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.
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.
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.
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.