Thursday, December 27, 2012

Favorite Records of 2012

1.  Dr. John - Locked Down
Easily my favorite of the year. One of Dr John’s best ever. His live show with this material was spectacular.

2.  Farrar, Johnson, Parker, Yames - New Multitudes lyrics by Woody Guthrie

3.  Dylan - Tempest
Dylan’s best of his last few records.

4.  Bettye LaVette - Thankful N’ Thoughtful
The version of Savoy Brown’s I’m Tired is great.

5.  Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

6.  Jack White - Blunderbuss
Cool version of Little Willie John’s I’m Shakin’

7.  Calexico - Algiers

8.  Neil Young - Americana
This was a big surprise. After reading the pre-release publicity I thought I’d hate it. The song list sounded like a Burl Ives record. But it is true blue Crazy Horse.

9.  Van Morrison - No Plan B

10.  Magnolia Mountain - Town and Country

Saturday, December 1, 2012

“…to require perfection is to invite paralysis …. the seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece” 
- From Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orlando.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

"I only wanted Uncle Vernon standing by his own car (a Hudson) on a clear day, I got him and the car. I also got a bit of Aunt Mary’s laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on the fence, and a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and 78 trees and a million pebbles in the driveway and more. It’s a generous medium, photography."
- Lee Friedlander

Photo of the week

morning by Eugene Goodale
morning, a photo by Eugene Goodale on Flickr.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series

June 30, 2012September 23, 2012 at the


Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW Washington, DC 20006



Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park #83, 1975. Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 inches. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Museum Purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the William A. Clark Fund, and Mary M. Hitchcock 1975.30. © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

On what was the hottest day I've ever experienced in Washington DC I went to this exhibit. Air conditioned galleries and breezy abstracts made the day more than pleasant. I love this type of exhibit that illuminates an entire body of work - especially one that I've mostly witnessed in books or by a solitary picture exhibited in museums here and there.

More than any abstract painter I'm familiar with these pictures suggest a reality and sense of a place with  vivid emotional strength. They suggest architecture, the ocean, landscape, cityscape and interiors. They remind me of some of Matisse's large canvases, especially his windows. I also relate to these pictures because of my own photographic attempts at rendering reality abstractly. Some of Diebenkorn's monochrome prints reminded me of photographs. Included are sketches, smaller paintings done on cigar box lids and prints. Also is a 20 minute film worth watching.

But the large canvases are exhilarating and inspirational. A must see if you can.


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Eugène Atget: “Documents pour artistes”

Museum of Modern Art, NYC, February 6–April 9, 2012

Atget created a monumental body of work in Paris and its environs during the first part of the 20th century. So great, in fact, that to call it “Documents pour artistes” (on his business sign) seems to trivialize the work. I related to him from the moment I first saw a couple of his prints in the Boston, MFA. To me, with some relative sophistication in composition, he simply aimed his camera at the things he found most interesting. The prints look ancient and modern at the same time. They also at times appear naive - as when the corners are darkened by the edge of the lenses circle of vision, or the highlights block to a pure white flair. Parks, rural landscape, architectural details, prostitutes, everyday workers, courtyards full of clutter, whatever he looked at he did with curiosity and determination to show us his world.



Bourg-la-Reine, Ferme Camille Desmoulins, 1901



Cour, 7 rue de Valence, 1922

Friday, March 30, 2012

Photo of the week

Untitled by Eugene Goodale ⚜
Untitled, a photo by Eugene Goodale ⚜ on Flickr.

Taken in Sullivan Hall (actually it is a club) in NYC. Just for the effects of light and the mysterious figures.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Eleanor Callahan - Muse of Harry Callahan RIP



“He just liked to take the pictures of me,” she told an interviewer in 2008. “In every pose. Rain or shine. And whatever I was doing. If I was doing the dishes or if I was half asleep. And he knew that I never, never said no. I was always there for him. Because I knew that Harry would only do the right thing.” - Eleanor Callahan

Monday, February 20, 2012

Photos of the week




 

Simply put, these photographs are about the light. I tried to make an interesting composition, but the first thing I saw was beautiful light.

“What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.” - Edward Hopper