Blahg

2 March 2014

My annual gripe about the lack of compelling acceptance speeches at the Oscars continues this year.

Jared Leto had a great speech going - relating a story about his childhood and inspirational mother - until he made a quick shift from "the" Ukraine and Venezuela to thanking co-stars and studio folks. And I also appreciated his "wow" after U2's performance of Ordinary Love. Jared's in a band. He knows what they do ain't as easy as they make it look.

Matthew McConaughey also gave a very thoughtful and meaningful speech about the three things he needs every day. Well said, surprisingly humble and down to earth.

But that's it. Only two memorable speeches. It's a shame U2 didn't win. Bono would've most definitely given a great speech. A speech with depth.

1 March 2014

Modern art by way of Mattopia:
An original piece I created using 53's Paper and Pencil.

DAM: Modern Masters: 20th Century Icons from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

The Denver Art Museum unveiled its latest blockbuster exhibit today and it's quite an entertaining collection. It's loaded with the superstars of modern art in all its various flavors and periods: Van Gogh, Dali, Matisse, Kahlo, Chagall, Modigliani, Rothko, O'Keeffe, Pollock, Warhol, Gauguin, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, to name a baker's dozen.

It's terrific to see, up close and personal, the tactile aspects of their handiwork, the layering of the paint, the heavy, thick application that creates a certain impression that's otherwise impossible. It's an effect of emotion and physicality.

What also gets me smiling during the exhibit are the words that decorate the walls, quotes from the artists that reveal their personal character and attitudes.

For example, in response to comments about The Old Mill (1888), Van Gogh remarked it's not that the art is done quickly, it's that people are looking at it too quickly.

Here are some other favorites:

"Follow the masters! But why should we follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn't follow anybody," Paul Gauguin, 1895

"Art is meant to disturb," Georges Braque

"The role of the artist always is to deepen the mystery," Francis Bacon

"Art is an experience, not an object," Robert Motherwell

"You can't judge it because it was felt," Philip Guston

"No rules. If you always stick to style, manners and what will work, and you're never caught off guard, then some beautiful experiences will never happen," Helen Frankenthaler

"Charlatans and young opportunists... Are the young artists plotting to kill us all?" Mark Rothko, 1962

Complementary to the DAM exhibit is the Clyfford Still Museum's 1959 exhibit. During a tour led by Jennifer Miklosi, I was struck by what a pistol Still was. He was, as documented in various letters and articles from the time, a diva. Those words - in handwritten letters, typed letters and telegrams - and that tour helped lend a better understanding of the art on display by getting to know better the man behind the art.

Favorite works

• A funny (and, naturally, bizarre) silent movie by Salvador Dali
• Spirit of the Dead Watching, Gauguin, 1892
• Peasant Life, Chagall, 1925
• Self-Portrait, Pippin, 1941
• Sailor with Guitar (bronze), Lipchitz, 1914
• Man with Dog, Bacon, 1953
• Untitled (steel, canvas, wire), Bontecou, 1960
• Head - Red and Yellow, Lichtenstein, 1962
• The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image, Dali, 1938
• Self-Portrait with Monkey, Kahlo, 1938
• The Old Mill, Van Gogh, 1888

The tactile impressions, the cumulative experience of words and art, and the immersive aspects of a thoughtful collection of various works to make a distinct experience - those are the elements that a digital world still can't fully duplicate. And that's a good thing.

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