Art History

Prof. Noah Chasin joined in a conversation at McNally-Jackson Books in NYC on the subject of Anthony Vidler’s recently published volume of essays, “The Scenes of the Street and Other Essays.”  More info:

http://archleague.org/2011/07/talking-booksthe-scenes-of-the-street-and-other-essays/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26872699@N08/sets/72157627140587698/detail/

Downtown Detroit as seen in documentary "Urbanized."

Also, Noah Chasin is featured in Gary Hustwit’s new film, Urbanized, which just opened at the IFC Theater in NYC. It is the third in his design trilogy that also includes the cult favorites Helvetica and Objectified. Hustwit will be on campus to do a screening of the new film later in the semester. Check it out:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/movies/gary-hustwits-urbanized-review.htmlhttp://www.villagevoice.com/2011-10-26/film/urbanized-film-review/http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/2135649/review-urbanized
http://urbanizedfilm.com/

The Art History Faculty invites majors and prospective majors
to an Information Session:

THE ANNUAL MAJORS’ EVENT

Meet the art history professors, fellow majors and students, and hear about next semester’s courses!

Wednesday, October 26th,
6:00 pm
Faculty Dining Room

Refreshments served.
Please rsvp to Jeanette at x7158 or arthistory@bard.edu

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is the only museum in New York State exclusively preserving the maritime history of the Hudson River. This includes the history of its tributaries, and the industries dependent on the river. The museum was founded in 1980 by members of the “Steamship Alexander Hamilton Society”, the National Maritime Historical Society, and local historians. The Museum is located in the Historic Rondout Waterfront at Kingston, NY, once the major port between New York City and Albany.

Four fantastic internship opportunities:
— Computer Design Intern
— Curatorial Intern
— Public Relations Intern
— Lighthouse Project Intern

For more information visit: http://www.hrmm.org/Index.html

Positions available for winter/spring semester. Email hrmm@hvc.rr.com for application details with title of internship position in subject line.

Per Kirkeby, Paintings, Michael Werner Gallery, 4 East 77^th St., through October 29.

Andy Warhol, Paintings of the 1970s, Skarstedt Gallery, 20 East 79^th St., through October 22.

Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21^st St., through October 22.

Roy Lichtenstein Entablatures, Paula Cooper Gallery, 524 West 21^st St., through October 22.

Doug Ohlsen, Panel Paintings from the 1960s, Washburn Gallery, 20 West 57^th St., through November 12.

Per Kirkeby, Untitled, 2011

Despite a strong sentiment in some sections of the art world against painting as an art form because it lends itself so conveniently to capitalist commerce, there are scads of painting shows all over New York City right now, highlighted by the Willem DeKooning retrospective at MoMA.  To name a few, you can see recent German Neo-Expressionism in Per Kirkeby’s large floral landscapes recalling Emil Nolde at Michael Werner Gallery, and Skarsedt Gallery is showing Andy Warhol’s works from the 1970s that include lesser known of the Pop master’s subjects but demonstrate his exuberant slinging around of acrylic paint in his later works, plus his brilliant color sensibility.For a more classic Warhol theme you can see over 20 of his silk-screened Elizabeth Taylor paintings at the Larry Gagosian Gallery on 21^st Street.

Andy Warhol: Liz

After the entry gallery with seven early works based on various photographs of the late actress, the main room features the famous Warhol image. As he did with Marilyn Monroe, the artist settled on one photograph of the actress’s smiling face and did color variations on it.  Several are just grainy black ink on a neutral background, and then a dozen in blazing color, her lips always crimson, her eye shadow always turquoise, her head set against a variety of color fields.

Other masters of the Pop generation on view downtown include Roy Lichtenstein with his entablature paintings, clever and gorgeous renderings of architectural moldings that are stunning in their efficient simplification (Paula Cooper Gallery).

Roy Lichtenstein, Entablature, 1974

They represent classic architectural details and are subtly humorous:  representations of walls that hang on the wall, their stretched out horizontal formats and bands of flat color gently satirize the contemporary stripe paintings of abstractionists like Kenneth Noland.

Across the street from the Lichtensteins you can glimpse a six-part panel painting from the mid 1960s by Doug Ohlsen in the window gallery of Grace Washburn, kind of an ad for his sleeper of a show at her uptown space at 20 West 57^th Street.  Ohlsen, who died earlier this year, shows pristine, hard-edged abstract paintings from the late 1960s.  Typically each work consists of four to six vertical panels with spaces between them.

Doug Ohlsen, Avery, 1968

All are monochrome, but several have a square or two of another color near the top or bottom edge.  Their rich hues, pinkish violet squares against an orange field for example, evoke Mark Rothko, but stiffened up.  With their abstract austerity, luscious color, and concern with incorporating the wall within their perimeters they relate to the paintings of Blinky Palermo now on view at Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies.  But given the vagaries and power structures of the art world, they are much less well known.

Two CCS graduate students  are looking for one to two interns to help us develop a new project. Starting this Fall 2011 we will be initiating an art space out of our apartment in Tivoli. It’s right on Broadway, right across from the Black Swan, so in terms of our rural existences, it’s in a very “central” location. This is a very modest project, largely triggered by the fact that we found ourselves in a spacious and well-lit apartment that we felt could be activated by our networks of artists, writers, curators and friends who are living in NYC. One of the main elements of this project will be to use a portion of the space (the front glass door which faces the street) to commission image-based works. We want to create a laid back space for iterations of contemporary art to happen here in Tivoli. 1 to 2 very part-time interns who are interested in: curating, writing, publishing, graphic design, starting and running alternative art spaces. These are some of the skills we are looking for: emailing mastery, carpentry skills, 3d google sketch up skills (or other 3d modeling), basic photoshoping and/or illustrator skills, graphic design skills, website making, facebooking, brainstorming, being funny but also responsible.

Not that there will be many expenses in starting this modest project, but please do keep in mind that this is entirely self-funded (by us). Therefore we will are completely invested in making this a mutually advantageous experience for all of us.  If you are interested in hands-on experience into how to start an run an alternative art space from the ground up please send us an email with a short paragraph of why you think you would like to become involved with this project. Agatha Wara, agatha.wara@gmail.com