Joan Miro: Painting and Anti-Painting, 1927-1937 (Moma)
I saw the first half of this exhibit in December, the second half today. One thing I'm gonna do this year is take notes when I go to museums- really reflect on what I'm seeing, and draw my own interpretations. I intend to add photo links to this entry. In the meantime, here is the online catalogue.
Painting, 1927. The white splash= inspiration. the rectangle= moment. the lines= discipline. the dots= the intersection, the destiny. It's an interpretation of the creative process. And it's color and it's sublime, but also miniscule. unremarkable. the grand, dramatic construction, and yet- "is this it?"
(Look up: illusionistic, as used in academic art history)
golden-brown color of unprimed canvass, evokes old newspapers or Rauschenberg
(Look up: Miro's Spanish Dancers)
portrait of a dancer- very cool
La Fornatina, Raphael
Dutch Interior (I) is PeeWee's Playhouse
Portrait of Queen Louise- He mocks the idea of a frame with a preening second frame. The corners of his room, shadeless, could be either inverted or shooting out into space. and the room is not even concrete, the black rectangle on the end- and the figure exists between the two walls.
In one of the collages... the foreground image suggests a weather vane, a direction, a field. And the background suggests planets, stars, galaxies. The circles all suggest different scales of size. The mundane and the heavenly- are they opposites or are they extensions of eachother?
His collages have some of the humor of his interiors, wuth the spareness and palette of his earlier works. You can destroy art but you cannot murder knowledge; memory, active or recessive, learned influences, learned lessons of the paint, you cannot destroy it, no matter how hard you try. The learned, the past, informs everything.
I wonder when Calder was doing his stuff. One of these collages really looks like a mobile.
It's amazing to think, when Miro said, 'these are gonna be my valedictory paintings,' that these are what he chose to make.
Head looks like a vicious storm, rain, flocks of black birds... the central black smear is like a tumor or a smokey explosion. It truly looks like the obliteration of painting.
Object, with the bone, evokes an anatomical study brief. An illustration of the creature in its native habitat, next to its scientifically dissected corpse. Morbid, morbid satire. And it forces the question, which do we prefer, which feels realer and more alive- Miro's cartoony depiction of this living creature, or the dead corpse of a bone, right in front of us?
When did Picasso make his guitar? (1912). One of Miro's reliefs is very reminiscent
I love this object. The wire makes it loook like the painting was caught in a net, as though art is a wild creature which is captured and domesticated for the pleasure of idiot strangers like me.
I really enjoy this next room in the exhibit. These are the style of Miro works that originally piqued my interest- the beautiful, fog of color backgrounds; the clean, precise, surreal shapes. March 4, 1933 is delightful. It looks like a duel between the two figures. A duel, or jousting. Or courtship even- the figure seems to swoon as the other approaches.
Such beautiful, strange creatures.
One theme of Miro's evolution seems to be a seesaw between rich, imposing color and a palette of browns, grays, raw materials. It's a palette that brings to mind Cornell, Rauschenberg, and the Dadaists.
His weird figures still exists. His relationship with appropriation changes. In an earlier gallery he made his abstract paintings based off collages of photographed objects- now those photographed objects share space within the artworks themselves, undistorted.
...it's strange seeing photos of cute girls from the 1930s. Reminds me of a conversation earlier this week with JD- think of the thousands of the most beautiful girls in history, born before photography, their faces will never be known.
When postcards of people, old fashioned romantic people, exist in the same canvass as Miro's whimsical creatures, it reminds me of Wall•E.
Pastels- and once again, a palette seesaw towards color.
The face of "woman" bears a great resemblance to the faces of Picasso's women. Not saying it's a deliberate homage- but an interesting similarity in their artistic visions.
Head of a Man- gorgeous blends of color.
His next gallery is described as a "self-orchestrated retrospective." Paintings on cardboard that seek to fuse some of his previous approaches.
One of the objects in this gallery is a sculpture of sorts, a painted tree stump with a coiled spring and some other elements. And the spring is actually trembling. It is absolutely haunting. It's like everything else here is evidence, but this object is a living witness, a participant. It reminds me so much of the earlier gallery, with the objects that evoked creatures in captivity.
The Farmer's Meal also reminds me of PeeWee's Playhouse.
Two Women is one of his most texturally interesting works, and the deep blue palette is quite beautiful.
Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement- beautiful, fierce color.
These tiny landscapes, it feels like its own planet- a weird, tiny world. There's a hotness and a dryness to most these landscapes. All of these characters look doomed, like they're lost in a desert… helpless is the word for all of this.
The Two Philosophers is funny. They look like a pair of weird idiots. There is one strange object between them, I like to think of Miro kindof mocking his audience- that the two philosophers, like any of us, are debating the meaning or identity of that weird object.
Personages attracted by the Form of a Mountain is also pretty funny. All these creatures crawling towards the mountain shape- what is it? art? power? I think of all these paintings, the sense of lost-ness, and this one is like a slice of the narrative- the characters in search of a landmark, a direction.
The Final Gallery. There truly is a sense of, recurrence and fusion. The brown, unprimed canvass palette, a focus on thick texture. Not as many of the weird characters. It reminds me of the first gallery, but now informed with the richness and strangeness of the ten years of innovation. The textural elements are much more savage- somewhat like his big ugly valedictory works. Some of the smears truly look like rocky vomit or shit.
Damn, Still Life with Old Shoe is So different from everything else he was doing. Painting from life, with intense, beautiful, hallucinogenic color. "Both still life and landscape," as moma describes it. This work makes for a fascinating epilogue- Miro has explored and conquered all of these techniques. "What's next?" someone asks. "Well," he says, "Whatever's next, of course." and then he rides off into the sunset.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
album #4
the freeep (matt pond pa)
Matt Pond PA is an old favorite of mine. They're a wintry band- there's always a sense of emptiness in their sound. a beauty and an elegance, but a lingering sense of softness, of empty spaces. They permanently define the winter of '04-05 for me, I always like to hear more of them, so I was really pleased to discover that they had a free ep (titled the freeep) available on their website. There's a yearning optimism in this album, mixed with their classic winter tenderness. There's a few instrumental tracks too, my favorite of which is #1, the album's closer. Some of the tracks are forgettable, but Hearts and Minds and First Light are especially good tracks. Good hooks, uplifting spirit. This album isn't an automatic favorite, but it's the sort of music I generally lean towards- poppy, hooky, an indie lean, an optimistic tone. I'm not gonna start grading albums, but I can't stop thinking B/B+ when I think of the freeep.
Matt Pond PA is an old favorite of mine. They're a wintry band- there's always a sense of emptiness in their sound. a beauty and an elegance, but a lingering sense of softness, of empty spaces. They permanently define the winter of '04-05 for me, I always like to hear more of them, so I was really pleased to discover that they had a free ep (titled the freeep) available on their website. There's a yearning optimism in this album, mixed with their classic winter tenderness. There's a few instrumental tracks too, my favorite of which is #1, the album's closer. Some of the tracks are forgettable, but Hearts and Minds and First Light are especially good tracks. Good hooks, uplifting spirit. This album isn't an automatic favorite, but it's the sort of music I generally lean towards- poppy, hooky, an indie lean, an optimistic tone. I'm not gonna start grading albums, but I can't stop thinking B/B+ when I think of the freeep.
Monday, January 5, 2009
album #3
dummy (portishead)
Very chill music. Indie coffee shop music. My favorite tracks are Biscuit (the song that made me want to hear the whole album), Sour Times and It Could Be Sweet. A few years ago I bought that Amy Winehouse album, because I was hungry for a particular vintage 60s Bond vibe- and it came close, but wasn't really what I liked. I got into Dummy also hoping that it would give me that fix. Sour Times probably comes closing to hitting the nail on the head. The songs in general have a darkness and a sadness to them- especially the middle of the album, which somewhat sags with loneliness. But I liked this album. The bad tracks are sad and droopy, the good tracks are sad but mysterious and sensual. I'll probably look into other music by Portishead, later in the year.
Very chill music. Indie coffee shop music. My favorite tracks are Biscuit (the song that made me want to hear the whole album), Sour Times and It Could Be Sweet. A few years ago I bought that Amy Winehouse album, because I was hungry for a particular vintage 60s Bond vibe- and it came close, but wasn't really what I liked. I got into Dummy also hoping that it would give me that fix. Sour Times probably comes closing to hitting the nail on the head. The songs in general have a darkness and a sadness to them- especially the middle of the album, which somewhat sags with loneliness. But I liked this album. The bad tracks are sad and droopy, the good tracks are sad but mysterious and sensual. I'll probably look into other music by Portishead, later in the year.
Sunday recap
This was a pretty solid day. I slept very late and didn't do too much at home, but I submitted the fount story last night, plus I saw a good improv show this evening and then performed in a pretty fun show afterwards. and I got my sweater back, lost it at the NYE party.
on Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be at a job. It's time to get back on track.
12 pm- wake up, call Juan, check if he's coming. If he's coming, spend that time reading Grant or making your 2009 album lists. If he's not coming, exercise
1 pm-groceries: chicken, milk, carrots, etc.
1.30 pm- post prez sentence and tumblr drawing. email team922 about cage. check clist/actax
2 pm- exercise, if you didn't earlier; if you did, read Grant.
3 pm- lunch and brainstorm cartoons. Translate one or two of your best ideas from December into true drafts (goal for this week: translate five of the ideas into true drafts)
4 pm- take out the trash if it's full. shower
4.30 pm- walk to 145th, copy mail key.
5 pm- listen to portishead album, and wikipedia hour. write reflections
6 pm- clean your room (good habit to stay ahead of it, always try to straighten things up) use the remaining time this hour to begin sorting your bag of papers.
7 pm- break
7.30 pm- call VK (but don't meet up tonight, need to rest).
other things to do this week: meet up with WG, get new jeans, and (probably other things I can't think of at the moment)
on Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be at a job. It's time to get back on track.
12 pm- wake up, call Juan, check if he's coming. If he's coming, spend that time reading Grant or making your 2009 album lists. If he's not coming, exercise
1 pm-groceries: chicken, milk, carrots, etc.
1.30 pm- post prez sentence and tumblr drawing. email team922 about cage. check clist/actax
2 pm- exercise, if you didn't earlier; if you did, read Grant.
3 pm- lunch and brainstorm cartoons. Translate one or two of your best ideas from December into true drafts (goal for this week: translate five of the ideas into true drafts)
4 pm- take out the trash if it's full. shower
4.30 pm- walk to 145th, copy mail key.
5 pm- listen to portishead album, and wikipedia hour. write reflections
6 pm- clean your room (good habit to stay ahead of it, always try to straighten things up) use the remaining time this hour to begin sorting your bag of papers.
7 pm- break
7.30 pm- call VK (but don't meet up tonight, need to rest).
other things to do this week: meet up with WG, get new jeans, and (probably other things I can't think of at the moment)
Saturday, January 3, 2009
album #2
feed the animals (girl talk)
This is a pretty solid album, definitely grew on me. It's not the sort of thing I inherently love, but I could imagine fucking Loving this on the dance floor.
It's a brilliant flow, it all runs from one song to the other from beginning to end. In a way, the begin-and-end marks for the songs are artificial barriers, and the entire thing is one tapestry. Also the album grows very well, each track gets more exhilirating and well crafted than the previous.
his specialty, as other reviews have attested, is mocking and undercutting the sincerity of love songs (and love itself). Some of my favorite moments are whenever he really nails the contradictions in love songs and relationships (I know that I- and I'm sure, almost all people- have had their relationships where one person is thinking 'nothing compares to you' and the other thinks 'I was gettin some head'). Of course, the contradictions aren't meanspirited or cynical, he seems to mainly have a fun, party vibe to it. it's all a big playful celebration of sexual debauchery.
Also I really loved certain moments when he sampled beats from particular pop classics that I love- come on eileen, big country, young hearts, you got it. Girl Talk reminds me of Warhol and Family Guy and generally the schools of art and pop culture that are all about reclamation and presentation and repackaging. He takes what we already love and re-presents it. So it feels natural that the parts I love most are the parts I recognize most. That's the nature of this particular art form, it encourages, and somewhat depends on, our love of the familiar. Still, I gotta credit him for remixing and mashing up with pretty sublime creativity and a relentless sense of fun.
One of the things that limits my appreciation of the album is, I'm not really a big rap fan. Or rather, I can get into the beats, but I'm not really in love with the lyrics on their own. (My tastes are generally guided by music more than lyrics- throughout this album I generally felt 'eh' about the lyrics, except when they matched particularly strong swings in the music). That said, I would like to hear mashups with more rap beats and rock lyrics, since this album was entirely the reverse
This is a pretty solid album, definitely grew on me. It's not the sort of thing I inherently love, but I could imagine fucking Loving this on the dance floor.
It's a brilliant flow, it all runs from one song to the other from beginning to end. In a way, the begin-and-end marks for the songs are artificial barriers, and the entire thing is one tapestry. Also the album grows very well, each track gets more exhilirating and well crafted than the previous.
his specialty, as other reviews have attested, is mocking and undercutting the sincerity of love songs (and love itself). Some of my favorite moments are whenever he really nails the contradictions in love songs and relationships (I know that I- and I'm sure, almost all people- have had their relationships where one person is thinking 'nothing compares to you' and the other thinks 'I was gettin some head'). Of course, the contradictions aren't meanspirited or cynical, he seems to mainly have a fun, party vibe to it. it's all a big playful celebration of sexual debauchery.
Also I really loved certain moments when he sampled beats from particular pop classics that I love- come on eileen, big country, young hearts, you got it. Girl Talk reminds me of Warhol and Family Guy and generally the schools of art and pop culture that are all about reclamation and presentation and repackaging. He takes what we already love and re-presents it. So it feels natural that the parts I love most are the parts I recognize most. That's the nature of this particular art form, it encourages, and somewhat depends on, our love of the familiar. Still, I gotta credit him for remixing and mashing up with pretty sublime creativity and a relentless sense of fun.
One of the things that limits my appreciation of the album is, I'm not really a big rap fan. Or rather, I can get into the beats, but I'm not really in love with the lyrics on their own. (My tastes are generally guided by music more than lyrics- throughout this album I generally felt 'eh' about the lyrics, except when they matched particularly strong swings in the music). That said, I would like to hear mashups with more rap beats and rock lyrics, since this album was entirely the reverse
the weekend
I got sick this weekend, so a few of my habits are derailed right now- really haven't exercised, for instance. After New Years, pretty hungover, then I spent a long, intense mix of time writing the fount story, and doing a lot of computer nonsense to kill time/take breaks from writing. then my roommate got back from vacation so we spent some time hanging out. the main accomplishments recently:
got a couple new albums (Girl Talk, Feed the Animals and Matt Pond PA, Freeep). Intense writing efforts, close to done with the fount story. Produced a few xtranormal videos with my roommate, some pretty cool little gems I think. And we brainstormed some more cartoons.
Today I'm resting up, hopefully get back on track with things on monday. Remember, you don't need to score an A+ every single day, but always make an effort to work.
Big Things for the rest of the day:
finish and submit the fount story. post prez sentence. wikipedia hour
got a couple new albums (Girl Talk, Feed the Animals and Matt Pond PA, Freeep). Intense writing efforts, close to done with the fount story. Produced a few xtranormal videos with my roommate, some pretty cool little gems I think. And we brainstormed some more cartoons.
Today I'm resting up, hopefully get back on track with things on monday. Remember, you don't need to score an A+ every single day, but always make an effort to work.
Big Things for the rest of the day:
finish and submit the fount story. post prez sentence. wikipedia hour
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Wednesday, Thursday
Wednesday: cleaned the living room, bathroom and kitchen. ate reasonably well. cartoon submission came back from King Features- no sale, but oh well, good to have tried. Party was an absolute great time, really good one.
Thursday: mostly rested off hangover. not a particularly productive day. Trying to finish this fount story tonight, that's the day's main objective. I think a few off days, considering that this is the holiday season, is acceptable. But starting tomorrow you should really throw yourself back into the patterns you want to get into- exercise, the wikipedia hour, looking up an album, and also- you need to start compiling your list of albums and list of books. this will be helped when JD gets back.
low key, unremarkable pair of days, on the accomplishment front. But things are okay. Tomorrow start gearing up again. And tonight, write your story.
Thursday: mostly rested off hangover. not a particularly productive day. Trying to finish this fount story tonight, that's the day's main objective. I think a few off days, considering that this is the holiday season, is acceptable. But starting tomorrow you should really throw yourself back into the patterns you want to get into- exercise, the wikipedia hour, looking up an album, and also- you need to start compiling your list of albums and list of books. this will be helped when JD gets back.
low key, unremarkable pair of days, on the accomplishment front. But things are okay. Tomorrow start gearing up again. And tonight, write your story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)