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?

New Month - New Projects

Have I got projects in the hopper, or what?

1. Abstract Expressionism, an interview project. I will be interviewing the greats of the New York School via the magic of Photoshop and a little imagination. It will be more than a reprise of my van Gogh interview technique, though. This time, I want to produce a power point presentation out of it in case I want to "take it on the road". Look for this project during the months of May and June - I want to give myself time to make it a quality event.
2. Fifty Drawings will be my temporary substitute for my 100 paintings project, which is on hold while my laptop computer is out of reach. Subject matter will vary, but the foundational elements of my art will be on display for sick prices - basically fifty dollars. Who knows, I may even try out a Wordpress site for this one. Look for this new project around the middle of May.
3. Blogger Biennial is an idea in it's formative stages that I haven't announced yet. The origination is from the idea that I can't wait around for Venice to give the call, and so I'm going to start my own Biennial, which will be an invitational to present new art at a special virtual event. I will be announcing the jury, and starting on this one-of-a-kind event sometime this year.
4. Stations of the Cross will be my personal art project exploring spiritual focus and abstraction in my art. I will be doing the stations of the cross, in a Protestant format, and creating installations to show these works. It may be a few years in the making, but I want to get the start soon.
   

Well, that ought to be enough for a while! And don't forget, I still have an art career to attend to - with five art fairs coming up. Yikes!

Mark Harden's Artchive

Mark Harden's Artchive has a page titled Theory and Criticism, which looks to be a fine collection of writings by known critics who expound on known artists and their artwork.

I guess I have been giving this well known site (Google seems to always take me there!) short shrift because I kind of don't like the graphic layout of the art listings there. In all fairness, though, it is a great website and resource for studying and thinking about art.

Here's the link:
http://www.artchive.com/critic.htm

"A Piece of Picasso"

Le rêve 1932
Pablo Picasso

It looks like David Pryce-Jones has weighed in on Pablo. I would say that he pulls no punches.

See:
Picasso.

I guess I was being a little too kind on the old boy.

Wolf Kahn

X

No Public Domain Pictures Available for Wolf Kahn

Wolf Kahn will be having his annual opening at the Ameringer-Yohe Gallery starting at the end of this month. The event is titled Sizing Up, and runs from 26 April - 1 June, 2007 (Paintings) and continues 7 June - 27 July, 2007 (Pastels). A reception will be Thursday 26 April at the gallery in NYC.

Now, if I could just figure out where NYC is...

FASO Dot Com

Red Corner
Pastel
Casey Klahn

FASO stands for Fine Art Studio Online. With some details worked out to my satisfaction, I am now prepared to invite one and all to my fine art website. The address is fineartstudioonline.com/CaseyKlahn. I should be able to transfer my domain name of CaseyKlahn.com soon, and that will be the new name.

Of course, as I went to burn a little midnight oil yesterday evening, I couldn't get the next set of art to load due to a "satellite outage". Technology is certainly a two-edged sword, isn't it?

The site looks great, and I am proud to have it "up"! I will call this a soft opening, and when I get all of my current jpegs uploaded, and all the pages filled (I think the resume page needs my updated resume, etc.) we'll have the grand opening.

Meanwhile, don't forget to send me a note at caseyklahn@msn.com, or post a comment here, if you are an artist who wants to trade essays. Info on that project here.

News From The Studio

Yellow Sky Detail
Pastel
Casey Klahn

All of my art fair acceptances and rejections are in as of today, and like every year my itinerary gets a little bit better. Also, my acceptance ratio has grown from a a few years ago being @ 60% accepted, to now being 5:2 accept/reject. What is that? About 75% acceptance rate, I guess. Good thing I'm not a CPA.

Five fairs in the summer time isn't a very big schedule, since a number of the artists I know do twenty plus and travel south in the winter months to do the Southern California, New Mexico and Arizona circuit. I try to keep it to high quality fairs and local ones, but I am also limiting myself to the Western region. It's a daddy thing.

Most of my fairs only show original fine art and represent a great opportunity for art patrons to meet artists directly. Also, how many times a year can you visit one man shows at the downtown galleries? At the art fair, you are viewing dozens of one man shows at the same venue.

My 2007 fair schedule is as follows:

• Spokane, Washington ArtFest, June 1-3 Link
• Edmonds, Washington Arts Festival (new for me), June 15-17 Link
• Bellevue, Washington Arts Museum ArtsFair, July 27-29 Link
• Park City, Utah Kimball Arts Festival, August 4, 5 Link
• Sun Valley, Idaho SV Center Arts & Crafts Festival (new for me), August 10-12 Link

I will be painting some new works that are inspired by a plein air work that I did of a neighbor's farm. They involve the barn relating to white outbuildings, and explore (so far) red and violet color fields. I also continue to present trees that focus on blue and yellow.

I often show a body of about 40 - 50 + works in the $300 and up ranges.

Art Critic Pool

See this blog soon for a practicum on writing an art critical piece.

Art Critic Pool - Art Criticisms for Trade

Detail of Yellow Trees in a Blue Forest
Pastel on Board
Casey Klahn

What do you think of a pool where we artists can trade critical pieces written about one another's art?

This is what I mean: one artist offers to write a one sentence, one paragraph, or one page art criticism of your corpus (or a given show, or whatever) and you offer to do roughly the same thing in trade regarding their work.

There don't seem to be as many critics functioning anymore, and it can be a worthwhile tool in your portfolio to have a third party wordsmithing about your art. (I promise not to use the word "wordsmithing" in my critique).

Here's what I'll do. I will take your e-mails for opting "in" to the Art Critic Pool, and I will offer you a match-up with another artist in the pool who is after about the same length of piece. For instance, Johnny writes me and wants to offer a three paragraph short essay about another artist's work (viewable on a blog, or website or even in a mailed packet if you're that into it), and Jane writes to offer a one pager as a trade with someone and I link them up via e-mail. They can decide if it will be a peachy trade or not, and if not, get back to me and re-enter the pool.

You won't get a document as authoritative (supposedly) as that from a professional art critic, but those types are few and far between, anyway. However, a third party written essay about your art is, at face value, a working tool that many artists can use. And, a petite essay from another artist (read: arts professional) is what it is - most likely an honest testament to the quality of a given artist.

One of the byproducts of the Abstract Expressionist movement is the revision of the influence and authority of the scholarly or vocational art critic. I am not prone to say something like, "here's your chance to stick it to the man," but each artist will do with this product what he will.

I would not, for my own part, present this as anything other than an essay written by another artist. By the same token, pick up any one of the many artist's monographs in your own library and take a look at the testimonials written by regular schmoes just like yourself. Or have a look at the membership of any number of arts concerns, and feel a little self-empowerment in the fact that you work body-and-soul in the field of fine art. You count.

Do this to participate:

1. Post an e-mail to me at caseyklahn@msn.com.
   
2. Important: this e-mail will be changing shortly to one at Hughesnet, so check this post for my address update before you post.
   
3. Put the words: "Art Critic Pool" in the subject line so I don't flush it as spam.
4. Offer to write a one sentence, or a one, two, or three paragraph review or even a petite essay, if you are really good at writing.
5. Have a written one or two sentence description of yourself as the potential author of this piece. Such as: "Casey Klahn, full time artist and self-published art essayist." Well, I'll have to work on that one ;=}
6. Send no money at this time. I always wanted to say that. Actually, this whole thing is free gratis on my part, and barter system (or filthy lucre, if you must) among essay traders. Of course, I get to chose the best writer I see to trade with me.
7. Of course, I can't guarantee any match-ups or products.
   
8. If I get swamped by e-mails, I will be looking for volunteers to split the effort with me.

Writing an Essay Links:

English Works! on Essays.
http://custom-writing.org/blog/writing-tips/112.html
http://essayinfo.com/essays/critical_essay.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_critic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_criticism
How to say nothing in five hundred words.

Angst:

"I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like."
Gelett Burgess (1866-1951).
"Then we went to Matisse's studio. He's one of the neo, neo Impressionists, quite interesting and lots of talent but very queer. He does things very much like Pamela's [Fry's 7-year-old daughter]."
Roger Fry (1866-1934), British art critic. Letter to his wife, 1909.
"I am now completely Matissiste . . . after studying all of his paintings I am quite convinced of his genius."
Roger Fry. Letter to Simon Bussy, 1911.
"What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism."
Octavio Paz (1914-), Mexican poet.
"Art criticism everywhere is now at a low ebb, intellectually corrupt, swamped in meaningless jargon, distorted by political correctitudes, anxiously addressed only to other critics and their ilk."
Brian Sewell (contemporary), British writer, Evening Standard, November 10, 1994.
Thanks ArtLex.

Extreme Navel Gazing:

Clement Greenberg.

Turkey Camp

For the next several days I will be hosting Turkey Camp.

"Gobble!Gobble!Gobble!"

Maybe a review of the wild turkey breast dinner would be in order, if my luck intersects with a little skill again this year.

Current Art Market, Criticisms

Lisa Hunter, over at The Intrepid Art Collector, a while back had this post called Star Power:

... who determines whether art is good. Today, the market itself tends to make stars, giving top dealers and collectors (like Charles Saatchi) the role once reserved for curators and critics.

A museum director confided to me that the market has "pushed museums to the side as arbiters of taste." Nowadays, the public already has an opinion about which new artists are "important" before a museum exhibit can be organized. Only a few museums, like the Whitney, even dare try. It's a fool's errand: If they show artists who aren't the annointed stars, people think the curators are out of touch. If they show the reigning favorites, everyone snipes that the curators are in the pocket of the dealers.

A generation ago, high-brow critics like Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg wrote intelligent criticism that anyone could understand with a bit of effort. They provided a framework for asking questions, so a viewer could learn to evaluate art for himself. Today's scholarly criticism is often obtuse, theoretical, and unhelpful. (I was looking at an art history graduate program recently, and the Art History Department could have changed its name to the Michel Foucault Department without having to alter a single course description.) Newspaper critics may be excellent --especially Jerry Saltz and Tyler Green -- but reviews are case-by-case and don't provide an overall framework, so insecure collectors rely on a thumbs up/thumbs down for each individual show.

Or they rely on dealers, which takes us back to the market creating the stars.

Is there a better way? How should novices learn about contemporary art? Do we leave them, sink-or-swim, to figure it all out for themselves? Or is the art world failing them and, ultimately, itself?
Our previous discussion raised interesting questions about who determines whether art is good. Today, the market itself tends to make stars, giving top dealers and collectors (like Charles Saatchi) the role once reserved for curators and critics.

A museum director confided to me that the market has "pushed museums to the side as arbiters of taste." Nowadays, the public already has an opinion about which new artists are "important" before a museum exhibit can be organized. Only a few museums, like the Whitney, even dare try. It's a fool's errand: If they show artists who aren't the annointed stars, people think the curators are out of touch. If they show the reigning favorites, everyone snipes that the curators are in the pocket of the dealers.

A generation ago, high-brow critics like Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg wrote intelligent criticism that anyone could understand with a bit of effort. They provided a framework for asking questions, so a viewer could learn to evaluate art for himself. Today's scholarly criticism is often obtuse, theoretical, and unhelpful.
(I was looking at an art history graduate program recently, and the Art History Department could have changed its name to the Michel Foucault Department without having to alter a single course description.) Newspaper critics may be excellent --especially Jerry Saltz and Tyler Green -- but reviews are case-by-case and don't provide an overall framework, so insecure collectors rely on a thumbs up/thumbs down for each individual show.

Or they rely on dealers, which takes us back to the market creating the stars.

Is there a better way? How should novices learn about contemporary art? Do we leave them, sink-or-swim, to figure it all out for themselves? Or is the art world failing them and, ultimately, itself?

I like her overall thesis, about the failure of art criticism. If this is true-that the critical career is lacking in potency, then there is a vacuum for advice about art based on a theoretical structure. This set of values, or art critical theory, has been a service to art patronage who look for some sort of rational basis for which art should be considered good, and which should not.

I think, though, that one would have to effectively indict "the market" in order to fully prove this thesis. The free (art) market does respond to the forces of shared "taste". What is wrong with that? Doesn't the art critic serve a master, too? The university, or some periodical or news media, together with it's readership and advertisers, are the constituents of the professional art critic. You'll notice that I didn't say: "artists" there. Where do they fit in? I would say that the artist's interaction with his buying market should be valued as a viable critique of art. There are filters there, too.

What do you think?

Pick on Picasso Picture.

Guernica, Picasso

Picasso is probably the greatest (by reputation) artist of the twentieth century. His mural Guernica appeared at the Paris World's Fair in 1937. If it was a statement against war, it failed utterly in purpose.

I do, however, respect the formal artistic qualities of his art. He really did move the institution of art forward, as a founding Cubist, which is a direct influence on my own art. I especially like his drawings.

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). La belle qui passe. (1904). Ink on paper, 11 1/2 x 15 3/4"
MoMa

Have a look at Picasso's exceedingly strange and eventful personal life, beliefs and politics. I rarely concern myself with these things, even letting my artist heroes "get away" with murder, because I want to focus on their art. But, if contemporary times are concerned with social aspects of art, I offer Pablo as the poster child of strange (may I say "goofy"? - he was very extreme) artist lifestyles.

In this vein, I wonder about his life and times. I see, in Wikipedia, that he was an "Anarcho-Communist". That finally makes sense to me of his remaining in Paris under the Nazis. A communist would've been at the throat of the Nazis, but his brand of anarchist was allergic to conflict. His Cubist buddy, Braque, considered him a coward. You be the judge.

I'm sorry to get into politics, which is outside of my art blog direction, but the social subjects of contemporary art criticism and art history are hand in glove with politics. I think Picasso's funny beliefs and behaviors are illustrative of why I avoid these things in my own art direction. The more "out-there" an artist's politics, the less I feel they offer the advancement of art. I call my position: "art as art". Of course, he was a great artist, so I guess someone could argue the other direction.

Picasso website.

Caravaggio Fight

The Card Sharps,
Caravaggio

Love Conquers All,
Caravaggio

Here I go, again, following the direction of some comments coming in. I think it's a nice opportunity to open up a can of: Art Criticism on the old Baroque master Caravaggio.

If you see the comments from my last post, Philip and Robyn and I have each our own opinions on this artist, and we are taking the risk of sharing these opinions in the public square. As my teacher, Diane Townsend once said about a Kandinsky that I was trying to not drop rain upon in class, "We have permission to not like his art."

What do you think about all of this?

Types of Subject

I had another post written for today, but I liked the conversation going on in the comments area for the previous easter posts. They bring up some global art issues that dovetail well with our art crit. conversation. I wrote the following:

Yes, those Renaissance (and Baroque) painters had a good handle on figurative, narrative and spiritual subjects.
When I see the three that I curated for the easter holiday, I wonder if there is anywhere else to go with realistic and figurative art in the present and in the future. Their works were nearly perfect in accomplishing their goals.

I think about Harvey Dinnerstein, who is a stunningly good contemporary figure painter. He uses the self-portrait, and urban scenes with contemporary figures as subjects. They match the quality of the Renaissance greats, although I'm not aware of any works he has done that are as complex as these multi-figured compositions.

What place does spiritual work have in art's present and future? Is it more important, less important or roughly equal to the place of socially and ethnically aware contemporary art?

My bias: I am more likely to either relegate to a lesser status, or just disregard any current art that is social, or political. The reasons are that I value more the formal qualities of art, including subjects that are self-interested (such as color or abstraction).

Easter

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
1601-02
Oil on canvas, 107 x 146 cm
CARAVAGGIO
(b. 1571, Caravaggio, d. 1610, Porto Ercole)

Lament

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, (c. 1490)
Tempera on canvas, 68 x 81 cm
Andea Mantegna (Early Renaissance Italian painter, 1431-1506)

Crucifixion

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter
1600
Caravaggio
Oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm
Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

The work of Christ on the cross was complete for the expiation of man's sin, but that didn't mean that the work of existence was through. Witness what happened to Peter, according to early tradition of his death in Rome. Peter is supposed to have opted for an inverted version of Christ's death on the cross. Is there a better tale of humility available anywhere?

On the subject of Caravaggio, please take the time to read the short biography at the link. Not your poster child for Christian behavior, that's for sure. Regarding his art, he was a great Italian artist of the Baroque movement. I regard his art to be a great example of figurative work, and when I take that up again, he will be the "go to" guy.

Interesting reference about The Crucifixion of Saint Peter painting here.

Holiday Greetings

While I remember Good Friday, I wish you a great holiday and weekend. I may be posting a pre-written article, or a special greeting if time permits.

Of course, as a workaholic artist, I'll be trying to get something done on my website that is under construction. I am having tech. problems with the "Works" or "Portfolio" pages, and am waiting for tech. support to write me back. Meanwhile, I am shopping other template sites. Did you know Google has a free pagemaker?

God bless!

Art Criticism, an April Project

Abstract on it's Side
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Those of us who write Art Blogs, and are working artists ourselves, are wearing more than one hat (or beret?). We are writers, art professionals (that's a broad pool), editors (some might say inveterate cut-and-pasters), and every time we comment on either our own art, or that of another artist, we are wearing the hat of the art critic.

What is that swaying I feel? Could it be the limb that I have crawled out on?

Of course, I know that the office of the Art Critic is different from that of the fine artist. You have no argument with me, there. The critic's reason for being is, in the standard definition, to provide an evaluation of art to the public. They aren't necessarily the arbiters of taste, but there is a need for their product. Heaven knows, artists don't often make themselves understood either in written or in verbal form.

One extreme of opinion among artists has it that "art should speak for itself!" Shoulda, woulda, coulda, I say. We do live in a world where it behooves the artist to define his own artistic direction and statement before someone else does it for him. Will there ever be a professional art critic 's attention to your work? Statistically thin chances, there. Maybe a review by an arts writer in the local newspaper. One of our local arts writers also covers the R.V. beat.

The Abstract Expressionists ( USA, 1940s - 1950s) were armed with a layered array of self-promotion tools. A few of them (the painters themselves) were essayists and critics, and also a few were curators of exhibitions. They commiserated among one another about their artistic directions. External support came in the form of gallerists as allies, and of course, writers whose profession was art criticism.

Detractors may say that the funny-looking abstractionists' paintings relied upon written descriptions and promotion. I don't agree, as the test of posterity has proven, these breakthrough works have an audience. Look at the crowds at the MoMA on a given weekday-regular people with common tastes. Note: next month I will be hob-nobbing (fantasy interviews) with the larger-than-life Abstract Expressionists in NYC. Take a trip with me back in time and see what "made them tick".

Does an artist need to be apt as a critic? No. But self-criticism is a requirement for artistic growth. Indeed, the ability to "see" and absorb the visual aspects, and the subvisual aspects of art, is needed if the artist is to depart on his own journey. I feel that when I do this task, much of the time none of it is reaching my brain in the form of words. How would I describe what I am doing in a written form? What words would I use to describe my art? What words would I use to describe the process?

Throughout the month of April, we will be looking at art criticism, writing in general, and, by extension, the artist's statement. I have a special and free project for the artists who read this blog. We will be doing a trade of reviews. More on that, later.

I hope that those who usually think "Yick!" when they think about writing and visual art will follow this interactive thread this month for some user-friendly content on writing about art. We'll have some fun writing for one another and sharing ideas and opinions, as well.

For the more in-depth out there, we'll take apart the high and lofty world of art criticism. We will be looking at some notables in the field. As always, I want to avoid descending into the black pit of "Artspeak", and keep it lively and informative.

In the (Hypothetical) Case of The Artist Jane Doe Versus The Guardian U.K., et al., the Jury Finds...

Speaking of art criticism, at Art News Blog Dion Archibald recently posted this:

Interpreting Art - Artist or Critic?

Ana Finel Honigman has asked an interesting question over at the Guardian blog. She asks, Is an artist's idea of what their work means more important than the viewer's interpretation, or are they both valid?

I like the idea of a work of art doing its own talking. If it needs an explanation by the artist, he/she has probably made the work too complicated. An artist and an art critic should be two very different people. One creates art and the other talks about art.

I would still rather listen to an artist talk about art, rather than a critic talking about art though.

Here's what Ana Finel Honigman says..
"..many academics or critics exploit art's "messages" for self-interested methodological or political ends. But many excellent artists leave themselves defenseless against such hijacking because they cannot articulate persuasively why they do what they do. And further complicating these relationships is that many artists who can explain their work are more articulate verbally than visually, which is why much of bad art is not really art but is rather merely illustrations of ideas.." Guardian Blog

At first, many things about these threads had me in disagreement with them. I do prefer the truth of the artist's intention in a work, over an interpretation by an observer.

The battle royale in such a case would be the conflict between the interpretation of an artwork by the originating artist and that of a professional art critic. The artwork is the artist's intellectual property, after all. In a hypothetical court case about the meaning of an artwork, I would hope that the artist's words would prevail over the third party writer, no matter how "professional" they may be.

I read the threads a little closer, then, and I see that the writers are coming down on my side of the fence, too. Dion asks which character has the best interpretation of a given artwork, but he prefers the artist's words as at least being more interesting than a third party observer. The UK Guardian's Honigman indicts the motives of some critics' interpretations as self-serving, but then adjures the artist to get on the stick and try to provide their own interpretations before someone else does.

I guess I flew off the handle a bit quickly. It was the calling into question of the unity of meaning and intent that rubbed me wrong, I guess.

If you are an artist, did it ever occur to you that there is a very large and broad profession of individuals who make their livings in art, but who are not producing any art themselves? I don't condemn this, by the way. It just lets us know that we ought to be able to find our share of the pie, given that we are, er...artists, after all. The blue collar members of the art business, if you will. The hands on guys.

I get a chuckle from Honigman's statement:"... much of bad art is not really art but is rather merely illustrations of ideas.." It's another thread, but it's good to put a little thought into qualifying art.

In defense of the critic, their job is important to the artist and to the public at large. They should be trying to position a given work or body of art, or a given artist or collection of artists in a stream of context. Either a movement, a school of thought or a style. Or maybe the lack thereof - maybe this work of art is a watershed work, a breakthrough, as it were. My point is these are contexts bigger than the artist and his artwork, and it doesn't harm the artist when an art critic helps to identify or describe that.

I know there is a place for "radical" art criticism, and I will address that in a future post.

Is the art viewer's interpretation valid? Certainly. But a thing cannot, in truth, be both Thing "A" and Thing "B" at the same time. The observer can respond authentically any way they choose, but the artist had "A" in mind, and I value the discovery of that thing that has been called the artist's "oeuvre".

I know, I know - some artists will create "participative" works. Great, more power to them. There is always a comedian in the bunch. (Light-hearted joking, here.)

Comments, please...

Italian Life Post

Italian Life

4.5" x 4.75"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
$100
Plus Tax & Shipping

Over at 100 Paintings -Colorist Italian Landscapes I am trying out still life as a subject. Don't think I'll change the name of the project, though.

What would Italy be without food?

Making Pastels - Continued

White Bunkhouse

8.75" x 9.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Many, if not most, of the colors in this pastel work are done with my home-made pastels. The blue-grays, one of the oranges, some of the blues, and the grays are my own made-by-hand pastel sticks.

Yesterday, we gathered our tools, and I promised to show you how to make pastels with no expensive purchases, just to get you started. We are going to make a stick from your easel tailings (dust that fell off of your paintings in production). Then, we'll just briefly touch on repairing broken sticks, and then we'll talk about making your own authentic colors.

The left over dust from your easel can be segregated at time of gathering to be mostly red, green or whatever. Or, if you just mix them all together, you will get a beautiful gray result. Pour out that jar of tailings onto your smooth-surface work area. Best to have your latex or vinyl gloves and dust mask on, as pigment can be harmful to one's health. Simple precautions should suffice.


We won't need the Gum Trag. or other bodies because your substance already has the manufacturer's binder and body. We're taking our first, easy steps, here.


Put a paper towel around that spray bottle with a rubber band, so that you can change it out for the next color that you want to mix cleanly. Make a mashed potato-like pile (or a mini volcano, if you will) and spray water into your pigment.
Pastel is a paste, so think pancake batter for consistency.


Roll the paste in your hand until you achieve a stick. If it's too wet, dab it with a paper towel. If it has cracks, then add a little water at a time until you get it like I show above. I take the extra effort of forming it up against a right angle of glass that I have taped to my glass surface in order to make it square. Many reasons support the square model, but I do it mainly to differentiate my sticks from most store-bought ones. I make them big.


The next few steps will be without photos, but you'll be fine. It's a bear trying to not muck on one's brand new Nikon Camera while making these messy pastels! Also, the next steps are now requiring you to have a supply of white pigment. The photo above shows Whiting, which is a body for making one's own colors, and not the same as white pigment, which I show down below. I bought mine at Daniel Smith, but several suppliers exist. I guess I went with DS because I could visit the retail store in Seattle to hand pick my materials.

1. Split your big stick into roughly two equal parts.
2. Pour out white pigment on your surface equal to the size of your original pile of pigment.
3. Combine the two and spray with a little water. Roll til you get the right consistency, adding or subtracting water as needed.
4. Keep following the same regimen of halving each stick and adding white until you get to the last one which will be roughly the size of your first "pure" color stick. Now you have a set of one hue in lightening tints. Perhaps about five or six in all.
5. Stop here for now, or decide to make your tones or shades of dark. If you wish to continue, clean your surface completely with glass cleaner, and change out the towel on your spray bottle. Wash, or change your gloves.
6. Get out the carbon or lamp black and start over. The blacks come in jars, typically. Of course, a grayer color of each hue may be achieved by mixing hues in the classic painting methods. Another good way to do some minor color mixing is to add liquid pigment, which I also use for underpainting.

Createx Liquid Pigment

The drying process takes days. Three or more in marine climates (Western Washington, England, etc.) and about three where I live in Eastern Washington (almost out of the marine zone, dryish climate). I took over an old food dehydrator that we had for the purpose, which I'm still in the doghouse with my spouse about ;) You can still test the color even when it's wet, though.


Now that we have done some incredible grays, we can clean up and grab that broken yellow remains, and disperse it as a pile of dust, add water, and roll into a paste. Dry, and there's your long lost buddy!


Now, go here for the super-secret, never before revealed and extra-classified formula for making your own custom colors. I owe Paul de Marrais a debt of gratitude for his openness in revealing this "state" secret. It is, hands down, the most workable and simple formula for starting your exploration into pastel making.


Are you ready for it? 2/3rds Calcium Carbonate (Whiting) to 1/3rd French Talc, and make a paste. SSSHHHHH! Now eat the formula! No! Not the paste, the note! At this point, you'll want to but some dry pigment. I recommend French Ultramarine for starters.


As de Marrias explains, the task is now to take your formula paste and mix it with the pigment, in much the same way that I have taught you to add the white or black. The impact on the color of the pigment is minimal, and you will have a very soft pastel as a result. I have experimented with going half the magic formula, half French Ultramarine pigment, and also with going 2/3rds the blue, and 1/3rd the "body". Both work very well. My next move will be to try to "channel" Henri Roche, and make an almost all pigment blue stick.


Did you notice that we haven't touched the Gum Tragacanth, yet? Keep that bag shut, sports fans. It turns out that many pigments have enough cohesive qualities that the binder isn't needed at all. If you so desire, you may want to experiment with the binder to make harder sticks, which are good for drawing, blocking in, and initial steps of a pastel work.


This brings us to the downside of our subject, which is that all pigments are not created equal. Some have more cohesive characteristics than others. It's just the plain facts of the matter - pigments are derived from natural elements, as well as some man-made efforts such as Manganese Blue, ferric-ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue), and Alizarin (Madder). Blue is one of the happy colors that are easy to work with. The linked websites below have details on what are the troubled pigments - those harder to make into soft, workable sticks. Different amounts of the binder (Gum Tragacanth) and the Whiting/Talc formula are what you'll need to experiment with to get your particular pigment "right".


I have been lucky, so far, with the colors that I have mixed. I have not yet needed a binder to add either cohesion or consistency to any of my pastels.


I also credit Kitty Wallis with giving me my first experiences with home-made pastels. She actually markets a product that takes the mixing of the water out of the equation. She has done the hard part, and put it in a jar for you to just start rolling paste sticks. Her Pastel Moist Pigments can be found here, along with the Createx Liquid Pigments that I really love. I know they are expensive, but the full set will produce more sticks than you can shake a, well, a dollar at. The factor is well in your favor. I came back from Kitty's workshop with eighty sticks, which is greater than $260 worth of the little gems. She also sells them in individual jars, so you don't need to pop for the whole set.


I chose the adventure of making the sticks from scratch, just like any artist who lived before the Nineteenth century had to. I wanted the earthy, craft-side of the artist's tools to be part of my repertoire. I do call myself a "colorist", after all!


Now we have covered making one's own simple grays in multiple values with easel left-overs (the one I made for the photos presented here is already dry and turns out to be a dark violet-gray-which Lorie calls "eggplant"), recovering a broken stick, and two simple resources for how to make soft pastels (de Marrais and Wallis ).


Articles on Making Pastels:

• Paul de Marrais. Via Daniel Smith.
• Katherine Tyrell's Squidoo Lens, and scroll down to "Making your own pastels".
• Sinopia; I emphasize this one which Katherine has linked, because it is relatively simple, and has well organized formulas for given color groups. The groupings are designed to help you get ahead of the curve regarding pigments that are less satisfactory for handling qualities. I suggest letting the pigment tell you first, though. I found that the hansa yellow light from Daniel Smith was fine without binder.
  

Readable articles about pigments:

• Golden.
• Sennelier.
• Wikipedia.
• Webexhibits.org/pigments.

New Web Site

Announcing my new web site. It is (of course!) under construction. Go ahead and save it, but pending my release of my original URL, which is CaseyKlahn.com, I will be here, for now.

• http://www.FineArtStudioOnline.com/CaseyKlahn

Enjoy! Pop a champagne cork! Pour some in a cup! Strike up the band!

Get Busy Making Pastels

Have some fun, and save money on expensive pastels, by making some of your own sticks. It's easier than one may have heard. Some of the information online is positively frenetic with how complex and difficult it should be. Don't believe it!

I will link to the super-secret and classified extra special and need-to-know web page that will provide you, a commoner and civilian, with the ultra evil and never before revealed magic formula that will de-mystify and reveal HOW TO MAKE ONE'S OWN PASTELS! Keep it under your hat, and reveal this to no one. Eat the instructions when you have completed your mission.

Are you on the edge of your seat? Good. Let's begin by gathering our tools and supplies. At first, you can even participate without buying anything expensive in the way of art supplies. Let's look at my photo of materials, but keep in mind that it is inclusive of the most supplies that you may want. For this basic session, you will only need items # 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7.

Gather the following:

1. The bits and pieces of broken pastels that are too small to use anymore. Seen at the left side of the photo in a dish is a broken yellow Diane Townsend, and in the little cardboard box are some mixed color bits and pieces.
2. In the glass jar are the tailings from my easel, all colors. I keep a length of mat board, shaped in a "V", on the easel tray and under my artwork. Then, it gathers the dust that falls, and I pour it (hold your breath) into a jar.
3. Also note two jars of store-bought pigment (optional: you can make pastels for now without these). This is expensive stuff. However, the quantity of pastel sticks that one can make by hand would set you back much more if you were to buy them on the retail market. It is the same pigment that goes into every colored thing on the planet: automobiles, oil paint, printer cartridges, etc. Pigment is pigment. These are powdered (which is pigment's original form) and are sold for artist's use in making paint, pastels, etc.
4. (Optional at this time) The white bags are various products to add to your pigments as "body" and/or binders when we start making our own new colors. From left to right: Titanium White (Black will be in a jar like the other pigments), Whiting, Gum Tragacanth, French Chalk (Talc), and Pumice Powder. These represent more Additives than you will need for the most basic pastel making.
5. I use a glass surface for my mixing and paste rolling. This circular piece of glass was surplussed (free) from a retail-supply store. If you live in Italy, the glass may be substituted with marble, which is cheaper than dirt in your mountainous country. Be creative and use whatever is easy to clean between different color mixings.
   
6. (Not Shown) A smallish spray bottle to meter out your water in a measured way.
7. Dust masks, latex gloves, paper towels, and Windex (spray glass-cleaner). You might want to resource a shop apron, and you will need old clothes and dedicated footwear (old tennis shoes, or rubber boots). Everything will launder-up fine, though.
   

Since my time is cramped, today, I'll let you just get these things together and go with the actual making pastels, complete with links, in my next installment.