Art.....

[huckelberry]

Hi Morley, it is good to hear you contribute here.

You make some interesting points about the interplay between paintings and photos. Perhaps it is relevant to mention that photo realism normally uses a projected photo for basic drawing and guide. That does not eliminate drawing and color skills but is assistance and guidance.

Poser can mean different things such as projecting a theatrical persona. Perhaps there is a touch of art to that. Dali pops I to my mind. He had skill and imagination in work and in his presented persona.

I find myself wondering about pose more with conceptual art. I find myself thinking perhaps some vapid concepts pass as important due to artist, gallery, and critic creating a pose. Perhaps there are aspects of some conceptual art I miss or are just not responsive to. Morley, You expanded my view of the banana and tape fellow.

[Morley]

All those cool ones, and only those ones, turned out to be by the same person. And that's how I discovered that Pablo Picasso wasn't only a painter.

Pardon me dantana and canpakes if I rattle on here about this. The message board is a bit slow and I am a very long standing fan of modern art. I do not mean to push others to agree but I might attempt to say why I might have a love of a Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Diebenkorn, etc.

I was still in high school when I got a chance to spend a couple days with a large exhibit of Picasso in the Dallas art museum. It included many works from many periods in his work. I was enchanted by seeing a vision of human experience without the boring dull mask of photo appearance. It was like seeing life through new and revealing eyes, liberating.

Huck, Picasso was my gateway drug, too.

I was at conference in Ottawa about 25 years ago. Except for the day that I presented my paper, I ended up spending the whole week haunting the city and its museums. Part of the reason for that was that The National Gallery of Canada was hosting a Picasso exhibit that blew me away. Seeing his work up close and personal changed my mind about the value of abstraction.

If I had to reduce the experience to one piece of art, it would have been this painting that was my Road to Damascus:


Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror (1932)

The image looks so small and stupid as I post it here--but I was stunned. After that, I had to rethink my whole attitude and approach to art.

[Morley]

Hi Morley, it is good to hear you contribute here.

You make some interesting points about the interplay between paintings and photos. Perhaps it is relevant to mention that photo realism normally uses a projected photo for basic drawing and guide. That does not eliminate drawing and color skills but is assistance and guidance.

Poser can mean different things such as projecting a theatrical persona. Perhaps there is a touch of art to that. Dali pops I to my mind. He had skill and imagination in work and in his presented persona.

I find myself wondering about pose more with conceptual art. I find myself thinking perhaps some vapid concepts pass as important due to artist, gallery, and critic creating a pose. Perhaps there are aspects of some conceptual art I miss or are just not responsive to. Morley, You expanded my view of the banana and tape fellow.

Yeah, sometimes we forget that the word 'art' comes from 'artifice.' The Ancient Greeks certainly saw it that way. Those who are artists are just those poor souls who help cast the shadows on the walls of Plato's Cave.

[huckelberry]

Hi Morley, it is good to hear you contribute here.

You make some interesting points about the interplay between paintings and photos. Perhaps it is relevant to mention that photo realism normally uses a projected photo for basic drawing and guide. That does not eliminate drawing and color skills but is assistance and guidance.

Poser can mean different things such as projecting a theatrical persona. Perhaps there is a touch of art to that. Dali pops I to my mind. He had skill and imagination in work and in his presented persona.

I find myself wondering about pose more with conceptual art. I find myself thinking perhaps some vapid concepts pass as important due to artist, gallery, and critic creating a pose. Perhaps there are aspects of some conceptual art I miss or are just not responsive to. Morley, You expanded my view of the banana and tape fellow.

Yeah, sometimes we forget that the word 'art' comes from 'artifice.' The Ancient Greeks certainly saw it that way. Those who are artists are just those poor souls who help cast the shadows on the walls of Plato's Cave.

Growing tired of the board grumpiness I thought it might be nice to return to this subject of Art. Thanks Morley for the comments. I do not see your Picasso image as small or silly. Perhaps I remember his work as on the large side an material so that memory attaches itself when I see a small reproduction.

I have some doubts about Plato's scheme. I see particulars and material as in some ways having reality lacking in ideas. It might be argued that is a limitation of human ideas. Perhaps but art with its physical, emotional, and experiential focus helps us humans with our limited ideas. As you noted, it may also beguile and perhaps deceive. Perhaps it is best not to turn off one's reflective questioning mind.

[Morley]

Thank you for posting this, Huck. I’ll respond, but it’ll have to be in a couple of weeks. I’m sort of out of the loop right now.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

What list can be complete without the erotic art of Joseph Brickley. Brickley is a Mormon artist who is very popular at Deseret Book and well-known for having semi-nude men/boys in many of his paintings. He's also responsible for many of the paintings found in the temple.

He also is well known on reddit for a painting which can only be described as "Erotic Jesus." It's a best seller at Deseret Book and there are literally thousands of homes along the Wasatch Front with this highly inappropriate painting in their family room:

(I have no idea what Jesus is doing in this painting, but I'll have what he is having)



(Another famous Brickley painting. The good Samaritan is helping a completely body-waxed and muscular Jewish man.)



(A ripped Nephi with smoldering, come-hither bedroom eyes)



(A nearly naked shepherd boy, inappropriately dressed for a cold night)



(A body-waxed and hairless Jesus wearing a loose robe with clearly nothing underneath)



(Not sure what this is supposed to represent other than two nearly naked grown men, one who is clearly doing a ballet dance)



Whatever Joseph Brickey's sexuality, I hope he can be himself. If he is gay, it's got to be difficult knowing that a good chunk of his livelihood comes from artwork he does for Mormon temple interiors. Here are some Joseph Brickley sculptures:

[huckelberry]

Everybody Wang Chung, I am completely unfamiliar with this fellow you present. His drawing skill is very sharp. I share your puzzlement about his expression. In Catholic circles there is some precedence for art to use images hinting at sexual feelings to express spiritual experience. It can leave me a bit uncomfortable.

Are the works for temples similar? You mention that first image is LDS popular. Perhaps it is only us impure who might feel awkward hanging it in the living room. . . maybe more awkward in the bedroom.