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