10
Mar
2010

Cedric Blatrie’s Abstract Art
Posted by Julia Baron at 1:18 pm

In the abstract art of Cedric Blatrie, his contemporary style makes use of collage and attention-grabbing shapes and colors.  A self-taught artist with a talent for oil painting, Blatrie creates original artwork with multiple layers, which takes the viewer into vibrant scenes of the art abstract.

Cédric Blatrie is a self-taught artist.  He launched into painting one day, and was quite successful at it.  With Blatrie, we enter a world of sensation, colors, and geometric shapes in his abstract paintings.  In his original artwork, where we see some influence of Staël, Blatrie catches our eye in his deliberate, contemporary style with an interesting display of shapes and a limited color palette.  Blatrie invites us to ponder his mastery of art abstract.

Cedric Blatric, Haute Couture, 810€

Working in Lausanne, Switzerland, Cédric Blatrie gives us a look at abstract paintings in his world constructed by touch, flatness, and powerful geometrical forms.  This abstraction reminds us of the invisible, impalpable world of the unconscious.  His abstract art is characterized by the use of large white canvases on which his work takes place.  Adding material to create thick layers, Blatrie asserts his talent in the act of collage atop oil painting in his NeuroParty works.

Cedric Blatrie, Neuroparty II, 475€

A lover of the big screen and music stars, Blatrie also creates black and white portraits of famous artists in his series entitled “Show Business,” with images of icons from the Beatles to the Godfather.  Gradually straying from figurative art, his current painting style will no doubt delight aficionados of abstract art.

Cedric Blatrie, Beatles, 340€

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3
Mar
2010

Berggruen Gallery’s The Road to Here: Exploring the Life of California Art
Posted by Julia Baron at 2:04 pm

San Francisco’s John Berggruen Gallery shows different exhibitions monthly, often specializing in important Bay Area artists.  The current show, The Road to Here, consists of work by six different artists who share a California art connection.  Spread throughout two floors of gallery space, the art exhibition presents the work of Robert Bechtle, Ed Ruscha, Wayne Thiebaud, Zoe Crosher, Dave Muller, and Jonas Wood.

Wayne Thiebaud, Park Place, 1993

Among these artists who have informed contemporary California art, their individual diverse styles are apparent.  Shown on one floor, Bechtle paints soft yet precise scenes of San Francisco streets, Ed Ruscha’s colorful screen prints feature road signs, and Thiebaud’s delicate landscape paintings stand out with his signature use of vibrant color.  Upstairs, we find the calm still life works by Jonas Wood, Zoe Crosher’s Out the Window [LAX] series of photographs picturing dismal hotel interiors looking out over the LA airport, and Dave Muller’s work which incorporates text and a travel theme -a concept which manifests throughout the art exhibition.

The Road to Here displays contemporary California art of everyday life made intriguing by these six artists.  With different styles and media, the artists are linked as they explore the vibrant West coast.

Robert Bechtle, ’68 Cadillac, 1970

Zoe Crosher, LAX Radisson, 2001

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26
Feb
2010

Whitney Biennial: 2010. The Whitney Museum of American Art
Posted by Julia Baron at 3:40 pm

Since it began in 1932, the Whitney Biennial has been a foremost establishment for showing American contemporary art.  The show often displays contemporary art by less recognized, up and coming artists, and habitually sets contemporary art trends.

This year’s Whitney Biennial, entitled 2010, covers the gamut of painting to performance art with the fifty-five artists featured.  This contemporary art explores a variety of pertinent current issues: from Josephine Meckseper’s investigation of the dangers of American consumer culture in her dark film of the Mall of America; to Nina Berman’s photographs showing the effects of war on modern society; to Jessica Jackson Hutchins Couch For a Long Time –a unique work which features pottery sitting atop a couch (taken from her childhood home) with glued-on newspaper articles about Barak Obama –showing the impact of the public world on private life.  The art exhibition also includes the installation Collecting Biennials (on the fifth floor of the exhibition) which celebrates influences from past biennials.  In Collecting Biennials, works by Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, and Eva Hesse are among the many prominent American artists featured.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Couch For a Long Time, 2009.

The 2010 Whitney Biennial artists embody the current working art world, and represent a diverse scope of American contemporary art.  While Collecting Biennials acknowledges important past inspiration as 2010 shows artistic reactions to new historical movements, the Whitney Biennial covers both the history and upcoming visions for the Whitney Museum.

Josephine Meckseper, Mall of America, 2009.

Nina Berman, Ty with gun, 2008, from Marine Wedding, 2006/2008.

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26
Feb
2010

“C’est la vie!” –images of death in an Art Exhibition at the Musée Maillol in Paris
Posted by Julia Baron at 3:39 pm

The art exhibition « C’est la vie! –Vanités de Caravage à Damien Hirst ! » at the Musée Maillol in Paris, presents more than 160 classic and contemporary works all based on the theme of vanitas art.  Vanitas art reminds us of our mortality and the transience of life.

Andy WARHOL, Skull, 1976

Beginning with a profusion of contemporary artwork and going back in time through rare masterpieces previously hidden by famous collectors, the art exhibition presents a particular course of art history.  Going beyond morbid clichés often inherent in death representations, this collection benefits from some lighter philosophy as well, with works that show an ultimate attempt to resist life’s limitations.

Jean-Michel Alberola, Rien, 1994

The chronological course begins with contemporary artwork which composes two thirds of the displayed works.  The skull image is omnipresent throughout the exhibition.  The plethora of skull representations symbolizes a paradox that Patrizia Nitti, the new artistic director of the Musée Maillol, wished to highlight: « Jamais l’art des vanités n’a été aussi vivant, » asserting that art about death has never been so alive.  Viewing this morbid theme made chic, we experience an unusual and striking art exhibition.

Georges BRAQUE, L’Atelier au crâne, 1938

Going through the show, we encounter a host of skulls in the vanitas images through the ages.  The skull is clearly the central symbol of vanitas art, from skulls by Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Alberola to Caravaggio’s Saint-François en méditation and a fresco from Pompei featuring a skull.  Although the skull continually manifests, the art exhibition shows fascinating variety in the artistic representations of death presented by masters of the past and present.

Philippe PASQUA, Crâne aux papillons

Fondation Dina Vierny -Musée Maillol, 59 rue de Grenelle, Paris, 75007.

Until June 28, 2010.

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26
Feb
2010

Design Art by Didier Chipan
Posted by Julia Baron at 3:36 pm

Design in contemporary art: it is in this ambitious endeavor that we find the French artist Didier Chipan. Using everyday objects for his paintings, he changes our perception of what constitutes a work of art. As part of the Design Art faction, Chipan takes the stage front and center with his surprising aesthetic style.

French artist Didier Chipan fuses the worlds of art and design, as Design Art emerges as a new form of expression in contemporary art. With an influence of new realism, his Design Art joins canvas painting as he glues objects onto acrylic painting. He may use the style of object art, but it is not art objects that he uses. Instead, he integrates everyday objects into his artistic work. Each “painting,” composed of acrylic, glue, and objects, has three objects glued in a diagonal line onto a painted canvas. He calls this “Did’s diagonal.”

Didier Chipan, Don’t Waste Your Time In Front Of Me, 3000€

Resembling an installation art piece implanted onto a canvas, Chipan’s work recalls the readymades of Marcel Duchamp. With his Design Art bearing similarity to the found objects theme, Chipan appropriates objects into the realm of art and design. In his mixing of painting and objects, he puts conventional things in unconventional circumstances. His work Messagerie Artistique places the “@” symbol in the middle of two actual mailboxes, representing the central role our internet communication has taken over snail mail of the past. Sending an “artistic message” with mail symbols sheds light on the many forms of communication we have open to us since the advent of the World Wide Web.

Didier Chipan, Messagerie Artistique, 3000 €

Those interested in modern art for sale will appreciate Chipan’s Design Art, in his resemblance and references to the likes of contemporary art market domineers Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. As Chipan uses the tool of the internet wisely, his strong networking skills will surely contribute to his success in the art market as well.

Didier Chipan, My Heart Goes Driiiiing !, 2500 €

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