Modern Works Exhibit at the Artists Group Gallery

 

The Western New York Artists Group is presenting its Modern Works show from March 29 - May 10.  The juror for this exhibition was Dana Murray Tyrrell, co-director at the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center.  Mr. Tyrrell selected both of my entries, Statistical Control and The Triumphant.

An excellent review of modern visual art by regional artists, if you are visiting in the city of Buffalo then consider taking a look at 1 Linwood Avenue. 

 

Arena Art Group Spring show at the Geisel Gallery

 An art show celebrating the eclipse?  Yep, that's what is presented at The Geisel Gallery in the Bausch and Lomb Legacy Tower in Rochester.  I never entered a drawing into an AAG show for this venue and this time around I figured I'd give it a shot.  Very nice gallery space, easy to get to and there's a parking garage across the street (not pricey, either).

My drawing is not related to the eclipse theme but the group allowed any topic for this show.  And as it stands, this is the third version of this drawing and that excludes the original image that was on this panel.

The exhibit runs March 4-May 31; the opening night is Thursday, March 7, from 5 to 7 pm.

 

Art and Style

 

            Take any Baroque composer--Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, doesn’t really matter--and then ask someone today who knows musical composition if they can construct an original piece in their Baroque style that’s about 10 minutes long.  They have free choice in terms of instruments and whether it’s a concerto, cantata, et cetera.

            Okay, so your musical acquaintance goes off to work and knocks out a beautiful and original work in the Baroque style.  My question: is it Art?

            This is the problem also in the visual arts.  You are sight-seeing in a city and come across a neighborhood with art galleries, and there in a window of one of them is a Cezanne-like painting.  I mean, it’s super-Cezanne, the artist enhanced colors and lines a bit to sharpen that style.  You might even say “wow!” 

            Then you think to yourself that this is someone who paints like Cezanne and does it very well.  But…is it Art?

            So presents the problem of style in the Arts.  I notice a distinctive style among many artists though most of them certainly belong to a particular era; i.e., Rembrandt was as much a part of his time as was Thomas de Keyser, although most of us like Rembrandt more.  While they each had a distinct style, it was a style of the time.

            And that’s just it, while Rembrandt may have imitated some of de Keyser’s style, he made it uniquely his own.  Nonetheless, today we recognize both artists within a particular time and place. 

            That brings us to the former issue.  You may be able to construct an original artwork in the style of an era that has passed, but is it really Art?  Everything to which the artists of that time responded has now passed, the technical innovations of their day are no longer the case.  That does not mean that the imitative work you made is “bad,” but I don’t think it is a work that dialogues with its generation.

            A painter today may paint like Jackson Pollock, or a sculptor may create a piece alike to Louise Nevelson, but they are extending a style more than they are creating a personal impression.  Granted, it will be their interpretation of Pollock or Nevelson, but it would be tough to separate the style from the original artists.

            Thus, artwork of the past does impact us today, it even inspires some to imitate those styles.  Nonetheless, we realize that they were part of their generation, and while there are time-less elements that impress us currently, those were birthed in the past.

           

 

Just for Fun, Not for Exhibition

 

Untitled; wood, 8" x 11" x 6"

     After viewing some sculptures in some WNY shows the past few years, I thought about purchasing one or two.  They were not that pricey, somewhere in the hundreds of dollars, locally-known sculptors created them, and, of course, I liked them.

    Still, having started out my university degree as a sculpture major, I figured why not give it a try myself?  Now, it's been decades since I tried my hand at it, and one of the reasons I switched to a painting major was simply because I enjoyed it more and was better at it.  

    So, with scrap wood and less than $12 in materials--voila!  The above construction was the result.  (I know, someone's thinking "Yep, with scrap wood and cheap material this is all you can get.")

    Now, the style does not follow what I engage in my 2-D art but that wasn't my aim.  I was thinking about the few non-representational sculptures I made back a long time ago, and how I might go about that now.  

    As it turns out, I like this better than those past works.  It looks like a model for some kind of monument though works fine as a small sculpture in the foyer of the house.  And except for this venue, I'll never exhibit this in an art show; it was strictly for fun and not for exhibition. 

    An enjoyable exercise!

 

A Limerick about the Import of Art

What is important about Art?   Is it the brain or is it the heart?   Is it psychological   or epistemological?   You’ll have to ask Jung or Descartes!