Art (Contemporary and Otherwise)

[endersgame]

Went to go see the Tara Donovan sculpture at pace yesterday.

Amazing.

i saw this on my lunch break.
yes, it was amazing, for about 2 minutes..

also went to see ellsworth kelly's reliefs across the street. 87 years old and still producing work of this caliber is pretty amazing..

i want a bunch of these in my apartment..

http://www.matthewmarks.com/exhibitions/2011-02-12_ellsworth-kelly/installation-video/

[Vanna]

Yawn. Sure, my initial thoughts are that it's crafty. And I'm not a fan of everything she does, but this piece is still a stunning accomplishment (For me). Maybe I'm a simpleton, but it's nice to come upon a piece that just makes you happy. It's rare that art does that for me, so I'll take what I can get.

Much better than the James Siena show I saw at Pace last week.

[Fade to Black]

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain (1995), Zhang Huan

[laughed]

if i want happy i'll go for the o.g. - tom friedman...i think this is what tara was going for with her pin piece....okay no more tara bashing ;)

[endersgame]

some harry callahan i googled up..







this one is dye transfer. the color red is the hardest print so i've been told..



much bigger version of this woman's rear end..

[Fade to Black]

that last one is my favorite Callahan image of all time

[endersgame]

there's a lot more callahan in color i can't find..

Asako Narahashi
from the series half awake and half asleep in the water

this is one of those things where i wish i took these pictures..

[Fade to Black]

hah, that's exactly what i thought the first time i saw that red callahan ^ above.

last week i got off the bus going home and i saw a brilliant oppurtunity for a similar shot, except i would have rendered it in black and white, did not have my camera on me.

but yeah there's definitely something frustrating about those ideas that make you realize it was so obvious after the fact.

[Vanna]

if i want happy i'll go for the o.g. - tom friedman...i think this is what tara was going for with her pin piece....okay no more tara bashing ;

That's lovely.

[laughed]

I remember when this Josephine Meckseper was runnin' around...


I can only pray that people stop ripping off work. I almost gagged myself when I saw the cover of the current style times issue. i think it's cass bird who is a halfway-decent photographer. but seriously....wtf.

[Acéphale]

Pieter Bruegel the Elder
(1525 – 1569)



The Seven Deadly Sins: Lechery
(1558)

[Ochre]

Donovan is a pretty incredible talent, especially for her age (and having only been working exclusively as an artist since 2003). Her work is visceral and transcendent. I don't see her and Friedman operating on the same level at all. Two simultaneous solo shows in Chelsea is no small feat.

[MoFiya]

Kind of hard finding good pictures and not sure this belongs here... But I really like the work of Oscar Niemeyer. Would love to experience some of his architecture irl..

[laughed]

Donovan is a pretty incredible talent, especially for her age (and having only been working exclusively as an artist since 2003). Her work is visceral and transcendent. I don't see her and Friedman operating on the same level at all. Two simultaneous solo shows in Chelsea is no small feat.

whoa, whoa, whoa - you're not stating that Friedman isn't on Tara's level are you? Wait a second - you just said "I don't see her and Friedman operating on the same level at all".

Okay,
Class is in session - Art History, Lesson 1-

Tom Friedman, Untitled, 1995

Tara Donovan, Colony, 2002

Tom Friedman, Untitled, Toothpicks, 1995

Tara Donovan, Toothpicks, 2001

Tom Friedman, Untitled Drawing, 2000

Tara Donovan, Untitled Drawing, 2005


Etc., Etc., Etc.....
I could go on and on and on....
As far as the age is concerned Friedman is barely 5 years older than Tara. And two shows in Chelsea simultaneously being no small feat? Friedman had solos shows in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, New York & Chicago - simultaneously.

Tom Friedman is an OG.
Stating that Tom Friedman isn't on Dullard Donovan's level is absurd.
Class dismissed.

[Ochre]

Laughed, I'm sorry.. I didn't mean level in a hierarchical sense as if Donovan is better than Friedman. I'm suggesting that their approach to art making is too different to compare in those terms (ie. Tara was not "going for" what Friedman did in that pin piece as you mentioned above). It is unjust to think that simply because both forms are made using multiples of an object, they're automatically of the same species.

Friedman's work is more comedic, absurdist, playful, and witty. Donovan focuses more on the transcendental nature of an object once abstracted from its initial functionality and form as well as the methodology of construction. Her pursuits are perhaps more poetic... philosophic.

I love both of them for very different reasons. Friedman is certainly an accomplished artist and well deserving of his success. But I also think Donovan deserves far more credit than reducing her to an artist who works in multiples and is somehow missing the Friedman mark when I don't think she intends to work in that direction.