The Home of the Grid

The Mano Project
a collaborative work created
by poets C.D.Wright and Forrest Gander
and artists Rick Hirsch and Michael Rogers
at the Vignelli Center at R.I.T. in April




In my past life as an illustrator and designer, I worked on a number of publishing projects that were governed by grids created by the designer Massimo Vignelli, so I thought it was totally apt to feature a collaborative work of art that projects that familiar format in the Vignelli Center at R.I.T.  The Vignelli Center (which really should be called "The Home of the Grid") has many displays that feature the ubiquitous designs that Massimo and his wife Lella Vignelli have created over a long and adventurous career as international graphic artists.  When I was living in Manhattan the Vignelli designs were all around me on my worktable, when I went into the subway (a famous map of the NYC subway system), on the buses (watch your step!) and shopping bags (for Bloomingdales among others), and so much more.

I put a link up on this blog to the Vignelli Canon, a book with great lessons in mass communication skills and a primer for all graphic designers.  Grids help orient us in space, whether it is a two dimensional page, or a three dimensional sculpture or even a time based animation.

If you walk into the Vignelli Center during this month you will not only be in a very beautiful, tall exhibition space, but you will also find artworks by Frances and Albert Paley, and in the center of the main room a collaborative sculptural work between two poets - C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander of Rhode Island and two artists from R.I.T. - Rick Hirsch and Michael Rogers.

The Mano Project has been two years in the making - it took an initial inspiration from a poem by Forrest Gander and the creative talents of well regarded artists such as Rick Hirsch and Michael Rogers and their dedicated students to make and put the parts together out of clay and glass.

An oversize mortar and pestle dominate the tableau, which sits on a checkerboard of glass or ceramic tiles that amplify the grid of the light grey floor at the Vignelli Center.  At the opposite end of the tile "map" stand eight clear glass jars filled with grains of various colors which can remind one of a rich outdoor marketplace with piles of spices or a ritual and or spiritual place portrayed in a Persian miniature. The Mano Project throws into high relief the personal artistic alchemy that takes basic elements of the earth and creates a sensitive work of art.

Another interesting grid I found across town at 176 Anderson Avenue in the inaugural exhibition held at the Axom Gallery, in the same building as the Steve Carpenter studios.  Paul Garland is the artist
and I found the grid of small paintings quite fascinating and worth the visit.

To Spring Ahead

art critic for
The Nation,  Barry Schwabsky
visiting Rochester Institute of Technology
and the Bevier Gallery

Along with the aroma of sweet magnolias blooming in my front yard, the relative freedom of Spring has burst upon us.  It has been my plan to host Barry Schwabsky, the art critic for The Nation as my guest speaker and I am grateful that he has taken this opportunity to present a performance concerning contemporary drawing for one evening at The Memorial Art Gallery.  The specific drawings come from a Chicago collector Irving Stenn and you can look at this link for more detail:http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/stenn.


After I introduced Barry to the audience,  we heard an extended philosophical prose poem while flashing images of contemporary drawings were seen on a large screen behind the speaker.  Barry explained at the start that he had thought about researching artists to find their images and apt quotes but then determined that the best way to proceed would be to write his own statements and submit them as "anonymous quotes".  So from the stage he commenced to intone 116 of them, and with the projected drawings it was like a mental concert.  Trying to get to the heart of what the act of drawing is like - so difficult, yet so much fun!


Earlier in the day at R.I.T., Barry and I dialog on how to prepare for a life as an art critic and what the publishing field is like for this career path!  We only scratched the surface..  Upstairs in the Bevier Gallery some R.I.T. graduate students were having their Thesis exhibitions.  An Asian student, Wen-Hua Chen has painted a floral motif on a baby grand piano, surrounding her were rows of watercolors and prints as she practiced her Bach for opening night. Barry and I check out Marchelo Vera's prints and video installation talking about the tech revolution and how it effects the up-and-coming artist.

Wen-Hua Chen at the piano


At the Bevier Gallery you can find Marchelo Vera's prints which were made in collaboration with a composer,  and the prints are used as a kind of score to be translated into audible tones.  On a monitor a visitor can interact with an ongoing animation of a spinning globe wrapped with one of the print images (all very high tech) and the result is an engaging linear networking - all very black and white.
Across town, there is another exhibition that has a remarkable similarity - prints by Kristine Bouyoucos in the Project Room of the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.  Her prints in color are indebted to classical music composition and the images include parts of musical scores in tribute to the composers.


WORK IT is the show that addresses labor and employment issues for the public and artists alike now at The Rochester Contemporary Art Center.  A wall of photos by artist Clark Conde represents a kind of field guide to the working world in and around Rochester.  One photo is presented for each day of the year, along with a little story about the featured workers and what they do.  At this show there are also 3d silk screened objects that parody children's consumer products by Jonathan Stewart, some fairly straight photo realist paintings of abandoned factory sites by Morgan Craig, and map-like quilts made by Kathryn Clark that show neighborhoods in red.  Zones in these quilts correspond to foreclosed properties that draw our attention to a financial disaster that hits so many so hard.

Artist's Proof

Printmaker,
Ron Pokrasso at Rochester Institute of Technology
making a demonstration print for the Print Club

There is something very satisfying about watching a seasoned professional printmaker hand pulling a print and then presenting this work to admirers.  Hot off the press, you watch the creative process unfold and begin to understand something about the nervous system and personal aesthetic of the artist in the spotlight.  Ron Pokrasso's art is (employing basic crafty building blocks) very much like jazz - a set of improvisations that have been practiced from a variety of angles.  When you visit the exhibition  ( part of a series called "Makers & Mentors" ) now through March 18th at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, you will see prints by Pokrasso, and paintings by Robert Marx, and David Bumbeck.

Bumbeck, now in his 70's seems to be a surrealist - achieving very odd juxtapositions in the collage paintings he has hanging on the walls in this exhibition, and these works require more than one look to see the archival images mixing with the hand painted ones.

Robert Ernst Marx sits squarely in a tradition of socially conscious artists such as Ben Shahn and Mauricio Lasansky ( with touches of early Francis Bacon peeking around the edges).  Marx has been an influential teacher known for his prints ( and his long association with SUNY Brockport ) showing his work widely to much acclaim.

In this western New York region, many working artists have become celebrated teachers in the visual arts and we can see their effect on students ( hopefully providing some inspiration and practical advice along the way).  Teaching in colleges and universities has become a respectable method of making a paycheck when sales of art lag as in this recession we are living through.

Sometimes teachers can have a profound impact on the direction taken by their students.  Maybe it was timing, and the conditions warranted it, but Keith Howard at R.I.T. has started numbers of his students down a path of non-toxic printmaking.  Keith came to R.I.T. at a time when the printmaking program was being threatened and through his hard work gradually turned it around.  Non-Toxic printmaking represents a change in attitude on the part of artists who wish to use materials that won't kill them while they are in the process of making their art.  With the change of materials used in the studio - the look of the prints changed too.  Couple that with the use of the computer as a studio tool, and you have a real revolution.

I was able to capitalize on this new direction in a show I have curated for the Ink Shop in Ithaca, NY.  Not only do I feature non-toxic printmaking in my show called "Process and Purpose", but I also make a point of demonstrating how a process effects the look of these prints.  The artist becomes an inventor - creating tools and methods that will ultimately create exciting prints for collectors and the public.  "Process   and Purpose" highlights a number of artists who teach from our area including Nick Ruth from Hobart William & Smith College, Ron Netsky from Nazareth College, Keith Howard, Bernice Cross and myself from Rochester Institute of Technology - and I even introduce one of my students - Charlie Campbell - in this show.

"Process and Purpose" has over thirty-five works by other artists such as Dan Welden who has travelled worldwide demonstrating his Solarplates.  These printing plates are light sensitive and can be "developed" using sunlight and water - very environmentally conscious - and then printed like a traditionally inked intaglio plate.  When I asked Dan Welden who he has made prints for in his studio he gave me this information: " I worked with many artists over the years, including your father ( Arthur Singer ).  Most of the earlier works involved printing with Tatyana Grosman when I printed for Rauschenberg, Motherwell, Dine, Johns and Larry Rivers.  I collaborated with Willem and Elaine DeKooning, Dan Flavin, Eric Fischl, Lynda Benglis, David Salle and a whole bunch of others.... and I still do an outside edition when asked."

If you are in the Ithaca area, stop in to see my show which will be up until March 31st, or come by for my talk about the exhibition on February 23rd at six in the evening.  You can also e-mail me for further information regarding "Process and Purpose" at The Ink Shop: alan@singerarts.com

Printmaker,  Nick Ruth
at the Ink Shop in "Process and Purpose"
Ithaca, NY

On Home Turf

Sculpture and paintings by
Len Urso

Time to stroll the blocks around Art Walk on a First Friday and you encounter a real social swirl.  I am heartened to see so many people out on a Friday evening to view some art and engage with friends and family.  I even noticed that some sales were made and that should make everyone's New Years list more cheerful.  To make matters even more interesting some of the artwork one encounters on a gallery night really is worth the effort it takes to get up and go.

Len Urso has a show at The Arts & Cultural Council gallery that is refreshing, giving us a spare aesthetic that is both colorful and very engaging.  Maybe you are not used to seeing a disembodied crimson hand
at such a large scale?  The drawing of the elongated fingers could come right out of a Botticelli portrait of Venus.  This a hand that was made to wave mildly or hold flowers - not one to grasp a hammer or steer the plow.

I was surprised to see so many paintings from an artist who is more known for his metalsmithing.  It seems as though Len Urso has taken a page from the Cy Twombly notebook - so many of the works have a word or two just barely legible, but enough to create some very rudimentary poems.  Len says that he spends just as much time with the paintings as he does with sculpture, and that they are all made in the same room so it is apparent that form building and color are fundamental to this artist's life.

A few doors down, Gallery r has opened in a new space with a show titled "Prologues" by three women who have an association with R.I.T.  Robin Cass, Karen Sardisco, and Elizabeth Kronfield look remarkably copacetic, each artist's work seems to echo the others in some way.  The Gallery r space is bare concrete floors, and simple boxy rooms, which let the art dominate and speak for itself.  Robin Cass's glassworks have a touch of Dale Chihuly in them, but the color is more serious and has the effect of an autumn cornucopia.   Elizabeth Kronfield contributes interesting floor sculpture in the first room that look like basketry, but in this case they are not woven from reeds or straw but rather from steel cable cast metal on heavy weathered wood work.  Karen Sardisco, who was featured last year in a show at Nazareth College, continues her explorations in painted forms that have the effect of carefully scaled simple organisms of muted ochres and pale greys, almost as if they were seen on a slide under a microscope.

Next door at the Spectrum Gallery, Bill Edward's bring's us a selection of photo and digital works by
Stephen Foster.  Mr. Foster has many things going for him:  the early black and white silver prints have a crystal clear approach to trees and landscape that gradually gives way to a more tempered scale -  all in a modest, easily scanned format.  In the more recent work the human presence is felt as a ghost or momentary vision, the "walking man" of Giacometti, less tortured than Francis Bacon but rendered none the less into a form of abstraction.  Which brings us around to the essence of color and geometry found in the most recent digital prints on view, we have come a long way in Mr. Foster's career at that point.

Finally, on a sad note - the passing of a friend and colleague from my early R.I.T. days. Norman Williams. He leaves behind his family and colleagues who still hear his voice...

Western Swing

Herzog & de Meuron
architects
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA


San Francisco is a city with charm; it's a cultural oasis.  Our last time here,  we wanted to visit the de Young Museum but it was under construction.  Upon my return a few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the new building with its pointilist copper facade designed by the team of Herzog and de Meuron. About the only thing that remains of the previous incarnation of the de Young Museum are the old palm trees.  Now there is a large outdoor cafe with a giant bobby pin (pop sculpture) and indoors there was an opulent traveling exhibition of Venetian painting from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna as well as a historical overview of Anatolian Kilims.

On top of the educational tower is a ninth floor observatory with panoramic views of the city.  A wonderful place to stop and take in the scene.  People reach for their cameras and snap away, and I did too. You can see up the coast to the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond, when it is sunny and clear - not always possible on a point of land frequently fog-bound.

The lower level is entered by a long gently sloping staircase.
At the entrance to the  show of Venetian painting the gallery visitor finds mural size images of San Marco as well as photos from the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  Among the first paintings we encountered was a portrait of St. Sebastian by Mantegna.  This iconic painting was amazing in detail, and moving by way of the passion and pain it portrays.  Mantegna and Giotto were pivotal figures bringing perspective to spatial arrangement in two dimensional art, and the St. Sebastian portrays this new found structure.

 Andrea Mantegna, 1470
 St. Sebastian


Around the corner in the next gallery we come upon a trove of paintings by Titian, which are so sumptuous and mysterious at the same time.  I try to fathom the personalities portrayed, as Titian paints  in such a way as to reveal his subject's very nature.  A great colorist, Titian follows in the footsteps of Giorgione who also has paintings on view in this exhibition.  Old favorites are here including Titian's
"Danae" and the shower of gold, and another one of Titian's last paintings which is much rougher in texture and darker in temperament.

Titian, circa 1575


We enjoyed Tintoretto, and Veronese also in this show.  Tintoretto's Susanna ( and the elders) presages Manet, and the arrangement of bodies in space still seems so odd and staged to me.  The impression left from visiting this show is one of grand opera and drama, an archaic  and poetic realm full of human foibles and longings.

In The Loop

painting by Jim Mott


Jim Mott is the itinerant painter traveling around the countryside bartering his talents and creating his life's work.  Years ago, when I first met the artist, he had just come back from painting outdoors and I looked over his small plein air panel paintings ( which I just couldn't resist).  Jim's project is to travel and paint what he sees.  He has been around the United States, and even ended up as a subject for a "Today Show" broadcast featuring him scouting out locations and doing what he does best: landscape painting.

The Center at High Falls is hosting a selection of his panel paintings made on Jim's most recent excursions around the Inner Loop here in Rochester, and out in the suburbs.  He and I share many interests including looking for birds, painting from nature, and making observations along the highways and byways if one has the time and the inclination.

Jim is not afraid to paint outside on the snowy days as well as the balmy afternoons, and his postcard sized paintings create mini-environments and containers of light that are very convincing, but not labored.  When the paintings are at their best, they have a guileless approach to matter-of-fact realism that reminds me of the late Fairfield Porter, and the panoramas of Rackstraw Downes.

In order to fulfill his vision, Jim reaches out to people who will let him spend a few days and nights at their home; he finds the challenge of painting in a new neighborhood that is fresh to his eye.  In return for room and board, Jim leaves his hosts a signed original painting, - and then it is back to the road for his next engagement with the land.  Is this a kind of Johnny Appleseed complex?

In a way,  this is a grassroots activist at work - returning to the landscape that has nourished us, and by calling our attention to the surrounding beauty ( and which we oftentimes fail to acknowledge ) we are nudged towards responsible stewardship of our country and countryside.

But Jim is not all birds and flowers;  in fact some of my favorite images in the present show are of Rochester's landmark factories, signs and symbols, including the Little Theatre marquee, and the Rochester Art Supply store.

Thanksgiving Rush

Cy Twombly
at MOMA

Thanksgiving car traffic going into New York City is world class, and so it seems that all those people on the road were going to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) - just when we wanted to.  So we waited in line outside on a brisk day in Manhattan for the privilege of getting into the building to be able to wait in line to buy a ticket.  Then we waited in line to hang up our coats and before you knew it two hours had passed and the only art we glimpsed was a titanic sized Cy Twombly in the entry.  I felt a heavy dose of dread in the bus station that was the MOMA that day.  How did they ever spend so much money to get so little by way of public amenities for the museum-goer?  We look in vain for a place to sit after waiting in line so long.

I only glance at the Diego Rivera mural on the way up to the sixth floor to see the retrospective of Willem DeKooning.  The Rivera dovetails nicely with the social consciousness of the early DeKooning "portraits" of everyman, often dressed in ill-fitting clothes staring with distant looking eyes.  I like the cool declaration of Elaine DeKooning drawn to icy perfection in a near-Ingres like graphite drawing near the entrance of the show.  I went to see early DeKooning - before he commenced with his signature works.  I was curious to see what revelations could be found in the earliest paintings.  Could you really tell what he would become from the start?

The answer is yes, but you really must pay attention.  Even though DeKooning would try a variety of strategies to derail his natural dexterity ( he draws sometimes with his eyes closed, or while watching television ) his artwork is all about the hand and the marks it makes.  DeKooning's art has little in the way of narrative, unless you think of the story being told is an analysis of the artist's nervous system with all its characteristic ticks, jumps and jots.

In 1939 abstraction followed on the heels of the portraits, and the jump may have been precipitated by DeKooning's interaction with painters Arshile Gorky and Stuart Davis, both of whom were working on organic or biomorphic forms in their influential art.

DeKooning spends part of the late 1940's teaching at the progressive Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.  Tucked into the hill country of western North Carolina, Black Mountain would prove to be the spawning ground for a truly modern art movement that had far reaching effect in American cultural history.  Although DeKooning was there for only a short while, something happened to his paintings that brought all of his energy together with a deep gravitas that still looks terrific today.

Paintings on canvas in black and white enamel may have been my favorite things among the early work in the show.  For two or three years, DeKooning made the most of limited color, attached to severe shapes that knit together "Painting", and "Dark Pond", "Attic" from 1949, and "Excavation" from 1950. An instructive collage nearby was put together with cut out shapes and thumbtacks, and one can guess that this process helped hone the consummate draftsmanship that enables the artist to be so convincing.