MOCRA

MOCRA

Museum of Contemporary Religious Art- Saint Louis University

Pursuit of the Spirit Exhibition is up through December 14th 2008

"Pursuit of the Spirit sets works by over 40 artists in dialogue with each other, exploring broad themes as Sacred Spaces, The Sublime, Mother and Child, and Image and Text."       

                                                       

María Magdalena Campos-Pons,

Cia Cara #1, 2008. Large-format
Polaroid. Collection of the Museum
of Contemporary Religious Art. 

This is a beautiful image go to the site and look at the larger version! It obviously presents a lot of religious issues that can be considered based one's own personal belief system. There are 40 artists exhibiting at the time and I wonder what of Andy Warhol's was included.  Maybe the last supper pieces?  He was apparently a very devout artist...

Is or could art become more popular than religion?

Mark Rothko at Tate Modern, 

Black on Maroon 1958

Tate. Presented by the artist through the American Federation of 

Arts 1969
© Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/DACS 1998

                                                    

This is an exhibit currently at the Tate.  "This exhibition focuses on the late work of Mark Rothko (1903–70), especially his works in series. At their heart are strategies of repetition and variation on a theme, encapsulated in Rothko's statement that 'If a thing is worth doing once, it is worth doing over and over again – exploring it, probing it, demanding by its repetition that the public look at it.'

Such ideas had already been integral to his colour field works of the 1950s. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, however, they took on a new importance as Rothko explored the concept of the series, which provided him with a method of critical self-enquiry and as a way of investigating the continuing possibilities of painting in an increasingly image-saturated culture. The process emerged, in part, from various commissions to create ambitious painterly environments. The first of these was for the newly opened Seagram building on New York's Park Avenue. Made in 1958–9, the Seagram murals never reached their original destination, after Rothko decided that a private dining room was an unsuitable environment to experience his paintings. Yet for much of the next decade he was preoccupied with the murals' display, and the intellectual and painterly questions underpinning their conception.

Though he continued to produce individual paintings and works on paper of great quality, it was the series and commissions at the centre of this exhibition that formed the cornerstones of his late work." http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/markrothko/interactive/default.shtm

However what I found most interesting about this exhibtion was an article written in the telegraph.org.uk

This article is about how art is replacing religion and churches are emptying but galleries are filling.  I am not sure that this is indeed true.  In American I am not sure if people are giving up on their faith because of what seems to be a downward spiral of events or if people place more faith in their beliefs for comfort from struggle?

What the camera lets you see

With my posts this week I wanted to explore a combination of previous ideas, ranging from government, media, camera control...etc. Therefore the images included all show the same seen with varying amounts of information to change the scenario.

"Barbican Art Gallery, London From acclaimed architects, to Turner prize-winning artists, Barbican Art Gallery presents major exhibitions by leading international figures. See some of the best exhibitions in the heart of the City of London, including a dynamic mix of architecture, design, fashion and photography." Currently showing: Barbican Art Gallery- Barbican Art Gallery reflects on conflict and its visual representation. This Is War! Robert Capa at Work Gerda Taro On the Subject of War http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery View pieces at site under view images: (these images would not copy to my blog page since they are in a slideshow) Still from The Casting, 2007. Production Photo Nicholas Trikonis. Capa The Falling Soldier Gerda Taro and soldier, Córdoba front, Spain, 1936 © Cornell Capa International Center of Photography Like one of the previous selected works that shows how the media frames the news. I wonder how "real" these photos are. How do you know what is staged ans what is not. Can you ever tell. However, there are other photos in this exhibit by Gerda Taro that I thought were more honest in their portrayal. She did photographers during the Spanish Civil War. Final there is also a frame from a film that appears honest as well.. maybe also because it is in color. The portrayals of war in "these" images seem to become less heroic than those from history, to an extent.

Here are a few of my one photos that may have some time of hidden political/governmental meaning. The photographs themselves I think I self explanatory in that most bluntly show images of controversial symbols in our society. (these six go with all previous posts...)

The Art of Democracy Is a National Coalition of Art Exhibitions
on the Dire State of American Politics Scheduled for the Fall of 2008. "Art of Democracy is building a network of exhibitions and events that will all take place in the fall of 2008. New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Puerto Rico, Muncie, and several more locations are planning exhibitions." It is basically an online exhibit of exhibitions all over America that are showing pieces related to politics, the campaign etc...
The work below is straight forward and I think extremely captivating and successful in questing the camera/ the media. The message is to the point however the complexity involved behind what this image conveys is something that has become so deeply buried in society. It is important to remember that every image you see is not the whole image. Do we ever see the entire image?
Claude Moller, If Vietnam Were Today, silkscreen

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, LA

Hans Burkhardt Paintings of the 1960s A decade of Revolution

Sept 20-Dec 24, 2008

"Wandering Souls"

"The exhibition will include paintings - some of monumental scale - spanning the entire decade of the1960s, a critical period in the evolution of American art; particularly in Los Angeles, where Burkhardt resided since his arrival from N.Y. in 1937. Works in the exhibition, and its accompanying illustrated catalogue reveal the full range of Burkhardt’s paintings, reflecting both the excitement of a decade marked by the hopeful social revolution that was the 1960s, and works of unprecedented potency in their protest of the Viet Nam War."

( www.jackrupergfinearts.com )

I think it is interesting that this artist being part of a young generation of LA "political" artists was able to thrive in spite of the political control during the McCarthy era.  His works are about political revolt against our time.  I suppose what is even more interesting to me is that we seem to focus less on the political issues at hand during this campaign.  The American public seems to be more interested in the drama of who is who.  This artists work  is basic and i admire that, however, does their work convey their purpose, is it successful? is that necessary?