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Kevin Sprouls
Self Hedcut, 1979
FCD: What do the Mona Lisa smile and the Wall Street Journal have in common?
They both employ a design principle related to subtraction and minimalism. By limiting information, they engage the imagination.
THE SQUINT
In his book The Laws of Simplicity, RISD President John Maeda describes “the squint”: “The best designers in the world all squint when they look at something. They squint to see the forest from the trees—to find the right balance. Squint at the world. You will see more, by seeing less.
I asked Sprouls if he squints a lot. I asked him in all seriousness. “Absolutely I squint, and I’ve got the wrinkles and reading glasses to prove it,” he joked. “But seriously, yes. Squinting shows you what to pay attention to, what to ignore. It helps me know when and where to add something, or leave well enough alone. This work, and I guess any work if you think about it, is a constant process of focusing and unfocusing of my eyes, working up close, then standing back, little details and the big picture. Or it should be, anyway.”
I’d do anything to be able to draw like this.
There’s more of Sprouls work at his site.
ca. 1930– Salvador Dali and Gala in Port Lligat, a fishing village near Cadaques, before they married.
The Madonna of Port Lligat, 1949. (Featuring Gala Devulina as Mary)
Oil on canvas 48.3 x 38.1 cm
From Dali’s Demon Bride
By John Richardson, Vanity Fair, 1998
Abstract: When Surrealist master Salvador Dali met Gala Devulina in 1929, the 25-year-old artist found a poisonous muse who defined decadence and outdid him in sexual perversity.
She would then dose him with “unknown quantities of one or more types of amphetamine,” thereby causing him “irreversible neural damage.” “Might it be possible,”Gibson asks the reader, “that Gala, in plying Dali with a mixture of pills from her private medicine chest, was…attempting to poison him? It is a possibility that cannot be entirely ruled out.” It was clear, in any case, that Gala’s treatment had reduced the artist to a bag of quivering bones. When the King and Queen of Spain visited him in 1981, he looked very battered: Gala was rumored to have made a dent in his skull with her shoe.
This is a fantastic read. What a piece of work.
It should have been called Bros before Hoes.
Give it a go or at least check out the rad photos from the making of In Voluptas Mors.
Also there’s an interesting short doc on his painting Christ of Saint John of the Cross
Clayton Cubitt
Hysterical Literature: Session One: Stoya
(Necrophilia Variations by Supervert)
Clayton Cubit: a viral video art series exploring mind/body dualism, distraction portraiture, and the contrast between culture and sexuality.
Is this smut or art? I’ll let you decide?
I’m just stoked to finally use the word smut.
Despite looking a bit like one of the things from the end of The Avengers, Patricia Piccinini’s Sky Whale is satisfactorily weird.
There’s more photos of it kicking around in some lovely Victorian landscape and an accompanying sentimental video.
Good work Patty Picci!
(I was put off hot air balloons ever since James Bond went German)
Naomi Robbins Still-life with Apple, Lettuce, Melon and Cucumber
Ori Gersht Pomegranate
Check out Who Wore it Better, a new tumblr about dudes who rip off/pay homage to/copy/get ideas from/rip off other dudes.
I was away on a ski trip to Mexico so unfortunately I missed Matlok’s opening.
I love that it’s called New Thoughts on Luxury.
I’m sick to bloody death of my old ones!
It’s on til the 25th so get down to Block Projects in Richmond and check it out, I’m going tomorrow.
He’s updated his website with some beautiful work so pay that a visit too
Got a spare $30 mil?
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988),
Dustheads, 1982
Acrylic, oilstick, spray enamel and metallic paint on canvas, 182.8 x 213.3 cm
Estimate: $25-35 million
Auction house Christie’s has made an online short video series entitled The Beginning, The Artist and The Legacy
David Cole
The Knitting Machine, 2005
acrylic felt with excavators and aluminium utility poles, completed flag is approximately 30 x 20 x 1 feet
The Music Box, 2012
Caterpillar CS-553 Vibratory Roller-Compacter with cherry wood, spring steel and United States National Anthem (arranged for steamroller), 11 x 19 x 8 feet.
Complex has a couple of videos of these two beasts in action
Brendan Huntley
Two Untitled works, 2012 - 2013
Stoneware, terracotta, slip, glaze and enameled wooden bat
Martin Bell
Untitled from the series Skull Gully Drawings, 2012 - 2013
Ink on Stonehenge paper 56 x 76 cm
My pals have a show at Art Basel Hong Kong with Tolarno Galleries, Hall 1 Stand 1C18, from 23 - 26 May 2013
Some amazing new work guys, killer colours from Brendan and maybe Marty should leave some of his twisted emotions just for him!
No seriously I love all the strange faces in between the trees
Can’t wait for your Melbourne shows
Steven Soderbergh on The state of cinema the San Francisco International Film Festival, April 27, 2013.
But before we talk about movies we should talk about art in general, if that’s possible. Given all the incredible suffering in the world I wonder, what is art for, really? If the collected works of Shakespeare can’t prevent genocide then really, what is it for? Shouldn’t we be spending the time and resources alleviating suffering and helping other people instead of going to the movies and plays and art installations? When we did Ocean’s Thirteen the casino set used $60,000 of electricity every week. How do you justify that? Do you justify that by saying, the people who could’ve had that electricity are going to watch the movie for two hours and be entertained - except they probably can’t, because they don’t have any electricity, because we used it. Then I think, what about all the resources spent on all the pieces of entertainment? What about the carbon footprint of getting me here? Then I think, why are you even thinking that way and worrying about how many miles per gallon my car gets, when we have NASCAR, and monster truck pulls on TV? So what I finally decided was, art is simply inevitable. It was on the wall of a cave in France 30,000 years ago, and it’s because we are a species that’s driven by narrative. Art is storytelling, and we need to tell stories to pass along ideas and information, and to try and make sense out of all this chaos. And sometimes when you get a really good artist and a compelling story, you can almost achieve that thing that’s impossible which is entering the consciousness of another human being - literally seeing the world the way they see it. Then, if you have a really good piece of art and a really good artist, you are altered in some way, and so the experience is transformative and in the minute you’re experiencing that piece of art, you’re not alone. You’re connected to the arts. So I feel like that can’t be too bad.
This is the other bit I really liked
Now, of course, it’s very subjective; there are going to be exceptions to everything I’m going to say, and I’m just saying that so no one thinks I’m talking about them. I want to be clear: The idea of cinema as I’m defining it is not on the radar in the studios. This is not a conversation anybody’s having; it’s not a word you would ever want to use in a meeting. Speaking of meetings, the meetings have gotten pretty weird. There are fewer and fewer executives who are in the business because they love movies. There are fewer and fewer executives that know movies. So it can become a very strange situation. I mean, I know how to drive a car, but I wouldn’t presume to sit in a meeting with an engineer and tell him how to build one, and that’s kind of what you feel like when you’re in these meetings. You’ve got people who don’t know movies and don’t watch movies for pleasure deciding what movie you’re going to be allowed to make. That’s one reason studio movies aren’t better than they are, and that’s one reason that cinema, as I’m defining it, is shrinking.
I hope he doesn’t retire, but I think he will. He’s got a book on the way and his final film is set to be Behind the Candelabra.
Here’s a behind the scenes look
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