conceptual art vs. beauty 2

ok, i admit it, the previous post was another cheap stab at conceptual art. yet the title does say it all, doesn't it?

the thing is, i'm feeling overbombarded with conceptual art lately. and too much of too much seldom does much for me. another issue that i'm having with conceptual art lately is that it really is all too easy to create something with a superficially semi-DEEP MEANING, if you know what i mean...and i'm just bored with all this DEEP MEANING stuff.

still, I'm also bored with all the meaningless postmodern vagueness that seems to be another vogue these days. one sees a face, painted with dripping paint. it is a face of a young woman, but there is no real expression, because it's really only a double set of lines, executed in paint, yielding an unclear double image. the artist shows (s)he can hold a brush, follow a smooth curve with them, and let the paint drip down a bit...and still create the suggestion of a face...well, all very nice and technically up-to-standard i suppose, but what is it about? why should i spend time looking at it?

neither of the above vogues (conceptual art and postmodern vagueness) seem to care much for hard-won beauty. by hard-won beauty, i suppose i largely mean what robert pirsig calls quality. but let's call it hard-won beauty for a change.

hard-won beauty in a painted or drawn face...what does that mean to me, then? stuff for the following post.

warning! conceptual artwork below:

conceptual art

vs.

beauty

small exhibition in central library of nijmegen

la gomera
(2009 ~ 80 x 110 cm ~ acrylic and ink on canvas)

i'm having a small exhibition in the central library of nijmegen. this, plus teaching art at the unit-academy in nijmegen and writing a blog about that as well, plus flu...have kept me from posting here.

anyway, here is an invitation, welcome all:

1-31 march 2010

paintings & sculptures

central library nijmegen

mariënburg 29 nijmegen

opening hours:

monday	11.00 - 18.00
tuesday	11.00 - 21.00
wednesday	11.00 - 18.00
thursday	11.00 - 21.00
friday	11.00 - 21.00
saturday	10.00 - 17.00
sunday	13.00 - 17.00

new year's wish 2010

recent drawings, paintings and outsiderness 1

i'm just putting up some recent drawings. not too much commentary from me, but i will be happy with feedback. don't be surprised to see some outsiderness...


i'm in that dark place, waiting for you
own work ~ 2009 ~ 35 x 50 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view;


man, hands
own work ~ 2009 ~ 35 x 50 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view


notre dame des anges
own work ~ 2009 ~ 22 x 30 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view


atlas in the dark
own work ~ 2009 ~ 21 x 30 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view.


dancing with the deer
own work ~ 2009 ~ 30 x 21 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view.


dancing together, dancing alone
own work ~ 2009 ~ 21 x 30 cm ~ mixed media on paper; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view.


notre dame des anges at night
own work ~ 2003-2009 ~ 30 x 40 cm ~ acrylic on canvas; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view


notre dame des anges
own work ~ 2003-2009 ~ 30 x 40 cm ~ acrylic on board; right-mouseclick on `view image' for a better view

outsider art 2: adolf wölfli

much as i would like to be able to find the time to keep up this blog in a steady flow of thought, this turns out to be an illusion. the price to pay for having too much projects in my head.

snippets is what i'll be writing, just until my other blog `trijntje fop gaat op de schop' (freely translated `trijntje fop goes art, revised') is finished (see this older post on trijntje fop). and i also write a blog for my students, since i teach a course `image & world' at the unit academy in nijmegen -call it `art philosophy'-...time consuming.

anyway, here some pictures of works by famous outsider artist adolf wölfli (please read!, it saves me the writing here...):


adolf wölfli, london north


adolf wölfli, general view of the island of neveranger

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perhaps indicative of my own outsiderness, i have always felt a strong connectedness to many works from outsider artists, also from psychiatric patients. in the next post i will turn again to some recent own work.

outsider art 1: the outsider in art

perhaps i will launch a series of posts on outsider art, which frequently touches me. but the more direct reason for this post is my attraction to artists who paint some feeling of `outsiderness', frequently their own, frequently indirect - but how can one paint the feeling of being an outsider, if one does not feel this (or has not felt it) inside?

i recently finished a drawing which i started already long ago in 1993. below this drawing, i will post some really inspiring -to me unbelievably masterful- paintings by bosch, ensor, rembrandt, and van gogh - all from the low countries, coincidentally?


outsider
own work ~ 1993-2009 ~ 18 x 26 cm ~ mixed media on paper

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some perpetual inspirations that certainly influenced me for this drawing:


hieronymus bosch, christ carrying the cross

this has to be one of my all-time favourite paintings. seldom have i come across sharper depiction of la condition humaine. also, here christ is depicted as the outsider. incredible composition.

i believe the following work of james ensor to have some direct connection to bosch's painting:


james ensor, self-portrait with masks

further comment is not really necessary, i believe. but i would like to formulate a question that springs up in me: are we seeing the unmasked or the masked painter here? anyway, to me it offers also the interpretation that we are all outsider, because we are all surrounded by people wearing masks to us...with only one exception: ourself.

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then some self-portraits depicting -in my eyes- outsiderness in some way:

rembrandt, self-portrait

although this is a different self-portrait, i repeat from a previous post:

a self-portrait by rembrandt on the other hand i enjoyed for something perhaps strange; it gave me the following feeling: a man looks at me, knowing i will look at him-on-canvas when he is long gone and also knowing that he is a master far ahead of his contemporaries - not per se in skill alone, but especially in vision, in artistic feeling and experiencing reality, and therefore also in rendering reality - and knowing that i will appreciate this where most of his contemporaries lack the necessary depth of development of visual/philosophical issues.

vincent van gogh, self-portrait

one of van gogh's many self-portraits. outsiderness to me just radiates from expression, colour, brushstrokes...