David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


23 August 2012

Temple of the Four Regards


EXPRESS YOURSELF 
GREAT CHARACTERS, BIG THINKING AND ENERGETIC NEW WAYS OF PAINTING GALVANISED THE WORLD MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY AGO AND ART WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
   
Australian Weekend Review front cover_Four women look at painthing_sRGB_400  
EXPRESS YOURSELF 
GREAT CHARACTERS, BIG THINKING AND ENERGETIC NEW WAYS OF BEING GALVANISED THE WORLD MORE THAN TWENTY-FOUR CENTURIES AGO AND ART WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
    
 

THE FOUR REGARDS
... AND ART WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
    
click on image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA


     

17 August 2012

John Brack : movements of pens and pencils

.
Earlier this week one of John Brack's pens and pencils works - Journey, 1980 - was sold at a Sotheby's auction, Melbourne. Many prefer Brack's earlier works, Collins St, 5 p.m. and so on; we like the lot, but most of all the late refinements.
     
Here's  Journey, 1980 :

 
Monash University Collection owns Crossing, 1978:
  
 
Arrival and departure, 1980, adds another level :
   
 
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA


    

16 August 2012

Everything is Everything

 .
From a GOMA Media Release received today : 

Sculpture is both a way of looking and an action, just like drawing, painting, film or theatre … when it appears, an act of magic occurs. 
 - Marina De Caro 

What is contemporary sculpture? Sculpture is Everything explores the diverse and often unexpected forms we may consider sculptural — from film, photography, painting and performance, through to three-dimensional objects that fall outside what has been defined as ‘sculpture’ at different times. 

'SCULPTURE IS EVERYTHING' OPENS AT GOMA
 
A brooding mass of 300 tyre tubes hovering like clouds; dance machines from the Torres Strait Islands; two giant red polar bears and a seal balancing a baby grand piano on its nose are among more than 130 contemporary sculptures that will transform GOMA's ground floor in a major exhibition opening on August 18.
 

click image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA

"WHY MAKE ONE MORE SCULPTURE?" :

From 1981, another someone regards another suspension of tyres (Tyre Week, Melbourne). 

From the cataLOGOS/HA HA
SCULPTURE IS AN ADJECTIVE, NOT A NOUN.
SOMETHING IS DESCRIBED AS SCULPTURE.
SOMEBODY DESCRIBES SOMETHING AS SCULPTURE.
SCULPTURE IS A NAMING (DIVIDING) ACTIVITY.

WHY MAKE ONE MORE SCULPTURE?
Exhibited simultaneously at Art Projects, Melbourne (Feb. 1981) and at The First Australian Sculpture Triennial (Non-catalogized Section) - Preston Institute of Technology and LaTrobe University, curator Tom McCullough.
   
click image to enlarge                                       Peter Tyndall
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA

"WHY MAKE ONE MORE SCULPTURE?"



    

13 August 2012

LESS IS MORE : Heide Museum of Modern Art


Let's say it again

LESS IS MORE : MINIMAL & POST-MINIMAL ART IN AUSTRALIA
Heide Museum of Modern Art

3 August – 4 November 2012
 

"The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is Less. Less is More." 
- Ad Reinhardt

 
image courtesy SLAVE GUITARS

Knowing about the show at Heide, it was a Laugh Out Loud moment last night to hear Yngwie Malmsteen on Metal Evolution : Episode 1 Pre-Metal :
I don't want to just play, say, 2-string 3-string 4-string 5- 6-string arpeggios. But people kept on telling me to slow down. "Hey, slow down. You don't remember Less is more?" I always say, "How could that be? How could less be more? It's impossible. MORE is more."

 
click image to enlarge                         Peter Tyndall,  -1978
     
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...
 
 LOGOS/HA HA
   
   
       

08 August 2012

COVER EVERYTHING! someone said

.
At the Regarding pain/t/hing lecture, several images were shown of the Sherwin-Williams Paints (SWP) sky-spill logo and their mission statement COVER THE EARTH. 
On Friday, June 23, 1905, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for COVER THE EARTH by SWIMC, INC., Newark 197150657. The USPTO has given the COVER THE EARTH trademark serial number of 71008851. The current federal status of this trademark filing is REGISTERED AND RENEWED. The correspondent listed for COVER THE EARTH is ROBERT E. MCDONALD of THE SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY, 1100 MIDLAND BLDG.-LEGAL DEPT., 101 PROSPECT AVE., N.W. CLEVELAND, OH 44115-1075 . The COVER THE EARTH trademark is filed in the category of Paper Goods and Printed Material . The description provided to the USPTO for COVER THE EARTH is MIXED PAINTS, PAINTERS' COLORS, STAINS, AND OILS.
From Cleveland, Ohio, here's the company flag, embroidered both sides.
 

image courtesy FIAPCE Archive

Here's an addendum to that. New to the archive, this undated envelope of Geo. D Wetherill & Co. Inc. promoting their ATLAS READY MIXED PAINT (Warranted To Give Satisfaction) as used by an agent, Taber Motor Co. Inc., CATO, N.Y.

 click image to enlarge
                               
As best we can discover, this logo was registered in 1926, twenty years after that of Sherwin-Williams (1906).

It's like a behind-the-scenes exposé of the Sherwin-Williams logo's support system. How is The Earth suspended there? Aha, it's Atlas! And how is that SWP paint can suspended and a'pourin thus? Aha, Angels! Good Angels or Fallen Angels? Cherubim (God Made The World) or putti (Devil Rules.OK)? 


The white winged-ones apply their (white) paint - WE MUST COVER THE EARTH WITH ATLAS PAINT they say - as poor Atlas balances the Globe to lower his arms and hitch-up yet again his saggy old underpants. Ah, COVER ME COCK! he grumbles to himself.

click image to enlarge


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...


LOGOS/HA HA


       

04 August 2012

Ripolin Brothers (Melbourne)

.
Below is a version of Eugene Vavasseur's 1898 meta-painting, made for Lefranc to advertise Ripolin paint. The scan used here is from a later postcard reproduction


click image to enlarge
Yesterday, our Arts correspondent attended Regarding pain/t/hing at Melbourne Museum, part of the four days of lectures and forums accompanying the 2012 Melbourne Art Fair.

Some members of Ripolin Brothers (Melbourne) were also there.

click image to enlarge
And, after the scheduled Regard, they performed an impromptu tableau vivant : Painting Eyes on the Void. The title derives from
'In this very breath that we take now lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us, what one lama refers to as "the precision and openness and intelligence of the present.(1)" The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at unextraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life. To be anywhere else is "to paint eyeballs on chaos (2)".'
Peter Matthiessen, Nine Headed Dragon River
1. Chogyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
2. Dogen Zenji, Shobogenzo


click to enlarge
left to right : Nick Ripolin, Kelly Ripolin, Ash Ripolin, Helen Ripolin, Peter Ripolin (in 1990 Tour de France - Team Ripolin maillot) - photo by Kim Ripolin
     
 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something ...
 
 LOGOS/HA HA