Reality TV hits art world

I have recently started to watch the newest reality TV show from Bravo, "Work of Art; The Next Great Artist". Bravo brought together the production company of Sarah Jessica Parker, Pretty Matches, together with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves who produces "Top Chef" and "Project Runway" This hour long contest pits artists against each other to produce artwork alla Project Runway. The format is almost exactly the same but instead of clothing these artists are supposed to be making works of art. The winner of the competition gets a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn  Museum and a cash award. The casting of course was picked to get some variety so you have the older fine artist, the whacked performance artist and everything in between.

I think I am enjoying  the show, but as an artist myself I find most of these artists missing the mark on the assignments.  What I see lacking in the work so far is heart. To me an artist is someone who visualizes what is in their heart and soul. There is no heart or soul in the artwork shown so far.

This last episode was really bad as the artist were to make "shocking art" but then Bravo censored the images on the broadcast, Huh? Why even have the episode if you are going to censor it. And besides, not a single piece was shocking. The winner of the competition was according to the judges,  the most shocking but really missed. His concept was wonderful but execution failed. It really felt as if  this episode was a promotion for photographer Andres Serrano. If you don't know his name you'll know one of his pieces. His most famous is "Piss Christ", a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of his own urine. This caused great controversy when first exhibited. The work was sold for $162,000 in December 1999 in London.
(An aside here, Andres Serrano needs to come to my exhibit in August and see where the cucifix is submerged!)

Anyway, I digress. The show is supposed to push the artist to create works of art on a budget and on a time schedule. The budget part shouldn't be a problem for most artists becasue, lets face it, artwork isn't selling like it used to. The time crunch is interesting but for an artist with an idea and who can work smart, it shouldn't be a problem.

My problem with the show is not only the censorship by Bravo TV, but the lack of any real substance in the artwork so far produced and also the serious, TV attitude of the judges. There comments are rehearsed and practiced and really are meant only to keep the TV audience watching not to be a constructive critique of the artwork. From Bravo's website, the judges are as follow:

Hosting this new series is art enthusiast China Chow. She will serve on the judging panel alongside art luminaries Bill Powers, a New York Gallery owner and literary art contributor, Jerry Saltz, current art critic for New York Magazine, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, esteemed curator and owner of Salon94 gallery. World-renowned art auctioneer Simon de Pury adds his voice of experience as a mentor to the contestants.

So I am very curious to see how this reality show progresses and to see the impact, if any on the art world.

I am checking out Work of Art's website waiting for the application for the next season if there is one.
It might be time I put my camera where my mouth is, oh wait, I already do that.
August 14th, Censor This II, fetish and fantasy" opens at the ArtHouse Lounge in Harrisburg!

Looking to see you there!

Photograph above ©Bravo TV

Andy Warhol - Pro or Con

Recently the show,  History Detectives, launched its new show. They are investigating the claim that a ceramic chip, smaller than a postage stamp and bearing drawings by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, David Novros, Forrest Myers, and John Chamberlain was secretly attached to the craft used for the 1969 Apollo 12 moon landing by an Grumman aerospace engineer. It is a cute story and should make for some possibly interesting TV since there really isn't anything else on.
But reading about this made me think a bit more about Andy Warhol himself and my thoughts on him as an artist.


We all have seen his Campbell's Soup cans from 1961 and all the hype over his pop art explosion but was he this great ground breaking artist or just a fantastic salesman?

Andy Warhol began as a commercial illustrator. His first exhibit was in 1962 when he showed his 32 Campbell's Soup cans in a museum in Los Angeles. And in fact the bulk of his work was produced in a six year span until 1968 when he was shot.

His view on the his art was that we are bombarded with advertising images so much and we experience things through this to the point where the image is lost and becomes banal. He wanted to show the condition of mass advertising and it's effect on human perception. At least that is what he said.

 He shifted from objects to portraits of famous people; Marylin Monroe, Liz Taylor and Jackie Kennedy just to mention a few. he even tried his hand at photography, and films, all with his eclectic visual bent.

He died in 1987 and was more of a "personality" in the New York art scene than an actual artist. People would flock to see him siting in "Max's Kansas City" and were deeply moved if he made eye contact with them. He was the personification of celebrity, he wanted his "15 minutes of fame", which he coined, to last a lifetime.

He was born of an immigrant family in the blue collar town of Pittsburgh and moved to New York after studying illustration at Carnegie Institute of Technology. His drawings of shoes for advertisements in the 1950's got him the attention needed to spawn his art career. His attention stayed with advertising but took a slanted view of mass marking. 

Warhol once said, "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.

 A  1964 exhibit The American Supermarket, a show held in an Upper East Side gallery, was presented as a typical U.S. small supermarket environment, except that everything in it – from the produce, canned goods, meat, posters on the wall, etc. were created by six prominent pop artists of the time, among them Billy Apple, Mary Inman, Robert Watts and Any Warhol.

Warhol's painting of a can of Campbell's soup cost $1,500 while each autographed can sold for $6.
By the way, in 2009 His painting, "Eight Elvises" sold for $100 million, yes, $100,000,000. That is a lot of zeros.
The exhibit was one of the first that directly confronted the general public with both pop art and the question of what is art.

The more I research and read about Warhol the more I feel he just capitalized on what would sell. I agree that his original vision was something a bit unique, even though Monet had similar views in some of his work. But I think he was a product of his time and environment. The New York art scene in the 1960's was ripe for change and someone as eccentric and with the marketing savvy as Andy Warhol definitely was able to take a bite out of the Big Apple and the art world.

All of this was actually escalated in on June 3, 1968 with the assassination attempt by Valerie Solanas who was a member of The Factory art scene and founded a movement called Society for Cutting Up Men (S.C.U.M) Do you think she had issues? Supposedly, she gave a script she wrote to Warhol to look at in the hopes of making it into  film with him, somehow the script was "misplaced".

With the assassination attempt, his sexuality and his knack for self promotion, Warhol was destined to be famous.

My question is this, was he a genius artist or just in the right place at the right time and mearly a decent illustrator with a bit of PT Barnum in him?

What are your thoughts?

Art Photography Auction

As readers of my blog know there are many photographers who have influence the way I see and shoot. Ansel Adams, Minor White, Paul Strand, Helmut Newton just to name a few. But, none of these has influence me more than Robert Mapplethorpe.

Mapplethorpe was always an artist, creating beautiful and thought provoking collages, but did not pick up a camera until he was in his early twenties, starting with Polaroid images and making decorative and interesting frames out of the actual film casings. 

He is best know for his frank portrayal of the homosexual leather scene but he also had a wonderful way of lighting a subject, which sometimes got lost due to the frankness of his subject. But it wasn't only male nudes he photographer, some of his most beautiful images are of statues and flowers. Whether it be a male nude, or a flower, this sense of lighting and stark focus on the erotic around us has greatly influence my work and especially the current exhibition I am working on. So, it was wonderful to see that one of Mapplethorpe's  flower images, Calla Lilly, 1984 is going up for auction at the Heritage Auction, on June 9th in Dallas, Texas. The images is expected to sell for between $30,000 and $40,000. and to be the highlight of the auction.
As a photographer whose life was cut short at 42 at the hand of AIDS and who has been maligned after death due to his subject matter in showing a lifestyle that many don't even know exist, it is wonderful to see that their are still people out there who respect him for the photographer, the artist he was.

Mapplethorpe's image along with images by Irving Penn, Yousuf Karsh, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon represent some of the most famous and influential photographers ever.

I really wish I could be there and see these images and watch the gavel fall being envious of anyone who can afford such wonderful works of art.

Photography, for a long time during it's early years, was not consider a true fine art. But, photographers like these are the ones who helped make it a legitimate art form and have paved the way for me to do what I do.

Lately, with the digital mass marketing camera revolution, photography has become watered down and common place but it is my hope that this auction can spark the flame to those creative and innovative photographic artists to produce work that is inspiring, emotional, controversial and beautiful.

I know I will never stop shooting and my wife will probably find me dead either in my dark room or with a camera in my hand. My hope is that she will be right there beside me when I go and I am sure we will be well into our 80s by then. And I will still be photographing naked, beautiful people!

Thank you Robert.

No Freedoms in Amarillo Texas

A few weeks ago my wife and I were watching a news program, 60 Minutes or 20/20, when they talked about a  fundamentalist Christian group in Amarillo Texas. They have been compared to radical militant and terrorist organizations. They have played a role in the closings of a strip club and of a swingers group.  Last New Year's Eve about two dozen Repent Amarillo protesters spent New Year's Eve carrying signs, singing and praying outside a business in downtown Amarillo that they claim is a swinger's club. Repent Amarillo's director David Grisham said his group objects to the nonmonogamous lifestyle. Grisham said he's never been in the building but has heard stories about what goes on in there. He heard what goes on, he had no idea of what was actually happening. But not only did they protest outside the club, they photographed people coming in and out, wrote down license plate numbers and thoroughly harassed these people who wanted nothing but to have a good time. The authorities new about the party and all the proper permits were filed, but this radical group decided to target them and infringe on their rights. They went to the Amirillo zoning board and made this group "Route 66" jump through hoops to receive the proper zoning permits.  Repent Amarillo cost the club tens of thousands of dollars in renovation costs to bring the building up to code. After Repent members showed up at parties 32 times, many of Route 66's members left, afraid of being harassed and possible harmed. The Route 66 club was operating as a business, and, with only a few customers left, its owners were left with no choice but to close their doors and sell the location.

This is only one example of how the extreme Christian right feels that they are better than everyone else in the United States and can take it upon themselves to violate the rights of law abiding citizens.

Part of their mission statements states, "It is a ministry committed to the fulfillment of Christ’s commandment of the great commission. As Christians, we cannot stand by and watch 67,000 of our neighbors walking through the gates of hell. A soldier for Christ fights a spiritual battle. The enemy is not our fellow man but the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world . Our mission is to do battle with the lies of the enemy. To do battle with the corruption of this world"

This they call spiritual warfare.

Their website has militaristic theme musics and gun shots all dressed in fatigues.

Again, from their website:

Some of the possible missions that these two groups may be called upon to work will be some of the following:

1. Gay pride events.

2. Earth worship events such as “Earth Day”

3. Pro-abortion events or places such as Planned Parenthood

4. Breast cancer events such as “Race for the Cure” to illuminate the link between abortion and breast cancer.

5. Opening day of public schools to reach out to students.

6. Spring break events.

7. Demonically based concerts.

8. Halloween events.

9. Other events that may arise that the ministry feels called to confront.

Are these this the corruption of the world? Gay Pride events, Earth Day, Halloween and of course the one event that will send you straight to hell, the "Race for the Cure"

But of course they know they are doing the right thing becasue the leader of this group, Davis Grisham, heard the word of God.

"I heard the Lord speak to me," says Grisham, "not in my ear, but in my spirit, asking ‘David, what do you see?' " Grisham says that he "knew it was the Lord speaking," and he answered that he "saw the ruins like the gravestones of a dead, godless society.

"The Lord gave me a revelation immediately, and the revelation exploded in my mind," says Grisham

Normally when someoone hears voices they get put them on some serious medication, but not the Christians, it seems every evangelical out there has heard from God.

It is funny that the first thing you see when you get on their website after the militaristic theme and the gun shots is a soldier and a PayPal link for donations.  That is the one thing this group and all the other evangelistic groups seem to need, money.

Repent Amarillo is being allowed to proliferate through Amarillo Texas becasue it seems that the city council is either too scared or spineless to defined the innocent from such a barbaric group. Oh I forgot, they are Christians they are the good guys... Bull Shit. When someone tells me that they are nice becasue they are Christian I fear them more than any Islamic Jihad.

I am getting so sick and tired of people doing thoughtless and cruel things to other human beings in the name of God. This group is just another in a long line of misguided religious zealots and those who have followed much like the Reverend Jim Jones in his compound in Jonestown,  Guyana, South America.

We must speak out against this oppression and not let these right winged, ultra conservative, liberals take away our freedoms of speech, religion and sexuality.

Vanity Cards

I like to relax with a good TV program, something that can make me laugh, make me cry, make me think or take me away from the everyday bullshit of life. The last few years my wife and I have found a few good comedies that do not insult our intelligence and are genuinely funny. I am referring to the Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. The later particularly touches home because one of the characters is a 16 year old boy and well, we just happen to have one of those.

One thing we like to do after the program has ended is pause the TV and read the vanity cards. These are writings by the writer and producer Chuck Lorre. At the end of these shows is his commentary on whatever he feels like writing about. They are always funny and some of the time make you think. What is even funnier is sometimes his vanity cards are censored so the only way you can read them is on his website, chucklorre.com.

I suggest that you take the time and go to his link and read some of these vanity cards. You'll find yourself laughing out loud. You have a bad day, read a vanity card, you'll find some wonderfully funny and sometimes deep ideas about the world around us. A recent vanity card, #286 had a series of what seemed to be random thoughts that popped into his head such as, "In public bathrooms I will sometimes use the "children's urinal" in order to feel like a giant." and "I've never understood why anyone would bother making a porn movie that lasts longer than ten minutes." And then there is vanity card #280 in which Chuck Lorre goes on talking about getting old. One line rang a bell with me, "You know you're getting old when... You throw your back out on the toilet. You shave your ears."

So my suggestion is first, watch  Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, and secondly go to chucklorre.com and read his vanity cards. It sure beats watching a Youtube video of a cat on a skateboard, and won't  kill off any brain cells.

 The photo above is from Big Bang Theory and property of Chuck Lorre Productions.

Is Photography Over?

Is Photography Over? That was the question that a panel at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art asked.

The answers were varied and thought provoking.

Photography in general terms can refer to art photography, iPhone snapshots, X-rays and MRI imaging so is photography over, of course not. But is the art of photography coming to an end, I fear it is.

SFMOMA curator of education Dominic Willsdon emphasized digital technology as an anxiety-inducing novelty that made the question "Is Photography Over?" seem timely.  The panel's  reasonable presumption seemed to be that everyone in the audience has seen and snapped, so many digital photographs that of course photography wasn't over.

SFMOMA associate curator of photography Corey Keller suggested revising the title to, "If something with photography is over, what is it?"

Curator and New Yorker contributor Vince Aletti stated,  "What is over is the narrow view of photography - the idea that the camera is a recording device, not a creative tool, and that its product is strictly representational - not manipulated, not fabricated, not abstract ..."

So what is over? What has died? In some of this panels views and my own it is the photographer, not the medium itself.

Corey Keller mentioned that as a curator, she has seen in unsolicited submissions "an incredible decline in quality, because photographers don't know how to make their own prints."

This is something I have been saying for years, that the advent of the digital, "do-it-all" camera has the photographers of today relying on technology and not artistic talent. The images seem flat, cold and unrefined.

New York Museum of Modern Art photography curator Peter Galassi said "Digital is insuring photography's future life." Which led to an exchange in which Keller mentioned that the digital generation simply dumps pictures much more easily and frequently than its predecessors.

As a photographer of over 25 years I have seen the loss of quality and technical standards due to the digital era. No one needs to really look at lighting or a subject, they just click and keep clicking till they fill a memory card. Then they pick the handful of images that by shear luck, turned out good and dump the rest.

The timeliness of this symposium for me is perfect as I am currently working on an exhibition that will be almost 100% shot on film and developed by hand in my own darkroom.  I will admit that after being in the digital world for the past 6 years I am a bit rusty but pulling out my light meter, checking exposure times, and the actually slowing down of the photographic process has opened my creative mind back up. Photography for me is new again and I am in love with it as I was back in 1984 when I had my first solo exhibition.
I had a shoot yesterday with a few models and they actually had never seen a film camera before. They were amazed at the shear size of my Mamiya  RB67 and then that I could only shoot 10 images and had to reload. But in this slowing down of the process they also were able to think more about their poses, feel and refine them and actually became more connected with me the photographer.

I hope that panel discussions like this continue in galleries and museums all across the world. Photography fought to become a respected art form for many years and now that is has, lets not loose it.
I feel I owe it to the ones who went before me and blazed the trail. Artists like Minor White, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and of course Robert Mapplethorpe.

To read more about this discussion you can visit the art critics for the San Francisco Chronicle, Kenneth Baker, Chronicle Art Critic

FYI-The image I used in this blog was one I shot in 1989 on film and ten scanned for posting.

The State Seal of Virginia - The cover-up

My wife sent me a link to a post by NPR about how Virginia's Attorney General, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II wants to "cover-up" the state seal.

It seems that Attorney General Cuccinelli doesn't like that the dominant woman who is standing on top of a submissive male is also partially topless. Now the state seal of Virginia has been around for over 150 years but the recently elected Attorney General feels it is naughty and should be covered up. His idea was a armored breast plate. Kind of a kin to Zena the warrior princess.

My thought is doesn't he have something better to do with his time? I mean he is the Attorney General of Virginia. he might have a few other things top worry about than censoring the state seal. The city of Richmond alone has a murder rate that is 6.08 times the national average. (cityrating.com)

So to make this a priority in his administration might becasue he wants to shield his SEVEN children from seeing the drawing of a bare breast. Yes, I said seven children. A devout Roman Catholic, I think he is is some sort of a race with Mel Gibson.

I hope he directs his attention to more pressing matters like getting the common name of the bird Parus major changed. The name of course would be the Great Tit!