Thursday 20 December 2018

Man Ray 'Unconcerned Photograph' series - 1959

Man Ray – ‘Unconcerned Photograph’ – 1959
From a series of 7 photographs (gelatin silver print on paper 42.5 x 30 each), whose ‘blurred images’ Grace Mayer noted, ‘were caused by swinging a Polaroid camera at random around his Paris Studio’.
Man Ray – ‘Unconcerned Photograph’ – 1959.

“There was no humor in it, but what we did was really ‘to upset things’, you know, but subconsciously ‘to clear the way’ as I said before, for something ‘new’ which we didn’t know yet what it might be!” - Man Ray interviewed in 1972 about Dada & Surrealist movements.

Thursday 2 August 2018

'The Pond-Moonlight' photograph by Edward Steichen, 1904


"What the printing press did for the word, the camera did for the image" – quote by Prof. dr. J.M. Peters, ’From word to image’ 1980


‘The Pond-Moonlight’ by Edward Steichen, 1904 - Photograph, platinum print with applied color
Size: 39.7 x 48.2 cm (15 5/8 x 19 in.) - Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933



Sunday 24 June 2018

Paul Cézanne's 'Bathers' - 1900/05

"... a feverish height rising desire for the new and the other, for a spiritualized world in contrast to the materialistic of the citizen, this call for sustainability and order, for security and freedom, for ideals and ideas, this opposition to bourgeois reality and at the same time escape from capitalist reality with its propriety of all living and its bonds, with its dehumanization of all humanitarian values, with its increasingly violent and extended problems, this opposition to an outer world and this flight to an inner world, is characteristic and stimulating at the same time." - Opposition of Abstract Art by K. Farner (1964 WB/ Cézanne 1904: father of the future painting, founder of a new platonic empire of the mind)


Paul Cézanne, ‘Bathers’ – 1900/05 - OOC 73 x 92cm – Private Collection

Thursday 7 June 2018

'Portrait de Guillaume Apollinaire' by Jean Metzinger, 1910


"to permanent undermine the virtuous power" - Guillaume Apollinaire


Guillaume Apollinaire by Jean Metzinger - VMAN
“Guillaume Apollinaire” by Jean Metzinger (FR, 1883–1956) ooc - 55 x 46 cm

Thursday 5 April 2018

Yayoi Kusama with 'Macaroni Girl' - 1964


 “I promised myself that one day I would conquer the world with my passion for Arts and mountains of creative energy stored in myself.” -  Yayoi Kusama (°1929)



Kusama with Macaroni Girl. Dressing Table and Infinity Net Painting, ca. 1964 © Yayoi Kusama Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, David Zwirner, New York

Thursday 15 February 2018

Grey paint strokes - Gerhard Richter 1968


"My method or my expectation which, so to speak, drives my to painting, is opposition. I expect that something will emerge that is unknown to me, which I could not plan, which is better, cleverder than I am, something which is also more universal." - On the Monochrome and Abstract Paintings - Gerhard Richter from 'Interview with Benjamin Buchloh', 1988

Vman.be - Gerhard Richter
‘Grauschlieren’ (Grey paint strokes), 1968 – OOC 200x200cm
Private collection Gerhard Richter Archiv, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

(opposition: active resistance against the ruling majority)

“Grey is the epitome of non-statement, it does not trigger of feelings or associations. (It is) an illusion, like a photograph. And like no other colour, it is suitable for illustrating ‘nothing’. For me the grey is the only possible equivalent for indifference, for the refusal to make a statement, for lack of opinion, lack of form.” - Graue Bilder by G. Richter

Friday 19 January 2018

Marcel Broodthaers - 'Egg shells and pin' 1965

Marcel  Broodthaers  ‘Coquilles d'oeufs et épingle’ 1965
Collection Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles / photo : J. Geleyns / Ro scan

After the energy crisis of 1974, the flame extinguishes from the pipe. The second oil shock of 1979-1980 increases hopelessness. Mass unemployment, price increases and inflation lead to large-scale savings measures. Around 1976 the ‘punk rock’ and the ‘new wave’ stand out. The soft values of nature, peace and love make way for the hard aesthetics of the metropolis, chaos and provocation. 'Make love, not war' becomes 'No future', the long hair becomes short spines and the flower a safety pin.  Marcel Broodthaers appears to be ahead of his time!
(source: De Standaard Kunstbibliotheek; Van Marcel Broodthaers tot Guillaume Bijl)