Big Culture Sunday
This weekend Von Bark and I tried to see the Robotic Chair doing its thing in a Roots store, but the darn Luminato festival website (Toronto's latest civic arts extravaganza) neglected to list the special Sunday times, and we showed up at exactly the wrong hour. Instead we went to the Royal Ontario Museum and walked around inside the underwhelming Libeskind crystal. The light is nice and so are the angles, but the ceilings are kinda low and all the walls are slanty. I dunno how they're going to mount any successful displays in there. But I still love the ROM, they didn't mess with the grand old staircase and the massive totem poles. We lost ourselves wandering in the old section of the museum, looking at the Acropolis diorama and the big Bodhisattva sculptures. After that I continued on downtown to catch a bit of the end of Luminato. Max Streicher's big horses floating over Union Station were great: apocalypse meets Alex Colville (Colville horse& train painting posted below). I forgot my camera, but there's good Flickr pictures here. R.M. Vaughan's Globe and Mail review of Luminato is here. I have to agree with his dismissal of the big black balls at BCE place, although one of them was deflating like a great big testicle, which added a humorous, though unintentional frisson. I didn't get to see Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s piece. I wish I did because many people beside R.M. were not impressed, but R.L.H. is one of my favourites and I wish I'd seen it for myself.
Update: Timothy Comeau's excellent review of Luminato is here. [via Simpleposie]
broken link on the flickr.
That angular attic space is for art? (architect - 10; artists - 0--as usual)
Who did the horse painting?
The horsey is an iconic Canadian painting by Alex Colville. (I've never seen the real thing, it's been reproduced on a zillion things in this country)
I am planning to do a post on Max's blow-up horses and other works of his.
A lot of cranking being done on the ROM addition.
For out-of-towners, the Royal Ontario Museum is not an art gallery, but is full of better art than most public institutions.
Thanks, link is fixed.
I spent a lot of time staring at that album cover when I was a kid.
Why do you think the horse is running to the train?
Two pages, double spaced, due on Monday and this counts towards your final mark!
The Cockburn cover cropped the train!
I like that Rockwell Kent, high deco style.
I realised from Tom's first comment that this post was written in haste and was therefore rife with more Canada-specific shorthands than I would normally include. I've edited a bit to open it up.
I remember the first time I saw the whole painting I was shocked to see the train. Streicher's piece reminded me of this painting, as did Tideland, which features the concept of a monster shark on a train track. Alex Colville is a guilty pleasure. Here's some more. I couldn't find my favourites (after the horse) which are a woman in a bathtub and an empty room with a bed.
Weren't you taught to hate him in art school?
If you aren't going to hate who you are supposed to hate, what is the point of your overpriced education.
I bet you're still paying off those studen loans too.
I like Robert Bateman too.
And I sort of like Ken Danby. Although not as much.
But I LOVE Kureleck (he's in a different league & era) and I can't get enough of Paul Kane (different era) (although Kent Monkman's Paul Kane riffs are just as good and better for many many reasons).
I even like Emily Carr. Did anybody else see the AGO show on her? I thought it was really well curated.
Okay...I'm done barfing Canadiana nostalgia...for now...
I like them on the web. Album cover-y and dramatic but they work as illustrations and use the inherent "frozen moment" of painting pretty well. I probably like the boat one best. All subject to not knowing anything about scale, surface etc.
Our favourite bat-shit crazy writer, Anthony Easton wrote an essay on William Kurelek's dark religious stuff.
Add Cornelius Krieghoff to the list. A billion short-bread cookie tins can't be wrong.
I always think of "the boat on" as "the binoculars one." Frozen moment is what Colville is all about. Although the paint is applied in a restrained and tasteful pointilist style that makes everything a little bit buzzy, making that moment sort of timeless in a tightly controlled designer/painter kind of way.
I always fold Krieghoff into Kurelek. He belongs on the list for sure. L.M., do you have a link to Anthony's Kurelek piece? Although I'm sure I can find it...I would love to read it. I'm 100% sold on Kurelek for his tiny mushroom clouds on the pastoral prairire horizon.
I'm not sure he's posted it, he did once send it to me. I'll check with him and see if we can post it.
re: tiny mushroom clouds on the pastoral prairire horizon...
please add: someone being crucified on a telephone pole, while the family across the road is getting their group portrait photograph taken.
One of my favourite paintings in the AGO. I would rush over to see it every time I visited.
(VB via SM).
here's a kurelek bunny for you.
it didnt end up getting published, and i am west of beaver lodge castrating cattle, so i cant find it, but LM post away
yay! thanks Anthony, and thanks L.M. for the night bunny. I was sure that a few years ago I'd posted that Kurelek painting VB was talking about, but I can't find it. Maybe I just remember looking for it.
Anthony, don't forget "castrating cattle west of beaver lodge" if you're ever writing dust jacket copy. It beats "fruit picker in Mexico" all hollow.
Danby's picture of an adolescent girl looking at a popcorn machine at a fair is one I do not think i will forget.There is a sense of looming menace. I first saw a reproduction sometime in the seventies.
I just looked in my Danby book and saw the title again, Delicious. That creeps me out.
....and lest we forget this great canadian painting. now available in the ever popular canvas transfer print!
http://www.canadianartforsale.com/Paul_Peel/Peel_After_the_Bath_CAP0560.htm
ulp.
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Big Culture Sunday
This weekend Von Bark and I tried to see the Robotic Chair doing its thing in a Roots store, but the darn Luminato festival website (Toronto's latest civic arts extravaganza) neglected to list the special Sunday times, and we showed up at exactly the wrong hour. Instead we went to the Royal Ontario Museum and walked around inside the underwhelming Libeskind crystal. The light is nice and so are the angles, but the ceilings are kinda low and all the walls are slanty. I dunno how they're going to mount any successful displays in there. But I still love the ROM, they didn't mess with the grand old staircase and the massive totem poles. We lost ourselves wandering in the old section of the museum, looking at the Acropolis diorama and the big Bodhisattva sculptures. After that I continued on downtown to catch a bit of the end of Luminato. Max Streicher's big horses floating over Union Station were great: apocalypse meets Alex Colville (Colville horse& train painting posted below). I forgot my camera, but there's good Flickr pictures here. R.M. Vaughan's Globe and Mail review of Luminato is here. I have to agree with his dismissal of the big black balls at BCE place, although one of them was deflating like a great big testicle, which added a humorous, though unintentional frisson. I didn't get to see Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s piece. I wish I did because many people beside R.M. were not impressed, but R.L.H. is one of my favourites and I wish I'd seen it for myself.
Update: Timothy Comeau's excellent review of Luminato is here. [via Simpleposie]
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 1:34 am
broken link on the flickr.
That angular attic space is for art? (architect - 10; artists - 0--as usual)
Who did the horse painting?
- tom moody 6-13-2007 1:51 am
The horsey is an iconic Canadian painting by Alex Colville. (I've never seen the real thing, it's been reproduced on a zillion things in this country)
I am planning to do a post on Max's blow-up horses and other works of his.
A lot of cranking being done on the ROM addition.
For out-of-towners, the Royal Ontario Museum is not an art gallery, but is full of better art than most public institutions.
- L.M. 6-13-2007 2:10 am
Thanks, link is fixed.
I spent a lot of time staring at that album cover when I was a kid.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 2:15 am
Why do you think the horse is running to the train?
Two pages, double spaced, due on Monday and this counts towards your final mark!
- L.M. 6-13-2007 2:18 am
The Cockburn cover cropped the train!
I like that Rockwell Kent, high deco style.
- tom moody 6-13-2007 2:33 am
I realised from Tom's first comment that this post was written in haste and was therefore rife with more Canada-specific shorthands than I would normally include. I've edited a bit to open it up.
I remember the first time I saw the whole painting I was shocked to see the train. Streicher's piece reminded me of this painting, as did Tideland, which features the concept of a monster shark on a train track. Alex Colville is a guilty pleasure. Here's some more. I couldn't find my favourites (after the horse) which are a woman in a bathtub and an empty room with a bed.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:15 am
Weren't you taught to hate him in art school?
If you aren't going to hate who you are supposed to hate, what is the point of your overpriced education.
I bet you're still paying off those studen loans too.
- L.M. 6-13-2007 5:19 am
I like Robert Bateman too.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:20 am
And I sort of like Ken Danby. Although not as much.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:20 am
But I LOVE Kureleck (he's in a different league & era) and I can't get enough of Paul Kane (different era) (although Kent Monkman's Paul Kane riffs are just as good and better for many many reasons).
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:22 am
I even like Emily Carr. Did anybody else see the AGO show on her? I thought it was really well curated.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:24 am
Okay...I'm done barfing Canadiana nostalgia...for now...
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 5:25 am
I like them on the web. Album cover-y and dramatic but they work as illustrations and use the inherent "frozen moment" of painting pretty well. I probably like the boat one best. All subject to not knowing anything about scale, surface etc.
- tom moody 6-13-2007 5:39 am
Our favourite bat-shit crazy writer, Anthony Easton wrote an essay on William Kurelek's dark religious stuff.
Add Cornelius Krieghoff to the list. A billion short-bread cookie tins can't be wrong.
- L.M. 6-13-2007 6:04 am
I always think of "the boat on" as "the binoculars one." Frozen moment is what Colville is all about. Although the paint is applied in a restrained and tasteful pointilist style that makes everything a little bit buzzy, making that moment sort of timeless in a tightly controlled designer/painter kind of way.
I always fold Krieghoff into Kurelek. He belongs on the list for sure. L.M., do you have a link to Anthony's Kurelek piece? Although I'm sure I can find it...I would love to read it. I'm 100% sold on Kurelek for his tiny mushroom clouds on the pastoral prairire horizon.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 6:42 am
I'm not sure he's posted it, he did once send it to me. I'll check with him and see if we can post it.
- L.M. 6-13-2007 7:01 am
re: tiny mushroom clouds on the pastoral prairire horizon...
please add: someone being crucified on a telephone pole, while the family across the road is getting their group portrait photograph taken.
One of my favourite paintings in the AGO. I would rush over to see it every time I visited.
(VB via SM).
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 7:05 am
here's a kurelek bunny for you.
- L.M. 6-13-2007 7:21 am
it didnt end up getting published, and i am west of beaver lodge castrating cattle, so i cant find it, but LM post away
- anthony (guest) 6-13-2007 10:03 am
yay! thanks Anthony, and thanks L.M. for the night bunny. I was sure that a few years ago I'd posted that Kurelek painting VB was talking about, but I can't find it. Maybe I just remember looking for it.
- sally mckay 6-13-2007 4:51 pm
Anthony, don't forget "castrating cattle west of beaver lodge" if you're ever writing dust jacket copy. It beats "fruit picker in Mexico" all hollow.
- M.Jean 6-13-2007 5:13 pm
Danby's picture of an adolescent girl looking at a popcorn machine at a fair is one I do not think i will forget.There is a sense of looming menace. I first saw a reproduction sometime in the seventies.
I just looked in my Danby book and saw the title again, Delicious. That creeps me out.
- galenagalaxian 6-14-2007 6:43 am
....and lest we forget this great canadian painting. now available in the ever popular canvas transfer print!
http://www.canadianartforsale.com/Paul_Peel/Peel_After_the_Bath_CAP0560.htm
- mnobody (guest) 6-14-2007 8:43 pm
ulp.
- sally mckay 6-14-2007 10:21 pm