Love and Money

Another tumultuous relationship: Venus, Goddess of Love, and Mars, God of War

Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640), Mars Disarmed by Venus, ca. 1610-1612

Say you’re in a relationship, it’s lovely, passionate, spicy…really, Valentine’s was only two weeks ago, surely memories last longer than chocolates?

Everything is wonderful, until the bottom drops out, something happens, and for the sake of an example, we’ll say it’s money. Financial problems erupt, it’s bad. What is the net effect on said relationship? Does the “kicking to the curb” ensue immediately? Do you lose all that you had because of these external storms? Or do you tough it out, and even find strength in lovely passionate spiciness?

What if that metaphor was about the Arts? Arts with a capital A – art, music, dance, literature and poetry, the fruits of creative souls produced by professionals whose mission in life is to make things that make you, dear reader/viewer, experience something out-of-the-ordinary. In that light, it makes us rather lucky, that these individuals largely sacrifice so much (job security, earning potential, health insurance) because they’re driven by a force to create things and ideas, and expose this labor for the public’s enjoyment, or for the public’s derision. That’s also gutsy.

But this relationship with the Arts, if we love it so much, and get so much from it, why is our emotional barometer so linked to money? The market drops, economy crashes, jobs are lost. Why are we not seeking solace and refuge in these places of art, performance, music and theatre? Granted, tickets can be terribly expensive for the best performance seats, but there are ways of getting discounts, through special deals or subscriptions (also read: commitment). Art museums and galleries offer us plenty for free, just plan your trip accordingly, and make the most of your time. Relax, absorb, think, unwind. It can be even better than a spa.

Maybe I’m far too idealistic about this, but the arts and humanities can be likened to a Greek chorus in our own unending drama; sometimes they take the center stage, sometimes they offer whispered asides, or give sharp perspective as tragedy or comedy unfolds. As long as we pay attention, and in the full spirit of a fruitful relationship, are engaged. Like love, there’s plenty of pleasure to be had, in the traces of the deftly-handled paintbrush that creates a face to last hundreds of years, and the singular fragile moment of music sustained in the air, the result of years of practice and refinement. There is solace and there is meaning.

Love and money are strange bedfellows, and always have been. Art is the unruly progeny of this union, and we need all three. They say don’t go to bed angry, and don’t kick love out of bed when money has issues.

~ KM Murrell

Art of Politics, a happy update

I’m copying this message that was posted on the MARN list – voices have been heard!!

FROM THE MARN YAHOO GROUP:

Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:29 pm (PST)

Sura Faraj asked me to forward this email to MARN.
Pegi Taylor

From: “Sura Faraj / SuraForChange.com” <sura@suraforchange.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:53:31 -0600

You all rock.

Thanks for your calls and letters. They worked.

I spoke to Alder Tony Zielinski this a.m. and he has taken the mural
ordinance off the table, at least for now.

According to him, it will not be part of the CPC meeting on Monday nor the
next ZND meeting.

He said he supports the arts. He will take out the fees and the 200 ft.
area. If that’s not enough, he wants to talk to and work *with* artists and
organizers to come up with something that’s beneficial to all of us. If we
can’t find something mutually satisfying, it sounds like he would let it go.

Please email him a big thank you at tzieli@milwaukee.gov

Pasted from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MilwaukeeArtistResourceNetwork/message/12978

The Art of Politics

Painting on view at Serb Hall on Inauguration Night as part of display of Barack Obama -themed art.

(If you know who the artist is, please let us know via the comment function at the end of this article. Thanks!)

The glow isn’t fading, but we’re settling into a sort of warmth, getting used to the idea of yes, we can chart a new course for our future, that all is not lost, and there is plenty of destiny left to be shaped.

On the Inauguration Day post, I left off with mention of an art display at Serb Hall for their evening party. I headed over there Tuesday night to see the scene, and check out what local artists were producing during these historic days.

The overall art display was rather small, with several two-dimensional works and a selection of handmade mosaic jewelry by Leann Wooten of Brokenartworks. To see Wooten’s Obama pieces, check out her slideshow images on iReport.

I spoke for a while with artist Stella DeVenuta, who is currently showing at Urban Gallery (157 Broadway) in Milwaukee. This night, she was taking orders for prints of a work she made in a burst of inspiration on Election Night. It comprises thirteen layers of imagery, superimposed over each other, and captures moments of our present and past. In the upper left corner, a newspaper headline shouts out the landing of a man on the moon, which Stella says was the most significant event she thought she would ever see in her lifetime. It was the fruition of ambition then, just as recent events are the realization of a dream now.

Artist Stella DeVenuta with “Yes We Can”

And, in case you missed the addition to the Inauguration post, be sure to check out Mary Louise Schumacher’s Art City blog (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) for her fabulous slide show of the works on view at Manifest Hope in Washington D.C.

And, (this is a new mention) – you can see the quartet of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero performing Air and Simple Gifts as well as the reading of the poem, “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander from the Inauguration
via the fabulous magic of You Tube.

The Band Plays On… Air and Simple Gifts by Aaron Copeland (Arranged by John Williams)

OKAY (whew)! That rounds up the commentary on the ceremonies of the week.

Now onto grittier things…

This post is titled “The Art of Politics”, and it also has to do with the possibilities or pitfalls of integrating art with authority. There is talk of instilling a “Culture Czar” in the upper echelon of government (the “czar” description is so grossly overused that it’s lost all cache; how about our own Culture Vulture? Creative Maven?) to work with individuals and organizations…or something along those lines…

Well, that’s where my description peters out, because it seems rather amorphous, albeit intriguing if handled right. For two opposing views on this possibility, check out the following (highly recommended) art blogs:

CultureGrrl: In Defense of Disorder: Topple the “Culture Czar,” Part I

CultureGrrl: Topple the Culture Czar Part II: Why “Culture Ministry” is a Foreign Concept

Modern Art Notes: In Favor of a White House Arts Adviser

Not all about the strange bedfellows of politics and art sleeps in far-off Washington D.C. There is an ordinance on the table here in Milwaukee on Feb. 3 about potential restrictions and fees for the painting of murals in outdoor spaces. This could severely curtail the production of public art, and potentially chuck wall painting into the same category as vandalism. This, I think, is painting with far too wide of a brush! For more on this one, see:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MilwaukeeArtistResourceNetwork/message/12911

For a quick synopsis, watch the news segment from Fox6 News (Jan. 8, 2009)

http://www.myfoxmilwaukee.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=8219255&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Also, coming up are a couple of meetings (thanks to Rex Winsome for the reminder on this one), regarding the role of the Cultural Alliance and other big-name organizations and their relationship with Milwaukee’s art community at large, the numerous individuals and organizations that don’t operate on huge budgets and large-scale productions.

Representatives from the Milwaukee Cultural Alliance, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and the UWM Center for Urban Initiatives and Research will be part of this discussion:

Monday, Jan. 26, 2009

Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago Street, in the Third Ward.

7:45-11:45 AM

To register, email

dlubotsky@culturalalliancemke.org

(Attendance is apparently limited to 120 people).

An evening session will be held with the Cultural Alliance, MARN, and WPCA

Tuesday, Jan. 27

Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, 911 W. National Ave.

6PM

Free & open to the public.

For the back story and more info on the forum, visit Rex Winsome’s blog: http://rwinsome.blogspot.com/2009/01/cultural-alliance-invitation.html

And, CricketToes blog has a snappy summary of these upcoming meetings as well.

• KM Murrell
  

The Inauguration, Images, and the Ignition of Hope

Shepard Fairey, Hope

It’s late afternoon on January 20, and the day has been full of coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. It’s a day rich with symbolism and pageantry. As I’m watching, the First Family is ascending the viewing platform to watch the celebration parade, and Hail to the Chief is playing once again.

There are plenty of powerful visuals from today that will remain in memory for a long time to come, but music has also been very significant. It was a most interesting moment when noon came around today, January 20th, 2009. According to the Constitution, the new president takes on the roles and responsibilities of office at the stroke of noon, regardless of the administering of the Oath of Office. At this particular passage of noon, a quartet of musicians was playing Simple Gifts by the American composter, Aaron Copeland, in a arrangement by John Williams. The quartet was made up of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero.

It was an especially lovely moment, as the seamless transfer of power occurred during this beautiful piece of music. It was a moment shared by all in quiet reflection as the music travelled throughout the sea of people assembled. I don’t know exactly at what point the precise passage of noon came and went, but there was a point where the music picked up to an allegro tempo, the quartet beamed at each other, Yo-Yo Ma especially smiling and his body moving in harmony with his cello, and the four parts energetically weaved into one glorious, synchronized sound. I can’t help but think of that moment of unity and beauty as the beginning of a new chapter in American history.

The visual arts have also punctuated this day. A luncheon was held in the Statuary Room of the Capitol, a hall filed with figures of past leaders. A relatively new tradition (since 1985) is the selection of a painting to serve as a backdrop for the head table. The luncheon theme, “A New Birth of Freedom,” was represented by a painting by Thomas Hill (1829-1908, American; born in England), his “View of the Yosemite Valley”.

Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley, 1876, oil on canvas. Oakland Museum of California, Oakland Museum Kahn Collection

(This is not the actual painting that was at the luncheon, but another version of by Hill. For an audio description of this work, visit The Autry National Center of the American West, http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/yosemite/hill.php?height=450&width=530 )

The painting is in the tradition of the epic American landscape, a view of the new frontier as a land of vast hope and opportunity, a rich wilderness of potential, but a demanding and rugged landscape from which the fruits of labor are not easily drawn. It’s an apt metaphor for our current situation, comprising both promise and struggle.

But there is even more significance than the imagery itself, as the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies website explains, “The subject of the painting, Yosemite Valley, represents an important but often overlooked event from Lincoln’s presidency — his signing of the 1864 Yosemite Grant, which set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias as a public reserve.” (http://inaugural.senate.gov/media/releases/release-010909-lunchdetails.cfm)

The historical symbolism of art and architecture formed the theatre in which the events of today continue to take place, and one of the most striking things, in terms of visual representation and documentation, is the inclusive nature of what we are seeing online and on television. Numerous news websites are actively soliciting viewer photographs and using new technology to put together images from many viewpoints, not just the official lens of the television news camera.

It’s a great metaphor for the day, as we take in the messages of unity and shared responsibility in language and rhetoric, but also in the images of America as a unique and extraordinary diverse society, and one that is stronger for it.

Here are just a few of the Inauguration Day (and related sites) with some interesting visuals:

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC has a number of presidentially themes items of interest. Current exhibitions on view (with online tours) include:

One Life: The Mask of Lincoln

Presidents in Waiting

Also on display is the iconic image of Obama by Shepard Fairey (shown at the top of the page):

http://face2face.si.edu/my_weblog/2009/01/now-on-view-portrait-of-barack-obama-by-shepard-fairey.html

CNN is using software called Photosyth to produce a panoramic collage of the moment when President Obama took the oath of office. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/44.president/inauguration/themoment/index.html

CNN also shows its gallery of Obama-inspired art:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/16/obama.art.irpt/index.html

In her Art City blog (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online), Mary Louise Schumacher reports from the Manifest Hope exhibition in Washington D.C., with plenty of photos of the artwork and art viewers: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/37872129.html

And in Milwaukee, an inauguration day celebration by the Democratic Party at Serb Hall will be complimented by a display of Obama Artworks. (Doors open at 7pm).

- KM Murrell

Winter Gallery Night Part 2: day

The adventure continues on gallery day, and as usual, with a different atmosphere. The Friday evening activities are permeated by a rather carousing atmosphere, as gallery going takes on the character of party hopping. Gallery Day, in contrast, tends to be quieter, with much more room for looking at art rather than people.

David Barnett Gallery’s current offerings include prints by Marc Chagall, early 20th-century Dutch artist Kees van Dongen, and a group entitled Latin American and Spanish Masters. The works by Chagall and van Dongen provided plenty to look at, but the most interesting part of the visit was the work Latin American and Spanish selection, especially the work of Uruguayan artist Ignacio Iturria. His large-scale, two-dimensional pieces on corrugated cardboard are sophisticated in image and execution, and earthy in their medium. The rough texture was mimicked in Iturria’s large oil painting, Relaciones Armoniosas, with horizontal ridges of paint rippling like wavy cardboard, playing an even rhythmic surface texture, and despite the overall tonality of charming blue, there’s a great deal of tension in the high-contrast three-dimensionality of highlights and black shadows. (Note: the exhibition dates for Latin American & Spanish Masters state that it closes on Jan. 10. Best to call ahead if you’re interested in seeing it).

Another place to see a group show with a great variety is Tory Folliard Gallery, this month showing Clare Malloy’s representations of single, simple objects in pastel and in paint. Items are situated in the center of small scale works, things such as a perfume bottle, a teacup, a cupcake, and are mysterious markers of identity, divorced from their original home and person; each a little lost but like beacons of particular taste and preference. Russ Vogt’s work, in comparison, is a Fauve-ish explosion of heavy paint and color on canvas and sculptures. In the East Gallery, an installation called Streetwise displays two- and three-dimensional works by a trio of self-taught artists, each divergent in their own particular style.

Clare Malloy, Pink Pearls, on view at Tory Folliard Gallery

Dean Jensen Gallery is currently showing a very interesting amalgamation of work. Through it’s a “regular” gallery space (i.e. lots of squared-off wall space and minimal furniture), this show has the feeling of walking through someone’s personal art collection – a few pieces from this artist, a few from that one, sculptures sprinkled throughout, and not unified by an overt theme or style.

Actually, the only unifying theme has nothing to do with art, but with commerce. The current works on view at Dean Jensen Gallery come with a price tag of less than $750, which means bargains throughout. This slashing of prices for paintings and such is a sign of the times, as the challenges of the economy are being reflected in a realm where aesthetic matters and sheer desire usually eclipse all else. There are many Milwaukee artists in the show, and well-represented are artists awarded with Mary Nohl Fellowships. Tyson Reeder, Scott Reeder, and Santiago Cucullu, past recipients of the award (1/23/08 clarification: Scott Reeder and Santiago Cucullu are past recipients of the Nohl Fellowship) have works on view, and Kevin J. Miyazaki, who was featured in the Nohl show this year, is also shown. A favorite find of mine were the works at the back of the gallery, the strange, gently aloof and haunting paintings by Rafael Salas. (Additional note: to see more work by Cucullu and Salas, check out the current exhibition at MIAD, Personal Cultures: New Art from Latin Americans).

Dean Jensen Gallery; sculptures by Jason Yi, another past Nohl Fellowship recipient, in the foreground.

Rafael Salas, The Woman Who Swallowed the Ocean, at Dean Jensen Gallery

Other galleries are following suit in terms of making the case for buying art in tough economic times. The DeLind Gallery of Fine Art is promoting an inventory reduction sale, and Cissy Peltz Gallery, currently installed with a richly eclectic variety mediums and artists, encourages visitors from far afield and those in the neighborhood to drop in and enjoy the works on view, and extends the idea of art not just as a purchase of an “thing,” but a physical presence that enhances and enriches one’s own living space.

But while the tumbles in the financial world are clearly having ripple effects on the larger, established galleries, the undercurrent of younger artists and exhibition spaces still seems to flow strongly. Jazz Gallery, a large storefront space in Riverwest, is showing a portfolio exhibition of works by UWM photography students. Biting commentaries on dreamy fairytales that lose their glow in harsh modern light are suggested in the Tales of Disenchantment series by Maegan Novak, and Trisha Buster shows large-format rural landscapes where the sharp clarity of detail reaching into the background gives an air of strange unreality to seemingly ordinary land.

Dock and Cattails, by Trisha Buster, at Jazz Gallery.  (for a far better reproduction, check out T. L. Buster’s site: http://tlbusterphotography.blogspot.com/2008/12/milwaukee-jazz-gallery-portfolio.html)

See more pictures from Gallery Night and Day on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/susceptibletoimages/

- KM Murrell

Winter Gallery Night 2009 Part I: night

We ran around in the freezing cold last night, and saw quite a number of fabulous things. I admit, I was surprised at the quantity of figurative works, but we’ll see what today’s selection brings before making a final call on that.

A highlight was White Whale Collective, showing the work of Emily Belknap (below top) and Julia Schilling (below bottom). Belknap uses fine wires, low horizons, and visual expanses to create works that are elegant, minimal yet humanistic, without becoming maudlin or academically stale. A lovely sense of composition and especially, materials.

Schilling’s wax tiles and letters piled in corners are like the potential of language, self-aware in their expressive potential, and have the feeling that they’re holding back, not quite giving in to the viewer in their statement. Formal in their disarray. It’s a powerful sort of reserve.

The Armoury Gallery has another strong showing in their Western States exhibition. The gorgeous lines of Colleen Sanders are quite pretty and patient. The drawings of constructed – I want to say worlds, but maybe microcosms is better – of Adrianne Watson are richly engrossing. She combines and piles images in these large-scale, two-dimensional works with a confidence that makes them concrete and substantive, though spatially complex and unreal. Admittedly, it was hard to get close and personal to each work, but looking over the shoulders of the multitude of people in the gallery was enough to indicate a strong body of work by the six artists in the show. An interesting moment – or extended moment, as we took our time stepping out of the fray, was the room installation (which also extends out to work on the fire escape) called  ‘Everything is Fine’ by Colin Matthes.   This space, about ten x seven feet, with drippy black paint scrawling the words ‘everything is fine.’ Overhead, a black circle spins – a wheel, of life? of fate? of a wagon? Disconcerting at first, but it sinks in after a while. Fine fine fine, in a rubber-room sort of way.

For more gallery night pictures, see flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34413954@N07/

• KMMurrell
  

Interaction and Pressing Czech Buttons

Act/React just closed recently at MAM; it was an extravaganza of new technology, bright colors, moving things, and cameras aplenty – very high tech, very fluid, very engaging in terms of the expectations the art casts on the visitor. For those of us in a contrarian mood and not up for dancing in front of the camera in order to have your silhouette thrown into a composition (rather à la early ipod ads), it become a space for watching the art and watching others – your fellow museum goers interacting and casting themselves as part of compositions.

There is much that is about “me,” or “you,” or “us” as a collective, inherent in our so-called ordinary lives. Reality TV and the ubiquity of social networks sites and devices tell us that whatever quotidian activities we’ve got going on, there is something interesting/distracting/or simply voyeuristic that someone out there wants to see.

(But here’s a thought – who/where is the absolutely most boring blog in the world? I mean, something that is REALLY about nothing? Seinfeld was on to something, as a show about nothing became brilliantly compelling and encompassing of everything in a superficially contemporary way. I digress greatly…)

About this idea of interactivity as a way of engaging with art – I think it’s also an attempt at making some sort of connection, emotion, or memory; to make it as easy as flipping a switch, engineering meaning through experience. But what is “meaning” really made of?

NPR recently aired a piece on museums and interactivity, and I don’t disagree that this is the way of the future, at least in the American museum environment. We like bells and whistles, novelties and anything new, shiny and sexy. Buttons, especially electronic blinky ones, are quite sexy. Here’s the NPR story:

Interactive Games Make Museums A Place To Play : NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99244253&sc=emaf

Pressing Czech Buttons

Speaking of buttons, there have been a few pressed with a new sculpture by David Cerny. His work, “Entropa,” was commissioned by the Czech government in honor of the recent shift of the EU presidency to their hands.

There are a few sly maneuvers in this work; rather than comprised of the efforts of 26 artists as originally expected, it’s all by Cerny. The imagery is a giant lampoon and scathing critique of member countries, exposing dysfunctions, stereotypes, and less-than-glamorous ideals and national identities.

Slideshow of sculpture & commentary from Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5516098&&offset=0&&sectionName=VisualArts

Times Online article
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5512107.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=2015164

World Focus (with links to artist’s blog and other commentaries)
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/01/14/czech-artwork-creates-stir-across-europe/3603/