Timothy J. Clark at Hammer Galleries; W.E
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Inside: Raleigh on Film; Bethune on Theatre; Behrens on Music; Marvel’s ‘Art Byte’; Trevens on Dance; Drawings at The Met; th Seckel on the Cultural Scene; Year! Critique: Timothy J. Clark at Hammer Galleries; W.E. Reinka ‘Speaks Out’ on the writing game; Our 25 New Art Books; Short Fiction & Poetry; Extensive Calendar of Events…and more! ART TIMES Vol. 25 No. 7 March 2009 Timothy J. Clark at Hammer Galleries All photos courtesy of the Hammer Galleries By RAYMOND J. STEINER PAINTERS WHO HAVE tried their in the use of colors and how they hand at representational art in the work one against (or for) the other, a medium of watercolor know that it fluidity of brushstroke, and lastly, an takes more than the will to succeed... innate instinct for just what makes a much, much more. First and foremost 'good' picture. The 30+ paintings in the accomplished watercolorist needs this solo exhibition at the Hammer a sure hand, since each stroke of the Galleries* certainly reveals Timothy brush is not only telling but perma- J. Clark as firmly in charge of all of nently "on record" for all to see, each the intricacies of this most demand- misstep a glaring distraction from the ing of mediums...without doubt, motif and/or effect desired. In short, Clarke's "Sense of Solace" reflects the it takes the confidence of a mature craft of a master watercolorist. draftsman, one with a seasoned eye It ought to be noted that there were for light and form, a sure sense of com- several oils in the show - "McSorley's position, a sensibility that is trained Bar", "Serenity", and the charming little study, "Stu- dio Sink" - but, for this viewer, it was the watercolors that consistently drew me onward through the sev- eral galleries that housed the show. If the two paint- ings displayed in Hammer's front Study for My Garage 2001 watercolor on paper windows - "The Bicycle" and "San Carlos al Corso tools, tubs, fan belts, cans, jugs, vises, as a finely-crafted panorama of mini- Crepuscular" - of- machines, and whatever flotsam and still lifes, each separate and fully- fered a 'sneak pre- jetsam has been banned from the realized, each perspectively 'correct', view' of the range house (including a pin-up hanging on each comfortably nestled alongside of motifs that lie in the far wall), Clark's skillful handling its neighbor. store for the viewer of color, form, and composition never Range - from portraits of homely inside, a large wa- allowing this incredible hodge-podge hand tools (among my particular tercolor hanging on of objects to remain - well, a hodge- favorites, reminding me of John the right wall as podge - but, instead, presenting them Carlson who, while teaching at the Continued on Page 9 you entered set the stage for the com- plexity of Clark's CSS Publications, Inc. Support the Arts; overall aesthetic vi- PO Box 730 Enrich your Life sion. "Study for My Mt. Marion, NY 12456-0730 Garage", a painting www.arttimesjournal.com 845-246-6944 of the interior of a workshop, is liter- ally crammed from floor to ceiling with Subscribe to ART TIMES Family Reunion, 2008 watercolor on paper ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC-EXHIBITIONS-THEATRE-FILM-ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC March 2009 ART TIMES page 2 Peeks and Piques! works, paintings that my gracious ART TIMES host told me had never been publicly Commentary and Resource for the Fine & Performing Arts I DON’T KNOW what goes on behind — to get a close look at da Vinci’s exhibited! I turned them over, looked ART TIMES (ISSN 0891-9070) is published the closed doors of fine art galleries, brushstrokes — is, of course, under- at how they were fitted to stretchers, monthly by CSS Publications, Inc. with 28,000 auction houses, or museums. How, noted in what manner they were copies distributed along the Northeast Corridor standable. Too many times deranged primarily throughout the Metropolitan and Hudson for example, do curators, restorers indiviudals have slashed paintings framed — but mostly I just looked at Valley Regions, Connecticut, Massachusetts and — even delivery men — feel when or hammered on statues, disfiguring how they were painted, my eyes and New Jersey each month. Copies are also avail- fingers following brushstrokes (or able by mail to subscribers and arts organizations they handle some old masterwork them forever. But how does it feel to throughout the US and abroad. Copyright © 2009, that has just come into their posses- actually touch a masterwork from the how they were obliterated, especially CSS Publications, Inc. sion? Nor have I had the good fortune past, to hold one in your hands? Well, in the Courbet — “licked smooth” as Publisher: Cornelia Seckel they once phrased it), noting touches Editor: Raymond J. Steiner to experience the once-famous “Fogg I have finally found out! A couple of of light, color, trees and shrubbery Contributing Writers: Method” (alas, now no more), in which years ago, I chatted with a woman Henry P. Raleigh Robert W. Bethune Harvard art history majors had first- who had attended one of my lectures in the Diaz, Gerôme, Corot (with, of Ina Cole Dawn Lille hand exposure to the Fogg Museum’s course, its tiny signature touch of Frank Behrens Tara Marvel on “The Art of Art Criticism” and that Francine L. Trevens Ginger Lee Hendler considerable treasures of major chance meeting led to lunch some red buried in the motif) and Utrillo. Subscription Rates: artworks (which, thankfully, do still months later at a restaurant in New Though of less interest to me, the tur- USA: $18 /1 year $34 /2years exist). The closest I came to holding York City. During our conversation, bulent sky in the Vlaminck and the Foreign: $35 /1 year $45 /2 years the “real thing” was during a trip to she told me that she had “some won- painterly flourishes that delineated Contact for Print and Online Advertising Rates: collar ruffles and hands in the Roybet, CSS Publications, Inc., PO Box 730, Mt. Marion, the Staatliche Museen Preussischer derful old paintings” that her father NY, 12456. Phone or Fax (845) 246-6944; Kulterbesitz’s Kupferstichkabinett had brought to the United States. were still special to see up close and email: [email protected] in Berlin and was allowed to hold from Europe. I was of course curious at first hand. The experience was Web site: www.arttimesjournal.com (properly attired with white gloves, of both awesome and thrilling (hence Deadline for Advertising is the 15th of the month but, not being an appraiser or dealer, preceding inclusion. course) one of Rembrandt’s ‘Hundred I took the information as just that the long preamble here, since I really Items for inclusion in the Calendar and Oppor- Guilder Prints’ (“Christ Healing the — a casual aside that this woman had cannot put into words what I was feel- tunities section must be emailed, mailed or faxed to ing at the time), the afternoon playing the ART TIMES office by the 12th of the preceding Sick”). For the most part, we mere chosen to share with me. Luncheon month. Email for guidelines. mortals — art critics included, I might over, as we were leaving the restau- over in my mind as I rode the bus back ART TIMES solicits short fiction and poetry — see add (who, in some estimates, are the rant, she said, “I’d like to show them to my upstate studio, a never-ending our listing in Writer’s Market, Fiction Writer’s ‘merest’ of all) — are used to “keeping reel of pleasure that continued to loop Market, Poet’s Market and other trade magazines to you some day.” Look, I’m a writer or send a legal-sized Self Addressed Stamped our distance” from masterpieces that who spends most of his time holed back upon itself as images flashed be- Envelope (SASE) for Guidelines. Guest articles on hang on museum or gallery walls. up in a studio without phone or com- hind my closed eyelids. I do not know the arts are also considered but must be preceded how curators or restorers feel, but I by a written Query. Our “Speak Out” section is a Even at press openings, where the puter, happy in my enforced solitude forum for reader’s relevant opinions on art-related only visitors are (presumably) art and surrounding shelves of artbooks. know that I felt privileged, honored, matters; viewpoints expressed in the “Speak Out” trusted, my breast so filled with emo- section are not to be construed as positions held critics, viewers with pens or pencils I read, I write — I am no social but- by the publisher, editor or staff of this publication. in their hands are warily watched. terfly, a middling conversationalist, tion as I picked up or touched each of Queries, Mss. without SASE included will not be Get too close to examine texture, for these masterworks that I could not acknowledged. We do not accept electronic submis- and most assuredly do not travel sions. Sample copy: 9x12 SASE. instance, and bells and gongs and in the social circles that this lady adequately thank this lady for the ART TIMES welcomes your letters and comments. whistles bring on the storm troopers seemed so much a part of. So, would gift she had given me. I still can’t. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced to warn you back and away. In one I really get to see those paintings? To How fortunate I was to have her without written permission of the publisher. instance, the pen I was plying while make a short story long, I did, and come to share a few words with me jotting down notes was replaced — not only see them, but to touch them after my lecture that day! At the age visit us at with a slight frown on the face of the and to hold them this past January! I of seventy-five — over thirty-five of www.arttimesjournal.com uniformed guard — by an ‘approved’ received a note (snail-mail, of course) those years devoted to writing about museum pencil (they did give me my to come and see — see what? — a art and artists — I simply have no pen back as I left, though).