Inspiration

Went to the Guggenheim Exhibition on Saturday, definitely the better way to spend an afternoon –

Exceptional exhibition and I loved it, thought there was the occasional “Well F*ck Me?” moments of serious indecision – Not so much a case ‘I don’t like the colour’ or ‘not quite sure what the artist is saying here’, more along the lines of ‘I think the janitor left his equipment out last night and some gave it a name’.

I heard someone pass comment that a friend had briefly left her child unattended in its pram at a similar exhibition some years ago, to more closely inspect brushwork or something of a technical nature and had turned back to find a small crowd gathered around the pram and commenting on the composition.

Anyway, I think the favourites (hope I can get the pics up too). – which meant I stood there with my lower jaw around my neckline was Morris Louis’, Saraband, - (Acrylic resin on canvas ) The colour was so quietly luminescent; you could almost feel the faintest of breezes drifting from beneath it.

The other that caught my eye was a Sol LeWitt , (photo is not a Pic of the one I saw on Saturday but it is very similar) grid of pencil hatching so simple in design and so pale compared to the hyperactivity of its neighbours - many people seemed to miss it entirely. It was beautiful, and tragically I think temporary also – the wall it was drawn on being a structural fixture of the exhibition. If I wasn’t renting, I would attempt my own sad comparative on the lounge room wall at home.

Sadly the Jackson Pollack’s left me cold, which is a pity as I usually don’t mind his stuff – but the only one I remember from the exhibition was just too flat and too grey and just too like a badly copied print really – which is no doubt how the artist intended it to be because the man is very competent but I think he could have easily gotten the same effect using a cheap colour photocopier.

Many of the extreme moderns don’t do it for me either, flat geometric colour. Can’t see the point really, with no tones, or hues or depth and once you’ve covered all the basic geometric shapes and colours well I can’t see the point of continuing really. You feel like saying move on or move up or out, maybe follow Picasso and expand on the idea.– okay so may the first person to think of this as art was making a point, and that’s fair, much like the person who invented disco however some thing only really need to be discovered once don’t they?

There was also this rather unoriginal, by Felix Gonzalez--Torres, Untitled (Public Opinion), 1991. Black rod licorice candy, individually wrapped in cellophane (endless supply).
These lollies were spilled casually into a small corner of the exhibition (can’t believe I found a Pic of it but I did) and lit artistically from above by a wall light. Unoriginal cos I’ve seen the same thing done with pebbles and tin cans and you name it if it can be piled in can be lit from above – Only difference with this one was it was being consumed as it was being viewed – I don’t know if this was indeed kosher but security seemed to have given up policing the edibles and the sign to the left did say ‘unlimited supply”. I heard objections from one woman while her partner was filling his pockets, pointing out the bullet point clearly stated this exhibit was first produced in 1991 and she was sure the sweets were well passed their use-by date. - Is there a use-by date as far as sugar is concerned?

There was a lot to take in and I did neglect to purchase the brochure which would have been sensible for future recollection but I was inspired to go home and on Sunday I gessod up all my flat canvas surfaces and coated all my paper mache bowls in preparation for creation and colour.

I spent six hours I think glued to the coffee table, almost literally cos that stuff dries like plaster, and also applied fresh layers of colour and dots and ink to previous unfinished numbers and I’ve started 50x50cm piece and so far I have the most beautiful burgundy scratched through to a deep brown. A work in progress - I don’t know whether to go for the warmer companion tones of oranges and pinks or hit it with something to make it vibrate – although this approach in the past has given me headaches.

In the meantime I have my Bunbury Sunset to go on with next Thursday at class – Am feeling truly motivated and can’t wait to get back to it . I do have one small issue though and that’s how do I Gesso out of the carpet?