aether a visual arts dialogue
AUSTIN fall/winter 2011
Loli Kantor, And If a Voice Was Heard (Leizer), 2005, 20 x 30 in.
Contents 6
A WORLD REVEALED Mark Burckhardt Loli Kantor Fatima Ronquillo
20 BOOKSHELF / art book reviews 24 STUDIO / Joyce Howell 30 COMMUNITY / Art Divas
32 FOREWORD / Shawn Camp 36 EDITIONS / Flatbed World Headquaters 40 DESTINATION / Aspen 42 COLLECTION ORGANIZATION 101 44 DATEBOOK / recommended happenings 46 FORUM / East Austin Studio Tour
aether
is a semi-annual e-magazine that aims to engage collectors, artists, and galleries in conversation about the visual arts in our community and beyond. Inspired by the diverse art scene in Austin where new ideas and creativity are abundant, we are reminded that art is an essential element in our lives—one that is constantly evolving. aether reserves a place for us to explore these transformations; first, by acknowledging the energy and effort that goes into the creation of art, and second, by investigating the new life a work takes on as it is transferred from artist to world. This inaugural issue invites readers to participate, to explore the offerings that are an integral part of the fabric of our community—gallery exhibitions, studio visits, recommended art books and much more.
A life lived with art is a life transformed. A collaboration between Rachel Haggerty of Wally Workman Gallery, Amanda Gorence of B. Hollyman Gallery, Judith Taylor of Gallery Shoal Creek and the art community at large.
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ae Collaborators Rachel Haggerty, Assistant Director • Wally Workman Gallery Established in 1980 and located in a 100 year old historic house in Austin’s art district, the Wally Workman Gallery specializes in emerging and collected talent. With two stories of exhibition space, one can view the 50 artists currently represented.
Amanda Gorence, Director • B. Hollyman Gallery B. Hollyman Gallery specializes in fine contemporary photography. The gallery highlights emerging and established photographers both domestically and internationally, with curatorial interests that are eclectic, experimental, and wide-ranging.
Judith Taylor, Director/ Owner • Gallery Shoal Creek Few art galleries can boast of a legacy that spans over four decades. Gallery Shoal Creek is an exception. Established in 1965, the gallery continues the tradition of representing talented artists, presenting engaging exhibitions, and building fine art collections.
Copyright © 2011 by AETHER. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the publisher, is prohibited. aether, fall/winter 2011, issue one • contact@aetherart.com • www.aetherart.com
a sense of form
Gustavo Torres, Un Commenzar, Bronze, 23 in. high
Thank you to our aether contributers: Erin Keever
is a writer and visual arts critic living in Austin, Texas. She teaches Art History at Austin Community College.
Chris Cowden
is Executive Director of Women & Their Work.
Laura Harrison is Assistant Director of Gallery Shoal Creek.
Shelby Stephens directs strategy design for
Austin-based Formation Strategies.
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A World Revealed All that it asks is a willingness to examine what it means to be human.
Marc Burckhardt Loli Kantor Fatima Ronquillo
Featured in this inaugural issue of aether is the work of three unusually gifted artists,
all of whom are on view in exhibitions in Austin this season. Marc Burckhardt, Loli Kantor, and Fatima Ronquillo each explore figurative imagery in mysterious ways. Burckhardt blends his folk style with art historical tradition to create personal allegories. Kantor revisits her Polish roots in a black and white series of powerful images of Eastern European people and interiors. And Ronquillo offers up jewel-like paintings of cleverly costumed characters foregrounded amidst classically idyllic landscapes. The work of these artists is often quiet, but much is filled with potent symbolism. All that it asks is a willingness to examine what it means to be human.
Opposite L to R: Fatima Ronquillo, The Faithful, 2011, 12 x 9 in. / Loli Kantor, Portait of Genia, 2005, 10 x 8 in. / Marc Burckhardt, Three Fates (detail), 2011, 7 3/4 x 21 1/2 in.
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Marc Burckhardt
a personal conversation - by ERIN KEEVER
Bridle, 2011, 22 x 30 in.
Marc Burckhardt’s paintings are at once foreign
and familiar. He paints in a figurative style that intentionally casts off current trends towards investigating mass reproduction, opting for a homemade, folk feel, but with a sophisticated edge. Burckhardt embraces tradition as a means to explore private realities and perhaps the larger American contemporary condition; still he is wary of offering easy interpretation. The artist says, “rather than speak too much about my work, I Kindred, 2011, 12.5 x 10.5 in. want the pictures to make a statement for me.” Burckhardt is an artist with one foot planted in illustration, another in art historical academia, poised to leap into his own brand of deeply personal Burckhardt holds degrees in art history and art and symbolism. “I’m not interested in art for printmaking and began his career as an illustrator art’s sake, I want to say something about identity.” and teacher, earning him a living and accolades in his field. He continues illustrating for publications Born in Germany and raised in Texas, Burckhardt such as Texas Monthly and Rolling Stone, but admits that place shaped some of his artistic confesses a desire to do more personal work. sensitivities and tastes. He draws links between “Instead of my work being dictated by external his work and folk traditions found in Germany forces, it is more and more, an internal conversation, and admires the work of German Renaissance something personal and even universal.” He greats like Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the acknowledges a dialogue between the gallery work Younger. Burckhardt grew up and went to college and commissioned illustration though, saying, in Waco, Texas, which he describes as “a bizarre “I find that my commissions sometimes push my place to be,” one where he was a bit of an outsider, thinking and image making into a whole different who enjoyed drawing and learning about art. place. There’s a back and forth.”
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Execution is a fairly involved process for the artist. Burckhardt has studied master techniques and it shows in his paintings. He does a lot of preliminary work such as multiple sketches and sometimes more elaborate sets with tones and washes to conceptualize details as well as light and mood. He paints in acrylic and oil on wood and uses varnishes to create elaborate craquelured surfaces. Like an anonymous craftsman of the Middle Ages, he treats the “work” part of the work seriously and enjoys the careful and methodical act of art making. Unlike those who wait to be divinely inspired, Burckhardt feels “there is value in being pushed every day to create art in a disciplined way.” In contrast with its highly developed technical approach, the pseudonaïve style and self-conscious awkwardness of Burckhardt’s work has similarities with the 21st century Neo-folk movement based in New York City. This was arguably the first cohesive movement to arise in New York after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Several examples of similar moves towards figuration on the heels of upheaval exist in art history, as well
Allegory I, 2008, 9 x 6 in.
as incidences of revived interest in the work of the untrained, the so-called “primitives” or artists working outside of schools or professional circles. At least aesthetically, Burckhardt’s work reflects a folk art affinity in its lack of concern for perspective, its flatness, its clarity and simplicity of form as well as its ability to imply narrative. More than storytelling, Burckhardt confesses certain allegorical leanings, but again, won’t explain the symbolism present in his work. Past subject choices include animals, Byzantine icon-like portraits of people, landscapes and stilllifes including vanitas imagery. In addition to these tried-and-true genres, he is drawn to areas not covered in Art History survey classes, such as English sporting prints and vintage carnival banners for the anonymity they offer to the artist as well as the questionable motivation behind the work. He asks, “Why does someone have their horse painted?” Finding animals enigmatic and useful in exploring larger ideas, Burckhardt turns to the horse often, as seen in “Bridle.” The large white horse dominating the composition is essentially in profile, front right leg lifted off the ground. Viewing Bridle, one conjures up time-honored equestrian statues, for example Ancient Rome’s mounted Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, the equestrian statue, Gattamelata, by Early Renaissance artist, Donatello, or better yet, Early Medieval equestrians such as Charlemagne. As an obvious symbol of power the horse usually lends its sitter, who commands the reigns, power as well. However, no illustrious rider sits atop Burckhardt’s steed. Here this pale horse (perhaps the apocalyptic horse of death) doesn’t charge anywhere because he is bound. Burckhardt binds his horse with a taut rope constricting his face, torso and legs. While one eye peeks out at the viewer, the creature is utterly immovable and rendered powerless in the scene.
Three Fates Triptych, 2011, 7 3/4 x 21 1/2 in.
Money is squandered at the feet of the powerless. Is this an indictment of class? Or does the artist identify with his steed instead? Do patrons’ predilections rob an artist of true creative independence or freedom? Burckhardt certainly seems uncomfortable with the “show-pony” aspect of being an artist.
one eye, moving through to the second whose eyes are completely covered until the final figure appears to cut the bandage with a pair of scissors. The arrangement suggests a linear progression. Blinding and unblinding is key, as sight is the sensory apparatus most closely associated with art making and viewing. More generally, the work seems to assert that time changes perception and in time, awareness is liberated. As time marches on, Burckhardt grapples with aging and the value of individual autonomy. He is expanding his visual repertoire in exciting ways. Why does he paint what he paints? The ever-elusive artist responds, “I paint things that matter to me.”
While ropes bind in “Bridle,” bandages blind in “Three Fates.” In three panels (a triptych), Renaissance inspired ladies are shown in profile, three-quarter and nearly frontal views, consecutively. Starting left, the first fate begins the action by holding a ribbon or bandage over
Marc Burckhardt lives and works in Austin, Texas. In 2010 the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Commission on the Arts named him the official State Artist. His painting “Full Cry,” was selected for the 2011 Texas Book Festival poster. ae
Looking for clues, one surveys the low horizon line juxtaposing an aquamarine sky against barren landscape. This brings our eye to the coins scattered on the ground and then over to the lower right edge of the composition, where a tiny factory puffs put smoke in the distance.
M a rc B u rck h ardt • Novemb er 11-D e cemb er 3, 2011 • w w w . g a l l e r y s h o a l c r e e k . c o m aether
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Loli Kantor
and if a voice was heard - by AMANDA GORENCE
Loli Kantor reminds us of the power of the photograph; the life it breathes, the destruction it stills. Her body of work, And If A Voice Was Heard, is a collection of black and white photographs anchored in history, loss and survival. Balanced with a personal exploration of her own roots, Kantor documents the complexities and remnants of Jewish life in Eastern Europe after the Holocaust and a tumultuous century of the rise and fall of the Soviet era.
In 2004, her art took a new direction, one fueled by personal history and an exploration she had contemplated for some time. Kantor traveled to Krakow, Poland to participate in a reclamation project in Plaszow, a former Nazi labor camp built over three Jewish cemeteries. Digging in the dirt, she uncovered original pre-camp Jewish gravesites. It was here her quest for information began, igniting a journey into Eastern Europe’s narrative of destruction, death, absence and grief. And If A Voice Was Heard catalogs Kantor’s work from Kantor was born in Paris in 1952, after World War II. 2004-2007. Her parents were Polish Jews and had both survived the Holocaust. Her mother died in childbirth with She chose to create the works in black and white, her, and after spending 9 months in Paris, Kantor explaining that “it was contemplative for me— moved to Tel Aviv, Israel with her older brother and a mood—definitely a mood. I also used many father. She grew up both in Buffalo, New York from different formats of cameras—anything that the ages of 4-8 and in Israel before settling in Fort would serve for the project, I would embrace Worth, Texas in the mid-80s. Working in Texas immediately.” Printed in gelatin silver, the work is as a physical therapist for 28 years, Kantor picked a poignant archive of survivors, empty synagogues, up the camera only 10 years ago. Self-taught, and dilapidated monuments, and the faces, hands and with the help of workshops, her first project was homes of a generation old and new. Intrigued and capturing the world of theater, which she is still inspired from her initial trip in 2004, Kantor would very passionate about. spend the next three years traveling back and forth
Yvgenia Ruda, Survivor, 2006, 14 x 11 in.
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Empty Synagogue, 2007 , 16 x 20 in.
from the U.S. to the Czech Republic, Poland, and and scholars located on the border of Ukraine and Ukraine. Poland. Drohobych became one of the places Kantor frequented the most. “My first goal was to meet Initially, Kantor had little information about her Jewish survivors, and to photograph them, visit immediate family, most of whom had perished their homes, and to interview them. A whole world during the Holocaust. She knew her mother had was unveiled to me; how the synagogues looked and survived the war with Aryan papers, but knew how very few people remain. The large synagogues little else. In Poland, she traveled to both her 50 years ago are now almost empty inside because mother’s and father’s hometown. She researched there is nobody to use them anymore,” Kantor city archives and made contacts with locals along says. the way. “It was sort of scraping the surface, but it was really important,” says Kantor. “I visited many As in “Empty Synagogue,” her panoramic interiors places and focused on the Jewish landscape; looking and exteriors reflect this change and bring us at what is there, what isn’t there, what memories right into the space. Photographically, the detail, still remain.” tones and texture are striking. The view captures the expanse and emptiness both literally and While Poland was home to newer Jewish metaphorically, while the stark reality of what’s communities and those seeking to revive the culture, missing here counteracts the light coming in the landscape in Ukraine was much different. through each window, reminding us of the world In Ukraine, she encountered more traditional outside. communities, an older Jewish population who had stayed after the Holocaust. Kantor reminds Kantor’s portraits further develop these ideas on a us that these places are all also post-Soviet, and more intimate level. In “Yvgenia Ruda, Survivor,” that the remnants of that past era are still very Kantor captures the complexities of her story; the present. Ukraine gave Kantor a new experience and layers of generation and history, the poignance of education. Her instincts brought her to Drohobych, memory, while the photo within a photo marks a small town of importance to Jewish historians the duality of survival and loss. There are also
Table Salt, 2005, 11 x 14 in. Veronika Shreyer, 2007, 16 x 20 in.
numerous images that reflect what is happening now and the daily life of her subjects. The tiny bowl in “Table Salt” holds a lot of information. The finger impressions in the salt bring us back to the present. The salt bowl and tablecloth underneath become cultural artifacts the viewer attributes to life, place, and home. Kantor moves to the current generation with the portrait, “Veronika Shreyer.” Veronika is the granddaughter of Alfred Shreyer, a survivor and world class Yiddish singer and violin player from Drohobych. Like many others, she and her parents moved to Frankfurt after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the photograph, she is sitting in her grandfather’s home in Drohobych. Amidst a backdrop of history and generations past, Veronika represents the possibilities of the future. L o l i K a nto r
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Kantor lives up to being a true documentarian, but one that transcends mere objective observation. There is an undeniable and powerful truth behind each image. She allows the viewer an intimate look into the cultural and historical landscape of Eastern Europe, while bringing the people to the forefront, in efforts to “have more of a community portrait; a deeper understanding,” says Kantor. The work unites a spectrum of concepts: history with future, past with present, loss with survival, and most importantly, death with will and hope. Will is especially sacred and universal; Kantor expresses “how people continue a life, and how life is strong. These people have suffered tremendous absence of what was dear to them, and they keep going. I think that’s the message.” Within a body of work so resonant with memory and what once was, Kantor also asks us to imagine what is to come. ae
O c tob er 4-Novemb er 12, 2011
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www.bhollymangaller y.com aether
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Fatima Ronquillo
devotion - by RACHEL HAGGERTY
The Devoted, 2011, 10 x 8 in.
Immediately
Ronquillo sought refuge in the local libraries. The endless supply of books opened up imaginary places and characters into which she escaped. Studying the pages of art history and mimicking the masters, Ronquillo taught herself to draw and then to paint. Using flat planes and blocks of color, she began to formulate the symbolic language she uses today. Round faces with crescent eyes and latching stares appeared holding bowls of fruit and flowers. A young girl clutched a dove and simple pastoral landscapes eased into the backgrounds. Over the years, her technique tightened and her color choices became richer. Her artistic voice echoed many of the same notes as before, but it began to mature. Her symbolisim flourished into a fascinating visual language that hints at her characters’ intimate and mysterious worlds.
Ronquillo’s symbols have evolved from the passive to the active, inviting our curiosity and stimulating our imaginations. At first, flowers painted in a folk style appeared as offerings to the viewer. However, in recent paintings they appear as more of a possession. Wings that had once adorned her characters innocently now rest on coy and confident shoulders. The sweet monkey appears as a devious playmate. Her birds are no longer quiet bystanders, but messengers carrying promise of other lands. Her Born in the Philippines in 1976, Ronquillo moved arrows point toward a mischievous and deliberate with her family to San Antonio, Texas when she action. We are led to believe something or someone was 11. Finding herself friendless in a new country, exists beyond the picture plane. engaging, the work of Fatima Ronquillo reminds us of another time, one that may or may not exist. Painted in a similar manner to that of the European masters and using much of the same language as Early American Colonial art and Latin American art, each piece feels like a secret world revealed. Her symbolism is the only clue as to what lies beyond.
Susannah, 2007, 10 x 8 in.
The Miniature, 2008, 10 x 8 in.
Ronquillo began incorporating literal depictions of these other worlds in 2007. In “Susannah”, an Italian landscape adorns a bowl full of cherries set in front of a young woman. One cherry is lifted from the bowl but held close to the figure’s chest. A bird sits on the edge, not looking down at the cherries in front of him, but up at the one withheld. The landscape on the bowl is like the cherry for the viewer, it draws us away from the current plane and tempts us with a glimpse into another world. In many of her pieces, Ronquillo’s subjects hold single objects. These objects seem less of a peace offering and more like bait to draw us closer. In 2008, through the inclusion of a miniature portrait in “The Miniature”, we see the first pictorial depiction of someone other than the main character. This keepsake is clutched close to the heart while a small dog comforts the sorrow of his master. It is with this painting that Ronquillo begins to more deeply explore the idea of her characters’ friendships and romances.
Originating in the 1700’s, Lovers’ Eyes are Georgian miniatures depicting the eye of a loved one. These were usually commissioned watercolors on ivory with richly decorated frames and worn as jewelry. The first eye is thought to have been sent by the Prince of Wales to the widow Maria Fitzherbert. The court frowned upon their romance, so to maintain decorum, the prince sent Maria a portrait of only his eye. Lovers’ Eyes became fashionable shortly thereafter, when the couple married despite royal opinion. It is said when George IV became king, he wore Maria’s eye under his lapel. Inspired by this mystery and romance, Ronquillo moves beyond the sentimental miniature portrait. A glimpse of an eye, an eyebrow, a tear, a lock of hair does not suffice, but rather urges us to wonder: What is the nature of their relationship? Is the eye representative of a forbidden love, a child lost, a spouse? The surreal aspect of an isolated eye attracts Ronquillo; she says, “It is an idea of physical dismemberment which is symbolic of a removal or estrangement of a loved one. For anyone who’s ever been in love or had a Ronquillo’s most recent body of work, Devotion, crush on someone, the photograph of the beloved delves into this symbolism specifically though the is treasured. So these are portable remembrances mysterious and alluring world of the Lovers’ Eye. before the camera so to speak.” aether
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The Treasured, 2011, 10 x 8 in.
The dress of her characters also points toward estrangement and danger. Many of the eyes are held by uniformed or exotically dressed figures accompanied by wild animals staring out of the frame. Arrows pierce the skin near the keepsakes, externalizing the pain of a lost or ruined love. In “The Inconstant,” the pain depicted is not that of the main character but of a lover. High atop her head, affixed to a gold turban, a single tear falls from a green eye toward its pearl frame. The eye of another lover is pinned close to her heart. A langur sits almost menacingly in her lap. These signs of infidelity and faithlessness betray the subject’s round, innocent face. More subtly, in “The Treasured,” a young uniformed boy sits with one finger covering a Lovers’ Eye brooch. A shell, firered coral and a strand of pearls balance precariously nearby. His eyes are shy and his mouth is tight with reluctance. His cheeks are red with embarrassment. We can only suspect that this young voyager has been asked to share his love story. He is not willing. Perhaps he believes his heart is as unstable as the still life on the ledge and, strangely enough, we are satisfied with the mystery of his reluctance.
The Inconstant, 2011, 12 x 9 in.
In addition to these intimate oils, Devotion also includes larger mixed media works that present multiple firsts for the artist. The transition from the many layers of oil paint lends the pieces a graphic, contemporary feel. Ronquillo uses acrylic and watercolor to focus on line and flat color. The largest piece in the show, “The Runaways,” is a breakthrough piece. For the first time, her character is in motion. The larger format gave Ronquillo the room to move away from the seated portrait. No longer a tableau for the viewers gaze, the runaways seem to pause for only a second in order for us to wonder what they are up to. Ronquillo’s growth and ability to successfully traverse mediums is a testament to her skill and intelligence. Year after year, she continues to further fascinate us with windows into mysterious worlds, urging our imaginations to take hold. ae Fatima Ronquillo
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October 8-29,2011
The Runaways, 2011, 40 x 30 in.
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bookshelf reviewed by JUDITH TAYLOR
CRAZY FROM THE HEAT: A Chronicle of Twenty Years in the Big Bend James H. Evans / University of Texas Press 2011 In her introduction for Crazy from the Heat, Rebecca Solnit reminds us that photography is “always about time; the various cycles of geology and meteorology, the millions of years it took to make this mountain range and the few seconds during which the light broke through the clouds.” Such exploration of time and light are basic to Evans’ work. The starkness of desert plant life—agave, sotol, and ocotillo cactus —illuminated by moonlight conveys the dramatic, surreal imagery of the region. A dreamlike series created through time exposure, “The Camera Never Sleeps,” pushes this concept further as Evans records mysterious star trails streaking across night skies.
James Evans considers himself primarily a portrait
photographer, and his most recent book is indeed a portrait of place with a “profound understanding of light, the people of the desert, and the desert itself.” With the publication of Crazy from the Heat: A Chronicle of Twenty Years in the Big Bend, Evans reaches landscape-photographer status. Big Bend has been Evans’ backyard and subject since moving to Marathon in 1988. Today, he continues to be awed by the arid climate, its people and its landscape. His panoramic views emphasize the vastness of the region, the remoteness of place and the ruggedness of those who reside there. “No other photographer has the dual feel for the people and the land,” says photography dealer Stephen Clark.
Evans’ photographs of the region’s inhabitants provide a glimpse of the grit and spirit required to survive in a harsh terrain. By avoiding set formulas in these portraits, he reinforces inherent individuality, zooming in on the intensity of Tom Lea’s face and capturing the personality of goats on a fence line. Photographs of “Chihuahua Races” and the “Marathon Motel” set the subjects within the context of living in this land; then, as if presenting close friends, Evans introduces extraordinary species portraits. The vanishing horned toad and the richly hued milk snake are just two. The book designer, D. J. Stout, places the photographs in random sequence to emphasize narrative. For the most part, this approach calls to mind the connection between land and people. In the case of the nudes—female figures photographed alongside natural formations—the scattered placement is jarring. Grouped together they would be an intriguing study.
THE AMERICAN WALL: From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico Maurice Sherif/ MS Zephyr 2010, University of Texas Press with a physical barrier.” Volume II in the set examines the impact of the wall through trilingual essays by noted activitists, scientists, and researchers. Sherif presents a global perspective, one which we as Americans often push aside. The simple notation ascribed to each photograph documents the date, location, the segment’s building material, and the cost per mile. More startling than the photographs themselves is the cost of building the controversial wall, 3 to 7 million dollars per mile.
In
2006, French photographer Maurice Sherif began walking the US-Mexico border, photographing segments of the barrier being built along the 1900 miles of shared terrain. In Volume I of The American Wall, Sherif has assembled one hundred photographs, each recording a section of wall at midday. Immediately, the starkness of metal barriers in the searing heat poses questions about place, people, economies and policies. For Sherif, the photographs reveal both “the visible and invisible” of a building project whose “planning and design failed to consider long term environmental, social, and economic costs of “altering the border
In Texas Monthly, Jim Lewis says, “the first notable thing about the border wall . . . is that the damn thing exists.” While he praises the essays and “the unembellished facts” presented in Volume II, he questions Sherif ’s photographs—his choice of monochromatic images, presentation format, and narrow lens. I disagree. The photographs themselves are intentionally unembellished facts; while Sherif points his camera at the wall’s structure—the visible each image conveys the invisible, that which Sherif calls “the haunting emptiness of a place once filled with life.” Sherif is an artist. It is from this perspective that he approaches such an ambitious project. The large format book (15 x 12.5 in.) features Quadratone printing, a now rare process that uses four inks to create a monochromatic image on paper. The American Wall is a valuable historical document of our times. Congratulations to Sherif for keeping his lens focused on the wall as a structure and insisting that each of us evaluate the impact. aether
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ALEXANDRE HOGUE: An American Visionary Susie Kalil/ Texas A & M University Press 2011 Starting in 1926, Hogue painted extensively in Taos, New Mexico. There he found the spiritual validation that dovetailed with his own religious upbringing and beliefs. The landscape offered “glimpses of pure form” from which emerged an abstracted perspective. Pointing to “Irrigation—Taos” (1931), Kalil sets out to guide us through Hogue’s deep commitment to conservation. His visual statements about the Dust Bowl drew national attention along with controversy when Life Magazine published Hogue’s work. The artist was ahead of his time in his concern for the mark man was making on the desert landscape.
Alexandre Hogue’s ability “to adapt and innovate
In the unfolding narrative, Kalil gives a broad view of Hogue’s visionary spirit and life experiences. She devotes a section to his “fascination with sharply defined, calibrated patterning.” Here Kalil’s analysis takes on a more academic tone as she delves into the calligraphic compositions—exuberant, playful, yet rigorously formal—produced in the 1960s.
The strength of the analysis is the personal contact Kalil had with the artist. In 1985, while curating an exhibition, “Texas Landscapes: 1900 - 1986,” Kalil made the mistake of describing the locale of a painting from Hogue’s Big Bend Series as “desolate.” Hogue suggested she strike the word from her vocabulary. Thus began an eight-year conversation between artist and curator which continued until Hogue’s death in 1994. These conversations, recorded on some forty tapes, are the basis for the insightful text of this important contribution to the study of 20th Century American Modernism.
Kalil rounds out her assessment of Alexander Hogue in a chapter titled “The Big Bend Paintings,” stating purposefully that “wisdom from maturity and insight, from experience ... led him back to his origins.” Reverently, the author confirms her belief that Hogue is the preeminent artist to consistently capture both the look and feel of the desert landscape as well as its psychological character.
resulted in a highly personal vision and style.” It is this vision, the complexities of the artist, his graphic articulation of the Southwest, and a career spanning seven decades that Susie Kalil details in Alexandre Hogue, An American Visionary.
Kalil stresses that she “wanted Hogue’s evangelical personality to come through ... to let him speak.” This she achieves, meshing seamlessly the artist’s dialogue and her own commentary on Hogue’s maturation and influence. 22
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The book is aligned with a retrospective on Alexandre Hogue organized by the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi. Its final stop is the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History where it is on view through November 27, 2011. The exhibition and Kalil’s comprehensive book introduce the artist’s work to a new generation and seek to establish Hogue as a major 20th century American artist. ae
Marc Burckhardt
Texas Book Book Festival Texas Festival2011 2011 october 22–23
t e x a s s tat e c a p i t o l
l a u r a b u s h, h o n o r a r y c h a i r
beneFiting texas libraries anD literacy
t e x a s b o o K F e s t i Va l . o r g FULL CRY by Marc burckhardt
Design, Photography & Art Books THE WHITLEY GROUP
Printed on Mohawk Navajo Brilliant White 80 lb cover
OCTOBER 22 – 23, 2011 • Michael Barson (Agonizing Love: The Golden Age of Romance Comics) • Karoline Patterson Bresehan & Nancy O’Bryant Puentes (Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011) • Susannah Joel Glusker (Avant-Garde Art & Artists in Mexico: Anita Brenner’s Journals of the Roaring Twenties) • Andy Wilkinson & Rick Dingus (Llano Estacado: An Island in the Sky) • James H. Evans (Crazy from the Heat: A Chronicle of Twenty Years in the Big Bend) • Susie Kalil (Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary- Paintings and Works on Paper) • Frederick Steiner (Design for a Vulnerable Planet) • Michael O’Brien (Hard Ground) • Maurice Sherif (The American Wall) • Dominique Browning (Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness) • Kevin O’Connor (The Best Homes from This Old House) • Will Erwin & Jason Walker (Texas State Cemetery) • Baron Wolman (Every Picture Tells a Story: Baron Wolman, The Rolling Stone Years) • Susan Toomey Frost (Timeless Mexico: The Photographs of Hugo Brehme) • William M. Fisher & Artemio Rodriguez (The Defeat of Grandfather Devil) Check www.texasbookfestival.org for times and venues
studio
Joyce Howell - by RACHEL HAGGERTY
Two canvases were poised on easels—one near
completion and the other at the beginning of its creation. A palette sat near, iced with months of paint like a wedding cake that keeps getting licked before it can be served. On the far wall, seven paintings hung on pegs for inspection. I was standing in the studio of abstract painter Joyce Howell, taking in the months and months of work done in preparation for her upcoming November show at Wally Workman Gallery. It was evident that this is a working artist’s studio, and a lucky one at that. Natural light pours in from the south and east windows facing Lake LBJ, and to the west, stretchers and frames made by her husband are stacked ready to use. Painting on the side for many years while raising her two girls, Joyce got the confidence and time to go back to school and get her BFA in 1995. Five years later, she moved herself to Lubbock and received a hard-earned MFA from Texas Tech University. Going back to school helped Joyce define her artistic voice. She had been painting tight, realistic still lifes. In graduate school, she learned to let color guide her first, then the brain. The result is
inspiring. Her use of color and movement evokes an emotional response that causes one to linger in front of her works. She is able to translate not a finite emotion, but one that gently undulates warmly throughout. “A professor in graduate school used to chide me for creating ‘pretty’ paintings. I’d respond, ‘I’m not trying to do anything, I’m just trying to be an honest painter.’ You know, in a world like we live in, why should I ever apologize for something that might be considered pretty? I think we need more of that. Even in my exit interview, he asked ‘What would you say to someone if they just responded that you do pretty work?’ I said, ‘I would say, Thank you very much’. Another professor applauded.” A lot of other people are applauding, too. In the two short years Joyce has been with Wally Workman Gallery, she has shot up to being their top selling artist. She has had several museum shows. Three galleries carry her work. I sat down with Joyce to discuss this recent success and what it’s like to prepare for her first solo show in Austin.
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Joyce Howell in her Kingsland, Texas studio
What is your work schedule like? I need it to be consistent. I’m a working artist; I work everyday. Someone asked me not long ago, ‘How many paintings do you paint in a week?’ And it’s hard to answer. Sometimes I get 3-4 paintings done in a week and sometimes I only get 3-4 started in a week. Sometimes they take weeks to complete. Sometimes it’s easier. Sometimes it’s harder. But it’s always there. The only times I’m really not painting is during trips or when I have company.
Do you work on multiple pieces at the same time? Yes. I just started this one this week and on this one, I’m at a good editing point. I have to remember safe is nowhere. I like the palette, I like the movement, but right now it’s too busy—it just needs to be finished. I’ve been looking at it a lot, What am I going to take away? Where is my balance? Right now it doesn’t have a balance to me. It has a lot of things in it that I really like. I’m at that point when I know
to have a this and a this. I don’t like it to become formulaic. I like to just let it happen and act and respond and act and respond. Where do you get your inspiration? I take my camera down to the water and photograph. And do close ups. Really beautiful images. If I could get my paintings to turn out like that... In the spring, when the cedar pollen is so heavy, it sits real heavy on this channel and begins to swirl and move like a lava lamp. I don’t use those colors, but I think I have a similar movement in my paintings. We have fish lights at the dock, which lights up the water from underneath. I watch the shad and minnows. They come in schools, and they start moving and swirling and undulating. That’s the most fascinating thing for me to watch. Looking down into a big aquarium, it’s a movement that is constantly changing. And then, out of the black a big bass will zip across and get one. I think in terms of that linear movement and it makes a nice transition to painting in my head. Do you usually have a favorite painting in a show?
that one of those things that I really like will need to be changed and moved around for me to take it from 70% to 100%. One paintings’ color palette flows into the next because rather than let that paint dry up and be wasteful, I try and use it somewhere. Who knows when that painting is finished if it will even have a hint of that color left but you know, it’s a layering process and one thing will tell you what else needs to happen. I love in a painting when specks and pieces of the first painting show through and it has become something else. It has become a layered something. Without planning on first I’m going to have a dark and then I’m going
Sometimes. I like them all. I have to come to a conclusion that I am happy with in each painting. Each painting is its own. I do have favorites though, I think they are the ones that are the most difficult to paint. The harder it is to come to a conclusion. So, when you finally get it there, it feels like a victory. For example, this one might end up being my favorite because I’m still trying to get there on it. It is very close but it’s not there yet. It just doesn’t feel balanced; it needs something open, lighter and brighter. I don’t have a light as light as my darkest dark. I have too much of a mid-tone range. It’s just not very well integrated to me yet. So, if I do ever get to a place I’m happy with on it, it will be one of my favorites because of all the work I poured into it. aether
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What music do you listen to while painting?
Namaste, 2011, 36 x 36 in.
How do you title your paintings? I hate naming paintings. I don’t paint toward an end. Narrative paintings are easier to name but these are harder. I don’t like the paintings being defined. One reason I like painting like this is that it’s open ended and it can mean so many things to different people. If you name something with an object, then that’s what people are going to be looking for. And I think often, with an abstract painting, people are looking for that anyway; people are looking for something that resonates with them, that makes it make sense. So if I give it a name that establishes what this painting is about, I think that takes away from the viewer being able to make it whatever they want it to be in their mind. I like that, I like it being open ended. I would be comfortable naming them 1001, 1002. However, I know that galleries and clients like actual titles. So, sometimes I name them after the songs I listen to while painting or from a trip. I’ll think about where I’ve been and what I’ve liked. I’ll see certain things in a painting that remind me of that experience. Joyce Howell
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I listen to the Duhks, Billy Joe Shaver, and Sarah Vaughn. For the painting “Thank you Tom”, I was listening to Tom Waits for a while. I listen to one artist forever or even one song forever. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell. And there’s one song in particular “A Case of You” that she wrote when she had a fling with Leonard Cohen, who I also adore. So, I’ve been listening to a lot of “A Case of You”. There was a series on Showtime that I watched on Netflix. The series was good but the soundtrack was absolutely killer. It has a lot of rap. It’s energetic. I don’t like to listen to too much mellow music. I listen to a lot of BB King and Jerry Lee Lewis. When I listen to music like that, I’m reminded that halfway is nowhere. And I think I have a problem with that in my paintings a lot, sometimes I get in a stage that I’m liking and I’ll get afraid to go back into it because I’ll mess something up. But then I remember that that’s probably what has to go, whatever I’m protecting. Unless its there, its not there. Do you believe preparing for a solo show affects your development as an artist? Sure. Work begets work. I think it must be the same for writers or musicians. You know, the more you try and do, the more you grow and the more consistent you become and the more confident you become. That’s the difference between being a Sunday painter, people who break out paints every once in awhile on the kitchen table, which I did for many years. You know, it’s a huge difference. Some artists are uncomfortable at openings. Others enjoy engaging with the public. What is your response? Excited. It’s fun to hear what people see. It makes you feel you’ve connected at some level, I never know what level that is, but you’ve connected nonethe-less. ae
November 5-26, 2011 • w w w . w a l l y w o r k m a n g a l l e r y . c o m
New Jimmy Choos!, 2011, 48 x 36 in.
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art divas
community Women & Their Work
Art Divas—the creative women’s network of Women & Their Work—was the brain child of W&TW board members Sherry Smith and Stacey Abel. Since the inaugural event in the fall of 2008 at the eclectic South Austin home of artist Elizabeth Chapin, Art Divas has provided special opportunities for women to connect.
Membership in Art Divas is open to anyone with the XX chromosomes. There are artists, curators, lawyers, doctors, businesswomen, educators, philanthropists, community volunteers, architects, designers and women active in all aspects of city life. All agree that the $100 annual Diva donation is the best art value they receive.
Art Divas opens the door to meet and mingle in unexpected, art-filled places. Sometimes it is an artist’s space; on other occasions, women who love and collect art invite Divas to their home. Informal conversation about art, in its many dimensions, is at the center of any Diva party. Artists show off their studios and talk about their process. Collectors share what got them started and why they collect what they do.
Art Divas is just one more way that Women & Their Work enriches our cultural ecosystem. In return, Divas support a vital organization whose groundbreaking spirit has made it possible for hundreds of women artists to achieve visibility and distinction in the visual and performing arts. - Chris Cowden
Out of town excursions have included a bus trip to Houston for the exhibitions of Marlene Dumas at The Menil and Alice Neel at the Museum of Fine Art Houston. Divas visited a mod, art-filled ranch in the Hill Country and caravanned to San Antonio to see an exhibition at the McNay Museum featuring the work of women artists. While there, they had a private tour of the Pace Foundation as well as the the Linda Pace collection.
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Art Divas in Houston at Margo Sawyer’s public art installation
To join Art Divas, visit W&TW online at womenandtheirwork.org
Connect.
The Last Equilibrium, 2011, 30 x 24 in.
foreword Shawn Camp A review by Erin Keever
THE SUM OF ALL PARTS October 14 through November 5, 2011 Gallery Shoal Creek
Shawn Camp thinks in polarities. He celebrates
The Frustrated Ghost Find Its Way in Sometimes, 2011, 16 x 16 in.
grey sky peek through. Are we looking up or down? Camp likens this perspectival tug-of-war to the existential back-and-forth of figuring out our place in the universe. Lines divide parts of the painting as well. Of these divisions, Camp says, “Sectioning off areas is a metaphor for the intersection between civilization and nature.” Perhaps by visually marking the threshold between subjective states, he searches for liminality.
color and heavy impasto in his abstract canvases, but his work’s seductive surface beauty belies its agenda of concealing and revealing as it obscures reminders of man’s struggle against the forces of nature. In Camp’s work, thickly stacked areas of paint alternate with sheerer sections, sometimes spitting up bits of collaged text. Like a palimpsest, the artist’s use of layering connotes oppositions: rejuvenation/destruction, legibility/confusion and harmony/discord. “A Self-Correcting System’s” color scheme and particular pattern are also significant. The imagery “A Self Correcting System” shows Camp’s ability to resembles leafy green foliage, but also looks like paint from two perspectives at once. At first glance, camouflage. Camouflage’s purpose is to disrupt an the composition resembles a digitized Google outline by blending it with the natural surroundings, map’s aerial view of a forested, or at least well-treed, making enemy targets hard to spot. Our struggle environment. Look again, and we might be gazing with nature in our struggle with man is at work upwards through a tree canopy, where slivers of once again.
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Consumed with the duality of nature and humanity, Camp at times looks to history. His signature painting for the upcoming solo exhibition, “We Bring from the Mountain,” references the Battle of Carrhae. Fought in 53 BC, in the harsh desert region of Mesopotamia, the Parthian forces defeated the Roman army and killed their leader Marcus Licinius Crassus. It’s said that the Parthians used Crassus’ decapitated head as a prop in a play in which these verses were sung: “We bring from the mountain, tendril fresh-cut to the palace, a wonderful prey.” “We Bring from the Mountain’s” beige palette can be compared to desert sand and its large scale and overall paint application with no focal point, to the vastness of desert. The character of the desert is made heroic, over the historical leader whose downfall it caused. At the same time, there is a peculiarly fleshy (and human) quality to the paint. [Like chunks of skin or silly putty piled up, the paint film is sort of fetishistic.] A series of individually titled works that Camp collectively calls The Moscow Series refer to a town’s cultural conflict. To represent a socio-religious divide in Moscow, Idaho, where Camp lived during his undergraduate years at the University of Idaho, he adheres words from The Book of Revelation alongside passages from a 1972 Playboy to the canvases prior to painting. For the artist, these textual elements represent order and chaos butting up against each other. And while the artist is known to coax collaged snippets of words to peek out from painted
layers, here, almost all traces of text are buried deep beneath multi-colored strata. It is as if the artist is burying nuts or planting seeds in the earth, and waiting to see what will endure or grow. Another work with religious overtones is the diptych titled “And Once You’ve Understood You Can Never Go Back.” The pair of smaller works is mostly white, but still shows Camp’s chunky paint application. They are installed on a ledge like two tablets, Ten Commandments style. Accompanying the installation is what Camp describes as a “wall of noise”—sound cut and pasted together in 2-minute loops. His interest in barriers that cover individual sound motifs is similar to that of hiding words in paintings. Camp, who describes his new show as a “mix tape,” says his “painting and music evolved side by side.” Increasingly, he has been experimenting with incorporating visual and aural aspects in his art. In addition to Camp’s conscious exploration of extremes, he enjoys talking about the act of painting. He says, “For the last five years I think I have been self-consciously trying to get thinner areas into the work … thick and thin, order and disorder.” He almost proselytizes about the “honesty of the mark.” In his near-holy quest to create an unmediated mark in the painting process, the artist acknowledges the difficulty of making the perfectly pure mark without corrupting, weakening, or even obliterating it somehow. Sure his search may be futile, but he enjoys the Sisyphean task nonetheless. ae
Above: We Bring From The Mountain, 2011, 54 x 60 in. Opposite L to R: A Self-Correcting System, 2011, 48 x 48 in. The Memoryof Our Betters, 2011, 16 x 16 in.
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Editions Flatbed World Headquarters Print and publishing workshop
Bob Schneider, Bundle of Nerves, 2008, Intaglio relief with chine colle, 35 x 47 in.
Flatbed was founded in 1989 by Katherine
Co-founder Smith serves as the director of Brimberry and Mark L. Smith in a small studio Flatbed Gallery. Both Brimberry and Smith off of 3rd Street. They have since relocated to are practicing artists and experienced teachers Central East Austin, and now share a unique, fully with a passion for the medium of printmaking. redesigned warehouse with many other creative and visual-arts tenants. Here, they operate a At Flatbed, the artist is of utmost importance. publishing workshop and printmaking studio, as Every project is artist-centric, and the staff well as a gallery that hosts a variety of exhibitions ensures a rewarding printing experience for showcasing original prints and limited editions. those with whom they work. Each year, Flatbed In addition to the daily operations, Flatbed also collaborates with invited artists—often from offers a variety of hands-on and seminar classes other media—to create limited editions of focusing on an array of printmaking techniques. their work. The mix of painters, sculptors, photographers, and mixed media artists The atmosphere at Flatbed is a welcoming and results in the diversity of Flatbed’s collection inspiring one. Co-founder Brimberry, the Senior of original prints. Flatbed also offers selfMaster Printer, is usually in the studio working publishing to artists interested in creating an alongside artists who are creating editions. edition with their own funding.
I’ve been working with Flatbed ever since they started in a tiny hole-in-the-wall studio over on Third Street across from the railroad tracks. We’ve done about 30 etchings together over the years and we’re working on a new 6 print project right now called “The Pirate Queen” which will show at Flatbed in December. They are masters of their craft and I learn something new every time I work with them. -Julie Speed Ad Referendum, 2005, gouache on chine colle color polymer gravure etching, 30 x 22 in.
Editioning Process • There are many steps in the creation of an edition. All printmaking projects are collaborations between the artist and a master printer, who acts as the technical guide. After deciding on an edition number (usually 2550), the image goes through many stages and proofs. When the final image is agreed upon by artist and master printer, and a BAT print (see definitions) is pulled, the master printer can go from there to print the edition. The artist then signs and numbers each print with a pencil. Several proofs are printed and categorized throughout the editioning process, see the types listed here:
TP: Trial Proofs printed in black and white CTP: Color Trial Proofs BAT: ‘bon a tirer’ (fr.) / ‘good to pull’ / final
version agreed upon between artist and printer / property of the collaborating master printer
AP: Artist Proofs artist makes several working artist proofs
Flatbed Impressions: archive prints reserved for Flatbed Press collection
HC: ‘hor commerc’(fr.) / ‘not on the market’/ essentially sample prints
PP: Printer’s Proof property of a printer or maybe an assistant printer
CP: Cancellation Proof to ensure a print will not be made past the edition number, a cancellation defacement is made / cancelled plate is printed in entirety to confirm
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Printmaking Processes and Techniques Intaglio:
Intaglio is a hands-on, intensive, traditional printmaking process. A copper or zinc plate is the typical matrix and is coated in a resin ground. An etching needle is used to create an image in the ground, revealing the plate underneath. The plate is then dipped in acid which eats away the marks created by the etching needle, incising the image. Ink is applied to the surface of the plate and wiped and pushed into the etched grooves while the excess ink is wiped away. A damp piece of paper is placed on the plate and then heavy blankets are placed on top for added pressure before going through the printing press. The intaglio process also includes photogravure, a technique in which a film positive is etched into a copper plate via a light-sensitive gelatin emulsion. Photogravure prints are admired for their ability to render the details and tones found in an original photograph.
Ann Conner, Brentwood 4 and Brentwood 1, 2010, Woodcut, 48 3/4 x 36 3/4 in.
Monotype:
Monotype prints are made by painting or drawing directly onto a plexi-glass matrix. Added elements can also be collaged onto plexi. The image is transferred to the paper through a printing press. Monotypes are usually unique prints because most of the paint or ink is removed after the first print. Prints can be made after the initial one, but will vary from the original.
Lithography: Lithographic prints are created Relief: Relief printing is a traditional printmaking on limestone litho stones or lithographic aluminum plates. The artist draws directly onto the stone or plate, or transfer the image from off of mylar; no etching or carving is made. Drawing is done with greasy ink or crayon, making the image area water-resistant. The stone is covered in water and an oily ink is rolled on, adhering to the image, but repelled by the wet parts of the stone, thus creating a positive of the image once the paper is pressed onto the stone.
technique. Starting with a flat surface on either a wood block or copper plate, images are carved into the matrix. The protruding parts are inked while the recessed areas remain empty. They can be made from woodcuts, linocuts (linoleum mounted on a wood block) or intaglio plates. In the case of an intaglio plate, the recessed areas are inked. A printing press is not always necessary, often the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand to create a print.
Flatbed World Headquarters 2830 East Martin Luther King, Jr Austin, Texas 78702 www.flatbedpress.com (512) 477-9328 Flatbed’s exhibition space, 02Gallery, is available for exhibition and installation rental.
I have been working at Flatbed for over seven years. Over the years I have gained such a respect for Mark Smith and Katherine Brimberry, master printers, and interns. The quality level of the print medium is at the top of the field, but more importantly is the atmosphere - such a sincere effort from all involved to reach my vision as an artist. It seems we are always pressed to meet a deadline for an exhibition and all the printers manage to still make it relaxed, fun and productive at the same time. Flatbed has included my work in museum shows and national printmaking exhibitions, certainly helping the progress my career. I am so appreciative of the positive and comprehensive approach of everyone involved at Flatbed. -Joan Winter
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aspen
destination What better way to beat the heat or get the taste of a real winter? Texans flock to Aspen year-round. Here are three of our favorite galleries you should visit while you’re there, all with a friendly staff and in walking distance of the mountain base.
• GALERIE MAXIMILLIAN 602 East Cooper Avenue galeriemax.com/970.925.6100 Expertly curated modern and contemporary master works
• LIVASPENART GALLERY 414 East Cooper Avenue livaspenart.com/970.544.0411 Off the Aspen walking mall, representing emerging local talent
• DAVID FLORIA GALLERY 525 East Cooper Avenue floriagallery.com/970.544.5705 A 2nd floor venue with internationally acclaimed and emerging artists
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Collect.
Collection Organization 101 ARCHIVING A FINE ART COLLECTION
artist title year medium size gallery
What kind of information should I keep on each piece of art? • A piece of art should be identified with: the artist’s name, the title, the year the work was done, the medium, when and where you acquired the work. • The size, too, is important but can be confusing. For painted works (oil, acrylic, mixed media), note the dimensions of the canvas or board on which it is painted as well as the outside dimensions when framed. It is standard to state dimensions height x width. For works on paper (watercolors, pastels, prints, photographs), record the three specific dimensions - the size of the paper, the actual measurements for the image, and the outside dimensions when framed. Three dimensional works require three measurements - height, width, depth. • Any information the artist has recorded is important. Is the work signed? If so where and how (signed lower right, John Doe). Artists often change their signatures over the course of their career. How a piece is signed helps identify when the work was done and authenticates the piece. • If the piece was released as an edition (sculpture, original prints, photographs), record the complete number of the edition and the specific casting or print number of your piece. For instance, if your piece is numbered 7/12, then you have the 7th piece of an edition of 12.
How should I organize records of my art? on soft cover vs hard cover, number of pages, and
quantity ordered. However, expect to pay about • A good, inexpensive inventory program to $30 per book. organize your collection electronically is Bento by FileMaker. It is easily customizable, with images How do I insure my art? and sorting options. • If you choose to create your own electronic inventory system, simply scan documents related to • Talk with your insurance agent. Ask what will be each piece of art and create an electronic file. Scan covered in general and what needs to be specifically your sales invoice along with printed information noted on the policy. • Insure the artwork for its retail value. Initially, a about the artists. • In addition to your electronic files, make a paper copy of the original sales receipt should be sufficient copy of the basic documents to keep with the piece for your carrier. Every few years, your carrier will of art or in hardcopy files. When possible, create a ask to update your documents. At this time, you pocket on the back of the two dimensional pieces will want to determine the current retail or refor copies of basic information such as invoices and placement value. A simple way to do this is to contact artist information. This will make it easy for family the gallery/dealer from whom you purchased the members to know the significance of the piece. Too piece of art. Generally, they can update the value often, a piece of art which has value goes to a garage of the piece. When you ask for an update, provide sale or to a donation center because someone does the dealer with a copy of the purchase receipt, a photograph, and the information you have on file not have information as to its importance. • Images of each individual piece is a must for your about the piece. records. Take quality digital images. For paintings, • If the dealer or gallery does not have updated be sure to have an image of the artwork in the frame information as to the value of your piece, contact as well as a close up detail showing the signature. an appraiser who will have access to a vast array of For three dimensional works of art, photograph the sales and auction records. image from several directions. Works on paper are best photographed out of the glass. Ask the gallery where you purchased the art for an image. They How do I stay informed about the generally have quality images available and will artists’ careers? provide them for your records. • Some collectors like to video their artwork. • It is interesting to follow an artist’s career. This documents the placement of the piece and is Request that the gallery keep you up to date with particularly useful for insurance purposes. future shows of the artists you collect. Retain show • With the availability of online publishing, announcements, catalogues, etc. for your records many collectors are creating catalogues of their or scan for your electronic files. collections. We recommend Apple or Blurb • Sign up for updates from the artist. You should as easy-to-use options. Using Apple, you can be able to do this on their website or email them create a catalog through iphoto. If you would via their website. Some artists will send a personal like more freedom with your layout, Blurb lets note to collectors or comment on a purchased you design your own templates and upload piece. Any personal communication is certainly them to their site. Cost for each depends something to document. ae aether
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datebook OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
October 4 through November 12 AND IF A VOICE WAS HEARD / Loli Kantor B. Hollyman Gallery
November 5, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. TAG, WE’RE IT/ Lisa Kaselak and Lee Billington Flatbed Press
Balanced by a personal exploration of her own roots, An exploration of the Kantor documents the complexities and remnants of relationship between data, Jewish life in Eastern Europe after the Holocaust. memory and aesthetics. The installation, uses digital October 8 through 29 projectors to projects a sea DEVOTION/ Fatima Ronquillo of seamless tags on walls, creating a floating field Wally Workman Gallery Ronquillo’s intimate oil paintings prompt us not only to of identical black droplets. wonder about the character depicted, but also of the Each tag contains a pre-recorded video memory. As visitors enter the space, a frame is provided which will character that is merely hinted at. transform the droplets into a scannable tag and, using a smart phone or tablet, visitors can then access any one of October 14 through November 12 a hundred memories. YADIR QUINTANA AND MATTHEW SCHENNING
Champion Contemporary
November 5 through 26 Both Quintana’s and Schenning’s JOYCE HOWELL practices examine the physical act Wally Workman Gallery
of mark-making with an emphasis In her first solo Austin show, Joyce Howell’s abstracts on elements of chance and are able to translate not a finite emotion, but one that materiality. gently undulates warmly throughout.
October 14 through November 5 THE SUM OF ALL PARTS/ Shawn Camp Gallery Shoal Creek
November 5 through December 18 WAPATUI/ Group Show grayDuck Gallery
For Austin artist Shawn Camp, the marked landscape becomes a metaphor for the basic human tendency to Waputi is a drink created by the community; everyone brings a bottle of clear booze to add to punch and project order onto chaos. it’s ready to go. In that same spirit, artists from the community at large will mix up a visual Wapatui. October 22 through November 26
EDWARDS COUNTY/ Malou Flato Davis Gallery
November 11 through December 3 Marc Burckhardt + Gustavo Torres Inspired by her passion for the natural world, Flato’s Gallery Shoal Creek
bold strokes and keen sense of composition have helped to create a series of bright expansive paintings Masters of their craft, both Torres and Burckhardt that represent some of the most striking features of adopt symbolic imagery to convey complex themes our Texas landscape. and engage the viewer.
DECEMBER November 12 through 20 EAST AUSTIN STUDIO TOUR Hundreds of East Side Studios
December 3 through 23 AFTER DARK / Group Show Wally Workman Gallery
The East Austin Studio Tour is a self-guided tour and celebration of east Austin’s creative culture. A free nine day event, spanning across two weekends. Experience the vibrant energy of east Austin by exploring the work of hundreds of artists in their studios, gallery spaces and a number of exciting art events.
A group show, each artist is challenged to create a piece inspired by the title After Dark. Taken literally or metaphorically, 30 artists delve into the dark side.
December 3 through 24 RIMI YANG Russell Collection
November 18 through December 17 MAKE/ Four American self-taught artists Visual Arts Center - UT
Yang’s style bridges Eastern and Western culture, new and old, incorporating ancient Japanese block print and 19th-century portraiture, as well as bold abstract This group exhibition is an color and energy. intimate journey into the lives of four American self-taught December 9 through January 7 artists: Prophet Royal Robertson, THE LANDSCAPE AND BEYOND/ Group Show Hawkins Bolden, Judith Scott, and Gallery Shoal Creek Ike Morgan, who struggle with the disabilities that life dealt them. This group show brings together five artists with distinct styles: Jerry Ruthven, William Kalwick Jr, Aleksander Titovets, Lyuba Titovets and introducing Kirk Tatom.
November 19 through January 14 ANIMALIA/ Henry Horenstein B. Hollyman Gallery
Animalia is a collection of abstract photographs of land and sea creatures. Shot with black and white film, and printed in sepia, these portraits capture the beauty and mystery of the animal.
November 22 through February 19 PROGENY OF TUSH HOG/ Buster Graybill AMOA - Laguna Gloria Progeny of Tush Hog will be an ambitious indoor and outdoor exhibition of sculptures, photographs, and video by San Antonio artist Buster Graybill. aether
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forum
10th annual East Austin Studio Tour offers more creative venues than one person can visit in two weekends. What are your go-to studios? How do you choose which spaces to visit? Do you painstakingly dog ear pages of the catalog? Click through their entire database? Close your eyes and just point? EAST is a daunting but well worth event that many giddily anticipate each year. The neighborhoods east of I-35 become abuzz with collectors, creatives, curators and the The
curious. We want to hear how you do EAST.
Share and recommend studios, routes and tactics on aether’s online forum at www.aetherart.com The East Austin Studio Tour is a self-guided tour and celebration of east Austin’s creative culture. The 2011 East Austin Studio Tour is a free nine day event, spanning across two weekends. Experience the vibrant energy of east Austin by exploring the work of hundreds of artists in their studios, gallery spaces and a number of exciting art events. www.eastaustinstudiotour.com
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Collaborate.
next issue
Spring/Summer 2012
ae aether (Greek αἰθήρ aithēr[1]) n. 1
the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere 2 a medium that in the wave theory of light permeates all space and transmits transverse waves 3 personification of the sky or upper air breathed by the Olympians.