Beauty is now underfoot wherever we take the trouble to look. - John Cage, 1961

When the news came across the internet of RR's death on Monday, I felt like a someone hit me with one of those punches you read about in old timey boxing stories. Robert Rauschenberg is one of those artists that has always been in my personal "cannon" as it were, if not for the enormous body of impressive work, but for his bravery in the materials the he used to produce it.

I remember in my first year at VCU when Jim Baumgartner taught us the technique that RR used the make image transfers from newspapers and magazines. That same week, Richard Carlyne ran a movie for a class where we watch RR get shitfaced and show his latest work - the cardboard series, told the story about asking Willem deKooning to have a drawing that he could erase, and finally a Merce Cunningham ballet that he would design a set for. I guess you could say that unlike many other artists, I was aware of the value of his thinking about his work, no matter how impulsive it might have seemed. Recently most of the artworld traveled to the met to see his combines and literally saw how powerful and interestingly enough, how fresh they seemed when compared to what we see in galleries today. That surprised me. Because, truth be told, I had been taking him for granted for too long and had forgotten just how great that work is.


Robert Rauschenberg Pilgrim, 1950, mixed mediums with wooden chair, ca. 79 x 54 x 19 in.Hamburger Kunsthalle

I'll admit that there is a period of his work (late 80's and 90's) where I wasn't as interested in his approach, it seemed old and dated. Recently he had a bit of a comeback with his more photo-oriented collage work, and the cardboard work had been given new life with a traveling show.

There is a period in time, when New York was at the height of it's power as "the place where art was made" and RR was there. I'm referring to the Castelli gallery, along with Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Frank stella, et al. this group of artists, along with the major abstract expressionists defined American Art to the world for the late 20th century and many would say they still are. Rauschenberg was one of the truly original artists of his time.

I'm glad I can still see his work, but I miss him already.

RR film clip about the "Erased deKooning drawing"

Labels: 60's, Death, Galleries, New York

Robert Rauschenberg died.

I have a number of things to say, but I cant until tomorrow.

Robert Rauschenberg in 1953. Photo by Allan Grant, Life Magazine © Time Warner Inc/Robert Rauschenberg/VAGA, New York/DACS, London

Labels: Death, Painting, Photography, Sculpture

Looking at my art you might be surprised to find that I have an above average interest in the game of chess (I joke, but I do...) Bobby Fischer was without a doubt the greatest - and saddest person to ever play the game at its highest level. I'm sure the newspapers have the full story, so I'm going to pass on re-telling the whole thing.

Overall the life story of Bobby Fischer is a sad story that curiously is being played out in a similar parallel in the life of Britney Spears. Before you snicker and think that BF was some kind of fool - he was just the opposite a superior complex thinker who literally was driven over the edge by his own mind.

When you look at Fischer, you see a man whose world outside of chess never became the extension of what he saw in a complex - but highly structured game. In the end, the messiness and randomness of the world will only remember him as someone who fell from the highest highs - to become a powerless eccentric.

Bobby Fischer, April 28, 1962. (John Lent, Associated Press / April 28, 1962)

Labels: Death, international

CBGB founder Hilly Kristal has died from complications of lung cancer at the age of 75. HK was the owner of CBGB's - a club that helped launch the careers for the Ramones, Blondie, and the Talking Heads and most of the New York Punk scene. Over the last few years, Kristal fought a long legal battle with the club's landlord to keep the club open, but lost, and the club closed down after 33 years in business. He was considering resurrecting the venue in Las Vegas.

On a related Note: It seems like the "baby boom" generation has really started to die over the summer, and as sad as it is to see some amazing people leave us, I don't want this blog to become the art obituaries. So if I miss some of these in the future, it's not that I didn't care, it's just that I need to focus on the living for the most part. Thanks for understanding.

Labels: Death, music, New York

Lee Hazelwood died at his home outside Las Vegas, after a three year struggle with cancer.

Lee Hazelwood proved himself to be one of the most ingenious, inspired and impressively stubborn people the music industry ever saw. Most famous for his work with Nancy Sinatra - he wrote and produced many of her biggest hits, including These Boots Were Made For Walking, Jackson (covered by Johnny Cash as well), and the unforgettable Some Velvet Morning.

Labels: 60's, Death, Las Vegas, music

I paused before I wrote anything about Sol Lewitt recently because to me he was truly an influential artist in helping develop my approach to image-making, in particular image-thinking.

My first intentional encounter with his work came when I was working for Nancy Drysdale in the early eighties. She was selling some of his wall drawings and asked Chris Bailey and myself (we both worked for Nancy at the time) to produce the work in accordance to the directions of the drawing. At first I thought it was quite a cop out - how could an artist not do his own drawings (I was young and more than a bit naive). The one thing it made me do, was to start thinking and looking at how these works could vary just by the installer. Later as the wall drawings became more colorful, I thought they were becoming more about the implementation of the work than the concept of the work.

What I came to realize was that the implementation is/was the concept. I still think that is pretty interesting.

His approach became infinitely scalable. Here is an example of the directions of a drawing. This one is from the NGA's Vogel collection:

Wall Drawing #65 / Lines not short, not straight, crossing and touching, drawn at random using four colors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering the entire surface of the wall.

The interpretation is wide open, yet at the same time it is defined within structural limits. It is open and closed at the same time.

Every once in a while I'll talk to someone about my work and I will talk about how I'm interested in a "non-specific exactness", this approach comes directly from thinking about these early wall drawings.

Labels: conceptual art, Death, Drawings

Jean Baudrillard, R.I.P.
I've just learned that Jean Baudrillard died earlier this month. I was/am a fan of his writing an although his approach seems to be falling out of critical favor at the moment, I do think he was probably the most accurate/interesting of the Semiotext(e) writers. His theories have seemingly held together longer and his insight seemed clearer than most.

His theories on Hyperreality and Simularca, are to me, the highlights of his thinking.



Stardust Hotel
March 13th, 2007 both of the Stardust's (I'm taking about Las Vegas here) towers were imploded. In Vegas this kind of thing is happening all the time now, so I guess it's no big deal. However I do think of these as archetypes of the new American landmark. The Stardust was given a truly Vegas style send off with 10 minutes of fireworks before the building was imploded.

Isn't that perfect - we celebrate the fact that we are tearing it down.

Anyway, I was able to photograph the sign before it was taken down this fall. The Stardust sign will be moved to the Neon Museum on Fremont Street. It's going to cost $80,000 to move the it to the museum. I know that the Neon Museum is in fundraising mode right now for a number of things, and I'm sure they could use your help.

The Neon Museum

Labels: Criticism, Death, Las Vegas