Art Foraging - The Latest Catch

Art foraging on the web...sometimes remarkable; always eclectic.

ENCINITAS, CA (AP).- The "Surfing Madonna" appeared just before Easter weekend and has been stirring a soulful debate in this Southern California beach town ever since. The striking mosaic of the Virgin of Guadalupe riding a wave was affixed to a wall under a train bridge by artists disguised as construction workers in April. It technically is graffiti that should be removed under the law. But the surfing Madonna's beauty is drawing a mass following, and even city officials who say she must go acknowledge they too have been taken by her. They have spent thousands to hire an art conservation agency to find the best way to remove her without causing damage to the art.  entire story here

 I recently discovered the work of Argentine artist Raquel Forner (April 22, 1902 – June 10, 1988), who mixed expressionist and surrealism to create her works. There isn't much biographical information on her other than this wikipedia entry, which mentions her artistic interest in the Spanish Civil War (she spent time in Spain) and in depictions of strong female images. 

(this, to me, is reminiscent of De Chirico)

And because I have a few friends who are R. Crumb fans (Susan, Joe?), here are a few images of his I discovered while art surfing recently. Enjoy!

The Official R. Crumb Website 

(worth the visit!) 

For you Brits (or world travelers) lucky enough to access it - the Tate Movie Project, because who doesn't love animation?  :-)

Art in the News

Dangerous Arts  - by Salman Rushdie - op-ed New York Times, April 20,2011

Governments of the free world must make sure artists, like Ai Weiwei, who courageously stand up against authoritarianism are safe.

China’s most famous and politically outspoken artist, Ai Weiwei, has filled the back half of London’s cavernous Turbine Hall with what appears, from a distance, to be a mass of small grey pebbles. In fact these are 100 million tiny sculptures of sunflower seeds, made out of porcelain and hand-painted by skilled artisans in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Rest of the review in The Independent here.

 Detained artist offered Berlin university post

What I've discovered about modern and contemporary art installations is that there is often more to them than meets the eye.  It's easy to stroll by or read about a particular installation and write it off as junk, label it strange or just not think about it at all. This is one such case. If you happened to be in London, at The Tate's ginormous Turbine Hall and came upon a floor covered with tiny porcelain sunflowers that you could walk upon, what would you be thinking? if you had no knowledge of the artist or his motives, would you dismiss it as ridiculous? And if you were enlightened, would that change your mind about the relevance of such an installation?

I say it all the time - no matter how strange and incomprehensible, I admire an artist's drive to create. The ability to pull off something controversial or weird or unpalatable is artistic in and of itself.  When one risks persecution and censorship at the hands of one's government and yet their vision and need to create is still unbound. That is a courageous thing. 

I am in love with Ai Weiwei's sunflowers as much as I am in love with Charles Ledray's miniature garments. And for the same reason - the unstoppable need to put their work out there for us to guess at and a lot of times, to criticize. In the case of Ai Weisei, the need to create and express has turned his government against him; their most celebrated artist. Artists risk much for many things, not the least of which is the freedom to create. I for one, am grateful for this.

In Other Art News

 A Nun Defends Serrano's 'Piss Christ', Which Was Attacked on Sunday

Artists and activists carry portraits of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, urging for his release, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong April 17, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

Artists and activists carry portraits of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, urging for his release, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong April 17, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

Bad Art or Not? A Sampling of the work of Martin Kippenberger

Vatican needs more faith in modernism 

Guardian.co.uk

Modern Art Is Rubbish - at least that's Martin Kippenberger thought

Martin Kippenberger

Zuerst die Fusse (feet+first)

Drunken Master

The short-lived German artist Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) made a rambunctious art that is of a piece with his grandly uninhibited personality. Legendary for a hard-drinking lifestyle that frequently involved singing and stripping to his underwear, Kippenberger somehow, magically, could animate a scene (notably in Cologne, his home base) with a special avant-garde creativity. He took his act around the world, and is now famous not only for an imaginary global subway system but also for artworks made on hotel stationary. The last U.S. survey of his work was held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1991, six years before he died of liver cancer at the age of 44. ...more

As I was perusing his images on the web, I did wonder why he depicted himself in underwear so often.

Further Works by Martin Kippenberger

Modern Art Is Rubbish - at least that's Martin Kippenberger thought