Current exhibitions at: Galerie Proarta Zürich. Actual artist: Jim Dine – “Neue Werke” – Exhibition dates are 22.10.09 – 16.01.10. Get more information about Jim Dine – Museum or Gallery informations: Zürich, Galerie Proarta by Wikipedia.org / Portal:Arts. Buy arts from Jim Dine or find objects, articles or web-projects? Art online: Jim Dine by adaweb.com | Biography – Textportrait from Jim Dine by Jim Dine. Articles and texts:

Art-Installation New York (Ralph Ueltzhoeffer 2009)

Ralph Ueltzhoeffer: Textportraits.

EXHIBITION – artist: Jim Dine, location: Galerie Proarta Zürich, date: 22.10.09 – 16.01.10 / current exhibitions at: Galerie Proarta Zürich 2009. Artistinformation and biography-text from: Jim Dine Galerie Proarta Zürich CATEGORY: art, modern art, projects: TEXTPORTRAITS Jim Dine by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer and Laura May. More information about Jim Dine Exhibition Galerie Proarta Zürich, Switzerland.

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New York / Portrait (TEXTPORTRAIT).

textportraits by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

AKTUELLE AUSSTELLUNG: Galerie Proarta Zürich; Künstler: Jim Dine; Betitelung: Neue Werke – Zeitraum der Ausstellung: 22.10.09 – 16.01.10. Kunstausstellungen (Schweiz) aktuell: Galerie Proarta Zürich (2009). Weitere Informationen über: Jim Dine: Biografie/Biography — | Galerieninformationen/Gallery: Jim Dine — Weitere geplante Ausstellungen: Galerie Proarta Zürich von Jim Dine — Jim Dine Kunstportal: Wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org). Mehr aktuelle Informationen über Jim Dine Galerie Proarta Zürich.

Beitragsforum Kunst & Kultur allgemein:

Textportrait: Installation New York.

Textportraits – Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

The new D’Amore Wine Selections Logo (a heart with the map of Texas inside of it) symbolizes the D’Amore devotion to a passion for fine wines and a love for its home state of Texas.

The heart was inspired by the famous hearts of contemporary American pop artist Jim Dine.

D’Amore means “out of love” in Italian: all of our wines are chosen with love.

And the state of Texas, well, it doesn’t get any finer than that!

The sales and marketing team at D’Amore Wine Selections is dedicated to its mission of bringing great European and Californian wines to Texas all the while sharing some of the best wine produced in the state with the citizens of the Lone Star State.

Let us know what you think of our logo by commenting below…

Why is it so hard to track down street sculpture?

I spent the weekend in Manhattan and, of course, ended up on a sculpture safari with my camera. The city’s no slouch (of course) when it comes to three dimensional art, but one of the most frustrating parts of finding good pieces, is that they’re so often unlabelled. Getting at their backstories is just too hard. Take the following-

I love the acrobat and elephant motif, and I found this baby around 53rd St and 6th Ave, surrounded by brown-baggers who weren’t paying much attention. But I didn’t find an ID plaque and I can’t find anything on the web about it. It’s possible, of course, that I didn’t try hard enough, or that I’m missing something very basic here. So I plea for help. Does anyone know anything about this piece?

On the other hand, sometimes when I think I do know something, it turns out to be wrong. Take the the nearby Venus de Milos  that stand guard over hot dog stands and shoppers of all stripes. They aren’t really Venuses after all. There are 3 of them who stand outside an ever-changing skyscraper.  Although instantly recognizable as their classical forebears, they’re officially called “Looking Toward the Avenue” by sculptor Jim Dine. He’s been fascinated with the idea of cloning the headless winged babe for years, apparently, since he installed the “Double Boston Venus” in Beantown only two years earlier. For more info- http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/451828947/

So the hunt in Manhattan was fruitful, and left me with mysteries and new stories to tell. And that’s worth a bundle. But I’m throwing out my lifeline and I expect the best of my readers… Who knows what about this elephant???

Deborah Butterfield Sculpture

Deborah Butterfield’s work is amazing and this piece outside at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada has great stature and presence. I was recenlty in Reno, Nevada and went by the new Nevada Museum of Art and of course some galleries.  It is great to see a new museum there and the art community growing too.

Deborah Butterfield is known for her horse sculptures usually made from from found metal and objects.  Although this piece looks like it is made of weathered old wood, it is made of bronze. This piece reminds me of Jim Dine’s ”Wheatfield”

Wheatfield

 sculpture which is at the Denver Art Museum .  Now why does my mind jump from a horse to a plow sculpture?  Maybe the farming connection, the faux realism is what triggers my mind to connect these two works.  Both appear to be made of one material, yet both are made completely of bronze which is remarkable if you see either piece in person.

I utställningen på Borås Konstmuseum redovisar Jim Dine sin pinocchioproduktion i ett åttiotal verk i skilda material som måleri, grafik, teckningar, fotografi och skulptur. Utställningen utkommer i bokform på förlaget Steidl och även visas på Kiasma i Helsingfors.

Utställningen pågår under tiden den 28 maj -  den 20 sept.

EXHIBITION – artist: Jim Dine, location: Galerie Daniel Templon Paris, date: 18.04.09 / current exhibitions at: Galerie Daniel Templon Paris 2008. Artistinformation and biography-text from: Jim Dine Galerie Daniel Templon Paris CATEGORY: art, modern art, projects: TEXTPORTRAITS Jim Dine by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer and Laura May. More information about Jim Dine Exhibition Galerie Daniel Templon Paris, France.

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Kate Moss / Portrait (TEXTPORTRAIT).

textportraits by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

AKTUELLE AUSSTELLUNG: Galerie Daniel Templon Paris; Künstler: Jim Dine; Betitelung: Göttingen Songs – Zeitraum der Ausstellung: 18.04.09. Kunstausstellungen (Frankreich) aktuell: Galerie Daniel Templon Paris (2008). Weitere Informationen über: Jim Dine: Biografie/Biography — | Galerieninformationen/Gallery: Jim Dine — Weitere geplante Ausstellungen: Galerie Daniel Templon Paris von Jim Dine — Jim Dine Kunstportal: Wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org). Mehr aktuelle Informationen über Jim Dine Galerie Daniel Templon Paris.

Beitragsforum Kunst & Kultur allgemein:

Textportrait: Kate Moss.

Textportraits – Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

Jim Dine hat Herzen gemalt,
Du aber malst meines aus, jeden Tag in einer anderen Farbe.

The March issue of Veranda features a Designer Show House in California. When I saw the heart painting by Jim Dine on page 71 I immediately started an Google search for the artist. Hearts seem to be a recurring theme in his work…perfect for this week. Have fun with your own search for additional works by Jim Dine. This heart is from art.com.

Mark Sheinkman

The Lower East Side Printshop, New York’s largest openly accessible print studio in the city is having their annual benefit and auction next week. Established in 1968, the Printshop is a great non-profit that supports contemporary artists by offering them studio space, career services, and expertise in printmaking to develop new work.

The Printshop benefit, auction, sale and reception is February 11, 6-9pm.

LIVE AUCTION

Conducted by Guy Bennett of Christie’s, it will feature donated works by:

Ellen Berkenblit
Jim Dine
Richard Haas
Jane Hammond
Julia Jacquette
Robert Longo
Emilio Perez
Danica Phelps
William Powhida
Dana Schutz
Mark Sheinkman
James Siena
Kiki Smith
Joan Snyder
Nancy Spero
Mary Temple
Hank Willis Thomas
William Wegman
+ Opportunity to sponsor one artist residency with a fellowship in your name (as a single patron or with a group of friends)

OPEN SALE at discounted prices will feature Ghada Amer, Jackie Battenfield, Paul Benny, Nancy Blum, Sebastiaan Bremer, Zana Briski, Melissa Brown, Karen Cunningham, Hope Dector, Edward del Rosario, Shoshana Dentz, Anujan Ezhikode, Joe Fig, Ligia Florea, Katherine Godwin, Deborah Grant, Amy Kao, Darina Karpov, Jane Kent, Fawad Khan, Komar and Melamid, Joan Linder, Robert Longo, Peter Lynch, Jesus Matheus, David Opdyke, Bruce Pearson, Sheila Pepe, Enoc Perez, Danica Phelps, Chloe Piene, Felix Plaza, Andrew Raftery, Susie Reiss, Larry Rivers, Gina Ruggeri, Michael Schall, Kristen Schiele, Dread Scott, Jean Shin, Amy Sillman & Jef Scharf, Shinique Smith, Shino Soma, Kate Temple, Marie Watt, Lynne Yamamoto, and Liz Zanis.

For more information please contact info@printshop.org or 212.673.5390.

So, I spent around three hours in Chelsea today lurking through galleries. (mostly within 20th~25th st, b/w 10th & 11th ave) Below is the list of places I went to today. The bold ones are the ones I liked.

Hiroshi Sugimoto: 7 Days / 7 Nights (~3/7/09)_Gagosian Gallery

Dirk Stewen: Paper Eye Collection (~2/21/09)_Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Charles Long (~2/21/09)_Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Group show: Every Rebolution is a Roll of the Dice (~2/14/09)_Paula Cooper Gallery

Mary Heilmann (~2/21/09)_030 Gallery

Robert Irwin: Red Drawing, White Drawing, Black Painting (~2/28/09)_Pace Wildenstein

Candida Höfer: Philadephia (~2/14/09)_Sonnabend

Jim Dine: Hot Dream (52 Books) (~3/1/09)_Pace Wildenstein

Robert Taplin: Everything Imagined is Real (After Dante) (~2/21/09)_Winston Wachter Fine Art

Nancy Spero: Un Coup de Dent (~2/21/09)_Galerie Lelong

Group show: Shaping Space_Jones Cohan Gallery

Paul Miller: North/South (~2/7/09)_Robert Miller Gallery

James Jean: Kindling (~12/15/09)_Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Kenichi Hoshine: The Night Before (~2/7/09)_Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Nobuyoshi Araki: 1960s Photography (~2/7/09)_Anton Kern Gallery

Both the 7 Days / 7 Nights and Robert Irwin shows are large, installation/site-specific works. I loved both of them. I guess that’s what I’m into now. A large, conceptual work that takes up the entire gallery space. The 7 Days/ 7 Nights, I went by myself, and I’m glad I did. The Robert Irwin show, I went with my seminar class. The experience of walking into 7 Days/ 7 Nights was just a stellar experience. Especially the 7 Nights part, if you’re completelly alone in the gallery. I assume the Red Drawing, White Drawing, Black Painting could’ve felt similar, but still it was a good piece.

I guess you could also say the Jim Dine show is also installation/ site-specific. It’s more like a walk-through storybook. I must say it’s a bit confusing and there’s alot of stuff gathered together, but it’s still enjoyable. You really get a sense coherence and that really cozy workshop-ish feel.

The Night Before is a simple show with few small paintings in a room, shown in the next room of the James Jean’s Kindling show. There are far more works and detail oriented drawings and paintings at the James Jean side, but I really prefer works like the paintings from The Night Before. They’re all really blurry, mostly gray or black. What’s special about them is that wax-like layer of semi-opaque material laid on top of the painting. It gives the paintings that nostalgic, ’something in my head that I can’t quite articulate visually’ kind of quality. I’ve never heard of Kenichi Hoshine before, so I will keep my eyes out for his upcomming stuff.

I realized there’s quite a number of Japanese artists on view right now; Araki is one of them. The show’s pretty straight forward, it’s rows of black and white photography taken on the streets of Japan during the 1960s. The series of pictures capture such realistic, humane sides of the subjects at various daily-life settings (subways, shopping districts, etc), that they feel like people you know, from the 60s, which is ridiculous, because I wasn’t even born back then. The pictures all seem so mundane, yet they’re quite distant from the time we’re in.

I rarely dislike a gallery show, so it’s easier for me to find things i like, and talk about those things. All the shows above today were alright. In other words, in my opinion, nothing was completely tasteless or ugly. I do have a really big knot of muscles on my shoulders from carrying a textbook in my bag all the while, but other than that, it was a pretty satisfying gallery day.:)

Jim Dine’s Heart series, Daisy Princess Paperie, Love Birds – great for a love note or a wedding shower invite, Robert Indiana’s “Love” Logo c.1964, “Say a Little, Love alot” from the Letters For Keeps Collection from Forgetmenot ink  seen on daisyprincesspaperie.com, Aviary notecard/invite from daisyprpincesspaperie.com

Jim Dine

Car Crash #4

A leader of the Pop Art Movement, Jim Dine first studied at the University of Cincinnati, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and the University of Ohio. His first exhibition was with fellow artist and co-collaborator, Claes Oldenburg in 1959. In the Dadaist style, Dine used mixed media and the ready-made to produce his paintings. He began experimenting with performance art in the 1950’s. His later work is a return to traditional painting techniques incorporated with collage, printing, etching, and paper-making.

http://wwar.com/masters/d/dine-jim.html

I’m having a really great time. And I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. Thank fuck.

I have writings for E, Nere, and Thingsingeneral, so that’s cool. I can’t put them up yet, however. So you can wait. And a NEW BIKE!!!! I still can’t quite believe it. But it’s here. Not my old one, of course. But this one’s nice and it came here for me, so I’m excited about that. 

Here’s what I came to say:

I have such great friends. Really. And I should mention Quiche. He is here now. Nere, yeah. Nijah goes back and forth from Nere to Thingsingeneral. Quiche goes from Nere to E. So, they are both in Nere mostly. And Hatties live in Thingingeneral. Hatties become Fatties (I still have to work out the details here). And trapped inside Fatties are Transcendatties. The Ultimate Objective is to Realize the Transcendatty. Get to E. 

How the hell do Hatties become Fatties? They eat shit. Yes, but doesn’t that happen in Nere? Yes. And how do they get to Nere without eating drugs? It’s really hard, but remember the Three. The Three, yeah, I like that. Drugs knock down the door, otherwise you would have to open it. But opening the door doesn’t even occur to most. What is that? How does that Happen? Nijah tells you to eat shit. We don’t know how he decides who to choose. And not all the Fatties listen when he tells them to eat shit. The ones that do, lose their Hats and then Everything Comes Together.

When Fatties Eat Shit, they wake MM/Plant The Seed. And in order for her to grow, they have to grow a Horn. There are four steps to Horn growth. I don’t know exactly what they are quite yet, but I can give you some idea. Along the lines of the Four Noble Truths, but obviously not exactly. And the four sides to the dream cube: 1. Cognitive Embeddedness, 2. Perceptual Acuity, 3. Functional Control, 4. Self-Awareness/Dream Lucidity. And now, I acknowledge that I need to STOP DOING THIS. Make art instead of thinking about it. 

On a side note:

I have discovered a wonderful book. I do not have enough money for it, so I will ask for some more. Money that is. And yesterday, I KEPT HIM AWAY. It was cool, man. Here, you can look at THIS. And Jim Dine is a fucking genius. I didn’t know. And Here You Are:

During the second half of the twentieth century, popular culture and the mass media gained a huge significance in American culture. Pop art that was a sign of the times: a product, a tribute to art history and critique of the social situation.
In the sixties, the New York art scene was very diverse, with people coming from different places, backgrounds and art disciplines & movements. The young John Clem Clarke was always fascinated art & advertising. He moved to New York, started painting and quickly made a name in the NYC pop art scene. Art about art is a continuous thread through Clarke’s work. His series re-working the Old Masters, such as Velasquez’s “Las Meninas” and Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” are popular icons of the late 60’s.
Clarke’s works, a mix of photo-realism and comic style with a pop art imagery. hang today in major museums as NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art & Whitney Museum of American Art, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, LA’s County Museum and Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum.

Clarke works in the pop art tradition of Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Roy Liechtenstein & Tom Wesselmann, drawn on the graphic vocabularies of commercial modernity: “I play back and forth using unique objects and a mass-produced presentation style. You might say that ideas I express are a lot more complex than the apparently simple style I use to express them”.
Speed is vital to the freshness of John Clem Clarke’s works, and animation is the key to his style. Every line is alive, no edge is ever straight. The large size of his artworks plays an important role in the transformation of Clarke’s illustration-based style into high art.
Working on big size canvasses, his work is quite technical. The last years he uses a computer for the design phase, but before he had to work out all specific details as a sketch, use an overhead projector to project this sketches on a canvas, drew the projected image and finally paint it.” His way of working is very similar to the work of illustrators of comics or how graphic designers work today in Photoshop. Clarke: “My first layer was always the black outline. Then I painted a colored layer underneath using the line drawing as an overlay. This is the same technique Disney cartoonists used years ago. Of course, when I was developing it as my own way of working, I didn’t know that. For the actual painting, I use large stencils. I lay them onto the canvas and sponge the paint on. This way there are no brush strokes. Sometimes, I overlay the stencils so that you get the sort of effect you see when a picture isn’t printed quite right -just a little offset. I like that irregular edge”. Just like the works by Andy Warhol or Jean-Michelle Basquiat, John Clem Clarke’s oeuvre is complete with imperfections: “Instead of painting out my “mistakes”, I let them stay on the canvas as alternative solutions to the painting and to show the thought process in making a painting. It bothers me when things look too good. I like to paint and paint and paint, until I get it wrong.”

On weekends, Clarke still roams around flea and antiques markets, looking for vintage retro objects, advertising material and photographs he can use as a point of departure for his artworks. The great ads from the fifties and early sixties are a big source of inspiration: “I try to make the paintings seem as commercially produced as possible. People grew up looking at commercial illustration and print advertising, so they are comfortable with it as a visual style. I make art in a way that people find it immediately accessible”.
Clarke found his future as an artist in his past through the subject matter, themes and styles of forties, fifties & sixties. But Clarke’s works also speak of the present, the moment he creates them, by his vision & the personal touch of his brushstroke.

In the 1910s, the Coca-Cola Company ran an ad of a gorgeous woman drinking a Coke. The copy read: “Nothing is so suggestive of Coca-Cola’s own pure deliciousness as the picture of a beautiful, sweet, wholesome, womanly woman.”
Associating itself with an ideal American girl, Coca-Cola made its appeal to the public. Clarke takes this advertising concept one step further and combines the “Coca-Cola girl” billboard with the all American theme of a police car chase. His painting “Police Behind Cola Billboard” is so filmesque, that we actually wonder what will happen next…

Lillian returns to the magnificent GETTY VILLA in Malibu to teach the art of mosaic. Her demos and workshops will focus on ancient influences in contemporary mosaic to complement the new exhibition

Jim Dine: Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets).

PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION, and scroll down for CLASSES

ARTIST-AT-WORK – free and open to the public with advance timed, tickets

1 to 3 PM

October 30, 31, Nov. 1, 2, 3, 2008

LILLIAN DEMONSTRATES ancient and contemporary mosaic techniques. The Artist-at-Work demos will feature a vast array of contemporary and traditional materials, resources and setting styles, and a station where the public can try their hand at setting a bit of mosaic. Lillian will be working on a hand-cut piece, using traditional hammer and hardie tools. Contemporary mosaic work influenced by ancient traditions will be on view.

MOSAIC WORKSHOPS

ANCIENT STONES IN MODERN CONTEXTS

Get Tickets Directly at GETTY VILLA

CHOOSE A CLASS

Wednesday November 5, 2008

Thursday, November 6,

Saturday, November 8,

or

Sunday, November 9
from 10 am – 5 pm
Education Studio, Getty Villa

LILLIAN”S LIVELY instruction will include an overview of mosaic techniques and a presentation of ancient mosaic pavement designs along side contemporary mosaic artists’ work influenced by antiquity. The class project will be based on a 12″ x 12″ square grid often seen in repeat patterns of the Roman pavements. Students will design and complete their own geometric mosaic design in marble tiles. We’ll tour the Villa’s galleries and mosaics for further inspiration. No experience needed!

THE COURSE covers symmetry and order, changing color ways, how to draw and count out linear sequence. It is astounding the variety of designs that can be created from the simple grid once there is understanding of the underlying structure.

LILLIAN SHOWS cutting techniques with hammer & hardie and nippers but there is no cutting required to complete the exercise.

Course fee $95; $90 students. Open to 15 participants.

Beautiful Qashqa'i women of Iran in their colorful traditional dresses. The Qashqa'i are one of Iran's many ethnic minority groups (See below for more information about them and other ethnic groups).

Greetings Everyone!

I don’t know how to thank you for all your kind messages, for forwarding these windows to others, and for recommending it. Over thirty names have been added to the list in the past two days alone. All I can say is I am delighted these windows have so many onlookers. Welcome to window number eight!

Current Issues

* On the last day of House legislative business, Iran sanctions advocates pushed through legislation ( HR 6198 ) strengthening sanctions and promoting a policy of regime-change in Iran.
Managing the bill on the House floor, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen made the
case that IFSA’s policies complemented US diplomatic activity.
“Sanctions target the Iranian regime where it is most vulnerable:
its energy sector,” said Ros-Lehtinen in her opening remarks.
Leading a bipartisan corps of members who spoke in opposition to
the measure, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) characterized the latest
version of the Iran Freedom Support Act (IFSA) as a “cruise
missile” and stated that, “the timing for this legislation could
not be worse.” Right he is. The most immediate impact of this
“cruise missile” — besides hurting ordinary people not the regime
– is weakening the moderates within the Iranian political sphere.
The hard-liners will loose no time in using this legislation to
remind the country that America is indeed Iran’s enemy.

Nothing heals like a good poem! In response to this aggressive move,
let’s read together a stanza from a great classic of twentieth century
Persian poetry by Ahmad Shamlu (b.1925), Shamlu, known as the “Poet of
Liberty,” faced hostility by the Shah’s regime and remained out of favor
with the Islamic Republic. He wrote some of the most poignant
revolutionary, as well as lyrical, poems of modern Persian language.
Here is an excerpt from a poem he dedicated to his wife Aida called
“Aida in the Mirror” translated by my good friend Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
(University of Maryland):

Tempests play magnificently a tiny flute
in your grand dance
And the singing of your veins makes the sun of always rise
(Let me rise from sleep so that the lanes of the city
perceive my presence).

Your hands are reconciliation
and friends helping that hostilities may be forgotten

Suggested Reading: An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, selected and
translated by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak ( Westview Press, 1978 ) Still is
available through Amazon Books.

Science

* On a much happier note, Iran’s cloned sheep born yesterday is
alive and kicking, reported Iranian doctors in the Royan
research center in Isfahan. More significantly, a combination of
the cloning methods and the new progress made by Iranian
physicians in the field of spinal injuries has created
possibilities of curing those suffering from spinal damages,
Nasr-Esfahani said. Iranian specialists recently announced a
breakthrough in curing spinal injuries with the culture of Schwann
cells enabling those suffering from paralysis to move. For cute
pictures of the newly born cloned sheep click on the first link
below (here the text is Persian)
http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-799766&Lang=P

For more reading on the subject, click on this link:
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-16/0610015225123117.htm and
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/oct/1015.html

Social

* This is the Children’s week in Iran. Each day is devoted to a
topic such as “Children and Health”, “Children and Equal
Opportunities,” etc. The United Nations International Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) will participate in the events. Activists such as
Shirin Ebadi have been instrumental in drawing attention to
children’s rights in Iran. More needs to be done, particularly in
relation to minority children such as abandoned children of
Afghani fathers who have returned to Afghanistan after the
collapse of the Taliban regime.

* Many of you have been asking questions about ethnic minorities in
Iran. I will keep an eye open for material. Iran’s ethnic
diversity is truly amazing. Of course, like everywhere else, all
kinds of jokes and stereotypes are attached to each group. In
general, however, people are fairly used to hearing different
languages and seeing different costumes on the street. The nomadic
Qashqa’is, for example, still wear their very colorful dresses.
Click on this link to see a beautiful young Qashqai girl in
festive outfit (center of the page):
http://www.11iran.com/Z2INDEX.HTM . To get a general idea of
Iranian ethnic diversity and its geographical distribution click
on:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_Iran

Prominent Iranian Americans:

* This week’s personality is Google’s senior vice president for
global sales Mr. Omid Kordestani, 42. He joined  the company a
year after its establishment as its “business founder” and is
viewed as a force behind Google’s success. Here is the link if you
like to read more (courtesy of my friend Bahar Bastani):
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187475,00.html
Also, I must apologize for sending the wrong link on the Harvard
Scientist Nima Arkani in the last window. Instead of just a
picture, I meant to send this brief description of his impressive
work:
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/arkani-hamed.html

Art and Culture

* If you are off to France, don’t miss the exhibition of more than
200 items from the last major pre-Islamic Persian empire the
Sassanians on view at the Cernuschi Museum Paris (15th September
to 30th December 2006). By the way, art historians would tell you
that these pre-Islamic objects — and many more — survived
because Muslim conquerors of Iran did not destroy them. Click on
this link to get a brief preview:
http://www.irandokht.com/editorial/index4.php?area=pro&sectionID=9&editorialID=2143

Suggested Reading:  Mostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian
Painting by Oleg Grabar. A more general art history, The Golden Age of
Persian Art 1501-1722 by Sheila Canby both available through Amazon.
And Western art is exhibited in Iran. Check this one out:

* Last summer Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art held a major
exhibit (June-October 2005) called “Modern Art Movements,”
bringing together a historic number of contemporary world
masterpieces owned by Iranian Museums.  Barbara Rose who writes
about the exhibit for “The Wall Street Journal on Line” observes:
“The unprecedented show was a huge success.”  “The first gallery”
she says ” was filled with Impressionist and Post-Impressionist
paintings. There was a Gauguin still life, a rare Léger from 1913
and Picasso’s synthetic cubist masterpiece, “Fenêtre Ouverte sur
la Rue de Penthièvre,” as well as his late cast bronze of a baboon
cradling her baby, which is also in the Picasso Museum in Paris.
There were circus performers by Georges Rouault as well as a
daring watercolor by the German Dadaist George Grosz. Other
European and American modern masters were on view with a special
section devoted to Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol,
David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine.
Also in the collection are sculptures by Magritte, Henry Moore and
Giacometti; paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró and Georges
Braque; and three important Toulouse-Lautrecs.”

Now, check out Ms. Barbara Rose’s tone in her write up:

*”Most remarkably,” she observes “an entire gallery was devoted
to Abstract Expressionism, the art movement that proclaimed
America’s cultural primacy.”  She is even more shocked at the
Iranian Museum of Contemporary art’s “continuing to list the works
of modern Western art, including a number of prominent Jewish
artists, as part of its permanent collection, which is presumably
open to the public [can the museum be making this up?]. A more
recent, “ironic” exhibition, she adds :” is that of paintings by
the well-known Jewish painter Marc Chagall also opened in Tehran
this summer.” [2006].

*Here is what she concludes: “No one knows what will happen to
the masterpieces of modern Western art in Tehran. They are said to
be worth billions of dollars now and are too expensive to be
destroyed.”  And finally, concerning a painting of a female leg,
owned by the museum, which has not been on display, Ms. Rose
speculates: “Did some fanatic realize it is a woman’s and throw a
cloth over its offensive nudity? Is it being held for ransom to be
exchanged for a valuable Persian manuscript or an important weapon?”

* All right, we need more antidote. Let’s just visit a few of our
concluding Visual Delights, some recent exhibits of the works of
Iranian painters and art-lovers who — no doubt — enjoyed the
above exhibit tremendously (and luckily won’t have to read Ms.
Rose’s review). I have particularly enjoyed the portrays by Nemat
Lalehei http://www.elahe.net/thumb.php?gallery=316 . Lalehei is an
artist from the northern city of Rasht. Be sure to double click on
each portraits to see the enlarged version. Another male artist,
and one very different in style and temperament is:  Masoud
Dashtban,  http://www.elahe.net/photo.php?picid=3416 . Finally,
please take a look at the works of the young photographer, Salomeh
Manouchehri. Here too, you must enlarge the photographs to see the
subtleties of her work. Enjoy:
http://www.elahe.net/thumb.php?gallery=313

Have a great week. I hope to be opening another window in about a week.
Best,

Fatemeh
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Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatuares
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
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Happy Birthday Jim Dine

For over thirty years, the artwork of Jim Dine has represented the cutting-edge of contemporary artistic thought. As Dine’s popularity endures, so does much of his personal imagery. His images vary as much as the media with which he renders them does; in general, however, they evoke a fascination with the body.

Some of the artist’s corporeal references are obvious, such as the series of self-portrait, assemblage pieces of 1959 that substitute articles of clothing for actual body parts. Other references are more obscure. For example, his tool images – a symbol that reappears throughout his work – recall memories and emotions buried within the body (in this case, memories from his childhood).

Born in Ohio in 1935, Dine grew up working at a family-owned hardware store. Upon moving to New York in 1959, he immediately became part of the avant-garde art scene. At the time, many other artists responded to the broader culture with deadpan popular imagery; meanwhile, Dine created a unique style, electing to combine elements from popular culture with personal content. Using this as a guiding principle, he then selected images to represent both his inner self and his artistic persona. Eventually these images, including hearts, skulls, clothing, and tools, reached iconic status in his art, for they became blatantly self-referential.

The process of art-making itself, for Dine, is indeed a highly personal experience. In the case of his printmaking, Dine started with a basic image. Each time the artist viewed the image before him, he would respond to it by drawing gestural marks and adding bits of color. Dine returned to his work several times, gradually adding to the background atmosphere and subtly manipulating the lines surrounding the image. Every individual process brought about its own conclusion – whether or not the artwork produced the desired emotional effect – and as a whole, the finished piece represents a culmination of his satisfaction.

http://www.tandempress.wisc.edu/tandem/gallery/dine/dine.htm