Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The latest activities & finished piece

Narcissus is completed.  Yesterday I dyed the doily and today the mirror appropriately cracked in the right place.  It's amazing how work is self directed.  The large kiln is cooling with the next batch of amorphous forms.  A flurry of glazing will take place soon so that I can meet with mentor Robert Ortbal on Monday. 



On Friday I visited SFMoMA to see highlights of the permanent collection, a selection of contemporary sculpture, and new ceramic work of Tiago Carneiro da Cunha (Brazilian) and Klara Kristalova (Swedish).  I found Tiago's primitive forms off-putting and high school like in form and glazing.  Kristalova's work was more powerful with historical reference and intriguing surface, but his forms are so bottom heavy and one gets overdosed with the dripping glaze that seems to melt along with the figures like fudge.  It is surprising to see this kind of work highlighted of all the ceramic sculpture being produced world wide.  That same day, I also went to the Berkeley Art Museum to see the Kurt Schwitters "Color and Collage" exhibit which is surprisingly the first solo museum exhibition of his work in the US in 25 years.  His "Mertz" assemblage pieces (begun in 1918) use found objects and include works on paper, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, writing, and sound, spurred artists such as Rauchenberg and Johns to incorporate collage in their paintings. 

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