Jul 30, 2012

Per Kirkeby

at Sabine Knust (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, 2012
You start fresh, green and with lots of blue hopes (lower part). Then the grey foam of small problems, every day routine and tiredness begins to build up. If you can manage to keep the foam in one pile (the middle part), you can concentrate on the important details (red-orange figures). Those details and your fresh approach (the green figures) can lead to a real break-through: the understanding of the big picture, the perspective, the vision.

Jul 28, 2012

Weekend Edition 34

Arthur Dove


Clouds and Water, 1930
Dreams they are like clouds. With a wind, they easily move in any direction and cover any distances. Some dreamy white-blue fulfills into down-to-earth brown. But most of blues don't survive the collision with rocks of reality. The dreams are turned into a rain of depression and desperation. The leaves of lost hope are sinking in the puddle.

Jul 25, 2012

Nicolas Carone

at Washburn Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Not to be Touched, 2006
The system is balanced. But it is stable not because it is strong and reinforced. It holds its fragile state by using opposing forces, counter-weights and its own good reputation. You can see the scars from previous encounters. You know that even a light touch can wake up such destructive forces that not only the system will be destroyed but anyone standing in the vicinity of it. Nevertheless you are dying to feel it.

Jul 23, 2012

Myron Stout

at Washburn Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, 1950
The opposite things attract each other. Negative - positive, red - green. They attract each other, because one has what another lacks. From the other side, they are different in their basic nature. Those opposing forces create an energy zone between and around them(yellow lines). The energy makes the Game interesting. The gamers are not only playing the Game, but also are exploring the black corners that are illuminated by the energy.

Jul 18, 2012

Natsuyuki Nakanishi

at SCAI The Bathhouse (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Natsuyuki Nakanishi: Rhyme '60 25 Mars, 1960
You are your worst enemy. Your mind is separated from your body. The mind constantly tries to destroy the body. It is a constant war. It is a trench warfare. One side tries to attack, but can't get the other side out of the dugouts. So the attacking side has little to no progress. The battles are held on the same ground over and over again, when the positions are slightly changed. Though there is no a clear cut winner, the war leaves scars. It changes the landscape, it changes you.

Jul 16, 2012

Max Bill

at Annely Juda Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)


rotation around expanding white, 1981
The best comedian is a very sad person. You have to be a philosopher to joke away. You have to have those grains of salt in you(the white squares). These give you a different angle to look at things, because a philosopher and a sad person are lonely persons. And lonely persons are outsiders. The outsiders see things differently(the triangles of different colors around the white squares). That is a great foundation for a good joke.

Jul 15, 2012

Weekend Edition 33

Lyonel Feininger at Moeller Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Der Marktplatz, 1916

The square after a busy market day. It is quiet, clean and empty, but you still can somehow feel the energy of the morning. People, animal, crops, produce - everything dances, moves, screams in the festive-like atmosphere of commerce. The market is main business hub of this small town. The market defines the town as a community.

Jul 13, 2012

Marcel Schaffner

at Galerie Carzaniga (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, ca. 1957
Jealousy starts from a small event. When you feel that someone is better than you. someone is closer to your object of devotion than you. After it started, you will look at anything as suspicious. Anything will add oil to the fire of Jealousy. Any attempts of Logic and Common Sense to get through would fail(gray figures).  The only logic you use is to justify and to rationalize your actions.Those actions will build a wall that will bury away from your devotion.

Jul 12, 2012

Lúcia Laguna

at Galeria Fortes Vilaça (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Jardim N. 2, 2011

It's hot summer day. The city is whited out by sun and dust. Narrow pathetic strips of grass on the sidewalks don't cut it(the green line from the lower left to the lower center). Everything looks like a big hot concrete box that is cracking under the heat.You feel like a fish in deep frying pan(the gray structure in the center). Then, you see a garden. It is full of trees, greenery and shadows. It is small. It is scarred with asphalt pathways. But it is a small patch of wild nature trapped in the urban center. It wakes something animalistic, wild in you. You feel an urge to run and to hide in the deepest shadows you can find.

Jul 11, 2012

Liu Wei

at Long March Space (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Beyond the Sky Limits, 2012
Sky is the dream. Your life is gray, dull and depressing(the lower gray ribbon). Then you have a clearing in your thinking(a small white line). You have to act on your impulse. You start working hard(the reddish ribbon). And when you think you are almost broke and you don't have strength to go on, you get a break-through(the white ribbon). You are in the vacuum. You left your old comfortable life, but you haven't get to your destination. It is scary to be in the vacuum, but you know where you are heading and this gives you power to continue. Then you hit the jackpot(the blue ribbon). You have arrived to your dream. You are almost blacked out of the ecstasy (the black ribbon). When you gain back the conscience, you found yourself in a new unknown reality(the white ribbon with burgundy hue). You need to do something. You start working hard(the burgundy ribbon). It leads to a gray, dull and depressing life(the upper gray ribbon). You need a dream, now!

Jul 10, 2012

Lisa Ruyter

at Alan Cristea Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Count the Hours, 2012
Waiting. It is a process, a journey from one point in time to another. You make that journey in a sail boat. The sails are made from a huge number of small things: Hope, Anticipation of something new/exotic, Dependence on others, Patience, Jealousy that someone bit you to the finish line. Sometimes your sails erode, and you need to move to plan B (motor boat?). 

Jul 9, 2012

Lesley Vance

at Xavier Hufkens (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, 2012
At first it was like a game to you (green background). You met at a cafe. Your skills to pick up girls and wits were broken by her steel armour(the figure on the left). Fueled by the mystery and passion, you changed your tactics. You crawled, dug. You have got a couple of dates(circle-like figures in the upper center). It led to a pretty wild relationship(the figure at the upper right corner). But both of you were stuck, you were moving in circles, not progressing. So two of you decided to separate( yellow figure in the right center). You are left only with broken pieces from that relationship (the white figure in the lower right), but you still remember the connection with warmness.

Jul 8, 2012

Weekend Edition 32

Lyonel Feininger at Galerie Thomas ( Art 43 Basel 2012)


The Anglers (Black Bridge), 1942

You have dreams. Then there are dreams based on the previous dreams. And you are dreaming about something that is derived from those dreams. At some point, you have started implementing your dreams. You build something concrete that spans your dreams - a bridge. It didn't come out exactly as you dreamed. When you are implementing your dream, you are losing a dream, but you are gaining reality.

Jul 6, 2012

Lesley Vance

at David Kordansky Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, 2012
Sometimes you think that you have a major problem, a life-threatening issue(the figure in lower left corner).  You feel that your life is changing because of the problem. But if you look around, if you see a bigger picture, you will notice that your life is not threaten. The only thing that changed is your routine. The problem is temporary. It will be resolved with time. And there are much more fearful and really life-changing problem that could possible threaten your existence or lives of your loved ones(the structure in the center).

Jul 5, 2012

Katharina Grosse

at Johann König, Berlin (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Untitled, 2012
Art fills  up the human being life (the left half). Without the art, it feels empty, bland and without a purpose(the right half). Art is important. Imagine your life without art. I mean any art: conceptual, abstract, representative, performing, pop, TV. Art is part of the design of all things that we use in our every day life.

Jul 3, 2012

Juan Uslé

at L.A. Louver (Art 43 Basel 2012)


Juan Usle Diapason, 2012

Every artist has a diapason, or a range of creativity. Some have huge ranges, some have small ones. Some work in one specific area of art, some have tried in multiple fields. But everyone of them works in his own, parallel universe. They can influence each other, but they can not compete. Art is not a sport. There is nothing objective in the art that could be used as a scale or a ruler (the black figure on the left) to compare different artworks.

Jul 2, 2012

Weekend Edition 31

Natalia Goncharova

The Forrest, 1913

 

Events. Some things in your life you can predict and plan for(the red "trees" on the left). The power to do it comes from your own experience and self-confidence(the blue ribbon along the lower edge). The events that were unfolded according to your plans boost your self-confidence (the blue space in the upper middle). You don't have any influence on some other events(the green "trees" in the center and right side). You can only get prepared and see what happen. This unpredictability is making the life much more interesting to watch.