Letter to the Editor

“Young Artist of today need no longer say “I am a painter” or “a poet” or “a dancer”. They are simply “artists”. All of life will open to them...” Allan Kaprow

It would be hard for one to learn about Art and its history without hearing about the role the institution has played since the beginning. The institution has “graciously” provided artists and the public with guidelines as to what qualified as art. For without its approval artists could not truly make it in the market without first being recognized through the institution. What exactly qualified the institution to make such decisions over those making the art themselves? One does not know exactly. Moreover history has been filled and continues to be filled with artists and artist groups challenging the eminent role of the institution. It may be feasible to say that the institution has a prominent position because so much of the public is not informed about art and its history. Perchance if the public became educated they could have a say in what qualified as art, this is the aim of Simply Artists.

Art and its history have so much to offer the public, it is enriching in multiple facets of life. One cannot understand contemporary art without knowing its past. That is why the magazine is broken down into six sections which will cover the traditional mediums of painting, photography and sculpture in addition to dance and music. First is History, which is a section on the history and current updates about art movements, along with this section will be an art term of the week. This is where one will learn about art of the past to help understand what is presently going on. Second is Artist which is an artist of the week section to introduce artists. Next is a section of Art Reviews followed by Shows, which will provide a list of exhibitions, concerts and shows being held in venues around the United States. The preceding two sections aspire to give information to those unfamiliar with the art scene and provide them with opportunity to visit exhibitions attend concerts and shows, as well as hear what others are saying about them through the reviews. In this way the two sections serve as a method of learning how to make one’s own critiques on different types of works. The last two sections are World Art and Reader Questions respectively. Art has grown to be a network where artists are responding or building off of each other’s works, consequently it is important to engage the rest of the world in Simply Artists. Feedback is the best way to improve, which is why a section has been allocated for reader questions. These six content categories fit together to educate and inform and connect the past as well as the present, as the two are interrelated.

With his new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King coming out June 2^nd my favorite band, Dave Matthews will be appearing as Artist of the Week. Dave has also kicked off his 2009 summer tour, dates and locations are listed under Shows. In addition to DMB this first issue will also for its History be looking back on Glenn Ligon and his contributions to painting and the issue of racism, as well as what he has in the works for the near future.

Art is not something to be approached with a closed mind; those in our world today most willing to expand their horizons and have a mature intellect are young adults. This magazine is for you. Just like a school course this magazine aims to give one the information necessary to proceed into the world with the knowledge to make educated decision in ones career as well as life, specifically with regards to art. Now more than ever young adults are over programmed with school and other activities, thus Simply Artists will be a monthly magazine producing 12 issues a year. Many young adults tend to enroll in college consequently distribution of the 250,000 copies would primarily take place on campuses. As to not be exclusive copies will be distributed in bookstores and movie theatres where young adults are also found. To engage the young adult population the writers will consist primarily of young adult artists as well as guest writers and art critics who are well established in the art world, hence giving a range of views but still staying relatable to the readers. This is what Simply Artists is about engaging young adults to the world of art around them.

-Jessica Palo

Zuzana Stefkova Lecture

Zuzana Stefkova, curator from the Centre of Contemporary Art in Prague gave a lecture on politics and art, specifically issues central in Czech and Slavic Contemporary Art. The lecture was done in a progressive manor starting with a definition of the term “political art”. Following the definition she talked about two exhibitions which put Czech and Slavic political art on the map and showed examples of works by artist groups that addressed different themes in political arts. Lastly she finished with how the works led to the current state of Czech and Slavic Contemporary Art.

Political Art is a coined term, any art is political since its production and evaluation depends on heterogeneous, social, economical and political powers. The only problem Stefkova had with this term is that not all artists are conscious and do not necessarily mean to add ideological messages to their work. Stefkova focuses specifically on works of art that consciously reflected on social issues. There were two main exhibitions that put the Czech and Slavic political works of art up with the rest that of the West, Politik-Um and Point Czech. Although the two exhibitions helped uplift Czech and Slavic political art there were some differences between the two.

Politik-Um stressed helplessness and the in-efficient. It showed the distinction between art and politics in the beginning and how art was meant to stay art and not become politics. The show took an idealistic stance. Point Czech aspired at engaging its audience and inflicting changes. With this exhibition there was no distinction between art and politics and was more self-reflexive and took a self critical stance. Point Czech on the other hand showed how political art had matured and diversified.

Stefkova showed example of different artist groups whose work challenged such themes as public space, racism, control and surveillance and gender and sexuality as well as others. Primarily all of the works she discussed were from artist groups like Pink Tank, Rafni and a couple individuals like Tamara Moyzos. Pink Tank did work challenging public space with a historical monument; they painted a tank used in World War II pink. When the government painted it back to green people outside of the artist group repainted it pink. This work showed new spirit as a rebellious act fighting the government and military and its evil ways towards art, specifically in public space.

Rafni art group burned a black and white Czech flag; although it was legal they were still arrested. This work aimed as a demonstration of democracy. Only by destruction of the demoralized values can the true essence of something be brought back. They thought the problem with democracy is that it is open to ideas that is and can be harmful. The theme of racism was covered with Tamara who was not Czech. Tamara was refused access to a multitude of places and to show racism underwent hours of make up to make her appear Caucasian and entered a beauty pageant. She ended up winning and was crowned Miss Roma Czech Republic 2007. Her work showed how skin colored effected ones treatment.

The aim in showing works that covered a variety of themes in political art was to show different means which helped further uplift Czech and Slavic Contemporary Political Art. This was done through the diverse responses of the works to the socially sensitive themes.

Andrea Bowers Lecture

Andrea Bowers is an artist who focuses on video and photo realist drawings specifically on political activist subject matter. She works with historical, contemporary issues in addition to archive and research. The first work she discussed was a twenty minute video on Emma Goldman and feminist discourse. With the video she investigated the overlap between the personal and political and how Emma negotiated between the two. The four minutes shown of the video included shots of the love letters Emma wrote to her love as well as graveyard shots of his tomb. The images were integrated with a woman’s voice reading aloud and discussing portions of the letters. Bowers sought to show how Emma was trying to live out philosophical and political ideologies. In addition to investigating gesture and the history of the mark and its relation to women, and how that gesture changes when looking at women and politics.

Photo realist drawings and text were a part of all the works she discussed. This was due to the nature of the work in archiving events as well as a personal means of digesting material that Bowers used as a child. She uses graphite or colored pencils based on whether the original photo was black or white or in color. Some of the other works Bowers discussed included political posters in which she spray painted different slogans some old some new. Instead of using plain posters various sorts of wrapping paper was used. This incorporation of wrapping paper is present in other works of Bowers, such as when she did works on the Army of Three. In this piece she took letters written to the three from other women whom wanted help getting abortions. She took the letters and copied them. In which she then put pieces of wrapping paper in between each letter and put it in a bound book and well as displayed some on the walls. Bowers was not only concerned with feminine subjects and their relation to the U.S. but to the world as well, her work on the Holy Sanctuary as well as Marla Ruzicka and Faiz Ali Salim portray that.

Holy Sanctuary discussed the idea of hospitality and immigration. Elvira Arellano was an undocumented woman who was discovered and threatened with deportation even though she had a U.S. born son. To protest the deportation Arellano took residence inside a church. Bowers made a video and of the situation as well as posters and added text to Mexican quilts made in a Spanish pattern and English pattern. She posed the question of what would the U.S. be like if the same hospitality that was shown to Arellano by the church was employed to U.S. boarders. In addition to reaching beyond boarders was her work on Marl and Faiz. The intent of these two was to show an accurate total of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here she showed how the U.S. media was only concerned with Marlea when the two were killed. She did two sets of copies of the various articles, one copied verbatim by hand and the other copied as well only she erased the sentences that spoke about Marlea and left that which talked about Faiz, which were few.

Bowers also discussed how her pieces are never completely done in so far that she is willing to go back and rework and add and further develop them. This seems appropriate as the past events whether in politics or in art never truly fade away.

Anglelina Gualdoni Art Review

Angelina Gualdoni

Proposals for Remnants

Kavi Gupta Chicago

835 W. Washington Blvd.

March 27 through May 9

“Proposals for Remnants” is New York-based Angelina Gualdoni's third solo exhibition at Kavi Gupta Gallery. Her ten paintings, all acrylic and oil on unprimed canvas, vary in size between 14”x 16” and 61” x 73”. Gualdoni’s interest in remnants is reflected in the works' imagery but more so in the art making process. Not to label her as a process artist rather that the way in which the paintings were constructed is important in that it helps achieve the feeling of built up remnants.

The canvases are unprimed allowing the paint to be absorbed, similarly to the works of Morris Louis, where the focus is letting the medium do what it wills. This is an intelligent method employed by Gualdoni as it reflects the way in which remnants behave. When something is being destructed the way in which the remnants end up falling and arranging themselves is by chance. Just like destructed remnants build up on each other Gualdoni does the same with the paint in such pieces as “Blush”, the second largest in the exhibition hanging 60” x 48”.

Like the others pieces “Blush” has the medium absorbed in the unprimed canvas upon which more paint is added in varying methods. The diversity of the brushstroke size, direction and color help mimic the many different forms remnants can take. “Blush” also shows Gualdoni’s capacity to be in control of the medium, in the placement and build up of material, as well as her ability to let the paint just be paint and do what it will. Each work of art in the exhibition could be said to have some sort of theme under the umbrella of remnants. Themes of color, as each piece has a dominant color varying in tint and shade with spurts of additional color. Likewise in themes portraying divergent means in which remnants can appear.

“Blush”, which holds a focalized image of contrastive materials being built up in a purple-red theme, stands at one end of the spectrum with “Cosmic” at the other, thus showing how simple and assorted remnants can be. Unlike “Blush”, “Cosmic” holds not a central image; rather it is more abstract and atmospheric, in so far that there is no clear depiction of an image and the artist’s hand is not present. The main color is black however through the absorption of the paint into the canvas along with the manipulation of varying spurts of color the black comes out to be blue-grey. This piece really explores the medium and the way it reacts to different means such as wet on wet technique and the interaction of the acrylic and oil.

If a middle point in the spectrum exists then her piece “Untitled” would hold that position. There is a focalized image and build up of paint just as in “Blush”. However the buildup of material is multiple layers of paint absorption into the canvas like in “Cosmic”, not so much paint right out the tube. Even so Gualdoni’s hand can still be found in this piece, not so much in the Cezanne style of “Blush” but in the choices of placement and overlapping of the colors. While the other two pieces have a dominate color theme so does “Untitled” with blue, furthermore there is a greater integration of different colors in addition to the blue which is not found in the other two pieces.

All ten pieces are displayed in a traditional gallery space around one room of white walls that is well lit. Gualdoni’s exhibition became more captivating the more time one devoted to open oneself up to the piece, by taking notice of the individual parts as well as their relationship in making up the whole. Though no two pieces had the same size canvas each piece portrayed a common theme at the same time addressing difference. Difference in the ways remnants can be experienced but also ways in which each work relates differently to the viewer.

It was refreshing to see ties of Cezanne and Morris Louis done in a manner that did not seem outdated. Gualdoni’s pieces evoke nothing but a relation to the present. The remnants she depicts are material scraps, such as in “Blush”, as well as a psychological depiction, which is seen in “Untitled” or “Cosmic”. In doing so she relates her work to the physical and emotional remnants found and faced in day to day life. Also the titles of the other pieces, such as “Given Ground We Build Everyday” and “Odds and Ends”, support this idea. Even given the idea that remnants are something left over, nothing in the show seemed tragic; rather it left one feeling at peace and hopeful