Poussin's Humour

where am I then?

not dead, just busy writing 8,000 words preface for 'Poussin's Humour' book - a book, yes, eventually, but I'll post a .pdf file of preface, or a summary of it, sometime soon - considering options for publishing thru internet.

re-reading TJClark's 'The Sight of Death' - most interested in his account of the painting in the painting of 'The Calm' - the comments on what he calls for short 'Snake' are also interesting, not so much because they focus on defining Poussin's meanings, but because they include all those features of a personal relation to the painting that are commonly suppressed in art history, although artworks do work that way.

& yesterday, browsing, found in uni library 'Wittgenstein,Aesthetics & Philosophy' ed Peter B.Lewis, Ashgate, 2004 - Ch I, 'W.& the aesthetic domain' by Kjell S .Johannessen, usefully, points to W.'s use of 'aesthetic' in what KSJ calls 'a discourse-phenomenological' sense of the word, fastening on the language used in 'direct' encounters with artworks. p.20 - that seems to me to fit well with TJC's work - & feels compatible with my project too, insisting on ekphrasis as fundamental to any discussion of artworks. Mark W. Rowe's ch 4 'criticism without theory' looks useful too. pp 73 -93. so far, interesting reading...

all good wishes to Poussinistes everywhere - &, naturally, to Rubenistes too

4 T J Clark covers altered

the variable piece is acrylic on rimu bark - fallen from the very old tree in Kauri Park Birkenhead - rimu bark is not plentiful - 4 variants on "The Sight of Death's" cover - theory shd be able to take care of this array neatly shdnt it?
that's S of D #1, with 3 variants S o D # 2-4 inc
cheers * click on images to see them enlarged *

Tom Kreisler at Govett-Brewster

with head full of NP fly down for weekend in New Plymouth for opening of Tom Kreisler [1938-2002 but still with us as several people remarked] in show that filled nearly every space - barring the Len Lye part - Govett-Brewster Art Gallery - & the sunday panel discussion packed to the rafters with local folk & crowds that drove & flew in from all over NZ - so much conversation & Saturday night partying squeezed time for concentrated attention - side-trip to Grant Kerrr's house to se his collection of NZ photos & sandalwood chess-tab;le from 1962 Chess Olympiad in Cuba once belonged to Ortvin Sarapu - opening of standard international hotel breakfast rubber scrambled egg & other steamed things dying of exhaustion didnt put me off giant show organised by Aaron Kreisler - vitrines full of notebooks drawings small works spontaneous notations drawings/texts then enlarged coloured on nice big canvases that try to remain at least look like spontaneous notations loose lines made of black strokes that fade out as brush runs out of paint lakes of shimmering pale stain dye acrylic colour like Chinese landscapes wit humour sadness 'AT THE END OF THE DAY/THERE'S NOTHING TO SAY...' & Wystan Curnow's favourite Tom's last painting skeleton with large brush/broom held aloft title inscribed 'a brush with death' - drawing as essential for Tom as for NP but what if NP had taken Tom's next step & blew the drawings up line for line how fine that wd have been tho not what happened as paint of picture intricates... for Tom's work see http://www.tomkreisler.com

busy lately

panel discussion last friday strange with oral surgery after-effects but constructive celebration of Jim Allen's O-AR Part 1 shown at St Paul St discussion uncovered disagreement about the effect of revision of an in situ work for a particular gallery when reconstructed with wall-texts in valiantly archival paper instead of whatever originally and bright new shiny metal pieces in a 'white cube' 2000s gallery because the Auckland Art Gallery wants its purchase of the work from the artist not to look shabby when entering the canon or worse that could physically disintegrate in 50 years should the gallery therefore every time the current materials are shown not make clear that this version has the status of a translation amused to be called out as nostalgic for auratic effect when I pointed out that the changes falsified the in situ work as presented in the 70s since the auratic effect is the hype that does not stop to check out the material of the work in art history hype occurs just that way short-circuiting the inspection on which judgement is founded that is to say the discourse of judgment about what figures can be seen in a painting is not founded in the forensic discourse of fact about the procedures in painting that makes appearances possible foundations of thinking about arts in New Zealand are affected by work of artists born mainly in or around 1920 Len Lye a lot older and Toss Woollaston a bit older who first engaged with modern art inevitably generating local problems translation needed with overseas critics and historians since our terms are not entirely international currrency more like a dialect can't for instance refer to the work of Colin McCahon or Rick Killeen or Jim Allen without long explanation even though these may have been important matter for intense discourse