Art Basel Miami Beach 2014

There was a gluttonous amount of art on view in beautiful down town Miami Beach Fla. at the end of last week for a solid four days. Along with the art on exhibit there were close to a million viewers; beautiful people of all ages contributing to the look of sophistication and style of this remarkable event; Art Basel Miami.

Between Art Basel, Art Miami, Pulse Miami and the many other satellite fairs it was a weekend nothing less than utterly amazing. The scene was extravagant and excessive but worth every effort in this; the “World Cup/ Main Event” of the art world. It was very much a carnival happening and in that way remarkably refreshing in all it’s luxuriant extremes.

I was able to meet and talk with gallerists, gallery girls and artists among the art market’s high end sellers and shoppers.   There were great conversations with people from around the world and US cities. The nations included Brazil, Bogota, China, South Africa and the UK. The US cities included (of course) New York, Chicago, LA, San Antonio and DC. The grand host city; Miami, is breathtakingly beautiful and the population is incredibly welcoming. The blue water and skies, cruise ships and yachts mesmerize; while the modern and art deco architecture complement each other in spectacular form.    

Great and important works of painting, photography and sculpture including Helmut Newton’s Sie Kommen, Jim Dine hearts, Jeff Koon’s banalities, Chris Ofili’s dung art and Picasso’s cubism available and on view in various galleries. All these works and thousands of others not only on view; but, most importantly for sell. 

There was also live performance art, video, mixed-medium, design and decorative art, supplemented by the many stunningly elegant and high fashion patrons. Yes; there were the "odd ball" one of a kind character dressers too, which in honesty made for a thing remarkable. Refreshment comes in the form of push cart girls selling the original champagne; Ruinart.  It is actually the Ruinart that makes me return to Basel. It is definitely one of the many unique extras that adds to the experience.  Attending Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami, Pulse Miami Beach and a few other fairs combined for a complete adventure in art fashion design and culture. It is as exhausting as it is exhilarating and by the way; I’m ready for next year. 

The Puryear Papers

If you were to look at Martin Puryear as the pains-taking, attention to detail craftsman that he is; that would be fine. You could; in theory, view his work as decorative objects designed to adorn a room or space with a truth of grace and beauty. He can also represent the last of the artist as hands on interpreter of the world and the glories of life. Martin Puryear is all of these; he is in every reality many things more. 

              

                                                                 

                     
                   

 Martin  Puryear speaks eloquently through his pieces that seem to be glorious over-sized works that were they created on a smaller scale be some useful hand held thing or tool. His works would be no less beautiful were they smaller; no less engaging.  The scales of the objects are amazing as single pieces adequately consume entire galleries. Walking among the works is to inhabit a place of wonder and artistry in the purest form. His efforts are of world class elegance and he is surely admired around the globe. Wood is the primary material of choice for Martin Puryear. Stone, wire mesh, and rawhide are known by his hands as well. He is adventurous in his choices of materials as well as in his range of creations.

                                                                                   
                                      

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I was first introduction to Mr. Puryear through the pages of Ebony Magazine in a nineteen seventies article noting praise-worthy contemporary African-American Artists. His works do sometimes speak to his heritage as a former resident of Washington DC and a Black American. His piece “Ladder for Booker T. Washington” is a particular and exceptional example of his acknowledgement of the shared American and Black Histories. The ladder (431” x 22” x 3”) is created from a single sapling split in two and joined by rungs. The work is an optical illusion of sorts as it bends and turns from the 22” base to about 1.25” at the piece’s apex. The cultures of many nations have influenced and informed the works of martin Puryear. Sierra Leone, Sweden, Japan and France are among the countries he has lived in, studied and embraced “The Family of Man.” He works reflect the sensibilities of an amazing world citizen.

  

The PBS series   art : 21   chose Martin Puryear as one of their first artist’s to be profiled. He was awarded “The National Medal of Arts” by President Barack Obama. Several great museums including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC have honored Mr. Puryear with retrospectives. He was recently part of the highest priced auction in history when Christies scored an amazing $745 million in sells. $1.8 million of the total came from the sale of a Puryear piece. Congratulations to Mr. Puryear for all his awards and achievements as he continues in his efforts. He is making a difference for the positive in the world; he is doing very well.  

“At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way to make sculpture.”

                                                                                                                             

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The Vivid The Varied The Vivacious Sculpture of Beth Cavener Stichter

It was love at first sight. That sight was an ad in “Art in America” magazine featuring one of her addictive clay sculptures; promoting and introducing me to her work. The works are almost exclusively animals that are realistic, whimsical, provocative and alluring. They are Freudian in nature, they droop and cling and hang like a Dali time piece. They are also extrodinariarly unique in their invention. She amazes us with her distinctive and highly unusual style. She is among the most imaginative artist of our times; she is truly marvelous. She is by the way Beth Cavener Stichter.   

As viewers we can look, study, peruse for hours on a given piece of art. It can be a selected work or a body of work in question. We come to conclusions. After all this; many times the artist’s themselves are the best at describing what they do. Miss Stichter is no exception in this:

Both human and animal interactions show patterns of intricate, subliminal gestures that betray intent and motivation. The things we leave unsaid are far more important than the words we speak out-loud to one another. I have learned to read meaning in the subtler signs; a look, the way one holds one's hands, the tightening of muscles in the shoulders, the incline of the head, the rhythm of a walk, and the slightest unconscious gestures. I rely on animal body language in my work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits.

Beth Cavener Stichter

The counter culture has embraced Miss Stichter’s work in a large way. The sometimes erotic and compellingly different approach to the form is hardly main-stream as reflected in the attention of “Juxtapoz” magazine and the vastly similar “High Fructose” and their readers. The dedication to craft and artistry is not missed again by more “High Brow” publications like the International Sculpture Center’s monthly “Sculpture” and the eternal “New York Times.” 

Her combination of human and animal, anthromorphic forms are much to her credit as she shakes up all our perceptions. She continues to grow creatively as she looks deeper into the self and the Id as well as the collective conscience. I look forward to seeing her work soon in person. Perhaps; in the future, even a conversation with this artist of phenomenal feats. An artist of works to love.

Kiki Smith and Her Drawings

 Kiki Smith arrived on the major art scene in the nineteen nineties with an exhibition at MoMA and became an immediate star. She is richly deserving of her following and her works are of a nature that is striking, compelling and thought provoking. Kiki works in many mediums and is most famous for her sculptor. It darts and dives, hangs from ceilings, attaches to walls and sometimes is disjointed and scattered across the floor. This all from what is largely the female form, plaster casts taken from her own body. Her work is feminine in theme and content but she is not a feminist of the traditional definition.  Her work is far too outreaching to be limited to a genre, too immense to be bracketed in terms. She is possessed of a marvelous, mind and creative spirit. Her work is adventurous and lively; a world treasure.

 

Kiki comes from one of the most artistically creative families in the country. The only other major American family that might be more artistic would be the Wyeths. The two families’ approaches to art are very dissimilar but they both are completely saturated with the bug. Kiki’s father; Tony Smith was a celebrated for his minimalist sculptures. Her mother was an actress and opera singer.

 

Her sisters; Seton and Beatrice, photography and theatre were their interests respectively. Beatrice died young but Kiki and Seton continue to work and support each other. The girls didn’t attend school and really had little other career choice but fortunately were gifted and internally inclined for the arts.  



The mind, body and spirit were central elements to Kiki’s original pieces. She continues to grow as an artist and her works including her sculpture have become more narrative in nature. Myth, folk and fairy tales have become central to many of her new works. These are especially evident in her graphics and drawings. “Red Riding Hood” and “Alice in Wonderland” are among her inspirations. At times she creates what could well be and truly are beautiful illustrations. These coupled with unique works that turn the myths inside out, upside down with a complete interchanging of metaphor. Her works and vision is totally original and a leap forward into unexpected places.

There is an unrefined quality and freedom to the drawings of Kiki Smith that is reminiscent of earlier artists like Marc Chagall and the more contemporary Leon Golub. Her lacking of a true academic technique adds to the charm and whimsy of her concepts in a way a more serious and structured style would only serve to distract. The over-all impact of the pieces is dominant in an illuminated text manner. Kiki is one of the most unrestrained artists working today and there is a timeless quality to everything she touches. The mystique and allure of Kiki Smith will only grow given time.

 

“It's really special when you share history with people and are in the same field. We come from a background where it's completely natural for someone to devote their life to a vision. It's an unsaid vision, one that's constantly moving and falling apart, and sometimes there are really still periods. Artists live in unknown spaces and give themselves over to following something unknown. I see that in Seton's work and in mine.”

Kiki Smith

 

Dali Drawings

 Sigmund Freud, Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney; all varied and names to be associated with Salvador Dali. Dali’s showmanship and his works intrigued enlivened and enriched the lives of his viewers and admirers for decades. He still touches millions even though he is not currently en vogue in anything close to the same manner he was just a few years prior. Dali dazzled and confused with his paintings, films, prints and sculptures. His drawings were equally impressive and mysterious. They are the features of this blog.

The lines of Dali are elegant and masterful. The drawings range from the subtle to the beautifully extravagant. The many dream images, the surreal works he playfully produced in his lifetime are statements to his unusual and marvelous mind. 

He could be both baroque and modern in ways that few were able to equal. Perhaps the fact that he outdistanced his surrealist peers is the reason he was denounced by those fellows. To call Dali a genius is almost redundant but if such a thing exists he is certainly among those elite. It has been said that and there is a thin line between genius and madness.

 

 

Dali walked that line for the entirety of his public life with his wife and muse Gala by his side. We can only guess at the meanings and symbols he conjuring’s provided his public; but that is part of the pleasures of his work. He mastered many forms and illuminated many lives.

 

                   “The only difference between a madman and myself is that I am not insane.”

                                                                                                                             Salvador Dali