Only the New (art)

[Philoctetes]

I don't know if it's a misconception, or what not, but I don't care for all of the artists I posted, same goes for the music thread. I'm merely trying to get out the 'new'. Trying to open up my eyes and ears, etc.

I always try and keep an open mind about things.

[Henk]

At any rate, i did post one artist. But my knowledge on contemporary art is extremely limited.

Indeed, Hopper is not to be considered contemporary art.

[Henk]

I'm not sure what would make you think pornographic art would be to my taste.

I don't see it as pornographic, but this artist (Kirkham) tells us something about the world we live in (the banality/superficiality of it), he only uses therefor pornography so you speak.

Henk

[Philoctetes]

I don't see it as pornographic, but this artist (Kirkham) tells us something about the world we live in (the banality/superficiality of it), he only uses therefor pornography so you speak.

Henk

I really wish you wouldn't try and explain things.

[Henk]

I really wish you wouldn't try and explain things.

What's wrong with my explanations? Please tell.

[Philoctetes]

What's wrong with my explanations? Please tell.

Well the first and easiest complaint is that they don't actually explain anything.

[Josquin des Prez]

I don't see it as pornographic, but this artist (Kirkham) tells us something about the world we live in (the banality/superficiality of it), he only uses therefor pornography so you speak.

Henk

There are a lot of things about this world that i don't really wish to see. Art for me is a way to escape some of the ugliness of reality by losing my consciousness into something greater, something eternal. I remember the first day i read Kafka, i mean really it, with real understanding, i was just taken back by how sadistic it really was. That was the day i sort ran afoul with modernity in art, literature and to some extended music.

At any rate, here's a few paintings by illustrator Norman Rockwell. Not genius, but he has one of the best techniques i've ever seen:





I think it was Nabokov who said Rockwell's great technique was wasted on such light subject matters, but i find his work enjoyable nonetheless. Amusing that he suddenly became a "serious" artist when he chose to paint on the subject of racial segregation:



Really tells you how superficial the modern mindset really is.

[Philoctetes]

For the night: Helena Bulaja
http://www.bulaja.com/

[Florestan]

Art for me is a way to escape some of the ugliness of reality by losing my consciousness into something greater, something eternal.

Seconded.

I remember the first day i read Kafka, i mean really it, with real understanding, i was just taken back by how sadistic it really was. That was the day i sort ran afoul with modernity in art, literature and to some extended music.

What's so sadistic in Kafka? Anyone who had the slightest involvement with governmental, judicial or corporatist bureaucracies can testify he was a real visionary. 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

What's so sadistic in Kafka?

I suspect that "Josquin" has in mind such episodes as the whipping scene in The Trial, or the whole of "In the Penal Colony," or the way Gregor's condition in "The Metamorphosis" is made into a source of humor. (That's what comes to my mind, anyway.)

[Philoctetes]

For the night: Barthelemy Toguo
http://barthelemytoguo.com/

[Philoctetes]

For the night: Mitzi Pederson
http://www.ratio3.org/artists/mitzi-pederson

[Philoctetes]

For the night: Phoebe Washburn
http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/67

[greg]

I suddenly have the urge to roll that up...

[Philoctetes]

For the night: Ekaterina More
http://www.ekaterina-more.com/

[Henk]

Sven-Ole Frahm

http://www.gerhardhofland.com/artist-detail.php?artistid=40
http://www.galeries.nl/mnkunstenaar.asp?artistnr=28909&vane=&em=&meer=&sessionti=680325377


Sven-Ole Frahm, Ohne titel 2008, 220 x 200 cm. arylic on canvas

[Henk]

http://www.artslant.com/

Nice site about contemporary art.

[Henk]

Fukuko Harris

http://fukukoharris.com/index.php


Fukuko Harris, Construction by the Sea, 2010, mixed media on canvas, 30"x30"

[Josquin des Prez]

This is going way back in the thread, but the stuff about Japanese caught my attention.  This is a big generalisation, but generally...              uh... anyway, in Japan, a lot of people live by extremes.  Most people in the cities especially.  They work harder, play harder, art harder (huh???).  The television is busier with colours and sounds, even the decorations on vending machines are brighter, bigger, grander.  They'll be more serious, too, work harder, can be more formal than practically anyone in the US would ever be (part of this is based on having what virtually amounts to an entire separate language for formality, 敬語, kei go).  I'm only learning Keigo so far, for instance, and can barely understand anything when I try to watch clips of Japanese TV, radio, &c.  It really is almost like two separate languages, two extremes of behaviour.

I don't care for Japanese cartoons or comic books at all, but I notice in what little I'm exposed to that they tend to be extreme too: stupidly huge explosions, and so on.  Gargantuan castles, as seen above, everything has to be more, more, more.  Watch a video or look at pictures of Akihabara sometime; the Vegas strip is seen as "loud" in the US, but just do a comparison.  Yikes.  There's no district of any city that's that deliberately extreme anywhere else in the world that I know of.  And that's possibly not even the wildest area of Tokyo.

Trivia for Fun: Tokyo is not legally or technically a city.  It's technically the Japanese equivalent of a state, and in it, a lot of towns have grown together over time.  It's also not the legal capital of Japan, as Japan technically has no permanent location set as its capital.  Its capital is legally defined - at least to my limited understanding - as the last place the Diet officially met.  So if they have a quorum assemble on the slopes of Mt. Fuji for some event, I suppose that spot of ground is technically the capital of Japan until the next time they meet somewhere else.  Granted, neither of these trivia tidbits has much real-world value, just nitpicky legalities that are kind of bizarre and little-known.

This is what i picture in my head nowadays when i think about Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1CA5hFdd4

The thing is that they seem to have gotten worse. Growing up in Italy i got exposed to a lot of older Japanese cartoons, and while many of them were excessive, a lot of them usually told many good stories filled with wholesome and kind values. Today its all flash and bombast. Some form of cultural decline i guess.

[greg]

This is what i picture in my head nowadays when i think about Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1CA5hFdd4

Wow... that was just... uhh... 

The thing is that they seem to have gotten worse. Growing up in Italy i got exposed to a lot of older Japanese cartoons, and whyle many of them were excessive, a lot of them usually told many good stories filled with wholesome and kind values. Today its all flash and bombast. Some form of cultural decline i guess.

That's because you (like most people) only know about that aspect of Japan. I do like Japan's silly side, but when I started watching real anime, for example, I knew there was something more that most people don't see- a much deeper, more serious side. Here is an the opening to an anime I want to see (but it's 110 episodes long, so I won't for awhile)...

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZDpO7P65dY8
Although I find the art style ugly and am not a huge fan of wars in space, anything that starts out with Mahler 3 at the beginning (and basically has a whole soundtrack based on symphonies) while maintaining an epic feel to it definitely gets my interest.