Wassily Kandinsky

Autumn in Murnau, 1908

o/p

 32.3 x 40.9 cm

Wassily Kandinsky

"THE ARTIST’S LIFE IS NOT ONE OF PLEASURE. HE MUST NOT LIVE IRRESPONSIBLY; HE HAS DIFFICULT WORK TO PERFORM, ONE WHICH OFTEN PROVES A CROWN OF THORNS. HE MUST REALIZE THAT HIS ACTS, FEELINGS, AND THOUGHTS ARE THE UNDEFINABLE BUT FUNDAMENTAL MATERIAL FROM WHICH HIS WORK IS CREATED; HE IS FREE IN ART, BUT NOT IN LIFE."  Kandinsky.

I think Kandinsky was so busy making the new painting that he rarely made the best.   But, his goal was not to please me, that's for sure.  Kandinsky, in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911, theorized a periodic pyramid of the new in art. The main idea is that the vanguard of art, or the top of the pyramid, will be occupied in any given era by a precious few works that are ahead of their time.  A very lonesome place is Kandinsky's summit, as by definition, no one else will appreciate or understand your work.

I find a few of his works do please me, and it is a good thing to study his take on Modernism and Abstraction.  He was certainly a trend-setter and worthy of his star in art history.

Kandinsky at Wikipedia.

Wassily Kandinsky, 1866 - 1944 - friendsofart.net.
Tumblr blog dedicated to the man. Very nice resource.
Online University - extensive article and links.
Project Gutenberg - Concerning The Spiritual In Art. (I read mine via Kindle, which I do enjoy better than the PC screen.)

Kandinsky.  Always Thinking.

Pastel-Box Famous

Edgar Degas

Georgia O'Keeffe

Degas' box picture from La Maison du Pastel website.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s pastels from Pilgrimage (Annie Leibovitz, 2011).

Sometimes History

...in its simplest form is also the most revealing.  I mean the under-story: the secrets hidden behind the veil of time.  You cannot know the way a person in the past felt or thought without a bit of digging.  The gold nugget lies in catching a glimpse of the heart.


I am one of those artists who loves history, and especially if I have a touch-point, or some connection, with the past.  The more distant the connection is to the past, the sweeter.  

1865-1906: Henri Roché (father) takes over the "Maison" 

It is exciting to deliver this link from La Maison du Pastel, in Paris.  Nobody else has the rich history of the pastel company of M. Henri Roche.  What is history, without character?  These sticks have that, and I am finding it out for myself by trying out 15 of the sticks in my studio.  


I am a very intuitive pastelist, or I try to be.  I don't go forward very scientifically, or in an organized fashion.  How do I find the new sticks?  It is an emotional response.  The range of textures and the purity of the hues in these pastels are not found in any other stick that I have tried.  They are the secret weapon; the game changer in any picture.  My respect for what will happen when I use them is estimable, because they offer the opportunity for very high intensity.  If you haven't observed by now, let me tell you that intensity is the focus of my contemporary work.  


There you have it.  The circle has been completed: the past can speak to the present, if you will just listen quietly.  

boîte Degas

Images: the website of La Maison du Pastel.

Jackson Pollock Would Be 100 Today

***

Today, of all days, you can give yourself permission to go out to the studio and make a huge mess, step in it, and basically cut loose!


Jackson Pollock was born 100 years ago today in Cody, Wyoming, to Presbyterian Irish and Scotch-Irish farmers.  He changed the world.


Telegraph Article on the centenary of Pollock's birth.


What follows is my research post on Jackson Pollock, which has been beviraled by Google and utilized by thousands of university students as a starting point for their studies.

The Colorist

About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947Jackson Pollock

This post was originally published in 2007. It gets enough attention that I brought it up to date.

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/

Easter Weekend Notes

Self Portrait as The Man of Sorrows

Graphite, 1522

408 x 290 mm

Albrecht Durer

Happy Easter!  


Easter week has been a contemplative time here in my studio.  The Matisse series has been, for me, a great exercise in writing and critique, and my essay on The Conversation will be published here at The Colorist after the holiday.  


As if I needed more things to take my mind off of the highest Christian holiday, and off of my painting, life rolls in and washes my time away.  Doctors appointments, turkey season, spring yard work, and my new iPhone, which Lorie gave me last night.  Still, in all, I did make time for two plein air pieces, which I hope to post here or at Pastel in the next couple of days.  


It was fun to find a new store, yesterday, in Spokane Valley named the Hobby Lobby.  It is like a cavernous Michaels, only cheaper.  I bought a few General pencils, a drawing board of Chinese make (I need drawing boards loaded with current projects and more of them than you'd think) and the best things were small Birch wood boxes and trays.  I currently keep my smallest pastel outdoor set in a cigar box that is tiny, but now have an even smaller one than that.  It makes me want to make some of my own boxes, but that urge will pass, I'm sure.


I am very happy to see Diane Mize posting at COMPOSE again.  Harry Bell has been blogging for 7 years.  Yes, you read that right: seven years.  His cityscapes are a lesson in composition in themselves.

More Notes:

Lots of big images by Durer - very nice collection.

1938 Would Kill a Normal Man, But Not Henri Matisse.

@@@

Hitler in Italy, The Year 1938

Don't confuse The Conversation of 1938 with Henri Matisse's painting of the same title completed in 1912.


In 1938, Henri Matisse's world was coming undone.  The days, metaphorically speaking, were dark. French Prime Minister, Édouard Daladier, and British PM Neville Chamberlain, worked in vain to avoid war with Germany and Italy.  1938 was the year of the Austrian Anschluss and the annexation of the Sudetenland. Hitler would pay a high profile visit to Rome and Florence in May.  Ominously, the Nazis began the construction of the large concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria. In Pablo Picasso's Spain, the Civil War was raging. In Nice, where Matisse lived, residents feared an Italian invasion.


Henri Matisse had twice experienced the occupation of his hometown of Bohain, France by the German army.  Now, he feared the third such event.  At the age of sixty-nine, his health was fragile and in another couple of years he would undergo a colostomy, which bound him to a wheelchair and eventually to his bed.  Although Matisse would live another sixteen years, in 1938 his life as a painter was soon to end.


Amelie, his wife of forty years, was beginning the process of separation from Matisse and would sue in less than a year.  She had endured the hat painting, but was finished with the famous painter as a wife. Turmoil is not the right word to describe M. Matisse's life - cataclysmic would do better.


What will Henri do with this chaotic milieu?  He will paint what is, in my estimation, the best work hanging in the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art. See my report next time.

Amelie Matisse, giving "The Look."

It's not about the hat.

Ear Day

van Gogh
o/c, 60 x 49 cm

Today, in 1888, our favorite tortured artist, Vincent van Gogh, lost the integrity of his left ear. Holiday pressures will take their toll, but sheesh.

Now, historical critics are disputing the self-mutilation narrative, and blaming Gauguin for the ear removal. I think the original theory is simpler, and makes more sense of his strange gifting of the ear to the lady around the corner in Arles. He did it, and he gifted it. He "owned" it, so to speak. Later self-violence, where he committed suicide, also makes the original ear story more believable.

The reason the right ear appears bandaged in the van Gogh self-portraits is that he looked in the mirror to reference them.

Seventy Years

Two Tyrants in a Motorcade

Seventy Million - the high-end estimate of war dead resulting from WW II.

Seventy percent - the proportion of American service members who were in the Army in WW II.

Stephen Ambrose wrote that 70% of US casualties were incurred by 10% of the troops (the infantry).

The outstanding individual leader of the war was Winston Churchill, who turned seventy at the Tehran Conference.

Today was the day, seventy years ago, that the Nazi German invasion of Poland sparked the wider conflict that was the Second World War.

Remembering Forty Years

Neil Armstrong in the Lunar Module After the First Moon Walk, July 20th., 1969.
Photo: NASA

That's why I love history. Apollo 11.

Charley Parker alerts us to the art of Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean.

D Day

June 6th., 1944.

Sixty-five years ago today, the Allied armies invaded Europe. Pictured above is the loading in the UK of Allied troops and equipment for the assault.

Hundreds of thousands of acts of bravery were performed by mostly young men from nations such as the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland. What acts? That Tuesday morning, almost 200,000 soldiers and sailors put on their uniforms, and made their rendezvous with destiny - they put ashore. This became the legacy of our civilization throwing off the chains of tyranny.

Very nice full screen panoramic views of D Day sights.

Wrap Up

Here is a wrap up of my past week. You may be here for a while, if you have a need to surf some interesting blogs and sites. Put up your feet and grab a cup of Joe!

My Posts. I have been posting a lot of my art, lately. I am thinking about offering prints through imagekind, and to that end I ordered a framed photo just to test them out. The return time was lightning fast!

My usual resistance to print media (photo reproduction, gicle, etc.) is breaking down. Some of that resistance has been due to the nature of my color palette, which is not reproducible by print means. But, there are also a number of my images that are reasonable to print. What do you readers think about this? Should I offer a few images in print?

My Artworks. The studio has been abuzz with activity, after my trip to the coast last month. I have begun a new series featuring riverine subjects, but the direction is more about dark things. I'll be posting these, soon.

Download Department. I printed out this article on genius, which came to me via Sue Smith. Also, there is a video which is going viral about genius. I am not sure that I endorse either one, but it's all food for thought, huh?

Man, I'm drinkin' a lot of coffee, here. It is still snowy white outside, with fresh stuff on the ground and 18 degrees. 'Nother cup, please.

My favorite subject - World War Two History. Found this post: My Father Asks For Nothing, at Sippican Cottage (Gregory Sullivan). One box of tissues, please.

Local Artist Blogs. I found out about this Washington artist blogger, Neece Clark. That's a nudge for me to update my Washington State Artist Bloggers utility. Any more out there?

When I Run Out Of Red, I Use Blue
Picasso

Publications. I always enjoy getting the catalog from Judson's Art Outfitters. Even if you prefer some other box than the cool ones they offer, you can't help but find some necessity for your plein air activities. I use the ThumBox with tripod, and it is awesome. Here's a picture of my last trip with it. They offered this quote that is a jewel: "When I run out of red, I use blue," Picasso.

They have a blog: Judson's Plein Air Journal .

The latest Pastelagram also came in the mail, which keeps me up on the activities of the Pastel Society of America. The art can sometimes look really different in print versus on the CRT, so I always love seeing what they offer.

In my e-mail came a PDF from David Jon Kassan, whose studies of the human skull inform his portraits. I love his handling of the pencil, which is evident in the following video. Warning: extreme art fun and good rock&roll, too.



Kassan's blog.

Pastel. I'm cooking up more guest posts at the pastelsblog. Stay tuned. Also, more tree school entries are forthcoming - you won't want to miss those!

Nativity Art and The Book of Kells; Old Books

Virgin and Child From The Book of Kells

In Western art, the illuminated manuscript image shown above is the oldest extant depiction of the nativity. It is found in the Book of Kells, which is the grandest artifact in Irish culture, and certainly a great Western art treasure.

For nativity image inspiration, see this article. And for more on TBOK, go here.

A stunning contemporary project has artists illuminating the Millennial Bible, known as The Saint John's Bible. Their press:

In commissioning a handwritten, illuminated Bible, Saint John's revives a tradition that has been nearly absent from the Christian world since the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century. The Saint John's Bible affirms this community's commitment to the study of Scripture, to the book arts and to educational, artistic, spiritual and scholarly pursuits.

Oldest Book on the Shelf

Bibliophiles swoon at these types of things. The oldest book in my personal library is Stories By English Authors, Scotland, 1898. My favorite story from it is The Courting of T'nowhead's Bell, byJ.M. Barrie, and it is a knee-slapper about the culmination of courtship come down to who can foot race to the church fastest. I have a few books dated @ 1900-1905, too.

The book is up at Google books here. Also, a readable version of The Courting of T'nowhead's Bell is here.

War & Remembrance - Veteran's Day 2008

Contemporary.




My father's time.




Remember the veterans. They take the insults of the few with silence; they take the thanks of many with humility.

Spotlight on Leonardo

Casa da Vinci
Birthplace of the man.

My posts on da Vinci.

Our heroic artist and definitive Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, was born April 15th, 1452, in Vinci by Florence, Tuscany. His hometown is a hilltop one, situated originally with a castle and the wall that follows the hill contours - a classic Italian style.

I fancy the little hamlet that da Vinci was born in, because it is at the end of the road (I think). A small and unassuming (well, unassuming other than the fact that they changed their name to "Vinci") comune in the Apennines that is like so many others that I visited two years ago in Northern Italy. It is quite near Pisa and Pistoia. 

Charley Parker has probably the best set of da Vinci links, but don't miss his interesting reverse image of the Mona Lisa and a captivating story of his own encounter with the image. 

I had the pleasure of viewing the Codex Leicester by da Vinci in Seattle, after Bill Gates purchased it. If you so desire, the download prompt for his collection of notebooks (free e-book) can be found at this page.

For your pleasure, here is a very nice, thrifty Chianti with legs: Cantine Leonardo da Vinci. Are you looking to be a great artist? Put on your list of "must haves" a wine label of your own.

Universal Leonardo dot Org.

Remembrance

June 6th., 1944 - The Allied Invasion of Normandy

"The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought--or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell."
President Ronald Reagan.

Note: This WW II photo doesn't look exactly like Normandy to me, but the idea is there.

Special Artist Alfred Waud

Battle of Beaver Dam Creek
Alfred Waud

Battle of Charles City Road
Alfred Waud

Alfred Rudolph Waud (1828-1891).

Battlefield sketching of the Civil War met pastellist Alfred Waud on the pages of the Boston Carpet-Bag, the New York Illustrated News and Harper's Weekly. Waud was probably the most prolific combat chronicler of the Civil War and likely the only artist present during Picket's Charge at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

When I visited the Civil War reenactment in Spokane this last weekend, I got the idea that I may blend in better in costume next year. The field easel is a red flag for attention in a crowd, and it takes some mental effort to work in those conditions. Add to that gusting wind, biting flies and cannonade noises and you get the idea. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon this web page demonstrating the latest in Civil War artist's acting kit. See a full crew of "Bohemian Artists" here.

For an example of present day Civil War field sketching, see my own offerings at pastelsblog.blogspot.

This Day in History Blog

Got History?

Try this Portugese Blogger's daily historical happenings.

Riva Ridge

La Ca, Italy

5.25" x 5.25"
Graphite
Casey Klahn

The Portal

4.75" x 4.5"
Graphite
Scene at "Riva Ridge," Italy
Casey Klahn

It was sixty-three years ago tonight, in Italy, that my late father and his cohorts in the Tenth Mountain Division fought at Riva Ridge. It was a seminal battle that became an epic story and started the landslide that undid the Nazi German forces in Northern Italy.

Truly a unique chapter in military history, and one that I heard first hand from my dad.

NBC Report 2006
NPR Report, 2007
Veterans

Great Man's Passing

"I have moderate abilities but I combine these with a good deal of determination and I rather like to succeed," Sir Edmund Hillary, of Everest (1919 - 2008). R.I.P.

I have had the pleasure of meeting several Everest summiters, by virtue of associations in the Seattle area. Probably over a half dozen, and every one of them I called by first name and enjoyed the conviviality of shared bonds. Three are now deceased.

Not that I will summit Everest, but at least I share Sir Edmund's self creed from the quote above.

Do you have a "Mount Everest" that you intend to conquer?

Darkness Gone?

New Memorial Design, USS Oklahoma

USS Oklahoma, Pearl Harbor

The author William Manchester wrote a cracking good book, his personal memoir of his USMC service in the Pacific, Goodbye Darkness, a Memoir of the Pacific War, 1980. If you're after a dynamic read about the Pacific Theater battles of WWII, this is your best choice. He skillfully weaves himself throughout all of the island campaigns, even though his participation was limited to three of the island battles. A great idea by a great author and an even greater military man, having earned the Navy Cross. (The Navy Cross medal was designed by James Fraser, who sculpted The End of the Trail, as well)

Today we remember during Pearl Harbor Day the treacherous attack by Japan on the US fleet in Hawaii back in 1941. That may seem like an eternity ago for my younger readers, but consider that our veterans of this battle still walk among us. I can't miss them because they stand about twelve foot tall (in my mind's eye). And those are the clerk typists and dining room orderlies. The guys with combat jobs stand even taller. You might take a little time today to consider the painful and sacrificial toil of that Greatest Generation.

On the art front, the design for a new memorial has been made. I gather that Kevin King is the designer. The battleship USS Oklahoma was sunk in that Dec. 7th battle, along with the better known USS Arizona and several other capitol warships. Here's my congratulations for this memorial to the veterans of that infamous day and that courageous ship. Their strife is honored by many today.

Bloggers on Pearl Harbor Day.