Winter Morning Moon

One morning, shortly after the full moon eclipse, I was startled by the clarity of the moon against the deep blue winter morning sky.

The moon invoked a feeling which was both cosmic and intimate, as even the primitives would have felt hundred of thousands years ago, when they took a break of daily chores and started to contemplate:

Silke Otto-Knapp at Berkeley Art Museum

Last week, I stopped by the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) briefly and was delighted to see the special exhibit "Silke Otto-Knapp: A light in the moon / MATRIX 239" (September 30, 2011 - January 15, 2012).

The website of Berkeley Art Museum stated that:

With layered washes of similarly hued watercolors, the canvases of London-based German artist Silke Otto-Knapp seem at first monochromatic, but slight changes in light or a viewer’s position reveal figures or landscapes. Conflating the mediums of painting and performance, Otto-Knapp draws from the vocabulary of abstraction to renew our engagement in the act of seeing.

Otto-Knapp's images were extremely haunting and had a delicate beauty, even the somewhat awkward postures of the human figures hypnotized me with their inevitability and "naturalness", like the chromatic music by Bellini or Wagner.  Understated yet with myriad layers of meanings.  Never melodramatic.









There was another special exhibit, 1991: The Oakland-Berkeley Fire Aftermath Photographs by Richard Misrach, resonated with more urgency with local residents who just witnessed a fire destroying a four-story 1916 building, including all the 39 apartments and two very popular restaurants, on the iconic but economically struggling Telegraph Avenue. 

The BAM website said this about the exhibit:

In October 1991, immediately following a catastrophic firestorm that struck the Oakland and Berkeley hills, renowned Bay Area photographer Richard Misrach ventured into the fire zone armed with his eight-by-ten-inch view camera. Working alone amidst the ruins, he roamed devastated neighborhoods, recording stark vistas and intimate details of destroyed homes. The resulting images are distinguished by Misrach’s masterful framing of his subjects: the compositions are dramatic without being sensational and incisively reveal a world transformed.

Indeed, the eerie and alien landscape showed the devastation without being unduly sensational and that was a very impressive achievement:





Again, I savored the industrial, muscular looking building as much as I could because due to seismic reason, this building would cease to serve as the museum in a not so distant future.

Disorienting Timeline

Recently I read several books on Renaissance artists and I was quite disorientated by the timeline of the world history.

I had quite good education when I grew up in China and we studied both Chinese and world histories but these two strands of history lines remain disjointed and when I am confronted with historical events or figures from these two spheres, they often have struck me different senses of remoteness.

For example, the nine crusades took place from 1096-1272, during those time, China was called Song Dynasty (960-1279), which was a time the Chinese saw the prosperous trades, commerce and arts, yet constantly losing lands to the northern nomadic nations.  Song was conquered by the Mongolian.  To me, Song Dynasty didn't not invoke the romantic knight culture permeated in the ballads and epic poems such as La Chanson de Roland, or Orlando Furioso.  Rather, it was a period of familiar and tangible, a period of craftsmanship and petty bourgeoisie, not dissimilar to the Renaissance period in Europe.  We understand the joy and pain of those Chinese folks, but have hard time to understand those strange etiquette of the knightly courts and the reining ladies.


Musée National du Moyen Âge: Lady and the Unicorn

The Italian Early Renaissance occurred during 1400-90 and the High Renaissance took place in the period of 1490-1530, when China was called Ming (Dynasty) (1368-1644), which was second to the last.  Since I have learned so many dynasties and their stories preceding to it, Ming Dynasty was almost a modern time to me.  Because my knowledge of western history was confined to the ancient Greece, Roman, and a bit of Medieval time, the Renaissance time was assigned to a more ancient time frame in my mind.
The Baroque era in the west took place in the period of 1600-1700.  Thinking of Bach, Mozart.  They were relatively ancient figures.  Yet, again, in China, the last Dynasty Qing came into existence from 1644.  Comparing to all those long and varied stories of the proceeding dynasty, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was almost intimate to many Chinese.

This sense of confusion does not dissipate with my increasing familiarity with western history.  The more details I learn, the more confused I got.  This confusing sense actually is quite enriching.


City wall dated from Ming Dynasty, Xi'an, China

Colorful Leaves on Dark Road

Several days ago, after a cold shower, many beautiful red and yellow leaves rested quietly on the dark paved road, with beads of rain on them like adoring jewels.  Both lovely and melancholic.

On Authenticity and Mastery

There are a spate of news in the art world involving the authenticity of paintings by famous artists, from New York, Amsterdam and China.

The biggest news was the possible forgery story reported by New York Times, Possible Forging of Modern Art Is Investigated.  The reported said that

Federal authorities are investigating whether a parade of paintings and drawings, sold for years by some of New York’s most elite art dealers as the work of Modernist masters like Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, actually consists of expert forgeries, according to people who have been interviewed or briefed by the investigators.

Most of the works, which have sold individually for as much as $17 million, came to market though a little-known art dealer from Long Island, Glafira Rosales, who said she had what every gallery dreams of: exclusive access to a mystery collector’s cache of undiscovered work by some of the postwar world’s great talents, including Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn.

In several cases, Ms. Rosales sold the works through an art-world luminary, Ann Freedman, until 2009 the president of the prestigious gallery Knoedler & Company on the Upper East Side. Other works were sold by Julian Weissman, an independent dealer who had worked for Knoedler in the 1980s and had represented Motherwell when he was alive.

A lawyer for Ms. Rosales, Anastasios Sarikas, acknowledged that she was a target of the inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Sarikas said that his client had "never intentionally or knowingly sold artwork she knew to be forged."

The Knoedler gallery, which abruptly closed Wednesday after 165 years in business, has not been implicated in the investigation. But on Friday a London collector, Pierre Lagrange, who bought one of the works, "Untitled 1950" by Pollock, for $17 million in 2007, sued the gallery and Ms. Freedman, contending that it is a forgery. His forensic analysis found that two paints in the work had not been invented until after Pollock's death, the suit said.

Below are two of the works suspected of being forgeries, one was once attributed to Robert Motherwell and the other Jackson Pollock:


A painting no longer attributed to Robert Motherwell. [Image source: NYTimes.com]


A painting exhibited as a Jackson Pollock. In 2003, an independent art research group declined to authenticate it for a potential buyer, citing unanswered questions about its provenance [Image source: NYTimes.com]

Another story came from Beijing, China.  According to People Daily, a Chinese painting, West Lake Cooking Smoke, by Mr. LIANG Baiyun, a former student of the much more famous painter, Mr. XU Beihong (1895-1953), was being offered at Beijing Poly 2011 Autumn Auction as work by Xu, after the tinkering of signatures and other inscriptions.  People Daily elaborated that the painting had been included in Christie's 1992 Spring Auction in Hong Kong.  The original inscription stated clearly that Mr. Liang invited Mr. Xu to write more inscriptions on the painting.  It was largely due to Mr. Xu's calligraphy, the painting was included in Christie's aution.  

On December 5, 2011, when it made appearance in Beijing, the alleged Xu' painting look exactly the same as the one by Liang, [see picture below, the left was offered in Hong Kong, attributed to Liang, while the right was offered in Beijing and attributed to Xu], except for the absence of Liang's seal at lower right corner and part of the writing was changed from Liang invited Xu to write an inscription to Liang invited Xu to paint the painting.


[Image source: People.com.cn]

To my eyes, they look the same, if the images provided by People Daily were true.

The third story was the authentication of a Rembrandt painting, Bearded Old Man, which was attributed to his student(s). 

X-ray analysis revealed outlines of a self-portrait underneath the 1630 "Bearded Old Man." [Image source: Rembrandt House Museum / AP]

SFGate.com reported that

Experts have reclassified a painting of an old man long thought to have been made by one of Rembrandts' students as having come from the hand of the Dutch master himself, after X-ray analysis revealed outlines of a self-portrait of the artist as a young man underneath.

Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt Research Project cited the new X-ray scans of the painting "Bearded Old Man," in addition to stylistic analysis and circumstantial evidence in support of the conclusion.
Van de Wetering dates the small (6 by 8 inches) but emotive painting to 1630, when Rembrandt van Rijn would have been 24 years old. His reputation as a portraitist was rapidly growing and he was preparing to leave Leiden for Amsterdam, which at that time was enjoying its golden age as a major naval power.
The painting shows a man with unkempt white hair, lost in thought with just a hint of sadness.

The scans revealed what is thought to be an uncompleted self-portrait by Rembrandt underneath, though the X-rays reveal only bare outlines.

Van de Wetering said that the style and quality of the painting itself provide the strongest arguments for its authenticity, but the existence of the underlying portrait was important, too.

However, four works formerly attributed to his students - a talented group in their own right - have been reclassified as by Rembrandt since 2008, often with the help of new technology.

All these made very interesting read and challenge people's perceptions on the value of artworks, connecting to established brand (artists) or not.

Ideally, artworks should be judged by artistic merits alone but since the perception of artworks are mostly subjective and if they were a financial burden, in practice, branding was just as important.  As a painter, surely I would love to see my name as a successful brand, to enable more people to appreciate my work.  I am not guilty free from judging works by its authorship.  Therefore, I cannot condemn such tendency of human condition.

I do hope is that art buyers would buy works more relying on if the works would truly touch, impress, stun and move them, and try to be influenced by the branding less.

This discussion leads to the fourth story in the artwork, which involved one of the most influential collectors in the world, Charles Saatchi.  British newspaper, Guardian reported that Saatchi portrayed the art world as 'Vulgar, Eurotrashy, masturbatory':


Charles Saatchi has launched an incendiary attack on the buyers and dealers who populate the art world. Photograph: James King for the Observer [Image source: guardian.co.uk]

Charles Saatchi, the most important British art collector of his generation, has launched an incendiary attack on the buyers, dealers and curators who populate the contemporary art world and concluded that many of them have little feeling for art and cannot tell a good artist from a bad one.


He says: "It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, hedgefundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard." Saatchi described the Venice Biennale, scene of the world's biggest contemporary art jamboree, as a place where these people circulate "in a giddy round of glamour-filled socialising, from one swanky party to another".

"Do any of these people actually enjoy looking at art?" asks Saatchi. "Do they simply enjoy having easily recognised big-brand-name pictures, bought ostentatiously in auction rooms at eye-catching prices, to decorate their several homes, floating and otherwise, in an instant demonstration of drop-dead coolth and wealth? Their pleasure is to be found in having their lovely friends measuring the weight of their baubles, and being awestruck."

For 30 years he has been a voracious buyer of new art and was instrumental in the success of the Young British Artists movement, buying up the best of the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin and exhibiting it at the groundbreaking Sensation show at the Royal Academy in 1997.

But Saatchi says he finds the new art world toe-curling. "My little dark secret is that I don't actually believe many people in the art world have much feeling for art and cannot tell a good artist from a weak one, until the artist has enjoyed the validation of others.

"Few people in contemporary art demonstrate much curiosity, and spend their days blathering on, rather than trying to work out why one artist is more interesting than another."

The Turner-nominated artist Louise Wilson – half of the Wilson twins – said: "Many artists and art works have now definitely become a brand in a sense and some people may well go 'I'll have a Koons and a Gucci.' You can see that happening in certain contexts so in a way he does raise some interesting observations."

The curator Norman Rosenthal said it was impossible to generalise.

"It is very difficult to make a good exhibition," he said, "and the real problem is the art world has become so huge. When Charles and I were younger and doing the world of art it used to be much easier to sort it all out."

What effect Saatchi's intervention will have on a buoyant contemporary art market remains to be seen but Sarah Thornton, the author of Seven Days in the Art World, predicted it would change little.

"This is so disingenuous of Charles Saatchi because he is selling art to these people and he is their role model. I find it shocking that he would come out and say this because his gallery has become a showroom for upcoming auction lots."

Thornton said Saatchi had made many millions selling on much of his collection. "He is feeding the people he is condemning." She put his comments down to "misanthropy".

Saatchi has had a London gallery for contemporary art since 1985 in different locations including St John's Wood, County Hall and since 2008 the former Duke of York's HQ in Chelsea.

According to the Art Newspaper's survey, in 2009 and 2010 the most visited UK show was Van Gogh at the Royal Academy followed by five shows at the Saatchi.

Mr. Saatchi definitely had some point but like it or not, this trend will not change and had not changed since Renaissance time.  It was due to Da Vinci's reputation that he was invited to the French court.  Artists, who have always been relying on influential patrons and dealers to make good names for themselves, will continue to struggle to establish and nature such valuable relationship, and to adept to the rules of the art-world, despite the fact that most of them would rather spend all their time and energy their studios.

"So Low Show" at Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley

"So Low Show" of the honored students at Art Practice Department, University of California, Berkeley opened on 30 November 2011 at Worth Ryder Gallery.  There were many fascinating artworks on display.  The exhibit consisted of mostly installations and prints, one photography, several watercolors and only one painting. Tradition is definitely perceived as less edgy in academic setting for sure.  Installation, performing arts and other flashy stuff are the order of the day. Cannot blame the kids for wanting to be hip.


What I like most are two installations (see images below) - they were equally evocative and even transcendent.  Most important to me, they were beautiful to behold, which is not always the case in modern art.








Sketch, Stephanie Smith, metal, graphite

Another my favorite piece was a gesso, charcoal and graphite on canvas by Jessica Kreck below, which was beautiful, moody and mysterious.  The execution was excellent.


Untitled, canvas, gesso, charcoal, graphite, Jessica Kreck

There was a series of prints, showing various presses, by Valerie Carbajal:






Some Days are Easier Than Others (Two), Hard ground etching, 6" x 8" zinc plate, Finesse luggage bag, Valerie Carbajal


(Eight)


(Sixteen - Twenty-One)

I also like the same artist's print "We are not Equals; We are Different" below:


We are not Equals; We are Different,  Soft ground etching with embossment, Valerie Carbajal


A very fun and ambitious installation was "Home Sweet America", made of handmade wood toys, rug, flags, found furniture by Ariel Ruby.  This piece was so engaging that it was heartening to see many people stopped there to play with the toys and to color the wonderful book created by the artist.


Home Sweet America, Handmade wood toys, rug, flags, found furniture, Ariel Ruby












The more traditional works were represented by Bliss Morton, who had wonderful five watercolor and ink paintings, though I did find the most realistic one dull:


Watercolor, Bliss Morton


The Junkyard I (right), Ink and Watercolor, Bliss Morton


The Homestead, Watercolor, Bliss Morton

Other interesting ones are a side way photograph and a group of ceramic (?) plates but I did not find them very meaningful:






Another large-scaled installation strove hard to be avant-garde but the result was a mess and ugly, and I had no stomach to figure out its meanings, if any.  My loss?



Overall, it was a wonderful show and the artists ought to be congratulated for their thoughtful endeavors.