Friday, December 23, 2011

Maeda Hiromi Art Gallery in Kyoto, Japan

"Funakoshi Katsura Prints 1990-2006" at Maeda Hiromi Art Gallery (Dec. 1-11, 2011)


On display are some 10 prints and a small-scaled bronze sculpture by Funakoshi Katsura (1951- ), who is famous for his wooden sculptures, as well as prints and drawings, establishing his unique style attuned to the Flemish religious paintings or icons. The prints are portraits of androgynous figures, which can often be seen in his enigmatic camphor wood sculptures.
The items shown at the gallery are all fine and of good quality. Each print comes with the artist's signature and serial print number.

The gallery recommends the print "A Room the Night Comes" (2001), 42.0 x 30.0 cm. $3,500.00

Also another must-see is the bronze sculpture that captures a tranquil but melodious atmosphere called "Water Sonata" (1999), 28.5 x 40.5 x 19.0 cm. $10,900.00 


 Price range: $3,000.00 - $10,900.00

I talked with the owner, Mr. Hiromi Maeda, who opened his new gallery of the same name this August after his 20-year career in the art gallery scene and in the business side of the art world. The owner mentioned that galleries are struggling to sell art works because there is no established collector's market in Japan, especially for up-and-coming young artists.

I understand that few rich or middle-class people spend their money on art in Japan. They have no knowledge about which works to buy, how to go about investing in artworks, how to display and maintain them, and how to sell those items in the future. The audience’s passive engagement with artworks and the closed nature of the Japanese art-gallery scene seem to create a disconnect among artists, the audience of potential collectors and the galleries.

However, the scene doesn't resemble the “wild west” USA art scene of the late 1960s-early 1970s. Both Tokyo and Kyoto have hundreds of galleries. Japan is not a cultural desert or wasteland on a superficial level. The three — the audience, the galleries and the artists — completely lose touch with each other. The audience believes that art exists only in museums, or artworks are too expensive and out of reach. The galleries are wasting their time to wait for rich people to come and shop, even though the nouveau riche are spending their money on new houses and new cars and yet the thought of buying artworks never crosses their mind. Artists are usually working hard on their artwork, indifferent to the art market.
Lack of art education and lack of depth in the audience to appreciate the profundity of the art may be causing problems. Perhaps they are too busy worrying about their work, children's test scores and grades, and the deadly radiation.   

In response, galleries are seeking new ways to attract potential customers and opportunities for their business.
Galleries across the country—including Maeda Hiromi Art Gallery—regularly participate in hotel art fairs like the Kobe Art Marche 2011 (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), which was held at a Kobe hotel at which more than 30 rooms were turned into temporary gallery spaces.


The various art pieces were displayed in bedrooms, bathrooms and even on balconies and in closets, allowing art enthusiasts to imagine where and how to display artworks in their own homes.

“Bring art closer to the people!” is the kind of wish that people in the art world seem to have.

Maeda Hiromi Art Gallery (Kyoto, Japan); near Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae subway station
http://www.maedahiromi.com


Japanese Version


Pacific Standard Time (Getty Museum)

 The world's richest museum on top of a mountain is now showcasing a dazzling array of representative LA artists, such as John Baldessari, David Hockney and Edward Kienholz, Wallace Berman, Vija Celmins, Ed Moses, Bruce Nauman, among many others. The show brings together 79 works by more than 40 artists to explore important artistic movements from Southern California’s postwar production, including ceramic and assemblage sculptures, collages and large-scale pop and abstract paintings.

Of particular note is Ed Ruscha's painting "The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire" (1965-68) that is exactly what the title says. Even though it depicts the then-newly-built institution realistically and precisely in detail—a yellowish background and devoid of people—it also creates an ominous calm. And then, flames and black smoke erupt from the museum in the upper-left corner of the composition.
It's like a bad joke, like a school kid, who doesn't want to go to school, wishing that the school would actually catch on fire. Ruscha painted his dark fantasy on a canvas while expressing his distrust and frustration as a modernist artist toward the conservative, and often bureaucratic institute at that time.
Having doubled its exhibit space over the last few years, LACMA has become one of the biggest museums in the West and is respected internationally for its rich encyclopedic collection.                                                                                   From the Getty Museum, LACMA is its crosstown rival, and by showing Ruscha's LACMA on fire painting at its hilltop fortress, Getty may enjoy a sense of superiority over its biggest rival on the ground level.                                   And furthermore, this painting is owned by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Isn't it an example of the predominance of the East Coast over California/the West Coast?                                                                                       It sounds like everybody wants to indulge in a feeling of snobbish superiority over others.


Japanese Version

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Pacific Standard Time (Introduction)

Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 -- the collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together for six months beginning in October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene and how it became a major new force in the art world.

Initiated through $10 million in grants from the Getty Foundation, the project was prompted ten years ago, aimed at identifying and preserving the documentary records of LA art history that was in danger of being forgotten or has never been fully explored. The project eventually encompasses all Southern California, expanding as far as San Diego in the south, Santa Barbara in the north and Palm Springs in the east.

Exploring and celebrating the significance of the crucial years after World War II through the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 70s, Pacific Standard Time encompasses developments from L.A. Pop to post-minimalism; from modernist architecture and design to multi-media installations; from the films of the African-American L.A. Rebellion to the feminist activities of the Woman’s Building; from ceramics to Chicano performance art; and from Japanese-American design to the pioneering work of artists’ collectives.



Has there been any large scale art festival like this ever before anywhere in America, or probably anywhere in the world? There is no doubt about its epic scale that hasn't been attempted before even in New York, which has been long since regarded as the center of modern art inheriting the mantle from Paris.



When speaking of the characteristics of LA art, it seems to me that something is a little bit off and loose. Many artworks from local artists, regardless whether big names or unknowns, have immense humor in them. People may come to think of LA art as a comedy or joke. Well, what's the main reason for this lack of seriousness? 
Quick answer: Intense California sun.
It is a very sunny place with a much drier, warmer climate throughout the year. If you spend a month or two in LA, just wearing a T-shirt and shorts in the strong sunshine under the blue sky that goes on forever, it definitely makes you feel foolish to think about something so seriously in any way.
LA artists are good at creating artworks with an ironic sense of humor rather than seeing themselves as "angry artists," expressing the political and social anger directly through their art. Unlike New York, LA people don't need to worry about long cold winters, therefore LA art embraces stylistic diversity and openness with bright, vibrant colors.

Compared to the NY art scene which has developed while taking in modern art movements from Europe, such as Impressionism and Cubism since prewar periods, the history of LA modern art is relatively short, and is considered less serious or unimportant. As part of the PST campaign, renowned LA conceptual artist John Baldessari gave a public talk at the Hammer Museum where he described the California art scene during the late 50s-60s. He was living and working in the somewhat culturally isolated environment of his hometown in National City, San Diego, where there were only half a dozen artists, few museums or galleries to show their artworks and fewer audiences who accepted the underappreciated art form. Staying away from the commercial art scene, artists could do whatever they wanted in their own funny and loose way, which meant there were no audience and art critics to be concerned with or to flatter or please. They devoted themselves to creating intimate, personal artworks in a free atmosphere that made the LA art scene distinctive and unique.

Other than Baldessari, PST also features such internationally acclaimed artists as pop-art heavyweight Ed Ruscha, feminist artist Judy Chicago and die-hard performance artist Chris Burden, as well as artists generally unknown to the public, such as black, feminist, and Chicano artists. LA became a major center for contemporary art, and yet, despite its prominence, so much post-war art created in the city remains unknown or little understood.  


Japanese Version