tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93112692009-01-03T16:35:48.501-08:00A working artist's weblog for art theory and commentary.Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comBlogger474125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-8839207683581608232009-01-03T15:37:00.000-08:002009-01-03T16:35:48.518-08:00

It took Israeli director Ari Folman four years to create Waltz with Bashir, an unusual autobiographical animated film now in limited engagement across the U.S. that warns of the nightmares that follow in the wake of war. The movie opens with an unsettling vision, a pack of rabid dogs - twenty six to be exact, racing along wet streets under yellowy skies, frothing at the mouth and evidently

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-91687556931697389992008-12-31T21:43:00.000-08:002008-12-31T12:47:58.073-08:00

A number of arts advocacy groups across the United States believe that the incoming Obama administration possesses an innovative government plan for the arts. In part this is based upon the fact that the Obama campaign publicly released its "Platform In Support Of The Arts" nearly a year before the national elections. Conversely the McCain campaign made public its arts platform - a four sentence

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-79016726747851436362008-12-22T18:42:00.000-08:002008-12-22T19:38:10.822-08:00

The waning days of 2008 represent more than just a tumultuous year coming to an end, they bring closure to decades of extreme political reaction and backwardness, at least in the U.S. - or so it appears. Whether or not we are on the threshold of a new progressive era depends upon people in their tens of millions becoming actively engaged in visualizing and building a different type of society,

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-65298089588746421962008-12-20T13:38:00.000-08:002008-12-20T14:04:29.186-08:00

On Dec 19, 2008, the official portraits of U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were unveiled at a ceremony that took place at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where the paintings become part of the museum’s permanent collection. Artist Robert Anderson had the dubious honor of creating the likeness of the president, and artist Aleksander Titovets the task of

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-3309196135826196942008-12-19T18:44:00.000-08:002008-12-19T19:08:12.644-08:00

As a heterosexual man who believes in human rights for all, I am pleased to be able to announce a National Call to U.S. Artists for the upcoming juried exhibition: Being Gay: A Visual Dialogue Between Straight and/or LGBTQ Artists. Organized by the 2nd City Council Art Gallery and Performance Space in Long Beach, California, the exhibit is open to all artists living in the United States. The

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-33234970376201660522008-12-04T12:36:00.000-08:002008-12-04T13:06:11.300-08:00

In 1989 I created a pencil drawing titled We're Making A Killing In Central America. The image depicts two of the many thousands of innocent civilians who were tortured and murdered in Central America during the bloody conflicts of the 1980s. To "make a killing" is an English idiom that means - to do something resulting in substantial financial success - and while hundreds of thousands of Central

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-83463972397573560392008-12-02T09:58:00.000-08:002008-12-02T10:45:52.763-08:00

The people of Spain have been celebrating the 100th birthday of the Spanish painter, poster designer, and muralist, Josep Renau, through a number of tributes, not the least of which has been a traveling exhibition; Josep Renau (1907-1982): Commitment and Culture. Organized by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the University of Valencia, Spain, the exhibit is now running at the Universidad de

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-6727046527894333842008-11-27T10:52:00.000-08:002008-11-27T11:11:57.097-08:00

On November 24, 2008, artist Frank Cieciorka (che-CHOR-ka) died from emphysema at the age of 69. Starting in the 1980s he began to be recognized for his watercolor paintings of northern California landscapes, but it would be one of his early graphic art designs that assured him a place in history. The iconic clenched fist has long been a symbol of the international left, its usage going back at

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-79404515170358453052008-11-21T14:27:00.000-08:002008-12-23T10:20:32.853-08:00

Los Angeles’ flagship museum dedicated to modern art of the last fifty years may cease to exist. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), has been incapacitated by a crushing financial crisis of its own making. On November 19, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that "The museum has burned through $20 million in unrestricted funds and borrowed $7.5 million from other accounts. Cash from donors is

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-71219301499695485812008-11-20T14:25:00.000-08:002008-11-20T15:11:56.487-08:00

Gouge: The Modern Woodcut 1870 to Now, is a splendid exhibition of woodcut and linoleum prints now showing until Feb. 8, 2009, at the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California. On display are 100 diverse and quite extraordinary prints from the likes of Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Käthe Kollwitz, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Joseph Beuys, and many others too numerous

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-20375509978925676012008-11-18T10:35:00.000-08:002008-11-18T10:50:11.432-08:00

Years ago I visited the breathtaking city of Venice, Italy, world-famous for its canals, gondolas, and Renaissance architecture. It is truly the most incomparably beautiful city on the face of the earth. During my visit I strolled through the remarkable Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square), taking in the splendors of the Doge’s Palace and the magnificent St Mark’s Basilica. Inspiring painters

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-512460301285120372008-11-16T19:01:00.000-08:002008-12-27T22:16:53.654-08:00

It is noteworthy that the upcoming administration of President-Elect Barack Obama is the first to present a detailed formal arts policy prior to inauguration. To foster debate, this article will reproduce in full, the Obama/Biden Platform In Support Of The Arts - with a link to the original .pdf document located on www.barackobama.com. I encourage a thorough reading of the platform, but also a

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-49179461368813053522008-11-12T14:05:00.000-08:002008-11-12T15:58:58.863-08:00

Well… not really. Unidentified merry pranksters have published and distributed a fake "special edition" of The New York Times with a banner headline that proclaims; "IRAQ WAR ENDS: Troops to Return Immediately". The first sentence of an accompanying article reads: "Thousands take to the streets to celebrate the announced end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan". On Wednesday morning, Nov. 12,

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-50620127915904971042008-11-10T22:14:00.000-08:002008-11-10T22:40:34.605-08:00

In Berkeley, California, the city known as the birthplace of the 1960s Free Speech Movement, an antiwar poster exhibition organized by the Art of Democracy project has been censored by a City of Berkeley-run arts venue. The Art of Democracy poster exhibit was scheduled to go on display from Oct. 20 through Nov. 29, 2008, at the Addison Street Windows Gallery - a project of the Civic Arts Program

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-87485569860973454682008-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:002008-11-07T14:15:09.642-08:00

Los Caprichos, the world-renown etchings by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), are being displayed at the Cal State Fullerton Art Gallery in Fullerton, California, from November 1, 2008 through December 12, 2008. The exhibit is actually the tenth stop in a traveling national museum tour that began in 2005 and is slated to continue until 2010. [ El Sueño de la Razon Produce

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-82672772493543994412008-11-04T14:14:00.000-08:002008-11-04T14:20:21.312-08:00

[ Coca-Cola versus Pepsi-Cola - Josep Renau. Photomontage. 1949. ] In 1949, as a statement on the limitations of American style elections, the contentious Spanish artist Josep Renau created the photomontage Coca-Cola versus Pepsi-Cola. In the artwork the Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant have mutated into a double-headed behemoth; the only difference between the cojoined grotesque

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-54491967285837167872008-11-03T12:47:00.000-08:002008-11-03T13:41:28.065-08:00

Artist Ray Lowry passed away this past October 14, 2008, at the age of 64. While touring America with The Clash in 1979, Lowry was nicknamed the "War Artist" by the band’s front man, Joe Strummer. The Clash had invited Lowry to tour with them as an official artist when the group made its first incursion into the land of Coca-Cola, and the resulting sketches made by the punk war correspondent were

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-72548875438415624192008-11-02T22:35:00.000-08:002008-11-02T22:54:12.707-08:00

An unavoidable political topic is on the lips of everyone in the art world these days, I am not speaking of the U.S. presidential election - but of an international economic meltdown the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. No matter what "new" political circumstances we wake up to in the aftermath of election day, the reality of economic disintegration will

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-18100049915184796642008-10-31T11:35:00.000-07:002008-10-31T12:17:37.560-07:00

My silkscreen poster "Bombs Not Bread", was directly influenced by the works of the great Mexican satirical printmaker, José Guadalupe Posada, as well as the Chicano arts movement of the late 60s/early 70s. Created in 1983 as a Day of the Dead poster, my artwork depicts a military "calaca" - Mexican/Chicano slang for skeleton - along with text that serves as a mocking inversion of the peace

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-63599200609139269172008-10-31T09:29:00.000-07:002008-10-31T11:32:31.244-07:00

Black Panther: Emory Douglas and the Art of Revolution, opened at the Urbis exhibition center in Manchester, England, on October 30, 2008, and the exhibit will run until April, 2009. I first met Douglas in 2007 at his landmark retrospective held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure of talking with him again this past September at The African American Museum

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-28822901659965757742008-10-31T09:10:00.000-07:002008-10-31T09:26:02.988-07:00

On October 30th, 2008, the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York City opened the exhibition, Irving Norman, a major display of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and prints. For those who possess an appetite for art with deep humanistic meaning - this is definitely an exhibit not to be missed. [ Persecution - Irving Norman. 1950. Oil on canvas. Norman’s work offered unflinching examinations of

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-49380907255773687302008-10-26T10:32:00.000-07:002008-10-26T11:12:25.119-07:00

In 1925 the famed English author Aldous Huxley wrote "The Best Picture in the World ", an essay about a fresco mural by one of the great masters of the early Italian Renaissance, Piero della Francesca (1412-1492). Piero’s mural titled The Resurrection, is recognized as one of the finest religious paintings in all of Christendom. With careful examination it becomes clear that the master’s hand was

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-66529246576498105612008-10-24T13:55:00.000-07:002008-10-24T14:22:46.990-07:00

THE VIDEO: The War & Empire Video Documentary is now available for free on Google Video. Combining engaging visual imagery with commentary and interviews, this revealing 15 minute long video presents an overview of War & Empire, the groundbreaking 2008 exhibition at San Francisco’s Meridian Gallery. As a participating artist in the show, I guide the viewer through the powerful exhibit - where art

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-6757274830445377372008-10-15T10:41:00.000-07:002008-10-15T11:21:42.854-07:00

In a major trial that challenged an artist’s right to free expression, the British artist Michael Dickinson, who lives in Turkey, was prosecuted by the Turkish government in 2006 for creating a photo-collage seen as "insulting the dignity of the prime minister". Dickinson faced years in prison for his artwork, but on September 25, 2008, the judge in the case dropped all criminal charges against

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-1873935877849408142008-10-06T11:22:00.000-07:002008-10-06T11:39:21.022-07:00

[ Cover art for RATTLE magazine’s Tribute to African-American Poets. Based on the painting, African American - Mark Vallen 2006. Oil on wood panel, 11"x14". ] RATTLE magazine is seeking submissions of poetry and essays by African-American writers for a special issue, Tribute to African-American Poets. The magazine is asking African-American writers to submit their works on any subject by

Mark Vallennoreply@blogger.com