Happy Halloween! - Conservation: revealing a hidden skeleton of death at the V&A Museum

Clarence Clemons Dies at 69

I'm listening to Clarence Clemons playing with Gary US Bonds as I mourn the Big Man's passing.


Great solo by Clarence Clemons on Gary US Bonds' amazing version of Steve Van Zandt's Daddy's Come Home. This video was shot in Japan and adds a personally bittersweet tinge to an already emotional song.

More at:
Backstreets on Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons, Springsteen’s Soulful Sideman, Dies at 69

Fragility of Life: I Mourn the Loss of Artist Sylvia Moss

Gregg Chadwick
A Gion Rain
22"x30" monotype on paper 2011


I came home from a memorial service for a great artist and a great friend, Sylvia Moss, on Sunday night. In times of loss and uncertainty, I tend to turn to the arts - books, music, film, theater and museums - for solace. But when an artist is severely ill or dies I find that I have to create. I have been in my studio for the past few weeks creating monotypes. A monotype is a singular impression made from an image which has been drawn or painted on to a printing plate.

My monotype process is technically straightforward but pushes my artistic subconscious in both image and mark. When I painted "A Gion Rain" onto a copper plate, thoughts of Sylvia fell like rain across my mind. Sylvia Moss died in Zurich, Switzerland on May 9, 2011. Sylvia had long suffered from the challenges of multiple sclerosis.

Sylvia Moss grew up in Piedmont, California and then moved east to a beckoning New York City to pursue her love of theater, fashion, and art. Over the years, Sylvia studied at The California College of Arts and Crafts, The Art Student’s League of New York, Columbia University, and The California Art Institute.

Sylvia eventually returned to California and was Professor of Costume Design at the University of California Los Angeles in the Theater Department where she taught from 1973 until 1994.

Sylvia authored numerous magazine articles as well as a groundbreaking book about alternative materials used in costume design, Costumes & Chemistry, published by Costumes and Fashion Press.

I had the fortune to meet Sylvia Moss when the Santa Monica Art Studios opened in an old hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in 2004. She was a continual inspiration as she determinedly fought the ravages of multiple sclerosis to create her visual art.

Sylvia's experimentation with alternative techniques in costume design fueled her explorations in the visual arts. Her paintings are as much archaeological digs as two dimensional creations. Layers of grit, gloss, glitter and color marked her artistic path as Sylvia's paintings seemed to grow of their own accord in her laboratory/altelier.

Sylvia Moss
Meditation 8
22"x30" oil and mixed media on paper

As my fellow artists in the Santa Monica Art Studios will attest I approach brush cleaning as a form of meditation. Each day, I carefully clean the detritus of each brush's passing in a bath of cool water. Just before her final trip to Switzerland, Sylvia wheeled up to me in her motorized wheelchair as I bathed my brushes. She began to speak as if she wanted to tell me the meaning of life but then stopped and just smiled her remarkable, unforgettable grin. And with that smile, Sylvia said "Goodbye" to me. I will hold that smile in my heart each day as I create.

More at:
Sylvia Moss

Louise Bourgeois Has Died at 98

Louise Bourgeois photographed in 1990 behind her marble sculpture Eye to Eye (1970)
Photo Raimon Ramis
© Adagp, Paris 2008

"I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."
- Louise Bourgeois

The artist Louise Bourgeois has died at 98 on Monday at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. It seemed that she would live forever. Her career has been historic.
Holland Cotter has just written in the New York Times that "her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on younger artists, particularly women."

I have been inspired by Louise Bourgeois' work for quite some time, having encountered her sculptures for the first time when I was a High School student taking classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. Her life ends but the mystery embodied in her artwork lives on.

A recent bio provides the details:

"Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 to a family of tapestry restorers. In 1938, Bourgeois married American art historian Robert Goldwater and moved to New York City, where she currently lives and works. In a career extending over seven decades, Bourgeois has explored her memories and fears in a complex body of work ranging from poetic drawings to room size installations. She has stated that she gives her emotions and fears a physical form. In 1982, Bourgeois was the first woman artist to receive a Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She represented America at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and was given the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1997. In 2007, the Tate Modern in London, in collaboration with Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, organized a Retrospective of her work that travelled to the Guggenheim, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Hirshhorn in the United States."

More details to follow...

Louise Bourgeois, Artist and Sculptor, Is Dead
E' morta a 99 anni la grande Louis Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois edition to benefit Freedom to Marry

"Everyone should have the right to marry. To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing."
- Louise Bourgeois


Louise Bourgeois
I do, 2010
Archival dyes on cloth with embroidery
16 × 12 inches; 40.6 × 30.4 cm
Edition of 300 with 35 APs
Gift of the Artist; Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York

Dennis Hopper - Artist, Actor, Collector - Dies at 74

Andy Warhol
Portrait of Dennis Hopper
silkscreen on canvas 1971

“The American art world often likes to put artists into boxes. You’re an artist, not a filmmaker. You’re a photographer, not a painter. But Dennis shows you can blur those boundaries, which is very current and exciting.”
-Jeffrey Deitch

Dennis Hopper has died at 74 just weeks before an exhibit of his work will open at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Over the years Hopper has created paintings and photographs along with his films. His photographs are noteworthy because of his unique access to his portrait subjects such as Andy Warhol and because of his romantic, brooding aesthetic.


Dennis Hopper
Double Standard
silver gelatin print 1961

Jori Finkel in the Los Angeles Times noted that " most big museum exhibitions take years to organize, but new director Jeffrey Deitch had the idea for this show just a couple of months ago when visiting Julian Schnabel, a longtime friend of Hopper."

“We’re rushing this exhibition because Dennis Hopper is ailing,” Deitch says, “and I wanted him to be able to participate in the selection of works. He saw the space with us last week.”

Dennis Hopper's exhibit Double Standard opens at MOCA on July 11, 2010:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles



Dennis Hopper Discusses His Art Collection

A poignant piece on Dennis Hopper by Richard Stayton in the Los Angeles Times:
An uneasy ride with Dennis Hopper
A wonderful interview with Hopper from the November 2008 issue of Venice Magazine:
Dennis Hopper: The Hollywood Interview


Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild plays over the opening scene of Dennis Hopper's film Easy Rider


Dennis Hopper and Portrait of Dennis Hopper by Julian Schnabel