Sol lewitt

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #273: Lines to points on a grid, 1975, water-soluble crayon on wall. Installation view, Dia:Beacon, New York, 2007. Photo: Bill Jacobson.


Sol LeWitt (September 9, 1928 - April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism. LeWitt rose to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he preferred instead of "sculptures") but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, and painting.
He has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world since 1965. His prolific two and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings (over 1200 of which have been executed) to hundreds of works on paper extending to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions. These works range in size from gallery-sized installations to monumental outdoor pieces. Sol LeWitt’s frequent use of open, modular structures originates from the cube, a form that influenced the artist’s thinking from the time that he first became an artist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_LeWitt

Ngintaka - Sand Stories by Rupert Nura @ MN Gallery , Sydney.

Etched in the Sun

Indigenous prints by Basil Hall Editions @ Marianne Newman Gallery, Sydney



links:

Basil Hall Editions

Marianne Newman Gallery,

ben lewis

Why is so much contemporary art awful? We’re living through the death throes of the modernist project—and this isn’t the first time that greatness has collapsed into decadence


Over the last decade, not only conceptualism—perhaps the dominant movement of the past three decades—but the entire modernist project has been going through a similar process. Of course, some important and inspired artists have made important and inspired work in recent years—from famous photographers like Andreas Gursky and painters like Luc Tuymans to lesser-known video artists like Lindsay Seers and Anri Sala. But there is something more fundamentally wrong with much of this century’s famous art than its absurd market value.
I believe that this decline shares four aesthetic and ideological characteristics with the end-phases of previous grand styles: formulae for the creation of art; a narcissistic, self-reinforcing cult that elevates art and the artist over actual subjects and ideas; the return of sentiment; and the alibi of cynicism.
read more at:
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/05/the-dustbin-of-art-history/


http://benlewis.tv/

carl andre

I BLAME DUCHAMP / Edmund Capon

making marks: the fine art of drawing

it has been said that one of the three basic instincts of the human animal (food and sex being the fundamental) is that of making marks…drawings are modest and intimate by nature.
drawings are arguably the most revealing, spontaneous and truthful rendering of the human imagination. it is the echoes of personality and speculation, of the marks of the individual, and of the perambulatory and the incisive thoughts of the individual.
Drawings also have another special characteristic: the subtle expression of an intangible but persistent morality.
drawings are seldom made in pursuit of an ideal, or of sheer beauty, but they do convey, in their immediacy and intimacy, a persuasive sense of truth.
the process of trial, speculation, experiment and detail is a raw one, not deterred, concealed or veiled by decorative artifice or emotive texture. the rewards of beauty are an incidental product of that pursuit of truth, and to be really experienced, a work of art needs to be felt rather than intellectually understood. the art of drawing is, i believe, the most direct sensory experience in the visual arts. furthermore, i do not believe that drawing will ever go away, for two reasons: that fundamental human instinct to `make marks`; and because drawing is the means by which the visual artist reason and speculates. i would like to add, perhaps optimistically, a third reason, which is that drawings have a subtle and infallible appeal to our human sensibilities.

Author: Edmund Capon

'My musings on art could be described as a benign diatribe; one inspired by a genuine if watchful passion.'
In this sweeping collection of essays, Edmund Capon describes his lifelong fascination with art and the artists who, over centuries, have enlightened us and challenged the way we see the world.

He shares his passion for topics as diverse as the art of China and the Renaissance Old Masters, talks of personal encounters with artists such as Henry Moore and Sidney Nolan, and tells the stories behind some of his controversial acquisitions as the long-time director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, including Cy Twombly's Three Studies from the Temeraire.

Driven by curiosity and his love of the unorthodox, Capon applies the same level of passion to his discussion of football as to the ideas of Confucius. He sharpens his wit on the contemporary art world, where conceptual art – much of it devoid of beauty (and sometimes a concept) – reigns supreme. For this, says Capon, Duchamp, and his infamous Fountain, are at least partly to blame.
Featuring more than fifty beautiful reproductions of paintings and drawings from collections around the world, this collection is a fascinating insight into the mind of the liveliest and most generous thinkers of our generation.


penguin:

http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781920989620/i-blame-duchamp
podcast:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2009/10/aks_20091025_1005.mp3

Search Amazon.com for Edmund Capon

sydney NSW gallery 1

Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art-form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land and other regions in the Top End of Australia including parts of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Traditionally, bark paintings were produced for instructional and ceremonial purposes and were transient objects. Today, they are keenly sought after by collectors and public arts institutions.read more...



Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia
Bob Bilinyara (Australia, b.circa 1915-1920)
Wulaki story - Garrtjambal (Kangaroo)
284.1982


Yirrkala/North-east Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia
Mawalan Marika (Australia, b.circa 1908, d.1967)
Seagull mourning ceremony
©Mawalan Marika. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney.


Milingimbi/Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia
Binyinyuwuy (Australia, b.1928, d.1982)
Bushfire
natural pigments on eucalyptus bark
76.8 x 46.4cm
IA17.1961
©Binyinyiwuy/Bula'Bula Arts. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney.

Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia
England Banggala (Australia, b.circa 1925, d.2001)
Sacred waterholes/dilly bags
natural pigments on bark
108.0 x 49.0cm
60.1988
©England Banggala. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2002

Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia Bob Bilinyara (Australia, b.circa 1915-1920) Ramingining story natural pigments on bark 90.0 x 35.0 64.1989 ©Bob Bilinyara/Bula'Bula Arts. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney.

Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia Paddy Dhatangu (Australia, b.1914, d.1993) Dorothy Djukulul (Australia, b.1942) Wagilag Sisters story: Wurrutjurra (sand palm) natural pigments and synthetic polymer paint on bark 108.0 x 63.0cm (irreg.) 350.1989 ©Paddy Dhatangu and Dorothy Djukulul/Bula'bula Arts. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney.

Central Arnhem Land/Northern Territory/Australia
Burunday (Australia, b.circa 1914)
Bark painting (Birds, fish and snakes)


images were taken from the collection of the NSW in SYDNEY

http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/browse.page.do?coll=aboriginal

richard aldrich

RICHARD ALDRICH

Born in Hampton, VA, 1975
Lives in Brooklyn, New York
1998 BFA, Ohio State University, Columbus
http://www.corvi-mora.com/richardaldrich.php#





richard aldrich, untitled, 2006, oil and wax on shaped canvas, 16½x 12¼