's art. He found a way to both connect with, and yet break free of whatever else had been happening with art. It's a little hard to appreciate the originality of Pollock from our high horse of retrospection. I liken it to some of my experiences with rock climbing. Sure, a particular rock climb will have a difficulty rating and a status as severe or hard, but when you go to climb it, you feel that it isn't as hard as described. Well, put yourself in the sticky shoes of the very first ascensionist. What was the experience like for him?

So, imagine the first "pure" abstraction. How does one completely eliminate the subject from a painting? The Abstract Expressionists often likened abstract painting to getting "in touch" with your inner child, because children draw and paint with freedom and innocence. I argued with that comparison until I had my own children picking up pencils and crayons. Now, I completely believe in the childlike aspects of abstract visual expression. Now, I just have to work out my objections to the "primitive man" comparisons to painting abstraction.

My own experience with abstraction took place when I took a workshop from Diane Townsend, who happens to be a great abstractionist with ties to New York and my hero Wolf Kahn.

How do you begin painting abstractly? Townsend unlocked that door for me, and before noon on the first day I was having a great time painting "nothing". I hope to continue my exploration of abstraction in the near future. It actually can be one of the hardest styles to paint in and make anything really good. My abstracts can be seen here and here.

Let's follow some link paths for Jackson Pollock.

Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith have written a Pulitzer prize winning biography titled: Jackson Pollock, An American Saga. I have some serious misgivings about it's historicity, but suffice it to say that it seems to be the "go to" book now for looking at his life. Ed Harris brings it to our attention in his comments about his movie about the keen artist.

Harris also thinks Pollock may have been manic-depressive. Of course, my first inclination would be to look up the paperwork on his 4-F status, just in case that might reveal something about a diagnosis of this or something similar. I guess he also saw therapists, and the records from that probably reveal something, too. Shades of van Gogh.

Pollock's Studio Floor

Don't miss the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton (Long Island). This small property with rustic facilities was purchased by Pollock and Krasner with help from Peggy Guggenheim, who was Pollock's "super-patron". It was here that Pollock began his drip paintings, and you may visit this museum and walk on the floor where his drips are preserved. Could these be considered accidents?

I recommend the Pollock bio written by the director of the P-K House, Helen Harrison.

There is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which I think is a very classy move by the late Lee Krasner, who was left as a widow by her drunken and cheating genius-artist husband. Trying to figure out what made Krasner's relationship with Pollock tick is an exercise in head-trips that some may enjoy. We'll look at the wonderful Krasner a little later in our Abstract Expressionist study this month.

The National Gallery of Art in DC has a good site about the old boy. A quick look at his process is seen in this GIF - Video. Here's a Quicktime featurette of a Hans Namuth film of the Camel-smoking curmudgeon at his task of working a horizontal canvas.

I have to limit the scope of JP references found at the Museum of Modern Art, since they are numerous. Man, this stuff is knee-deep. How does one have an "itinerant childhood"? Uh, never mind the MoMA for now...

Of course, my favorite site for Jackson Pollock is the fun and interactive "Create Your Own" Jackson Pollock by Milos Manetas. It's an ingenious flash page where you drip "paint" on your CRT screen. Of course, you don't control the color - those come as accidents. My only advice is cut loose, don't stay inside the frame, and don't stop too soon!

Links referenced above:
http://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Pollock-American-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0913391190
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
http://www.pkf.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Administrative note:
I would have liked to provide an image of my "Jackson Pollock" done on the flash simulator, but it looks like that is blocked. I also wished to place the videos directly in my post, but it's beyond my capabilities at this time. Do follow the links because seeing the painting style of JP in action is an eye opener.
Still Coming-my movie review of POLLOCK.

And Now, for the Critics of Pollock...

The Connoisseur Norman Rockwell
1962

Do you think Rockwell had a bad opinion of Pollock, or just a humorous side to him?

One thing I noticed is that it's a pretty good abstract, and in good illustrator's format, the main lines lead towards the figure.

Color Field Shindig in DC

Detail Red Hill
Casey Klahn

Washington DC (the other Washington, as I call it) is celebrating Color Field painting, which is a subset of the Abstract Expressionist movement. The event is titled ColorField.remix, and came to my attention via Martha Marshall's blogsite. Thanks, Martha!

The remix site offers this definition of Color Field art:

Color Field painting, an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s following Abstract Expressionism, is characterized by canvases painted primarily with stripes, washes and fields of solid color. The first serious and critically acclaimed art movement to originate in the nation’s capital, Washington Color School was central to the larger Color Field movement. Its roots were with painters who showed their work at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, a short-lived museum promoting contemporary art during the 1960s. Its 1965 “Washington Color Painters” show formalized recognition of the Washington Color School of painters “More than 40 years after that historic D.C. exhibition, their paintings reveal not just a shared passion for color but highly individualistic visions,” writes Jean Lawlor Cohen, guest co-curator at The Kreeger Museum. “They represent a moment when Washington heeded Willem de Kooning’s call for ‘hallelujah painting.’”

Among the best known Color Field artists are Leon Berkowitz, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jules Olitski, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Frank Stella and Alma Thomas and Larry Zox. Among the best known Washington Color School artists are Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring and Paul Reed.

Link:

http://www.washington.org/colorfieldremix/

JP & LK at the Beach

Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner

Not the most flattering photo, eh? I watched the movie by Ed Harris last night and I'll be offering you my review soon. Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock certainly lived the days of wine and roses. No, make that whiskey and roses.

You certainly feel sorry for the old guy, especially after he drives his Caddy off the road and ends it all. I love Pollock's stuff, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the MoMA last year. Ed Harris seems to have put some real effort into the movie, too.

I know one thing, I have this hard to control desire to go out and buy an oversize jeans jacket. Where did that urge come from?