Goings on in the art world
The Carrboro Community Art Project
The Carrboro Arts Committee invites you to participate in the first annual Carrboro Community Art Project! We will show art created by people who live, work, or play in Carrboro. Your artwork will be shown in the Century Center or Carrboro Town Hall during May & June 2010 to coincide with Carrboro Day & the 101st 2ndFriday ArtWalk.
We do have some rules you’ll need to follow but they’re pretty straightforward. Basically the theme is simply “Carrboro” so use your imagination. As long as you live, work or play in Carrboro you are eligible. There are other rules about size and such but if your piece fits within the rules it will be accepted. For the full rules and an application form please visit our webpage
We will accept submissions this Saturday, April 24th from 10 am until 1 pm at the Century Center, at 100 North Greensboro St. in Carrboro.
An opening reception with music at both venues will be held on May 14 at the Century Center and Carrboro Town Hall in conjunction with the 2ndFriday ArtWalk. Participating artists are asked to bring finger food (no utensils needed stuff) and/or beverages.
Festivities start at the Town Hall with a poetry reading by the newTown of Carrboro Poet Laureate Jay Bryan. The Scene of the Crime Rovers from Durham will then display their unique take on the marching band format. Great fun.
Later Lucky's Starlight Lounge will play in the Carrboro Century Center. From Facebook: "Lucky's Starlight Lounge (aka Sharmin Mirman on sax/vocals and Silas Derr on Keyboards/Guitar) is an old fashioned jazz duo with a swanky modern twist. They play an eclectic mix of jazz standards, lounge music and unexpected revisions of old and contemporary favorites. "
There will be fun to be had by all!
Robert Rauschenberg - 1925 - 2008
Rauschenberg est morte.
Readers of this space know that my first artistic influence was Dada. So it is not surprising that I felt a kinship to Rauschenberg's "assemblages." I love the way he took the found and random and found composition and beauty (and irreverence).
Here's a quote from the NYT obit:
Mr. Rauschenberg, who knew that not everybody found it easy to grasp the open-endedness of his work, once described to the writer Calvin Tomkins an encounter with a woman who had reacted skeptically to “Monogram” (1955-59) and “Bed” in his 1963 retrospective at the Jewish Museum, one of the events that secured Mr. Rauschenberg’s reputation: “To her, all my decisions seemed absolutely arbitrary — as though I could just as well have selected anything at all — and therefore there was no meaning, and that made it ugly.
“So I told her that if I were to describe the way she was dressed, it might sound very much like what she’d been saying. For instance, she had feathers on her head. And she had this enamel brooch with a picture of ‘The Blue Boy’ on it pinned to her breast. And around her neck she had on what she would call mink but what could also be described as the skin of a dead animal. Well, at first she was a little offended by this, I think, but then later she came back and said she was beginning to understand.”
I'll toast his memory tonight.
Mosqueteros: Later Work of Pablo Picasso
Portait de l'homme à l'épée et à la fleur, 1969
Oil on canvas 57 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches (146 x 115 cm)
© 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS ), New York
March 26 - June 6, 2009
522 West 21st Street, NYC
This free show at the Gogosian in Chelsea of more than a hundred of Picasso's later works (1962-72) is a revelation. After walking through the pieces -- small prints to very large canvases -- one can only marvel at the brilliance of his last years. The work comes in reserved earth tones and bright splashy colors but is always filled with whimsy. A character -- perhaps Picasso -- appears throughout with his little mustache and a glint in his eye. It is raunchy, it is fun, it is lecherous and it knocks you over. That's not to say there aren't some failures; he produced too much for everything to be top notch but the hits are home runs.
Walking through I kept grinning and laughing. I imagined this randy, mischievous old man, brush in hand having the time.
London TimesOnline Best of the 20th Century Contest
The TimesOnline of London is having a contest to select the best visual artists of the 20th Century. They started with a list of 300 -- painters, sculptors, photographers and graffiti and video artists. So far more than a million people have voted.
Sadly there are problems. First the site sucks and the list is problematic. It's hard to see the second half of the list (starting about M). I was unable to vote for Lee Krasner no matter how many times I clicked on her name and half the time her name disappears from the list entirely. I know I voted for Morris Louis but he disappears too. Artists left out? How about Andrew Wyeth (no Wyeth's actually), Joan Mitchell, Winslow Homer, Annie Liebovitz, Romare Bearden? And I'm sorry but Jeff Koons, who's on the list, makes me retch.
Still it's fun and the list includes many I'm not familiar with (including links to their work that sometimes - sigh - work). Go vote! (Just not for Koons.)
Joan Mitchell. Land. 1989, National Gallery of Art
More on Rauschenberg
The New York Times continues to celebrate Rauschenberg's life. Today they published a nice article on his time in New York. It also notes where to go in NYC to see some of his famous pieces.
Also David Bryne of Talking Heads fame describes his relationship with Bob the Builder including the story of RR's design for the cover of Head's "Speaking in Tongues" LP - a limited addition of 50,000 copies one of which is available on eBay presently at $135.83. You have till May 20 to bid.
Finally there is an article on RR and dance which reflects his wide range of interests within the arts.
[Photo credit the New York Times]
Ackland Museum Retrospective
Circa 1958: Breaking Ground in American Art at the Ackland Museum at UNC Chapel Hill
The Ackland Museum on the campus at the University of North Carolina is having a retrospective celebrating 1958, the year the museum opened. It is a quite interesting exhibit, widely uneven but with a number of highlights including the Kenneth Noland piece shown above. The stretched the time boundaries to include pieces from the late 50's though the early 60's.
The Ackland is fairly small and doesn't have a great collection but they were able to out together some of their pieces with others on loan to build a some depth and breadth. The Warhol is really lovely and I'm not much of an Andy fan. Other hits include a Romare Bearden and a Ed Ruscha. The show closes January 4th.
Frank, the new art cooperative in Chapel Hill
Frank, Chapel Hill's new community non-profit art collective opened during the April 9th 2ndFriday Art Walk. The crowd was big, too big for my introverted self so we went back on Saturday. The quality of the artists is extremely high. I was very impressed; it shows just how much talent we have in the area. (As an artist it was humbling as well.) There is not much yet on their website yet but check back often. They do list some interesting looking upcoming events.
This a great opportunity to liven up the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Triangle art scene. I see it positively improving the economic sustainability of arts in the local community and putting more money in the pockets of working artists. Go visit soon at 109 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
Congratulations to all involved. Thanks for funding by donors and the Town of Chapel Hill as well as the generous sweetheart deal building owner and local philanthropist Michael Brader Araje gave the cooperative