Artists' Letters of Note

A letter from Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol. For their ninth album “Sticky Fingers” the Rolling Stones had asked Warhol to design the album cover.

A letter to Andy Warhol from the marketing manager for Campbell’s Soup who must have been extremely pleased with Warhol’s 32 silkscreened portraits of Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Below, a letter written by pop-art icon Keith Haring, in reply to a young aspiring artist and fan.  Haring, who is still held in high esteem on an international level, died of AIDS at the age of 31. He left behind numerous artworks, and the so called “Keith Haring Foundation”, established to assist people suffering from AIDS related diseases.

'Improving' Hitler and Goya

Iakovos  “Jake” and “Konstantinos” Dinos Chapman are two English visual artists, that go by the name of  “the Chapman Brothers”.

As a main subject for their work, the brothers mostly use subjects that are thought of as offensive, distasteful or vulgar.  Their art is oftentimes highly controversial and attention-grabbing.

Some examples:  In 2008 the Chapman Brothers held an exhibition entitled “If Hitler had been a hippy, how happy would we be”. For this exhibition the brothers acquired  a group of original watercolours that had been painted by Adolf Hitler himself. They then appropriated these works by painting bright psychedelic skies and smiley faces over them.



Watercolour painting by Adolf Hitler, appropiated by the Chapman Brothers.



But perhaps the most controversial work the brothers have ever made, is a series from 2003, entitled “Insult to Injury”. For this series the brothers purchased a complete set of Goya’s etchings, “The Disasters of War”, and added comical grotesque faces to them.



Goya's "The Disasters of War", appropiated  by the Chapman Brothers: "Insult to Injury", 2003



Although these works are held in high esteem by many, some see them  as pure vandalism. Another point of interest is the actual sale of these works: establishing prices can be quite problematic, since buyers actually buy two works of art at the same time: a Goya and a Chapman. Is it an improved Goya or a nearly vandalized  Goya?

Ghost...

British artist Rachel Whiteread is well known for her original sculptures with which she seeks to express the idea of space, room, void. She does this mainly by making casts of various objects.

In one of her first works, entitled “Shovel”,  she made a cast of her own back and attached a handle on top of it, so that it would resemble a shovel. 

One of her larger scale works, entitled “Ghost” is yet another cast: its mould was an entire living-room in a Victorian house: Whiteread had the walls of the living-room cast in units of plaster that were then mounted together so that the structure and volume of the original Victorian living-room becomes visible. Negative imprints, such as the open fireplace clarifies that we are in fact dealing with the INSIDE of a room.



Rachel Whiteread: Ghost, 1990, plaster, 270x318x365cm



Prince's Nurses

Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer, who began his career in 1977 by appropriating photographs:  meaning the artist pulls from the work of others, in a modified way, in order to create his own work.

The most well-known paintings by Prince, are his works from the so-called “Nurse Series”.  A series that is mainly inspired by the covers  of cheap pulp novels. Prince initially scanned the cover images, after which they were transferred onto a canvas and personalized by acrylic paint. The titles of the series include “Naughty nurse”, “Millionaire Nurse”, “Surfer Nurse”, after the titles of the book covers they were appropriated from.

Although heavily criticized at first, the Nurses are now priced in the millions.



Richard Prince: A nurse on horseback



Richard Prince: Tender Nurse



THINK Exhibit

IBM's THINK exhibit at the Lincoln Center in New York composes of 40 interactive panel showing various indicators of life quality in the Big Apple, which engage visitors into a conversation on this subject.
The exhibition is open from September 23 to October 23.

Reverse glass painting

Gil Heitor Cortesao is a Portugese artist, who uses the almost forgotten technique of ‘reverse glass paining’: his works are painted on plexiglass instead of a regular canvas, and then sealed by a layer of white paint. The painting therefore is enclosed between a glass plate and a layer of paint. Its execution is reversed: that what is done last on a canvas is done first on the glass. This type of execution also means that tiny detail cannot be added later.

Cortesao’s works often have modernist houses as their theme: he shows these in an undone way, covered by stains. For him they represent the downfall of the modernist utopia.

Gil Heitor Cortesao: Remote Viewer #2, 2008

Light Painting

Andy Hemingway is a Huston-based photographer, who in his latest series "Light Painting" applies light graffiti to an abandoned parking garage in his home town. Done with a flashlight and some projection  tools, the result is a spectacular combination of flowing light effects to an lifeless concrete backdrop.

Beijing, of course

In recent years some of the world's most breath-taking architecture has been seen in China. A sign of the country's  rapid growth and explosive urbanization, this new wave of cutting-edge architecture is also a sign of the social and political changes China has gone through. One of the biggest face-lifts a Chinese city has received came in the build-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, when a series of buildings, so spectacular that they have their own nicknames, such as "The Bird's Nest"(Olympic Stadium);"The Water Cube"(National Swimming Center);"The Egg"(National Opera House) and the new CCTV Tower were built. Another addition to this list can be The Phoenix International Media Center, scheduled to be completed in 2012. Phoenix, a satellite TV provider, is picking up where CCTV left off, planning to move their programming operations in such a landmark building. In addition Phoenix, it will be housing other businesses, offices and restaurants. The building shape recalls of the "Bird's Nest", built by Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron.  Unlike the stadium or the CCTV Tower, the Phoenix building has been designed by Chinese firm BIAD UFo, a sign that Chinese companyes can also handle the design end, not just the manufacturing. The ambitious project is also known by a few nicknames: sea sponge and jellyfish are the most popular. Time will tell which one will prevail.

Disney meets Oral Sex

In a work entitled “And The Beast”, Egyptian artist Ghada Amer shows us a juxtaposition of Disney’s Belle –from “the Beauty and the Beast”-  overlaid with subtly drawn erotic female figures. Amer took these female figures from porn magazines and presents them as another version of female stereotypes – in strong contrast with the virginal Disney princesses.

In combining pornographic images with female fairy-tale creatures, Ghada Amer asks us  how innocent these fairy-tale images are to begin with. The entire  canvas is dominated by  the thick black outline of a woman receiving oral sex.

Ghada Amer: And the Beast

The flow

One of the most talked about exhibitions this summer is Nendo's solo show at the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute. Japanese Designers Nendo present their latest furniture in two collections: Thin Black Lines and Dancing Squares.
Dancing Squares is a collection based on the concept of “Active White” which has been installed onto a room-sized sketch.
The exhibition will accordingly be divided into two rooms: one with black drawings on white and the other with white on black. One striking feature are the curved walls of the second room.
The drawings on the floor were compared by Nendo designers to river water, which flows around the exhibition stands.

 

A new type of sculpture!

Today we’d like to introduce you to a whole new type of sculpture, made by Brooklyn-based artist Nick van Woert.

Van Woert makes weird, awesome and unique sculptures, in which he combines marble busts with polyurethane plastic in adhesive form. The plastic is to be understood as “attacking” the busts. Van Woert himself refers to these sculptures as:  "a hijacking of the art historical past”.

Van Woert is currently partaking in exhibitions worldwide and is represented by the most renowned galleries.



Nick van Woert: Poor me

 




Nick van Woert: Eclipse (yellow)



Nick van Woert: Untitled



Open Space Cafe-Bar

The Open Space Hotel in Murau, Austria, a building dating back to the 13th century, has been expanded with an ultra modern cafe-bar.
But integrating a modern addition within a space characterized by traditional architecture, is never a easy task. Designed by Architektur Steinbacher Thierrichter, the new addition to the hotel towers 12 meters over Muraus medieval town walls, offering great views over the river Mur. However, due to its placement in a historical town, some people are not happy with it.
We feel that it blends in with its surroundings, highlighting even more the old buildings. Therefore the Open Space Cafe-Bar can be seen as a valuable addition to Muraus historical center.