Tag Archives for Willem de Kooning

Ninja Style, Dots, and Modern Desires

#80 – Tuesday September 25th

Quick indeed. EXPO CHGO . . . the “International Exposition Of Contemporary/Modern Art and Design” on Chicago’s Navy Pier. Decades of art in three days, and still more dots. Yes, I’ve a dot fixation . . . but really, dots do seem to be everywhere these days. My favorite dots at the Expo? Jerry Zeniuk’s untitled painting at the Lawrence Markey booth. These dots aren’t playing around, they’re not cute, glib, or sweet like candy. These are dots with conviction. Dots pushing, shoving and poking each other in the ribs. These are dots I can get behind and cheer on.

Other favorites from the weekend? A Willem de Kooning drawing at Forum Gallery.


The Austrian painter, Ernst Caramelle’s mixed media on panel, also shown at the Lawrence Markey Gallery.

 Jacob Hashimoto’s installation “super-elastic collisions (origins, and distant derivations) ” at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, on Peoria Street.

 Classic Color featured a drawing by musician and street artist Wesley Willis on their exposition catalogue page.  (Classic Color is a pre-media services company and a partner to EXPO CHGO 2012).  During my time in Chicago, Wesley seemed to be everywhere, always drawing, documenting the city with pen and ink. (Wesley passed away in 2003). This is another of his wonderfully dynamic images, looking toward the city, from the Dan Ryan Expressway.

A ninja style visit . . . in . . . do the deed . . . and out.

Thanks for reading.

Charles

Everything In, Everything Out

#71 – Tuesday July 24th

I vacillate between putting everything in, and taking it all out. Robert Ryman’s white paintings and Yves Klein’s eye searing blue. Cy Twombly’s hyper kinetic scribbles and  William de Kooning’s late paintings. Yoko Ono’s Fluxus performance, Cut Piece and the video of Thomas Nozkowski  On a Hike.  This is an odd introduction for my new canvasses, but I’ve been thinking about the specific works of these artists, and while I can’t really quantify what influence they’ve exerted over the development of the new paintings, it just seemed a necessary journey to revisit them.  Everything in, everything out.

Thanks for reading.

Charles