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No. 019"
Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait
Photographers reveal themselves in shadows, reflections and silhouettes for subliminal self portraits. Experimenting with indirect ways to reveal themselves in the eye of the camera, the artists currently on display in "Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait" at NYC's Yancey Richardson Gallery play with shadows, reflections and silhouettes for a subliminal self portrait like Lisa Kereszi's above.
The images range from the autobiographical to the conceptual, with each artist conveying their own perception of themselves in a different way. Juxtaposition of man and beast, Finnish artist Esko Männikko catches his reflection in the dark pool of a horse's eye in "Untitled," from the series "Harmony Sisters," while photographer Kenneth Josephson casts his shadow over his infant son in "Matthew," conveying the parental bonds of care and protection. The artist as chameleon, Rachel Perry Welty disappears into her surroundings in "Lost in My Life." In "Me and My Camera," Cuban-born photographer Abelardo Morell captures his own blurred image in a viewfinder for a snapshot of self-reflexivity.
To see more of these portraits visit "Incognito" currently on view through 27 August 2010 at the Yancey Richardson Gallery
Source: Cool Hunting
Art Narratives
Consider for a moment the use of several images to convey a message, essay or story. Begin by conceptualizing a sort of “storyboard” anticipating that you’ll use a number of images sequentially. Start with assembling 3 or 4 images and work from there. You may choose to electronically sketch each piece, step back and evaluate the flow. Once done, concentrate on filling in the finer details.
Hint: Keep track of your colors and effects! Note your Pantone color numbers for standardization and unity among the array of images.
Once the image story has been completed, decided on how you wish to convey it -- in print form, as a slide show, or perhaps as a narrative video clip? The choices are bountiful.
Digital Story-telling: A Link
Vimeo
"Basquiat
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Gallery Etiquette: A Duel of Dealers and Browsers
WHEN the art dealer Holly Solomon had her gallery on the ground floor of a SoHo building, the scene got so vivid on Saturday afternoons that she put up a sign banning skateboards and fast foods. Then a kiddie stroller collided disastrously with a sculpture, and she added "No Strollers" to the list. Under it, the next day, she found a sardonic scrawl: "No People."
Things are more decorous now that the gallery is tucked away on the fifth floor of an imposing building on Fifth Avenue near 57th Street. But the face-off between people and art can still be wearing. "I don't like it when they show disrespect for the work," she said, giving voice to a certain tension that exists between dealers and their visitors, a kind of love-hate relationship that can sometimes make the weekend gallery-going experience in Manhattan a tribulation for both sides.
Dealers complain that visitors ask for prices or tips about neighborhood restaurants before they look at the art. They say they let their pets sniff, lick or chew the work, indulge in social chit-chat while they're looking, and request "something pastelly" for their living rooms.
Gallery-goers say that dealers deliberately foster a rarefied atmosphere -- what one calls the "Studio 54 mystique" -- aimed at making visitors feel it's a privilege to enter their precincts; that they assess prospective buyers by the way they are dressed, and that they make them feel, well, insecure about the art they are showing.
"I always check myself over before I visit the Mary Boone Gallery," said Marcia King, a well-groomed painter who actually seems to enjoy looking at other artists' work. "They scrutinize you like they have the profile of who's going to bomb an airplane." Other weekend gallery-goers complain about what they insist is a dress code not only at this particular SoHo emporium, but at many others, uptown and down, in which they say they are not-so-subtly given the once over by staff members.
"A lot of front-desk people size you up to see if you're stylish enough," said Patti Kolodny of Princeton, N.J. "It's like saying, 'We're very busy; is it worth spending 20 minutes with you, are you going to buy?" With her husband, Frank, she has been collecting contemporary art for 20 years and remembers the good old days when dealers said hello before you bought. "But they're in a retail business, and in this time of recession they're going to have to learn to give real service again," she added.
Mary Boone, whose SoHo establishment does not have a reputation for coziness, is unmoved by such criticism. "If people feel intimidated or uncomfortable, it's because of their own preconceptions," she said. "They buy into cliches about galleries. And I don't subscribe to the idea that people have to be educated in art to look at it. I invite all kinds of communication, except hostility. I don't like people who say, aggressively but in an uninformed way, 'You mean this is art?' "
Irving Blum of the Blum Helman Gallery on West 57th Street said he didn't give two hoots about his visitors' get-up. "Once at the Ferus in the 70's," said Mr. Blum, recalling a Los Angeles gallery in which he was a partner, "a flower-generation guy came in wearing a white robe and thongs. He was very interested in a couple of small paintings, and said he'd have to go get the money to buy them. He was back in an hour carrying a bag stuffed with $100 bills. It turned out that his mother was a Brazilian coffee heiress." Since then, Mr. Blum said, he has not paid too much attention to what people are wearing.
In the view of some seasoned buyers. "You don't act meek when you visit a gallery," said Gerald Elliott of Chicago, known for his collection of contemporary art. "If you do that, you never get by the front desk, and that's where the intimidation comes from, the kids sitting at the front desk who have a great degree of self-importance. You have to come into a gallery and assert yourself. If you can crack the front desk and get to the dealer, he or she will probably be genuinely nice. After all, we're through with the 1980's, when business was so good that they could afford to be haughty."
Still, dealers are often at a loss as to how to play host, Holly Solomon suggested. "It's hard for a dealer to decide how friendly to be," she said. "Half the time I figure if people want to say hello, they will. But sometimes they want to be anonymous. I tend to be shy myself, but sometimes I stop to talk, try to be hospitable and courteous and answer questions and maybe sell a painting. But at the same time I want to give people a little air and privacy. It's very tricky."
Anyway, how do you crack the staff at the front desk, which may itself be suffering from visitor burn-out? Irving Blum suggests. "It's important to be somewhat knowledgeable," he says. "Otherwise there just isn't enough time for the dealer to come out and focus. Or you can confess your naivete in advance of coming to the gallery. If someone calls me and says I don't know a lot but can I come in when it's convenient for you and get a brief immersion, I wouldn't resist. If you want special attention, you have to do a little homework, then call the dealer and engage him."
Source: The New York Times
How to Walk Through a Museum
How to visit or walk through a museum:
1. In every room ask yourself which picture you would take home (if you could take just one) and why. This forces you to keep thinking critically about what you are seeing. More crudely, you have to keep on paying attention.
2. Almost all museums (MOMA is one exception) hang large numbers of second-rate paintings by first-rate artists. Try to find them. Don't think it is all great, it isn't.
3. Go with a variety of people (but not all at once). It forces you to see the art through their eyes.
4. If you are visiting a blockbuster exhibit, skip room number one. There is too much human traffic, as the people have not yet admitted to themselves they don't care about what is on the wall.
A key general principle is to stop self-deceiving and admit to yourself that you don't just love "art for art's sake." You also like art for the role it plays in your life, for its signaling value, and for how it complements other things you value, such as relationships and your self-image. It then becomes possible for you to turn this fact to your advantage, rather than having it work against you. Keeping up the full pretense means that you must impose a high implicit tax on your museum-going. This leads you to restrict your number of visits and ultimately to resent the art and find it boring.
Comments are open, in case you have further suggestions for how to visit a museum.
Source: Marginal Revolution
"Once There Was a Prison"
An Unconventional Print Material
Folex Imaging has introduced a film that allows the user to produce personalized body tattoos. This material consist of a very thin adhesive film upon which an image can be printed, then peeled off and applied to skin. The best setting for printing on Folex is probably Photo Quality, but don’t forget to experiment!
Source: “Digital Photo Artist” by Tony Worobiec and Ray Spence
This page posted August 9 2010
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