conceptual art vs. beauty 3

it is easier to criticize than to create, i believe. but since i am an artist myself, creating is not my problem, although it can be arduous and painstaking at times.

still, criticizing other artists is not my favourite pastime. i prefer to criticize museums, galleries, popular media, society, god, the world, the moon, the climate, my family (in private), etc...

even when i do not really appreciate a work of art, usually i try to find some merit in whatever effort has been made by the artist. but also i have these recurrent episodes where i berate myself for being altogether too soft and clement, and i find this to especially occur when i have seen yet another `great' work of conceptual art in which the contemporary art scene is being ridiculed or in which some other shallow message is being heralded as the ultimate in the artistic development of man...

and my god, these conceptual people are everywhere! perhaps not so amazing, since any halfwitted primate can come up with some superficial `shocking!' `mocking!' `rocking!' concept the depth of which leaves us all agape! like having a gallerist walk around for a month in a costume resembling a penis...well, NOW we're talking art!

oh no, frank, you misunderstand. it's not a teenage prank, it is a criticism of the fact that the modern art world is ruled by teenage pranksters....so you see it's much deeper than it might seem, and you have to see his whole oeuvre, which is all absurdistic and criticizing and well, so FUNNY!

actually i don't mind humor one bit...but does one classify the superficial jokes of a stand-up comedian as great literature? i KNOW that stand-up comedians are more appreciated than great literature, and i even do not criticize this, but i do mind if the library starts to get filled with the collected jokes of john howards and howard johns and...to the extent where i cannot get a real modern writer any longer.

and this is what is happening in my perception in the art world. conceptual art is an easy way to facilitate the take-over of art by entertainment. i like entertainment to a liberal extent, but i dislike entertainment being more important than real issues.

now i remember that i made two conceptual sculptures which probably would illustrate some of my point (i'm working on numbers 3 and 4, but i've been at them for 3 years now and they still aren't anywhere near completion). perhaps i'll put them up in the next post.

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.