Speed of Life

Matthew Barney sweeps up at SFMOMA There is an amusing article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about the installation of Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint" exhibition at SFMOMA - Petroleum Jelly, Barney dressed as Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Tennessee trucker Jim McKinney, future Bjork sightings. This exhibit, which opens today, is going to be fun. Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint" Exhibition has its own comment space on the web: "Drawing Restraint:What's Your Opinion?" Trucker Jim McKinney with coffeee and pastry watches his tankload of petroleum jelly ooze forth at SFMOMA Matthew Barney Podcast: "Drawing Restraint:Podcast" Podcaster at SFMOMA'S Chuck Close Exhibition

Max Beckmann "Film Studio" 25 5/8 x 37 5/8 in. (65.1 x 95.6 cm) oil on canvas 1933 Saint Louis Art Museum The Los Angeles Film Festival opens today and runs until July 2nd. The screenings will be held in venues throughout Westwood. Star Wars empresario George Lucas acts as Guest Director this year. Lucas has this to say about independent film, "Throughout my life, I have been amazed and inspired by films that transport me to new lands .... The experience of discovering these new cultures, new stories and new filmmakers is exhilarating and rejuvenating." As Guest Director, George Lucas has elected to screen three films: Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" Jean-Luc Godard's "Masculine Feminine" Poolside chats will be held during the festival at the W Hotel. Anjelica Huston and Sally Kellerman will talk about photography with photographers Michael Childers and John Stoddart on Wednesday, June...

Nagasawa Rosetsu "Elephant and Children" ink on paper c. 1794 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco I recently wrote on the extraordinary ink on paper technique of the 18th century Japanese artist Nagasawa Rosetsu . Newly on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is Rosetsu's "Elephant and Children". This painting combines a daring composition with rich and varied brush techniques. The Asian Art Museum has determined that Rosetsu "depicted the elephant's huge body, large ears, trunk, and legs with minimal strokes using a flat brush, afterward using a round brush quickly but carefully to fill in details such as the children." Rosetsu's paintings are witty, at times charming, but usually contain a hint of mystery or even dread. Rosetsu "is said to have had a volatile temperament, and his life ended under mysterious circumstances, possibly murder or suicide."

"Ed Ruscha Monument" Kent Twitchell 1978-1987 Acrylic "(The Ed Ruscha mural) has always been such a popular piece in the art world and in Los Angeles. I had no idea it was in danger in any way," he said. "It was sort of my 'Mona Lisa'; I worked on it for nine years." -Kent Twitchell "Ed Ruscha Monument" Kent Twitchell (painted over - June 2, 2006) Ed Ruscha in a brooding Firestarter pose. Do they really want to mess with this man's portrait?

Katharine Close, an eighth-grader at the H.W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, New Jersey, becomes the first girl since 1999 to win the national spelling bee. After spelling "ursprache" correctly, Katharine Close stepped back from the microphone and put her hands to her mouth upon being declared the winner. "I'm just in shock," Katharine said. Asked what she'll remember most, she said: "Probably just hearing 'ursprache,' which is a parent language." The word "weltzschmerz", which we all should reflect upon as it means sadness over evil in the world, tripped up the second place finisher - Finola Mei Hwa Hackett, a 14-year-old Canadian.

Henri Matisse "La violiniste a la fenêtre" (The Violinist at the Window) charcoal on paper 1924 photo courtesy of the Palace of the Legion of Honor "Judging by Appearances" at the Legion of Honor is a rich exhibit of works on paper from the private collection of Joseph and Deborah Goldyne. The artworks have been arranged under broad themes by curator Robert Flynn Johnson, which leads to chance correspondences between disparate artists. Matisse's luminous charcoal drawing, "La violiniste a la fenêtre", with its silvery light seems apt for the fog shrouded skies above Baker Beach on a typical summer morning in San Francisco. (I imagine a similar view from Robin William's open window as I drive back from the museum through Seacliff towards North Beach.) Hanging nearby is a tiny Rembrandt study, which carries a similar force with the simplest of means. In one of my earliest drawing classes, the Los Angeles artist Tom Wudl looked at my work and said,...

Icon with Saint Theodosia. (detail) Byzantine (Constantinople), first half of the 13th century. The Holy Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai, Egypt In today's Los Angeles Times, Suzanne Muchnic reports on the upcoming exhibition at the Getty Museum: "Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons From Sinai" In 2004, the Metropolitan Museum in New York presented an exhibition on Byzantium which included works from St. Catherine's in the Sinai. Opening at the Getty Museum on November 14th will be the first exhibition in the United States to focus exclusively on treasures from the Greek Orthodox monastery beneath Mount Sinai in Egypt. Founded by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the in the 6th century, The Holy Monastery of St. Catherine, lays claim as the the world's oldest continuously operating Christian monastery. The Holy Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai, Egypt photo - Bruce M. White Father Justin Sinaites, librarian at St. Catherine's, in an interview with the L...