Topic: Artists and Influences / Mark Rothko

Anyone who’s seriously interested in Mark Rothko, and what he was all about, should view Simon Schama’s POWER OF ART, disc 3 this was first produced by the BBC in 2006; here’s the review from the IMDb.

No lie, If you’re a fan of Rothko, this video is a must-see. Informative, evocative, and nearly unbearable in its emotional intensity. Be forewarned: this is not for the faint-of heart. It’s Mark vs the uber-rich, narcissistic NYC art establishment – can you guess who wins?

Nevertheless, the most accurate and loving tribute to the deeply troubled, disturbingly self-destructive, humanist that was Mark Rothko.

The video includes a lot of Markus Rothkovitch (his original name) – cigarettes, vodka, warts and all – explaining himself.

Excruciating and unforgettable; don’t take my word for it; just watch the thing – If you think you have the stomach for it.

You won’t be disappointed.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Monet and the Impressionist, Masterpieces from the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston

i really hope there going to making the trip to western australia

Topic: Artists and Influences / Monet and the Impressionist, Masterpieces from the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston

Actually they are on loan to the NSW Art Gallery. I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve seen them.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Monet and the Impressionist, Masterpieces from the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston

I was at the Boston MFA last week, and they do have some excellent Monets, however not all of the 43 that are shown on their web site are actually on view. I suppose they’re on loan to other museums and so on. There are currently only a dozen or less of them on view. And the one exemplar of the famous Water Lilies series is somewhat disappointing, as it’s quite small compared to the ones in Paris or the National Gallery in DC.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Monet and the Impressionist, Masterpieces from the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston

Great Link, thanks. Such beautiful paintings I definitely plan to go and have a look, I can’t wait I love Monet.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Monet and the Impressionist, Masterpieces from the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston

A fantastic Audio/Visual Tour

Take the Journey – take the Link

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

Thank you for posting this article, it wonderfully sheds light on the helpers of the artist and it is heart-opening to see Johanna’s dedication to the art of vanGogh. Lovely read.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Mark Rothko

Anybody in London this month might like to check this out – The show starts on Sept 26th

Tate Modern presents an exhibition by one of the world’s most famous and best-loved artists, Mark Rothko. This is the first significant exhibition of his work to be held in the UK for over 20 years.

Tate Modern’s iconic ‘Rothko Room’ works are reunited for the first time with works from Japan. The Seagram Murals were originally commissioned for The Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building New York.

Rothko’s iconic paintings, composed of luminous, soft-edged rectangles saturated with colour, are among the most enduring and mysterious created by an artist in modern times. In the exhibition his paintings glow meditatively from the walls in deep dark reds, oranges, maroons, browns, blacks, and greys.

The exhibition will also focus on other work in series, such as the Black-Form paintings, his large-scale Brown and Grey works on paper, and his last series of Black on Grey paintings, created in the final decade of his life from 1958-1970.
Rothko is the must-see exhibition of the year – book your tickets now to avoid missing out.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

Well, it seems that I’m not going to be able to convince you otherwise,
so we will have to agree to differ on this one!

ps. there is a major show of Rothko in the Tate Modern (London) beginning later this month – If I get the chance to go and see it, I will be thinking of you!
regards….........kafka

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

“Interested?”
I’m not.

“Work of a master?”
Sorry,but no. Again, it’s all “in the eye of the beholder”, isn’t it?

Bacon’s paintings are crap that’s been vastly overrated – that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Again, no disrespect intended. You think Bacon is great; I think he’s crap. “De gustibus non disputandum est.” That’s the long and the short of it.

Anyhow, I enjoyed reading your very insightful comments about Mark Rothko. So… at least, we have that in common.

Not that it matters. Ars longa, vita brevis.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

You should be interested Carson because the only valid criticism of Bacon’s work supports your, Rothko’s (and my own) ideas about what art should be about.

Bacon’s work ultimately fails in it’s central tenet – that of anti-humanism, for the reason that you have already stated ie. that it repels the viewer – if his notion of humanity being on a bestial level were valid – we would not be repelled the very action of finding his work uncomfortable negates his thesis. This is in effect a (negative) confirmation of the spiritual nature of mankind (but that’s a whole other story!)

That is the only valid criticism that can be made of his work – on every other level it is the work of a master.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

Yeah, me too. I just don’t find anything of interest in Bacon’s work – never have, and probably never will. But I don’t feel particularly “elite” – after all, I’m an artist who can’t be described as “successful” by any stretch of the imagination, and will be completely forgotten after I die – which, by the way, will probably be very soon, as I am in the final stages of an incurable heart condition. Never mind – doesn’t matter. If you get a thrill from looking at Bacon’s shit, I’m happy for you.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

I think you misunderstand Carson. Bacon’s ‘mirror’ reflected how he saw things for himself (it is not ‘my argument’ it is a fact.) He painted for himself (like all great artists) not so that he could ‘rub your nose in it’ – the last thing on his mind would have been how the ‘public’ would react to his work (that again is a fact verified by writen and oral evidence) – the man simply would not have given a toss what you or anyone else thought of his work. (again in common with many artists)

‘I beg your pardon, but in my opinion it really has nothing at all to do with “taste” ‘

Then why write this ?

O well – there’s no accounting for taste, is there? “De gustibus non disputandum est.”

You write -
Thomas Kincade (for example) repels me even more sickeningly than the likes of Francis Bacon or Willem de Kooning.

Tell us why – it really is not enough to say ‘I just don’t like it’
Do you have a philosophical objection, or ethical, moral, a criticism of the actual art, or techniques employed?
It clearly offends you – but you have not said why, other than to assert that some elite portion of the human race has managed to rise above it, so it is no longer relevant – what about the rest of us mortals?

Lest you misunderstand, by the way…...........(!?)
I believe in complete freedom of expression in any artwork – one of the reasons that this group PiMT is so successful is that it is a remarkably broad church that, I think, reflects and welcomes all manner of painted art – do you seriously suggest that artwork that is challenging and disturbing has no place in the modern artworld?

I have no use for elitism of any kind, intellectual, moral or artistic. – it smacks to much of thought police and the nanny state – I don’t care how good or bad a work of art is, I will defend the artist’s right to show it anywhere and anyhow they wish.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

Well, really, what can I say ? Your argument about “holding a mirror up to society” is all very well and good, so far as it goes.

However, at the risk of being reviled as an egomaniac, I will assert that a few of us humans have already evolved beyond the point where we need to have our noses forcibly rubbed in the shit in order to learn certain basic lessons.

Lest you misunderstand, by the way, Thomas Kincade (for example) repels me even more sickeningly than the likes of Francis Bacon or Willem de Kooning.

I beg your pardon, but in my opinion it really has nothing at all to do with “taste”; it has more to do with an individual’s level of spiritual evolution.

“We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
- Oscar Wilde

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

ps.
What I would take issue with is your more generalised dismissal ‘I’m obliged to question the value of any artwork that intends to add more of those qualities to the mix; it seems to me that there’s plenty more than enough of these things already.’

I have to disagree. One of many roles that art plays in society is to bring a deeper awareness and understanding of all elements of that society, both good and evil. For artists to ignore those ‘unpleasant’ aspects of life would be a remarkable hypocrisy.

Would you have an art without Bosch or Grunwald or Goya or Dali or Picasso or Munch or Bacon?

Would you have an art that consisted entirely of only ‘nice’ uplifting pictures – Virgins, Haywains, Sunsets, Sunflowers?

The point is that Art encompasses all of these things, and long may it continue to do so. Art’s diversity is the diversity of life in all shades of light and dark. I would not like to see any of it dismissed on the spurious grounds of good or bad ‘taste’.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

Hi Carson – As I started this one I suppose it falls to me to defend the man.
So, here goes -

I note that you preface your comments with the proviso that they are personal feelings about his work. I don’t think that anyone would disagree with you about the work being disturbing, cruel, vulgar or pessimistic – the point here is that they are meant to be, for the very simple reason that Bacon was a painter who held a mirror up to society and filtered what he found through his own experience and expression – Instead of ‘His work strikes me as being the repulsive product of a diseased mind’ read ‘The work strikes me as being the repulsive product of a diseased world.’ And you are much closer to understanding what Bacon is about. He extracted a violent anti-humanist message from Surrealism by turning to the writings of the French dissident Georges Bataille who had established a sense of the human as being not elevated above, but co-existing with the bestial.

Given this, it is not surprising that he disliked Rothko’s work as the two are poles apart in their approach to art. Rothko holds no mirror, we see directly through his own vision of tragic spiritual grandeur. Nothing could be further from Bacon.
Bacon’s art does not ‘add more of those qualities to the mix’ it reflects those qualities that are already there.

Nor is it ironic in the slightest that Bacon found Rothko’s work depressing. Rothko himself said of his work (in a famous letter to the New York Times in 1943) that ‘There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We (Gottlieb and himself) assert that only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.’ – Bacon’s work by comparison is a laugh a minute!

Of the two, Rothko’s work has been much more of a personal influence as I find his approach to art far more in tune with my own, but that does not preclude the admiration that I feel for Bacon’s work, it has enormous integrity, and for that reason alone deserves recognition.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

No disrespect intended, but I will venture to express a dissenting opinion:

On a purely personal level, I have to ask: what, exactly, is so God-Awful great about Francis Bacon? His work strikes me as being the repulsive product of a diseased mind. O well – there’s no accounting for taste, is there? “De gustibus non disputandum est.” But nobody’s ever been able to explain to me just exactly what the huge attraction in Bacon’s paintings is. Could you?

For me, his work is all about cruelty, pessimism, and vulgarity.

It appears to me that cruelty, pessimism, and vulgarity are things that exist in such superabundance in the world (as I perceive it) that I’m obliged to question the value of any artwork that intends to add more of those qualities to the mix; it seems to me that there’s plenty more than enough of these things already.

I really don’t think that I, personally, need paintings to remind me of the horrors of the world; I’m constantly all-too-aware of them already, thank you very much.

But, again, I suppose it’s an individual matter.

When asked by a US art critic what he thought about Mark Rothko’s work, Bacon is reported to have condemned it as being “dreary and depressing.”

How’s that for irony?

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

Thank you Janis, for a fascinating post and food for thought. There are many elements, things and people who go together to make something happen, even posthumously. Indeed, as Carson has so well put it above – to Janis and Johanna!

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

Thank you, Janis, for this most inspirational and informative post.

Much has been made, in literature and cinema, of the story of Vincent’s relationship with his brother Theo. In some of these semi-fictionalized works, Theo’s wife is even cast as an antagonist – which, I now learn, is pure calumny and the very opposite of the truth.

It’s great to see Johanna finally getting some of the attention that she so richly deserves for the very important role that she played in preserving the work (and the mythic tale) of the incomparable Vincent van Gogh, which has been such a tremendous source of encouragement and inspiration to under-appreciated painters all over the world, these many years.

I shall now raise a glass, in gratitude, to Janis and Johanna.

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

Every artist needs a brother like Theo and an understanding Johanna to follow through!

In life it must have been hard for Johanna to have such an eccentric and demanding brother in law. Vincent was supported by Theo, spiritually and financially, how hard it must have been for the couple and children…. Nothing can match the passion and genius of Vincent though and how he changed art forever. Gauguin was an artist who abandoned his wife and children to pursue his vision… the great one’s have to have that grit and single-mindedness it seems ….family can suffer in the process.
Thanks Janis for the material on Johanna which I was not aware of. Great posting which I enjoyed reading and thinking about.
rosepepper.

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

fabulous journal Janis.

Topic: Artists and Influences / Francis Bacon

Bacon’s work has always been so powerful for me. Possibly not evident in my current work :)! But, I still remember stumbling upon a gallery that had a few of his large works in NYC. They were staggeringly beautiful and angry and I think about them constantly.

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

This is an inspiring post! Thank you Janis.

Topic: Artists and Influences /  Johanna Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh died in 1890. Theo van Gogh, art dealer and brother of Vincent, died six months later, in 1891. Johanna, Theo’s wife, inherited all the shop remainders including virtually all of Vincent’s work. She soon moved with her small son from Paris to Bussum near Amsterdam. Johanna, age 29, went into distribution mode.

Reading the brothers’ correspondence, she became convinced of her brother-in-law’s genius and set about to do the right thing by him. “I am living wholly with Theo and Vincent,” she wrote in her diary, “Oh, the infinitely delicate, tender and loving quality of that relationship.” Placing work in various commercial galleries in the Netherlands, she also arranged for the gifting of works to strategic museums. It was hard going at first—people laughed at Vincent’s work. The critics were skeptical at best, but in the end her writings and her persistent, visionary advocacy fanned the Vincent flames. She typed and revised the Theo-Vincent letters, finally publishing many of them in Dutch in 1914. When she died in 1925, she was still working on letter 526. Johanna also assisted in publishing a handbook for detecting Vincent forgeries.

In the “all’s well that ends well” story of artists’ lives and successes, there are worthwhile prerequisites. Some artists try some of them so the fruits of their labour can be enjoyed while their creators are still walking around. Vincent, who never saw a guilder from his art, had benefit of all five of the prerequisites:

Distinctive, recognizable style
Limited supply (200, plus drawings)
Controlled distribution (one caring person in charge)
Story (failure, poverty, passion, health issues, ear-off)
Tragic, preferably early, end (shot himself)

A shot of nepotism helps too. The van Goghs and the Bongers (Johanna’s maiden name) were educated, professional, well connected and upwardly mobile. Vincent was the black sheep. It was Vincent’s publisher-uncle C. M. van Gogh who was first in print with Vincent’s story. Another uncle designed the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Johanna was herself a sensitive, literate yet practical type who spoke and wrote beautifully in three languages. After thirty years of hard work, she finally and graciously consented to allow England’s National Gallery to buy Vincent’s “Sunflowers.”



PS: “Everything is but a dream!” (Johanna van Gogh, 1891)

It may take bereavement, another generation, or a canny dealer to see preciousness and perhaps value in a body of work. The combination of hoarding and distribution is part of the art. Work should not be too readily released or made commonly available to just anyone. Stratospheric prices come after the groundwork is laid. After that, as in the National Gallery, “Sunflowers” are now made available on mugs, calendars, shirts and brassieres. Theo and Vincent now lie side by side in the cemetery at Auvers-sur-Oise. If those two idealists hear about those mugs, they’ll be rotisserating in their graves.

The above is an excerpt from one my letters from Robert Genn, a well known and very successful Canadian painter, who provides an art listing site called The Painters Keys…he has given me permission to reprint his letters for you whenever I feel you’d be interested in the topic under discussion. Janis

Does your work contain some of the prerequisites for success? Not suicide of course!!!

Topic: Artists and Influences / Dali.

Almost any reproduction that one sees is actually larger than the original. How strange is that?

It is strange but part of the reason I admire Dali’s skill. I’ve seen the original of “The Persistence of Memory” (the famous one with floppy clocks) and it’s only about 12×10 inches (30×25 centimetres)

I tried to recreate it as a technical practice piece once using a large poster for reference and even with a magnifying watchmaker’s eyeglass I couldn’t produce anything like it at the same scale as the original. The tiny details are mind boggling.