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"Textiles belong to a technical, highly specialized world—one that’s not nearly as appreciated, by institutions or by the general public, as it should be."

Seth Siegelaub on collecting textiles in the March issue of Artforum.

Francesca Woodman at Guggenheim

Francesca Woodman is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s brief but extraordinary career to be seen in North America. More than thirty years after her death, the moment is ripe for a historical reconsideration of her work and its reception. 

Born in 1958 into a family of artists, Woodman began photographing at the age of 13. By the time she enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1975, she was already an accomplished artist with a remarkably mature and focused approach to her work. During her time at RISD, she spent a year in Rome, which proved an enormously fertile source of inspiration.

After completing her degree, she moved to New York, where she made several large-scale personal projects and experimented with fashion photography. In 1981, at the age of 22, she committed suicide. Woodman’s untimely death is underscored by the startlingly compelling, complex, and artistically resolved body of work she produced during her short lifetime. Spanning the breadth of Woodman’s oeuvre, this presentation includes more than 120 vintage photographs, ranging from her earliest student experiments to her late, large-scale blueprint studies of caryatid-like figures for the ambitious Temple project (1980).

The exhibition includes two of her artist books, which were an important form of expression, particularly at the end of her career. Woodman also experimented with moving images; six of her recently discovered and rarely seen short videos are presented in the exhibition.

Eat green

moss

'Does Morality Have a Place on Wall Street?'

 

In his resignation from Goldman Sachs that appeared as a Times Op-Ed this week,

Greg Smith spoke of a culture of greed and excess at the investment bank in which the goal is to “rip-off” clients. Does morality have a place on Wall Street? Was Smith being naïve to think that what he saw was anything other than business as usual?

 

"Christ was the greatest of all artists."  

Vincent van Gogh  

via: artdaily

'Vase with flowers in a window'

artist: Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

c.1618

link: Mauritshuis

'The Place We Live'

LACMA

How did The Great Wave become one of the most famous images in the world?

When Hokusai's The Great Wave was first issued, in about 1830, Japan's contact with the outside world was strictly regulated. It was only in 1859 when Japan, under pressure from America and other powers, opened a few of its ports that Japanese prints began to be exported to Europe. They were quickly discovered and celebrated by European and American artists like Whistler, Van Gogh and Monet. The Great Wave inspired Debussy's symphonic sketches La Mer and has become one of the most iconic images of the power of the sea.

The excellent commentary on Hokusai's "The Great Wave" can be found at:

The History of the world in 100 objects podcast

 

via: Brain Pickings

Portrait of Grace

It was night at JFK, and the boarding of the giant A380 seemed to never end, when recognizing the silhouette of Grace Coddington seating front row reminded me that Paris Fashion Week was about to start.

 For all who saw the The September Issue, and fell under her charm, Grace seems to possess the disillusionment of a true philosopher, while being more of an artist than most photographers, more of an artist in fact than most artists who’d rather have their new summer house featured in Vogue than their last show reviewed in Art Forum (although, of course, both are necessary). 

I was lost in my reflections on Grace, assuming that under these conditions, a First class solitude must be complimentary, when I was suddenly brought back to shared reality by a “Can I see your invitation ? ”. I was then urged with the herd to the standing row, by a flight attendant who had the fierce insensitivity of a PR assistant, Paris. 

Text and Drawing Jean-Philippe Delhomme

via: Purple Diary