George Gross

An Artist born in Berlin in 1833 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art.He worked with both watercolors and oil paints. He lead a political life, joining the communists party as a young man. his work reflected his political views and commentary of the times he lived in. He faced charges for defaming the army in his works and for his pornographic portrayals.. He emigrated to New York with his family in 1932. Many of his paintings have a familiar pallete. I was drawn to the paintings in which he used vibrant reds and oranges which I felt gave an urgency to the piece as well as a sense of violence.

Jenny Saville

An artist born in Cambridge England who received a BA with honors at the Glasgow School of Art Scotland, Jenny Saville went on to study at the Slade School in England where a top art collector purchased her entire final portfolio. He then commissioned her for the follow two years. This sent her into the media spotlight and secured a seat in becoming a cannon among 21st century artists. She is now 37 and lives mostly in Italy.
She is known for her large-scale oil paintings of mostly nude women. Examples would be Prop 7ft by 6ft and Fulcrum 9.5 ft by 16ft. Saville is concerned with women’s’ contemporary issues and in particular the way women have been portrayed in art history. Having been painted mostly by men she feels they have been unable to get at the core essence of women, instead concentrating on their outward beauty.
She likes to paint figures that “manifest in their flesh something of our contemporary age.” Many of her paintings are of overweight women and people in various stages of change, such as cosmetic surgery including sex change patients. Her references are gathered from magazines, medical books, Internet, photographs and surgery observations. Saville prefers not to use live models in a conventional way, rather taking hundreds of photographs of them and then working from the prints. She uses her own her own image in many of her pieces in conjunction with other studies.
When beginning a painting she mixes multiple pots of paint rather than using a palette
and can often have anywhere up to three hundred colors mixed for one painting. Study sketches are not part of her process, preferring to work the paint and the composition as an ongoing discovery.
She talks of the rhythm of painting and how it relates to music, which reminded me of the ancient Greek philosopher, Pythagorus, who its said discovered harmonic chords in music and went on to relate harmonious elements to all things including the structure of painting and sculpture.
Seville often listens to music while she paints and relates the idea of ‘ active and quiet areas’ of a piece and sometimes painting fast to convey movement.
What intrigues me about Savilles work is the level she goes to in manipulating the paint to convey the flesh in her paintings. She uses cooler blue tones in parts of the body that would have less blood circulating and then deeper reds in areas where blood circulates more. In some areas she will add more oil to the paint so as to read as sweat on the flesh. The addition of oil is also used to give more movement to the paint and so to the overall composition. The figures are often holding, pushing or contorting their flesh helping to show the pliability of the flesh. In watching plastic surgery procedures she was able to view the body as a more manipulative medium, with a sense of what takes place under the skin and so translate that with paint on canvas. She uses the paint in a sculptural way and Michelangelo, Leonardo and Bacon are some of the artists she goes to for reference.
Saville has received mostly praise from her critics, some have described her large scale as “gargantuan” and have admired her proficiency in “handling paint in such a tactile way” and noted how she breaths energy into her figures by the distortion of scale and tone. She has been called a feminist; painting the figures in the forms she does as a response to the “inadequacy of existing imagery of women." All of her one-woman shows have been in New York as she has hailed the city as “being receptive to art that reflects the language of contemporary times.”
It is no wonder then that her paintings draw much emotion from the viewer as she treats the process of painting with such study and emotion. In all of her paintings she seems to use the brush in place of a pen, using brush stokes and color and movement to channel the story she wishes to tell. They’re large format cause them to be, imposing, provocative, challenging. In the painting Prop, the figure literally pushes the boundaries of the frame with the figure dominating the canvas. In the painting, Stare the portrait of the boy is filled with much emotion, produce by the intensity of the colors and the movement of the brushstrokes. It reminds me of an accident, as if you should not be witnessing it but you can’t look away.
Her painting, 'Plan' she paints a wonderful representation of a figure ‘marked’ for cosmetic surgery, refusing to paint the lines but rather choosing to gauge them out of the paint. She has said that she looks at her painting technique as a way to discover the landscape of the body; this painting is a fine example of this.

Response to 'Branded" by Jenny Saville

I was drawn to this piece, initially because of the colors and the painterly style of the brush strokes. The cool blues, greens and purple tones compliment the pinks, reds and white paint used to give us a realistic view and sense of texture to the mass of flesh. With the choice of colors an almost ‘cold’ feeling can be sensed as if the subject has been left alone, isolated or outside too long. The cast of light across the naked body also helps to reinforce this idea.
Secondly my eyes were directed to the large breasts and stomach, where she clutches the fat skin, she seems to be inviting a narrative, our opinion or reaction perhaps. This is reinforced by the words carved in the skin, some of which read, ‘support,' 'delicate' and 'petite’. These do not seem like words that would describe this woman but are used to describe women in general. I read that this was a commentary by the artist on the misperceptions of women portrayed in art history.
The form of the body is obviously distorted with the head the smallest feature, forcing it to the background, the breasts and stomach protrude into the foreground, perhaps another commentary on the emphasis put on women’s looks. The painting achieves balance, even with these distortions, with the shadow painted on the wall behind the figure and the darker tones in the face. The molding on the wall at hip level serves to give some sense of space and weight to the composition as well as the darker values of paint used in the bottom half of the painting. The way in which the figure leans on the wall behind her helps create movement, as if the wall is needed to hold the heaviness of her body up.

Christian Boltanski.

Boltanski was born in Paris, France in 1944. His formal education ended at the age of twelve and it was at that age that his career as an artist began. He creates installations with various materials.He uses obituary photographs, turning them into mini memorials, sometimes placing them on boxes, hanging them on clear walls with lighting within them or shining on them. The effect is an almost religious one, reminding me of prayer candles one lights in Catholic churches.
He also collects lost property from places such as train stations then transforms them into an art piece and forever memorializes the long forgotten owners. In interviews he asserts he is "lazy" and "does not love being an artist" but does not know what else to do with his time. He waits, doing mundane things, like watching television until inspiration strikes, only then will he begin a new work.

Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith is a multi media artist, born in 1954. Among the different mediums she chooses to work in are,bronze,wax,clot, handmade paper and glass. After the death of her father in 1980, Smith investigated themes of mortality and decay.Building on this and her work as an EMT in 1985 her pieces seemed to represent the curiousity she finds around these topics.
She likes to have her art left to the interpretations of the viewer, and may leave work untitled. She believes in the process of her work and allows it to evolve into a finished piece.

Bones Of the Master. George Crane.

1. Fifteen words that describe the story
Quiet,ritual,silken,exceptance,assured,brave,belief,enduring,hope,inspiring, peace,resiliant,mist,honest,awakening.

2. Colors I see.
Pale blue,olive green,ash grey,paynes grey,deep crimson, flamed orange,sand,earth/dirt brown.

3.Specific Scene.
On the very first page Tsung Tsai is waking hours before the first morning light. He's alone in his cell which is six feet by nine feet and made of stone.He lights a candle for light and warmth and neighbors his meager possesions of a sleeping pad, blanket roll and a prized book of poems.
The solitude of the cell and his minimal belongings are at the same time haunting and calming. You can almost touch the peacefulness of his surroundings as they resonate with his inner quiet.

4.Thinking of Tsung Tsai.
I see Tsung Tsai as a small compact man, built in such a way as to accomodate only his basic needs and no more. If he were a color I would beleive him to be a deep regal red.The colllection of verses,"A Thousand Pieces of Snow" which he holds so dear give clues to tsais true nature and spiritual essance. He is a man of deep compassion and wisdom. He is at peace, self-assured and resolved.

5.George Crane.
George is tall,lean and still learning to be comfortable within his own skin. If he were a color I would paint him with burnt umber mixed with yellow ochre. Hungry as an artist, George is searching for the missing pieces that will help him create the work he aspires to.Through his relationship with Tsai he begins to see pieces of himself revealed and possibilities in reaching a place where his talents can shine thru begin to emurge.

Design Exhibit at the I.C.A Boston.

During a visit to the I.C.A. where an exhibit of modern designers were featured I found myself drawn to the work of artist, David Wiseman. Surrounded by an assembalence of modern works, Wisemans' sculptures appeared timeless and organic.
A recent graduate of RISD Wiseman, who grew up in Pasadena, California draws on the subtleties of nature, calling it an "essential element" in his work.
The three vases shown at the museum are beautiful examples of his understanding of natural form and the effects light plays on his asymmetrical forms. Without touching the pieces you can sense the smooth, clean texture of the Porcelain vases and the continuity of the repeated geometric forms on the bronze vase. The pale color value of the pink and cream vessels are liked to properties of sea-worn stone.
In addition to vases Wiseman makes water based resin castings of collected fallen branches all colored white. In a recent commission he attached these casting to the ceiling of a dining room. Grouped together they form a relief, seemingly in motion, to which he adds hundreds of sculptured porcelain blossoms, creating a trompe l'oeil of an out stretched garden scene.