Tag Archives: Contemporary Art

William Scott on View at the Barbican

A revelatory new take on art in Britain after the Second World War, a period when artists had to make sense of an entirely altered world.

Postwar Modern explores the art produced in Britain in the wake of a cataclysmic war. Certainty was gone, and the aftershocks continued, but there was also hope for a better tomorrow. These conditions gave rise to an incredible richness of imagery, forms and materials in the years that followed.

Focusing on ‘the new’, Postwar Modern features 48 artists and around 200 works of painting, sculpture, photography, collage and installation. It explores the subjects that most preoccupied artists, among them the body, the post-atomic condition, the Blitzed streetscape, private relationships and imagined future horizons. As well as reconsidering well-known figures, the exhibition foregrounds artists who came to Britain as refugees from Nazism or as migrants from a crumbling empire, in addition to female artists who have tended to be overlooked.

Morning in Mykonos, 1960-61 is one of five works by William Scott which can be seen at the exhibition.

By Postwar Modern New Art in Britain 1945-1965

Pictured above: Morning in Mykonos, 1960-61 © Copyright William Scott Estate. Courtesy of William Scott Foundation.

View more on Barbican.org.uk

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Artnet Highlights Yishay Garbasz

Yishay Garbasz’s images explore themes of gender, trauma, and memory. Through depictions of sites of trauma and violence, and explorations of gender and identity, Garbasz shines light on people, places, and memories that are often overlooked, presenting them with clarity, compassion, and pride.

View more on Artnet.com

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Rome Art Program Interviews George Negroponte

Art, whatever it takes – RomeArtProgram has made interviews with people involved in art, living in Italy, the USA and the UK, to know their feelings during the emergency.
– George Negroponte interview:

RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “Art” today?

-George:  I like thinking about “culture,” and more specifically, as it relates to painting: I am dedicated to the meaning of painting as a visual language: absorbed and learned over time. I write about painting a lot, and I admire Fairfield Porter as a critic and painter. He wrote intimately about it. Beautifully. Porter saw painting as a manifestation of desires, urges, and needs arising from the deepest realms of the psyche. Equally important was his belief that painting has its own terms. It is not programmed, nor can it be imposed upon.

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RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?

-George: Not sure. Your question suggests an endless supply of it (art). I don’t see it as a given; it’s earned or warranted only when our highest aspirations mysteriously come together without reason. I see it as disruptive, even chaotic. The art world I know is wildly competitive and aggressive. Noisy. But the fundamental nature of art is uncompromising. It does not tolerate manipulation.

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RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?

-George: When I was five or six, my father started to paint as a hobby. He was a weekend painter, wore a blue beret, and copied Cezanne. Eventually, it made him miserable because he didn’t think he was improving.
It was too bad because he poured his heart into painting.

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RAP: What role does art play today? What are the “great figures” who have recently changed it? Do you feel close to any of these figures?

-George: I’m still grappling with what Cezanne did to painting.
Pollock gave painting gravity in every sense of the word.
Brice Marden is a painter I have always admired.

Pictured above: George Negroponte. My Rothko. 2018. Mixed Media on Canvas. 8″ x 8″

Read the full interview on RomeArtProgram.org

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Tribute to Chris Finch: James Scott’s Films

As a tribute to the passing of Chris Finch, my films “Richard Hamilton” and “RB Kitaj”, which we worked on together, are available for viewing on Vimeo. 

Click Here to Stream the Films

I first met Chris Finch in the sixties in London. I had just made the first in a series of films on contemporary artists, a film on David Hockney, and had been commissioned to make another for the Arts Council. This was to be a film on RB Kitaj and I approached Chris to appear in the film and talk to Kitaj. A year later, I began another project on Richard Hamilton, known as the father of ‘pop art’. Again, I approached Chris and he agreed to participate, even though Hamilton’s first words were: “I don’t like films about artists.” So we began by taking a Nagra recorder and sat down with Richard Hamilton to make a series of interviews that became an integral part of the film.

Chris became a friend, but sadly I lost touch with him when he left England for a teaching job in America. Many years later, after I myself had come to live in Los Angeles, we re-united. His passing is a blow to the art world as well as family and friends. His brand of eclecticism was unique. His humour and talent in so many fields unrivaled. I am streaming the two films, RB Kitaj (1967) and Richard Hamilton (1969) for a week as a tribute to Chris.

– James Scott

Pictured above: James Scott, Still from the film Richard Hamilton (1969)

View James Scott’s Films

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Hinnemo and Negroponte Featured at Keyes Art

Work by Virva Hinnemo and George Negroponte is currently being shown alongside John Battle at Keyes Art in Sag Harbor. The exhibit, Eyewitness, is on view to the public October 9 – November 28, 2021.

Eyewitness is an exhibit meant to confirm that Modernism is alive and well: art-making immersed in a visual and pictorial language, aspiring to convey meaning with ancient tools. Embedded in these works is a struggle to clarify purpose and the urge to ignore the cheeky posturing of the zeitgeist of the 1960s.

~George Negroponte October 2021

Eyewitness

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 9th, 6-8pm
Open from October 9th – November 28, 2021

Keyes Art Gallery
45 Main Street
At the American Hotel
Sag Harbor, NY

Pictured above: Virva Hinnemo, View from a Tent, 2021, oil on linen.

View more on JulieKeyesArt.com

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Jan Cunningham in ‘150 Years of Women at Yale’

Work by Jan Cunningham is currently on view in the exhibition ‘On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale’ at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven on view September 10, 2021 – January 9, 2022.

On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale showcases and celebrates the remarkable achievements of an impressive roster of women artists who have graduated from Yale University. Presented on the occasion of two major milestones—the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Yale College and the 150th anniversary of the first women students at the University, who came to study at the Yale School of the Fine Arts when it opened in 1869—the exhibition features works drawn entirely from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery that span a variety of media, such as paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, and video.

The title of the exhibition references the phrase used in the landmark 1972 US federal law Title IX – which declared that no one could be discriminated against “on the basis of sex” in any education program receiving federal financial assistance, and which forced the School of Art to hire full-time female faculty beginning that year. Amid the rise of feminist movements – from women’s suffrage at the turn of the 20th century, to the ERA movement of the mid-20th century, to the #MeToo movement of today – this exhibition asserts the crucial role that women have played in pushing creative boundaries at Yale, and in the art world at large.

The Gallery is open Friday 5 pm – 8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 6 pm. You may reserve your ticket for the day: https://artgallery.yale.edu/hours-and-directions.

Pictured above: Jan Cunningham, Via Flavia Gioia, Priano, Italy 11 November 2012. On view in On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale.

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Mark Webber at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

Artist Mark Webber to be featured in the exhibition, Paste and Cut: Contemporary Sculpture in Plaster, on view at the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi August 31 – November 7, 2021.

Visitors to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art are greeted in a lobby richly decorated with golden oak paneling and cork floors. They may not notice that the ornamentation continues above, with a ceiling featuring beautiful plaster work.  The design was suggested by Charles J. Watson of the Chicago interior decorating firm Watson and Walton, created by Frederick Mottas, and executed by the French-American master craftsman Léon Herman. It features low relief depictions of flora, fauna, and celestial bodies.  In honor of this enchanting adornment, and in a continuation of a series of exhibitions that celebrate how artists are breathing new life into techniques and forms found in centuries-old art and design, the Museum presents this exhibition of works in plaster by contemporary artists Amy Kann, Jedediah Morfit, and Mark Webber. Their works show the effectiveness of utilizing the medium in traditional, conceptual, and abstract forms.

Read the further details about the exhibition on AnitaRogersGallery.com

Sag Harbor Express Interviews Virva Hinnemo

By Annette Hinkle

Virva Hinnemo (b. 1976), an artist  in the Parrish exhibition “Affinities for Abstraction,” was born in Finland and now lives and works in Springs.

Q: As a female Abstract painter, did you face hurdles in what was initially a very male-dominated field?

I think this is a difficult question to answer. Yes, in some ways, the issue of being a woman painter has always been “there” for me. In school, the boys/men muscled their way. Many women students found a way to turn their womanhood into their artistic subject. I never wanted to hit the viewer over the head with that kind of a subject. I ask a lot from those who look at my work. My husband would call it “the long, slow look.”

I was always aware that I had stepped into a male-dominated world, and as a very young painter, I was conscious of not wanting to “paint like a girl.” A young painter does think some silly things: “Why can’t I paint like Guston? I don’t want my work to be pretty.”

Read the full interview on AnitaRogersGallery.com

Mark Webber: Material Guy

Mark Webber: Material Guy

Making sculptural works from an array of mixed media

by Kelly Velocci

Mark Webber Anita Rogers Gallery Hamptons Cottages and Gardens
Mark Webber practices two very different kinds of work. His vocation: custom cabinetry fabricated for high-end Hamptons homes. His avocation: sculptures made with Hydrocal, a plaster-like material, and a mélange of found objects from construction sites and other sources. Although these two endeavors are vastly disparate, both are rooted in the art of fabrication. “There’s a craftsmanship aspect to cabinetmaking, whereas sculpture requires you to be more creative,” says Webber, a Connecticut native and longtime resident of Sag Harbor. “Sculpture does not have an inherent purpose, like a cabinet does. I have to think about different things when I’m making either one.”

Webber graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Purchase in 1980, but soon shifted his focus to cabinetmaking to make a living. Around five years ago, however, he decided to “acknowledge my creativity again” and began experimenting with sculpture. He started working on wooden forms before transitioning to plaster and, more recently, Hydrocal, which he casts or shapes with hand tools, such as spatulas and knives. “All those years as a cabinetmaker gave me a solid base from which to start making sculpture,” Webber says. “It was like my springboard back into fine arts.” He has lately been pushing the boundaries of his pieces further, incorporating found objects— steel scraps, bricks, rubber—in order to bring a sense of tension and balance or create “an interesting compositional relationship.”

 

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William Scott: Abstracting and Appreciating the Everyday

William Scott: Abstracting and Appreciating the Everyday

by Chloë Ashby

 

William Scott: Abstracting and Appreciating the Everyday

Five Pears 1976
William Scott (1913–1989)
British Council Collection

 

Art UK:

To some art critics, the twentieth-century British artist William Scott’s kitchen-table still lifes are too timid – as Roberta Smith wrote in The New York Times, they can be seen as ‘abstract paintings for people who don’t like abstraction’. Others, myself included, find them enticingly reduced and for the most part easily readable, which is part of their charm.

Scott’s compositions are striking in their simplicity, and somehow both pleasurable and puritan, sensuous and serene. A few boiled eggs, a couple of ripe pears, fresh mackerel on a plate, pots and pans, a bunch of grapes: these are his humble subjects. As he once said, ‘I find beauty in plainness’.

Born in Scotland in 1913 and brought up in Northern Ireland, Scott’s surroundings were grey and barren, his upbringing strictly Presbyterian. The objects he painted in an often-sombre palette were, he said, ‘the symbols of the life I knew best’.

After his father died trying to save some folk from a burning building, the local council raised funds to send the 15-year-old to Belfast College of Art. From there, he won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where he bunked up with the poet Dylan Thomas and two other Welshmen and married fellow student Mary Lucas. In the Second World War, he was a cartographer, and in its wake, he was a pioneer of British abstraction.

 

Read the full article on ArtUK.org