Cantor Arts Center: “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas,” August 4, 2010 through January 2, 2011. This exhibition explores 500 years of visual cultures and histories of the water... Read more »
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/nancy-ewart

Anselm Kiefer at SFMOMA

New piece up at: http://www.examiner.com/x-13996-SF-Museum-Examiner

Maira KalmanVarious Illuminationsof a Crazy World

I first heard of illustrator, author and designer Maira Kalman when a friend forwarded her New York Times blog, about a trip to City Hall and a sewage treatment plant. Her funny, interesting and educational story was intermingled (intertwingled?) with paintings and photographs of what she saw along the way and at the plant.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has an exhibit of Kalman's work, now through October 26. Like a good San Franciscan, I tried to take the Muni railway to the museum. But then there was a switching problem, followed by a few and far between bus and trolley problem, and then a full to the brim bus, trolley and cab problem. Finally made it to the museum about an hour and a half after I left.

As there is a lot of detail in Kalman's work, as well as plenty of reading of the several books accessible in the exhibit, I recommend going to the exhibit when one is fresh. Choose your mode of transportation accordingly.

The Kalman exhibit includes drawings, books, children's books, designs on clothing, objects that appear in her work, and short films. Photographs are also on display, including a series on free sofas on the sidewalk. Coincidentally, I had taken a similar photo below, just before boarding the train to nowhere. Somehow, Kalman's free sofa photos are so much more revealing.


My favorite of her books was "FIREBOAT, The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey."

It is a wonderful combination of fun and history, powerful and inspiring.

by Phil Gravitt

Upcoming: Klee, Keefer, Hauntings in Berkeley and water Goddesses at Stanford

Art viewing, research and writing in progress:

A new show at the Cantor Art Center in Stanford, featuring Africa art that honors the Goddess of Water.

A reprise of an  early Klee show at SFMOMA (opens August 8th)

Part three of my long essay on Anselm Kiefer at SFMOMA (part of the Fisher Collection)

French philosopher Jacques Derrida meets Berkeley: Hauntology at the Berkeley Art Museum

SoMa Artists Studios voted the best artists collective

BEST ART COLLECTIVE:  SoMa Artists Studios 689 Bryant, SF

http://somaartiststudios.com/

A Whole Lot of New Stuff up

I've got several new posts up at Chez Namaste Nancy and the SF Examiner.com and it's not always the SAME stuff so take a few minutes and read what you may not have read already. I will be contributing on an infrequent basis to Venetian Red and will cross-post those essays to my own blog and the Examiner.

I'd like to remind the spanners who continually try to slip something in the comments section that comments are moderated and links in unknown languages or to porn/self-advertising sites will always be rejected.

http://cheznamastenancy.blogspot.com/

Views of Paris

If you cannot make it to the Legion or the De Young, try a free quick trip through the "Views of Paris" exhibition in the Concourse Gallery, 555 California Street, San Francisco. Paintings are from Le Trianon Fine Art, currated by Casey & Associates.

Toy Theater at MPD

"Toy Theaters, Worlds in Miniature"
Twenty-one rare toy theaters from around the world
at the Museum of Performance and Design
Veterans Building / 401 Van Ness Avenue / 4th floor
Open Wed - Sat, 12 - 5pm

I was lucky enough to get a private tour of this show with the curator, Bill Eddelman. His knowledge and enthusiasm for toy theater is infectious and I soon found myself imagining my own handmade dioramas. The assembled theaters, full of 2D actors and stage sets, tiny lights, toy furniture and paper moons, were mostly in glass cases - good thing because I had an irresistible urge to put my hands in them and start moving things around. Took me right back to childhood.

The theaters are from all over the world and the show is organized by country of origin. Mostly classical fairy tales and opera are represented, and they're mostly Victorian Era theaters (ranging from the 18th century to present.) Besides the constructed theaters, the walls are full of flat printed sheets of more paper-doll-like actors, backdrops and props.

For those of us who like to know what goes on behind the curtain, the construction and workings of the theaters can be seen from the sides. I was reminded of contemporary artists who have recently exhibited work with toy theaters - Sandow Birk and William Kentridge. And I couldn't help thinking that this is a art form that would appeal to the SteamPunk and Make crowds.

Actually, it appeals to me.

More photos at MPD's Flickr site.

Holiday in Heaven

Robert Rahway Zakanitch

Rococo Revisited (2008)

Gouache on Paper, 96'' x 72''

To visit the work of Robert Rahway Zakanitch in "From a Garden of Ordinary Miracles" at the Samuel Freeman Gallery in Santa Monica is to find oneself suddenly and unexpectedly adrift on a mighty cloud of joy: we're blessed, we're blessed, we're blessed, we are blessed.

There is a particular sensibility in this work, a way of looking at the world with love, a way of allowing magic and light to slip into your consciousness, which, along with the underlying tone of assuming the best in all of us, reveals a habit of mind that is enchanting:

Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no fear.
Those who see all creatures in themselves
And themselves in all creatures know no grief.
How can the multiplicity of life
Delude the one who sees its unity?

These massive (96” x 72”) displays of flowers and creatures
(it's even more of a surprise in person!) allow one to become so absorbed in the experience of joyful seeing and awareness that one forgets oneself:

. . . in those moments when we forget ourselves—not thinking. “Am I happy? Am I having fun yet?” but completely oblivious to our little ego –we spend a brief but beautiful holiday in heaven.

But the forgetting is a sort of divine paradox, because in the forgetting, one feels most oneself in this intimate connection with nature and beauty and sheer goodness.

By “goodness,” you understand I mean moral goodness, and by “moral goodness,” I mean what is beautiful in the human spirit, from even the tiniest impulsive act of generosity or kindness or mercy. I mean take-my-hand goodness; I mean Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Maud Martha Spares the Mouse” goodness:

Maud Martha could not bear the little look.
"Go home to your children," she urged. "To your wife or husband."
She opened the trap. The mouse vanished.
Suddenly, she was conscious of a new cleanness in her. A wide air walked in her. A life had blundered its way into her power and it had been hers to preserve or destroy. She had not destroyed. In the center of that simple restraint was–creation. She had created a piece of life. It was wonderful.
"Why," she thought, as her height doubled, "why, I'm good! I am good."
She ironed her aprons. Her back was straight. Her eyes were mild, and soft with loving kindness.

Through some amazing grace, these works nudge you to spread your wings--to be a better person--to put a little love in your heart.

Inside Out

Last year, I read Daniel Goleman’s Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception because I was thinking about the inner being and the face one presents to the world. I was thinking also about Paul Ekman’s work with micro expressions--how one might be able to deceive with words, but how one's true emotions will leak out and give one away. Now I am reading Thomas Moore’s Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationships which, in spite of the title, mostly concerns coming to a deeper knowledge of one’s self and one’s own soul—the desires and fears and dilemmas and mysteries with which we struggle. Our demons and our angels.

All right. So we have (or we are) this soul, this heavenly and demonic being, and we try to fit it into this world that demands from us certain obligations. We must work or marry or raise children or all of the above. We take this big inner being, this chaotic, passionate, inspired, crazy, impulsive, beautiful, ferocious mess of humanity, and squish and shove and squeeze it into some kind of semblance of what might pass for convention so we can get jobs/make friends/find mates/not scare people/not get arrested. We tell lies, to ourselves and others. We construct a self that is presentable/suitable/appropriate. We keep our real selves in check.

Like wily toddlers, some of us occasionally escape through the screen door when no one’s looking and run out naked through the sprinklers in the front yard shrieking with joy. Some of us create a life in which we get to have an alter ego or two. Some of us let the angels and demons out in our art or writing or music or dance. Some of us can’t bear the strain and we get a little neurotic. Or sink to the bottom of a bottle. Some of us are so wounded by the struggle that we sort of give up and our soul flattens out a little, lying down resentfully in a corner like a dog that never gets let off the leash. In a lifetime, we might try all of those things.

Last month, I was helping Bob Debris, a friend who is a photographer (if by “helping” we mean telling people they looked beautiful and tucking in shirts and pushing strands of hair out of faces and draping shoulders with glittery fabric and fastening a corset around the voluptuous waist of one beauty) as Bob took pictures of masses of humanity on Members’ Family Day at Lotusland in Santa Barbara. Not to suck up to Bob (though it might be a good idea, being as it is summer and he and his lovely wife Caroline Allen do have a pool), but first I will say that to watch this kind of artist at work is fascinating.In some of the photos, the models just did whatever they wanted. Other models seemed to inspire Bob, and he would start telling them what to do, how to move or turn, how to hold a hand up or shift a leg. Those images were the best, the most fun and the most funny, the ones that took on a new life. It was so interesting to see how some models would submit entirely and give themselves up to Bob’s vision. Others resisted flatly. Still others brought their own visions and inspirations to the image.

And then, if you can look past the fake fur and Mongolian armor and spears and plastic flowers and toy skulls and all the other props (or maybe the props are a means to the revelation), some of the images clearly present the mystery of the soul; that is, you see in the image the inner being, what seems like a previously hidden essence of the person that emerges in the flash of the bulb. How do that happen? You can see the Lotusland images here in all their glory. (You can see more of Bob's work here.)

Which brings me to the Alice Neel show at LA Louver. What astounds me about Alice Neel's work is that you walk away from the paintings and you actually feel as if you know something about the subjects--about who they are as human beings. Sometimes it's beautiful, sometimes it's ugly. Sometimes it can't be put in those terms, it's more of a sense or a mood. It's as if the artist has the ability to turn us inside out and reveal our secret selves to the world.

Coming to your TV set: So You Think You're An Artist?

Forget summer returns. Art is now being turned into the next reality show. "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist", which debuts on cable channel  Bravo on Wednesday, June 9, pits 14 very different artists against each  other in weekly challenges and awards the winner a $100,000 prize and a  solo exhibition.

The question is, can highly personal, visual art be judged like a  gourmet dish or a ready-to-wear collection? And is the rarefied world of  art ready for a reality TV make-over? Another question the producers dodge is how the "artists" REALLY were chosen. Can we trust their judgment on art when, when, judging by the above photo, the artists are all young, attractive and quite photogenic. What - there are no good artists over, say, 50? No older men or women? Louise Bourgeois would have never made it through the first round; neither would most of the artists whose works now grace our museums and whom we value - the list is endless.

"The whole point of the show is that there is no right opinion.  Everyone has their own subjective view. But it is amazing every week  that there is a consensus about the quality of the work, and what's good  and what's not," said Dan Cutforth, one of the executive producers. So, does this means that the show has already been taped and the "contest" already decided?

"Good art really moves people and inspires a reaction. You know it  when you see it. The old chestnut 'I don't know much about art, but I  know what I like' is true," he told Reuters. How about some..oh, I don't know.. .smidgen of art history or background as to why people like what they do. How do you define good art - by only a reaction? Whose reaction? And what kind of reaction?

"Work of Art" comes from the same Magical Elves production company  that blended personality and the process of fashion design in "Project  Runway", and helped lift the lid on how food goes from good to great in  "Top Chef." 

In the first challenge, contestants ranging from 23 to 62 years-old  are randomly paired off and asked to produce a visual work that captures  the essence of their partner. A three-person panel of judges decides  who has responded best to the challenge, and who will go home. In future episodes, the contestants must create unique pieces in  mediums such as sculpture, photography, collage and industrial design.

"When we started reaching out to the art community, we were worried  that people would be against the idea of a reality show. What we found  was that people were pretty receptive," said Cutforth.

Or maybe they were desperate for a way to make a living; let's face it - if a contestant "wins" one of these shows, he or she has a shot at sales, a gallery and a huge step up in the competitive art scene. Artists don't live in an ivory tower, or, at least, those who have to pay the rent and put food on the table don't. I don't blame them for participating in this but it certainly can lead to a further degradation of any method of judging what's good and what's not. Far too often now, we judge solely by price; if a piece of art sells for a lot of money, it must be good. No sales equals bad art. By that standard, Van Gogh was a failure as were many artists whom we now value.

More than 2,000 people from oil painters to conceptual artists and  silk-screen experimenters applied to take part, reflecting the hunger  for a larger public canvas for an often misunderstood form of  expression. But will the show encourage more people to seek out art or simply be satisfied with what may be a visual version of McDonald's?

"One of our goals for this show is for people to realize that art is  all around them. It shouldn't frighten people to have opinions," said  Jane Lipsitz, Cutforth's Magical Elves business partner.

"People perceive art as being possibly elitist and a rarefied world.  So it would be amazing if we were to bring art more into the  mainstream," she said. Unfortunately for this laudable goal, the artists presented in the PR photo look, for the most part, young, attractive and today's version of hip. They don't look unique but more of the glossy, standardized model that we get on every other TV channel. Maybe the show will prove me wrong. I was appalled by the idea when I first read about it and I haven't seen anything that makes me feel otherwise. Or at least, not yet.

The TV show has been embraced by some professionals.  Mixed-media artist Jon Kessler and photographer Andres Serrano are  among the guest judges, while the permanent panel is made up of New York  gallery owners Bill Powers and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and New York  Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz. What? No 800-dial-in-your-choice-for-this-evening's-contestant? Any bests as to whether they will have a text messaging option set up by the end of the first week?

Art auctioneer Simon de Pury acts as mentor to the contestants, and  the series winner gets a prestigious solo show at the Brooklyn Museum,  the second-largest art museum in New York City.

"I think the art world is definitely risky. It would be very easy  for people to think this show is not for them. But I think people who  actually watch will be sucked in," said Cutforth.

I will watch. After all, it's summer and the TV pickings are slim. But I'm withholding judgment, which one does anyway with a new show. It just seems wrong that something that can be as life-affirming and soul satisfying as art is turned into a spectator sport in this fashion.

One wonders what Louise would say.

A SHOW IN PETALUMA

I was wandering downtown Petaluma with my friend Jo this weekend and we stopped in to Dimensions Galleria on 115 Petaluma Blvd. North. Two groups of pieces really caught my eye.

First, in the window, were some delightfully funky and whimsical ceramic cars by Jon Gariepy. Inside the gallery, we were also shown a couple of his ominously leaning ships. Both cars and ships are featured on his website; I recommend clicking on the thumbnails.

Then, hanging on the wall were some intriguing pieces that seemed to combine layers of felting or paper on some kind of screen. AHA! It has probably been 15 years since Susan Hersey and I were active together in Artspan/SF Open Studios. I remember her papermaking studio on 18th by where it cuts off of Portola and having a conversation with her about her planned move north. Some of her lamps are also featured at Dimensions. It was very cool to see how she has continued to explore new possibilities within her chosen medium.

Abstract Expressionist Art on USPS Stamps

 
In the 1980s, when I was collecting stamps, it always bugged me that the French could continue to produce amazingly beautiful stamps, a few every year, that showed treasures of French art. They were engraved, the colors were both rich and subtle, and having a page of them was like a poor person's art collection. 

Why oh why couldn't the USPS do that? Oh sure you'd get the Cassat or Rockwell now and then, but the production values weren't very good and they never seemed to occupy the space of the stamp as well as the French ones.


Well, I haven' seen them yet except in a magazine and online, but I can't wait to buy a few sheets of these latest stamps. They are for the current first class postage, 44 cents, and the list is interesting:

• The Golden Wall (1961) — Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
• Romanesque Façade (1949) — Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
• Orange and Yellow (1956) — Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
• The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb (1944) — Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)
• 1948–C (1948) — Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
• Asheville (1948) — Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
• Achilles (1952) — Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
• Convergence (1952) — Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
• Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 (1953–1954) — Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
• La Grande Vallée 0 (1983) — Joan Mitchell (1925–1992)

San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design

Something's Happening Here: The San Francisco Rock Scene

The Charlatans, 1966 @ Herb Green (courtesy MPD)

San Francisco's neighborhoods are full of little known but interesting spaces. To me, one of the more fascinating is the Museum of Performance and Design. Tucked away on the 4th floor of the Veterans Building (401 Van Ness Ave) and in part of the space formerly occupied by SF MOMA (before its move to 4th Street), the current exhibit is of particular interest to those of us who came here in the 60's.

We were drawn by the promise of a new way of living (aka, sex, drugs and Rock and Roll). Rod McKuen's poetry about Stanyan Street became a best seller, almost everybody was drenched in patchouli oil, draped love beads around their necks, believed in free love, thought that we were going to change the world forever -  and listened to the music. The Avalon Ballroom was in its heyday and music promoters like Chet Helms were pioneering psychedelic light shows, the forerunners of today's music videos.

Before rap, before heavy metal, heck before disco, SF's music scene blossomed with bands like The Beau Brummels, The Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. We could hear Janice singing in funky little dives and Grace Snick was the ice princess for a whole generation of young men (and maybe even a few women). Men wore their hair long, we all got into Indian religion and transcendental meditation, spoke of peace and love even while the Vietnam War was raging. It was sometimes silly, sometimes innocent, certainly naive and it was over far too soon.

Co-curators Melissa Leventon and Alec Palao evoke this rich era using a wealth of rarely seen footage, posters, images, and costume from private and public collections and from the artists themselves. Visitors are able to sample extremely rare audio and video clips, some of them drawn from the important archive of recordings from San Francisco’s KSAN that are now in MPD’s permanent collection.

Just a few of the key original items on display include:

Costume pieces worn by Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, and others
the full-sized original painting featured on the Grateful Dead’s Anthem of the Sun album cover
The famed “Captain Trips” hat worn by Jerry Garcia
original posters from classic Bay Area venues, including the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium
Rare letters, documents and one-of-a-kind ephemera from the Bay Area's 1960s rock'n' roll heyday
Iconic and previously unseen photographs from the archives of photographers such as Baron Wolman, Herb Greene, Bob Seidemann, Bill Brach, and Elaine Mayes
Musical instruments used by John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Merl Saunders, Dan Hicks, and others

The exhibition will be open to the public September 25, 2009-August 28, 2010.
Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5.
Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00-5:00 pm.

401 Van Ness Ave, 4th Floor
http://www.mpdsf.org/
Thanks to David W. Summer of the Museum of Performance and Design for his invaluable help on this.
dhttp://photographynewsnotes.blogspot.com/

STRAY SHOPPING CART PROJECT

I hope nobody minds that this is not Bay Area - wasn't sure how or where else to share this website I just found. Like some of the pieces I've created, it initially reads like an extended joke but is a serious project:
The Stray Shopping Cart Project

What I really enjoyed, as an artist, is how it started as a casual zine spread and grew over time to encompass installations and recreations of settings. His outdoor installation in Long Island City is detailed on flickr and looks like it would have been fun to walk around.

The Birth of Impressionism - Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay at the De Young

 Whistler. Arrangement in Black and Gray (aka The Mother). Seriously, is there anybody in the western world who doesn't know this painting? (@ Musee d'Orsay/used with permission)

Because the Musee D'Orsay in Paris will be closed for renovations and because "our" Dede Wilsey, President of the Board of Directors of the De Young, has the connections and cachet, SF is getting three separate and equally fabulous exhibits, detailing much that is most important in 19th Century French art. The first state of the exhibits opens on Saturday at the De Young. I was able to preview the show yesterday and it really is full of significant pieces. Most importantly, it places the Impressionists and their followers within the context of the academic art of the period.

More at http://www.examiner.com/x-13996-SF-Museum-Examiner

Another image of the Big Buddha in the Civic Center

SFAI MFA Show at Fort Mason

Normally, I'm fairly tolerant of student work. I realize that students don't have that much experience and their work shows it. I realize that this is the time for experimentation. But this show is so bloody bad that I am non-plussed to find anything positive to say about it.

New pieces up at the Examiner.com on the various MFA Shows

From Monica Lundy's show at Mills College (up until the end of the month)

New pieces up at the Examiner on the various MFA shows.

http://www.examiner.com/x-13996-SF-Museum-Examiner

TechShopTech and Industrial Tools for Artists

For technical and industrial artists and other creative types whose spectacular ideas never make it past the napkin they were designed on, TechShop seems like a really good idea.

TechShop has been in Menlo Park for a while and has just opened in SF, according to an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Photo by Jessica Pons / The Chronicle

posted by Phil Gravitt