Saturday, August 25, 2007
Antonio Pessoa
about the ArtistSubmiting a new concept to the world has always been a risky process, a labyrinth of options and alternative B plans, pertaining to unconventional choices between mutually exclusive possibilities. Once the petrification of the same old formulas becomes totally out of question, then there's no way back whatsoever and the two options left are either suicide or glory.And that's as romantic as I can afford to be when sharing and facing the artist's dilemma of to be real or not to be.
The Art magician one day wakes up just to find out and so honestly admit to himself that despite his multiple tricks somehow still manage to keep the audience in a suspense breathtaking nail-biting tension, fact is that suddenly his tricks don't mean anything to him anymore. And that sometimes can actually be the very beginning of a new period, if there's still the burning fire in the artist's heart and soul. Antonio Pessoa's New Era is the perfect example of a heart and soul, where dancing flames seem to flip-flop and fly through clouds and clouds of multicolored smoke and as when there is smoke there is fire, there is an artist who has just made up his mind determined to make sure the show must go on and this time now more eager than ever to step on the stage and turn the audience into an orgasmic crowd. Better said than done, some might claim, although while in so doing, very likely the artist is already at work and while some skepticals bystanders doubt it, very probably Antonio Pessoa's New Era might as well be by then taking off, flying and landing at the airport of recognition to receive the open arms welcome of the erudite ones who have the privilege of understanding an artistic phenomenon when they see one.
Standing before the idea of this new project of Antonio Pessoa, is just about enough to give us the breathtaking hope that indeed something unexpectedly new in the contemporary Art scene is about to happen.Fact is it already did. So let the child grow, make it asap Antonio, for all of us who have been following your career so far, we all believe it's going to turn out to be one more time into an action art performance wich certainly is going to keep us together more than ever focusing our attention span into your Art vision today.
Art lovers and Art collectors sure need something fresh and new to lean on and that's where Antonio Pessoa's New Era comes in, full of color and grace, gentle and sentimental, elegantly glamourous and powerfully avant-gardish wich now that we come to think of it verdict is that it turns out to be a formula far beyond the so called contemporary fashion average, straight towards the perfect combination of what progressive neo-futurism indeed should be. A true Art studio veteran coming back live and alive dressed up as a talented gifted absolute beginner, much more than a daring act of courage, is hereupon the herald shouting the arrival of the new century's mirror, the magical mirror wich only Art can provide, wich only Art can afford just by translating the contradictory elements of nature into the compact beauty wich only Art can accomplish. Art lovers and Art collectors, make room and make way, let us all allow Antonio Pessoa's New Era to become what it's meant to be.A brave new world of communication, intention, sensation, emotion, invention and expression.
about the ArtistSubmiting a new concept to the world has always been a risky process, a labyrinth of options and alternative B plans, pertaining to unconventional choices between mutually exclusive possibilities. Once the petrification of the same old formulas becomes totally out of question, then there's no way back whatsoever and the two options left are either suicide or glory.And that's as romantic as I can afford to be when sharing and facing the artist's dilemma of to be real or not to be.
The Art magician one day wakes up just to find out and so honestly admit to himself that despite his multiple tricks somehow still manage to keep the audience in a suspense breathtaking nail-biting tension, fact is that suddenly his tricks don't mean anything to him anymore. And that sometimes can actually be the very beginning of a new period, if there's still the burning fire in the artist's heart and soul. Antonio Pessoa's New Era is the perfect example of a heart and soul, where dancing flames seem to flip-flop and fly through clouds and clouds of multicolored smoke and as when there is smoke there is fire, there is an artist who has just made up his mind determined to make sure the show must go on and this time now more eager than ever to step on the stage and turn the audience into an orgasmic crowd. Better said than done, some might claim, although while in so doing, very likely the artist is already at work and while some skepticals bystanders doubt it, very probably Antonio Pessoa's New Era might as well be by then taking off, flying and landing at the airport of recognition to receive the open arms welcome of the erudite ones who have the privilege of understanding an artistic phenomenon when they see one.
Standing before the idea of this new project of Antonio Pessoa, is just about enough to give us the breathtaking hope that indeed something unexpectedly new in the contemporary Art scene is about to happen.Fact is it already did. So let the child grow, make it asap Antonio, for all of us who have been following your career so far, we all believe it's going to turn out to be one more time into an action art performance wich certainly is going to keep us together more than ever focusing our attention span into your Art vision today.
Art lovers and Art collectors sure need something fresh and new to lean on and that's where Antonio Pessoa's New Era comes in, full of color and grace, gentle and sentimental, elegantly glamourous and powerfully avant-gardish wich now that we come to think of it verdict is that it turns out to be a formula far beyond the so called contemporary fashion average, straight towards the perfect combination of what progressive neo-futurism indeed should be. A true Art studio veteran coming back live and alive dressed up as a talented gifted absolute beginner, much more than a daring act of courage, is hereupon the herald shouting the arrival of the new century's mirror, the magical mirror wich only Art can provide, wich only Art can afford just by translating the contradictory elements of nature into the compact beauty wich only Art can accomplish. Art lovers and Art collectors, make room and make way, let us all allow Antonio Pessoa's New Era to become what it's meant to be.A brave new world of communication, intention, sensation, emotion, invention and expression.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Julian Schnabel
A big-browed and gregarious, self-promoting pop art painter known for his oversized canvasses, Julian Schnabel made the transition to screenwriter and director with "Basquiat" (1996), a biopic based on the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat and Schnabel were friends from about 1981 until the former's death in 1988, and both were also part of the same crowd as Andy Warhol.
Born in Brooklyn, Schnabel moved with his family to west Texas when still young and it was there that he spent most of his formative years. In 1973, he sent an application to the independent study program at the Whitney Museum in NYC, which included slides of his work sandwiched between two pieces of bread. (He was accepted.) Struggling in the art world, Schnabel worked as a short-order cook and hung out at Max's Kansas City, the famed music and comedy club in Greenwich Village, while he worked on his art. In 1979, Mary Boone gave him his first one-person show at her Soho Gallery. As it was the heyday of pop artists in the New York scene, Schnabel found himself in the limelight. His paintings were large--often billboard size--and he reportedly lived his life on a large scale as well, even publishing an autobiography in 1987. Eventually some of Schnabel's works from the early 80s would sell at auction in the 90s for as much as $1 million.
After the death of Basquiat, Schnabel sought to make a film on his friend's life, although Schnabel's own work in film was limited to being interviewed for the 1991 documentary "The Art of Merry-Go-Round", an exploration of the New York art scene of the early 80s. Enlisting such friends as Christopher Walken and David Bowie to play supporting parts and cameos and with Jeffrey Wright in the title role, Schnabel raised $3.3 million to make the film. Reviews were mixed, with the Village Voice declaring the film "naive and clumsy" while Time Out New York called Schnabel's direction "able" and David Denby in New York said the film was "surprisingly affecting."
Schnabel has studios in New York City and in Montauk on the eastern tip of Long Island. His works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum in NYC, MOCA in L.A. and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.
A big-browed and gregarious, self-promoting pop art painter known for his oversized canvasses, Julian Schnabel made the transition to screenwriter and director with "Basquiat" (1996), a biopic based on the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat and Schnabel were friends from about 1981 until the former's death in 1988, and both were also part of the same crowd as Andy Warhol.
Born in Brooklyn, Schnabel moved with his family to west Texas when still young and it was there that he spent most of his formative years. In 1973, he sent an application to the independent study program at the Whitney Museum in NYC, which included slides of his work sandwiched between two pieces of bread. (He was accepted.) Struggling in the art world, Schnabel worked as a short-order cook and hung out at Max's Kansas City, the famed music and comedy club in Greenwich Village, while he worked on his art. In 1979, Mary Boone gave him his first one-person show at her Soho Gallery. As it was the heyday of pop artists in the New York scene, Schnabel found himself in the limelight. His paintings were large--often billboard size--and he reportedly lived his life on a large scale as well, even publishing an autobiography in 1987. Eventually some of Schnabel's works from the early 80s would sell at auction in the 90s for as much as $1 million.
After the death of Basquiat, Schnabel sought to make a film on his friend's life, although Schnabel's own work in film was limited to being interviewed for the 1991 documentary "The Art of Merry-Go-Round", an exploration of the New York art scene of the early 80s. Enlisting such friends as Christopher Walken and David Bowie to play supporting parts and cameos and with Jeffrey Wright in the title role, Schnabel raised $3.3 million to make the film. Reviews were mixed, with the Village Voice declaring the film "naive and clumsy" while Time Out New York called Schnabel's direction "able" and David Denby in New York said the film was "surprisingly affecting."
Schnabel has studios in New York City and in Montauk on the eastern tip of Long Island. His works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum in NYC, MOCA in L.A. and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Liquid Skies
Those that believe the sky is the limit for contemporary art prices need only look at the current hedge-fund problems roiling the markets for a caution sign.
Hedge funds, especially those in trouble, are notoriously illiquid. From subprime mortgage funds like the two Bear Stearns funds that recently went belly up to blue-chip funds like Stephen Cohen's SAC Partners, which suffered significant losses last week, the huge variety of these unregulated greed holes share certain common characteristics: large fees, which can run as high as 50 percent of profits, plus service charges in the 3-7 percent range; the inability to trade one's stake in a timely fashion, as many hedge agreements require shareholders to keep their stake anywhere from three to 10 years; lack of transparency, i.e. information, in the relation of debt leverage to cash on hand; and, as in much of the subprime mortgage-based securities, the complete lack of any market for these instruments, at all.
These characteristics can also be found in the market for contemporary art. Christie's just raised its base commission to 25 percent, mimicking the huge percentages demanded by hedge managers. While contemporary art has benefited from huge piles of surplus cash recently, should falling markets continue, the ability to unload a wad of Hirsts or Warhols at a markup would diminish significantly, as the market for such things is extremely limited.
href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/art.net.com/magazine/front;tile=3;sz=370x300;ord=3884812?"
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The unseen leverage factor in contemporary art lies in the way many galleries do business: using the rising value of inventory as the basis for bank credit to pay day-to-day expenses, top-of-the-line rents and expansions to hot new neighborhoods like Loisaida. As art prices rise, debt becomes easier to acquire, gallery wall space increases to showcase the hot art for day-tripping collectors who write more checks, increasing the base value of all present and future works by in-demand artists, whose inventory valuations allow galleries to gain more credit. Reduce surplus collector cash and these equations unravel quickly, the way the inability of middle-class home owners to pay their mortgages is unraveling hedge funds managed by Wall Street's most prestigious firms, who should know better, but never seem to.
The silver lining for contemporary art is its new international character, buttressed by those much maligned art fairs. Rubles, pesos, drachmas, euros: art dealers have been expert at finding new mines of cash for their wares. Still, there are signs that the subprime crisis is quickly spreading to German and British banks, and contemporary art has a major Achilles' heel: its complete lack of utilitarian value other than as a rather illiquid and nonuniversal means of exchange. Should demand for contemporary art drop even 10 percent, in light of larger fiscal concerns, that function will quickly disappear and the old adage that one should buy art solely for enjoyment rather than investment will quickly be put to the test. Those Jenny Savilles or Banks Violettes may seem less appetizing every morning in the dens of hedgers hemorrhaging cash to debt obligations.
Those that believe the sky is the limit for contemporary art prices need only look at the current hedge-fund problems roiling the markets for a caution sign.
Hedge funds, especially those in trouble, are notoriously illiquid. From subprime mortgage funds like the two Bear Stearns funds that recently went belly up to blue-chip funds like Stephen Cohen's SAC Partners, which suffered significant losses last week, the huge variety of these unregulated greed holes share certain common characteristics: large fees, which can run as high as 50 percent of profits, plus service charges in the 3-7 percent range; the inability to trade one's stake in a timely fashion, as many hedge agreements require shareholders to keep their stake anywhere from three to 10 years; lack of transparency, i.e. information, in the relation of debt leverage to cash on hand; and, as in much of the subprime mortgage-based securities, the complete lack of any market for these instruments, at all.
These characteristics can also be found in the market for contemporary art. Christie's just raised its base commission to 25 percent, mimicking the huge percentages demanded by hedge managers. While contemporary art has benefited from huge piles of surplus cash recently, should falling markets continue, the ability to unload a wad of Hirsts or Warhols at a markup would diminish significantly, as the market for such things is extremely limited.
href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/art.net.com/magazine/front;tile=3;sz=370x300;ord=3884812?"
target=_blank>
The unseen leverage factor in contemporary art lies in the way many galleries do business: using the rising value of inventory as the basis for bank credit to pay day-to-day expenses, top-of-the-line rents and expansions to hot new neighborhoods like Loisaida. As art prices rise, debt becomes easier to acquire, gallery wall space increases to showcase the hot art for day-tripping collectors who write more checks, increasing the base value of all present and future works by in-demand artists, whose inventory valuations allow galleries to gain more credit. Reduce surplus collector cash and these equations unravel quickly, the way the inability of middle-class home owners to pay their mortgages is unraveling hedge funds managed by Wall Street's most prestigious firms, who should know better, but never seem to.
The silver lining for contemporary art is its new international character, buttressed by those much maligned art fairs. Rubles, pesos, drachmas, euros: art dealers have been expert at finding new mines of cash for their wares. Still, there are signs that the subprime crisis is quickly spreading to German and British banks, and contemporary art has a major Achilles' heel: its complete lack of utilitarian value other than as a rather illiquid and nonuniversal means of exchange. Should demand for contemporary art drop even 10 percent, in light of larger fiscal concerns, that function will quickly disappear and the old adage that one should buy art solely for enjoyment rather than investment will quickly be put to the test. Those Jenny Savilles or Banks Violettes may seem less appetizing every morning in the dens of hedgers hemorrhaging cash to debt obligations.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
ARCO rechaza a la galeria Félix Gómez
El comité de la Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid (Arco) no ha admitido para la próxima edición a la galería Félix Gómez de Sevilla porque su stand en la última edición "no ha obtenido los puntos suficientes", según explicó la directora de Arco, Rosina Gómez Baeza, al galerista. Con esta negativa, la presencia andaluza en el certamen se reduce a seis galerías: Juana de Aizpuru, Rafael Ortiz, Cavecanem, las tres de Sevilla; Magda Bellotti, de Algeciras; Carmen de la Calle, de Jerez, y Fernando Serrano, de Moguer (Huelva).
"Es como si hubiesen formado un consejo de guerra en el que sólo puedes esperar que te fusilen. El comité de Arco es algo muy frío, si no llevas propuestas radicales no estas bien visto a los ojos de Dios. No tienen en cuenta el trabajo de todo el año que haces en la galería", afirma Félix Gómez, quien participa desde hace seis ediciones en la feria madrileña, la más importante de cuantas se celebran en España."No sólo no admiten a dos galerías andaluzas que tienen méritos suficientes para entrar en la feria, sino que echan a Félix Gómez, un profesional que participa en Arco desde hace tiempo y mantiene abiertos dos espacios", se queja Magda Bellotti, presidenta de la Asociación de Galerías Andaluzas de Arte Contemporáneo (Agaac).
"Nos sentimos desolados por el escaso reconocimiento a la labor que desarrollamos en Andalucía para elevar el nivel cultural, abrir mercado y promocionar a nuestros artistas", ha escrito Bellotti en una carta dirigida a Rosina Gómez Baeza que envió a finales de noviembre y a la que aún no ha tenido respuesta.
Reconsideración
"Hemos pedido al comité que reconsidere su decisión, ya que la salida de Félix Gómez agrava la difícil situación de Andalucía en la feria. Si en el comité no hay nadie que conozca el trabajo que realizamos en Andalucía, como ocurre actualmente, no pueden valorar con rigor", añade la presidenta de la asociación andaluza que reúne 18 galerías de arte contemporáneo.
"Yo siempre he querido representar a Sevilla en Arco, pero lo que le gusta al comité son las galerías que participan en ferias internacionales. La mayoría van perdiendo dinero, pero yo no tengo dinero para eso, subsistimos de milagro", asegura Félix Gómez que trabaja con artistas de prestigio como Manuel Salinas, Félix de Cádernas, María Gómez, Juan Maestre o Carlos Montaño.
El comité de la Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid (Arco) no ha admitido para la próxima edición a la galería Félix Gómez de Sevilla porque su stand en la última edición "no ha obtenido los puntos suficientes", según explicó la directora de Arco, Rosina Gómez Baeza, al galerista. Con esta negativa, la presencia andaluza en el certamen se reduce a seis galerías: Juana de Aizpuru, Rafael Ortiz, Cavecanem, las tres de Sevilla; Magda Bellotti, de Algeciras; Carmen de la Calle, de Jerez, y Fernando Serrano, de Moguer (Huelva).
"Es como si hubiesen formado un consejo de guerra en el que sólo puedes esperar que te fusilen. El comité de Arco es algo muy frío, si no llevas propuestas radicales no estas bien visto a los ojos de Dios. No tienen en cuenta el trabajo de todo el año que haces en la galería", afirma Félix Gómez, quien participa desde hace seis ediciones en la feria madrileña, la más importante de cuantas se celebran en España."No sólo no admiten a dos galerías andaluzas que tienen méritos suficientes para entrar en la feria, sino que echan a Félix Gómez, un profesional que participa en Arco desde hace tiempo y mantiene abiertos dos espacios", se queja Magda Bellotti, presidenta de la Asociación de Galerías Andaluzas de Arte Contemporáneo (Agaac).
"Nos sentimos desolados por el escaso reconocimiento a la labor que desarrollamos en Andalucía para elevar el nivel cultural, abrir mercado y promocionar a nuestros artistas", ha escrito Bellotti en una carta dirigida a Rosina Gómez Baeza que envió a finales de noviembre y a la que aún no ha tenido respuesta.
Reconsideración
"Hemos pedido al comité que reconsidere su decisión, ya que la salida de Félix Gómez agrava la difícil situación de Andalucía en la feria. Si en el comité no hay nadie que conozca el trabajo que realizamos en Andalucía, como ocurre actualmente, no pueden valorar con rigor", añade la presidenta de la asociación andaluza que reúne 18 galerías de arte contemporáneo.
"Yo siempre he querido representar a Sevilla en Arco, pero lo que le gusta al comité son las galerías que participan en ferias internacionales. La mayoría van perdiendo dinero, pero yo no tengo dinero para eso, subsistimos de milagro", asegura Félix Gómez que trabaja con artistas de prestigio como Manuel Salinas, Félix de Cádernas, María Gómez, Juan Maestre o Carlos Montaño.
Monday, July 23, 2007
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