Welcome to the fall term of Oil and acrylic Workshop, Postmodern Assemblage and Supercharged Painting.
I just returned from a visit to Washington DC, where I saw some odd and interesting art. I was struck by the Pop Art feel and strangeness of the new Martin Luther King Memorial. Designed by Chinese nationalist sculptor, Lei Yixin, and carved in China the 30' high statue emerging from a rough-hewn block of granite is powerful in an almost comic book fashion. It is surronded by a dark granite wall that rises to a peak in the middle where it breaks to include a simply rendered mountain of white granite, before sweeping down again to enclose the 4 acre site that faces the Tidal Basin. The wall is inscribed with a number of king's statements, as is the side of the figure. The metaphor of a piece of granite moving forward from a mountain of the stuff and Dr. King's form emerging from this block is both clever and heavy-handed at the same time. There has been much controversy over this memorial: Chinese designed and manufactured, the choice of quotations for inscription, the expression and likeness of the face etc... but as I stood there I felt emotionally and artistically challenged by the piece and realized that this is the New World for America and Art, a Digital-Pop Cultural place where intrepretation is fragmented and the Old Art Elite are obsolete dinosaurs and the Crowd wins.
While in DC I visited the Hirshorn and saw a delicious show of Modernist paintings from their collection. Now that's Elite!
If you are new to my classes please bring some supplies from the lists provided so you can work. See you next week, john.
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