Artistic Freedom

Years ago incited by Gerhard Theewen I have been trifling with the subject of art forgery and since there is a prominent court case at the moment taking place in Germany, this subject became eminent again...
As I was studying fine arts at an academy at that time my views could and can but be those of an artist and not surprisingly at the time and now I did and do endorse it. Firstly I would feel very flattered if somebody would venture to forge my works. But the really big issue was and is to me the great artistic freedom this would lend me, instead of reproducing the selfsame over and over again to satisfy whatever market there is - and even in the current case only lost and non-extant "unknown" paintings were forged - this would give me time to move ahead to discover unknown territory...

Maybe unrelated, but I really like Michael Franti! And Some more:

How to live with art - Tafelreliquiar

Often I've been thinking that art should be part of everyday life and should also be something that one can carry around - not just in one's mind but for real. Similarily often I found the most intriguing pieces at exhibitions the sketchbooks, something the artists have lived with and something that had the air of having been loved , adored and lived.
Something similar though in a religious context I once came across at an exhibition at the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne, they displayed some panel reliquaries that were rather small and could be carried around.

In Memoriam Heinz Bennent

I was very sorry to read in the paper this morning that Heinz Bennent has died. The regretfully rare times I saw him perform his art, which was, I'm afraid to say, always either on tv or in films, were always memorable events. His calm and intensive acting style made any of the characters he portrayed intriguing, maybe it was also his voice and the very slight familiar accent that captured me.

Nightwatching Part VI

The acting in this movie is so inspired and inspiring that from a mere still my imagination drove me to draw this gesture, as I was wondering what was going on outside the frame.















This is the actual screen capture

I suppose soon this person will take some action, To be or not to be and he looks like chosing the active not being part, taking arms (his special ones) against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them...

In Memoriam Max Imdahl

As today is the anniversary of  Max Imdahl 's death, which I only now realise and somebody only recently has been reminding me of him, I present a short eulogy on why I admire this man.

First of all young Max Imdahl wanted to become an artist, a painter, so he rented a studio and worked for hours until he was satisfied with the outcome, then he would leave. Yet when he returned in the morning to have a second look at his painting, he would find everytime that it was not as great as he had imagined or remembered. Thus he simply quit painting and instead became an insightful art historian and more than this a true mediator of art. In this function he would not just remain in the exclusive territory of academic discours but would rather seek to educate people, also those from the working classes. And reading accounts of his seminars the brilliant effect of him not lecturing anybody but instead asking questions and having respond his audience was that he would get the most amazing and true comments on modern art, the result being that he enabled people to make up their own minds about art and gave them the self-confidence to do so. Keep the spirit alive!

Strange Days Indeed

most peculiar Mama.

I must admit to some ignorance on my part, when it comes to Northern Soul music, but after watching The All Together, I've begun to look for it and here is something from the movie's soundtrack, most intriguing

And there is something absolutely happening and going on in this song, oddly it made me think of another song, where there are things happening but nothing going on

Sign of the times, so where did the going on get lost, or/and is it more a question of culture and maybe not lost at all?!

PS: I will have a hard time now figuring out which song to pay and ask for during the spitefully final edition of Studio Brussel's Music for Life campaign and yes, I do give a shit, as well ;)!

Erich Fromm, Zen Buddhism etc

 At the moment I'm reading Erich Fromm's To Have or To Be? and I am frankly shocked by the fact how much up to date this still is. There is however one premise I would be more cautious about, which is contrasting "Western" (industrial) and "Eastern" culture and their attitudes towards life and nature and generalising by giving unique examples of artists' work to illustrate certain tendencies, eg the attitude towards living creatures which is pictured in the "Western" world as an attitude of supremacy and disection and in the "Eastern" as one of amazement and regard - there are also in "Western" culture examples of people with high regard for anything living and not just in the Middle Ages, eg there is James Ensor and his deeply rooted contempt for what he terms "vivisectors", people who disect living creatures. At least now I do have a hint why Zen Buddhism became so intriguing and predominant to some artists in the 1980s and 1990s, though I could never buy it myself because it is not my cultural and personal background, cf http://das-unmoegliche.blogspot.com/2011/05/dazu-bin-ich-zu-katholisch.html (it's in German!).

Yet the attitude of loving and sharing that Fromm forwards against the industrial attitude of having and spending is one I've been cherishing a lot in my life. 

And apperently Gotye shares it also and something else I like about him is his Catholic attitude to the music he is inspired by, Soul or  South American Tango etc