John Murray classes week of Oct. 3, 2011

Minimal beauty! a great architectual translation of Ellsworth Kelly's "Black over White".

The gallerist, Mattew Mark recently commissioned Ellsworth Kelly to design something for the facard of his new West Hollywood gallery. The 88 year old artist reached back to his 1966 painting, "Black over White" for the solution. Kelly considered hanging one of his signature curved or rectangual sculptures, but decided to keep the piece simple and referential. I love minimal painting with such reference to the world, room, building, life or any form of the quotidian.

Think about process: black over white applied to red over green under blue or any combination of color, lack of color, texture or tranlucent application. The most ephemeral art can have application in the concrete world or vice versa. I have a model booked for Tues. 11 at deCordova Supercharged and all day Wed. the 12th at Newart Center. I am doing another talk/discussion this tues. the 4th at Newton JCC at 1:30: "Isolation as an Art Strategy: the work of Michael Heizer, Bas Jan Ader and Ray Johnson. See you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of Sept. 26, 2011

This week on Tueday the 27th and the following week Tues. Oct. 4th I will be doing a talk/discussion at 1:30 at the Newton JCC. This week's topic is "Manet to Matisse; Painting's Leap of Imagination" on the 4th it is "Isolation as an Art Strategy: the work of Michael Heizer, Jan Bas Ader and Ray Johnson". I hope you will attend (there is a small fee for non-members of JCC).

I may have a model for deCordova classes this week or next (forgive my lack of record keeping so please come with whatever you feel you need to work from the figure. This is not the case for NewArt Center artists.

I noticed that Haim Steinbach (my favorite Israeli artist) is having a show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea through Oct. 22. One of the first artists to take Duchamp's ready-made concept and run with it, his eye and taste in object selection and presentation is brillantly developed.

Try this yourself and bring an object to class from which to draw, paint and deconstruct. See you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of Sept. 19, 2011

Supercharged Painting New Art Center and deCordova Museum School, Acrylic and Oil Workshop and Postmodern Assemblage at New Art Center and Painting in the Abstract at the Newton JCC:

MOMA is having a de Kooning retrospective that opens this Sunday, if you are in New York or have a chance to get there don't miss it~!

On the 27th I am giving a talk and discussion at 1:30 at the Newton JCC "Manet to Matisse: Painting's Leap of Imagination" and the following week on the 27th at 1:30 also at the JCC I'm doing "Isolation as an Art Strategy" the work of Micheal Heizer, Jan Bas Ader and Ray Johnson. I hope you are able to attend and participate.

Anyone coming to any class for the first time please check the supply list and bring enough paint and canvas to work. I would like to see a response to de Kooning's deconstruction and disembowlment of the figure and/or a landscape that has been ravaged and distilled as he did in his Long Island paintings such as the red and purple painting at the top of this blog, "...Whose Name was Writ in Water". Thank you for your interest in and support of my classes. See you next week. john.

John Murray classes week of September 12, 2011

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.

supercharged painting summer August 22, 24 and 29

The last 3 days of the summer session are upon us! Labor Day looms and my thoughts go to what makes a painting work for us. The Joan Brown image above is modest and kind of silly, but powerful and painterly at the same time. Why do i find it successful i wonder? And can only think that its humor and sexual suggestiveness are the main features i respond to, but more than that its eccentricity and choice of subject matter, modest size and richness of creamy whites, blues and pinks all attract my eye and mind. The picture is part of a show in NY at George Adams Gallery called "Circle of Friends" and shows work of the S.F. Bay Area figurative painters of the 1960's and 70's. Some of my favorite modernist figurative painters were in that circle. See you next week (22nd and 24th) and the following Mon (29th). john.

Supercharged Painting Summer session week of August 15, 2011

"Art history is a paralyzing daydream from which today's artists cannot wakeup."

-Ken Johnson

What do you make of this statement by NYTimes art reviewer, Ken Johnson? Do you agree? Do you feel the 2 pieces above either illustrate that concept or disprove it. Lets have a discussion in class next week. Whose work have i used above? See you next week...john.

Supercharged painting Summer session week of August 8

A poetic sense of place.

John Marin's "Grey Sea" is a good example of that concept.

Try making a painting that conjures a place that you feel connected to. From your past or present, abstract or figurative.

Marin was a mid-20th century painter who often worked in New England.

There is currently a show at the Portland Museum of Art called "John Marin: Modernism at Mid-century" that runs until October 10.

See you next week..john.