Palimpsest

Here we have fabulous artist Julie Mehretu, my latest obsession. She is of Ethiopian origin, born 1970, now lives and works in New York (with her lady partner, omg.) She received MacArthur “Genius” grant, is represented by White Cube in London and big galleries in New York and Berlin, and according to Wikipedia one of her pieces sold for around a million US dollars at auction in September. So Mehretu is making bank, basically.

Untitled (brigade) detail, 2005, ink and acrylic on canvas, 36 by 48 inches

Mehretu's thing is highly worked, large-scale canvasses layering pencil, pen, ink and paint, usually acrylic, and her subject matter is architecture and cities: she may include drawings of buildings, floorplans, symbols and flags, along with more abstract marks and blocks of colour and tone. Some earlier work has a diagrammatic, chart-like quality, using made up symbols to record some mysterious change or movement (like the 'Stamped Ink' pieces below). She may use assistants to layers drawings using a projector, which sounds like pretty much the best job in the world to me, I wish it was mine. I think the idea is that she is creating her own syntax to record the city’s history, change and flux, the movements of people and how they respond to the space – it's her own idiosyncratic POV.

Cipher, 2006, ink and acrylic on canvas, 48.5 by 60.5 inches

I like how the work can be read in detail – you can recognize bits of building – but also at a distance as an abstract piece. The level of detail as well as the scale and time-consuming method is almost overwhelming, but also absorbing. To me it really feels like what cities feel like: a confusing barrage of information, your eye roaming over a million complex shapes. Love it!

Palimpsest (old gods) detail, 2006, ink and acrylic on canvas, 60 by 84 inches

Atlantic Wall, 2008-09, Ink and acrylic on canvas, 304.8 by 426.7 cm

Citadel, 2005, ink and acrylic on canvas, 72 by 96 inches

Stamped Ink (the herd three), 1996, Stamped ink on canvas, 72 by 60 inches

Stamped Ink (the herd 2), 1996, stamped ink on canvas, 72 by 60 inches

Berliner Platze detail, 2008-09, ink and acrylic on canvas, 304.8 by 426.7 cm

P.S. I am referencing Julie Mehretu in a class project right now, so all this may sound familiar to anyone in my Drawing Concepts II (:Electric Booglaoo!) class.

And Now For Something Beauteous and Soothing

After looking at a lot of wonderful, lively, stimulating but occasionally icky modern art, it is sometimes nice to look at something entirely and simply lovely. This is where John Singer Sargent comes in handy. Not to simplify or put down his art, because I love it. The light, the deep colours, the charismatic and beautiful sitters, rich fabrics, virtuoso brushwork: amazing.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882

(I would recommend a full-view on this one, a closer look at the brush strokes. I love the fact that the two young maids are included and granted as much attention and personality as the young misses in the foreground. I like how the little girl in the front is sitting with her doll and her legs stuck out, just like a real kid and not like a stiff aristo child in portraits from earlier centuries. I like the mysterious dark space the painting recedes into in the background, and what are those strange lights back there? I can't quite make it out.)

Portrait of Carolus-Duran, 1879

(I like this chap, he looks stern yet charismatic, like he is destined to be someone's eccentric father one day; possibly be really into dinosaur bones.)

Mr and Mrs I N Phelps Stokes, 1887

(The adventurous New Woman, with her husband in the background! Amazing! Apparently at the time there was controversy because her hat was covering his crotch, I suppose this was seen to emasculate him. Rather amusing. Also, I love Sargent's women: elegant but not demure, spilling over with personality and self-assurance.)

Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911

(Argh, look at that fabric! I think it must have been a gift to Sargent that the rich women of the time wore voluminous silk skirts.)

Ena and Betty, Daughters of Asher and Mrs Werthheimer, 1901

(I have a postcard of this painting on my notice board at this very minute. I like how with a little imagination it looks kind of gay, although of course it is not. Look at the light hitting that vase, just like in the painting up top of The Daughters. I suppose gigantic vases like that must have been in fashion what with the Orientalism trend. Once again, a useful tool to show off the painter's virtuosity, like how still life artists like to paint decanters of water.)

Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

(A major patron of the arts at the time, although I suppose the halo created by the fabric behind her suggest that she is as much as a patron saint. Great artists are also into puns.)

Venetian Glass Workers, 1880/82

(I suppose Sargent must have spent some time painting in Venice. It makes a change from his portraits of fancy-pants Society people. And once again, art and literature set in Venice seems to catch my attention. Maybe I could go there one day.)

Blog, Help Me With My Homework

Well I have been doing some homework researching a bunch of contemporary artists. I have to find one I have an affinity with. Many artists these days are far too icky for me to empathise with their work. Attempting to eliminate that which grosses me out, here is today's preliminary list:

John Latham
Naomi Shigeta
Andrea Zittel
Warrington Colescott
Takashi Murakami
Jasper Johns
Jeff Koons
Mark Grotjahn
Thomas Struth
Claus Oldenburg
Ralph Goings
Whiting Tennis
Juul Kraijer
Ellen Gallagher
Kiki Smith
Vija Celmins
Fred Tomaselli
Raymond Pettibon
William Kentridge
Alfred Leslie
Robert Gober

Here are a few things I've found that caught my eye:

William Kentridge, Typewriter II-IX, intaglio prints

Robert Gober, Untitled, 2002, lithograph on Arches cover paper

Alfred Leslie, Rock Beach, Santa Barbara, watercolour

Alfred Leslie, Bridge From Mill Creek, watercolour

Vija Celmins, Web 1, charcoal on paper, 1999

Vija Celmins, Untitled, 2005

Vija Celmins, Comet, linocut, 1992

Kenny vs Shark

My friend Jeryl just introduced me to the work of Ryan Berkley, a pretty awesome illustrator based in Portland. He likes to do animal portraits (not the kind where he does a picture of your pet terrier) and superheroes and sharks and bears.

Berkley also has his own superhero named Kenny. Kenny is some kind of hairy beast wearing tiny shorts, who shoots rainbows out of his chest. AWESOME. Here's a picture of Kenny at bathtime:

Ryan Berkley, Kenny Bath, pen and ink

Ryan Berkley, Kenny vs Mashrik, marker drawing

Ryan Berkley, Polar Bear, pen and ink

Ryan Berkley, Kenny Eagle Blast, pen and ink

Ryan Berkley, Brown Bat, pen and ink.

You can probably get a better idea of this guy by looking at his etsy page, and you can also buy some affordable prints if you feel like it. Personally I wouldn't mind having a framed print of Kenny bathtime up in my bathroom. I would like to feel that awesome when taking a bath. Also I would like a floaty shark.

Pandas and Anteaters and Yaks

Another awesome artist I came across via Kitsune Noir, man I love that site! (Tim says that KN is past his best, I cannot speak for that but I still go there for my wallpapers.)

Jing Wei, Big Bear, woodcut, for The Believer

This illustrator is named Jing Wei, born in China but lives in Brooklyn, with her cats. Usually when people say in their bio that they live with their cats, they are the whimsical type, and so it proves to be with Wei, to a certain extent. She has a macabre sensibility that largely cuts through the whimsy, although she is obsessed with some fashionable animals, such as bears, pandas and deer. Oh actually, she prefers yaks to deer. Anyone noticed how deer are in vogue right now? Especially antlers. Antlers and tentacles, if you have them screenprinted on your American Apparel hoodie you are on the money.

Anyway. Wei has really amazing printmaking technique that really makes me jealous. Wonderful woodcuts, and she has a neat technique with mixing ink and woodcut. Sometimes these are too clean for my taste, but the one below where the texture/pick-up shows through is exquisite.

Jing Wei, woodcut and ink

Jing Wei, 3 Pandas, for Der Freitag

More here at her website!

I Had This Weird Dream...

Here are some intriguing drawings from this show here, called Diplopia. These are by Eleanor Davis, who seems to be a pretty awesome illustrator. Kinda creepy, kinda dreamy. I look at these drawings and feel all kinds of ideas opening up in my head, which is just what I need because I've been a bit artistically stuck lately.

Eleanor Davis, Dreams #14

Eleanor Davis, Dreams #13

Eleanor Davis, Dreams #11

Eleanor Davis, Doubles #21

If you happen to have more money, you can even buy some of the drawings and paintings in that show, just imagine! And if you live in LA you could even go see it! Shame LA only exists in the movies. Bette Porter could go see this show, she likes Art.

Better Work Ethic Than Me

Look at the amazing watercolours Lucy Knisley put up on her Art Journal, over at livejournal, this week. She is fantastically talented. And guess what, she did all these while she had the flu. To keep herself occupied while sick. I cannot even do such things when I am at the peak of health. (See the whole selection of watercolours here.)


Anyway, the moral of this story is that you should check out Lucy Knisley's website, titled Stop Paying Attention, and maybe friend her on livejournal, which may be a stalkery thing to do, but I've done it anyway, and it's worth it to see the amazing illustrations she produces.





P.S. I have mentioned Lucy Knisley before, in a post on diary comics. Knisley does good diary comics, too.

Juxtaposing Your Week

Include Me Out

Been looking at this blog, Seven Days, for a bit; it's the home page for the work of illustrator Cristiana Couceiro. Couceiro lives, works and is inspired by Lisbon, Portugal. Obviously she is a fan of vintage photographs too, with hopeful images of the past yanked out of context and into collages yielding a suggestion of the past and of meaningful symbols, but essentially just modern enough to not denote anything in particular. The pieces also look a lot like a particular strain of old Penguin paperback covers, do you know the ones I mean? The ones that look like these, basically (especially the one below, labelled It's Not For You to Choose). Same colour palette and use of pale coloured circles, sometimes the font is the same too. Hence an added expectation that the text and the symbols in these pieces will mean something, but still they have only the feel of old pieces of functional graphic design; time and nostalgia turns it all neatly into art.

It's Not For You to Choose

These pieces do continue to make me feel like I'm missing something. Maybe I am? I don't know much about the artist. Maybe these are books covers, I just don't know the books. (Also Couceiro does some conventional illustration, magazines and advertising etc.) The titles seem designed to be confusing too; unless there's another connection I'm missing the titles seem entirely divorced from the content. I also wonder what percentage of the images here are found, and how much made new? Some of the photographs do seem newly posed, modern models in old fashioned dress. It's all really working for me, anyhow. Collage is fun. I would love to see her sketchbooks/scrapbooks.

You've Hit the Button One Hundred Times Before

You Are Everything I Cannot See

Who Can Doubt it Now

When Your Feet Are Living the Ground

Feeling Like a Tape Recorder

To Stay Here Would Be Just Fine

I Find it Hard to Explain How I Got Here

I think I got the Couceiro tip from This Girl Called Automatic Win. Lass has good taste in art (and links, and recaps, and long hilarious soul-searching sessions).

American Elf

James Kochalka has been on my radar for a while, but I was never the hugest fan, I must admit. He's written and illustrated about a million comicbooks, including American Elf, Monkey Vs. Robot, Peanutbutter and Jeremy (a child-like story about a cat and a crow, which I actually rather like), and Superfuckers. He also has a band called James Kochalka Superstar. Are they any good? I have never heard any of their stuff, but their CDs are occasionally attached to the comicbooks.

However, I've just discovered his daily diary comics, and I LOVE them. He writes about his cats, his wife, his two small sons, and various emo and weird and goofy things that fall into the Kochalka universe. The colour work is amazing, as is the super-cute depiction of his kids. Top-notch cat work as always. By the way, Kochalka himself is the bucktoothed elf, and he absolutely looks like that in real life too!

There's something about diary comics that really appeals to me. I admire the full-on dedication of that kind of project, and the slow progression and development of the artwork that follows. But more than that I respond to the accumulation of small details about how an artist spends their days, what they think about, how they draw themselves and the world around them. It's quite moving, really.





Check out more diary comics at americanelf.com. He's been writing them for TEN YEARS. So there's plenty of good stuff to catch up on.


Above, some earlier strips, ten years old now. See how his style and his elf-face have changed!