Speed of Life

Jacopo Bassano "Christ Driving the Money Changers From the Temple" 17 3/16" x 21 3/8" black and colored chalks on blue paper circa 1570 Getty Collection Jacopo Bassano's "Christ Driving the Money Changers From the Temple" is a remarkable drawing. Rich, swirling masses of colored chalks are rubbed and shaded onto a colored sheet of paper defining a light filled atmosphere as much as a biblical scene. The freedom of execution in this preliminary study seems to speak directly to the Venetian love for complex coloristic effects. Jacopo Bassano learned much from Titian . Titian's oil paintings are richly layered with unique pigments from around the world that were readily available because of the Venetian Republic's long maritime reach. With access to these powders, which would be ground with linseed oil to form paint, Venetian artists such as Titian and Giorgione were able to lay out singular colored atmospheres. In essence Titian at his finest...

A brazen armed robbery of paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and Dali marked the opening of the Carnival in Brazil on Friday. Gunmen burst into the Chácara do Céu museum in Rio de Janeiro and made off with their most valuable paintings and a book by Picasso. Sources in Brazil say that the stolen paintings were Pablo Picasso's "The Dance", Claude Monet's "Marine", Henri Matisse's "Garden of Luxembourg" and Salvador Dali's "Two Balconies". Museum director Vera de Alencar told reporters that at least four men brandishing firearms had been involved in the heist - including one holding a hand grenade. Art lovers inside the museum were also relieved of their wallets, cameras and cellphones during the robbery. The assailants rushed out of the museum into the cobblestone streets of the Santa Teresa district and disappeared into a crowd following a Samba parade. With its steep, almost precariously tilted streets, cable car line, and bo...

Gregg Chadwick City of Desires (Cidade dos Desejos) 72" x 96" oil on linen 2005 Opening tonight at the Santa Monica Art Studios from 6 to 8pm is the exhibition: LEAVING AZTLAN (redux) February 25 – April 9, 2006 Opening Reception Saturday, February 25, 6-8pm ARENA 1 A project of Santa Monica Art Studios 3026 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA. 90405 Directors: Sherry Frumkin and Yossi Govrin My studio will also be open.

Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi This Tuesday, February 21st at Cal State University, Monterey Bay, Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi will be leading a lecture and discussion on "Images of Latinas/os in Film and Media". The husband-and-wife team will lead the free event at 7 p.m. in the University Center ballroom. Together they wrote the screenplay for the film "A Day Without A Mexican." Arau also directed the movie; Arizmendi is the star. In today's Monterey Herald , Marc Cabrera reports that "were it not for the couple's shared vision, the surprising indie hit "A Day Without A Mexican" would have just been a funny idea that Arizmendi had shared with her husband, who was also the film's director." "There is some competition when it regards whose idea was that," said Arizmendi over the phone from a Los Angeles studio, where she and her husband are working on individual projects. "I was the one who said the line, ...

Cover by Helen Frankenthaler "Her placement of words was like the placement of paint on a canvas," said her daughter, Hadley Guest. Modernist poet and art writer, Barbara Guest died on February 15, 2006 in Berkeley, California. During the 1950s, she created collages that later became covers for her books, and along with her poet colleagues in the New York School wrote for Art News magazine. In her recent collection of art writings, "Dürer in the Window" , gathered from a lifetime of looking, thinking and creating, Barbara Guest describes her experiences as a poet among painters and sculptors in a time when there was no "recognized separation between the arts." Her poems are crisp and visual with a taste for color and painterly image. "The Blue Stairs" inspired by a stairway in the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam is a good introduction to her work: "The Blue Stairs" by Barbara Guest (audiofile) There is no fear in taking the...

William Blake "Death of the Strong Wicked Man" watercolor on paper 1805 William Blake "The Grave Personified" watercolor on paper 1805 The recently rediscovered William Blake watercolors to be sold at Sotheby's in the spring should be bought by the Getty and the Tate jointly so both institutions can make the works available for scholars and the public. In Carol Vogel's piece on the rediscovered Blakes in the New York Times, Martin Butlin, a Blake scholar, expresses that breaking up the collection and selling them one by one at Sotheby's is "absolutely philistine. The seller has no regard for the integrity of works of art, only for money. As a group they tell a story." The nineteen artworks are from a series of 20 watercolors that Blake originally created as illustrations for the poem, "The Grave," by the Scotsman Robert Blair. With luck the William Blake watercolors could be showcased in an exhibition that moves between Los Angeles...

Gregg Chadwick The Stillness Between 48"x48" oil on canvas 2006 INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED: Supreme Art by gallery artists: Johnny Apodaca, Aleah Koury, Anita Hilton, Bud Gordon, Kevin Flynn, Dianna Cohen, Gregg Chadwick, Brian Behnke and Richard Newman 18 February - March 2006 Reception: SATURDAY, 18 February 4-6pm - (note different time!) Hope to see you there. LISA COSCINO GALLERY / 216 Grand Avenue / Pacific Grove / CA / 93950 / 831.646.1939

Monk & Rembrandt at the Getty * In response to a few questions sent my way, I would like to clarify my thoughts on the Getty's future. I hardily agree that the Getty should think big but I consider Kimmelman's idea of a merger with MOCA to be in the category of "loony" ideas that Christopher Knight suggests will occur during an open period of brainstorming. I do think that the Getty has shown it can collect and exhibit contemporary photography very well and that an expansion on their own into contemporary painting and sculpture could be quite interesting.

At the Castro Theatre, San Francisco, Before A Screening of "Wings of Desire"

The Getty Collection Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes and Christopher Knight at the Los Angeles Times have been following the events at the Getty closely and it is my opinion that their combined efforts were a major factor in Barry Munitz's decision to step down. Who says that the press is irrelevant? Now Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times joins in and poses the question ,"Why doesn't the Getty think big?" Kimmelman's ideas are welcome as the Getty deals with the aftermath of its curatorial carcrash (Marion True) and presidential trainwreck (Barry Munitz). Kimmelman advises the Getty to focus on the art and to "broaden the collection. Los Angeles doesn't have Byzantine art to speak of. It also doesn't have a place with enough room and firepower to import landmark exhibitions like the Met's Byzantine extravaganzas. The Getty could provide both." Sunbrella at the Getty Kimmelman concludes his piece by suggesting "an all-out merger w...

by Gregg Chadwick On February 8, 2006 in Los Angeles at the Grammy Awards, Bruce Springsteen roused the audience with his solo acoustic performance of the title track to his 2005 album, "Devils & Dust." Springsteen's haunting rendition was the most intense performance of the evening and offered the only political commentary during the show. Springsteen added a coda to his song, about a soldier in Iraq, by declaring, "Bring 'em home." "Springsteen makes me keep faith in America." -Billy Bragg Bruce Springsteen is a man who takes risks with his music and his politics. On May 3, 2005 in Hollywood at the Pantages Theater it seemed that Springsteen let everything ride musically in a last chance to save America's soul. In two numbers culled from his Reagan era album "Nebraska" - "Reason to Believe" and "Johnny 99" - like numerous blues artists and Bob Dylan before him - Springsteen howled the lyrics throug...

Michael Govan The Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new director Michael Govan called the museum "a sleeping giant" in the Los Angeles Times. After a period of intense recruitment, which included a phone call from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa , Michael Govan signed on last week. In LACMA's official press release Michael Govan expressed: “I am so honored to lead LACMA at this great time of transformation. Tremendous opportunities exist to build upon the successes of the past four decades." "Already, LACMA plays an important role in the region’s unique and vibrant communities. Many extraordinary artists are based here. They are both members of the larger community and great resources for it. I champion their deeper involvement with the museum. Working with them, and others, we’ll make it possible for our visitors—from the region or from around the world—to experience art in fantastic new ways.” LACMA Underground Christopher Knight in today's Lo...

Between Moment and Memory at the Julie Nester Gallery Almost back in Los Angeles after a stint in the mountains of Utah. Traveled without a laptop. No email. Spotty cell phone connections. Snow falling, almost covering our steps as we walked. Kelly Colbert Baynham and "The Chinese Sky" Of course the Sundance Film Festival was raging nearby - in Park City. And that too was rich in moments and inspiration. New paintings are forming in my mind. New images emerging as if from a dream. Back to the studio this evening. More soon.