Saturday 31 August 2013

Janaina Tschäpe / Edwin Abbot



“Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows – only hard with luminous edges – and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said ‘my universe’: but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things.” 

Excerpt from novel:
Edwin Abbot
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
1884



Janaina Tschäpe (DE/US)
Flatland
2012
mixed media on canvas
305 x 914 cm 
Courtesy of Fortes Vilaca Gallery


Saturday 24 August 2013

Erin Lawlor / Titian




Titian
The Flaying of Marsyas
c.1570-1576
oil on canvas
212 x 207 cm


Quite simply because it's all about the paint!
Erin Lawlor 2013



Erin Lawlor (EN/FR)
Flagship
2013
oil on linen
162 x 130 cm


Erin Lawlor (EN/FR)
In flagrante
2013
oil on linen
81 x 60 cm

Saturday 17 August 2013

Toon Verhoef / Clorindo Testa





Clorindo Testa
Untitled
1962 
oil on canvas 
59,1 x 45,1 cm


The first artist who had a profound influence on me was Clorindo Testa, an Argentine painter and architect. I saw his work when I was 15 in Buenos Aires, where I lived in the 60's. His work spoke of the city - its grey/white concrete walls, marked, stained, graffiti, endless featureless streets, sprawling disconsolate suburbs, dust, heat, courtyards with radios playing tango, echoing the words of Homero Manzi's immortal "Sur"...

Sur,
paredón y después,
Sur,
una luz de almacén...
 

San Juan y Boedo antiguo, y todo el cielo
Pompeya y más allá la inundación...

The idea that the experience of reality could be transformed into a non-representational image, with no narrative, was an astounding discovery for me. Then I knew I wanted to make paintings.
Clorindo Testa died in April 2013, at the age of 89.

Toon Verhoef 2013




Toon Verhoef (NL)
No title
2012

oil and acrylic on canvas
150 x 100 cm 
www.toonverhoef.com



Wednesday 7 August 2013

T.J. Donovan / Shel Silverstein





Shel Silverstein
Now Here's My Plan: A Book of Futilities
1960
published by Simon and Schuster



My contribution is the wonderful Shel Silverstein (1930–1999). Silverstein was an American poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children's books. Shel Silverstein inspired me at a very young age and shall continue to do so forever. My wife and I read Silverstein’s books to our daughter Lily every night before she closes her eyes. Silverstein speaks to both the young and the old, and most often simultaneously. He reminds us all of what’s at stake. He helps us to guide our children toward a life of dreaming, loving and standing up for what they believe in, all the while reminding us of these virtues we so often forget.
T.J. Donovan 2013



T.J. Donovan (US)
Untitled
2013
oil on canvas
123,2 x 122 x 5 cm (48.5 x 48 x 2 inches)



T.J. Donovan and his daughter Lily, Boston, MA, 2009