Art Bomb-1/23/2015 Clare Johnson. Henri Matisse

Aleathia says:

Originally I was going to try and profile artists from all the states in a sort of alphabetical order, but that really isn't my gig so I am going to try and hit all the states that I have lived in first and see how it goes.

One of the most influential times in my life, when I found out who I really was, happened in Seattle. It is the classic small town girl goes to big city story.  I had some of the best times of my life there, but in the end came back to the state of my youth to grow my roots.  Seattle was a beautiful garden of art and music and writing.  There was so much to do and see there.  It was hard to cover it all.  Having said that, today's artist is Clare Johnson from Seattle, Washington.

Clare Johnson is from Seattle, WA but obtained her education in many places including Brown University and in London at both the Slade School of Fine Arts and Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design.

Her ink drawings are painstakingly detailed, intricate, and intimate.  They are said to obsessively deal with the lines between solitude and loneliness; the lines between comfort and disconsolation.

This project started as nightly drawings on post-it notes before going to bed and blossomed into a fine collection of black and white snapshots of simple, but eye catching scenes.

Johnson's paintings are usually exhibited on stretched, unframed canvases to confirm to the viewer that something is always missing.

John Says:

I go and see a lot of art. Yet I don’t really know how to write or talk about it. I see these people in galleries or in museums standing in front of the paintings and dissecting them to the point of ridiculousness. At times it’s reached a point where I wonder if these people have come to the museum to look at a van Gogh or an Andre Derain because they like the art, or because they want to hear themselves pontificate on yet another idea that they’ve gotten wrong. I guess these blowhards beat the people who walk up to a painting, snap a photo, and then walk away. To these morons seeing great art is akin to standing in front of a big, famous building, or photographing their shitty lunch. The works of the masters have become yet another notch on their social networking belt.

Anyway since October the MoMA has been putting on a huge retrospective of Henri Matisse’s Cut-Outs. If I may lift or paraphrase from the MoMA’s web site, the Cut-Outs were a series of works that Matisse began doing in the late 1940s once he got too old and senile to paint regular paintings. Essentially the Cut-Outs (should I be capitalizing this?) are painted pieces of paper cut-out in order to form shapes or designs, or in some instances like this one (a personal favorite) made as prep work for a stained glass window:

Matisse used his cut-out scheme for his print book Jazz (1947):

His cut-out work was also featured on the cover of several issues of the French art magazine Verve

Good ol’ Henri even decorated his dining room in his apartment with cut-outs, this one being his famous and not often seen The Swimming Pool:

And who could forget Henri's famous Blue Nudes:

I’m not going to begrudge Matisse his art. No one is above criticism but maybe a guy who gave Picasso a run for his money back in the day gets a pass. Or maybe not. That is to say I was pretty unimpressed by the Matisse Cut-out exhibit. There were over 100 works in the thing (again, I’m pillaging the MoMA web site), and I spent a good hour in there only to walk out and look at my wife and shrug.  I had a much better time looking at the Toulouse-Lautrec and Jean Dubuffet exhibits. It’s hard to admire something that I could do on my own, or even sit down and watch my soon-to-be five year old niece do….although she’s a pretty keen artists. Even psychiatrists get her. I’ve always been more impressed by something like this:

But what do I know? The exhibit is beyond popular right now. You need an appointed time to go in and view it, and then really it’s simply being overwhelmed by the amount of cut-outs hanging on the walls, the crowds trying to talk art, kids bitching about being hungry, teens sitting on the floor texting their friends, or bitching to the guards about how they aren’t allowed to take selfies with the art.

Matisse: The Cut-Outs runs at the MoMA until February 10, 2015

Art Bomb-7/11/2014 MoMA, Arthur Tress

Ally says:

One of the best things about living in a city like New York is access to the museums. A few years ago, as a Christmas gift to ourselves, my husband and I got a membership to the Museum of Modern Art. This 6 story building on 53rd street has become like a second home. For a girl who works weekends I manage to clock a lot of hours in there.

And why not?

Look at this collection:

Reclining Nude - Modigliani

Les Demoiselles D'Avignon - Pablo Picasso

Masks Confronting Death - James Ensor

Monument to Balzac - Rodin

Dance 1 - Matisse

Persistence of Memory - Dali

Self Portrait with Cropped Hair - Frida Kahlo

And that's just like less than 1 percent. Each time I go to the MoMA it's packed. I get it. If I were visiting NYC, I would make sure I went there too. I mean, my goodness, they have Starry Night!

It's as beautiful in real life as you think it will be. And yet.....and yet....every single time I go to the museum I watch people walk up to the art, take a picture with their cell phone and then look at it on their phone and I just want to scream - "It's right there! In real life! That isn't a print! Why do you want to look at a digital version??"

Except what would be the point, right? I understand that the museum allow pictures (though I kind of wish they didn't) and that people want memories (Pictures or it didn't happen) but I swear 9 times out of 10 they don't even look at the real live painting before them. They just look at their picture.

Anyway, end rant. If you're in NYC, please try and make it to the MoMA. I know that with all the museums in town your time is limited but I promise you, the MoMA is worth it. And it's free on Fridays from 4-8!

If you come by, chances are good you'll find me standing here, in front of the most beautiful piece of art in that building. Van Gogh's Olive Trees. In my head, I'm sitting on that low branch right in the middle, feet swinging, watching the breeze race through the grass, happy as can be in Saint-Remy, France.

Aleathia says:

Hey Brooklyn....here's looking at you.

This is Arthur Tress.  He was born in Brooklyn, NY in the 1940's.  He started taking photographs when he was 12 years old and never turned back.  He is known for amazing work in staged surrealism and expositions of the human body.  His work is stunning in black and white and it really speaks to the young high school student in me who spent all her extra hours in the dark room trying to get just the right exposure; to the girl who nearly got kicked out of school for producing images contradictory to her teacher's views.

I recently saw an article stream through my Facebook feed about Arthur Tress and a collection of his photography called The Dream Collector.  He started this series in the late 1960's and in the 70's compiled the works into a book.  The main theme of the book are images based on childhood dreams which we all know lend themselves to the surreal very easily.

"Flood Dream" by Arthur Tress

"Singing Chair" by Arthur Tress

"Boy in TV Set" by Arthur Tress

This one is probably my favorite of the grouping that I have seen and I can't quite seem to find the name of the photograph:

Arthur Tress has many different themes he works with...some were a bit more risque than I felt like posting this morning.  I'm not sure folks wanted the Full Monty for breakfast.  But he does have a collection called Shadows which is very near and dear to my heart as I am presently working on two series of works, one called Reflections and the other Divisions.  I think looking at the negative space of things takes a keen eye.  I can only hope to be as talented as him someday.

If I read his bio correctly, he should have some of his work up at the MoMA in New York so when you are check out Ally's suggestions you should seek out Arthur Tress for the full effect.