and now some fiber content

 chiharu shiota installation.

i am attracted to the installations of japanese artists as i find them without any facile concessions to banality,  and or effects.

did imention i am convinced that bilbao is the new york of northern spain?

neki desu

 

more art

another wonderful exhibit.agustin ibarrola's paintings

1979 saw the birth of the spanish constitution after franco's death in 1975. ibarrola painted these series fom 77-79 .you can see and sense the people marching towards a new future.

 powerful iamages indeed.

neki desu

 

absolutely convinced

that bilbao is the new york of northern spain. took a short break to see the frankenthaler exhibit.

frankenthaler whose  actual paintings i had never seen until now  is one of my all time favorites along with rothko,rauschenberg and frank stella. this is a photo rich post , so enjoy.

one of the things i like the most is the paint artifacts she introduces in some paintings. they may be a humanoid shadow, a dash of color or some lines which not being there would almost mean another painting, necessary as they are.

neki desu 

 

3 weeks awol

 a trip to Barcelona which has turned into bedlam.great city to visit as a tourist and then go back home. terrible if you have lived there bcse you see the ravages caused by tourism.left with a bleeding heart and a sense of relief. in between the noise of the local elections, a month after the national ones. the sound and the fury.
5 days home and on to madrid for 3 days to see the luis gordillo exhibit




and the fra angelico at the prado.took advantage of the visit to revisit some goyas.
goya always leaves me in awe, such a modern painter!

some marathonian just wandering walks and a good indian restaurant.

now back to work.









neki desu
 

you can agree or disagree

Postmodernism at the V&A from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.


but it's fascinating albeit long.
have a good weekend.




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truly inspiring

hugette caland and the middle east textile tradition

https://es.pinterest.com/source/huguettecaland.tumblr.com

http://www.huguettecaland.com/

have a great weekend


neki desu

a metaphor

miyake issey.
taking a brief break. be back next week..
be good.













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if you can't be there

speaking of el prado: their latest exhibit.
have a great weekend. it's sucky and rainy here, but cool!







neki desu

nothing if not critical

    robert hughes

28 July 1938 – 6 August 2012

thanks for  putting art in perspective.

neki desu

the sound of one hand clapping

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thanks for the beauty

 helen frankenthaler

 1928-dec 2011

 a sampling of her paintings here


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too much excitement chez moi

                                                                   high drama

i'll start with the lesson learned  first and proceed backwards: don't throw away your boiled chestnut water.

two days ago i boiled some chestnuts to make my take on kuri gohan. the water had a nice woody color and i thought to give it a go and see what happened. luckily i had an alum mordanted  hirakami silk skein from which i warped 20 ends and dunked them in the water.i simmered the threads for an hour and i got this fool proof color

 actual colors, notice the texture of the hirakami silk

 which combines heavenly with my next warp.

this morning while taking the photo i thought about being redundant and using the photo of  the fabric i'm weaving as a textured background for the yarn photo. you can see the resulting photo above. in my quest against scattering it is very  promising to be able to use weaving as photo textures.

not bad for starters. over morning coffee the gadgeteer in me found out the perfect alibi to shell some dosh and make steve jobs even  richer. i had been resisting the i phone spiel on principle.but after reading this i made up my mind to want one(link via purple podded pea ) apparently it's a trend for the trendy and artsy if you dare call david hockney that.

and to swathe all this adrenaline in clothing the weaving is coming along just dandy. dare i ask for more?

neki desu

building bridges

break is over and came back with my head buzzing. the  highlight  of the trip was the exhibit at the thyssen museum on monet and abstraction. the thesis behind the exhibit is  that his paintings were crucial in the development of abstract expressionism and other forms of painterly abstraction. and it is pure aesthetic pleasure to see the works of among others rothko, helen frankenthaler, cy twombly,  pollock, de kooning confronted with monet's paintings. the exhibit is divided into seven sections six of which  are shown at the thyssen and the remaining two at the fundacion caja madrid.

in the mists and variations section along with turner there were 3 magnificent rothkos. this one  for example is in a private collection and as such a rare treat  because it is not frequently shown. i  adore his work and this one pulled me inside the painting with such force that i was oblivious of the people around and their comments.it was as if i were floating inside the painting. too bad the subtle color nuances and soft edges are lost in the representation.

then there were 2 wonderful frankenthalers in the reflections and transparencies section and we fell in love with a small pollock that was included in the brushstroke and gesture section.  i'm just highlighting my favorites, therefore to be a bit objective walk through the exhibit and never mind the speaking.

and speaking of walking we did some marathon sessions, one day 4kms non stop. not bad at all considering i lost two kilos and i'm thrilled with it because we ate like crazy. as a curio we noted that the  maundy thursday and good friday  processions are  really big in madrid  with lots of participation and onlookers. not so in barcelona.

back to the studio!

neki desu


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cooking

This is what i'm cooking and i'll go back to work right now. But before let me gripe a little.
Yesterday i went to a juried art exhibit with a painter friend of mine. She had entered a painting and had to go to the opening to find out whether her work had been accepted or not. Keep counting, please.

The awards were announced and the exhibit opened. Ninety eight percent of the works were figurative. And some of them verging on the commonplace.
This in a country which gave Miro and Tapies to the world.
It is disenchanting to say the least, that in year 2009 people still need to see the little house with the path and the tree. And i'm quoting my art history teacher on the house, the path and the tree.

By the way, my friend didn't get accepted.

neki desu


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trying to toot my horn elegantly

http://cyberfybervideos.blogspot.com/2009/01/winners.html

neki desu

pd .animations from http://www.anikaos.com

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Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008

Screwing up is a virtue.Being correct is never the point.
being right can stop the momentum of a very interesting idea.

Go here for more

neki desu

the Sean Scully exhibit

It was a master class in composition and sensibility. i had not been so shaken by an exhibit in a long time i think the last one was the Rothko one some years ago. And as i see it both Rothko and Scully are similar, yet different.
It was pure aesthetic enjoyment.
There is so much truth and emotion in those fuzzy edges.There's force, joie de vivre and sometimes angst and sadness.
And then reading the paintings and drawings as textile relationships adds yet another dimension for me.
i can also identify with his photos because i also like to photograph the same things patterns, doors, textures.

This exhibit was the perfect roundup of my holidays in Dublin because many of the mental images gathered during the trip came together. i can only feel grateful.

You can see more of Sean Scully's work here and here

neki desu