Art Decoded

Color Chips Rule

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:34:00 +0000

I always felt guilty walking out from the paint department of a home improvement store with a handful of color chips. I loved shuffling through them, comparing them, wondering at their subtle shades, juxtaposing them, again and again. As a child I always had a love of color, thinking that my Crayola colors looked delicious enough to eat, and now and then I bit into them, never tasting lime, only wax. More appealing than just the single color swatches in the store were the strips with bars of different values, swinging my eyes back and forth from light to dark. Seeing them brought the dawn of understanding that my professor in two-dimensional design class didn't seem to get through to me.

How to use them in my art was the challenge. Just gluing them onto paper or canvas wouldn't be good enough. The challenge was integrating them into the composition, making them emerge, or reveal a little surprise to the viewer.

Not long ago while visiting a Robert Rauschenberg exhibit, I couldn't help but step close to explore one of his collaged paintings. It was utterly sensuous, a feast for hand and eye, and rewarded me with an "aha" moment--there it was--the paint chip--embedded into the thick paint along with scraps of cloth and used coffee filters. It was a masterwork of color, texture, and value, the chips nestled in the luscious goo of paint, their subtle values meek but visible.

Naturally I went home and got out my paint swatches, intent on giving them a place in one of my artworks, an homage to my Crayola days, to Rauschenberg's daring use of the banal details of life, and that "aha" moment I hope someone else might have. Paint chip A183 became part of my collage painting , a touch of my world within rememberances of the Minoan past. A priestess brings an offering to the Goddess, amidst a background of frescoed walls, one of which is the color of A183.

Now I see that the paint chip has taken a spotlight all on its own! What better way for Sherwin-Williams Paint to market its wares than through these deliciously colored paper bits. When I first saw their commercial, I was entranced. Their ad agency, McKinney, used clever animations, precise lighting, and ingenious folds, stacks, rolls and wraps to make the paint chips into an alternative reality that appeals to everyone, especially a color-freak like me. I'm sure you'll enjoy them too.

Stonehenge In the News

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:15:00 +0000

There's been more proof that we haven't learned all there is about Stonehenge. What a surprise to find that there's yet another henge (that is, a circular Prehistoric structure) not far away from the famous stone circle with which we are all so familiar. Stonehenge's "long-lost" twin was made of wooden poles instead of monumental stones. The two structures are similar in that they are both oriented toward the sunrise on the summer solstice. It confirms the importance of the solstices to the Neolithic agricultural people of the area, and suggests that there may even more "satellite" henges. Other known wooden henges, one called Woodhenge, found in 1925 consisting of 168 post holes, and another further away called Durrington Walls, point to the possibility of more henge discoveries.

But wait....there's more! There's evidence that Stonehenge was surrounded by a barrier of hedge plantings that may have been meant to screen the rites within the ceremonial circle from prying eyes of those outside. The clue came from shallow mounds that scientists concluded were too low for fortifications, yet resembled mounds around fields that were "fenced" off by hedges.

And then there's the mound...
Last year advanced survey equipment with lasers revealed a forgotten flattened mound in the center of Stonehenge. It may have been a 5,000 year old burial around which Stonehenge was built. What's next for Stonehenge?

New Discoveries May Change Everything

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:18:00 +0000

Teaching Pre-Columbian Art this Fall will be very challenging and exciting, that's for sure. There have been significant discoveries in Mesoamerica and South America that will require some revamping of current lecture notes and excite the imagination of students new to the subject. The changes affect sites well known, like Teotihuacan, and sites not yet widely known, like the one just discovered in northern Peru.

Not that many years ago the spectacular discovery of the intact tombs of a great lord, a high priest and priestess on the northern coast of Peru stunned the world with its richness. No one could have imagined finding the intact tomb of a ruler who pre-dated them, yet that indeed has just occurred at a site called Bosque de Pomac. Even more exciting is the possibility of yet more untouched tombs in the nearby riverbed.
.http://enperublog.com/2010/07/18/new-royal-sican-tomb-discovered-in-bosque-de-pomac/

There's lots of buzz about the discovery of a royal Maya king's tomb found by noted Pre-Columbianist Stephen Houston at the site of El Zotz in Guatemala. For the first time in some 1700 years, members of the archaeological team saw the the beautiful treasures within. They estimate that because of the tomb's richness and excellent preservation, they will be studying its contents for years to come.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Archaeologists-Discover-Mayan-Royal-Tomb-147962.shtml

A tunnel with branching chambers may lead directly to the tomb of a ruler of Teotihuacan, city of legend not far from Mexico City. Nearly 50,000 articles of precious materials were found in the tunnel so far, and it will be months before they reach what may be a burial chamber. Since no images or tombs of rulers of Teotihuacan have been found, the discovery will cast welcome light on the social structure of this enigmatic civilization that once numbered about 100,000 people and declined around 750 c.e. During 800 years Teotihuacan developed into the greatest city of its time in Mesoamerica.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/travel/mexico-finds-tunnel-possible-tombs-under-ruins-839771.html

Last but not least is the discovery of a 4000 year old site in Peru which may upset long-held ideas of a peaceful early Pre-Ceramic period along the northern coast. Sixty miles north of Lima at Bandurria, thought to be one of the oldest settlements in the New World, human remains were discovered that might attest to the start of a religious tradition of human sacrifice that continued throughout Pre-Columbian history there. Some authorities caution, however, that the finds might be secondary burials, so much more work must be done to accurately interpret what has been found.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080604-human-sacrifice_2.html

These recent discoveries show how vibrant the study of Pre-Columbian art and archaeology is at this time, and interest will continue to grow in the Los Angeles area as the L.A. County Museum prepares for the opening of its spectacular Olmec show, Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico, coming in October. To make the event even more interesting the New World Archaeology Council has joined forces with LACMA to co-sponsor a two-day symposium on ancient Olmec culture. Save the dates October 22 - 23, 2010 on your calendars.

Please visit the websites provided to see exciting images of all these finds.

Sculpture Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:40:00 +0000

Happy holidays to all my visitors. Please be sure to visit the new StudioCodex.com podcast for tips on how to view sculpture.

A directory of videos

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:14:00 +0000

Studio Codex Expands
We promised you more ways to learn about art and get your creative juices going, and we hope you find that the learning materials we've developed do just that. In this blog we send you links to learning materials that build your art knowledge. Here are brief introductions to the podcasts and videos we've uploaded so far.

This video focuses on one work by Vincent vanGogh--his Bedroom at Arles. It uses techniques that help you understand and appreciate the painting, and also gives you a useful format for applying to all other artworks. This approach is termed Form and Content, which breaks artworks into their basic art components, and shows how to derive meanings and messages from them. It also gives useful background information that helps you see what things in the artist may have shaped his intentions.

It's always useful to understand the cultural context during which an art object was made, since the artist who created it was a product of his or her culture. That's why knowing something about the time's important religious, philosophical, political, and historical figures and values often helps us understand what the artist was communicating. This video is about ancient Rome and one of her great leaders Julius Caesar.

Why Go to a Museum is a basic introduction to visiting museums and galleries. It's useful to anyone who wants to learn how to enjoy the many wonderful experiences art museums have to offer.

This video focuses on one work by Leonardo da Vinci--the only one to be found in America--The Portrait of Ginevra deBenci at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. To practice developing your discerning eye, first look at the questions asked about the video. Then view the video to find the answers. This can be the same technique you use in amy museum or gallery, and sharpens your looking and helping you to engage more fully with any work of art.

An audio version of these videos will be available on iTunes soon. If you would like to download a copy of these videos for your iPod or Sony PSP, please visit video.google.com Keyword: StudioCodex.com

Changes at StudioCodex

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:45:00 +0000

Exciting things are happening at Studio Codex.com! We're in the process of broadcasting podcasts on topics that you're sure to be interested in. Look for podcasts that give you helpful information that helps you build your art knowledge, or are meant to get your creative juices flowing. Sometimes the programs will tell you about historical figures who played an important role in art's cultural context, or give you insights into the ideas, meanings, and messages of great works of art, or show you techniques artists use to create their artwork. There will also be special podcasts about actual art projects you can do yourself.

We'd be happy to get your input about our new adventure, and should you try one of our art projects, be sure to send us a digital copy that we can post (with your permission).

We'll be adding a link to this blog, so keep coming back and checking out art info your can make mobile.

studiocodex.com

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:55:00 +0000

What is Truth? Some Thoughts on the Inca Child Sacrifices

A few days ago I noticed an article about Inca child sacrifices. The lengths people go to interact with forces beyond their comprehension always fascinate me. Compared to these Pre-Columbian peoples’ practices, our society’s contacts with the supernatural appear feeble, confused and insincere. This is perhaps because a lot of natural phenomena isn’t beyond our comprehension at all—we have science. Science explains these things to us, and then we put that knowledge into practice controlling our environment with technology. Science and technology have combined to strip us of our pathways to wonder about the mysteries of the world. Add materialism to the mix, that obsession with wealth and possessions, and we see why we have lost our mystical direction. Instead, we drift into neo-paganism, become born-again Celts, and sects set up meeting houses in strip malls.

The article reported that researchers used samples of the sacrificed children’s hair to show they had been ritually “fattened up” for one year before the final Capacocha ceremony. Evidence from archaeology and Spanish chronicles tell us these children were part of the Inca worship of their powerful mountain gods, usually after some disastrous event like an earthquake, drought or epidemic. The chosen child was considered a deity and was forever immortalized. After meeting with the Inca emperor, a procession of priests, chiefs and family members would accompany the holy child on a trek up a sacred mountain, as close to the heavens as the Inca could get. At a shrine on the summit the final rituals would take place, including wrapping the child in ceremonial clothing, placing offerings of gold and silver, and feeding the child chicha to ease their death by strangulation or extreme exposure to the elements. This was sacred activity, done with deep homage, intense faith, and utmost reverence. It was the most sacred of all Inca rituals.

Of course we are repulsed by such sacrifices. Infanticide is not a practice in America, but at least once a week we hear about a child dying because of some mentally ill lunatic, violent criminal, or a deviant child predator. Indeed infanticide is a form of population control or economic necessity in places like China and India.

Our confused thinking about this story comes from cultural relativism, that is, our tendency to view the practices of others in terms of our OWN culture, not theirs. It is a remnant of ethnocentrism, the belief that our culture is superior to anybody else’s. This cocktail of narrow-minded cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, and materialism is a brew that’s bound to distort. Proof can be found in the Physorg.com site’s article. After the article’s title, Inca Sacrifices Were “Fattened Up” First, come the sponsored links of ads from Google. The Google bots grabbed some key words on the web page and offered viewers

Low GI Diet Information
I Lost 41 lbs in 60 Days
10 Rules of Fat Loss

For a small amount I can “lose 9 lbs. every 11 Days” if I “learn these 10 Rules.” Materialism at its best. I can pay money to lose the weight I gained by spending money on junk food that I was enticed to eat by watching commercials on late-night TV.

The Pre-Columbian people struggled to make sense of their world, and deal with the harsh vicissitudes of life. To appease powerful forces they could not control, they offered to those forces the most precious things they had—their beautiful children.

The final proof that cultural relativism is solidly entrenched in our discourse comes at the end of the article where readers could leave a comment. This one was posted by “Truth.”

Mayan and Inca priests of those days were simply child predators and serial killers who were given a predators dream come true, namely power, authority and an endless supply of victims by a people who didn’t know any better. Thank God the Spanish wiped them out. Think about your child being given to the predator next door for a “religious sacrifice.”

Sounds like “Truth” learned his/her Pre-Columbian history by going to the movie Apocalypto, that Hollywood mishmash filled with enough gratuitous violence to appeal to today’s American culture. We might as well substitute the Inca for the Maya as mere thugs living a brutish existence. But what really got me was Truth’s comment, “Thank God the Spanish wiped them out.”

Thatta’ way, Truth, send in the Spanish, those most prolific serial killers who had an almost endless supply of victims. Through murder and disease, they indiscriminately killed an estimated 54 million people, or 80% of the Pre-Columbian population. And that’s the truth, Truth.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:16:00 +0000

Now Banksy’s really made it in the art world. He’s been faked.

About a year ago the British tagger artist Banksy made a splash in L.A. that included a show of his work and a spree of spray-painted stencil tags in the usual gritty urban places. I wrote about the pink elephant and rat, two animals that played important roles in his visit. (See blog of 9-23-06.) Just recently, a whistleblower has outed a rat who may represent a pink elephant in the art and eBay scenes.

Banksy has used East London’s POW, Pictures on Walls, to publish prints of his work. Reading their FAQs tells us they are “a loose collection of alcoholics and show-offs,” just the edgy, nasty, anti-social bunch that would appeal to an artist who revels in anti-everything. Banksy’s frequently stenciled rat image signifies society’s outsiders who, looking in, want to expose everything that’s wrong, selfish, greedy, and decadent with our culture. But a whistleblower ratted on POW.

It seems unauthorized prints of Banksy’s work were being illegally and fraudulently sold on eBay, where not only were forged prints listed, but “shill” bids were put in that artificially increased the forgeries’ prices. To protect its buyers from such frauds, eBay’s rules have strong consequences, including account cancellation, forfeiture of fees, and referral to law enforcement. Between 25 and 100 people may have purchased the fake Banksy prints. How embarrassing for POW whose slangy policy says, “The manufacture and sale of prints on POW is in fact an extremely accountable process.” Yeah, right, this from a company that describes their facility as a “shit-hole” selling prints, “direct over the internet without the usual art world sham.”

So who’s the rat, and who’s the elephant here?

Is the “elephant in the room” that no one wants to confront eBay? By writing rules of enforcement about fraud, don’t they reveal there’s a scam problem? Is it the print studio POW who stressed they had been victims as well, yet seem to revel as the get-even outsiders who couldn’t “be embraced by the proper art world?”

And who’s the rat? The whistleblower who exposed the fraud in his or her own studio, or the selfish, greedy employees who made out by picking eBay buyers’ pockets? Or could it be Banksy, symbolized by the ever-vigilant, repugnant rat, whose art, one way or another, is still pointing out “what a horrible place the world its?”

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:55:00 +0000

Controversy at Tres Zapotes: The Olmec Head Caught in the Middle

I have a news alert out through Google for anything Olmec. Ever since the discovery of the enigmatic Cascajal tablet that most likely is proof that the Olmec had writing (See my blog of Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006), I’ve been looking for news that Pre-Columbian scholars had cracked its code. So it was with great expectations that I opened my latest alert. High expectations were not a good thing that day. They only served to enrage me when I read the story.

A group of touring Afro-Americans from “a university on wheels” was raving about the great epiphany they experienced when they witnessed the famous Olmec monumental heads at the museum of Tres Zapotes, located in the Olmec heartland along Mexico’s Gulf Coast.

“Praise be to Allah!” the article began, for Allah had helped them reconnect with evidence that ancient Africans had not only discovered America, but had been instrumental in the development of an advanced civilization that the later Maya owed a debt to. It was just as their leader, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, had revealed to them in his divine teachings.

This story is sad in so many ways. It is a litany of misunderstanding, ignorance, racial profiling, stereotyping, and rejection. It speaks of disingenuous leadership that fails to provide a sound foundation for the cultural identity of its community.

Misunderstanding and ignorance are two sides of the same coin. They are based on the inability or unwillingness to ask questions and test the answers. Cited again and again as proof of the African influence on the Olmecs is that the Olmec heads have thick lips and broad noses. Africans have thick lips and broad noses. The tourists are convinced--the Olmec trace their origins to Africa. Yet every day I see a Latino busboy in my local restaurant who, if wearing a ballplayer’s helmet, would look like an Olmec head.

This is not to say that African people NEVER traveled to the New World before Columbus. The coasts of Africa and Mexico are closer to each other than North America and Europe are. Surely seafarers and traders could have followed the ocean currents to the opposite shore. But to give possible seafarers credit for establishing the Olmec civilization is an insult to the indigenous people we know existed in the area for centuries before the Olmec flowering. In this sense, the proponents of this theory do reverse racial discrimination, being unwilling to credit these indigenous people with the capacity to form advanced societies complete with a complex social organization, monumental sculpture, architecture, and mathematics. Where, for example, do they show examples of the bar and dot numerical system being used in Africa? Why are there no monumental stone heads found in Africa? When will we see the scholarship that might also tie remote African ancestors to the ancient cultures in Cambodia and the Philippines, since their sculptures and facial features also share the thick lips and broad noses of the Africans? How would these people react to the idea that their accomplishments were not entirely their own, but were influence by African seamen?

We hear a lot today about stereotyping and racial profiling, and the accompanying outrage it evokes. But it seems that we have selective targets for our outrage, and African-Americans in Tres Zapotes aren’t in range.

Perhaps the saddest part of this whole story is the implied rejection of the wonderful traditional art and culture of the peoples of West Africa, that rich, fertile environment that brought forth the ancient tradition that was the true heartland of African-American culture. Rather than celebrating weak links to Olmec and ancient Egyptian civilizations (King Tut shown as black), why isn’t there a celebration of these profoundly spiritual, artistically rich, and culturally relevant West African peoples? How familiar are these African--American tourists with the history and art of Benin? The Bambara? The Yoruba? The Bakuba? Where are the African-American scholars and researchers who should be revealing the secrets of the Nok people, or excavating the ancient cities of Nubia? Why aren’t they working to understand the astonishing metal-working of the ancient Igbo-Ukwu people in Nigeria. This comment should spur their interest: “The high level of technical proficiency of artwork found at Igbo-Ukwu raised questions about its origins with some historians theorizing foreign influence or phantom voyagers.” Foreign influence and phantom voyagers in the African heartland? Why isn’t an Afro-American scholar pursuing this challenge to the creative and technical abilities of the indigenous Igbo-Ukwu people?

It isn’t because of lack of educational opportunities. Every black linebacker on Monday night football will proudly tell you what college or university he graduated from. Perhaps this sad state is the fault of the African-American community’s leadership which seems satisfied with smiling platitudes, as when the author of my offending article boasted that The Honorable Elijah Mohammed has also taught that the “Original man searched for trillions of years to find a mystery God.” Humm. Trillions?

So beware, you Bortox beauties with your luscious, inflated lips. You too could become another branch of the African diaspora.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:18:00 +0000

Tears for the Mosque

A student came in before class last night and said, “Did you hear that they bombed a shrine in Iraq?” The question froze me in my tracks. We had just been discussing how Saddam Hussein placed troops, equipment and explosives next to the ziggurats of ancient Sumeria, knowing how the world cherished them. My worst fears flared at his question—was it the White Temple of Uruk? The ziggurat of Ur? Images of the blasted Buddha in Afghanistan as a pile of rubble flashed through my mind’s eye.

When he said it was the Shiite Muslim mosque that had already suffered the loss of its famous golden dome, I felt guilty that I was relieved. Why lash out at a mosque anyway? It sickened my heart because we seem to learn nothing from history. We universally scorn the ignorance we see in the errors of the past, so who are the people that continue to commit such shockingly ignorant acts?

Art history is full of evidence revealing the destruction possible by retribution and hatred. Whenever we study the Head of an Akkadian Ruler, the gouged eyes and scarred metal tell of moments when anger and vengeance left their mark on art. The revolting reprisals of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar shock us today. They razed cities with fire or rerouted rivers and melted them. The destruction was brutal and staggering.

The British soldiers must have so much contempt and scorn for Egypt and her peoples’ accomplishments that they wantonly used the face of the sphinx for target practice. Was this a case of “my empire is bigger than yours?” How big is the British Empire today?

But there’s another equally destructive human characteristic that has done its share of devastation. It’s stupidity. Until the 17th century the world could see the incredibly beautiful Parthenon in Athens much like it existed when the Greeks built it around 450 bce. But in 1687 the Ottoman Turks cleverly used it as a gunpowder magazine and a stray Venetian mortar set it off.

Because there continue to be shocking, unthinkable stories assailing me every day, I find myself retreating more and more into the past. But obviously even in the past, there’s no escaping the ugliness that humans are capable of.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:09:00 +0000

What Is It About Junk?

Why can’t I resist picking up that rusty bit of something that got smashed on the Bank of America parking lot? It’s as if I dare not pass it up because it is a significant clue to a past event that posterity will surely want to know about.

I bend over and grasp it in excitement, and my mind briefly reels back imagining its history. OK, so it’s only piece of tin with small faded letters punched into it. But who owned it? How did it happen to drop to the ground? Did it come off their keychain? Was it attached to the shock absorbers of their car? Was it a zipper tab that got snagged off their jacket when it caught in the latch of their purse? What did those letters spell out? Humm….”L P”….

I have at least 3 see-through plastic containers filled with detritus labeled “Junk for Jewelry.” At night when I clean out my pockets, stuff like the mysterious L.P. metal bit gets eventually tossed into one of these bins. Months or even years later, when I sift through the debris with my fingers, sometimes those first imaginings return. More often, I re-invent stories for them as I pick them up individually and explore them close-up. None of these things really function any more. The old typewriter keys, amber with age, skin oil and abrasion, have left their usefulness far behind. How many yellowed old documents they pressed their “j” into still exist, I wonder? Who were the people who’ve left their smoothing touch on their surface? Are they still alive? What became their story? What busy hands fashioned the fingers on the bone hand? What language would they have understood?

I love everything about junk jewelry. I love its look. I love its honest and natural patina that came from age, use, and touch, not from a jar, can or stamp pad. I love its stories, both real and make-believe. I love its history. When I wear it, I become part of that history. I become a historical document, and my junk jewelry will eventually become a story about me for someone else to re-invent. Whether posterity will surely want to know that story, however, I can’t really say.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 11 May 2007 08:37:00 +0000

Making Myths Modern

It’s been said that there’s no such thing as coincidence. If that’s the case, then I have a lot of thinking to do about three occurrences. Two months ago in our Master Class, consisting of art enthusiasts and led by painter Thea Robertshaw, I asked Thea to give us an “assignment.” I thought it would be fun to have a challenge. Now that I think of it, it was something like asking your mom, “What should I draw?” To my delight she said to do an artwork about mythology. I decided to do a shrine to ancient winged figures, powerful beings from all periods of the ancient past that still exist for many today.

The next remarkable chance happening was noticing the show of Max Beckmann. It sparked that memorable moment when I fell in love with his sumptuous orange color. It moved me to add a Blog entry so I could revel in the memory.

And today, I see that Harvard University is presenting Making Myth Modern: Primordial Themes in German 20th-Century Sculpture, and in the exhibit is a sculpture by Max Beckmann. The show’s organizer Solveig Kobernick, says the works “strongly reflect the artists’ personal lives and the turbulent history of 20th-century Germany.”

These artists continued Romanticism’s use of ancient mythology to speak of “deeper truths,” that also represented the artists’ states of mind during difficult political and cultural times. For Beckmann, given the Nazi terror that ravaged German society and persecuted artists, going back to ancient stories may have been an attempt to return to simpler times, or re-discover basic truths that were being so perversely distorted.

Joseph Campbell saw four functions of myth: the mystical function, that realizes the wonder, awe and mystery of the universe and of who we are, the cosmological function that shows the shape of the universe, the sociological function that validates the social order and establishes the ethics and laws of life, and the pedagogical function that shows a person how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.

What was the motivation for my winged figure object? Flying figures are certainly mystical and magical. What exhilaration there would be to lift into the air and defy the power of gravity. Perhaps the winged figure gives a shape to my hope that there is a connection to a world beyond this one where I can be reunited with lost loved ones, and continue existing in a different form. Maybe it helps me reconcile with the fact that there will always be people who excel in areas that I fumble, and allow me accept my limitations. And, whether I can fly or not, excel or fail, regret or accept, I still have to find out how to live a life filled with abundance, creativity, optimism and joy.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:25:00 +0000

Max Beckmann’s Orange

I see that there’s a retrospective exhibition in Holland of the works of Max Beckmann. It would be a thrill to stand before his paintings again. When I last saw his work in L.A. a few years ago, I had an epiphany about the color orange as I stood before his glowing paintings. Orange (never my favorite color) had instantaneously became luscious, inviting, and yet sinister where it had been laid down by Beckmann’s brush. It impelled me to step toward it. It made me gasp in pleasure. It made me believe I had never really SEEN orange before. In that gallery, on that day, among those paintings, the oranges of Beckmann changed my reaction to that color forever, whether it’s in the produce department of Stater Brothers, the cushion aisle at Target, or in a candle display at Pier One. I judge all things colored orange to the Max Beckmann orange standard. None of them have ever enthralled me the same way.

The show at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam includes Beckmann’s Carnival triptych. This work is quintessentially Beckmann. The first thing I see is that orange. It permeates the work. Starting from the left it’s in the woman’s hair, the drapery in the mirror, smudged on her leg and the floor. In the central panel it’s centered on the round object, and peeks out in the background. It crescendos in the final panel, blazing out in the harlequin’s outfit, blowing away the thin wash in the background. Like a mesmerist, it pulls your eyes throughout the work, then blasts you with its intensity in the finale.

Beckmann’s Carnival is a summation of his mature style, one that developed in the ten productive years he spent in Holland after being branded decadent and depraved in Hitler’s Germany. Beckmann had already been creating works that expressed the revulsion and fear he experienced during WWI. Bitter and depressed like his native country, he began to create works that expressed the horrors that haunted him. In Carnival, the human figures dominate each panel, sometimes being so immense they’re cut off by the frames. Perhaps the bleak vacancies of no-man’s land he saw btween the WWI trenches compelled him to crowd the spaces of his panels with full-bodied but distorted, enigmatic figures.

As an art historian, I find it a visual treat to look for metaphoric clues artists leave embedded in their work. Beckmann’s paintings are loaded with symbolism and personal obsessions. Borrowing from the Northern Renaissance masters, he used the three-panel triptych form. Fish, horns, drums, and stringed instruments, like those used by Bosch, frequently appear with his distorted figures, along with swords, masks, candles, cigarettes, and uniforms. All is done in his signature style of harsh outlines, compressed space, and complex compositions, making the scenes grim and haunting.

Beckmann’s orange isn’t the warm, cozy color of autumn leaves, or the vibrant, happy orange of summer. The closest it comes to Feng Shui’s “social” color is that it, like Beckmann’s whole body of work, promotes conversation. His paintings still communicate to us the ideas he struggled with. How can you find any meaning in human existence? How can you survive the contradictions of the modern world? For me, I escape by going into the orange.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:18:00 +0000

Some thoughts on the WACK! show

I commend the M.O.C.A in Los Angeles for exhibiting the WACK!” show at the Geffen Contemporary. It’s a survey of the feminist art movement that made a huge impact on the art world during the 1970s. These women artists daringly challenged the art edifice by attacking long held notions.

In art history, students learn to study art using the Form and Content method, and must take into consideration the cultural context within which the artworks were made. When viewing the WACK! show, the viewer is certainly bruisingly aware of the Content. The ideas, meanings and messages are abundantly clear. The raw, angry energy, erotic stirrings, ironic juxtapositions, and metaphoric reversals stay with you well after leaving the show, so on that level the works in the WACK! exhibit are successful.

And the works certainly had an impact on the cultural context during the 70’s. They were the visual vanguard during a period of cultural revolution, when gender issues clashed with the patriarchal status quo, and feminism gave mainstream art a highly influential kick-in-the-pants. Hooray for feminist art.

Now, that leaves the Form. The art object. Here’s where WACK! disappoints. With the exception of a few notable works that stand out as vibrant exceptions, too many of the works are naïve, clumsy, strident, gratuitously repulsive, and often violent. Figures are amateurishly proportioned, brushstrokes are thoughtless, and blatant, intimate body parts leave no room for metaphor or introspection.

That said, WACK! is nevertheless an ambitious show and gives us a broad overview of at seminal moment in the history of modern art. Four hundred and fifty works by artists from twenty-one countries were assembled in a truly block-buster show that only MOCA’s Geffen Center could pull off.
Hooray for M.O.C.A.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:05:00 +0000

Stabiae—the Little-Known Jewel and the New Pompeii?

It was only a few years ago as I stood on a train platform in Naples, that I first heard there was archaeological digging going on at a buried site called Stabiae. I was trying to make sure I was in the right waiting area to go south to Pompeii. I asked a pleasant-looking young woman who spoke English if this was indeed where I should be. When I told her how excited I was about seeing Pompeii again, she mentioned she was working at an ancient Roman site further along the train route called Stabiae. She said they were in the midst of uncovering the ancient city, and that soon it would be open for people to visit.

It seems I should be making plans once again to make my way from Naples south about 30 km to what is now called Castellammare di Stabia, two and a half miles from Pompeii. But to get a glimpse of ancient Stabia’s grandeur ahead of time, there’s a four-year traveling show called “In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite” touring the U.S., and now at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin. Beautiful fresco wall paintings and reliefs with scenes of the gods are the major part of the show that was organized by the Superintendancy of Archaeology of Pompei and the RAS, Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation. Visitors will see the first treasures from the site to be shown in the U.S., and more pieces of art are heading to St. Petersburg in Russia. These exhibitions are planned to pave the way toward making the site one of the largest archaeological parks in Europe, and a major tourist attraction.

The paintings and reliefs in the exhibit come from the excavation of several sumptuous sea-view villas owned by Roman nobility in the first centuries BC and AD. In the summer months when the smell of the fetid Tiber River in Rome became intolerable, they moved south to their elegant villas along the coast, making the area the power center of the ancient Roman world for a few months. Here they schemed their politics, enjoyed their fountains and pools, bathed in saunas and indoor baths, and strolled along shaded porticoes that framed their gardens. Stunning artwork graced the interiors including frescoes, mosaics, and statuary.

After the Chazen show, the exhibit will travel to Dallas Museum of Art and the Cummer Museums in Jacksonville FL, but for now, I’ll have to be satisfied with the catalogue ($47.50 + $9.00 shipping), and updates about the excavations from the RAS newsletter and website. http://www.stabiae.org/newsletter/newsletter2.html - one
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/art/stabiae.asp

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:45:00 +0000

Summer Vacation to the Past

If you’re in the process of planning your summer vacation, and want to go to somewhere few others have visited, travel 5,000 years into the past and visit Caral in Peru. What a glorious sight it would be to witness sunrise over the ruins!

At Caral you’ll find an ancient urban center with pyramid temples, sunken plaza, an amphitheater, and a complex of housing foundations. This was a city in the New World that could rival those of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The discovery of this 163-acre city shocked archaeologists because it was dated 1500 years earlier than they ever expected. Elaborate rituals were performed atop the city’s red, yellow and white pyramids with priests moving up the steep stairways that narrowed as they approached the top. The sound of flutes could be heard, like those excavated in the city’s great amphitheater. What productions may have gone on here? Expertly engineered canals irrigated fields of cotton, chili peppers, pumpkin, squash and sweet potatoes. Extensive trading brought goods from the majestic surrounding mountains and the sea. Different neighborhoods reveal the houses of farmers, traders, artisans and elites in a well-planned city complex. Amazingly, no evidence of warfare or domination has yet to be found. Could this be the rare Utopia we’ve sought for centuries with no success?

A journey to Caral reveals archaeology at work. Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady and her team are digging through the dust of the centuries and reconstructing ruins hoping to bring an ancient society back to life. Archaeologists and trained local people guide visitors through the site, and the number of tourists has been tripling. More and more information about the startling site is becoming available, and Shady is teaming with the Peruvian government to make Caral and major visitor’s site.

Caral is 120 miles from Lima, and you can rent a car for about $35 per day to travel there on your own. Accommodations in nearby towns range from $12 to $25 per night. For $99 you can go on an all-day tour from your Lima hotel.

The time to go is now before it’s littered with souvenir shacks, and chatting tourists obstruct the awesome sunsets and imagined whispers of ancient flutes.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:26:00 +0000

Early Movies and American Art

It’s exciting to see that there’s a new exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. exploring the connection between early movies and American Art at the time. They’ve juxtaposed monitors playing the earliest films with artwork dating from 1880 — 1910, and show fascinating links between early stop—action photos and paintings by Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam and Maurice Prendergast. Hassam and Prendergast were highly influence by Monet’s and Cezanne’s use of color and paint application in small patches and dabs. The brilliance of Impressionist and Post—Impressionist paintings was partly due to the fact that the viewer’s eye blended the dabs of color. Previously, it was common to mix colors on a palette before applying them to the canvas.
By painting with dabs of color next to each other, the artists allowed the viewer’s eye to blend them. Colors became brighter because of “persistence of vision,” when the eye retains an image of the color dab for a brief moment while looking at the next. See how Prendergast used small patches of color in his work “Picnic.”

It is the same persistence of vision that creates the illusion of motion in a moving picture. The individual frames of the movie blend together because of the delay that holds an image of the frame for an instant. This momentary retention of an image, or dab of colored paint, lasts about 1/30th of a second, but that’s enough time to blend the two into a seamless unit that either fools us into seeing continuous movement, or creates the bright flash of a new color.

You can try a few interesting visual experiments to experience your persistence of vision.

Tube—o—vision:
1. Get a cardboard mailing tube about 3 inches wide and 2 feet long. This can be the tube from wrapping paper too.
2. Cut a slit in the closed end that’s 1—1/2 inches long and 1/8 inch wide.
3. Close one eye and look through the open end of the tube. Be sure to block out any light by cupping your hand around the tube and your eye.
4. When you don’t move the tube, you see very little of the outside world. But when you look through the tube as you slowly sweep the tube back and forth, you’ll be surprised at how much of your surroundings you’ll see.
5. As you swing the tube back and forth your eye’s persistence of vision holds the narrow view through the slit for 1/30th of a second, but “pastes” it over the next tiny slit view creating what appears to be a continuous image.

Have A Nice Day:
1. Cut out the two circles. Glue them back to back, but be sure one is upside down.
2. Punch out two small holes.
3. Cut two 8” pieces of string and tie them through the holes.
4. Hold the string about 2” from the circles and spin them to see the message.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:08:00 +0000

The Eames Chair Turned 50!

It’s hard to believe that the Eames Chair is 50 years old! Can it really be? It was first debuted on the Today Show in 1956. That was the era of Doo Wop music, pompadours, poodle skirts and fins on automobiles, yet the Eames chair is still a fashion icon. While few women would wear their poodle skirt anywhere but a 50’s party or costume contest, almost anyone would welcome the elegant, leather upholstered rosewood veneered chair in their home in a minute.

Eames originally designed the chair as a birthday gift for his friend film-maker Billy Wilder so he could comfortably watch TV. Eames said he wanted it to have “the warm receptive look of a well used first baseman’s mitt.” Instructions that come with the chair suggest you clean its soiled leather with a damp, soft cloth lathered with a mild soap and lukewarm water. Sounds just like how I took care of my old mitt. But this birthday gift became one of Eames’ most important designs and is today regarded as an icon of modernism. It is part of the permanent Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:54:00 +0000

Ancient Romans Speak---Through Graffiti

Today most people think of graffiti as something to be painted over as soon as it appears, but, perhaps in years to come, it may be a vault of knowledge about our popular culture. This has been the case for Roman graffiti that was scratched into the plaster of pubs, homes, brothels, tombs and workshops. So vital is it for understanding the pop culture of ancient Romans, that over 180,000 such inscriptions have been collected and catalogued in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of
Sciences and Humanities. The collection is called the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, or “the Corpus,” and researchers throughout what had been the Roman Empire are still copying carvings and engravings from tumbled and recycled stones. Scholars have made remarkable insights into the everyday lives of Rome’s common folk.

So what kind of tidbits were scratched into Ancient Rome’s plaster? Brags about the quality of one’s vinyard; a man’s infatuation with his girlfriend; laments for a dead child, recommendations for certain prostitutes; advertisements for baked goods; prayers from gamblers and gladiators, and curses cast upon thieves.

So next time you’re in a restroom and see the writing on the wall, think about how a researcher in the future may use it to speculate about who we were.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:40:00 +0000

Explore the World of Artists’ Books

Book by Lorena Lowe

Artists’ books have become a unique genre of art making in recent years, but, depending on how you define them, they have a long history going back to the medieval period and the Irish monks, or to the 19th century and William Blake’s self-published poems and illustrations, or to the Surrealist publications of Marcel Duchamp, or to the 1960’s in L.A. with Ed Ruscha. Starting in the 1970’s, however, the idea of making an art object in some book form, had growing appeal to artists in many different fields because of its flexibility. No single material or set of rules, or accepted format limited what could be done. The book format itself is hard to define, and can include, among other things, the codex, or scroll, with bound or unbound pages, with or without pages, and with or without text. Artists working in drawing, painting, printmaking, fiber arts, poetry, sculpture, design, graphics, watercolor, or collage could see book arts as an intersection where they could explore, integrate and transform ideas in limitless ways to express their ideas. The popularity of book arts can be seen in the exhibitions that continue, the library and art museum collections that began, the college and university programs that were founded, and the growing interest in book arts among the general public.

The beauty of the artist’s book is that it can be a source of expression for non-artists too. Get inspired to make your own book by visiting these sites:

See the many possibilities of book structures in this collection.
Art Books

Here artists created unique books based on the works of well-known scientific discoveries.
Art Books

Take an e-visit to the Getty Museum’s artists’ book collection by clicking here.
Art Books

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:27:00 +0000

How Wildfires Help Art

I know, I know, it’s hard to find any value in run-away wildfires like the ones we’ve recently seen across the country, but there’s a surprising benefit to ancient art that they bring. Considering how devastating fires can be, they nevertheless reveal treasures to archaeologists because they eliminate the dense cover that hides the last vestiges of lost civilizations.

Some archaeologists estimate they find four times as many sites after fires than they do using survey archaeology, that is, walking the area looking for clues like gently sloping house mounds or remnants of fire pits.

While many of the finds laid bare by the flames are small collections of flakes from stone tool making, or the remains of a kitchen midden, even these are useful for piecing together the everyday lives of ancient peoples. But sometimes much larger discoveries are made. For example, a recent fire north of Los Angeles in Los Padres National Forest revealed an unknown gold mining camp and homestead from the 1800s. Outside of San Diego archaeologists discovered heavy stone walls indicating some kind of early fortress. In nearby Cleveland National Forest boulders and artifacts revealed a Kumeyaay Indian site that had never been mapped. (Find out more about these early California people at Kumeyaay and learn about their ancient past and thriving culture today).

Many groups must work together to reap the benefits of wildfires. The Forest Service, fire crews, archaeologists and tribal members join together to protect potential sites from damage, and oversee their excavation and preservation. After artifacts and sites have been revealed they must be protected from looters who defy the law and scavenge for arrowheads, pottery, and anything else that can be sold for profit on the Internet, even as they destroy the precious remains that are often our only clues to the past.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 06:00:00 +0000

Is This Poetry?

Look again at this drawing of signs found on an Olmec carving. Art Decoded’s September 20th blog mentioned the Science article that suggested this stone may be the oldest Olmec writing found. Dated around 900 bce, it not only pre-dates the writing we’ve already found, but also suggests there must be much earlier writing around—if only we could find it.

But in a recent report from Brown University, another look at the stone reveals that some glyphic symbols are arranged in a way that suggests poetry. Repeated glyphs might represent repeated sounds like those used in poetic couplets. Here’s an example:
There was a Young Lady of Norway,
Who casually sat on a doorway;

Can you spot the repeated glyphs? This might be an interesting exercise for artists—create symbols for concepts and arrange them in a visual poetry.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:58:00 +0000

Easy Tips For Planning Your Art Work

We’ve seen those funny cartoons showing an artist with his or her thumb in the air, or making frames around things with their hands. What’s that all about? They’re using two simple and immediate ways to check their compositions! Use your hands to check the composition of this still life.

You can use your thumb to add or subtract something. Place it over the small dark bottle then look at the picture as a whole. You’ll see how the whole thrust of the picture shifts to the other side. Now “put the bottle back” by removing your thumb and you’ll see how the picture rights itself.

Now make a “frame” of your hands and play with changing the size of the canvas. Notice that if you eliminate some of the table, the bottles appear uncomfortably crowded.

One more easy way to check your composition is to rotate the work in all four directions. Sometimes you’ll be surprised to see that a “hole” or blank spot appears in one position—a blank spot you didn’t notice when you had it “right-side up.” That blank spot is a clue that you need to spend a little more time composing that area. How? Make a nearby shape larger. Add another related shape there. Take something else away on the opposite side. The possibilities are endless, but many must be tried, because that blank spot is telling you something important.

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 06:16:00 +0000

L.A. Got Banksy-ed

What's that live pink elephant have to do with the British tagger Banksy? Isn't he the guy whose chosen animal is the rat--symbol of those other repugnant creatures like graffiti artists and unkempt, baggy-pants teens? Well, maybe both animals are what Banksy's all about. If he sees the rat as representing those obnoxious outsiders who are constantly criticizing, carping and condeming society's conventions and mores, the elephant is also a potent metaphor. It's the "elephant in the dining room," the hugely important family issue that no one is willing to confront and air out during communal time around dinner. It represents what society cannot or will not face--the great issues that so deeply affect the artist. His subversive art challenges the injustice and cruelty he sees all around him. "Essentially, it's about what a horrible place the world is, how...pointless life is." Scanning the blogs and articles about Banksy's "Barely Legal" show, people were certainly focusing on that elephant. But they didn't seem to really get the point it made.

See photos of Banksy's L.A. tour at

http://flickr.com/photos/45208212@N00/

noreply@blogger.com (CK Roemer) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:22:00 +0000

Olmec Writing Tablet Found!

Around 3000 years ago, the Olmec people of ancient Mexico were thriving in their homeland along the Gulf lowlands. Here they built some of the earliest New World cultural centers with pyramids, massive stone altars and colossal heads, and here they established the foundations of Mesoamerican civilization. Now there’s one more accomplishment of the Olmecs that can be added to their list of innovations—writing. That’s the conclusion of scholars after the discovery of a spectacular engraved stone tablet found in a rock quarry.

Although the tablet, dated around 1000 bce to 900 bce, is relatively young compared to the Old World civilizations like the Sumerians and Egyptians, it nevertheless puts these New World people among the ranks of cultures that established a “full-blown written language,” said archaeologist William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire. The 26-pound tablet is the size of a legal pad, and is covered with 62 symbols arranged horizontally. There are 29 distinct glyphs, some repeated up to four times, that create what appears to be a kind of text.

It’s not surprising to scholars that there’s evidence of the Olmecs having a writing system. After all, they were skilled observers of the sky, had a calendar, and understood the idea of zero. And for people who figured out how to make paper around 1500 bce, it would make sense that writing might be a reason for it. For more information, visit The Los Angeles Times.com