Thinking about resuscitating regular written updates. Reasons, in order of honesty:
- vanity
- it might pressure me into actually doing something worth reporting on
- writing is a part of my brain that has been gathering dust and I am becoming increasingly concerned this is turning me into a bore.
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Found an interesting framework for evaluating art via Instagram Reels, which I realize is not the most dignified source for deep aesthetic theory but here we are. Three Ns: Novelty, Nuance (alternatively “craftsmanship,” but that starts with C), Narrative. Big find for me because I have long harbored the opinion that Ellsworth Kelly sucks and now I can tell you, with some structural backing, that imo he fails all three. Simultaneously. Kind of impressive if you think about it.
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Went (high) to the High Museum in Atlanta. Great, genuinely. Showed up a month early for the Amy Sherald exhibition, which I’ve seen twice already in SF and was embarrassingly excited to see again. Not a stalker, just in awe!
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Really liked the Mimi Plumb retrospective. I started off skeptical with her early life neighborhood photos, but then it got good. She’s from the Bay Area, she photographs things I recognize, and she does this thing with light and contrast that I respond to. I left wanting to paint things she’s photographed, which is probably the best possible outcome of seeing someone else’s art.
- Annoying realization that contemporary art takes up so much space. Here’s a photo of the Impressionist room. Look how small (objectively good; nails the Ns) the paintings are:
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Here’s two contemporary rooms. Why does everything have to be so big these days to be taken seriously? Bring back the Dalis. The Pesistence of Memory is 9x13 inches!!
- Best discovery: the High labels uncredited old works (quilts, found art, etc) as “Maker once known.” Not anonymous. Once known. Someone remembered, then didn’t. You still existed.
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Writing this I realized I have a fetish for the em dash. 69 of them in 27 files on this site. The robots ruined this for me, possibly forever, and I had to painstakingly comb through and remove a shocking four of them.