Joan Miro

at Lelong Editions (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Chef des équipages, 1974

A true leader feels the mood of his group. It is like he has neuron connections to different people / places ( the black lines that go to the top and the lower ends look like hooks). People are gravitating toward him ( the green ribbon in the left center). Every crises is used to process, to learn and to improve himself (the red stains from the upper middle to the solid colors in the lower right).

Giacomo Balla

at Moeller Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Linea di Velocità e paesaggio, c 1915

Psychology. How does it work? Our behavior is a fabric, made of white associations, red instincts and some acquired knowledge (blue, yellow). All of those complex things with big serious names intertwined into a  complicated structure just to cover up something very basic(green).

Gerhard Richter

at Kukje Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Abstraktes Bild (862-2), 1999

Imagination can take you places. Or you can build places. And it could be huge, magnificent palaces. The wilder the imagination the more extravagant things you can create using your thoughts. Strong imagination can over shine the reality. It can be so strong that dreams can substitute the reality. You start living in your fantasy (in easy cases it can be cured with medication :). In the earliest collision between imagined world and reality, the mighty arcs of your palace are turned into smoke rings. The reality breeze takes them and the fog of imagination away, clearing the field. The field of harsh, bleak real life.

François Morellet

at Bernard Jacobson Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Pi Puissant n1 = 10 14 décimales, 1998

It is hard to choose your path.The straight line is not always the shortest or the best way.The chosen path changes you and your environment.

Ernst Wilhelm Nay

at Aurel Scheibler (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Schwarze Kette Grün zu Rot 1966

You are jealous how others look at her(yellow oval). It dents your innocence ( the blue line between yellow oval and dark blue ribbon). But from another point it gives you a boost to your interest in her. So you start exploring her(black beads). You have found out that she is sharp as steel, passionate as fire and tender as a new leaf.This is the perfect woman. She always challenges you and keeps you on your toes.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

at Galerie Henze & Ketterer (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Blumen und Figuren (Flowers and Figures), 1930

A small table in small cozy restaurant. It's really small place, no more than a dozen of tables. It's warm, homey and inviting. There are freshly cut flowers on the table. There are two at the table: He and She. They are at the courting game.She invites, he advances. She steps forward, he moves sideways.This is a game of exploration and discovery, where they both win or they both loose.

Emilio Vedova

at Galleria dello Scudo (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Ciclo ’61/’62 – N° 6, 1961-1962

The war between feelings (yellow red right half) and logic(blue gray left part). The war never ends.It goes on in a circle.When you act on a feeling, on a impulse you need to rationalize that later. In the yellow explosion (center slightly to the lower right) you can see the birth of a new logic part.

David Thorpe

at Casey Kaplan (Art 43 Basel 2012)

The Real Life, 2006

People need laws. They need rules to live by. People are social in nature. When you have a group, you have to have some rules in place, otherwise it is very lonely and cold place. Besides well defined and written laws (the yellow fences) there are some unspoken rules of individual behavior (the stakes in the foreground). Those rules look weak and easy to overcome. But you need real courage, rebellion and love for freedom (the black figure) to step outside the self imposed borders.

David Tremlett

at New Art Centre (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Construction and Space #2

The regular people move on the solid base(the solid rectangles from the left to the center). Their choices are solid, sound and logical.But they progress slowly. It takes time to build a good foundation. Some people can progress more rapidly by taking educated guesses (from the center to the right). And a few people can create something that at first glance has nothing to do with its environments(the red rectangles). Those people are geniuses. They see things that others don't. Their creativity and imagination are so outlandish that they are on the border with insanity(red).

Weekend Edition 30

Paul Cezanne

The Cards Players, 1892

The players are the regulars in the place. They are relaxed. A lomg night of card playing is ahead of them. The players are concetrated on the game, because the game is the only enertainment in their life. They are simple people, their life is simple. They don't have hobbies, they don't have interests. They work. They earn money. They survive. The meetings at the card table in the joint is the best thing that happens in their life.

Charline von Heyl

at Friedrich Petzel Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

The Antiplatonick,2011

Friendship is love without physical pleasure. We can call friendship between two people that are in theory sexually attractive, as a platonic love. The problem is that they are staying friends because they have to. They already have someone else that they are intimately involved with. Or the society forbids them to cross the border between the friends and lovers. The feelings are there, they don't go away. They just get covered up.

Brice Marden

at Matthew Marks Gallery (Art 43  Basel 2012)

Window Study #6, 1985

In the winter everything is gray. Those are the colors of winter : white, black and gray with bits of blue. Toward the end of winter, even the snow gets gray hues. The depression is piling up with layers of long cold nights.Everything looks smaller and packed. You start to think when you will get a break - a spring break!

Albrecht Schnider

at Galerie Bob van Orsouw (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 2011

 

 

Friedrich Nietzsche : "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger". It doe not makes us physically stronger. Things that almost kill us definitely take something from us. It could be something physical or something mental or both.  But our organism is very coping. It compensates the loss with what is left. So retained parts become much more developed and thus stronger. Those parts are stronger than they were before. But because there are missing parts, the compensation does not make you whole again. And definitely you are not what you are used to be.

Hélio Oiticica

at Lelong Gallery (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

Untitled, 1956

The night is very romantic time. It is as well a very philosophical time when you are alone. It gives you a boost like a hit of a cue stick into the snooker ball. You start moving toward another person. Before that this person was living in a parallel universe. You didn't notice her existence. She is the absolute opposite of what you are. Nevertheless you are so attracted to her, only a collision can stop you.

Jon Pestoni

at David Kordansky Gallery (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

Tilt, 2011

You wake up. It is summer. It is morning. You see your love. She is sitting outside in the sun.She is wearing a open summer white with flowers dress. She is tanned. She is looking at something far away. She is radiating warmth and love. She is waiting for you to get up. You tilt your head and then it strikes you this is the moment of happiness.

Jon Thompson

at Anthony Reynolds Gallery (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

The Tornonto Cycle #12, CADENCE and DISCORD (V1) Traer los Sentidos, 2010-2011

 People see things differently. They have various opinions and interpretations on exactly the same events.The same thing can create different associations for different people, thus creating different mood in which they interpreter the events they witness.  Well what do you expect when people can not agree on the colors they see?

Shinro Ohtake

at Take Ninagawa (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

Time Memory 1, 2012

Time is frozen in memory. Time is preserved in small pieces - photos, movies, letters, diaries.The fossil time is used as building blocks for our memories.We polish those blocks as if they were from granite and we cover the floor, walls and ceiling with them in our temple of our experience. But it is not granite. It has been scratched. It has graffiti. It is missing some pieces, so it was patched with some imagination and rationalization. Our magnificent temple of experience can crumble any time.

Julije Knifer

at galerie frank elbaz (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

M.5.60 (Méandre n°5), 1960

If you are a white-or-black person, you can think of yourself as an organized one. You can sort anything into two neat piles. But the life is not easy for you, because Life is not black-n-white. So you need to go a long way to get to the destination (just as a river does at a meander). And you don't notice that, but you close yourself into a box from which you can't escape. The main thing is that when you are black-or-white person, most of the time most of the colors are gray.

Riddle Edition 3

Leonid Golender

It's a riddle, 2006

What is it?

Steve DiBenedetto

at David Nolan Gallery (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

Knot Building, 2008

Knots are used to tie loose ends. But once it is tighten up, it creates a bump on a smooth rope. In a relationship, when you want to create a bond, it should be done naturally. Yes, you need to make an effort. Your energy should  focus on relationship development and not to build something artificial. The moment you use force, it creates a tension. The tension creates problems. You are trying to conceal the your forced efforts. You are trying to resolve the tension and the problems, but you are pulling in the wrong direction. One thing piles on another. In no time instead of nice strong bond you have a big messy tangle. Moreover in this situation your relationship is started to stagnate and the gangrene kicks in.