David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


31 March 2016

Hand Space Touring Exhibition

               


       
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
                              
       
           

30 March 2016

Border Force and The Pointers Of View


Regarding
this scroll by Matsumura Goshun (1752-1811)
 

       
brings to mind
more such by certain 20th century border huggers, rectangle reflectors and playful edge transgressors.

               

Theatre of the Actors of Regard 
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
               
 LOGOS/HA HA
       
         
          

28 March 2016

Easter 1916 Easter 2016


All changed, changed utterly: 
A terrible beauty is born.
- W.B.Yeats


A newspaper seller outside the ruins of the GPO in the days after the Rising. Photo: 'Dublin After the Six Days Insurrection' from the Falvey Library, Villanova University
          
Easter 1916

by W. B. Yeats

     
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
That woman’s days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our wingèd horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live;
The stone’s in the midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven’s part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse —
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.


 At the prison yard in Kilmainham Gaol where fifteen rebels were 
 executed by the British after the 1916 Rising.

 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
          
      
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, January 1849

Homs, Syria 2016 :
- Russian drone survey, January 2016


click image for drone video 
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
               
 LOGOS/HA HA
       
         
          

27 March 2016

TAR SIA

   


Theatre of the Actors of Regard / SIA 
click image for more 
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 

           
   
         

26 March 2016

Contemporary Art : Looking Closely


The Fosterville Institute of Applied & Progressive Cultural Experience (FIAPCE) presents : 

A Lesson from the Sotheby's Institute of Art :
                             Malevich + text = SIA        
       
 "CONTEMPORARY ART : LOOKING CLOSELY"


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 

         

Overview


In the past 30 years contemporary art has grown to be one of the most exciting and crowded fields in the international art world. This course, intended for those already familiar with contemporary art, will begin by defining and exploring the foundations of contemporary artistic practice. Through lectures and online discussion, the course will consider the nature of the medium in contemporary art, the relationships between historical practices and current art-making, as well as performance art, sculpture, contemporary pop, and globalization. In addition to exploring these concepts students will dig more deeply into some of contemporary art’s leading lights - Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman, Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst – as well as some artists that are emerging onto the scene. Students will also actively participate in reading and analyzing texts together, including articles by leading, critical thinkers in contemporary art such as Hal Foster and Douglas Crimp.

This is an opportunity for students, artists, art professionals and collectors to look more closely at how we have come to explain the nature of the contemporary.

By the end of this course:

   *  Students will be able to identify the most significant styles and themes of Contemporary Art.
   *  Students will be familiar with the work of the most important and critically acclaimed artists of the period.
   *  Students will be able to discuss works of art using the key critical ideas of the period.


FIAPCE  -1990-  
  detail
  A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
  someone looks at something...

  LOGOS/HA HA 

           
     
         

22 March 2016

On the Beach : Australian tide disciplined (5)

        
We've been here before...

      Canute the Conservator

      Canute the King,
      Patron of the Conserved Thing,
            On a Tour of Royal Holdings
      Glanced within his Golden Mouldings.
         
      Seeing there some canvas bare,
            some cracked, some ripped, some rotten,
      Commanded all “Death Must Be Stalled
            Or Else Our Time Forgotten.”
         
      To stop the Rot
            He cast his Lot
      ‘Gainst Light and Breath and Dust:

      To Paintings, first, he offered Night,
            bid “Fix your Eyes against the Light.”
      To Viewers next he set this Hex
            “Go Cease your Fogging Blight.”
      and last, not least, to Dust released
            one word, just this:
                                                “Desist”
   

FIAPCE   -1995-   
Today we revisit that scene to note its closeness to another such : William Hogarth's 1761 engraving, 'Time smoking a Picture'.

collection : Art Gallery of New South Wales  
This animated Print was Hogarth's Subscription Ticket for Sigismunda, and is a Satire on Connoisseurs.  
It represents Time seated on a mutilated Statue, and smoking a Landscape, through which he has driven a scythe, to manifest its antiquity, not only by sombre cloudy tints, but also by a decayed canvass. "From a contempt," says Mr. Walpole, "of the ignorant Virtuosi of the age, and from indignation at the impudent tricks of Picture-dealers, whom he saw continually recommending and vending vile copies to bubble Collectors, and from never having studied, indeed having seen few good Pictures of the great Italian Masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He talked this language till he believed it; and, having after asserted as true, that time gives a mellowness to colours, and improves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained that Pictures only grew black, and worse by age, not distinguishing between the degrees in which the proposition might be true or false." It must, however, be generally admitted, whether Mr. Walpole's remarks are right or wrong, that Mr. Hogarth has admirably illustrated his own doctrine, and given greater point to his burlesque by introducing the fragments of a Statue, beneath which is written, 
"As Statues moulder into worth." P. W.   
- from 'Anecdotes of William Hogarth, written by himself: with essays on his life and genius, and criticisms on his works, selected from Walpole, Gilpin, J. Ireland, Lamb, Phillips, and others. To which are added a catalogue of his prints; account of their variations, and principal copies; lists of paintings, drawings, &c. London, J. B. Nichols,1833' 
   
The basic lesson is inscribed beneath the scene : 
     
     To Nature and your Self appeal,
     Nor learn of others, what to feel.
     - Anon
            

collection : Art Gallery of New South Wales  
    
Australian tide disciplined : how wonderful, from an Oz perspective, that Hogarth's original mirror-reverse drawing for 'Time smoking a Picture' has washed-up on these shores.
     
FIAPCE   -1995-   
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
          
   
         

18 March 2016

On the Beach : Australian tide disciplined (4)


After the previous post
            today, a praise to vigilance : 
Theatre of the Actors of Regard presents 
            The Second Enemy.

            To Viewers next he set this Hex
                     “Go Cease your Fogging Blight.”


Theatre of the Actors of Regard 

the tide of breathe 
    in
out       
    in
out       
    in
out       
    in
out       
and the old beachcomber 
( cough cough )
                 

Theatre of the Actors of Regard 

 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
          
   
       

15 March 2016

On the Beach : Australian tide disciplined (3)

              
      Canute the Conservator

      Canute the King,
      Patron of the Conserved Thing,
            On a Tour of Royal Holdings
      Glanced within his Golden Mouldings.
         
      Seeing there some canvas bare,
            some cracked, some ripped, some rotten,
      Commanded all “Death Must Be Stalled
            Or Else Our Time Forgotten.”
         
      To stop the Rot
            He cast his Lot
      ‘Gainst Light and Breath and Dust:

      To Paintings, first, he offered Night,
            bid “Fix your Eyes against the Light.”
      To Viewers next he set this Hex
            “Go Cease your Fogging Blight.”
      and last, not least, to Dust released
            one word, just this:
                                                “Desist”
     

FIAPCE   -1995-  
    click image to enlarge  

From the Collection of Holes, here's a scroll worthy of any conservator's regard. What a ripper! As well as the holes and other breakthroughs, note also the formal frame-incorporated hanging supports. Familiar?
             

collection : FIAPCE   
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...

 LOGOS/HA HA 
          
   
         

12 March 2016

First Look : Members Opening Week

                   
We're opening a new location, and
Members get the first look.
Reserve your spot at the opening celebration for The Met Breuer .
Members get first access to the iconic space, featuring inaugural 
exhibitions and performances by our artist-in-residence, Vijay Iyer.
Want to see it even earlier? Join as a Sustaining Member to explore 
the space after hours at a private viewing on March 7.
Come for the art. Stay for the Membership experience.
Browse Membership options below.

Categories

Select a Membership category below to view the benefits associated. 








Memberships
  •  $80 Met Net
  •  $110 Individual
  •  $210 Family/Dual
  •  $600 Sustaining
    •  
    Special Membership Groups
    •  $1,200 The Met Apollo Circle
    •  $3,500 The Met Apollo Circle Patrons
    •  $4,000 The Met Family Circle


Supporting Memberships
  •  $1,500 Contributing
  •  $2,500 Donor
  •  $5,000 Sponsor
  •  $10,000 Patron
  •  $15,000 Patron Circle
  •  $25,000 President's Circle

  • National and International Memberships
    •  $70 Associate
    •  $300 Friend



















                                                          Theatre of the Actors of Regard
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something...      
 LOGOS/HA HA 
     
       
           

10 March 2016

What do we see when we see a paragraph?


Artist Talk : What do we see when we see a photograph?
Tonight at WEST SPACE
Thursday 10th March, 6:30pm
Jack Brown, Janina Green, Sanja Pahoki in conversation with Kiron Robinson and Tamsen Hopkinson

Alan Sekula once said that the only thing in relation to truth that a photograph can offer is “the assertion that somebody or something … was somewhere and took a picture. Everything else, everything beyond the imprinting of the trace is up for grabbing.”  This thinking, linking the action of seeing a photograph with the action of the production of the image, has primarily underpinned the understanding of how we see a photograph since its invention.
         
The rise of screen-based technology and the effects that this had on the dissemination and encounter with images has shattered this last vestige of the unique sight associated with the “trace” as the dominant condition of seeing the photographic. The ubiquitous engagement with the action of viewing and continued circulation granted a form of ownership over the image to the individual free of the idea of the unique vision of the maker and allowed for a re-examination of the condition of the photographic – especially within contemporary art. So, if the photograph no longer represents the subject / object or the vision of the producer through its mode of production, then what exactly does it represent or do?
     
----------------------------------------------------------------
             
Last night we watched on TV the 1985 values farce 'Brewster's Millions', the Richard Pryor version.
        
With tonight's West Space panel discussion in mind, we noted with a chuckle this exchange between Brewster's self-appointed minders Spike Nolan (John Candy) and personal photographer (Joe Grifasi) as they observe Brewster purchasing an expensive rare stamp :
Spike Nolan : Maybe he's coming to his senses.
What do you think?

Photographer : I'm getting paid to take pictures.
My job is not to interpret reality.
In just these few scenes, there are lots of image formats : stamps, photographs, postcards, newspapers... and lots of regard for our meta-regard mill.
             
Brewster : Do you sell stamps?
        Stamp dealer : I think that you want
        the stationery store across the street.
        The stamps we have
        are very rare, very expensive.
How expensive?
        Well, let me show you, Mr, uh...
Montgomery Brewster.
        Montgomery Brewster! I have been
        reading about you in the newspaper.
I'd like to see your most expensive stamp.
        Ah! One moment.



        Stamp dealer : As you can see, the airplane was
        accidentally printed upside down.
        Of the 100 of these stamps
        originally printed,...
        ..this is the only known copy in existence.
        Baron Levitsky recently offered $850,000 for it
        and I laughed in his face.


        Spike Nolan : This may be the first intelligent
        thing he's done with his money.
        Maybe he's coming to his senses.
        What do you think?
Photographer : I'm getting paid to take pictures.
My job is not to interpret reality.


    
        Spike Nolan : You're a real jerk, you know that?
Photographer : Ain't that the truth.
Tell it to my accountant.
             
Lawyer reading newspaper headline : 
I'd say the stamp he's bought
is a considerable asset.
He doesn't even understand the rules
yet. Let's see him get out of this one.
        Secretary : Good morning. Here's the mail.
Thank you.
        Is there anything else I can do?
Hold on a minute.
Norris.
        Hm? 
Regards postcard picture : 
Hackensack Bulls. 
Reads other side :
"Having a wonderful time. Wish you
were here. Best wishes, Monty Brewster."

                                                          Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Lawyer : God!
It isn't an asset any more.
He's mailed it.
Get Cox over here.
        Right away, sir.
The son of a bitch.

detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...

LOGOS/HA HA