#its almost basically a jackson pollock painting

[calltheblues]

my face at night after doing all my skincare + spot treatments

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Lost and Found

John Stoker hasn’t set foot in the Amarillo hunter agency since he walked out of it twenty-four years ago with his brother’s death a fresh, bleeding wound in his heart.

He’s come home to Amarillo itself since, for Dia de los Muertos at the ranch and visiting extended family in town, but he’s never once gone back inside the agency. Too many memories haunt its halls. Ones he doesn’t care to relive.

The memories at the ranch are the good ones.

He wishes he’d never seen Gabe in these halls.

Halls that, despite nearly a quarter-century, have barely changed.

The track lighting has been replaced with something that buzzes less and is probably more energy-efficient, the godawful 70s pinky-beige paint is now a more natural desert tan, and the floor tiles are now a faux-slate instead of a Jackson Pollock freckling. 

But the same awards cases line the walls, just with a few sections added on in a slightly paler wood framing. The names on the dark-burgundy-painted metal doors with their chicken-wire glass windows are still almost word for word the ones John recalls, although he’s pretty sure this is a new generation. He can only see a few where the white block letters of a different last name are visible under a layer of the burgundy. 

And the wall of the fallen is still visible down the side hall. Unfortunately, that has changed. Plenty. 

He walks past it, brushing his fingers against the plaque that has his brother’s name and date of death. A small replica of his Bowie knife is attached to the top of it, and his Saint Marcellus medal has been wound around it by its chain. A photo of him is set into the corner, probably his graduation because his hair is still just pushing the limits of regulation length. He’d grown it out as soon as he was allowed to on active duty. John rubs the worn medal between his fingers, then walks to the door at the end of the hall, that leads to the training room. 

He thinks there was some logic in putting the wall of the fallen on the way there. Reminds new recruits exactly what they’ve signed on for, and why they need to be at their very best in training.

For decades, he’d thought the last piece of Gabe he was ever going to get was going to be that plaque. 

And then Carmen called him from Amarillo’s holding station and informed him he has a niece he’d never met.

She’s done some sketchy things, apparently, and it was a while before he technically got permission to visit her, since she’d been in the middle of Amarillo’s takedown of the Morris Avengers, but the minute he was told it was possible, he’d packed a bag and hopped the first flight he could catch. 

The gym is still very much the same. Battered bleachers with a few more layers of flaking paint, worn mats, and the smell of sweat that’s probably permanently soaked into the cinderblock walls. Chanted steps of basic moves from an incoming class. And then the sparring ring, blocked off by sagging ropes, where students get one-on-one experience with seasoned instructors.

Judging by the tagboard on the wall, with name badges hung up under time slots, the person he’s here for is in that ring right now.

John moves past a row of students practicing a curved under-the-arm stake strike, to get a better view of the practice ring. He’s just in time to see one of the people in it take the other down with a smooth leg sweep.

The smaller of the two women pushes herself up off the mat, short dark braid swinging, a few strands escaping and falling around her face. She raises her fists again and steps back into the circle outlined in peeling tape.

This time, the instructor takes advantage of her student’s newfound focus on her feet and lunges for her less-guarded face. The blow staggers her back, but the student doesn’t go down. She stumbles, then catches herself, still inside the lines, and comes back with a one-two punch to the arm and shoulder that even John is impressed with. The instructor takes a couple steps back, and apparently it’s the lead her student was waiting for. She moves in with a striking blow, headed for the ribs, but overshoots it. The instructor whirls her around, pinning the student’s back to her chest, and leans her head toward the student’s neck. A fake bite, reminding her of the price of failure.

And then the student's head snaps back, hard, slamming bone into bone. The instructor loses her grip and stumbles back, out of the circle, catching herself on the ropes. The student turns to her with a feral grin, more hair tumbling into her eyes, face flushed.

“Not bad, Aguirre.” The instructor rubs her forehead above her eye. “Mistakes are inevitable. How you recover from them is what matters.” She looks up at the clock on the wall. “Okay, you’re out. Masterson, you’re up. Show me what you got.”

Sierra Aguirre steps out of the ring, pulling her stretched-out Amarillo Academy t-shirt up over the back of her head and grabbing a blue water bottle off a stool next to the ropes. She pops the top open with her teeth and takes a long drink.

The move is so Gabe it hurts. Momma was always scolding him about using his teeth to open anything and everything. 

“What are you looking at?” Sierra snaps suddenly. John hadn’t realized he was probably doing the creepy stare. “That was a fluke. I’ve been acing practicals when it matters.”

“I…uh…I wasn’t here to talk to you about your performance. I’m John Stoker. I’m your uncle.”

Her face changes, not to anything resembling open friendship, but at least to something that makes him feel a little less likely to be the next victim of her aggressive streak. “Carmen said to expect you at the house at breakfast. I got an off campus pass for the morning.” 

“Didn’t want to wait.” John shrugs. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too.” There’s a formal detachment in her voice, but that’s to be expected. The only family member she’s had much contact with is Carmen, and that’s because Carmen has been brokering the deal that kept her out of an off the books black site for vigilantes.

“Well, I gotta get back to class. I’ll see you when they let us out.” Sierra turns toward the mat with the group practice session, and John backs out of the room. 

He’s learned to be patient with people. Give them the time they need to open up to him. It would have been nice to have learned that before Maira dropped Robin on him, but better late than never.

He’s waiting with his car at the front gates when Sierra walks out, her hair now out of the braid, wet, and hanging down her back, and a loose academy sweatshirt having replaced the abused tee. She must have a nervous habit of twisting her hands into the front of her shirts. 

“Sweet ride. 67 Fastback with the performance mod package and dual exhausts.” She slides a hand over the paint as she steps in. “Cherry metal flake was a good choice.” 

“Nice to have someone in here who appreciates her finer qualities,” John says with a chuckle.

“Didn’t they tell you I was street racing before I was a vigilante?” Sierra asks. “I’ve been working on cars like this since I was old enough to hold wrenches. Learned from my mom.”

That would explain how Gabe met her. He’d worked a lot of contacts in the underground racing scene, gathering intel on vampire infiltration of it. 

At least cars gives them something non-volatile to talk about on the way to the ranch. John’s still trying to gauge how Sierra feels about hunters. Kira was perfectly happy to fold into an existing structure when her actions put her on Chimera’s radar, but she’d become a vigilante before there was much information, if any, about hunters existing as an organized force. These days, and especially in hunter towns like Amarillo, becoming a vigilante is more likely to be a deliberate rejection of hunter values and ideals. Vigilantes used to be a more mixed bag. Some were just out to kill as many vamps as possible, but a lot were people who’d been hurt or had family members who had been impacted by vampires, and were looking for justice the only way they knew how.

But Sierra had Gabe’s journals. She had to have known there was a legal way to fight the things that killed him. And chose not to take it until she was backed into a corner with nowhere left to run. 

It’s not like John can judge too harshly. He’d been so fixated on blaming the fae for what happened that night he almost got Robin killed. He’s made mistakes there’s no undoing too. But he can’t be sure if Sierra’s all in with this, or just going along with the training and recruitment because it’s better than the alternative. 

Hopefully, getting to know her family will help with that. 

John parks outside the ranch house. Carmen’s car is already here, the Barracuda’s blue paint gleaming in the first hints of morning light. She’s waiting on the porch with Momma and Dad, the three of them leaning on the railing.

Sierra steps out of the car without any apparent hesitation or nervousness. John is getting the feeling she’s not the sort to second-guess much, or to spend a lot of time on the what-ifs. He was always that person in their family, which is why he has the record for bones broken, but Gabe was always the people person. The kid who wandered off in supermarkets because he was saying hi to a total stranger. 

Sierra walks up the steps and leans against a porch post herself. “So you guys are my grandparents, huh?”

Momma and Dad both look a little misty-eyed, but they’re also clearly reading the coolness in the situation that has nothing to do with the desert morning. “Yes. I’m Sonora Morgan-Stoker, and this is my husband Stephen,” Momma says, holding out a hand the way should would to any new cadet she was meeting. Technically, both she and Dad are retired, but Dad still works with the communications staff in an advisory role, and Momma speaks at graduations and teaches some of the advanced undercover classes. 

“It’s nice to meet you both.” Sierra takes the offered hand. Dad clearly wants to hug her, but is holding back. 

It’s odd, seeing her here, with their family. John used to think about what it would have been like if Gabe had had kids, but he’d always pictured some curly-headed big-eyed boy like his little brother, scooting around with toy cars in the sandbox, pounding herbs in Abuela Rosa’s pestle, sitting on Momma’s lap and watching with rapt attention while Dad read Dracula every October. 

The truth was, he’d wished Gabe had a kid because he’d wanted to get a piece of his brother back. To make up for the mistakes he’d made the last time around.

Sierra isn’t his brother. Not even close. 

But she is family. 

“I’m starving, are we going to eat?” Carmen asks, breaking the awkward tension. She’s always been good at that. The diplomatic one. 

“First things first,” Momma says, stepping off the porch. “Sierra, there’s something in the barn I think you need to see.”

John’s heart hits his shoes and then soars right back up.

The car.

The black-tarp-covered hulk that’s been in the back of the barn for almost twenty-five years. 

No one has touched it since Gabe died. 

He follows the rest of his family to the barn, helping Dad pull open the big doors, walking past the listing hayrake and the old corn sheller to the corner.

Momma pulls the light string hanging overhead, and a single bare bulb clicks on, picking out the dust-coated tarped outline.

“I’ve heard you’re a pretty good mechanic and driver,” Momma says. “I think your dad would have wanted you to have this.” 

Carmen grabs a corner of the tarp with her good hand and pulls it down to the floor.

The car’s in rough shape. The barn cats have kept mice out of the wires, but all four tires are flat and dry-rotted, the paint is dusty despite the tarp cover, and one of the windows is cracked from where someone backing some equipment in forgot the auger was still sticking out.

Sierra freezes.

“How did a 1967 Yenko Camaro get all the way out here?”

Momma smiles, a genuine, unforced one this time. “Your dad found it in a wrecker’s lot. Someone from the east coast took his fancy new car for a Route 66 road trip and then got in a pileup. He junked the car rather than fix it, and Gabe got it for a song.”

“Holy shit. This is Tony Romano’s dream car but he said he’d need to win the lottery to even think about affording one.” She wipes dust off the headlights and runs a finger gently over the silver paint. “You hung onto it all this time?”

John remembers spending hours with Gabe out here, spraying body panels over the cardboard box their new refrigerator had come in that year. The car had come to them bright white, but Gabe had opted for something a little less, in his words, ‘totally boring’. 

“Wasn’t ours to sell,” Carmen says. 

Sierra looks up, and just for a moment, the warm light in her eyes is pure Gabe.

“You guys really are one close family, aren’t you?”

“Yes. And we want you to be part of it,” Stephen says. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to know you a lot sooner. But we’d all love to make up for lost time.”

“You know I’m not him, right? I’m never going to be him.” John wonders how often Sierra’s gotten hit with the whole family legacy thing at Amarillo. It’s kind of inevitable. She’s probably already tired of being expected to live up to her dad’s name, and assumed his family would have the same mindset. She wasn’t wrong about me at least. And it might take some time to separate the real her from what I always imagined Gabe’s kids would be. But we’ll get there.

“Oh honey, if any family knows what it means to be held to expectations based on who you’re related to, it’s us,” Momma says. “We’re not asking you to be.”

“I think I can live with that.” Sierra crouches down and inspects the lugnuts. “I do wish I could have met him. He had a hell of a taste in cars.”

Just for a second, John could swear there’s an electric crackle in the barn, like the air before a storm, and the ghost of a hand resting on his shoulder.

Maybe Gabe has never been so far away, after all. 

(You can read this story and more from this universe on my WorldAnvil here!)

@catwingsathena @nade2308 @the-one-and-only-valkyrie @telltaleclerk @ettawritesnstudies  @writeouswriter @whump-place

[imaginationstimulation]

Philosophy of Art

The definition of art has been debated for centuries among philosophers.”What is art?” is the most basic question in the philosophy of aesthetics, which really means, “How do we determine what is defined as art?” This implies two subtexts: the essential nature of art, and its social importance (or lack of it). The definition of art has generally fallen into three categories: representation, expression, and form.

Art as Representation or Mimesis. Plato first developed the idea of art as “mimesis,” which, in Greek, means copying or imitation. For this reason, the primary meaning of art was, for centuries, defined as the representation or replication of something that is beautiful or meaningful. Until roughly the end of the eighteenth century, a work of art was valued on the basis of how faithfully it replicated its subject. This definition of "good art" has had a profound impact on modern and contemporary artists; as Gordon Graham writes, “It leads people to place a high value on very lifelike portraits such as those by the great masters—Michelangelo, Rubens, Velásquez, and so on—and to raise questions about the value of ‘modern’ art—the cubist distortions of Picasso, the surrealist figures of Jan Miro, the abstracts of Kandinsky or the ‘action’ paintings of Jackson Pollock.” While representational art still exists today, it is no longer the only measure of value.

Art as Expression of Emotional Content. Expression became important during the Romantic movement with artwork expressing a definite feeling, as in the sublime or dramatic. Audience response was important, for the artwork was intended to evoke an emotional response. This definition holds true today, as artists look to connect with and evoke responses from their viewers.

Art as Form.  Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was one of the most influential of the early theorists toward the end of the 18th century. He believed that art should not have a concept but should be judged only on its formal qualities because the content of a work of art is not of aesthetic interest. Formal qualities became particularly important when art became more abstract in the 20th century, and the principles of art and design (balance, rhythm, harmony, unity) were used to define and assess art.

Today, all three modes of definition come into play in determining what is art, and its value, depending on the artwork being assessed.

History of How Art Is Defined

According to H.W Janson, author of the classic art textbook, The History of Art, “...we cannot escape viewing works of art in the context of time and circumstance, whether past or present. How indeed could it be otherwise, so long as art is still being created all around us, opening our eyes almost daily to new experiences and thus forcing us to adjust our sights?”

Throughout the centuries in Western culture from the 11th century on through the end of the 17th century, the definition of art was anything done with skill as the result of knowledge and practice. This meant that artists honed their craft, learning to replicate their subjects skillfully. The epitome of this occurred during the Dutch Golden Age when artists were free to paint in all sorts of different genres and made a living off their art in the robust economic and cultural climate of 17th century Netherlands.

During the Romantic period of the 18th century, as a reaction to the Enlightenment and its emphasis on science, empirical evidence, and rational thought, art began to be described as not just being something done with skill, but something that was also created in the pursuit of beauty and to express the artist’s emotions. Nature was glorified, and spirituality and free expression were celebrated. Artists, themselves, achieved a level of notoriety and were often guests of the aristocracy.

The Avant-garde art movement began in the 1850s with the realism of Gustave Courbet. It was followed by other modern art movements such as cubism, futurism, and surrealism, in which the artist pushed the boundaries of ideas and creativity. These represented innovative approaches to art-making and the definition of what is art expanded to include the idea of the originality of vision.

The idea of originality in art persists, leading to ever more genres and manifestations of art, such as digital art, performance art, conceptual art, environmental art, electronic art, etc.

Quotes

There are as many ways to define art as there are people in the universe, and each definition is influenced by the unique perspective of that person, as well as by their own personality and character. For example:

Rene Magritte: Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use.

Thomas Merton: Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Pablo Picasso: The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca​: All art is but imitation of nature.

Edgar Degas: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Jean Sibelius: Art is the signature of civilizations.

Leo Tolstoy: Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands-on to others feelings he has lived through, and that others are infected by these feelings and also experience them.

Conclusion

Today we consider the earliest symbolic scribblings of mankind to be art. As Chip Walter, of National Geographic, writes about these ancient paintings, “Their beauty whipsaws your sense of time. One moment you are anchored in the present, observing coolly. The next you are seeing the paintings as if all other art—all civilization—has yet to exist...creating a simple shape that stands for something else—a symbol, made by one mind, that can be shared with others—is obvious only after the fact. Even more than the cave art, these first concrete expressions of consciousness represent a leap from our animal past toward what we are today—a species awash in symbols, from the signs that guide your progress down the highway to the wedding ring on your finger and the icons on your iPhone.”

Archaeologist Nicholas Conard posited that the people who created these images “possessed minds as fully modern as ours and, like us, sought in ritual and myth answers to life’s mysteries, especially in the face of an uncertain world. Who governs the migration of the herds, grows the trees, shapes the moon, turns on the stars? Why must we die, and where do we go afterward? They wanted answers but they didn’t have any science-based explanations for the world around them.”

Art can be thought of as a symbol of what it means to be human, manifested in physical form for others to see and interpret. It can serve as a symbol for something that is tangible, or for a thought, an emotion, a feeling, or a concept. Through peaceful means, it can convey the full spectrum of the human experience. Perhaps that is why it is so important.

[onpaperintofilm]

Oliver Stone’s ‘Natural Born Killers’ Is, More than Ever, the Spectacle of Our Time                

Yet it has never gained true respectability.

Variety

                                                                           |                            

                               Owen Gleiberman

                                      “ Works of art that were once radical tend to find their cozy place in the cultural ecosystem. It’s almost funny to think that an audience ever booed “The Rite of Spring,” or that the Sex Pistols shocked people to their souls, or that museum patrons once stood in front of Jackson Pollock’s splatter paintings or Warhol’s soup cans and said, “But is it art?” In 1971, “A Clockwork Orange” was a scandal, but it quickly came to be thought of as a Kubrick classic.    

           Yet “Natural Born Killers,” a brazenly radical movie when it was first released, on August 26, 1994, has never lost its sting of audacity. It’s still dangerous, crazy-sick, luridly hypnotic, ripped from the id, and visionary. I loved the movie from the moment I saw it. It haunted me for weeks afterward, and over the next few years I saw it over and over again (probably 40 times), obsessed with the experience of it, the terrible lurching beauty of it, the spellbinding truth of it. It’s a film that has never left my system.    

           I’ve met a number of people who feel the way I do about “Natural Born Killers,” but I’ve also run across a great many people who don’t. The reaction has always been split between those I would call “Natural Born Killers” believers (they included, at the time, such influential critics as Roger Ebert and Stanley Kauffmann) and those who thumb their noses at what they consider to be an over-the-top spectacle of Oliver Stone “indulgence.” At the time of its release, it was said that the film was bombastic, gonzo for its own sake, pretentious as hell, and — of course ­— too violent. Too flippantly violent. In a way, “Natural Born Killers” was the “Moulin Rouge!” of shotgun-lovers-on-the-lam thrillers. Either you got onto its stylized high wire, its deliberate pornography of operatic overkill, or you thought it was trash.    

           The divide has never been resolved, and the movie has never gained true respectability. Which I think is a good thing. Some works of art need to remain outside the official system of canonical reverence. But if you go back and watch “Natural Born Killers” today, long after all the ’90s-version-of-film-Twitter chatter about it has faded, what you’ll see (or, at least, what I hope you’ll see) is that the movie summons a unique power that descends from the grandeur of its theme. Far more than, say, “The Matrix,” “Natural Born Killers” was the movie that glimpsed the looking glass we were passing through, the new psycho-metaphysical space we were living inside — the roller-coaster of images and advertisements, of entertainment and illusion, of demons that come up through fantasy and morph into daydreams, of vicarious violence that bleeds into real violence.    

           I’ve always found “Natural Born Killers” a nearly impossible movie to nail down in writing (it’s like trying to capture what music sounds like). Sure, it’s easy to summarize the tale of Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson), a sloe-eyed drawling psycho in a blond ponytail, and his ragingly damaged bad-apple lover, Mallory (Juliette Lewis), the two of whom go on a killing spree that turns them into celebrities, like Bonnie and Clyde for the age of TMZ.    

           Yet it’s the moment-to-moment, shot-to-shot texture of the movie that transforms a two-dimensional story into a four-dimensional sensory X-ray. I took my best shot at writing about it in my 2016 memoir, “Movie Freak,” in which I said:    

“The tingly audacity of ‘Natural Born Killers,’ and the addictive pleasure of watching it, begins with the perception that Mickey and Mallory experience not just their infamy but every moment of their lives as pop culture. Their lives are poured through the images they carry around in their heads. The two of them enact a heightened version of a world in which identity is increasingly becoming a murky, bundled fusion of true life and media fantasy. It works something like this: You are what you watch, which is what you want to be, which is what you think you are, which is what you really can be (yes, you can!), as long as you…believe.”

           What form does this kind of belief take? It’s a word that applies, in equal measure, to the fan-geek hordes at Comic-Con; to the gun geeks who imagine themselves part of a larger “militia”; to the gamers and the dark-web conspiracy junkies; to the people who think that Donald Trump was qualified to be president because he pretended to be an imperious executive on TV. It applies to anyone who experiences the news as the world’s greatest reality show, or to the way that social media is called social media because it’s about people treating every facet of their lives as “media” — as a verité performance. Made just before the rise of the Internet, “Natural Born Killers” captured, and predicted, a society that turns reality itself into a nonstop channel surf, a simulacrum of the life we’re living. One of the film’s most brilliant sequences is a dystopian sitcom, with a vile fulminating Rodney Dangerfield, that depicts Mallory’s hellish home. It’s a dysfunctional nightmare reduced to TV, which is what allows Mallory to murder her way out of it.    

           “Natural Born Killers” took off from a script by Quentin Tarantino that got drastically rewritten (Tarantino received a story credit), though it provided the basic spine of the film’s evil-hipsters-on-the-run structure and kicky satirical ultraviolence. But there’s a reason that Tarantino didn’t like the finished film; it’s not, in the end, his sensibility. His vision is suffused with irony, whereas Oliver Stone directs “Natural Born Killers” as if he were making a documentary about a homicidal acid trip.    

           The patchwork of film stocks that Stone employs (black-and-white, glaring color, 8mm, grainy video) turns the movie into a volcanic multimedia dream-poem. And it’s no coincidence that those clashing visual textures are an elaboration of the style that Stone invented for “JFK,” a drama about political reality (the assassination of a president) that gets sucked into the vortex of media reality (the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t mesmerization of the Zapruder film). “Natural Born Killers” pushes that dynamic several steps further, as Mickey and Mallory’s murder spree becomes a hall of mirrors that’s being televised inside their own heads. In 1967, the tagline for “Bonnie and Clyde” was “They’re young. They’re in love. And they kill people.” The tagline for “Natural Born Killers” should have been: “They kill people. So they’ll have something to watch.”    

           “Natural Born Killers” captures how our parasitical relationship to pop culture can magnify the cycle of violence. Yet that theme may be more dangerous now than it was in 1994. As a liberal who’s a staunch advocate of every gun-control measure conceivable, and would never think to “blame” a mass shooting on a piece of entertainment, I am nevertheless haunted by the possibility that half a century’s worth of insanely violent pop culture has had a collective numbing effect. In “Natural Born Killers,” a psychiatrist, played with diligent dryness by the comedian Steven Wright, gets interviewed on television about Mickey and Mallory, and his analysis is as follows: “Mickey and Mallory know the difference between right and wrong. They just don’t give a damn.”    

           That, to me, is one of the most resonant lines in all of movies, because what it’s describing now sounds chillingly close to too many of us. Sure, we all say that we care. But if you look at the actions, the judgments, the policies supported by millions of Americans, it seems increasingly clear that we’re turning into a society of people who know the difference between right and wrong, but just don’t give a damn.    

           Or maybe that’s too dark a thing to say. But the beauty, and brilliance, of “Natural Born Killers,” which draws on and radicalizes a tradition of movies (“Bonnie and Clyde,” “Badlands,” “Taxi Driver”) that deposit the audience directly into the souls of sociopaths, is that the film dares to ask us to ask ourselves what we’re made of. To ask whether we’ve removed life from reality by turning it into a spectacle of nonstop self-projection. To ask whether we’re now watching ourselves to death. “   

-- I loved it when I saw it. I saw it once. It scared me. It was too real and too predictive, too foretelling. But brilliant. Scary brilliant. To see the parody of the sitcom is to live your present life, your past life, and realize a subtle and not so subtle horror coursing through our filtered vision every day.

[presidentsclubkrp]

Our crime tale begins with HUANG ZHIRUO, a THIRTY-ONE year old member of THE PRESIDENT’S CLUB. SHE works as their ART EXPERT, better known as the infamous ZHAO. JOIN THE HEIST? 

PART ONE; the basics

Name: huang zhiruo

Alias: rue (for any english speaking people/contacts who continue to butcher her full name)

Code name: zhao

Faceclaim: ni ni (chinese actress)

Gender/Pronouns: she/her

Date of Birth: august 19th

Age: 31

Hometown: guangzhou, people’s republic of china

Occupation: forensic artist

Canon: the art expert

PART TWO; about

Biography ( tw: n/a!)

THE ANATOMY OF A FAKE // HOW TO FIND A FORGERY

1. ESTABLISH THE PROVENANCE…..find the chain of ownership and custody of an artwork from the contemporary ownership back to its origin

there are perks to being adopted at an older age; she’s nine when it happens. generally, less affected by adopted family trauma or divorces, but the downside is that most come with a chip on their shoulder. infants are preferred, but sometimes there’ll be a family that wants an older kid. call it pretty privilege, but zhiruo only spends five months in the system before an older, doting, couple sees her big eyes and gentle smile. within two weeks she is adopted into an affluent family as an only child. it’s a good position to be in, and her smile turns sharper with the years as she realizes this.

she goes on to only attend private schools, receives an education like no other, and takes the opportunity to finish her university studies abroad. zhiruo lands herself a job in a field that most in her position wouldn’t even consider - criminal justice.

but it’s just a stepping stone.

after obtaining her degree, four year are spent doing her due diligence in a forensics laboratory as an assistant technician processing evidence from crime scenes. it’s a waste of her time, a waste of her mind, but more than that it’s a waste of her eyes. but she sticks to it because people underestimate her and assume she’s just a pretty face so they keep her around for the eye candy, unsuspecting that she’s paying close attention.

she absorbs a lot.

2. VISUAL ANALYSIS…..look closely at the painting to find anachronistic materials and techniques, something that would be uncharacteristic of a given artist or period of time

life on the streets with parents who heckle tourists to come check out their wares - it’s boring. she doesn’t like the people who walk by with their noses upturned, likes the ones that enthusiastically come and handle every bag with disgusting fingers even less. so, she turns her attention to the handbags and scarves themselves. every now and then they’ll get someone who comes in, trying to flaunt the fact that theirs is real, as if approval from some random local will elevate their status as a legitimate world traveler.

pathetic.

rarely does she touch, but she is a precocious, highly observant, child. by the age of eight she is able to decipher a fake louis vuitton from a real one on some blonde lady’s shoulder from a meter away (literally), based on the outside seam and hemming alone. call it a gift, but zhiruo considers it a hobby at this time.

when her parents get shut down permanently, one actually gets arrested for other outstanding charges and the other just disappears one day a few months after that.

so she’s alone, and she cries for three days, but then takes herself to the nearest police station four months from her ninth birthday.

3.. X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS…..art forensics uses tools to emit a small amount of x-rays to excite electrons in the pigments of paint, allowing identification of what elements exist

it started with the different patterns of fake designer handbags. then it was the art history education during her formative years courtesy of her parents (thanks, huang kaijie and feng lairan!). and then it was the visits to any and every museum out there. and then repeat visits to galleries whenever they’d get new exhibits. then an almost obsession over the classical painters of all different eras across countries — and then she’d turn her attention to the modernists.

by the time she enters college she’s certified obsessed, and she plays it off as a hobby but it’s a lifelong passion; she feels it in her bones.

but art isn’t a field that can guarantee a good future, so she defers to the next best thing in her eyes, the forensic arts.

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & ULTRAVIOLET ANALYSIS…..are there any sketches or under-drawings under the paint?

the case that changes things for her involves a purported jackson pollock piece, a mysterious fax with a chain of information, and a missing person. her supervisors struggle. immensely. the fact that it’s an abstract drip piece confounds them, and after a few hours staring at curved drips of paints and small puddles of collected alkyd enamels, they give up.

she timidly asks to take a look, and they step away, gloves snapping off as they entertain the idea of her giving a try.

within less than two hours she’s able to determine that although there is titanium pigment within the paint, which WOULD validate it as a pollock piece, there’s under-drawings that aren’t within his usual sketch, and that the canvas itself is re-purposed.

within another 3 months, she quits her mindless job, and contracts out her specialty. she generates buzz and makes connections for the next two years, traveling from country to country, lending her skills to both criminal and personal cases (because rich people have the most expendable income to throw at a pretty lady).

she appears commonly at high profile art auctions, and when you see her there, you know that there’s bound to be some rare pieces in the auction rotation. when a piece receives her seal of approval, the bidding is bound to go up by a few million.

the excess is almost disgusting, especially considering where she came from, but it’s enough for her to be selective in her projects for the next three to four years.

then, she’s approached by tall dark and handsome (eh, kind of) with a two part posse and they make her an offer that’s almost too good to refuse.

she doesn’t, but zhiruo makes them sweat it out for a few days before she accepts.

5. MICROSCOPY…..take tiny non-destructive microscopic fragmentary samples of bits of paints to test both the pigment and the binder (what kind of paint is used?)

you live your life in extremes. it’s all or nothing. you’re in gaudy, ugly, baggy clothes with your oversize glasses on or you’re in tight-fitting dresses that cost upwards of the hundreds. your mouth is either in an almost permanently straight, unimpressed line, or red lips are pulled wide in a smile that reveal perfect teeth. the only thing that remains expressive and fluid are your eyes. for as much as you try not to reveal too much to the outside world, your eyes give you away and you may hate it but it’s not something you’d pour energy into changing.

there are bigger and better things to think about.

like…if that new museum will have enough pull to borrow a monet from the metropolitan.

now that — that’s something delicious to sink your teeth into.

–

[theonewiththefanfics]

Avenger of the Galaxy (part 1)

Summary: Reader is a part of Guardians of the Galaxy and after the fight with Thanos decides to stay on Earth, or is more so persuaded by Quill. At first, everyone is welcoming, especially Bucky, but her own demons start to reappear and interfere with the possibility of having a happy life. (In this version Loki was not on Thanos’ side and Pietro is alive- I will make my own universe, cause God damn it, I need to have my babies alright and safe!!!)

Part 2

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Warnings: only swearing in this one

Word count: 2220

Genre: right now just fluff, will contain angst as we move along

Bucky Barnes has been an Avenger for the better part of the year now. After the whole Thanos showdown, Tony had reluctantly allowed him to join. They still weren’t on the best of terms and the super soldier highly doubted they ever would be, but at least they acted civil towards each other. Most times.    It had been another gruelling mission, that had dragged on longer than anticipated. Instead of the two weeks, Fury had promised it had stretched out into a full month and Bucky could not wait to fall into his bed and sleep the next day away. That is until he returned to the compound and heard unfamiliar voices arguing in the common area.    “Fucking hell, Quill, can you just stay still, for fuck's sake! God!” the female voice exclaimed, “I now know why Gamora hates to patch you up, you’re such a baby!”    “Well if you had gotten shot on your side, you would know how painful this is,” the man who called himself Starlord replied in an almost whiny tone. He’d met the Guardians of the Galaxy when he had gotten woken up from cryosleep. He actually had quite enjoyed their weird quirks, yet was slightly afraid of the talking racoon called Rocket. The Guardian had kept insisting he needed Bucky’s arm whenever he got the chance to, so he stayed away from the furry thing. He’d met Mantis, Drax and Gamora too as well as finding teenage Groot to be quite the character, yet the voice that was now apparently struggling with what she defined Quill to be a “man-child” he had never heard before.

   “Frostie!” Starlord exclaimed when Bucky came in the view. He hated the nickname, like every other bestowed upon him, but the protests seemed to keep falling on deaf ears, so he just rolled with it.    “Hello, Peter. How’s the galaxy?” Bucky went straight to the coffee pot. The exhaustion was about to hit him like a wave and no one else was in the compound to help out their surprise visitors, so he had to take up the role Tony usually sported.    “You know, just like Earth- always in the need of savi- fuck, Y/N that hurts!”    “Stop moving then!”    “You’re pulling a needle through my skin, how do you suppose I don’t do that?”    “How else am I supposed to keep your organs from falling out, huh?”    “Just, please be a bit more gentle?”    “I am gentle,” the girl grumbled in response. Her Y/H/C hair fell over her face like a curtain and Bucky couldn’t help but feel intrigued.    “You’re just as gentle as lion feasting on its prey.”    She let out a snort that in Bucky’s mind was the most adorable thing ever. Her Y/E/C eyes flitted up and looked at Bucky. “You look like absolute shit.” Bucky almost choked on the bitter drink in his hand. He was so accustomed to almost everyone acting around him like he could break any moment, except for Sam and Tony, but even those had toned it down, thanks to Steve, that her filterless approach was like a refreshing shower.    “Yeah, I umm,” he cleared his throat, “I just got back from a mission.”    “Ahhh,” she drawled out and looked back at the injured man she pulled the last stitch through, “that’s why you look like the only thing on your mind is sleeping through the week.”    Quill pulled back on his grey shirt, a red bloodstain covering almost all of the left side.    “Come on! It was my favourite!” he whined looking at the ruined piece of clothing, even stomping his leg on the ground like a toddler would do.    The girl, Y/N, pulled off her medical gloves and tossed them onto the glass table. “Yeah, well next time maybe you’ll think before you jump in front of a shot rather than evading it.”    “If I hadn’t done that Drax would’ve been hit.”    “If you have enough time to take the shot for him, he has enough time to duck,” she placed a strand of hair behind her ears. “Drax’s words, not mine.”    “You know what, all of you are so ungrateful. I cannot believe I call you my teammates let alone family.”    “Yeah, well you should already be used to it,” she smirked at the man. For a second he stood there, towering over the girl before smirking and pulling her into a hug, groaning in pain at the same time.    “Man, I love you,” he pressed a kiss on the top of her head.    Y/N patted him gently on the back as not to cause more pain to the man. As irritating as he was, she saw Quill as an older brother- annoying, of course, but wouldn’t even wait for a second to step in if he saw one of his family members in danger.    Bucky cast his eyes down. The moment seemed very intimate and he felt like his presence completely interrupted it with its intrusiveness.    The girl’s burgundy tactical suit hugged her every curve, the combat boots, which sported quite the heel, elevated her stance, yet Quill was still a good head taller than. “She’d be the perfect height to hug,” Bucky thought to himself. How her head would fit perfectly underneath his chin, how he'd be able to wrap his arms around the girl and feel that she was safe in his arms.    “What am I thinking!” he scolded himself. He didn’t even know the girl and now a sudden urge to protect this stranger arose. To hold her and have her in his arms, to keep her from harm.    The super soldier cleared his throat, more so to get his head straight, but with that, he drew the pair's attention back to him, Y/N’s face covered in a smile, Y/E/C eyes shining with love for her teammate.    “Hey, yeah, so,” Quill started to ramble as if he finally remembering the reason they were here, “here’s the thing. Y/N sorta kinda needs to stay here for a bit. Is Stark around?”    “Uhh, no,” Bucky shook his head taking a sip of the bitter liquid that had now cooled down a bit. “I’m the only one here. The rest are on a mission, but they should be back in a week or so. Tops,” he added after seeing Peter’s face scrunch up in concern.    The man put his palm on the nape of his neck, dragging it down in a nervous motion. “The thing is we need Y/N to lay low for a while. I was hoping to talk to Stark or Rogers or something…” Starlord’s cheeks had reddened a bit at the mentions of the Captain’s name. He was a huge fan, almost to the point of fainting when he’d met the guy.    “Is everything alright?” it was Bucky’s turn to be concerned. He’d had enough with one intergalactic fight, he didn’t need another one anytime soon in his near future.    “Well, we wouldn’t be asking if it was,” this time the Y/H/C haired beauty chimed in having propped herself on the armrest of the sofa. “I kinda got into trouble with this group of people way back in the day and… basically their last words to me were- if we see you anywhere near our system we’ll pull your intestines out of your ass, wrap it around your neck, strangle you and use them as a rope to pull you up as a flag.”    The super soldier gulped a bit. “Colourful.”    “Tell me about it,” Y/N snorted, “anyways, our team has been hired to carry out a mission and well, to preserve the relative safety and not put anyone else in more danger, we were just kinda hoping that I could stay here for a bit. And when Hasselhoff-wannabe here,” she poked Quill in the side, “is done, they’ll come back and pick me up.”    It wasn’t Bucky’s place to make these kinds of decisions. He was basically almost a nobody compared to Stark who designed, paid and housed everything and everyone or Steve who had become the unofficial-official leader of the Avengers. Hell, even Loki, the man who had tried to take over Earth, was higher above the list than the Winter Soldier. But as he looked at the girl he couldn’t help this weird feeling that started to form in the pit of his stomach. It wasn’t unpleasant, more so intoxicating. She didn’t see a broken man struggling with night terrors or guilt the size of Mount Everest, pity in her eyes, she didn’t care for the things he’d done while being a brainwashed puppet of Hydra. She looked at him like a person. So in Bucky’s mind, there was only one answer.    “Of course you can stay. I don’t think anyone would mind.”    “Sweet!” Y/N jumped up, excitement shining in her Y/E/C eyes and Bucky couldn’t help himself as he mirrored the smile stretched across her lips. The girl turned to Quill to hug him before a gasp fell out of her mouth and a palm slapped right over.    “Sweet-cheeks, what is it?” Peter’s eyes scanned her body in concern. Had she gotten hit and no one noticed? What was wrong? Where was she hurt?    “Oh my God,” she exhaled actual tears in her eyes, “I’ll be able to sleep on an actual bed. Like a real bed with a mattress and shit!”    “Fuck, Y/N/N! You scared the shit out of me! I thought something was wrong!” Peter pulled her tight against his chest, pressing his face into her Y/H/C hair. The girl chuckled in response, once again proving to Bucky that that indeed was the best sound in the world.    “And- wait a second! Hey! The ship is not that bad!”    Y/N’s bright laughter echoed throughout the room as she untangled herself from Quill and went to the kitchenette. Bucky watched her heels click against the tile floors as she stood on her tippy toes to grab a mug from the upper cupboards, her hands barely reaching the top shelf, and pour herself the same dark coffee, no sugar, no nothing.    “A fucking Jackson Pollock painting,” Y/N smirked up at Quill and drank, as she contently exhaled, “the juice of life” and commented how it was “just as black as her soul”.    Peter shrugged on his jacket, a visible hole at his left side where the blast must have caught him. “So you two gonna be okay here?”    Y/N waved a hand, gulping down the last bits of the coffee, Bucky’s eyes wide with how easy she downed the scalding drink. “We’ll be fine, stop worrying about it, mom.”    “Y/N, sweet-cheeks, you know that if anything happens to you Gamora will rip my head off. And let’s not even talk about what Drax or Rocket will do.”    “Then tell them,” she cupped the unshaven cheeks of Starlord, “that if anything does happen to me I expect to be treated like a fucking princess when I get back.”    “You already are.”    “Two hours of sleep at a time ain’t the standards a princess accepts,” she put her hands on her hips, “I expect at least three.”    Peter huffed out a laugh. “Deal.”    Y/N went to hug him, neither caring exactly about the stitches on Quill’s side. It was hard for the two to spend much time apart. The man had become a brother to Y/N, one she dearly needed in her life. He was who she confided in about everything and anything, given the fact that she as well came from Earth and had been taken by Yondu.    “I’ll be fine,” the girl whispered in his ear.    “I know you will,” Peter pulled back, one palm gently cupping her face. “It’s them,” his head motioned at Bucky, “I worry about.”    Y/N smiled. “Go,” she shoved the man away, still wary of the injured side, “and don’t do anything reckless.”    “It’s me we’re talking about. Reckless is my middle name.”    Quill’s words echoed as he walked away before disappearing from sight. A small shudder went down Y/N’s spine followed by a sigh.    It has been almost eight years since she had stepped foot on Earth. Bad memories from her past, the demons she’d buried deep inside her mind, locked behind bars and chains- all of it started to rattle with the knowledge that at least for a week she’d be staying on a planet that had caused only sorrow and pain. And one of the contributors was standing right behind her, Y/E/C eyes turning to face the ex-assassin's ice-blue ones.    She plastered a fake smile on her face, practised to perfection that not even the best of the best could spot it wasn’t real. “This will be fun.”

Tags: @who-cares-rn  

A/N: so a new series in a new fandom. let me know what you think :)

P.S. if you wanna be tagged message me :)

P.S.S. please don’t repost without credit :)    

[impressivepress]

How a small African figurine changed art

Folk art from Africa and the Pacific changed the modern world by pushing Western artists to be more confrontational, writes Fisun Güner.

A small seated figurine from the Vili people of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo was instrumental in the lives of two of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. The carved figure in wood, with its large upturned face, long torso, disproportionately short legs and tiny feet and hands, was purchased in a curio shop in Paris by Henri Matisse in 1906. The French artist, who liked to fill his studio with exotic trinkets and objets d’art, objects that would then appear in his paintings, paid a pittance for it.

Yet when he showed it to Pablo Picasso at the home of the art patron and avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein, its impact on the young Spaniard was profound, just as it was, though to an arguably lesser extent, on Matisse when the compact but powerful figure had fortuitously caught his eye.

For Picasso, his appetite whetted, visits to the African section of the ethnographic museum at the Palais du Trocadéro inevitably followed. And so precocious was the 24-year-old artist that it seemed that he had already absorbed all that European art had to offer. Hungry for something radically different, something almost entirely new to the Western gaze that might provide fresh and dynamic impetus to his feverish creative energies, Picasso became captivated by the dramatic masks, totems, fetishes and carved figures on display, just as he had with the Iberian stone sculptures of ancient Spain which he also sourced as material. Here, however, was something altogether different, altogether more dynamic and visceral.

When, after hundreds of preparatory paintings and drawings, he finally unveiled his breakthrough proto-Cubist masterpiece, the 8 sq ft Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, even his most avant-garde friends were shocked. Surely he had gone too far. What confronted them in his Montmartre studio, in that late Summer of 1907 (though the painting wasn’t exhibited publicly until 1916) was brutal and disconcerting. Five women, three of whom stare back at the viewer with huge, fierce eyes, were arranged in various confrontational poses and aggressively sexualised attitudes. The three women to the right have the smooth, though now distorted, features he took from Iberian carved heads, while the two ‘Africanised’ women to the left have the dark facial markings that resemble scarified flesh, or perhaps the texture and hue of roughly hacked wood. Their faces are all somewhat mask-like.

But it wasn’t just the small Congolese figure that had provided the spur and turning point for Picasso’s work – and you can see this figure currently in the Royal Academy’s exhibition Matisse in the Studio, along with other objects Matisse kept that informed his painting and sculpture. It was the companionable rivalry provided by this new relationship with the older French artist, for Matisse was, at that point, the far more experimental and radical artist – the leading Fauve, or ‘Wild Beast’.

Matisse had painted his multi-coloured, dream-pastoral Le Bonheur de Vivre in 1906, the year he bought the African figurine and the year the two artists met (and he was soon experimenting with his own ‘Africanised’ nudes), and Les Demoiselles was painted partly in answer to it. Picasso was intent on painting something even more radical and daring, a work that would leave its mark, which, for the last 110 years it certainly has.

But Matisse wasn’t the first artist to appropriate non-Western art. Primitivism, as it came to be known, was beginning to be embraced by artists in France at the end of the 19th Century, though some of its roots go back further, to the pastoral paintings of a golden age of the Neo-Classical period. And although fundamental to it, it wasn’t only non-Western artefacts that were of interest. Children’s art, and later the art of the mentally ill, so-called outsider art and folk art were significant contributions to the evolution of modernism, not just in visual art but in music too.

Back to basics

Matisse himself was always fascinated by the drawings of his own children and saw within them possibilities for the direction of his own work. That interest, too, was followed through by Picasso, who later famously remarked that, “Every childis an artist. The problem is how to remain an artistonce he grows up.”

What was taken from each category of art produced from these non-conventional sources, was a sense of spontaneity, of innocence, of a creative impulse not suffocated by academic fine art training or indeed by Western values, which were beginning to be seen in some intellectual and avant-garde circles as corrupt and decadent or as simply a spent force. The unmediated, the unspoiled and the authentic was what was now prized, and that included art that expressed the artist’s inner world, or what emerged in the 20th Century as the unconscious. Art, in other words, unfettered by the supposed artificial values of bourgeois society.

Though naivety and lack of sophistication was hardly true of either African art or art from other non-Western cultures, artists were struck by a directness, a pared-down simplicity and a non-naturalism that they discovered in these objects. But no thought was given to what these artefacts might actually mean, nor to any understanding of the unique cultures from which they derived. The politics of colonialism was not even in its infancy.

The Trocadéro museum, which had so impressed Picasso, had opened in 1878, with artefacts plundered from the French colonies. Today’s curators, including those of the Royal Academy’s Matisse exhibition in which African masks and figures from the artist’s collection appear, at least seek to acknowledge and redress this to a small extent. A similar effort was made earlier this year for Picasso Primitif at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, an exhibition exploring Picasso’s life-long relationship to African art. The sculptures, from West and Central Africa, were given as much space and importance as Picasso’s own work and one could appreciate at first hand the close correspondence between the works.

Meanwhile, the Art Institute of Chicago has an exhibition that looks at the creative process of an artist who was profoundly influenced by art from French Polynesia and who in turn was a particular influence on Matisse – those colour-saturated dream-like pastoral paintings again, including the early Le Bonheur de Vivre mentioned above. Paul Gauguin, perhaps the quintessential European artist to ‘go native’, first in Martinique, then in Tahiti, where he died in 1903 aged 54, had long felt a disgust at Western civilisation, its perceived inauthenticity and spiritual emptiness.

Even before he left European shores for good he had lived in an artist’s colony in Brittany, painting the deeply religious peasant women in traditional Breton dress. These paintings, such as Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888, possess a rather unsettling and erotic sense of the numinous, as do his Tahiti paintings, with their piquant mix of sex and death. Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist shows us an artist fully immersed in the life from which his art was born.

The significance of non-European art on the avant-garde and on 20th-Century art modernism can’t be overestimated. It goes far beyond these three prominent artists, though all three were particularly instrumental in spreading its impact, from the Surrealists to Jackson Pollock. And even nearer our own time, seemingly long after the fascination with the primitif had been exhausted, the ritualised performance-land art of Ana Mendieta and the energetic postmodern faux-tribal paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat saw that it certainly hadn’t.

~ Fisun Güner · 21st August 2017.

[seeingisknowing]

FOR SHE SAID, ‘’I HAVE NOW SEEN THE ONE WHO SEES ME.’’’:

Seeing and being seen in Trevor Paglen’s ‘From ‘’Apple’’ to ‘’Anomaly’’’

‘She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘’You are the God who sees me’’, for she said, ‘’I have now seen the one who sees me.’’’ - Genesis 16:13

__

‘Machine-seeing-for-machines is a ubiquitous phenomenon [...] all this seeing, all of these images, are essentially invisible to human eyes. These images aren’t meant for us; they’re meant to do things in the world; human eyes aren’t in the loop.’ - Trevor Paglen

____

In Genesis 16, we read about Hagar, the Egyptian handmaiden of Sarah and Abraham, expelled to the desert. During her wandering, she is met by ‘The Angel of the Lord’, who reveals to her that she is pregnant with Ishmael, the first son of Abraham. The name she gives to this voice in the wilderness is El Roi (meaning, The God Who Sees Me), crying out, ‘’I have now seen the one who sees me.’’ This is perhaps an interesting segway into Trevor Paglen’s latest installation at the Barbican’s Curve space, ‘From ‘’Apple’’ to ‘’Anomaly’’’, in which we, like Hagar, are confronted with the question of what it means to live under the gaze of a new moralizing, omniscient Other. No longer Genesis 16’s El Roi, but AI. This is what we are being shown - the one who sees us. 

The work consists of 30,000 individually printed images laid out in around 200 labelled categories, against the wall of the Curve. Each is taken from ImageNet, a public database of over 14 million images, in a further 22,000 categories, fed to AI programs, in order to teach them how to recognise patterns and objects. Paglen’s show comes as part of the Barbican’s Life Rewired series, ‘exploring what it means to be human when technology is changing everything’, following the larger ‘AI: More Than Human’ exhibition, from earlier this year.  His installation reads as a sort of impressionistic mapping out of this faction of ImageNet’s data; beginning with ‘apple’, at the closest end of the wall, the labels ascribed to the images begin as essentially inoffensive, mostly dealing with elements from nature - it starts as quite beautiful even. Images in groups like ‘ocean’ and ‘sun’ hit the wall as little spurts of blue and yellow, almost like a sort of giant Jackson Pollock painting. But as we carry on through the space, and the categories become more and more associated with human life, the wall comes to resemble more and more a catalogue of evil; ‘Klansman’, ‘segregator’, ‘demagogue’, etc. What is so interesting, and at the same time so haunting, about Paglen’s work here is the juxtaposition of all these categories, that range from ‘tear gas’, to ‘prophetess’, to ‘apple orchard’, pointing towards the kinds of invisible constellations between points that AI programs are drawing and redrawing all the time - the implication being, perhaps, that if we were able to map these constellations for ourselves, and understand the apparently nonsensical connections made between some of these images, as Paglen’s installation here seems to attempt, at least in part, to do for us, we might be better able to trace the outline of our particular moment in history, as jagged and unfriendly as it may be, that each of us will be forced to find some way to share with one another. 

The central question of the installation however, is maybe much more lucid, and has to do with the ownership and interpretation of images, and how AI programs negotiate this all the time, working with ever expanding amounts of data about the world, and the lives of us who live in it. This work of categorisation has a necessary ideological weight to it. As Bourdieu puts it:

‘The capacity to make entities exist in the explicit state, to publish, make public [...] what had not previously attained objective and collective existence [...] people’s malaise, anxiety, disquiet, expectations - represents a formidable social power [...] In fact, this work of categorisation, ie. of making explicit and of categorisation, is performed incessantly [...] in the struggles in which agents clash over the meaning of the social world and of their position in it [...] through all the forms of benediction or malediction, eulogy, praise, congratulations, compliment, or insults, reproaches, criticisms, accusations, slanders, etc. It is no accident that the verb ‘’kategoresthai’’, which gives us our ‘’categories’’ and ‘’categoremes’’, means to accuse publicly.’ 

Paglen’s installation engages with this in two senses. First, it ‘makes public’ the network of images and signs that are exchanged and classified by AI programs all the time - a network of images that exists and grows almost entirely behind our backs, yet concerns even the most private details of our lives, as we submit these things to the internet, as the means by which we increasingly construct our social worlds, and the identities with which we move through them. Secondly, the work reveals the biases with which these AI programs understand patterns and objects - many of the categories into which the images on Paglen’s wall are grouped carry a great deal of ideological weight. How is it exactly that this ghost in the machine differentiates between a ‘heathen’ and a ‘believer’? How does it identify a ‘traitor’, a ‘selfish person’, or a ‘bottom feeder’? All of these are genuine image categories from the installation. What we are presented with is the notion that AI is not restricted to simple pattern recognition, for example, recognising an image of an apple as an apple, because of its colour, shape, proportions etc, but that also, on account of having human creators, who pass on their own moral and ideological baggage, AI programs must also make moral and ideological judgements. So then, if technology not only has access to datasets so large that virtually nothing is out of bounds, approaching a sort of functional omniscience, (a fact revealed to us perhaps most pointedly by the global surveillance disclosures regarding the NSA in 2013; Senator Rob Wyden said in an interview: ‘You can pick up anything. Surveillance is almost omnipresent, the technology is capable of anything. There really aren’t any limits.’) and at the same time, is not only capable of making moral judgments, but perhaps incapable of doing otherwise, what we are faced with is a moralising, omniscient Other.

If this is the case, as Paglen’s installation seems to suggest, then like so many of the questions raised over the relationship between mankind and AI, this is not a new question, but an old theosophical question, repackaged as a technological one. If it is true that we are living under the gaze of a machine unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, then let us return to the situation of Hagar - a criminally overlooked and often misunderstood figure in the Old Testament; as Žižek notes, ‘She sees God himself seeing, which was not even given to Moses, to whom God had to appear as a burning bush. As such she announces the mystical/feminine access to God.’ The nature of this ‘seeing’ has a distinct relevance to our situation - Nielson, writing on this particular episode in Genesis reminds us that the Hebrew word ‘ראה’ (‘see’) ‘signifies not only the actual ability to see, but also a recognition of what is seen’ In other words, for Hagar seeing is knowing, just as being seen means being known. Therein lies the crux of Paglen’s installation, which reminds us that, like Hagar, we too, in allowing ourselves to be seen, are also being known - the lurid nature of many of the categories, and images that fill them, on the wall of the Curve, which range from the pornographic (‘fucker’, ‘hunk’, ‘artists model’), to images of profound hatred, (‘klansman’, ‘segregator’) reveal to us the lowest parts of ourselves, the messiest and the cruelest and the most private. I use ‘us’ in the broadest sense here, the ‘us’ that includes both ‘us’ as a species, and ‘us’ as individuals - both the universal and the particular. These AI programs, quietly feeding on ever growing sets of data, have surpassed the point of basic pattern recognition, and have learnt the kinds of terrible secrets that rumble from the deepest caverns of the human heart. We are no longer merely seen, but known.

Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, writing on ‘Whether any created intellect by its natural powers can see the Divine essence’ (Question 12, Article 1), notes: 

‘If [...] the mode of anything’s being exceeds the mode of the viewer, it must result that the knowledge of the object is above the nature of the viewer.’

This kind of encounter, with an ‘object [...] above the nature of the viewer’, is always transformational, even more so when that same object looks back at us. For Hagar, that object is God, and that transformation is a matter of awe, and a matter of faith. The question is, in what way will we transformed by our own encounters with AI, as a very different ‘object above the nature of the viewer’ (in the sense that it has the capacity to work with more data than any of us can comprehend), as it returns our gaze. The hope must be that AI, in collecting all this data about us, and about our lives, can serve as a kind of mirror, through which we might learn to better see the whole scope of our shared situation - the fact, revealed to us in Paglen’s installation, that these programs come loaded with moralistic and ideological biases, far from undermining this effort, is what gives lends this project any kind of potential, because what this means is that what is shown to us by AI in way is not just the nature of the world as it is, but the nature of the biases through which we have chosen to see it. In Minima Moralia, Theodor Adorno writes:

‘Perspectives must be produced which set the world beside itself [...] alienated from itself, revealing its cracks and fissures, as needy and distorted as it will one day appear in the messianic light.’

Perhaps this is the best AI can do for us, and what Paglen’s installation can do for us, that is, not only reflecting back at us the most inconvenient parts of ourselves, but also the lies we might have constructed to hide from them, or to hide them from us. If AI has any kind of liberational potential, it relies on our ability to raise our encounters with it to the level of the mystical and transformational; not in seeking to understand it, but questioning how it might understand us, and by seeing ourselves in the third person in this way, hoping to see ourselves as we are - to see the world we move through, and have constructed for ourselves, as it is, remembering always that, as it was for Hagar, so it remains for us: seeing is knowing.

[metal-harbor]

🎀: Who makes you want to draw and improve?
🍙: Ever thought about becoming professional?
♬: What do you like to listen to/have on in the background when you draw?
☕: Coffee or Tea?
⚠: Have you ever taken an art class?
💾: What do you love to draw?
☁: Guilty pleasure?
🐙: What do you suggest to beginner artists in terms of work ethic?

🎀: Who makes you want to draw and improve?

Is it vain if i say myself?? i love art and i love being able to improve my own skills just because it makes me feel really good when i do something i couldnt do before!!

🍙: Ever thought about becoming professional?

when i was a little kid im p sure there was a time when i wanted to be a professional artist, i know there was a time when i wanted to design characters for kids tv shows but im going into sewing professionally now instead just because i feel like i would be discouraged as a professional artist! sewing is where im at rn tho

♬: What do you like to listen to/have on in the background when you draw?

i try to play music that reflects the mood im trying to draw! tbh i'd be happy to see if i could try and make a little list of songs per mood if anyone is interested???


☕: Coffee or Tea?

tea all the way! its not that i dislike coffee bc i like sweet coffee a lot but tea is just so much better, i actually have a small tub of all the different teas i own haha i almost have enough to start a collection


⚠: Have you ever taken an art class?


yes! i have a GCSE and an A Level in fine art, tho i got in trouble while taking them because i hated art as a subject at school and would basically do what i wanted - i barely made the grades i needed even though my technical skills were pretty good!

💾: What do you love to draw?

I love drawing people! since i left school i havent really drawn traditionally which means i havent really drawn a lot of realistic humans, i just find the human face really interesting! I like drawing mine and other people's characters too, seeing peoples reactions to surprise gifts is one of the best feelings


☁: Guilty pleasure?


making a mess lmao, we had to experiment with different forms of media at school which lead to a lot of jackson pollock type stuff, my stuff being PVA'd to the desk, melting oil pastels, building with hot glue, using the spray paint we weren't allowed to use - i just liked having fun but that usually meant making a mess haha

🐙: What do you suggest to beginner artists in terms of work ethic?

stop looking at the mistakes in your work, yes its important to find things to improve on but let yourself be proud of your work - it doesnt matter if its not perfect, look for the things you did well and congratulate yourself for them!

keep going, there are gonna be weeks where you don't wanna draw and thats fine, just make sure you dont stunt yourself creatively by thinking 'its been too long', just start up again when you feel like it!

age doesn't matter, if you want to start drawing then get to it!! there's literally nothing stopping you, even if it doesn't come out how you want, you owe it to yourself to try!

sometimes a sketch is fine as it is, not everything needs to be lined and coloured, its okay to be proud of a sketch and leave it at that. also, know when to stop, you dont have to keep working on something that already looks good, adding more and more can cloud up your original vision

don't be afraid to reach out to other artists!!

thank you yud!! 

[oakesa-blog]

American Abstraction, Pop Art, Minimalism, and More

American abstraction was a product of Regionalism and Social Realism, as well as the arrival of artists and others from Europe. Two German emigrants, Hans Hofmann, and Josef Albers, had a massive impact on American painters. Abstract Expressionism put the US on the international art map and included artists such as Arshile Gorky. His work seemed to be an amalgamation of many different styles, including Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism. Action painting came about during this same time frame, made most famous by Jackson Pollock and his drip technique. Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko were other notable action and abstract expressionist artists.

“Color Field painting,” also called “Chromatic Abstraction,” was a more traditional method of painting. I really enjoy this style of painting, and actually, have come to utilize some of it in my own home without realizing it. Frank Stella is by far my favorite artist from this style, with his angular and vividly colorful works that, while flat and bordered, somehow still seem dynamic and are an absolute joy to look at. Ellsworth Kelly produced some similar works, and his “Red, Yellow, Blue” is the most similar to what I’ve done in my own home: Large canvases of a single solid color arranged on a wall to give brightness and dimension to space.

Pop Art and its counterparts are, for me, a very fun style. It was the culmination of placing everyday objects on a pedestal and making them eternal, majestic, and “great” even if nobody else thought them deserving or important. Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup” is perhaps the most famous Pop Art piece I’m aware of, and its simplicity always makes me smile regardless of Warhol’s intentions. For him, such works were a culmination of his obsession with wastefulness, consumption, and the repetition of consumerism; for me, they are fun and almost relaxing in their simplicity. Other painters of Pop Art included Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein. Pop Art was also present in sculpture, created by individuals such as George Segal and Niki de Saint-Phalle.

Op Art was about “geometric abstraction,” removing the main subject entirely. Minimalism was the desire to leave only a viewable medium, leaving no trace of the artist’s involvement in the final piece, resulting in an “impersonal character.” There were a number of notable artists for Minimalism, including Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Eva Hesse. I particularly like Agnes Martin’s work, as it can be viewed in a very nuanced way despite its outward simplicity. Conceptualism, the last style mentioned in these chapters, came about in the 1960s, and was the desire to not just make art “impersonal,” but to remove even the materials from a piece. I was not familiar with this style at all prior to this chapter, and greatly enjoyed reading about it; I especially liked Sol LeWitt’s piece “Wall Drawing No. 681.” Even the title is as basic as can be, but the combinations of colors and the texture of the ink washes all surrounded by a thick black framework appeals to me very much. I want to paint one of my walls to mimic it!

[wikitopx]

It's no secret why New York is called a city that never sleeps.

Whether you’re visiting with friends, a significant other, your family members or kids, you’re sure to find plenty of fun things to do. To help you get started, here is our list of some of NYC's top things to do that you really should not miss on your trip. All of the following are sights not to be missed in New York, divided into several general categories.

1. The Ride

This is one of my personal favorites and thinks’ its one of the most interesting and unique ways to see New York. THE RIDE is a special interactive experience turning New York streets into an entertaining stage for talented street performers.

This custom-built tourist bus, which basically acts as a tourist theater, takes the driver for 75 minutes through Times Square and Midtown Manhattan. Guiding you along the way will be professional comedic hosts, that provide fun and interesting context to the sights you’ll see with history, fun facts, trivia, and even karaoke.

Definitely add this one to your itinerary, and check out our guide to THE RIDE for more tips.

2. The Empire State Building

This New York City attraction has become famous over and over again with appearances in movies like Love Story, Insomnia in Seattle, King Kong, etc. Be sure to head to the Empire State Building’s 86th-floor observation deck to check out amazing 360-degree views of the city.

Take a self-guided multimedia tour to learn more about the incredible sights viewed from the top of the city. The Empire State Building even serves late-night visitors thanks to late-night opening hours that last until 2 am.

Fun fact: ESB was the tallest building in the world for almost four decades, and was designed by renowned architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in the early 20th century.

3. The Top of the Rock Observatory

The Top of the Rock Observatory is located at one of the hubs of The Big Apple, Rockefeller Plaza. This observation center is at the top of the Rockefeller Center, a vast complex of 19 different buildings between 48 and 51 in Midtown.

The Rockefeller Center itself is an important sight to see in the city, but those who arrange a trip to the top of the observatory enjoy a panoramic view of the notable NYC skyscrapers like Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Chrysler Building and more.

4. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

New York City was a prominent welcoming port for immigrants to the United States throughout a significant portion of its history.

Today the Statue of Liberty is not just a symbol of America’s history as a welcoming land of opportunity and freedom for immigrants, but also a great vantage point from which to view the sprawling metropolis.

A Statue of Liberty ferry is available, as well as boat tours around the island and other on-site tours can be reserved. These tours allow visitors to go up the stairs to the top of the statue, which is truly an experience unlike anywhere else.

5. 9/11 Memorial and Museum

One of the most important places in all of NYC is the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, located on the site of the former World Trade Center. This moving attraction recounts the tragic history of one of the darkest days in recent US history in informative and moving exhibits.

The Museum has three separate sections, detailing the lead-up to, day of, and aftermath of the attacks, as well as the stories of the lives lost and the relics that remain from the rubble.

The outside monument is also famous for its photographs and is famous for its characteristic water and light.

6. American Museum of Natural History

As one of New York’s most beloved and top museums, the American Museum of Natural History is equal parts fun and educational.

Attracting millions of visitors every year, the American Museum of Natural History is one of the largest museums in the world. It’s located on the west side of Central Park, so it’s easy to build into a larger itinerary, too.

It includes more than 40 different permanent exhibition halls and explores extensive subjects in the planetary, geological, biological, and anthropological sciences.

7. The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is located in the Midtown area and features collections that focus on more recent artistic productions and more diverse artistic media.

MoMA exhibits include not only works of painting, drawing, sculpture, prints, and architecture, but also photography, illustrated books, and electronic media.

Some of their most famous holdings include works by Jackson Pollock, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and many, many more.

8. The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located on 5th Avenue on the East Side of Central Park, on a stretch of 5th Avenue commonly known as “Museum Mile.” The Met is one of the most popular places to go in NYC for visitors interested in exploring art history and gaining a deeper understanding of the studio arts.

The Met includes more than 15 different curatorial departments and offers exhibits on art from all around the world and across time, withholdings as old as Ancient Egyptian artifacts and as recent as modern-day paintings. (If you are looking for more modern and modern, Met Breuer is another smart choice.)

Among the museum’s offerings are not only artworks of the Western World dating from the Renaissance period, but also products of Asian, African, Oceanic, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art.

9. The Guggenheim Museum

[caption id="attachment_702730" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Upper East Side, NYC[/caption]

Located near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim is found on Museum Mile along the East Side of Central Park.

The Guggenheim features mainly modern and contemporary art, and it consists of numerous private collections that are shared with sister museums around the world including in Bilbao, Spain and in Venice, Italy.

The unique thing about the Guggenheim is its philosophy of displaying art. Rather than grouping items together by genre (a sculpture gallery, a painting gallery, etc.), the Guggenheim arranges objects in thematic ways that encourage visitors to ponder connections between them.

Featured artists include Cézanne, Juan Gris, Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Klee, and many others.

10. The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

Those interested in maritime history should head to the banks of Hudson around Midtown to visit the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum – which features an aircraft carrier turned museum.

The Intrepid was established as a museum in 1982, but previously the structure served as an aircraft carrier both in the Pacific Theater of World War II and in the Vietnam War.

Exhibits at the museum explore the vessel’s service history as well as general exhibits on the naval history of the 20th century.

More ideals for you: things to do in Door County

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-new-york-702708.html

[tripstations]

Venice for under £100 a night! How to visit the floating city on the cheap

You’re right. Venice isn’t cheap. A ride on a gondola will probably cost more than your flights. 

But this ancient city, crammed on to a sinking island off the north-east corner of Italy, is one of the true wonders of the world. Every few paces, you’ll stagger back, amazed, at some new beauty spot. Your Instagram feed will runneth over. 

And, if you’re careful, you can do it without breaking the bank.

Floating city: A map showing the tourist hotspots in Venice 

Where to stay

Hotel San Samuele

The location of this affordable, intimate hotel in the San Marco district could hardly be better. Just a short walk from the Accademia bridge, Hotel San Samuele is simple — there’s no restaurant, for example — but its rooms are clean and elegantly furnished, and Judith, the owner, is dangerously charming. Highly recommended. Doubles from £78 (hotelsansamuele.com).

Palazzo Contarini della Porta di Ferro

This grand palazzo in the quiet Castello district belonged to one of the city’s most influential families. It’s cheaper than most comparable places, and if you call the personable manager, Antonio, he may be able to cut you a deal. Then you can pretend you’re a 17th-century duke as you stalk through the fragrant walled garden and echoing hallways. Doubles from £95 (palazzocontarini.com).

Residenza degli Angeli

Enjoy some faded splendour at this atmospheric B&B in the heart of the San Polo district, near the Rialto Bridge. The rooms are simple but nicely decorated. Breakfast is basic (a croissant and coffee) but does the job. The price is remarkable considering the location. Doubles from £44 (039 041 275 9546).

Locanda Gaffaro

Whether you arrive by train or bus, Locanda Gaffaro is conveniently located on the edge of the Dorsoduro district. The rooms are on the small side, but tastefully appointed. The same could be said of the breakfast. Good value, though, all told. Doubles from £75 (gaffaro.com).

Where to eat

Nevodi

The padrone, Silvio, is expansive, but his restaurant is not expensive: gnocchi with red mullet and artichokes is £13, coffee is £1.75. Nevodi is a social hub in the Castello district so popular with locals you’ll probably need a reservation in the evening. Address: Via Giuseppe Garibaldi (039 041 241 1136).

Osteria Ai Do Archi

Situated next to Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, this simple osteria will charge you £9 for a plate of spaghetti carbonara and £4.50 for a glass of Merlot. The atmosphere is warm and unpretentious. It hits the spot. Address: Barbaria de le Tole (039 041 241 1306).

Corner Pub

Simpler still, this is where the cool interns from the Guggenheim Museum go at lunchtime. The service is surly, but it’s all terribly authentic. A no-frills Italian caff with panini and pasta and beer on tap, all for a song. Address: Calle della Chiesa (039 349 457 6739).

Serene: A gondola station outside the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

Muro San Stae

A little pricier than the others, this gem of a restaurant in the back streets of San Polo is worth seeking out for its fantastic pizzas, far superior to those served in the restaurants around San Marco — half of which (whisper it) are frozen. Owner Giacomo is passionate about wine, so make sure you pore over his list. Address: Santa Croce (039 041 524 1628).

What to see and do

Creep into the crypt

The church of San Zaccaria houses (probably) the remains of the father of John the Baptist, and (definitely) a fantastic Bellini altarpiece. For £1.30 you can explore the side chapels, admire a dramatic painting of the crucifixion by Van Dyck and descend into the (usually flooded) crypt. Take care on the slippery marble steps. Campo S. Zaccaria.

See the big guns

You aren’t allowed to enter the imposing Arsenale — which is still used by the Italian Navy — but for £9 at the nearby Naval History Museum you can learn how Venezia ruled the waves. The place has curvaceous swords, splendid blunderbusses and cannons so large you’d have thought they would sink a ship simply by being brought aboard. Riva S. Biasio (039 041 244 1399).

Get on the water

A half-hour gondola ride costs £70 — but the price is the same regardless of the number of passengers. Save money by teaming up with others in the queue. Extra tip: go to Campo Santa Maria Formosa and ask to see the ‘hidden canals’. That way you’ll avoid the Venetian equivalent of heavy traffic. 

There’s nothing better to do in Venice than just wander the streets. Pictured are tourists shops selling souvenirs on Ponte di Rialto 

Get arty

For £13, there’s much to admire at the Guggenheim. Modernist masterpieces include Max Ernst’s resplendent The Robing Of The Bride and Jackson Pollock’s superb Alchemy. Almost as intriguing are the enthusiastic interns, who serve as attendants, and your extravagant fellow punters. Dorsoduro (guggenheim-venice.it).

Go window shopping

A stone’s throw from the crush of the Rialto Bridge you’ll find a shopper’s paradise in the lofty department store T Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Having browsed your fill, take the lift to the top floor where free cultural events are hosted — and from the roof you can enjoy one of the best views in Venice. Rialto Bridge (039 041 314 2000).

Tour hidden places

There is nothing better to do in Venice than simply walk the streets. Wander into random churches. Get lost. The locals call this un giro delle sconde (a tour of the hidden places) — or, if you take on some light alcoholic refreshment, a bar crawl.

How to get there

Easyjet has return flights from London Gatwick from £40 (easyjet.com). 

The post Venice for under £100 a night! How to visit the floating city on the cheap appeared first on Tripstations.

from Tripstations http://bit.ly/2Whr7N1 via IFTTT

[chocolateheal]

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

There is a analytical haven on the eighth attic of 417 Lafayette Street in Greenwich Village that was already the abode of Po Kim, a Korean painter who came to the US in the 1950s and abutting the Abstract Expressionists in New York. The apartment’s alone occupants are a aristocratic dejected Macaw alleged Charlie and a baby-pink cockatoo alleged Jumble, both of whom are fed a scattering of absurd basics anniversary morning by a woman alleged Pema. According to Kim’s friends, as abounding as 50 birds aforetime abounding the amplitude with song.

American Abstract Expressionism: Painting Action and Colorfields – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

For three years, aback Kim’s death, this 4,000-square-foot accommodation — with its abeyant account hire of $18,000 dollars — has had alone aerial occupants. It is kept as a altar to its above owner, who the New York Times declared as “an artisan with aberrant abstruse adeptness and accurate notions about his visions of the world.” The art analyzer and babysitter Lilly Wei already accounted Kim’s accommodation “a apple of his absolute universe.” Indeed, it is a capital of Eastern and Western sensibilities. His orchids still insolate in the balustrade greenhouse. The rooftop garden, with beauteous angle of burghal Manhattan, was already abundant with rose bushes, magnolia trees, Japanese maples, and cacti. His bedchamber holds a accumulating of claimed photographs, Asian antiques, aerial figurines, and books about birds and art. The room’s best arresting article is his four-poster, carved copse bed, still covered with a chicken cottony comforter. No one seems to apperceive breadth the bed came from — maybe China, maybe Indonesia. Near the active area, a lounger topped with Japanese tatami mats provides a ample appearance of Kim’s flat beyond the arctic wall. His pieces accept been confused to storage, but flecks of broiled acrylic outline breadth the canvases already hung.

Despite his ability of painting, Kim’s name charcoal absent to time. In his attack to ally Korean and American techniques, he anguish up angled amid two cultures. Abounding of his Abstract Expressionist works chip calligraphy and free-flowing besom acclamation afflicted by his emotions, agnate to the Eastern abstraction of qi, or abiding energy. In an essay, the art analyzer Robert C. Morgan assorted Kim’s acute appearance with Western “action painters” and declared Kim’s paintings as an “inward ambience apropos to karma.” Though added Abstract Expressionists additionally looked to the East for inspiration, Kim’s abysmal acumen and accurate accord to those techniques should accept animated his assignment and name, yet he is rarely mentioned alongside the brand of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Now, 60 years afterwards Kim accustomed in New York, a adolescent bearing of Korean artists active actuality still grapples with these aforementioned animosity of displacement and otherness. And while added elements of Korean ability accept become fashionable, like K-pop music and kimchi, Korean art still struggles for attention. However, a new alternation of exhibitions at the Korea Society advantageous admiration to New York’s Korean masters has launched with a continued abaft advertise of Kim’s work, Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia.

Red Baiduri: Abstract Expressionist Paintings and … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Before he anesthetized abroad in 2014 at age 96, Kim was a active attribute of the abatement and acceleration of South Korea. As a adolescent artisan there, the North Koreans falsely accused him of actuality a advocate and angled him by electric shock. Later, during the Korean War, he was befuddled in bastille for allegedly lecturing on communism to an art class. He fled to the United States in 1955 at about age 38. In New York, he gravitated against the Abstract Expressionists, befriending acclaimed artists like Lenore Tawney. His works from the 1950s and ’60s apply blubbery besom acclamation in saturated corals and turquoise, evocative of Tachisme and with hints of Pollock’s dribble painting method. I was bugged by one aphotic and abandoned allotment blind in the accommodation at 417 Lafayette, “Untitled” (1958), which depicts red orbs aglow from abaft abutting dribbles of atramentous paint, like bedding of rain cloaking burghal streetlights. In the 1970s, Kim switched to awful abundant still activity assets that beginning the adorableness of accustomed altar such as corrugated walnut shells and bright blooming beans amphibian in an general space. A 1979 analysis in the New York Times declared that these pieces aback “the activity of cerebral isolation.”

By the ’80s, Kim was bearing large-scale, absurd scenes based on his memories. They are patchworks of strange, cartoonish figures: bodies blind upside down; a nude woman actuality continued by nothingness; faces the blush of broiled blood; athirst lions; and a aerial with its aback angled like a hissing cat. The annihilation he witnessed in Korea apparitional him the blow of his life, and his nightmares were generally embodied in the his work. Ironically, Kim already claimed these aphotic fantasy paintings accustomed him to escape reality, yet their bold, addictive images assume angled against confrontation.

OIL CANVAS | MY ART–ELEMENTS | Pinterest | Abstract Expressionism … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

On a contempo afternoon, a man alleged Adolescent Cho caked me a cup of blooming tea in Kim’s above basement area. Cho emigrated from Korea afterwards academy and became Kim’s acquaintance in the backward ’90s. He is now the admiral of the foundation created in 2005 by Kim and his wife, the backward sculptor Sylvia Wald, which owns the absolute building. Kim and Wald purchased 417 Lafayette in the mid ’70s afterwards affairs their townhouse on East 4th Street to banking advantage. Cho admired Kim’s abhorrence to carelessness his Korean heritage, admitting the country’s disrepair. “His activity shows a Korea and United States alliance,” he said. “He was accomplishing Western methodology, but he did not lose his Korean blow in his own art.” Cho wants to accomplish Kim accepted and use his friend’s adventure to brainwash Americans about Korean history, which he says is not accomplished appropriately in academy here. “Promoting him is like announcement Korea,” he said. “All the suffering, all the brightness, the honor, it’s like a Korean avant-garde history.”

It’s a difficult and apathetic adventure to ameliorate Kim’s legacy, and Cho has fabricated some strides. He adapted the seventh attic breadth Wald lived and angry it into a abiding exhibit for the couple’s work. Last fall, he hosted a banquet there to abutting out the Korean Art Babysitter Symposium and accustomed Open House New York participants to aberrate the roof, which is now beneath renovation. Some of Kim’s works now adhere at Chosun University in Seoul, breadth he accomplished in the backward ’40s and aboriginal ’50s, while abounding are in the accumulator allowance at 417 Lafayette, and still others abide in clandestine collections as able-bodied as in the abiding of institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. “We are small, but [like] a Korean adaptation of the Whitney,” Cho said of the Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, which occupies the building’s fourth floor. It’s an aggressive amplitude that brings in accustomed Asian artists, abounding of them Korean, who accept apparent at above venues like the Venice Biennale, the British Museum, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, yet accept accustomed almost beneath acceptance in the US. A contempo accumulation exhibition at the arcade alleged Cardboard Revelation showcased admirable works created with hanji, a thin, handmade Korean cardboard pulled from timberline bark.

Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy | a kick up … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

One of Cho’s better hurdles in announcement Kim’s assignment is that the artisan was out of step, both culturally and stylistically, for best of his career. “They were acceptable paintings, but they were not in the appearance of the time,” Barbara London, a above babysitter at the Museum of Avant-garde Art, told me. She assorted Jean-Michel Basquiat’s drug-fueled, club-going affairs to Kim’s quiet, aloof demeanor, and acclaimed the art world’s addiction to move on quickly. “Other bodies were in faddy and able-bodied promoted.”

The exhibition at the Korea Society, the aboriginal all-embracing US Po Kim appearance alfresco 417 Lafayette aback the artist’s death, is an attack to authenticate that Kim and Korean art can abound in New York. Curated by Cho’s wife, Odelette Cho, it appearance 18 pieces spanning Kim’s decades in New York. The latest assignment in the appearance is a polychromatic, acrylic painting overlaid with neon band from 2013, the year afore he died.

Abstract Expressionism | Hi-Fructose Magazine – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia continues at the Korea Society (350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, Midtown, Manhattan) through December 1.

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism – elements of abstract expressionism | Allowed to be able to my personal website, on this period I’ll provide you with with regards to keyword. And now, this is the 1st graphic:

Abstract expressionism – Art Term | Tate – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Think about image preceding? can be that will incredible???. if you believe and so, I’l l explain to you a few image all over again down below:

So, if you’d like to obtain the fantastic pics regarding (21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism), click save button to store the pics to your personal pc. There’re prepared for transfer, if you want and want to grab it, simply click save symbol on the page, and it will be immediately saved in your computer.} Lastly if you wish to obtain unique and latest image related to (21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism), please follow us on google plus or bookmark this website, we try our best to offer you regular up-date with fresh and new shots. Hope you love keeping here. For some up-dates and latest news about (21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism) shots, please kindly follow us on twitter, path, Instagram and google plus, or you mark this page on bookmark area, We attempt to offer you update periodically with fresh and new pics, enjoy your searching, and find the ideal for you.

Here you are at our site, contentabove (21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism) published .  Nowadays we’re pleased to declare we have discovered an extremelyinteresting nicheto be reviewed, namely (21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism) Many individuals looking for details about(21 Things You Didn’t Know About Elements Of Abstract Expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism) and definitely one of these is you, is not it?

Henry Asencio, 1972 | Essence of Woman.. | Tutt'Art … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Composition in Green Blue and Yellow #5 – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Abstract art and Abstract Expressionism | janbein – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Exposition Art Blog: Abstract Expressionism John Levee – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

40 best Abstract expressionism images on Pinterest … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Abstract Expressionism part 21 – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Abstract Expressionism Spontaneous Vector Art Monochrome Stock … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Four Elements III. Water Painting by Elena Kotliarker | Artmajeur – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Where ART Lives Gallery Artists Group Blog: Contemporary Abstract … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism 21 – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Abstract Expressionism Spontaneous Vector Art Monochrome Stock … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Pollock Stock Images, Royalty-Free Images & Vectors … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

A few notes about Expressionsim – Carra Lucia Books – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

Best 25+ Abstract expressionism ideas on Pinterest … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

41 best Fritz Bultman images on Pinterest | Abstract art … – elements of abstract expressionism | elements of abstract expressionism

from WordPress https://americanartist.club/21-things-you-didnt-know-about-elements-of-abstract-expressionism-elements-of-abstract-expressionism/

[fashiontrendin-blog]

15 Excellent Outfits To Steal From Oliver Cheshire

http://fashion-trendin.com/15-excellent-outfits-to-steal-from-oliver-cheshire/

15 Excellent Outfits To Steal From Oliver Cheshire

Often seen grinning like a Cheshire cat, model and blogger Oliver Cheshire doesn’t come across as your bog-standard Zoolander male model. Yes, he can pull out the killer pout at an instant, has the pop star fiancé (singer Pixie Lott) and the cheekbones as sharp as the Shard, but London-born Cheshire’s ace up the sleeve is his ability to come across as an approachable everyman with an outfit for every day.

It’s meant that he has been able to successfully bridge the gap between high fashion – cavorting down the catwalk for Dolce & Gabbana or modelling underwear for Calvin Klein – and high street fashion as one of the faces of Marks & Spencer. So how has he managed to pull it off?

The Look

Well, Cheshire realises that relatable style needs to be adaptable and versatile, with a strong outfit available for every occasion. Expect well-fitted suits with a natty check for when fashion week rolls around and a simple, clean tracksuit under a winter coat for when he has just rolled out of bed on a Sunday morning. If Cheshire does want to make a statement it is usually with a jacket or a shirt (if it is a shirt, then the jacket is muted). Footwear is simple but elegant – Chelsea boots in black or brown suede, clean chunky trainers, and dainty dress shoes – almost always without socks. #FreeTheMankle.

Inspiration: David Beckham, Ryan Gosling, The Talented Mr. Ripley Go-To Brands: Marks & Spencer, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior Follow Him: @oliver_cheshire

Hug a Hoodie

The likelihood is you only ever chuck a hoodie on around the house, dare anyone out of its confines see you in one. But Cheshire wears his with pride and so should you by ensuring it is plain and unbranded and kept timeless in a fresh, basic colour. Hoodies are also designed for comfort so take after Cheshire and invest in a soft cotton piece and combine it with either tailored trousers or, as Cheshire has done, a collared shirt, for a look that is bang on the ‘high-low’ trend.

Safari Under The Sea

It’s rare for Cheshire to make a style misstep, but you can’t accuse the model of playing it safe all the time, as he is often seen switching up his style with idiosyncratic touches that are all his own. Here it comes in the form of a crustacean patched onto the shoulder of a lovely racing green field jacket he was wearing to Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris earlier this year. It shows his ability to bring a touch of high fashion onto a look you can pull off at home, mainly by employing it with an all-black uniform of roll neck, jeans and Chelsea boots.

Paint Factory Explosion

Having a job that sees you permanently fixed onto the front row of every fashion week worth giving two hoots about means Cheshire can always stay on trend. Here we see him showing off the paint splatter as showcased recently by menswear designers Phillip Lim and Junya Watanabe. We agree the trend is a bit walking talking Jackson Pollock, but Cheshire works it by making sure the fit on the suit has no break on the trouser hem or bunches on the shoulders – high fashion needs to fit like it was made for you.

A Floral Flourish

While we can’t imagine everyone pulling off the paint splatter like Cheshire, here is a look we feel most chaps should observe and repeat. Good quality denim should always have a place in your wardrobe and turning them up prevents unwanted bunches at the hem while also showcasing any edgy footwear you may be sporting. Upstairs, a floral shirt can really make an outfit pop under a more demure jacket and a vest under the shirt is useful on uncertain spring days.

Just Do It

Instagram culture has brought the logo tee back into style – it’s the easiest way of telling people where you got your shirt after all. Simple takes with just the brand name or logo work best (like the Nike swoosh). To smarten the look do as you would a collared shirt – tuck into smart trousers with an elegant side stripe to keep the sporty feel going, and wear with smart shoes shoes sans socks.

An All Grey Tracksuit Day

It might be a bit Goldie Looking Chain, but in the hands of a style pro like Cheshire, the all-in-one tracksuit can actually work. First of all, make sure it’s clean – food stains will never be chic but are even more unforgiving when dressing down – and wear as a layer under a tight fitting winter coat. An upturn can also prevent joggers looking sloppy at the bottom, and clean chunky trainers are a trend that is working with everything this season.

Layering Mastery

There’s more than meets the eye in this outfit that, from a distance, looks cool and understated but at closer inspection paints a rather more busy picture. Let’s start with the white denim trousers – never an easy look – but turn them up so there’s no bunching and dress smart and dark up top. Then you have a shearling trim on the pea coat, with a denim jacket underneath. The sharp fit on both means Cheshire gets away with it and then finish off with the greatest tool in every layering toolbelt – the black roll neck.

Mr Blue Sky

One of the many cool jackets in Cheshire’s portfolio is this marvellous breezy blue leather creation. Have it stop around your hips and as close to being in unison with the hem of your shirt, while it shouldn’t be so oversized that the shoulders droop off at the sides. Matching the colour, but in a different shade, is a nice play for a jacket this extravagant. Plus, any leather jacket is going to work tidily with black skinny jeans and polished Chelsea boots.

Chunky Knit

Now beware of the chunky knit under the bomber jacket. If you don’t have the abs of an Adonis a la Cheshire then you risk looking like the Michelin man. But if your frame could be best described as slight, hop on board. Just make sure you’ve got something going on – in this case, the multi fabrics on the jacket and the cable knit of the jumper – or you risk blending into the wall.

Statement Bomber Jacket

Another glamorous fashion week after-party, another statement jacket to dazzle all those in attendance. A slim cut and silky bomber jacket with black cuffs fits well with lightweight smart trousers and Cheshire’s favourite pair of woven black shoes. Then it’s a snug white tee, tucked in, and the smart-casual dress code has been well and truly smashed.

Tux Luxe

The grandaddy of menswear, the tuxedo is powerful if pulled off, hideous if not. If you go the way of Cheshire and choose a three-piece for your black tie event, make sure the waistcoat is covering your trousers band seam, so there are now unsightly baps or unwanted rolls of white shirt peeking through. Also, keep the jacket buttoned up unless you’re seated – you’re after the secret agent look not a mobster on the run.

Dashing Suit? Check

The checks and stripes and whatever else is going on in this suit are making us, sorry what, spaced out a bit there. If you’re going for a piece that is so optically hypnotic you absolutely have to tone everything else down. Simple but hip, the grey knitted tie embellishes the suit jacket and a white shirt won’t cause any headaches. And here’s the proof that brown shoes can go with (light) grey.

Bringing Back The Poncho

This jumper might have some worrying ‘backpacking around Peru on the gap yah’ vibes, but Cheshire miraculously pulls it off with a not-outrageous colour scheme. We like how it is kind of matched with the gold watch and you can wipe that bead of sweat from your forehead because light wash denim is cool again, as long as it’s relaxed. Works well with light brown suede boots too.

Cool As A Cuban

The closest we get to Havana nights in this country is the sweaty, heaving queue for the bar on a Friday after work, but it’s not stopped everyone from jumping on the Cuban collar shirt. The style works best in a floaty fabric like the jersey Cheshire opts for here. If you’ve got anything resembling guns have the sleeves cut to mid-bicep and tuck the shirt into a smart pair of plain smart trousers to properly unleash the V.

Earning Your Pinstripes

The wide lapel pinstripe suit is synonymous with the world of banking, coming about because all the Gordon Geckos and Patrick Batemans wanted a suit that would stand out from the crowd. As a consequence, the suits became rather comical, so today the look works best without any unnecessary embellishments. A simple, yet bold tie and a slimmer fit in the trousers will modernise all that 1980s yuppiness.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Words Do Matter

By Stephen Jay Morris

©Scientific Morality

 The lamppost stands with folded arms, its iron claws attached to curbs 'neath holes where babies wail Though it shadows metal badge All and all can only fall With a crashing but meaningless blow No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden

“The Gates of Eden” - Bob Dylan (circa 1965)

 This is the essence of what made Bob Dylan famous.  His musical composing style was basic, however, it was his lyrics during 1964 to ‘66 that infamously dubbed him “the voice of a generation.”  He easily employed the Beat Poetry style of folks like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.   Back in the day, there was heavy censorship, so this abstract method of allegorical symbolism was one way to get around it.   Dylan set the standard of quixotic lyrics.   Captain Beefheart, on the other hand, took lyrics to their illogical conclusion; similar to Jackson Pollock’s painting style of rhythmic drip collage.   Dylan splattered his words as part of the musical landscape of the time.

           Without words, you get an instrumental piece, and without music, you get a poem.   Song composition makes music an all-inclusive experience.   With a song you get a story, melody, and rhythm. That is why music was so good back in the 60’s.  Today’s pop music is done in a nugatory fashion.  It’s almost as if lyrics are obviated.  If you listen to lyrics in 2018, it brings to mind the lyricist most likely having referenced a copy of “Hip-Hop Lyrics for Dummies.”

           Of all the songs in the 60’s that lyrically bewildered me, “I Started a Joke” by the Bee Gees remains foremost.  It has befuddled me for 50 years!  I did some research and found that the song is about Satan.  Well…that kind of makes sense, but not really.  The music is a typical pop ballad that came from a band that was initially accused of being the Beatles, playing a prank on everyone.  It was alleged that this was a Beatles’ release wherein the vocals were sped up so that they sounded like the Munchkins from “The Wizard of Oz!” Actually, there were a lot of British artists whose vocals had strange styles, from groups like the Hollies to the Bee Gees.  The Bee Gees would eventually find more success as middle-aged hippies doing that Disco crap in the 70’s.

But this song?  Holy Mother of God!  What does this shit mean anyway?

Well, I am going to take sections of the lyrics and analyze or interpret them…No!  On second thought, I’m going ask critical questions.  That’s my style!  Here goes…

 The opening line is:

I started a joke, which started the whole world crying.

But I didn't see that the joke was on me, oh no.  

Already we are at a bad start.  Not enough information.   First of all:  You started a joke? Did you quit after the second line?  Maybe that is why the world was crying:  you didn’t finish the God Damn joke!  That would make me cry, too!  Then, the joke was on you? Are you assuming the world has a sense of humor? You didn’t know the joke was on you? What are you, fucking stupid?!

 Next:

I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing. Oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.  

You sure have a neurotic relationship with the world.  Maybe you and the world should go see a counselor.  

 Here is another dandy:

I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I'd said.  

Oh!  You were dreaming?  Why didn’t you say so in the first place?  Yeah.  I know. Dreams are weird.  

 Now come the final lines of the song:

'Til I finally died, which started the whole world living. Oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.

Not so fast, bucko! If you died, how in heck did you write this song?!  Another question is the world.  Are you implying that the world was dead while you were alive?  Still, this song doesn’t make a lick of sense!  Listening to it, you’d think it was a guy with low self-esteem and self-loathing.  The character is pathetic and even has empathic appeal.  What I hear is:  “Woe is me. I’m a real Dick, and I deserve my punishment!”

 Allegories are just groovy and analogies are cool, but what is this shit?  This is not “I Am the Walrus” by the Beatles, or even a Captain Beefheart tune.  What it sounds like is Catholic guilt!

 This is how it should have been written:

 I told a joke, which made the whole universe laugh. But I did see that the joke was on them, oh yeah!

I started to sing, which started the whole world laughing. Oh, if they’d only seen that the joke was on them. I looked in the mirror and saw Satan himself, And I got out of bed after my boyfriend gave me head. Everybody died, which made my life easier Oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on them!

 Okay--not a very good rewrite, but it sure beats the original!

[kingswoodart-blog]

Should Collectors Consign their Works to Auction Houses? 5 Questions you need to ask.

As a private Art Dealer, my heart drops when I hear my Collectors and Owners are considering Sotheby’s or Christies.   Of course, I would always reccomend the private sale route as the personal relationship is flawless, the  cost is significantly less and anonymity is key. However, If you are new to the selling market and are more comfortable with having Christies, Sotheby's or any major auction house for that matter, handle the sale of your work, this article I hope you find helpful.  

Selling an artwork at auction can seem daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. But the road from your attic to the sale room doesn’t have to be bumpy and dimly lit. The easiest way to smooth the path is to simply ask questions. We spoke with auction house experts on what consignors should ask them; here are five questions to keep in mind when consigning a piece. 

What auction will my work go into, and when will that happen?

While auctions usually only last a few hours, they often take many months to put together. Auction houses need lead time to market their sales, print catalogues, photograph the pieces, and even get the works authenticated, if required. As such, the deadline to submit a work to most traditional auctions is somewhere between a month and a half to three months before the gavel is going to fall, depending on the sale and the auction house.

Submitting work well in advance of this deadline can be an advantage. Earlier on, auction houses tend to be “less selective and more open,” said Richard Wright, founder and president of the auction house Wright. “Every auction house builds their auction from zero.”

Scott Nussbaum, Phillips’s head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, New York, notes that consignors generally are not coming to his auction house with the sale they hope to offer the piece in already selected—and that’s okay. Having conversations between consignor and auction house early gives more time to determine if auction is even the best route to ensure a favorable result (sometimes a private sale is preferable), and, if so, which sale the piece will be offered in. Nussbaum said there are plenty of opportunities year-round.

“I think there’s this common misperception that the auctions are only every so often and that if you miss a deadline you have to wait a long time,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we basically have an auction every month somewhere on the planet.”

Indeed, when working with an auction house like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, or Phillips, all with multiple auctions in most categories at their locations across the world, consignors should ask where a work will be put up for sale (London? New York? Paris?) and why. Getting the answer right, as with many of these questions, will ensure the best possible result.

“What we factor in most is where a piece will do the best and where the best returns will be for the seller,” said Scott Niichel, co-head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sales in New York. That is often the location closest to where the work is, but it can sometimes be the location closest to the location of a potential buyer. If an artist has a regional market, then the auction house will make sure it is offered there, for example.

What’s the breakdown of the fees that I’ll pay?

While the fees an auction houses charges buyers are pretty much set, the fees charged to consignors are determined on a case-by-case basis, notes Niichel. “Ultimately, that’s a confidential discussion between us and the consignor and is really based on the value of the material itself,” he said.

Because of their variable nature, it’s possible to have fees lowered or waived, especially if you’re bringing an important lot to an auction house. “Your strongest time to negotiate is before the consignment,” said Wright, before you’ve committed your artwork to one place and while you still have the option to take it somewhere else.

So what are the fees? Along with the vendor’s commission that auction houses charge consignors for handling the work, auction houses can charge storage fees, photo fees, promotional fees, insurance fees, and shipping fees (to name a few). If you don’t want to be taken by surprise, read your contract carefully, advises Wright.

He also noted it’s worth discussing something no consignor wants to think about: what will happen if a piece doesn’t find a buyer? Should a work fail to sell, the last thing a consignor would want is to be hit with an unexpected return shipping charge.

How will the auction house market my piece?

Once a work is in the hands of an auction house, how hard will its team work to sell it? There are several primary tools an auction house has at its disposal when marketing a piece. Works are shown in a pre-sale physical exhibition and are also posted online. But, while it may be surprising given our technology-driven world, Niichel said the “absolute number one tool that we have for promoting our sales” is still the printed catalogue, in which all consigned works are included.

Like most things about the consignment process, what level of marketing an artwork receives depends on its importance and history. If you have a never-before-auctioned Jackson Pollock splatter painting, you might reasonably expect it to wind up as the auction catalogue cover (and you can negotiate with the house to ensure that it happens before agreeing to consign). But while star lots almost always receive more prominent marketing, what constitutes a star lot varies depending on if you’re consigning with a large or small auction house. While it shouldn’t overly sway your decision, a five- or six-figure work is much more likely to receive significant marketing effort at a smaller house than it is at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips.

Along with the quality and history of the work itself, a factor in determining marketing is timing. Wright notes that pieces consigned ahead of an auction deadline are photographed first, and thus are more likely to appear as a banner image for the sale. Though Wright said the house changes that image when needed, it still never hurts to be an early bird.

How likely is it that my piece will sell?

Nussbaum put this question a bit more simply: “How do you compel someone to raise their paddle?”

There is always some element of risk in putting a work up for sale. And as a consignor, it’s easy to quickly get into the weeds when trying to suss out if a piece will sell. You can ask an auction house how similar works—comparable pieces by the same or related artists—have performed recently. But, cautions Niichel, it’s far from an exact science. For example, works that haven’t been sold for generations tend to over-perform similar works that have been sold more frequently.

Then there are also the more intangible aspects of working with an auction house, a process built on relationships, but one that can translate into firm economic results. If you want a sense of how likely it is your work will sell, part of the equation is the specialist at the auction house handling your piece. Just pick up the phone and give the auction house a call.

“You can learn a lot very quickly in speaking with someone,” said Wright. “You can truly understand their level of interest, how knowledgeable they are, and how committed they are to understanding your piece and the market.”

Estimates are also a crucial component of this question, and might come up in a conversation around how an auction house is going to market a work. Consignors may think their love of a piece should translate to an extremely aggressive estimate, but Niichel said “it doesn’t always serve their best interest to push for a higher estimate.”

That is: Aggressively high estimates can often hurt, not help, the consignor’s return. Don’t be afraid to ask about the rationale behind the estimate an auction house quotes you, but also understand that an estimate’s purpose isn’t to reflect a consignor’s personal belief of the value of the work.  

“The more aggressive you get with an estimate, the smaller the potential audience for the art,” said Nussbaum.

Why is this auction house best suited to sell this work?

The auction house landscape is a duopoly, with most of the market share going to Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Phillips is a strong third, and then other auction houses like Wright, Heritage, and Bonhams make up the remainder of the market. There are pros and cons of going with a bigger auction house over a smaller one (and vice versa). So with all the choice out there, which house is best for you? A good place to start is asking why an auction house thinks they’re the best fit for your work and letting them do the explaining. When they compete with each other, the consignor wins out.

“It’s worth someone’s time to get multiple quotes,” said Wright. “There is a fair amount of variability in the commission fees and in these miscellaneous fees.” Wright argues that less-prominent works can be better suited for a smaller house like his.

But lowered fees are different than ensuring a sale. If you have an artist with a deep market and an international following, the global reach of an auction house like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips can be key. To evaluate the best fit for your piece, Niichel advises looking at past auction results to see where comparable works have sold and sold well. If, when looking at past auction results, all or a majority of the works by the artist you’re trying to sell in the expected price range for the work have been sold at one auction house, it’s a strong indication that house has particularly strong relationships that can help sell the piece.

“Auction houses will try to win business but they may not have any track record with the artist,” said Wright. “They may or may not do well with it, but you should at least know that if you decide to go with them.”

Nussbaum said that, ultimately, the best way to know if the auction house is a good fit is to get on the phone with the relevant specialist and gauge their level of interest. If they can’t explain what makes the piece valuable to you, chances are they can’t explain it to buyers.

“It’s not the auction house that sells the work of art, it’s the people,” said Nussbaum.