China’s most famous portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong is to be auctioned off by the country’s state-controlled auction house in Beijing. Commissioned in 1950 to celebrate the first anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Zhang Zhenshi’s oil painting of Mao became a world famous image. The portrait of the communist leader was published in poster form, with untold millions…
If he had not been struck down by assassins on Friday, May 19th, 1965 – Malcolm X would be celebrating his 81st birthday with us today. [ Malcolm X Speaks for Us – Linoleum cut by Elizabeth Catlett, 1969. ] In 1969 African-American painter, printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett, paid tribute to the slain freedom fighter with her linoleum cut,…
[Bedroom Scene #4. Eric Fischl 2004. Oil on Linen. ] There seems to be an upsurge of interest in painting these days, but let’s be clear – what type of painting and to what end? Artist Eric Fischl gave a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania on April 11th, titled, The Death of Painting from van Gogh to Chris Burden….
The group show American Beauties: Different Stories, opened on April 1, 2006 to an appreciative crowd who gathered at the Space On Spurgeon gallery in Santa Ana, California, to view the art and meet the artists. In his review for the OC Weekly, No Punches Pulled: American Beauties’ is life, unedited, Justin Edward Coffey wrote: “Before the heat of the…
It’s more than a little interesting that the most reactionary administration in America’s history would nominate an openly Gay conceptual artist to be a symbol for the “excellence, vitality, and diversity of the arts in the United States.” The Bush State Department has chosen Felix Gonzalez-Torres to represent the U.S. at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and what a wise pick…
Starting April 1. 2006, I’ll be exhibiting several paintings at American Beauties: Different Stories, a group show at SpaceOnSpurgeon gallery in Santa Ana, California. Two of my latest oil paintings, The Red Dress and La Muerta (The Dead Woman), will be on view for the first time – in fact they were both painted especially for this exhibit. I wrote…
A music CD with a painting by Hieronymus Bosch on its cover has been banned by Polish “education inspectors,” because in their words – “There are pornographic scenes in the Bosch picture that can damage people.” The Polish education ministry had intended to give away copies of the CD to high-school students who excelled in their studies – but reactionaries…
The Centre Pompidou in Paris has mounted a major survey of art from Los Angeles, titled Los Angeles 1955-1985: The Birth of an Artistic Capital. The exhibit offers 326 objects produced by over 80 artists working in LA during a thirty year period, tracing the explosion of creativity unique to the city of my birth. The Centre Pompidou website describes…
