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- atomic elroy / Invasion of the Artists (1)
- Craig / Lawrence Weiner: a Video Portrait (1)
- atomicelroy / Why Art Happens Outside of the Classroom (2)
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- Christopher / Jurek Durczak Exhibition at UCCS (2)
Del.icio.us Links
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07.10.08
links for 2008-07-10
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“‘Daniel Libeskind’ is often described as a ‘world renowned architect’. Coincidence? A quick search of Studio Daniel Libeskind reveals over 6800 occurrences of the term within the studio’s website and press releases.”
07.03.08
links for 2008-07-03
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“War, energy, humanitarian intervention, public education, women’s reproductive rights, the death penalty … somewhere on the long list of policy positions among the presidential candidates is the arts. Or at least they are for one of them.”
07.02.08
links for 2008-07-02
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“[W]hen Bob Henry, captain of the Rachel Marie, who is in charge of towing Smithson’s island, looked out across the East River Thursday afternoon and saw another piece of conceptual art gaining on him, he did not view the development kindly.” (via kottke)
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“Last night’s bizarre fall of a five-foot wide terra-cotta sculpture by Andrea della Robbia from the wall of the Metropolitan Museum’s European Paintings wing has us a little bit worried. Does this happen a lot? Is the Met a death trap?”
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“A global team of experts has spent months analyzing color influences, from consumer electronics to international street style, to identify the hues that will define architecture and design in the year ahead” What? Where’s the magenta?
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NEWSgrist’s Unmonumental photo set on Flickr - unintended homages to the New Museum exhibition.
07.01.08
Audio: New Faculty in Conversation
For those of you who missed the opening reception of New Faculty: Matt Barton & Corey Drieth, you missed a good conversation and a change to play on Matt’s teeter-totter. Never fear! We recorded the conversation and you just need to bring a friend to play on the teeter-totter (for without a friend, it would just be a teeter with no totter). Below you can listen to and/or download the mp3 of the conversation. Enjoy!
Links
- New Faculty in Coversation / MP3 (18.9MB) / 40:36
06.26.08
links for 2008-06-26
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Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls opens today in NYC, spilling 35,000 gallons per minute over 90-120 ft. man-made waterfalls.
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“This project started out as the Milkscanner. The basic idea behind this process is that you can capture the silhouette of an object easily when it is surrounded by a high contrast fluid, such as milk or ink [and can then be] interpreted as 3D data.”
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“After two years of flux, the Dia Art Foundation said on Monday that it had hired a prominent contemporary-art curator, Philippe Vergne, deputy director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, as its director.”
06.12.08
Invasion of the Artists
This morning, the New York Times published an article about the new National Endowment for the Arts’ “Artists in the Workforce” report stating that “more Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.” The article goes on to say:
In 2005 nearly two million Americans said their primary employment was in jobs that the census defines as artists’ occupations — including architects, interior designers and window dressers. Their combined income was about $70 billion, a median of $34,800 each. Another 300,000 said artist was their second job.
In a field that doesn’t require licenses, degrees or certification (for the most part), anyone can declare themselves an artist, and many do. That is part of the beauty of the art world - it embraces its amateurs. From blue-haired hobbyists to Chelsea district veterans, all are artists. There is no such thing as an amateur or self-taught doctor (although there is one in Cloverdale, Indiana that I might argue learned medicine through Childcraft Encyclopedias and a workshop series at the community center), however amateur artists can still claim the title “artist.” Degrees are offered in art and people can be declared “masters” through such programs, but higher education is not required to be a functioning artist.
A portion of art’s longevity can be attributed to this permissiveness. Art could just as easily fall into the traps of “professional” trades: canonized methods, rote memorization and approved techniques. Many people still feel that the move into Modernism never really happened - that art’s trajectory actually followed classic and traditional norms and that what historians call Modernism was not actually art - that art is still a trade of sorts. From that view, art could be a profession that relies on licenses and certification for validation. But, art as we know it is a shifting, disagreeable, motley brew, and that is where its strength lies.
Art allows and even welcomes discord, contrasting views, challenges, schisms and varying skill and education levels. This diversity creates many entry points for people to understand and appreciate art. Therefore, Bob Ross is just as important to the art world as Gerhard Richter; Lawrence Welk is as practical as John Cage; and Carrie Ann Inaba is as useful as Meredith Monk. We’ll take all of you!
Joseph Beuys, who constantly petitioned for wider definitions of art, stated, “Every human being is an artist.” This was not meant that every person is a practitioner of traditional artistic methods, but that creativity, as a social currency, is available to all and all should use it within their fields whether it be law, nursing or agriculture. This new application of creativity was to lead to what Beuys called “social sculpture” - an all-encompassing artwork that deals with economies, societies, cultures, politics, etc.
I side with Beuys when it comes to expanding definitions of art and artists. If each person would approach problems with artistic creativity no matter their employment, rather than defaulting to threadbare traditional solutions that may not work well if at all, then society as a whole would be in a much better state. I hope that by the next census 100% of Americans declare their first profession as artist and their second job as… well, their job.
Additional Resources
- Americans, Beware! Artists Are All Around You! (New York Magazine)
06.03.08
links for 2008-06-03
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“Anne d’Harnoncourt, the director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died unexpectedly last night of natural causes at her home in Philadephia. She was 64.”
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“This week the Indianapolis Museum of Art plans to announce that it has acquired a trove of work and correspondence by Weegee, the crepuscular, stogie-smoking New York photographer.”
05.22.08
links for 2008-05-22
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“Christoph Heinrich, must be having a contest with the MCA’s Cydney Payton to see who can find the most obscure, yet internationally known, artists and bring them to Denver. Fitting this description is Bjørn Melhus, a Norwegian who lives in Germany.”
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“Add-Art is a free FireFox extension which replaces advertising on websites with curated art images. The art shows are updated every two weeks and feature contemporary artists and curators.”
05.21.08
links for 2008-05-21
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Denver’s Office of Cultural Affairs has targeted seven public sculptures for cleaning, repainting and repair in preparation for the Democratic National Convention throngs in August. The work is expected to cost about $200,000.
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“Heavy metal is driving the latest trend in art theft. With the cost of copper and other metals skyrocketing, thieves around the world are targeting outdoor sculpture to sell as scrap.”
05.20.08
links for 2008-05-20
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“Adrian Searle takes an early look at the five proposals for the Ebbsfleet Landmark and finds too many of the artists operating on autopilot.”
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“Congress is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of “orphan works†[that] would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to
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“Consequently, the copyright law only sometimes adjusts itself to new challenges in the courts or the legislature. Instead, [...] tolerance of lawbreaking has become the main way copyright is adjusting to the Internet age.”
Upcoming Exhibits
Mind the Gap
Noticing the Unnoticed
September 12 - November 22, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, September 12, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, September 12, 2008
The artists in
Links
UCCS Arts
- Heller Center for the Arts and Humanities
- Theatreworks
- Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VaPA)
Colorado Non-Profit Art Spaces
Colorado Springs
Denver/Boulder
Elsewhere
Local Art Sites
- atomicelroy
- Colorado Springs Arts Blog by Mark Arnest
- Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Blog
- DIY University
- Peak Radar
Local Media
- Colorado Springs Independent
- The Gazette
- KRCC
- NEWSPEAK
- Colorado Culture Cast
- Springs Magazine
t: 719.262.3567 /