"Cy Twombly is my bete noir"

That not so inspiring comment was made yesterday by the instructor  at my Olli course  titled "Enriching Your Modern Art Experience." The carrot was that it is being taught at the Morris-Frelinghusen House in Lenox, a mid-century trove of fantastic art and iconic architecture.

At one point the instructor asked us to consider why paintings have grown so large in the last century. I think an equally important question is why do apples grow on trees instead of on the ground?

Thank god Judy was there and I could bitch the whole way back  on the beautiful path to the cars.

There was a nice Picasso etching on the wall of the teaching studio that was unmatted, foxed, warped and generally treated like a print on a dorm wall. I offered to help Kinney Frelinghusen with some rematting and archival presentation - he said they have some 6000 prints at the house that are sitting in boxes.

I did speak up several times with disagreements and was reminded once again that the instructors in these classes so often underestimate the experience and intelligence of the audience. Or maybe they are just dumb and out of touch narrow minded fools with degrees. Pity the poor student at RPI being taught that Cy Twombly is just a bunch of scribbles.

By the way, if you want to appreciate Cy Twombly, go the MFA in Philadelphia where there is a whole room of  ten large narrative  canvases ( Fifty Days at Illiam) and you will probably fully appreciate his enormous talent as I did on a visit there a couple of years ago. They don't translate well in reproduction.

There was also a great deal of thinly disguised derision over a slide of one of Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy spills. Later, I found this interesting review: Biennale '07. Perhaps I'll learn more after the end of each class when I go to the trusty internet to counteract the narrow minded views of the professor emeritus of cultural history at RPI. Love that "cultural history" denotation - right up there with "gender studies" and "communications". My major was in  "Risk Taking Behaviors". Just kidding.

Just returned from the Berkshire International Film Festival - in G.B. and Pittsfield. Saw a new  good film on Jean-Michel Basquiat. He seemed to be undone by the death of Andy Warhol and the critics' dismissal of much of his work (that and a little too much heroin).  I was just thinking - this modern art class could have been directed on critics, the role they have played and which criticism has been borne out by time. Hilton Kramer says something very nasty about what an infinitesimal place in history Basquiat's paintings will occupy. In retrospect, how huge a part racism must have played in the criticism. Quick: name one influential african american artist of the twentieth century.

Emerging Artists Show

Whoa - the gallery was hopping last night with the opening of the new show. The place was jammed with people actually looking at the art and talking to the  five artists who were present. Excellent fun.

I thought I'd just grit it out but ended up having a wonderful time. I just stood in the back near my wall of paintings and took in all the positive remarks, many by people who had no clue who the artist was.

I sold a painting - the gallery owner, Jill                          
Bokor, bought this one - Landscape #1360
which was inspired by a stripe of late sun
on the fields at Lila Berle's sheep farm
up the road. That was very flattering plus
Sandy Smith - her husband and                                                                                                                      co-owner of the eponymous
gallery said I had gotten better
and liked this one below which seemed to be the
show favorite:

Up the street at the Geoffrey Young Gallery there were tons of local hipsters looking at Jonathan Hankey's photographs which are wonderful, simple, unpretentious photos of mostly local scenes. Probably no one but me realized that our images were both mainly drawn from the same area - Locust Hill, Baldwin Hill and the sheep farm - we both live near Coon's Dairy farm and must have the same visual images imbedded in our collective craniums.



Some people were very interested in the process and materials I use so I gave mini-lectures on the properties of casein and gouache and enamel and tried to encourage people like Christina Dubois to get inspired and start painting again. Unfortunately, Karen Inglehart wasn't there - I love her paintings and her palette and would love to meet her.  http://www.karen-iglehart.com

To top off the evening, I had dinner at Bizen with Kelley DeLorenzo and David Anderegg. I told Kelley she was my personal archivist after she remembered something about me from the way past that I had totally forgotten. (We met in kindergarten in Upper Montclair, NJ). She said she had learned from my first show that despite my sharp tongued highly critical nature, I was an optimist at heart. Which is so true.

It was a fantastic meal with great conversation. I'm inspired and can't wait to get back to painting.