Many of us grew up with the visual vocabulary of Dr. Seuss’s art. His wild trees with their fluffy tops or the whimsical horns on his animals all communicated not just creative freedom but also gave us a sense that there was more to the world than we were being taught. Apparently there was more to Dr. Seuss as well. During the day he wrote children’s books, by night he was a surrealist painter. Art on 5th Gallery has a wonderful collection of his many works, spanning a variety of styles and ranging from the familiar to more mature interpretations of his literary oeuvre.
Maybe you were one of those children who would spend hours pouring over the imagery in his books, absorbing the nuances in all of his characters wild expressions. You owe yourself a favor to spend some time now, revisiting these wonders in a new light. While you discover more to Dr. Seuss than you knew you may gain a new look into your own grownup imagination and perhaps marvel at the journey you both took.
If viewing these works up close at Art on 5th Gallery is still not enough, there is a wonderful volume on this secret art of Dr. Seuss that offers an introduction by the equally formative Maurice Sendak. Similarly there is another work on his secret art entitled the Cat Behind the Hat (which is also the title of one of his works featured in the Gallery.)
Alex Bag, video still from Untitled Fall 95. From Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s.” Alex Bag (born 1969, USA) Untitled Fall 95, 1995 57 min, color, sound Courtesy of Team Gallery and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York Alex Bag
Running from February 21 – May 15, 2016 at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art is a survey of contemporary art from the 1990s. This is actually the first major museum exhibit to historicize this transitional decade. Over 50 artists are represented, spanning the gamut from installation, video art, painting, photography, sculpture and early internet art. This is truly a showcase not to miss.
The 90’s were time of radical identity politics, steeped in the AIDS crisis, events like the Rodney King riots, and the rise of theInternet. It was a time of “culture wars” which impacted creative freedom as well as a time when global expansionism and digital technology forever altered both production and the art market.
April 3: Party Girl(1995) starring Parker Posey, capturing the 90’s NY party scene.
April 10:Safe(1995) starring Julianne Moore, a comment on suburbia.
April 17: How to Survive a Plague (2012) + “Untitled” (Felix Gonzalez-Torres) A documentary on Act-Up and AIDS.
April 24: Hackers(1995) A film about teenage hackers starring a young Angelina Jolie.
May 1: The Glass Shield (1994) A film starring Ice Cube and Lori Petty about race and the LA Police.
And lastly, what would the early 90’s have been without mix-tapes? (Yes, for those of us geezers we were making mixed tapes back in the 80’s and earlier…but this is a fun interactive piece). The Blanton will be checking out walkman cassette players with 90’s mixed tapes! Plus, if you submit your own 90’s playlists you can earn free admission:
Domínguez, Carlos “Chino” Madre e hijo con foto de padre desaparecido. Ayacucho, Perú [Woman with child and photograph of missing husband. Ayacucho, Peru] 1985 Hare, Pablo Miguel Grau, Bahía Tortugas, Ancash, de la serie Monumentos, 2005-2012 [Miguel Grau, Bahía Tortugas, Ancash, from the series Monuments, 2005-2012]The Blanton Museum and University of Texas are proud to announce an upcoming exhibit of Contemporary Peruvian Photography running from April 23 – July 3, 2016:
In collaboration with holdings from the Harry Ransom Center the exhibit will feature works from Peruvian photographers from the ’70s-80’s (from HRC collections) and their influence on photographic works from the ’90’s to today, (many newly acquired by the Blanton.) Spanning almost five decades the collection will trace the evolution of photography in Peru’s journey through political and social upheaval. Photographers in the ’70’s fought to have the medium recognized as an art form and in the 80’s used it to document war and poverty. Later artists would go full circle using the medium to investigate public space, explore race and national memory and creating a voice reaching out through the fog of government suppression.
The Harry Ransom Center is world renowned for its photography archives and their holdings are continuing to grow. From Feb. 9 until May 29, 2016 they will be celebrating almost 200 new acquisitions. Look Inside: New Photography Acquisitions traces progressions in the art from the post-war period through to the contemporary era.
I recently had the chance to attend the close of the Blanton’s hosting Moderno, an exhibit showcasing Latin American modern design. Organized by New York’s Americas Society it brought together forward-thinking designs for furniture, textiles, paintings, glass and metalwork.
Navigating through the contexts and biographies I realized, as a North American, how little we are taught of Latin American history, let alone early 20th century diaspora. The artists in the collection were Latin American, they lived and worked in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela…but for many of them these places were not their first homes. I found the stories of the artists almost more fascinating than the works. Some of the artists were of course native to their countries but almost all were international in some degree, whether having studied in Germany after the war or having fled Germany before the war, having left the Netherlands in protest of colonial wars in Indonesia or having left Cuba for Mexico or Portugal for Brazil. Some of the artists were of Asian descent, either having been born in Argentina of Japanese heritage or having been Chinese-British now active in Mexico.
I found these biographies fascinating and wanted to read more. This is the story of the 20th century and modernity, this diaspora in the face of war, economic and cultural immigration. How have these trajectories influenced art, identity, design and heritage? What does it mean to have Latin American art created by North Americans who left the U.S. for Mexico in the 60’s? What was the impact of Dutch craftsmanship on Brazilian design? What was the impact of having a Venezuelan photographer study in German? I left the exhibit filled with questions.
The painting here Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (III) for example is by Argentinian Kazuka Sakai, born in 1927 to Japanese parents who moved the family to Japan when he was 7 to complete a classical Japanese education. They returned to Argentina in 1951 when he was 24. During the 50’s and early 60’s he was a leading member of the movement Informalismo. After exhibiting in Buenos Aires he moved to New York where he stayed til 1965. After that he moved to Mexico where he lived and worked until the late 70’s. After 1977 he returned to the U.S., exhibiting in Mexico, the U.S., Spain, and Costa Rica.
Stories such as these challenge our notions of identity and influence and reveal how marvelous and energetic the global spread of modernist ideas is. Each of these profiles ask us to reflect on boundaries, the impacts of cultural context and training, and how these artists have these in their work. Global modernisms have been a meeting place, a tool to articulate cultural cross-sections and produce meaningful and rich experiences.
For most of the 20th century it was assumed that modernism belonged to the Western Euro-American domain. However, there were junctures of global modernism that occurred in many hot spots around the globe: zones of interactions with modernization that prompted negotiations with one’s traditional culture and the rapid changes happening it. Travel, sometimes subsidized by national cultural programs, the exchange of ideas through books and film helped bring to the West disruptions of traditional Greco-Roman/European aesthetics while simultaneously invigorating artists in non-Western countries, who were coming to terms with their own changing world and identities. Wiley-Blackwell has published a wonderful overview in their Modern Art in Africa, Asia and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms.
The 1920’s, the 1950’s after the war, the late 60’s and early 70’s, the 80’s were all periods of intense change, idea migration and paradigm shifts. In Latin America many forms of art were impacted by political revolutions, oppression and wars. Native or Colonial styles of art were insufficient in communicating visually what was happening in these worlds, but would still serve as elements of the visual vocabulary. Modern art in these countries would use the visual arts to depict the negotiations and violence occurring to the Latin American psyche and spirit while also allowing the artist and viewer to transcend and challenge. These works are worth viewing outside of the Latin American contexts as the dynamics, passions, conflicts are not isolated, they are both relevant and inspiring for humanity at large.
MEXICO
José Vasconcelos, a writer, sociologist, historian, lawyer and philosopher was appointed minister of public education in 1921. Following the fragmentation of the civil war Vasconcelos commissioned many public murals, helping to establish a unifying Mexican art practice.
Logo of the National University of Mexico designed by Vasconcelos when he was rector
Diego Rivera, perhaps one of the most famous in part due to his work on commissioned public works in the 1920’s, had traveled to Europe in 1907 becoming acquainted with the work of Matisse, Picasso and Gaugin. While having some success in Europe as a cubist, the Mexican Revolution (1914-15) and the Russian Revolution (1917) transformed his calling to that of wishing to reflect the lives of the working class and native peoples of Mexico. Returning to Mexico to paint a series of public murals. During the 30’s and 40’s he was commissioned to paint murals in the United States, some were controversial due to his politics.
El Vendedor de Alcatraces
There is not enough space to devout toFrida Kahlo, a gifted Mexican artist who caught the eye of famous surrealists like Andre Breton. Kahlo however denied the surrealist label, she was not depicting her dreams she explained, she was depicting her reality. Raised by a German father and Mexican mother during the Mexican revolution, her mother domineering and depressive, Kahlo suffered from polio as a child. Her father encouraged her to engage in sports, bike riding, typically boy activities in order to regain her strength. However, later in her young life a traffic accident shattered her body and altered her life. Recovering in isolation and coping with the reoccurring pain Kahlo channeled everything into her artwork. Drawing upon Christian and Jewish themes as well as Mexican mythology, bright local colors and themes, Kahlo pioneered a very personal surrealist style that was well-received in both the U.S. and Paris.
Self Portrait, Kahlo, 1940
José Clemente Orozcowas a painter who helped establish the Mexican muralist movement along with Rivera and Siqueiros. He was inspired by the Symbolist movement and was politically committed to helping the poor and working class. Of the three Mexican muralists, Orozco’s works were darker, more concerned with the bloody toll the Revolution was causing. Injured by fireworks chemicals during Mexican Independence Day celebrations he was unable to see a doctor for several days due to the festivities. Subsequently gangrene set in and he had to have his left hand amputated. He started painting political murals during the 20’s, his works were set apart by their focus on human suffering. After spending some years in New York and enjoying success painting murals in CA and New Hampshire he returned to Mexico where he was invited to paint the ceiling of the Government Palace in Guadalajara. The work was entitled The People and Its Leaders. Soon after he was asked to paint frescos inside Guadalajara’s Hospicio Cabañas. This would be considered his masterpiece, a “Sistine Chapel of the Americas,” depicting a panorama of Mexican history from pre-Colonial times through the Mexican Revolution.
Zapatista’s Marching – Jose Clemente Orozco
David Alfaro Siqueiroswas born in 1896 in Mexico. He was a social realist muralist and Mexican Communist. As a young teen he was inspired by the ideas of anarcho-syndicalism and the works of Dr. Atl who called for Mexican artists to develop their own national style. After the Mexican revolution he traveled to Paris where he met Diego Rivera and became acquainted with the styles of Cubism and Cezanne. In the 1930’s Siqueiros traveled to NY, where he ran a workshop for artists in preparation for the 1936 General Strike for Peace. Jackson Pollack attended the workshop learned the drip and pour technique from Siqueiros. In the late 30’s Siqueiros traveled to Spain to help fight against the Franco fascists before returning to work on murals. Later participating in a failed assassination attempt on Trotsky who was seeking asylum in Mexico forced Siqueiros into hiding.
The last twenty yearsin visual culture studies have seen a divergence from the hegemonic view that had dominated the academy for centuries, the assumption that what we define as “civilization” evolved only along the trajectory of: Egypt->Greece->Rome->Medieval Europe->Anglo-Britain->America. We know now that there have been multiple civilizations across the globe. We are now coming to realize there have also been in the 20th century multiple modernisms.
Art History departments, textbooks and museum exhibits are now reflecting histories, examples and works from these global, modern movements. No longer is non-Western art a kind of monolith or Other, relegated only to the pre-Colonial and the Ancient. Modernism has occurred vigorously and authentically in varying junctures in South, East and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Vision of the Tomb (1965), by Ibrahim el-Salahi PR
From the continent of Africa, the cradle of humanity and large enough to contain the countries of China, US, Europe and India, we are now seeing recognition paid to burgeoning scientists, engineers, artists and other cultural leaders. While European modernism was ‘revolutionary’ for involving visual concepts from the non-Western world, the convention had long been to embrace, celebrate and condone these acts of intellectual appropriation….while similar efforts by the non-Western artists were derided and dismissed as imitation. The academy is gradually shifting, partly in response to global currents in the art market that have taken the art centers away from Paris, London and New York, but the road toward changing discourse and practice is ongoing.
During the 1950’s Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi pioneered, like other non-Western artists for their countries, a new visual vocabulary by fusing and re-interpreting Islamic, African, Arab and Western aesthetics. Having returned to Sudan from London in 1957, and rising to become undersecretary for culture, he traveled to Nigeria to meet writers Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka (who have a contentious view on the topic of African modernism) as well as the modern artists from Senegal,Uche Okeke and Demas Nwoko. The 1960’s in Africa saw a kind of a renaissance in Africa, although the 1970’s found El-Salahi imprisoned without charge during the Nimeiri regime. Later released in 1977 he moved to Qatar to serve as a cultural minister, emigrating later to England. He currently finds himself working to promote the growth and acceptance of modernism within African nations while he enjoys recognition and success in the West.
A Beninese artist who followed in El-Salahi’s footsteps is the artist Meschac Gaba who pragmatically realized how the common people were not going to museums or understood contemporary art, so he took his work as performances to the markets and the streets. Within the gallery space his installation works are comments on economics, culture and the ways in which life and art blur.
The road to recognition of modernism in non-Western countries has been tumultous. Understanding the push-back against modernisms around the globe has always been political as well as cultural. Whether this is internal among civic governments, cultural ministers or between larger, cultural regions and established academies, to study emerging visual culture is to have a finger on a people’s unconscious pulse, something that cannot be easily controlled. It is what it means to be avant-garde, and why art can be revolutionary. It is also why it is so critically important to humanity. As Theodore Roethke once wrote “Art is our defense against hysteria and death.”
As the holidays pick up, more fun events are added to the local calendar. It’s hard to keep up! Subscribe to stay tuned in for new happenings and reviews!
Or maybe you might be interested in Holistic/Wellness shopping for body products, jewelry, and crystals while sipping specialty cocktails like the Vampyress or Butterfly Nectar and enjoying out of this world Italian food? Sunday Dec. 13, 5pm-11pm at the Vortex on 2307 Manor Road.
Maybe you’re not interested in an evening affair – the same Butterfly Bar cocktails will be available next to the Vortex at the following weekend’s Winter Yule Bazaar. This one promises DJs and belly dancers and a morning Yule ritual! Gifts provided by the East Austin Handmade Market. From Noon to 5pm, all weekend, all ages and free. Dec. 19 and 20th.
Done with your shopping and still want to get your holiday spirit on? Come out and join the Solstice Lantern Parade! Monday, December 21st, 2015, 5 pm ***KID FRIENDLY!*** The site is TBA, and there are instructions on the page to make and bring your own lantern. Music will be provided by the Minor Mishap Marching Band, “Bourbon Street meets Budapest” they describe themselves. Sure to be a magical way to celebrate the shortest day of the year.
Everyday I hear about more and more holiday shopping parties, brunches and bazaars. Want to stay informed? Subscribe to my blog, you’ll find the button to your right.
Bouldin Creek is having a Bazaar Brunch this Saturday Dec. 5, at 10:00am at Bouldin Creek Cafe1900 S 1st St. Handcrafted and Vintage Market on the lawn, enjoy brunch, a mimosa, bring your dog.
Eastside Pop-up is promoting the event and a number of other great bazaars and shows this month.
And if that weren’t enough and you’ve still put off getting gifts for all those far-flung relatives who wonder what Austin is all about, you have one more chance to sip mimosas while you shop. There will be another Bazaar Brunch at the Bouldin Creek Cafe, 1900 S. 1st, Dec. 20, 10am-3pm.
Not everyone likes to do their holiday shopping at big box chain stores. The crowds, the neon, horrible music, bad food and drinks, and everything’s made overseas.
What if your shopping experience could be one with live music, local food and good drinks? Where you could find unique Austin gifts for your family, things that no one else will have. You’ll also feel great knowing your money went to supporting the funky vibe that you love about this city. Visit any of the shopping events below and I guarantee you’ll feel a whole lot better about getting out to brave the season.
Santa will be on hand to pose for pictures in front of the “I love you so much” wall and in support of Operation Blue Santa, bring an unwrapped toy to receive a free coffee
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