Speed of Life

de Young Museum in fog A party was held at the new de Young Museum in San Francisco on October 20th for the local art world. The event was sponsored by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which encompasses both the de Young and the Legion of Honor, and the San Francisco Art Dealers Association. We were asked to arrive in festive attire. A heavy San Francisco fog shrouded the new building which seemed to appear briefly then vanish into the mist. The new structure looked less like a beached aircraft carrier and more like the Enterprise cloaking and uncloaking in Golden Gate Park during one of the Star Trek films. The new de Young is both spacious and elegant which gives the art room to breathe. The architects, the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan Architects from San Francisco, have allowed the function of the building to determine its internal look and structure. "We wanted to keep the art itself in the foreground," Herzog says. Looking down on Andy Go...

Currently at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is a Huang Yong Ping retrospective entitled "House of Oracles". Huang Yong Ping "11 June 2002--The Nightmare of George V" "The title identifies the hunter as King George V of England. Huang explains that in 1911 the king, while hunting in Nepal, killed four tigers in three days, a remarkable feat. One of the tigers attacked the king, and he donated this specimen to a museum in Bristol, where Huang found it. In Paris the artist located preserved animals from other treks. He attached to a wicker howdah on the elephant’s back a tiger in the documented position of attack, but he replaced the royal howdah–an emblem of empire–with the sort used to protect well-heeled tourists. The tableau looks back to the approaching end of the colonial period." - Artforum Crate Logo for Huang Yong Ping Exhibition at the Walker Art Center Designed by Phil Docken The Walker's visual arts blog has a wonderful piece on the tr...

This Sunday on the Cal Berkeley campus, the writers of the Simpsons will come clean as closet math geeks. "We couldn't handle the pressures of academia", they might say, "but at least we kept our day jobs in animation." MSRI’s Archimedes Society invites you to this FREE public event Mathematical Writers from The Simpsons and Futurama Sunday, October 16, 2005 • 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Valley Life Sciences Building's Chan Shun Auditorium (Rm. 2050) at UC Berkeley Writers David X. Cohen, Ken Keeler, and Jeff Westbrook have kept their math habit alive by sneaking in hundreds of mathematical and scientific references into The Simpsons and Futurama. Join in as the writers discuss their mathematical backgrounds, favorite theorems from Homer and Bart, along with thoughts on the representation of mathematics in Hollywood. In honor of this event , and in anticipation of the upcoming Simpson's Halloween special, we join The Simpson's episode "Treehouse O...

(Jennifer S. Altman / LAT) "I try to find beauty in the middle of the horror, and vice versa," she says. "Sometimes, really horrible things — you can turn into a weapon of beauty." -Shirin Neshat in an interview with Tyler Green Tyler Green's article on the Iranian- American artist Shirin Neshat in the Los Angeles Times is well written and provacative. A must read: Shirin Neshat: Trapped Between Two Worlds More on Shirin Neshat: Shirin Neshat: Photo Essays- Time Europe

HAROLD LEVENTHAL 1919 - 2005 Harold Leventhal, died on Tuesday at the age of 86. A renowned folk music champion, Leventhal acted as promoter, producer, and manager for Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and countless others. Leventhal presented a 21-year-old Bob Dylan at Town Hall in New York in Dylan's first major concert hall appearance on April 12th, 1963. Harold Leventhal was featured most recently in Martin Scorcese's documentary "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" in which he provided glimpses into Dylan's early years in New York. Harold Leventhal enlisted in the US Army during World War II and was stationed in India from 1944-46. These years had a profound impact on his life both politically and artistically. In India, Harold's political interests led him to seek out members of the Indian National Congress. He met with Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. Harold Leventhal and Jawaharlal Nehru,1945 Jorge Arevalo, in the concert notes to the Tribute to...

Shahzia Sikander (detail from dissonance to detour, mixed media on paper) Shahzia Sikander, who has traveled from Pakistan, to Rhode Island, to New York is now in Los Angeles for a short time, as a guest artist at the Otis College of Art and Design. Her recent work is on view until November 12 at Otis' Ben Maltz Gallery. Shahzia Sikander's exhibition "Dissonance to Detour", curated by Meg Linton, features new paintings on paper, a digital video animation, and a large wall painting. There is a rich fluidity to this work, especially in the details which play with the idea of 17th century Mughal miniatures. There is an expectation of narrative and resolution within the paintings. But upon closer examination, the works slip into a vivid flux of color and line. By shifting the viewer's expectations from narrative to paint, Sikander refuses to create the works that might be expected. Instead Shahzia Sikander's exhibition evokes an imaginative response. While viewin...

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick A Walk With Ganesh 72"x84" oil on linen 2005 Recently during an extended visit in Thailand, I toured the elephant parks in the mountains north of Chiang Mai. Each day the elephants are brought down to the river and bathed. As I watched these daily baths, I knew that I needed to paint these moments- the elephants, the mahouts, the river, the water, the light, the color, the heat and the air. Ganesh- (in the Hindu pantheon, known as a remover of obstacles) provided an apt title. Hokusai "Blind Men and Elephant" from the Hokusai manga series ("Random Sketches"),  volume VIII, Pages 13,14 1818 After viewing "A Walk With Ganesh", Julie Weiss brought in a treasured book on the Japanese artist Hokusai opened to Hokusai's manga -"Blind Men and Elephant". This image wonderfully illustrates Buddha's parable: Once, a group of blind men, who generally got about by holding ...

Dear Friends and Colleagues: The devastation in New Orleans and the gulf cities is almost incomprehensible. New Orleans is one of the richest cultural centers in the country. It is home to hundreds of musicians, visual artists and theatre professionals. Yet New Orleans also has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. Like many of us, these artists live gig to gig, check to check. And these artists are now dispersed throughout the country. I’ve been in touch with several colleagues from New Orleans and while they may be physically okay, they are trying to figure out the day-to-day reality of their displacement. This day-to-day may well turn into months if not years. The national arts community is mobilizing to help with this crisis. If you would like to help, the recommendation is to give to the Red Cross relief fund and then give a little more to the artists affected by Katrina. The Southern Arts Federation has established an artists’ and arts organization fund, which wil...

Gregg Chadwick Belle Ville 11"x11" oil on linen 2005 NBC's Dateline producers movingly combined scenes of the destruction and the suffering of the victims of Hurricane Katrina with Bruce Springsteen's song "My City of Ruins" at the close of their look last night (Thursday, 9/1) on the hurricane devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It is a brillant, sad, and stirring song, which Springsteen originally wrote for the economically-gutted hometown of his imagination: Asbury Park, N.J. It changed meanings when he included it in his performances after the World Trade Center's destruction on 9/11/01 and on his album exploring the pain of that day, "The Rising." On screen last night his words and somber chords honored yet another group of sufferers who have seen their city ruined. And its our city too, our belle ville, our most European and artistically fecund city that has been drowned. It is our neighbors who have died or had their live...

Gregg Chadwick "La Palabra en el Tiempo" (The word in time) 48"x48" oil on linen 2005

Have a nice day !

A ray of light that stabbed like an arrow Drawing and text / Rikuo Fukamachi August 6, 1945 Approx. 2,200m from the hypocenter Ushita-machi (now, Ushita-minami 1-chome) "A tremendous flash of light stabbed like an arrow yet filled every space. I was in the entrance hall, just about to leave the house. The blast blew me, the house, the walls, and all our furniture away. I lost consciousness and lay buried under the rubble until I heard my mother's voice calling me." Child's skeleton in the rubble Drawings and text / Tomiko Ikeshoji (Kubo) August 7, 1945 Approx. 1,500m from the hypocenter Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital Senda-machi 1-chome "In the ruins of a private home outside the hospital grounds, I found the skeleton of a child. At that instant, mysteriously I saw on those bones the cute face of a child. It was a face without injury, without suffering, the face of a first or second grader. I was overwhelmed. Why was such a child here? Yet I never even shed any tea...

ARTIST FOCUS GROUPS for the MINETA SAN JOSE AIRPORT PUBLIC ART ACTIVATION Three meeting dates/times/locations to choose from: Tuesday, August 9, 2005 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. San José Museum of Art, 110 South Market Street, San José Saturday, August 13, 2005 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco Monday, August 15, 2005 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Works/San José Gallery, 30 North 3rd Street, San José The Mineta San José International Airport Public Art Master Plan creates a framework for a unified program of Art & Technology that will identify San José as a diverse global center for innovation and change. Gorbet+Banerjee, a multi-disciplinary artist team was selected as the Arts Activation Team to identify sites and design appropriate infrastructure (platforms) to accommodate the Airport Public Art Program. The initial phase of their design process is to meet with the regional arts community in a series of meetings to inform the design of ...

Thanks to Zeke , an Art Bloggers Conference will be included in Artivistic , an international art conference set for September in Montreal. From the Artivistic Website: "Artivistic :an international transdisciplinary event on the interplay between art, information and activism that will take place September 22 to 24, 2005, in Montreal QC (Canada). Integrating performances, exhibitions, interventions, workshops and panels by diverse practitioners and theorists in a multilingual setting, Artivistic is part of an evolving landscape of inclusive events which celebrate the power of engaged art as a catalyst for positive change. The event aims to promote open transdisciplinary + intercultural dialogue and research on activist art, to create and facilitate a human network of diverse peoples, and to inspire, proliferate, activate."

"Rue Mosnier with Flags" Édouard Manet 25 3/4 x 31 3/4 in. oil on canvas 1878 On a day of national celebration in France, the Getty Museum's collection of French paintings provides a link to Paris. The AP reports today that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the guest of honor, joined French President Jacques Chirac on the official reviewing stand at the Place de la Concorde to view the Bastille Day Parade. Brazilian President Silva was invited to the observances as part of "the year of Brazil in France," which aims to promote economic and cultural ties between the two countries. After the parade finished, Chirac and Silva stood at attention outside the presidential Elysee Palace as sirens sounded across Paris to observe two minutes of silence in solidarity with London. Manet's "Rue Mosnier" was painted two years before July 14th was declared the French national holiday in 1880. The holiday is known as the Fête Nationale in France and ...

Anna Conti has captured the world of art blogs in a tight grid. Links to each. Click away.

“Unity is a universal message.” Rachid Taha Backstage at a Clash concert in the early '80's, the young French-Algerian singer Rachid Taha pressed a demo tape of his own mix of punk, rock and middle eastern music into Joe Strummer's hands. Rachid Taha didn't hear back from the Clash. But shortly after their backstage meeting, the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" made it onto vinyl. The song could have been written by Taha. “I like Joe Strummer. We have the same obsession - freedom,” says Rachid. When he heard of Strummer's recent death, Taha recorded his own version of the Clash song: "Rock el Casbah " as a tribute. Watching video clips during the first Iraq War, Taha heard the Clash song blared by US troops during the short engagement with Iraqi forces. – “I wanted to show that this is not a war song, but much more a peaceful song.” Rachid Taha’s "Rock El Casbah", sung in Arabic, is a sly cover of the Clash classic and provides ...

RIMI YANG — TRANSITION JULY 6 — 31, 2005 *Photos from Opening Reception: Rimi Yang at Artamo Gallery Rimi Yang "sublimely unemphatic" 72"x48" oil and encaustic on canvas 2005 From the Artamo Gallery : "Rimi Yang’s first solo exhibition presents her newest work, which shows the artist’s progression from classic drawing and figurative painting to total abstraction and reflects the transition in her life from a culture driven by tradition into a new world of non-compromised expression. Rimi Yang’s compositions are borne from a method of automatic painting in which she allows her feelings to take hold of her in the course of execution. In avoiding conscious renderings of a preconceived idea, Rimi responds to the emotions of the given moment, reaching within her soul for guided inspiration as she gives form to her thoughts with the use of tangible materials." 11 W. Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, California 93101 Phone 805-568-1400 Email...

As part of the City Streets exhibition at the STUDIO Gallery, painter and art blogger Anna Conti will present an artist talk: "Another Way to Look at the City" Sunday, July 10th, 3 - 4 pm From the STUDIO Gallery: "Anna is one of the gallery's most popular painters, and we're delighted to have a number of her pieces in the City Streets show. Whether she's painting realistic cityscapes, her popular Doggie Diner series, or her collaborative "bean paintings" of toys from the Musee Mechanique, Anna's work always captures the mood of the City. We hope you'll join us for Anna's talk, see the show and of course have some refreshments." STUDIO Gallery 1718A Polk Street San Francisco 415-931-3130 http://STUDIOGallerySF.com

"Stainless Light" 38"x38" oil on linen 2005 London's "Guardian" reports on today's bombings: "It was about three minutes after we left King's Cross, when there was a massive bang and there was smoke and glass everywhere. I was standing near a window, and I've still got some in my hair." "The lights went out, and, with the smoke, we couldn't breathe, and we sort of cushioned each other during the impact because the compartment was so full." "It felt like a dream, it was surreal." - Fiona Trueman, 26, who was on a train a few minutes south of King's Cross when it exploded. London Tube Attack -photo by Adam Stacey Continual updates on the "Guardian's" blog: guardian blog Photo coverage on flickr: London pool

On this Independence Day, I think of the Americans who were forced from their homes and businesses on the west coast to internment camps spread across the US interior by President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. During the 1940's, the town of Topaz was one of the largest cities in Utah. Like most towns, there were houses, gardens and elementary schools. Unlike most towns, there were barbed-wire fences and guard towers marking the city line. George Matsusaburo Hibi Guard Tower - Topaz Camp 22" x 18" oil on canvas 1944 On June 11th 2005, in the Utah desert , a group of ageing Japanese Americans boarded buses for a dusty trip back to the Topaz Internment Camp to remember the 60th anniversary of their release from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Hisako Hibi "Western Sky" oil on canvas July 1, 1945 Topaz internment camp opened on September 11, 1942. Situated 140 miles south of Salt Lake City, the...

In this exchange between Shahzia Sikander and Art:21 on the nature of art practice, the conversation touches on the place of spirituality in contemporary art. Art:21 defines spirituality as follows: Spirituality A questioning of humanity's place in the universe, marked by an interest in self-reflection, mortality and meditation. Spirituality is often associated with things that are mysterious, felt before they are understood, and beyond the scope of human thought, time and history. Distinct from religion, spirituality is an attitude and not an organized set of rituals or beliefs. Conversation between Shahzia Sikander and Art:21: ART:21: Do you see any links between praying and fasting - practicing your religion - and the process of making art? SIKANDER: I think the hard part is when you're out of practice. ART:21: The hard part of what? SIKANDER: Oh, the hard part of the lack of discipline is when I feel less productive. Like, if I am painting regularly and ...

by Gregg Chadwick It's all things Tut in L.A. this week. I happened to be in the bowels of LACMA yesterday and the energy was high. Security was tighter than usual and media types were everywhere. Look forward to long lines, expensive merchandise and fluff pieces appearing in news outlets across the country. My major problem with the exhibition is the way that our museum has been hijacked to serve corporate interests: "I hate to say this, but it's very similar to how we would go market another entertainment event, like a major awards show or sporting event," says Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, the sports and entertainment presenter that developed Staples Center, among other venues, and is financing the exhibition." Royal diadem found on the head of Tutankhamun  when the British archaeologist Howard Carter opened his coffin. The objects in the exhibition are magical. They bring us to another time. And they help illumine the artistic legacy...