One of Vincent van Gogh’s olive tree paintings has literally sprung to life, reproduced as a large, growing field in Minnesota. Last month the Minneapolis Institute of Art(Mia) unveiled a 1.5-acre work of crop art by Stan Herd, a Kansas-based artist who has planted many earthworks around the world, including a re-creation of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches of gliders. Commissioned by Mia to celebrate the museum’s centennial, this most recent piece replicates van Gogh’s “Olive Trees,” one of 15 known paintings of the trees the artist produced in the fall of 1889. That specific work actually hangs in the museum, but Herd’s has sprouted on a site belonging to media firm Thomson Reuters, near the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport.Herd has cultivated the field since spring, and his sprawling artwork will remain on view through the end of the fall. Prior to the planting, he had to carefully determine which specific plants and soils to incorporate in order to best represent van Gogh’s particular palette. The painter’s brushstrokes, too, demanded the mowing and digging of many serpentine paths.“You can see this is darker, so I’m planting these kind of more verdant, green plants, he explained in a video about the crop artwork’s creation, pointing at a gridded version of the painting he used as a plan.
“The amazing thing about van Gogh’s painting is that there’s not a single straight line in the whole canvas,” he added. “Everything is organic and curved and flowing, and it’s like a pulse.”
The result, just slightly muted in tone, is impressively faithful to the original painting. Mia chose the site specifically so planes arriving to the airport will pass it, so you’ll be able to see it from above if you’re flying into the city — just be sure to choose a seat on the left.
Source: Claire Voonfor hyperallergic.com
Photos: all images courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Arts unless otherwise stated
Balloons always remind me of birthday parties or open houses. A cause for celebration!
An art installation of 100,000 white balloon clusters, sculpted into the shape of magnificent clouds…or one glorious bubble bath.
Let me explain….Covent Gardens has commissioned French artist Charles Pétillon, famous for his playful balloon ‘invasions’, to create his first ever installation in a public space called “Heartbeat.” A pulsating light beams into the installation a little like a heartbeat which is meaning to indicate the notion of Covent Garden as one of London’s most central structures.
An incredibly photographic display. Wish I were there to see it in person. But just like a heartbeat…..it has come and gone.
Who says that art should be only relegated to museums and galleries?
20 ELEMENTS, Joel Shapiro
Many coffee shops and restaurants (even some hair salons) like to display art from unknown artists, and if we’re lucky we can sometimes find work from celebrated artists we know of, in select high end design/furniture shops. There’s Art and then there’s Art!
I enjoyed looking at Picasso’s while dining in a restaurant in Las Vegas. Mind you, it was the Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio and yes, his original paintings are displayed throughout the restaurant. An art gallery within a restaurant. But renowned art in a shopping mall? When have you seen that?
We already know that art and fashion have something in common. But do we dare draw the line between art and shopping in a mall?
NorthPark Centre in Dallas, Texas is no ordinary mall. I’ve been there and as far as shopping in a mall goes (a mall is not my favourite place to shop or hang out), it’s a cut above. This year the centre is celebrating their 50th anniversary, and in conjunction is hosting an exhibition this fall called “Art Meets Fashion.”
Lee Ann Torrans
Raymond Nasher, who built NorthPark, and his wife, Patsy, were big collectors and proudly displayed the works they acquired throughout the shopping concourse because they believed that art should be seen, and not just in museums and galleries. Their daughter, Nancy Nasher and her husband, David Haemisegger, have given their promise to ensure that this mission lives on. They’ve expanded the NorthPark collection and helped to transform the shopping centre into one of the most visited public gallery spaces in America.
Andy Warhol
So… (apparently it’s not proper to start a sentence with so….but I say “so what?”) now you can buy your Louis Vuitton or Gucci with a side of Roy Lichtenstein or Frank Stella. How nice is that?
Anish Kapoor North Park
Now, if only every mall was like this…what a wonderful art world it would be!
As it is believed behind every brilliant actor or musician there is a remarkable manager, it seems behind every great art movement there is an exceptional art dealer.
One of my favourite paintings: Renoir’s Dance at Bougival, 1883, is one of the masterworks that seduced Londoners in the famous show Durand-Ruel presented at the Grafton Galleries in 1905. Image courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
An important new exhibition at the PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART (PMA) celebrates the keen eye of Paul Durand-Ruel, the Paris dealer who defied the scorn of critics to promote the raggedy brand of pioneering young painters we now know as the Impressionists.
An exhibition celebrating his brave achievement, “Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting,” is on view at the PMA through September 13th. It features scores of intoxicating canvases by ClaudeMonet, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, all beloved now, but in their own day savaged.
“Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting” features more than 90 intoxicating canvases by the movement’s masters. Photo by Graydon Wood
The success of Impressionism was largely due to the intrepid zeal of Durand-Ruel. Or should one say survival? “Without Durand, we would have died of hunger, all of us Impressionists,” a grateful Claude Monet exclaimed shortly after the dealer’s death in 1922 at the age of 90.
A man of conviction, who went to mass every morning, Durand-Ruel never wavered in his belief in his artists. During his long life, he purchased approximately 1,000 Monets, 1,500 Renoirs, 200 Manets, 400 Degases and 800 Camille Pissarros. He once owned Eugène Delacroix’s epic Death of Sardanapalus, 1827, now in the Louvre, and Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81, one of the treasures of the Phillips Collection, along with other masterpieces that ended up in the PMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery in London and Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
In 1851, when he was just 20 years old, Durand-Ruel joined his ailing father at his family’s picture gallery near the Place Vendôme, which over the next 70 years he would transform into an artist-promoting powerhouse. He had a discerning eye, trusted his instincts and was not afraid to sit on stock — or even purchase it back. He introduced such now standard practices as operating his gallery in several cities (London, Brussels and New York), mounting solo shows, sending work to international exhibitions, organizing public lectures, publishing exhibition catalogs, backing art magazines and giving his artists stipends.
The American expat Mary Cassatt was among the many painters Durand-Ruel discovered. She focused on domestic scenes like The Child’s Bath, 1893. Image courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago: Robert A. Waller Fund.
At last, in Philadelphia, Durand-Ruel is getting the credit he richly deserves for having put Impressionism on the map. We may be late to the party, but Renoir always knew this day would come. “Your love of art and your defense of living artists,” he presciently told Durand-Ruel in 1885, “will be your claim to fame.”
Source: title changed and condensed from an article written by Phyllis Tuchman for “Introspective Magazine”
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life – Pablo Picasso
This quote by Charles Dickens(Bleak House) best sums up giving credit where credit is due – “He didn’t at all see why the busy bee should be proposed as a model to him; he supposed the Bee liked to make honey, or he wouldn’t do it — nobody asked him. It was not necessary for the bee to make such a merit of his tastes.” – Dickens
As a new gallery of Kandinsky’s work opens in New York, we examine key lessons that can be learned from the legendary painter and art theorist – which is perfect for what MATTERS for life in general.
Improvisation 28 (second version) by Vasily Kandinsky, 1912 Courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.The career of Wassily Kandinsky ranged from theorising colour and geometric forms in completely new ways to painting some of the first abstract paintings as well as writing books on completely new concepts in art. Simply put, Kandinsky was ground breaking in the ways he divorced himself from typical norms of old school fine art and broke new ground by taking inspiration from everything to music and human emotion, reinterpreting these topics into colourful artworks and brilliant theoretical books.
Blue Mountain (Der blaue Berg) by Vasily Kandinsky, 1908–09 Courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.
The latest gallery of 150 Kandinsky works at The Guggenheim in New York traces the artist’s aesthetic evolution and contribution to the abstract art movement, from his early days working as a painter in Munich to the last era of his career in Paris. Here, we look at what we can learn from the storied artist, from living a colourful life to knowing the value of contrast.
Black Lines (Schwarze Linien) by Vasily Kandinsky, December 1913 Courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.
Let your STYLE evolve
Kandinksy knew the true value of having confidence to move from one aesthetic to another. Though primarily known as an abstract artist, he often experimented with different forms of abstraction with much success. During his Blue Rider period, his paintings were large and expressive, with markings that varied in shape and size. But his Bauhaus period saw paintings that were centered on controlled geometrics and sharp lines. He turned the classic saying of “Do one thing and do it well,”on its head – and that lesson can be used for fashion advice or life in general.
LIVE a colourful life
His paintings offer the anecdote that living a colourful life is always better than living a dreary one in only black and white. As a highly spiritual artist, Kandinsky saw colour as emotional therapy and injected much of it into his paintings. In his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, he wrote, “Colours on the painter’s palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy. This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an “inner resonance” – a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.” On an off day, we can always imagine ourselves living inside a Kandinsky painting.
KNOW when to take a break
There’s no doubt Kandinsky was a hard worker. He produced hundreds of works and painted until the last few years of his life. But he also knew when to take a break from his work. One day, an exhausted Kandinksy decided to take a walk. When he returned to his studio, one of his paintings had been accidentally turned upside down by friend and fellow artist Gabriele Münter. Without recognising it as his own, he proclaimed it was “of extraordinary beauty, glowing with inner radiance.” This moment was said to change his ideas about painting and open his eyes to abstraction. Taking a break or stepping back from a big project can make one see things in a different light– especially if someone else gets involved in the most unexpected ways.
BELIEVE in the power of contrast
There’s a reason why black and white striped tops forever remain a wardrobe staple. Kandinsky recognized the power of contrasting colours and shapes early, assigning hues emotional qualities and using them to balance each other out. “White and black form the second great contrast, which is static. White is a deep, absolute silence, full of possibility. Black is nothingness without possibility, an eternal silence without hope, and corresponds with death,” he wrote in Concerning the Spiritual Art. Similarly, Kandinsky’s paintings often play with contrasting shapes: long, sharp lines juxtapose soft orb-like spheres and curves. Life wouldn’t be as beautiful without the best of both worlds.
The INNER self matters
If all of Kandinsky’s beliefs could be condensed into one, his biggest theory would probably be what he called “internal necessity.” His paintings were colourfully stunning but they weren’t just based on pure aesthetics. As well as believing in a form of communication between the artist and the viewer, Kandinsky believed in total self-awareness. He committed to his feelings and senses and often theorised that shapes and colours were attached to his own emotional feelings. For example, he felt the circle was the most peaceful symbol – so he used it to create his own codes throughout his work. He also considered black as the colour of closure. And with this system, he created not just beautiful work, but his own language that was completely one of a kind and representative of a singular person.
“The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.” ― Pierre-Auguste Renoir
This painting holds special significance to me
Madame Josse Bernheim-Jeune et fils Henry [Mrs Josse Bernheim-Jeune and her son Henry]I know a relative of the two people in this painting. About five months ago I had brunch in Oregon with a very interesting woman who is the daughter of the little boy (yes, it is a boy) who is sitting on his mother’s lap in this Renoir oil painting. The woman I met (name withheld) is the friend of a friend I was travelling with. The woman in this painting would of course be her grandmother. Her grandparents were friends with Renoir. Her grandfather and his brother were established art dealers for the first generation of impressionists. So I looked up the painting which hangs in the Musée d’Orsay and thought I would share it with you.
About the painting:
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Mrs Josse Bernheim-Jeune and her son Henry – 1910 Oil on Canvas H. 92,5; W. 73,3 cm Paris, Musée d’Orsay
The model for this painting was Mathilde Adler (1882-1963). In 1901 she married her cousin, Josse Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1941) while her sister Suzanne (1883-1961) married his brother Gaston (1870-1953). For several years the Bernheim-Jeune brothers had been established as dealers for the first generation of Impressionists.
They had already turned to Renoir for a portrait of the two young fiancées, in September 1901. In 1910, he was approached once again. At his country property, Les Collettes, near Cagnes-sur-Mer, Renoir painted for Josse a portrait of his wife and their son Henry Dauberville (1907-1988).
THE BERNHEIM-JEUNE STORY
Extract of the article dedicated to Bernheim-Jeune in the Larousse Encyclopedia:
ʺBernheim-Jeune (said Bernheim), art dealer’s family native of Besançon which can be traced from the late XVIIIth century at the head of a business of painting supplies (frames and colours for the artists).
Succeeding Joseph Bernheim (1799 1859), his son Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915) friend of Delacroix, Corot and Gustave Courbet, came to settle down in Paris in 1863, settled down at 8 rue Lafitte (on the advice of his fellow countryman of Besançon, G. Courbet). This is where Alexandre Bernheim presents the impressionists in 1874. Transferred in 1906 to 25 boulevard de la Madeleine and 15 rue Richepanse, the Bernheim gallery takes its real development under the supervision of Alexandre Bernheim’s sons, Josse Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1941) and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1953). They organise (in particular) in 1901, the first Van Gogh exhibition, present Bonnard and Vuillard in 1906, Cézanne and Cross (1907), Seurat and Van Dongen (1908), Matisse (1910), Boundin, the ʺItalian Futuristsʺ (1912), Le douanier Rousseau (1916), R.Dufy and Vlaminck (1921), Modigliani (1922), Utrillo (1923), Marquet (1925), Gauguin (1930), having settled down avenue Matignon (1925)ʺ.
“Bernheim-Jeune indeed, is the first gallery to settle down avenue Matignon (at the corner of avenue Matignon and rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré). Its new places were inaugurated by Gaston Doumergue, President of the French Republic, for the opening of the exhibition: ʺMasterpieces of the XIXth and XXth Centuryʺ.
“I have arrived more definitely than any other painter during his lifetime; honours shower upon me from every side; artists pay me compliments on my work; there are many people to whom my position must seem enviable…. But I don’t seem to have a single real friend!” ― Pierre-Auguste Renoir
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” – Leonardo da Vinci
William Wegman
ArteBA — Buenos Aires’ Annual Contemporary Art Fair
A piece by Pablo Zel in ArteBA 2012A piece by Marta Minujín – from Arte BALaura Ann Jacobs – Top Drawer Trappings of the Bon Ton, 2006Elaine Buckholtz – Wo Hing Cinemascope, 2015 OFFERED BY SASHA WOLF GALLERY
Above: Geoengineered Collusion by Franco DeFrancesca, 2014. A multidisciplinary artist since 2004, Franco DeFrancesca has created sculpture/installations, photography, digital art, and sound. He investigates the links between art and memory, history and technology, and uses digital imaging as a means to navigate the territory between photography and painting.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance– Aristotle
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus – Mark Twain
While on the hunt for something artistically unusual Christoph Niemann’s name came up.
Christoph Niemann is an illustrator, artist, and author.
Love the dressOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
His work has appeared on the covers The New Yorker, Time, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration, and has won awards from AIGA, the Art Directors Club and The Lead Awards.
His corporate clients include Google, Amtrak, Herman Miller and The Museum of Modern Art. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.Since July 2008, Niemann has been writing and illustrating the whimsical Abstract City, a New York Times blog, renamed Abstract Sunday in 2011, when the blog’s home became The New York Times Magazine. For his column he draws and writes essays about politics, the economy, art and modern life.
He has drawn live from the Venice Art Biennale, the Olympic Games in London, The 2012 Republican Convention and he has drawn the New York City Marathon — while actually running it.
Niemann is the author of many books, most recently “Abstract City”. His latest project is an interactive, animated app called Petting Zoo.
In 2010, he was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall Of Fame. His artworks have been subject to numerous exhibitions, most recently at Gallery Max Hetzler in Berlin.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere – Albert Einstein
Have you heard about The Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA), located off the coast of Isla Mujeres in Mexico’s Maya Riviera?
Taylor’s “SILENT EVOLUTION “is composed of 450 statues, making it the largest work in the exhibit. Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor
It’s the world’s largest underwater museum.
It looks like a pretty cool place. And, being underwater it has to be cool. I want to dive right in.
Composed of over 500 life-sized sculptures, MUSA offers incredible displays hidden 28 feet below the ocean’s surface. That means that the only way it can be explored is by diving or snorkeling. For me, having already been to Isla Mujeres, and since becoming an advanced certified scuba diver it would be an adventurous outing.
One of the statues in “THE BANKER” series. Photo: Jason deCares Taylor
The project began in 2009 as an effort to protect the endangered Mesoamerican Reef (the second-largest barrier reef in the world) by diverting divers and snorkelers to MUSA.
Roberto Díaz Abraham, one of the founders of the museum, describes it as an “art of conservation.” Each sculpture holds special nooks and crannies that help to support the breeding of marine life while providing a safe habitat.
Taylor models his sculptures after local residents from his nearby fishing town of Puerto Morelos and covers them with a marine-grade cement consisting of a PH-neutral surface that promotes coral growth. He allows the plaster to dry before removing it and filling in the remainder of the sculptures.
Since they’re made with this marine-grade cement, the statues have become covered in algae and coral to make for a stunning sight.
Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor
Some of Taylor’s works are a satirical commentary on humanity. He created “The Banker,” a series of men in business suits submerging their heads in sand, after attending a climate-change conference in Cancun.
“It represents the loud acknowledgment made about the issue, but when it comes to taking action nobody wants to stick their neck out and do something about it,” Taylor said about the work.
Some of his works symbolize the growth of new life. “The Resurrection” was created using coral fans that had broken off during a thunderstorm in Cancun.
The Resurrection. Photo: Aquaworld
You’ll also find statues of people you might recognize. “The Anchors” is molded from the heads of “Today” show anchors Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Natalie Morales, and NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders.
But what’s most fascinating is that each of his works is built to aid in the protection and understanding of marine life. “The Ear” is a work installed with a hydrophone and hard drive. It allows researchers to study marine life via audio.
“Anthropocene,” or the Volkswagen, is made specifically for lobsters. Taylor created the piece after fisherman wiped out about 50 lobsters previously living in his “Silent Evolution” display. The car has holes to allow the shellfish to enter the sculpture, and inside it is stacked with shelving units where the creatures like to sleep.
MUSA offers an exploration into a world that’s remained a mystery.
“Two-thirds of our world is water, but there’s so much in that incredible world that’s still unknown,” said Taylor.
“The Silent Evolution” exhibit before being submerged underwater. Photo: Jason deCaires Taylor
There are two different exhibits within the museum: Salon Manchones, which holds 475 sculptures and is 8m (27 ft.) deep and Punta Nizuc, which offers a shallow snorkeling area about 4m (13 ft.) deep and a semi-submersible boat as an alternative to diving.
MUSA is open year-round for public viewing; however, because the diving site is protected as a conservation area, you’ll need to sign up with one of the museum’s selected tour guides to access the site. Tickets cost about $60 for a two-hour tour.
If you can’t make it there in person, here’s some footage to mentally transport you to the stunning sight. https://youtu.be/lrpnxEHNW4Y
Aside from leaving a legacy of astonishing abstract art, Jackson Pollock has a cookbook. And why should that come across as strange. He was no starving artist and even so, everyone has to eat and cook something for themselves sometimes right? But I must admit my first thought was…really?? It’s interesting how we see people as one dimensional when we only know one thing about them. But this man not only painted, he enjoyed gardening, entertaining and making food – everything from starters and entrees to side dishes, breads, and desserts.
Seems the lines are becoming more and more blurred between fashion and art, makeup and art and now food and art?
What do you know about Jackson Pollock, the famous American artist? That he was considered rather wild, and struggled with alcoholism? All of this is true, but it’s not the full picture of the artist and his life. He was also an avid cook, and a lover of good food, which shades in some fresh nuances to his life and work, explains Robyn Lea, the author of a new book about Pollock and his cooking, Dinner with Jackson Pollock.
Like his canvases, I would imagine my dinner plate to be splattered with a colorful and chaotic assortment of food.
Convergence, 1952 by Jackson Pollock
Robyn Lea is an Australian photographer and writer who became fascinated by Pollock and his relationship with food. She was doing a story for an Australian magazine and photographed the pantry at Pollock House in East Hampton, NY. “I started to wonder about their food,” she told me. “They had beautiful objects in there that said these people were really interested in food, like Eva Zeisel china, and an expensive, complete collection of Le Creuset pieces.”
She wondered what the artist’s dinner parties were like, and then she discovered his own hand-written recipe books — with dozens of recipes clearly made and loved by the artist. “I started a series of Jackson Pollock dinner parties,” Lea told me. The discovery process took over from there, and through it she not only cooked quite a lot of good food from Pollock’s cookbooks, but discovered a less-well-known side of the man as well.
“I thought he was the genius wild man throwing paint in the air and drinking too much,” Lea said, confirming a caricature of Pollock that is perhaps the most widely known. “And then the great surprise was that he was the baker, which is an art and science that requires precision. That was a great shock to me — he’s a baker but his artwork is not like that.”
But, in a twist, Pollock’s precision with food casts fresh light on the current scholarship of his work: “But then, he denied the accidental in his work,” Lea told me. “He said he knew exactly where the splats of paint would land. Scientific studies now actually show an incredible amount of design and structure to that work.” It’s very contrary, she said, to how the average person sees the work of Jackson Pollock. “If you look at his cooking from this perspective there’s a great connection to how he painted.”
Perhaps the most poignant food connection in Pollock’s story, however, is the diet Lea discovered in her research that was intended to cure his alcoholism. “There were very valid attempts to assist him in these cures,” she told me. “Very poignant and showed this side of him that was not so egocentric but tried very hard to overcome alcoholism, with therapy and diet, from the 1930s on. There’s a sadness there to find these things out.”
The book itself is a beautiful, lively melding of Pollock’s work and his recipes, drawn together with Lea’s photography, writing, and interviews with his family. She tells many stories, like that of the Cross-Country Johnny Cakes, which Pollock and his brother lived off of on their cross-country road trip to visit their mother in California. There are stories of happy times and many images of Pollock’s work, and photographs of him in the studio. It’s a rare cookbook — one that doesn’t simply offer the novelty of a famous artist’s recipes and cooking, but offers fascinating insight on his life as a human being as well.
And that is exactly why it would have been so amazing to actually have had dinner with this rare man.
One of the photos in the book – a spaghetti sauce with mushrooms and pork.
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