LINK
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Betye Saar, pioneering Black artist for seven decades, gets retrospective at SMoCA [ARTICLE]
In a culture obsessed with youth, there’s no mistaking the meaning of the title of Betye Saar’s upcoming retrospective at the Scottsdale Museum of Art, “Still Tickin’.”
At 89, the lifelong Southern Californian is still busy making new work at her studio in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon.
She was a pioneer of assemblage art, using found objects to create collages and sculptural works, in the 1960s. And she was an important figure in LA’s Black Arts Movement, making a splash with 1972’s “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” which took the familiar “mammy” stereotype and armed her with a rifle and hand grenade.
Raised in Pasadena and trained in design at UCLA, she made the move into fine art when she discovered printmaking. In addition to her racial/politically themed works, “Still Tickin’ ” also looks back on her autobiographic art and her interest in mysticism. She spoke with The Republic/azcentral by phone from her studio, where she has worked for half a century.
Question: What got you started using found objects to make art?
Answer: My father’s mother lived in Watts, California, and as children during the summer we would visit her and walk to the marketplace to do her shopping, and we passed when Simon Rodia was building the Watts Towers. That was such a vivid imprint about, “What is this man doing?” He was an Italian immigrant who lived in the Watts area, and he wanted to build something like a tribute to his love for Watts and California and so forth. And he built these towers out of steel, covered them with cement, and in the cement he embedded shards of glass and anything else he could find. So that was my real introduction to mixed media, so to speak. He was like a recycler, taking what was thrown away and making it into a thing of beauty, a thing of interest.
Q: How do you procure your materials?
A: I like the concept of finding something and your imagination takes over, and you transform whatever you find into something else. I like the idea of just being inspired by the materials, and usually that’s the way my art pieces begin. I call it hunting and gathering. I go to flea markets, I go to antique stores, and I have a whole studio full of stuff, so I need to never buy another item, but you can’t resist something.
Q: So does your studio look like an episode of "Hoarders"?
A: I like things organized so I can find them, so I have a lot of little plastic boxes labeled, like, “Sun,” “Moon,” “Stars,” “Birds,” “Cars,” “Knives,” “Dice,” whatever. And so I can look in those drawers for smaller things, but larger thinks like cages and tables and chairs are on the floor or on shelves. I am planning to do an installation about rust, so I’ve been collecting rusty items. I have cages, I have all sorts of things. So that’s how I start. I start gathering things and accumulating, and one day I just feel like making something and start putting them together, and they turn out to be an object of art.
Q: What sparked your interest in Black collectibles?
A: In my hunting-and-gathering journeys, I started noticing the derogatory images such as mammies and pickaninnies and things like that, and I started collecting those. It was sheet music, it was postcards, it was magazine covers, it was books. I had seen things like that in the funny papers or ads, but I wasn’t aware that they were like a commercial thing. At that time there were also ones of Polish people, of Dutch people, all of those. But the ones that attracted me, of course, were the ones that used Black imagery.
Q: You started making art out of it after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
A: Seeing the way Black people were treated, the incidents with dogs and water hoses, the way people were treated just because they wanted to be able to vote and have certain liberties. Being a Californian and a young mother with kids, I wasn’t about to go South and participate in any of the marches — although some of my neighbors did. So I found this Aunt Jemima and I made that into “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima.” That became my first piece of assemblage art that became political. And then I started a whole series using the derogatory images and transforming them from victims into warriors.
Q: You’ve lived a long life in Southern California. Were you ever tempted to move to New York or somewhere?
A: It’s a great place to visit, but I’m always glad to be home, because I like nature, and I live in a natural environment.
Q: Another major theme in your work is mysticism. Why?
A: As a kid I was always interested in fairy tales and magic and so forth, and I’ve always been attracted to other cultures, other religions, other ways of believing. I was interested in the hippie movement, and they had a lot mysticism and metaphysical things, palmistry charts and numbers and cards and so forth. And I like the old antique images of those. I did some research and I have lots of books on early drawings, diagrams of how to make gold, how to cast a spell, how to read palms and all of that. Those images really intrigued me, and I used them in my printmaking.
Q: In your image of a Black “Wizard,” there’s a pagan pentagram, a Star of David and an Egyptian Eye of Horus. Is there a hidden meaning or narrative in these works?
A: The hidden meaning is that we’re all people on this planet, and all those religions and all those cultures and all those symbols are just part of the different ways people express their lives. Instead of always looking for differences, accept those differences and put them all on, because they’re all here on earth with us.
Friday, January 29, 2016
In Memoriam Barrington Watson (1931-2016) [ARTICLE]
Barrington Watson – or Barrington, as he is popularly known – was born in Hanover, Jamaica, in 1931. He was educated at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London and attended several other major European art academies, including the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris and the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. He returned to Jamaica in 1961 and quickly rose to prominence as a major artist in post-Independence Jamaica. Along with Eugene Hyde and Karl Parboosingh, he established the Contemporary Jamaican Artists’ Association in 1964 and he was from 1962 to 1966 the first Director of Studies at the Jamaica School of Art (now part of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts), where he introduced the full-time diploma programme. He subsequently also acted as a visiting Professor at Spelman College in Atlanta. Barrington chaired the Bank of Jamaica art collection in the mid-1970s and operated several art galleries: Gallery Barrington, which has existed in several incarnations since 1974, and the Contemporary Art Centre, which was active from 1985 to 1998. His home in the parish of St Thomas, Orange Park, is recognized as a heritage site. It is part of a former coffee plantation and it has since he bought the property in 1968, served as the location of his main studio and a meeting place for artists and art lovers. Barrington left Orange Park to the Nation in 1994.
Essentially an academic realist, Barrington explored a wide range of themes and genres in his work, including history painting, genre, portraits and self-portraits, nudes, erotica, the landscape and the still life, ranging from the intimate to the epic and all interpreted with his unique painterly sensibility. Barrington insisted on being recognized as an artist first and as a Jamaican artist second but most of his paintings were inspired by Jamaica and its people and he produced some of the most iconic images in Jamaican art history, such as Mother and Child (1958-59) and Conversation (1981) in the National Gallery of Jamaica Collection. Although he is best known as a painter, Barrington was also an accomplished draughtsman and printmaker.
Barrington executed several major commissions, including the mural The Garden Party (1975) and the installation Trust (1975, with Cecil Baugh) at the Bank of Jamaica, and the mural Our Heritage (1974) at Olympia in Kingston. He executed many official portraits, including those of past Prime Ministers of Jamaica, of Martin Luther King (1970) at Spelman College, and of former Commonwealth Secretary-General and UWI Chancellor Sir Shridath Ramphal at the University of the West Indies – Mona (1992) and Marlborough House in London (1995). His work is well represented in the National Gallery of Jamaica Collection, with masterworks such as Mother and Child (1958-59), Washerwomen (1966), Athlete’s Nightmare II (1966), Conversation (1981) and Fishing Village (1996), and he is featured in many other public, corporate and private collections in Jamaica and internationally.
Barrington Watson received many awards and accolades during his lifetime. These include the national orders, the Order of Distinction, Commander Class, in 1984, the Order of Jamaica in 2006, and the Institute of Jamaica’s Gold Musgrave Medal in 2000. The National Gallery of Jamaica honoured Barrington with a major retrospective in 2012, which was curated by the then Chief Curator Dr David Boxer and guest curator Claudia Hucke and presented as part of the National Gallery’s Jamaica 50 programme.
The National Gallery’s Chairman, Mr Peter Reid, lauded Barrington for his outstanding contribution to the development of Jamaican art, as an eminent artist and art educator and as a role model to many artists in Jamaica, the Caribbean and the African diaspora. He stated “Barrington is a true national icon and we will treasure his artistic legacy for many generations to come.” The National Gallery’s Executive Director Dr Veerle Poupeye added: “Barrington Watson was a defining figure in post-Independence Jamaican art and his work reflects the spirit and imagination of Independent Jamaica. He was instrumental in the professionalization of the Jamaican art world and an outspoken and influential voice in the development of modern art in Jamaica.” Barrington Watson served on the National Gallery Board for several years.
The Board, Management and Staff of the National Gallery of Jamaica pay tribute to Barrington Watson, as one of Jamaica’s greats, and extend their heartfelt condolences to his wife Doreen, his children Janice, Raymond, Basil, Bright and Shauna-Kay and his other family members and friends.
LINK
below: Barrington Watson at his Eastwood Park studio in 1967
Essentially an academic realist, Barrington explored a wide range of themes and genres in his work, including history painting, genre, portraits and self-portraits, nudes, erotica, the landscape and the still life, ranging from the intimate to the epic and all interpreted with his unique painterly sensibility. Barrington insisted on being recognized as an artist first and as a Jamaican artist second but most of his paintings were inspired by Jamaica and its people and he produced some of the most iconic images in Jamaican art history, such as Mother and Child (1958-59) and Conversation (1981) in the National Gallery of Jamaica Collection. Although he is best known as a painter, Barrington was also an accomplished draughtsman and printmaker.
Barrington executed several major commissions, including the mural The Garden Party (1975) and the installation Trust (1975, with Cecil Baugh) at the Bank of Jamaica, and the mural Our Heritage (1974) at Olympia in Kingston. He executed many official portraits, including those of past Prime Ministers of Jamaica, of Martin Luther King (1970) at Spelman College, and of former Commonwealth Secretary-General and UWI Chancellor Sir Shridath Ramphal at the University of the West Indies – Mona (1992) and Marlborough House in London (1995). His work is well represented in the National Gallery of Jamaica Collection, with masterworks such as Mother and Child (1958-59), Washerwomen (1966), Athlete’s Nightmare II (1966), Conversation (1981) and Fishing Village (1996), and he is featured in many other public, corporate and private collections in Jamaica and internationally.
Barrington Watson received many awards and accolades during his lifetime. These include the national orders, the Order of Distinction, Commander Class, in 1984, the Order of Jamaica in 2006, and the Institute of Jamaica’s Gold Musgrave Medal in 2000. The National Gallery of Jamaica honoured Barrington with a major retrospective in 2012, which was curated by the then Chief Curator Dr David Boxer and guest curator Claudia Hucke and presented as part of the National Gallery’s Jamaica 50 programme.
The National Gallery’s Chairman, Mr Peter Reid, lauded Barrington for his outstanding contribution to the development of Jamaican art, as an eminent artist and art educator and as a role model to many artists in Jamaica, the Caribbean and the African diaspora. He stated “Barrington is a true national icon and we will treasure his artistic legacy for many generations to come.” The National Gallery’s Executive Director Dr Veerle Poupeye added: “Barrington Watson was a defining figure in post-Independence Jamaican art and his work reflects the spirit and imagination of Independent Jamaica. He was instrumental in the professionalization of the Jamaican art world and an outspoken and influential voice in the development of modern art in Jamaica.” Barrington Watson served on the National Gallery Board for several years.
The Board, Management and Staff of the National Gallery of Jamaica pay tribute to Barrington Watson, as one of Jamaica’s greats, and extend their heartfelt condolences to his wife Doreen, his children Janice, Raymond, Basil, Bright and Shauna-Kay and his other family members and friends.
LINK
below: Barrington Watson at his Eastwood Park studio in 1967
BEYOND FELA: A GUIDE TO EARLY AFRICAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC [ARTICLE]
DIRK LEYERS AND NOMAD
Africaine 808 highlight a selection of pioneering dance tracks, from Nigerian funk iconoclast William Onyeabor to Shangaan disco from South Africa.
Call it what you will, but there’s no denying that West African funk or boogie will light up a European dance floor—and no one knows that better than Nomad and Dirk Leyers. Operating as Africaine 808, the Berliners are particularly adept at digging out and deploying electrified cuts from throughout the African continent. As the duo told Juno recently, their party Vulkandance came from a desire to inject some life and color into the Berlin club scene, which was in the chilly grips of minimal techno at the time of its conception. Nearly seven years later, the party is still going strong, and many of the tracks featured in the guide below have been tried and tested on Vulkandance dance floors.
The exhuberant mix of styles and textures represented in Africaine 808’s selections, which range from Ghanaian proto-rap to South African “bubblegum” pop, are also representative of the pair’s debut album, Basar. Out on Golf Channel in February, the LP relishes in polyrhythms sounded throughout Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the pair have also expanded their live show to feature percussionist Eric Owusu of the Ebo Taylor Band and drummer Dodo N’Kishi. For those looking to go straight to the source though, reissue outlets like Sofrito, Analog Africa, Soundway and Kindred Spirits are a good place to start.
MORE @ LINK
Call it what you will, but there’s no denying that West African funk or boogie will light up a European dance floor—and no one knows that better than Nomad and Dirk Leyers. Operating as Africaine 808, the Berliners are particularly adept at digging out and deploying electrified cuts from throughout the African continent. As the duo told Juno recently, their party Vulkandance came from a desire to inject some life and color into the Berlin club scene, which was in the chilly grips of minimal techno at the time of its conception. Nearly seven years later, the party is still going strong, and many of the tracks featured in the guide below have been tried and tested on Vulkandance dance floors.
The exhuberant mix of styles and textures represented in Africaine 808’s selections, which range from Ghanaian proto-rap to South African “bubblegum” pop, are also representative of the pair’s debut album, Basar. Out on Golf Channel in February, the LP relishes in polyrhythms sounded throughout Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the pair have also expanded their live show to feature percussionist Eric Owusu of the Ebo Taylor Band and drummer Dodo N’Kishi. For those looking to go straight to the source though, reissue outlets like Sofrito, Analog Africa, Soundway and Kindred Spirits are a good place to start.
MORE @ LINK
Self-taught artist Thornton Dial has died [ARTICLE]
by Suzanne Van Atten
Thornton Dial, the celebrated, 87-year-old self-taught artist from Emelle, Ala., died today at his home in McCalla, Ala.
According to a 2012 profile in the AJC by Howard Pousner, Dial left school at age 12 and worked a series of blue collar jobs before launching a long career as a metal worker for the Pullman Standard boxcar factory. In his spare time he began making assemblages with found materials.
In 1987, self-taught artist Lonnie Holley introduced Dial to art collector William Arnett, who in turn introduced the world to Dial.
Dial was the subject of a retrospective show, “Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,” at the High Museum of Art in 2011-12. Spanning 20 years, the exhibition contained 59 works that ranged from drawings in charcoal and colored pencil to what AJC art critic Felicia Feaster described as “monumental, propulsive and spirited … large-scale paintings coated with tar-thick paint, insight and anger,” that addressed social injustices such as poverty, the war in Iraq and the African slave trade.
Thornton’s works are owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the High Museum of Art. His 42-foot sculpture dedicated to civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis resides in Freedom Park at Freedom Parkway and Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Thornton’s health had been declining in recent years following a stroke. When he spoke to the media at the “Hard Truths” show in 2012, he was in a wheelchair piloted by his son, Richard Dial. At that time, Dial was asked what he’d like his legacy to be.
“Think good of me, ” he said.
LINK
below: artist Thornton Dial in front of his assemblage, “Crossing Waters,” on display at the High Museum of Art in November 2012. (AJC File)
Thornton Dial, the celebrated, 87-year-old self-taught artist from Emelle, Ala., died today at his home in McCalla, Ala.
According to a 2012 profile in the AJC by Howard Pousner, Dial left school at age 12 and worked a series of blue collar jobs before launching a long career as a metal worker for the Pullman Standard boxcar factory. In his spare time he began making assemblages with found materials.
In 1987, self-taught artist Lonnie Holley introduced Dial to art collector William Arnett, who in turn introduced the world to Dial.
Dial was the subject of a retrospective show, “Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,” at the High Museum of Art in 2011-12. Spanning 20 years, the exhibition contained 59 works that ranged from drawings in charcoal and colored pencil to what AJC art critic Felicia Feaster described as “monumental, propulsive and spirited … large-scale paintings coated with tar-thick paint, insight and anger,” that addressed social injustices such as poverty, the war in Iraq and the African slave trade.
Thornton’s works are owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the High Museum of Art. His 42-foot sculpture dedicated to civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis resides in Freedom Park at Freedom Parkway and Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Thornton’s health had been declining in recent years following a stroke. When he spoke to the media at the “Hard Truths” show in 2012, he was in a wheelchair piloted by his son, Richard Dial. At that time, Dial was asked what he’d like his legacy to be.
“Think good of me, ” he said.
LINK
below: artist Thornton Dial in front of his assemblage, “Crossing Waters,” on display at the High Museum of Art in November 2012. (AJC File)
Thursday, January 28, 2016
'Breakfast At The Seashore Lunch In Antella' Betty Woodman @ Salon 94 [NYC/USA]
I. Study in White, 2014 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas; 82 × 91.5 × 16.25 inches (208 × 232 × 41 cm)’
II. The White and Black Set, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, and wood; 73 × 86 × 12.5 inches (185 × 218 × 32 cm)]
III. Wallpaper #10, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint; 108 × 144 inches (274 × 366 cm)]
IV. The Yellow Room, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, and canvas; 90.5 × 86 × 14 inches (230 × 218 × 36 cm)]
V. The Picnic, 2015 [Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas; 86 × 86.5 × 14.5 inches (218 × 220 × 37 cm)]
VI. Late August, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, wood; 69.75 × 90.5 × 10.5 inches (177 × 230 × 27 cm)]
VII. Sicilian Dining Room, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, wood; 61 × 93.75 × 10.25 inches (155 × 238 × 26 cm)]
VIII. The Wave, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint; 16.5 × 13.5 × 5.5 inches (42 × 34 × 14 cm)]
LINK
II. The White and Black Set, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, and wood; 73 × 86 × 12.5 inches (185 × 218 × 32 cm)]
III. Wallpaper #10, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint; 108 × 144 inches (274 × 366 cm)]
IV. The Yellow Room, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, and canvas; 90.5 × 86 × 14 inches (230 × 218 × 36 cm)]
V. The Picnic, 2015 [Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas; 86 × 86.5 × 14.5 inches (218 × 220 × 37 cm)]
VI. Late August, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, wood; 69.75 × 90.5 × 10.5 inches (177 × 230 × 27 cm)]
VII. Sicilian Dining Room, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint, canvas, wood; 61 × 93.75 × 10.25 inches (155 × 238 × 26 cm)]
VIII. The Wave, 2015 [glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint; 16.5 × 13.5 × 5.5 inches (42 × 34 × 14 cm)]
LINK
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)