There was an artist named Andy Warhol whose paintings sure enough weren't for all. Like a flimflam man he copied soup cans, and viewers saw [not Campbell, but] Warhol.
Andy Warhol Limerick
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Tag Archives: Art
BOOK REVIEW: Artpreneur by Miriam Schulman
Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity by Miriam SchulmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Release Date: January 31, 2023
This book is about half pep talk on selling one’s art at a higher price and half guide to marketing and selling art. “Pep talk” isn’t meant to diminish what the book does. First of all, the author does offer extensive justification for higher pricing, both from the body of research and from anecdotal experiences. Secondly, this is a pep talk that needs to be delivered and is the most important function of the book, by far. That doesn’t mean the book doesn’t do a fine job with the marketing and selling bits, but there are so many books available on that subject.
The book is directed toward graphic artists, though some of book’s message is of relevance to musicians and poets as well. (Perhaps that’s why I found the pep talk part so important, because it’s broadly germane to artists, whereas sales are quite different for media where huge numbers of copies are made versus one-of-a-kind works.)
If you’re a struggling artist or would like to avoid being one, this book is worth reading.
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BOOK REVIEW: The Madman’s Gallery by Edward Brooke-Hitching
The Madman’s Gallery by Edward Brooke-HitchingMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: March 7, 2023 [Some editions may be out in your area]
The Madman’s Gallery presents a selection of bizarre, curious, macabre, grotesque, surreal, and psychedelic artworks with essays offering insight into the background of each painting or sculpture, including information on influences and what is known about what motivated these atypical acts of creativity. Not all of the artworks are the product of mental illness – though some are and when something is known about the artist’s mental state it’s mentioned. They are all just, in some way, preternaturally creative or unconventional.
I was pleased that the book exposed me to a new selection of art. There were only a few pieces with which (as a neophyte) I was familiar. These included: Van Eyck’s “The Arnolfini Portrait,” Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” Fuseli’s “The Nightmare,” Gentileschi’s “Judith Slaying Holofernes,” the Olmec heads, and Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory.” There were other well-known paintings that were referenced because they were influenced by or had something in common with the artwork under discussion.
The book disabused me of the notion that the latter half of the twentieth century art was the golden age of freakish art (though that era is well represented with discussions of Dada, Surrealism, performance art, etc.) It’s interesting to learn how much wild and weird art was being producing in previous centuries, given how little of it made it through the filter of history to a general audience.
There are many recurring themes throughout the book: death, blasphemy, fertility, demons, etc. But the latter portion of the book features some new sources of bizarre art, including hoaxes, forgeries, and AI art.
If you’re interested in art history, and particularly the weird side of the subject, I’d highly recommend you read this book.
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DAILY PHOTO: Sculpture at Jerman Beach, Bali
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DAILY PHOTO: Strange Statues of the Sacred Monkey Forest
The Great Roundness [Free Verse]
As in Hokusai’s Great Wave,
I watch waves roll over,
before a volcanic cone.
Though these waves are
small & close,
they are perfectly rounded.
And though the distant volcano
looms large over the shore waves,
it has perfect symmetry.
I feel the roundness
&
simultaneous devastating power
of both elements at once.
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DAILY PHOTO: Balinese Art
DAILY PHOTO: Bratislava Sculptures
Painted Forest [Lyric]
The forest looks painted with dabs of bright color, a pointillist mural of the leaves' last hurrah. Soon, it'll turn twiggy, and sing desolation, and invite the fog in to soften sharp lines. Then one day you'll notice leaves glowing in sunlight. Their green will be golden from warm yellow rays. The maturing forest will darken its greenness, turning to sober tones that blot out the light.
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Tiny Tank [Free Verse]
Someone put a tiny, limp-gunned tank
on Danube west bank --
in Budapest, opposite Parliament.
Unsubtle symbolism, indeed,
but worth noting:
The might of violence
made feeble in the face of democracy,
and all that.
So true,
and yet so few
seem to believe it.
We seem to believe
that matching savagery
is the key to strategy
in opposing the extreme,
but then we've really just made more
extremism, haven't we?
Tiger Riding for Beginners 