Icebreakers Juried show opening February 3

I am so pleased to have one of my favorite recent series, Sextet 14" x68" selected for the Icebreakers Show at Ice Cube Gallery, 3320 Walnut Street in Denver. The show opens February 3 and is up till February 25- Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays from 12-5

Semaphore

Semaphore is 24" x24". I am very glad to be working again.

Mr. Still Creates His Museum

Beneath the elegant and cool exterior of the new Clyfford Still Museum designed by Brad Cloepfil beats the heart of an artist of turbulent and extraordinary control. Thirty-one years after his death his complete oeuvre is present in Denver Colorado, a city he probably never visited in his life. The story about the museum is controversial and well documented elsewhere. It is the reality of the art and the museum I want to discuss.
The building is close to perfection- a simple and elegant structure in which the art takes center stage. The details, particularly the concrete walls that allow the wood forms to be expressed are lovely. Natural light enhances the artificial and benches strategically placed in front of major paintings are a welcome element.
I have seen Still's work in other museums; notably the Metropolitan & MOMA in NY and the San Francisco Art Museum. Seeing it as he wished it displayed, without other artists' work, creates an experience that brings to mind the Rothko Chapel in Houston. The installation is quite traditional, sequencing from his early student work to the final works in the 1970s. The first floor has various artifacts ( paints, a baseball glove (?) and other memorabilia which seems less than important. Last month the Denver International Film Festival offered a series of films about the Abstract Expressionists, which I think would have been a good addition to the museum. Whether that would have fit within the stringent requirements of the artist's will, which determined much of the form of the museum, I don't know. Suffice to say that though it is legally a separate museum it's location next to the Denver Art Museum, ( and the security guards inside who were clearly from the Denver Art Museum) as well as a path leading from the front door of the Still Museum to the outdoor patio of the DAM coffee shop suggest a close relationship. Still's will required no restaurant inside the museum, or more critically, that no other artist's work be shown there.

So the work will be seen, in its magnificence, and it is wonderful work, but without the sorely need context of what was going on in the period it was created. A pity, I think. Nevertheless I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to see such wonderful paintings in such a comfortable setting.

newest painting

I called this Halloween because I finished it on October 31st. I see little things I would like to fiddle with but I am leaving it be for now and just happy to be back to painting.

Prospect II New orleans

Yes, it was smaller than last time, 26 artists versus 80+ in 2008. But it is still New Orleans and some memorable art and experiences at the best American biennial. I loved the Sophie Calle intervention at the 1850 House and was lucky to catch both the riveting Joyce Scott performance, Miss Veronica's Veil and the start of William Pope L.'s piece, Blink in the Lower 9th Ward. images top to bottom: Joans Dahlberg video Macbeth, william Pope.L. and me at the Sophie Calle installation.

color study

I have been in a bit of a slump lately- not painting which makes me very unhappy. However, I have signed up for an intensive color class with Sandra Kaplan at the Art Students League of Denver www.asld.org
I took a color class many years ago and think it is time to refresh my skills.

Joan Mitchell Lady Painter by Patricia Albers

Last year I read the big DeKooning biography and the similarities of their lives is inescapable. Both painted big,bold expressive canvases and both were in NY in the 1950s and 60s. Both mingled at the Cedar bar with other artists, musicians, poets and writers of the era. Both drank much, much too much but still managed to create sublime paintings and have successful careers.
And how many more of us recognize the name Willem DeKooning and saw his work in their art history texts then know the name Joan Mitchell?
I was fortunate to see the big Mitchell retrospective at the Whitney in 2002. I went with a friend who is not big on contemporary art. We both were absolutely blown away by the sheer power and beauty of her work. I am a generation younger than Joan Mitchell,and a painter who has worked in the art world since the 1970s. I certainly knew who Joan Mitchell was and had seen her work occasionally at museums or exhibits.I think I, like many other accepted the generally held description of her as a "second generation abstract expressionist" which clearly meant that she was 2nd tier. In the 70s and 80s with the growth of the feminist movement in art her work was "rediscovered" as museums sought to include women artists in exhibits and collections. Joan was certainly uneasy with this, as the author describes in the book.
This is one of the best written biographies of an artist I have read. It reads like a novel, yet it is carefully documented and footnoted. I might quibble that the author often relied on one source who may have been biased, in some of her facts, but the strength of the book is its power in describing Joan life and her times. I was lucky to have the catalog from the exhibit so i could see many of the paintings. As always with artist bios, seeing the work described is very important and frustrating if it isn't available. Will publisher's start using the power of the internet to provide links to images and will the Kindle get some color so we can read books and see the artwork? Stay tuned...