Recently, there was a big art show in Miami called ArtBasel. Happens every year. To get in the show, aside from impressing the judges, there is a hefty $13k entry fee. Suffice to say, this should be the best of the best of the Art World, right. Here's what I found inspiring, and why. Now, I should pause a moment and apologize to you, the reader, and to the artists whose work I'm about to talk about. ArtBasel is big on image, and so artist names and titles of works were not always easy to find, and, to compound factors, I am also lazy and did not do the extra work required. So, we will look at what I found interesting at ArtBasel.
The first image I’ll talk about is actually one of the last for me to see and take a pic of. It is a realistic painting, rather large, of a woman seating inside an impressive room. The room is all warm browns, and we see bright yellow outside the window. The interesting architecture of the window surrounds the interesting architecture of the courtyard. All very bright, contrasting with the dark room.
And then we see the woman. She is grey skinned, hand raised silently, and her robe is shimmery and translucent yellow. She appears almost as if a ghost, a memory, and seems lost in her own world, not cognizant of this majestic room she is in.
The painting is haunting to me, and that emotional movement is why I am highlighting it. Much of what I saw at ArtBasel didn’t move me much, and the subtle power of this one is enchanting. Also note that beautiful rendering of a lamp in the corner!
Paper Paint
Next is the first piece that I saw at ArtBasel that I wanted to highlight. I call this one “Paper Paint” because, if you look closely, the “painting” is actually pieces of paper ripped up and mosaic’ed into an image. The fun part? On the paper is printed images of thick impasto paint. So it’s paper of painting, ripped up, and presented like a painting. The end result makes the impasto image look even more impasto, and the whole image screams “Van Gogh” to me, so naturally, I am drawn to it.
The problem here was this was the only sample of this artist’s style work. (Perhaps the artist had other work, I didn’t look at names, but nothing else had the ripped paper style.) I wanted more! I wanted to see the limits of this way of making art – where does one get paper print out of impasto paint? Is there an original that this is based on, or is it a reworking of some earlier work? I have questions, and not much to go on. My fear is that this is just a one piece concept that hasn’t been explored.
The Selfie
Next up in our exploration is the only self-portrait that I saw that I identified with. I think there was probably something at the show with a name like that, but whatever it was, it was weird and conceptual and not what this lovely piece is: some poor artist looking in the mirror and painting what he sees. The style is more expressive than realistic, using yellow and red and orange for skintone. The portrait is a man, with thinning hair and the developments of a second chin. He looks dirty, perhaps with dirt on his face, or perhaps shadow. He looks out with a simple expression that seems, to me, to be asking but knowing the answer before he asks. The portrait is wearing what looks like a poncho or smock.
Again, what strikes me about this artwork is the humanness of it. I see the artist looking out, not knowing if he’s making a masterpiece or another piece of weirdness. Here it is at ArtBasel, so has he “made it”? The portrait doesn’t know. He looks out, asking, “Will anyone care?” And he knows the answer.
Dashy Dashy
This next one, which I lovingly call “Dashy Dashy”, because it appears to be a huge amount of little brush stroke dashes. They are done directly onto off-white linen. The finished piece is very large, almost 6 feet by 8 feet, but the dashes are very small. It is only on getting very close, as I did with my picture of it, that you can see these dashes. The dashes change color slowly from light color to slightly different light color. In the center is a yellow “sun” circle. The end effect is glorious and impressive. I felt like this was something I could have, or perhaps may one day, be able to create.
The feeling I get is calmness and serenity, in part because I know that is what would be required to make such a piece. Little tiny strokes, subtle changes in color, and an overall approachable design, all of which would require calmness and compassion to make. Each stroke matters. Each stroke is unique. And it is together that each stroke becomes a beautiful Whole.
I’ll leave this update here, and come back later to add the other pieces that inspired me. Thank you for reading!
