Mondrian's painting closeups

photos by James Elkins

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-elkins/post_1036_b_756669.html

Closeups of Mondrian's paintings


I was at a critique session of an art school.
A student mounted a number of "copied" Mondrian to show her criticism against todays practice of museums sometimes just showing copies and not the original.
When I looked at these copies, they look like postcards blown up, or worst quickie striped "copies".
If this exhibition-work-installation is meant to be "criticism of todays Museum practices" - just a very good essay or photos of these existing practice would be good enough? Why go to the trouble of reproducing all these paintings by hand so the dimensions are exact etc. ?

I have respect for good copiers, because to make a good copy of a master painting, it also takes great artistic dedication - whether the copy is very life like or just amateur love like.
Here in this case, I think the student has wasted her time. Because her message is really thin and the effort that she has made to set this argument in a spatialised installation is - time wasted. The paintings have no love in it.

Then, other teachers think this is sufficient whether the copy is v gd or not is not important, the student has made a statement and its very good work.

I question this point because, why not copy Mona Lisa? Why choose Mondrian? Is it because we think Mondrian is much easier to fake than the very familiar Mona Lisa?

I think its a waste of time, because, this art work has no love in it. It is purely a "mediatic critique" thats not worth all this effort. In the end, the reason why we have copies in museums are not cynical. It is a solution to an existing problem - that of a standing in while the original is on loan or in the vault or whatever.

I think all paintings, whether by famous artists, or copier or students or amateur naive painters, without an authentic desire to create the painting, its not worth it. Because you will end up with a pile of "quickie look-a-like stand ins".

So, I asked the student, has she ever seen any of the Mondrian originals. No, she has not. (Why not copy something she has seen?)

So, I checked on the Internet, and within the first page, the third down the list, we see the article on "copying Mondrian" by James Elkins. There are very good photos of closeups of the painting too!

What does this all mean?
Part of this shows the change of what "painting" means and how "painting" as an art form has turned from the act to meaning, to critical gestures; and students today are applauded for "critical capacities".

I ask this question, as an artist, what is your "pleasure", your "content"? There are thousands of bad worthy of heavy criticism of moral, esthetics, from many different angles. How do you choose to criticise this or that? And would you rather use your time to improve your own work and make it better rather than criticising these other works/phenomenon?

Its very easy to be critical of a specific event or phenomenon, but without placing it in context, the criticism is too easy, too light, too ineffective. It doesnt bring much food to the table; neither for the "critic" nor for the viewer.

Put your place in the position of the copier, what are the issues involved in this act? What do you learn from the process and seeing the end result and other peoples reception of your act? Did your message deliver something thats worth your action? (Only the creator could fully answer this question)

For what reasons did the author of the copying decided to launch this laborious or easy work?

Sl is good for... architecture prototyping, machinima

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/11/the-myth-of-why-second-life-failed-to-go-big.html#tp

The Myth of Second Life's Failure to Go Big: It Wasn't Lack of Practical Applications, But Poor Execution & Market Timing

It's quite easy to find numerous "jobs" that Second Life has been used for, in ways that other platforms couldn't provide as well. Here's just a few:

1// Second Life has been used by many filmmakers as a low-cost, resource-rich platform for making 3D animation -- i.e. machinima.

2// Second Life has been used by therapists and veterans as a high value therapy platform for treatment of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), which is "Working when nothing else has.”

3//Second Life has been used by architects as a low-cost, resource-rich prototyping platform.

Avril***

Avril ***

Very nice film on nuns. About the awakening of a young girl grew up in a convent - a very strict order - maybe Carmelite. There is a heavy criticism on Camalite vow of no speaking, no contact with outside world. When, all the elderly nuns are there for some personal reasons - often unspeakable. The young girl Avril, was suggested by the head nun to take a vow forever devoted to god and had to give up all the worldly possessions and stay locked up in a small white room - the little chapel. She was to renovate the place and speak to no one for 2 wks. Comes a middle age nun - she whispers at the door that the girl was not really an orphan, she had a brother - and she wanted to, she could take the two weeks of confinement to get outside to look for her brother. She left the door unlocked. The girl gets out, and finds her brother and began an awakening of the senses. This part is very well played with very good transitions. The young nun has a flair for drawing and artistic sense. She soon makes friends with a paint vendor. Within two weeks, she found her brother and his boy friend, the paint vendor young man and herself. To decorate the white chaple she painted her body with pink paint, and the boys in blue, and printed the body on the white wall - a la Yves Klein. The film is interesting, and the references to contemporary art is interesting. A film to use for discussion. What do people see, which are the issues that makes us think more and maybe jump start our imagination. Makes us query which parts are plausible and which parts are rather forced. In all cases,the intention of the film maker is sincere.

Transylvania ***, No Man's Land***,

Transylvania ***2006

Movie by Tony Gatlif, w Asia Argento
Tony Gatlif's movies are raw movie dancing authentic gypsy stories. Asia Argento is a wild beautiful girl, apparently she really knows how to box. Its a road movie starting with Zingarina (Asia Argento) and Marie (Amira Casar, ex Chanel mannequin); wild+milk and cream marie.
The movie is directed by the music track, with many raw beautiful scenes, and many instruments, that seem very folksy; wood cellos that has no varnish but has been used for ages... life in the woods, winter coming, giving birth in snow land at the back of a station wagon, women coming to help with scissors in hand, everything is basic human raw emotions.
I like his movies, i like Asia, and I like Amira, I like the music, so, whats not to like in this movie?

No Man's Land***
About Bosnian, Serbian conflict: two soldiers, each from one side is trapped in the little strip of no mans land, in spite of the good intentions, how the UN comes in to try to help, the "international global news" tries to get a story, when really nobody really cares about the soldiers - they all try to do their job and be safe in their own relative positions. The script is very good, actors good. Story v gd. In the intricate relations of how people react to a situation, we could be good, or better, but nobody goes beyond their own self preservation first. That is why the soldier is left lying on top of a "bouncing mine". The man with the gun will be "right".