A wonderful exhibit in NYC

Mosqueteros: Later Work of Pablo Picasso at the Gogosian in Chelsea
March 26 - June 6, 2009
522 West 21st Street

This free show of more than a hundred of Picasso's later works (1962-72) is a revelation. After walking through the pieces -- small prints to very large canvases -- one can only marvel at the brilliance of his last years. The work comes in reserved earth tones and bright splashy colors but is always filled with whimsy. A character -- perhaps Picasso -- appears throughout with his little mustache and a glint in his eye. It is raunchy, it is fun, it is lecherous and it knocks you over. That's not to say there aren't some failures; he produced too much for everything to be top notch but the hits are home runs.

Walking through I kept grinning and laughing. I imagined this randy, mischievous old man, brush in hand having the time of his life as he threw paint on canvas after canvas saying "I'll show those bastards!" It is truly a must see.



Buste, 1970
Oil on canvas
39 1/2 x 32 inches (100 x 81 cm)

© 2009 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS ), New York

One of those pieces...

...that comes together very quickly. I had thought about what I wanted to do and did a preliminary sketch. Still I did this in one evening. How many paintings do I have that I've spent hours and hours on without success? Too many, so it is nice to have something some together quickly. This is a continuation of my recent work on portraits.

Untitled as yet. Acrylics and ink on canvas. Perhaps 24 x 18.

Vote for your favorite 20th century artists

The TimesOnline of London is having a contest to select the best visual artists of the 20th Century. They started with a list of 300 -- painters, sculptors, photographers and graffiti and video artists. So far more than a million people have voted.

Sadly there are problems. First the site sucks and the list is problematic. It's hard to see the second half of the list (starting about M). I was unable to vote for Lee Krasner no matter how many times I clicked on her name and half the time her name disappears from the list entirely. I know I voted for Morris Louis but he disappears too. Artists left out? How about Andrew Wyeth (no Wyeth's actually), Joan Mitchell, Winslow Homer, Annie Liebovitz, Romare Bearden? And I'm sorry but Jeff Koons, who's on the list, makes me retch.

Still it's fun and the list includes many I'm not familiar with (including links to their work that sometimes - sigh - work). Go vote! (Just not for Koons.)



Joan Mitchell. Land, 1989 at the National Gallery of Art.

Attempts at Becca

I took the usual photos this past Xmas in Baton Rouge, the kind one takes just to remember the moment. There was one that I liked of my wonderful niece Becca who lives in Brooklyn. I had done a couple of stylized portraits recently (one in the previous post) and figured I'd give a try with Becca.

I'll start with a quick print of the photo from my old Epson that I played with some. Just the photo with some ink and oil pastels.



Here's the first real attempt. I did some this past week and set it aside but I started working on it again today. Oil pastels with some watercolor and pencil on watercolor paper. Quite unfinished....



Here's the next one and Karen seems to like this one. It's further along. I'll keep working on this one too. Oil pastels, watercolor and pencil on watercolor paper.

Some more small pieces

These are done on 10.5' x 14' paper using oil pastels and, with one, watercolors. As I've said in the past, oil pastels are for when I'm lazy and want to sit on the couch and piddle around. I've started to discover that it is more than that. I really like them. I like to move them around with my finger. I enjoy taking linseed oil and making puddles on color or maybe using an old toothbrush to create interesting textures. They are also fairly easy to repair when I screw up.

Recently I've started to combine them with watercolors. The oil pastels serve to provide a resist and the watercolors can fill in between oily areas easily. I like some of the patterns that can be created too.

This first one is a dark (scary according to Karen) piece. Still I've tentatively called it Forgiveness. Don't know why.



Next up is a companion piece to Marcel Duchamp's Chin that I did a while back. This doesn't have the nuance of the other yet but I'm working on that. Working title Duchamp's Face.



Next up is the piece with watercolor. It's called Ant's View. The watercolor is much of the blue. The crooked nature of the piece is intentional. I'm not sure what I'll do with the area around the frame.



Lastly we've got a portrait of a young sort of goth woman. Titled Suzy because I was typing this during a Randy Newman song in which Suzy is a character.

Hope you enjoy them. Comments, suggestions, criticism are encouraged.