John Murray classes week of April 2, 2012

Welcome to the Spring term at New Art Center.

I have been in D.C. for the last few days and seen some great art at the Hirshhorn Museum.

I saw, and for the first time visually understood, Francis Bacon. After years of not getting his work and writing it off as over-rated, I was blown away by his pictures, especially his portraits of Van Gogh. The brutal brush work, the economically achieved light and shade, the acknowledgement of the linen ground and the diverse play of viscosity and scumble are amazingly beautiful and existentially powerful. I have ordered a book of Bacon's paintings from Amazon and will bring it to class when I recieve it. Tonight I'm going to the Hirshhorn at sunset to watch the Doug Aitken illumination of the entire facade of the building called "Song/1". Described as "liquid architecture" it is supposed to blend images and sound and transform the urban landscape. Should be interesting. Next week for the first class try a piece that in some way records an experience you recently had where your perceptions were changed: a situation or reconsideration of long-held opinion, or an insight into a visual or aural experience. Any medium on any surface, flat, relief or 3D. See you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of March 19, 2012

Last week of the Winter term. The

Spring term starts April 2.

The Vernal Equinox starts next week!

Every Spring I love to listen to Stravinsky's

"Le Sacre du Printemps" and try to do a painting in that spirit. the piece was performed first in Paris on May 29, 1913 and caused an audience uproar. It was concieved by Stravinsky and the painter Nicolas Roerich as a ballet that expressed pre-Christian Russian paganism and told the story of Roerich's dream of a beautiful (of course!) pagan girl who dances herself to death. I will play the piece in all classes next week so we can see what it does for us. see you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of March 2012

The Whiteness of the Whale, Chapter 42

Try working from a piece of literature next week.

Here are 2 artists who worked from Melville's Moby Dick; on the right Sam Francis's version of the chapter and the cover of the book of 266 "Moby Dick" sculpture/paintings that Frank Stella completed 15 years ago. Find a chapter in a favorite book and explore the tension between content and plasticity. See you next week, john

John Murray classes week of March 5, 2012

The 2012 Whitney Biennial.
Looks really good as reviewed by Roberta Smith in the Fri. March 2 New York Times.
Werner Herzog, the obsessive German filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman's documentary, "Boxing Gym" and the work of the eccentric painter, Forrest Bess, as presented by the great postmodern sculptor Robert Gober (check his work online). I'm going down to Manhattan for this one!
Bess was an isolated and identity-obsessed artist who lived and worked on the Gulf coast of Texas and painted motifs that came to him in dreams and tried to bring out the woman in himself by acts of self-surgery that turned him into a semi-hermaphrodite. His dream-inspired paintings are strong and beautiful objects that reflect a deep painterly love of materials.
Next week try working from your dreams with an emphasis on painterly materiality in confict with content. The Biennial close on May 27.
see you next week, john.