Post by Cheryl Harper

What makes an artist’s vision so clear to himself early in life?  The current exhibition of Yves Klein’s works at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington poses an answer by shedding light on the work of an artist whose work and manner is difficult to understand out of context.

Yves Klein and a model during the performance "Anthropométries de l'époque bleue" at Galerie Internationale d'art contemporain, Paris, March 9, 1960. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Shunk-Kender, © Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, courtesy Yves Klein Archives

Klein’s ideas included taking ownership of one of the four elements — air — which included the sky. He also believed in directing others to make his work during performances rather than physically executing it himself.  He patented a color already in existence by naming it International Klein Blue.  Klein presaged much of the bravado and self promotion that are common among artists today.  The artist’s concepts were as original as Duchamp’s or Dali’s, both of whom influenced his approach to art making. Like Duchamp, Klein found it harder to justify making objects as he progressed; like Dali, he found theatrical behavior instrumental in getting out his message.   In addition to documenting his methods, Klein was an early practitioner of performance art, even planning his wedding as an art event.

Klein’s personality and the milieu of the French Avant Garde of the late 50s and early 60s come into focus through objects, correspondence, and video on display.  There’s a 30- minute video that’s well worth watching, located just outside the exhibition in the adjacent inner concentric gallery. One nice aspect of the video presentations in the show is that you don’t have to leave the gallery for separate dark, curtained spaces.

Yves Klein, “Untitled Blue Monochrome (IKB 104),” 1956. Adolf-Luther-Stiftung, Krefeld. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Image courtesy Adolf-Luther-Stiftung, Krefeld

Throughout the exhibition, the viewer is aware of Klein’s patented pigment International Klein Blue (IKB) applied using a variety of methods: rollers, sponges, bodies, and as raw pigment.   The well-known body paintings are represented as paintings on the wall but also in video documentation, in which you see nude women of varying heights — exquisitely proportioned and cosmetically perfect (clothing is unthinkable) — rub themselves with IKB paint and roll around on canvases on the floor and wall transferring paint to the canvas with their motions. Klein literally played the maestro; conducting the models and a chamber orchestra while impeccably dressed, with no splatters reaching him.  He is the opposite of Pollack’s very physical approach. His controlled physicality developed from his expertise as a young Judo master; he spent 15 months in Japan sponsored by a family patron, perfecting his body/mind connection before he concentrated solely on art. (See “Yves Klein and the Blue of Distance” by Rebecca Solnit, New England Review. Middlebury: 2005 Vol 26, Issue 2)

The title of the show comes from a gallery guestbook entry left by the Existentialist Albert Camus at a Klein exhibition in 1958 — With the Void, Full Powers.  Klein embraced the comment, incorporating it into a title of a staged photo in his one day broadsheet sold on newsstands on November 27, 1960.  The reader paid 35 newfrancs — the usual price for the Sunday paper.   The broadsheet looked exactly like a Sunday journal; the unsuspecting newsstand purchaser expected the ususal paper only to find it exclusively extolling the genius of the artist/publisher. A reprint is available free in the gallery.

Born in Nice in 1928, Yves Klein died in June 1962, a month after suffering an initial heart attack during the Cannes Film Festival debut of a documentary film including his work. He had fully cooperated with the movie’s director only to witness in the final cut an expose on his narcissism, not his genius.  According to the show’s video, Klein was overcome with this betrayal.  Klein took advantage of every waking hour, likely having more of them than the average person as he abused legal amphetamines; most likely his fatal heart attack was inevitable. (Again, see Rebecca Solnit for more.)

This exhibition is the first retrospective in the United States of Klein’s work since 1982 at the Guggenheim Museum.  Guides specifically trained for the show were in the galleries the day I attended it. The videos, archival material (letters, notes, and drawings) are interspersed throughout the show adding clarity to this story of this sophisticated and complicated artist. Klein’s work was critical to the foundation of American Pop Art and Performance art in the 60s. His close friends, Arman and Tinguely, brought his ideas to New York where they were catalysts between the ideas of New Realism (of which they and Klein were founders) to Pop Art.  Klein worked in multiple styles simultaneously and seeing them side by side gives the viewer an appreciation of his prodigious and original oeuvre. If you can’t make it to the show, a new catalog was produced by the Hirshhorn Museum.  In additon, there is a comprehensive archive devoted to the artist.

“Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers,” on view at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, through Sept. 12, 2010

by Clarissa Shanahan

Chestnut Hill Arts Initiative’s premiere show, ‘Summer Phase’, proved to be a thoughtfully curated blend of conceptual installations in a variety of mediums, featuring the work of ten different artists.This was a particularly contemporary and progressive show in an otherwise conservative area.

Tom Judd, The World is Flat, mixed media on corrugated boxes

The initiative aims to create a presence of progressive and contemporary art installations in the commercial property windows along Germantown Ave. CAi is in partnership with The Chestnut Hill Business Association, the Chestnut Hill Community Association and Bowman Properties.

The old Magarity Ford Dealership features a site-specific installation piece by Tom Judd, entitled ‘The World is Flat’. It’s fills the enormous window of the dealership building with a painted world map. The piece is constructed of cardboard and framing, the markings and lettering from the cardboard boxes intentionally left visible, inviting us to view the map as a whole work, as well as reflect on the sum of its parts. It resembles a low-tech, whimsical class project. I had the opportunity to speak with him at the reception, and upon being asked what inspired this work, he said the size of the space inspired him to create something “patently silly and outrageous”, with the “exuberance of a sixth grade geography project.” It’s an irreverent, playful and exuberant piece.

Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, ‘Blue in Green’

There are two additional site-specific pieces, one from Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, ‘Blue in Green’, which is completely constructed with pipe cleaners, bits of recycled plastic, bottle caps….and it’s beautiful.  With a big colorful net, created around the exterior of a storefront, wrapping the windows, stoop and railing, Lathan-Stiefel plays with ideas of growth and sprawl, supporting the notion of it being an organic, living thing. It’s beautifully crafted, thoughtfully designed for the site and has the feeling of being a super-stylized, children’s programming version of an underwater creature-capturing device. At least to me, anyway. It’s fantastic.

Philip Scarpone, The Last Breath

‘The Last Breath’ by Philip Scarpone, is an installation using natural materials – milled wood, concrete, natural wood and a ground covering – mulch? woodchips? This is a beautiful, quiet installation piece reflecting a delicate balance of geometry and nature. It makes you want to whisper when in proximity.

Michael Kalmbach, High Definition

One piece that absolutely knocked me out, was ‘High Definition’ by Michael Kalmbach. This one is hard to describe, but the first thing I’ll say is that it’s unbelievably compelling. Granted, I am absolutely fanatical about interesting materials, and tactile surfaces and this piece did not disappoint.
The form is created with a poured acrylic, decorated with “stacks” of “dot strands”, in organic, ripply waves around the piece. I am in awe of this combination of really innovative uses of fluid acrylic, and other chemical means. Beautiful pieces.

Aaron Wiener with Visionary Fusion Glass Works, made of pattern-cut and fused glass

Two pieces from Aaron Wiener with Visionary Fusion Glass Works were displayed in one exhibition space. Created with pattern-cut and fused glass (I do not, I confess, completely understand this), not only are the forms distinct, and have an organic sensibility, but he has used glass brilliantly, in a newly realized way – the texture is as present as the form.

One of the pieces is colored glass formed in a fluid, not-unlike Chihuly manner, however, the other piece resembles a lacy bowl made of iron. Except it’s not. I know! It’s very hard to say what it’s made from, just by looking. But, actually is crafted of quartz glass with a metallic coating fused to the surface. Fantastic.

Surprisingly for me, the two-dimensional work didn’t speak to me quite as much as the other dynamic sculpture and installations. However, it was an eclectic offering, which I pretty much always appreciate.

‘Danger in Nature’ by Alexander Conner, is a collection of paintings, roughly 6’ x 4’, (UPDATE per comment below from the artist: Each of my works are 4′ Tall x 3′ Wide making them 4′ x 9′ Wide overall. They are not paintings, but full scale Cyanotypes, and were exposed in my backyard.) made to resemble those photosensitive paper experiments that you did with flowers and leaves, creating white silhouettes on that specific denim blue. His paintings playfully reflected that relationship between nature and our experience of- and place in it. Christopher Motta’s photography, is self-reflective, and it seems, a rather intimate view of his own recollections. I appreciated these as well-composed images, but for me, the meanings of them, at least as intended, didn’t quite translate. Except as good imagery.

Daniel Mahlman, Fun and Games, 4 x 4 feet, mixed media

There were two paintings by Daniel Mahlman, entitled ‘Fun and Games’ [4’ x 4’], mixed media paintings, in an illustrative, line drawing kind of style. They’re playful, and seem to be making a statement about guns. And candy. I like them, I like that I’m still thinking about them.

I am sorry I missed a couple of pieces–one by Brookes Britcher, who curated the show, and one by Jaime Alvarez. Britcher, who is also the CAi project coordinator, was responsible for a mixed media installation piece entitled “The Apple and the Tree,” a reconfiguration of a previously created installation. Being interested, like Judd, in usable, accessible materials to create a conversation about utility and new ways to look at objects, Britcher used found materials procured from local stores and restaurants. The good news is the installation had to come down because the store is rented. However, you can catch Brookes’ work in upcoming CAi shows. Sadly, I didn’t get the opportunity to see the work of Jaime Alvarez, a piece called GW. It seems to me, upon later seeing images of this work, that I’m missing out.

There is, for me, a very tangible thread throughout this well curated show, a certain levity, a lightheartedness, and images of Jaime’s GW display a very definitively whimsical feel.

As a show, I’m heartened to see such an energetic and conceptual art presence here in Chestnut Hill. Good sign for things to come, I hope.
CAi, which evolved out of Project Sketchbook – a curated show of area student artwork, is creating another work for the fall, entitled “Lessons’, featuring the work of art educators, with workshops offered from the artists throughout the season.

CAi – ‘Summer Phase’
Closing Reception: 6-9pm / Friday, August 20th 2010 / Magarity Ford
Hours: Free to the public everyday
Germantown Ave, between E Springfield Ave. and Hartwell Ln.
Chestnut Hill, 19118

by Cheryl Harper

Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived from 1881-1973, a long span in any terms, but he has never left this world judging from the manner in which his life and work are continuously celebrated. Take this season for instance; I’ve seen four Picasso museum shows in as many months: “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ended in May (artblog ran two posts so I won’t tell you more); “Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art” at the Met, just closed August 15; “Picasso Themes and Variations” at MOMA through August 30; and “Picasso Looks at Degas” at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts through September 12.

Portrait of a Young Girl, after Cranach the Younger, II by Pablo Picasso, 1958. linoleum cut, composition: 25 11/16 h x 21 5/16" w. From the MoMA show

The difference between these shows is either a strong curatorial perspective, which includes loans to support a thesis; or exhibitions that bring together works from the museum’s own collection, thereby showing works in close proximity instead of as usually seen in the museum or works only occasionally on view.

At the Metropolitan, the museum draws on its own collection.  The show lacks depth in some areas as the museum started late in collecting Modern works. The Metropolitan’s best-known Picasso is the Portrait of Gertrude Stein, which is given a star location. There was a lack of curatorial perspective and no effort to fill in gaps.  As at the PMA, there was a large room of works hung salon style, but this time comprised of prints.  You would have to spend a good deal of time viewing this aspect of the of show.

The Frugal Repast by Pablo PIcasso, 1904, 18 3/16 h x 14 7/8" w From the MoMA show

However, about thirty blocks downtown at the Museum of Modern Art is the Picasso graphic show. In this location, many of the same prints as seen in the Met show are presented in a more approachable manner, with several states of prints, and organized throughout many rooms. This show is more for the print or in depth-Picasso aficionado because of its encyclopedic nature.

New publications accompany both shows with the Metropolitan’s being a comprehensive catalog of the Picasso works in its collection. MOMA’s catalog is: A Picasso Portfolio: Prints from the Museum of Modern Art by Deborah Wye.

The Clark Institute, located a couple of hours from Manhattan in Williamstown, MA.,  is the site of “Picasso Looks at Degas.” This was my favorite of the four shows due its strong premise. The organizers took care in presenting multiple media of both Degas and Picasso and demonstrated how the elder artist informed Picasso’s work from the Blue Period through post-Surrealism.

On loan to the Clark Institute. Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Standing Nude, 1907, oil on canvas, Museo del Novecento, Milan.

The loans are stellar including a Picasso charcoal and pastel study for Demoiselles d’Avignon from the Kunstmuseum in Basel and an oil study of a Standing Nude from the Museo del Novecento in Milan, also closely related to the famous 1907 painting. Degas’ La Coiffure of 1896, on loan from The National Gallery in London, was particularly noteworthy to see as related to Picasso’s subject matter. The painting was in Matisse’s collection; it likely influenced his figure and ground blurring in works such as The Red Room. A catalog with excellent illustrations accompanies the exhibition.

If you miss the East Coast museums this summer, you’ll find Picasso on the West Coast at the Seattle Art Museum‘s show, Masterpieces from the Picasso Museum, opening in October. Bon Appetit!

Cheryl Harper is an artist and independent curator, based in the Philadelphia area.

By Debra Miller

The 2010 Festival line-up is staggering, with nearly 1,200 performances of approximately 200 shows, ranging from theater and comedy to dance, music, and the visual arts.

Lucinda Childs’ Dance, (with music by Philip Glass and film by Sol LeWitt). Photo by Sally Cohn.

In a league of its own, and superseding any list of top picks, is Lucinda Childs’ Dance, with music by Philip Glass and film by the late Sol LeWitt.  It’s uplifting that these universally respected avant-garde giants of the 20th century, whose Minimalist/Conceptual work was misunderstood and criticized in its early years, would acknowledge their experimental roots and bring a reprise of their interdisciplinary collaboration to the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.  The two surviving members of this dream team will be on hand for a pre-show discussion on Sept. 10; this is your chance to converse with living legends.

Along with Dance, my top 10 Best Bets for 2010 are:
•    EgoPo, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (Fringe)
•    Theatre Exile, Iron (Fringe)
•    Luna Theater, Thom Pain (based on nothing) (Fringe)
•    Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, ¡El Conquistador! (Live Arts)
•    Jérôme Bel, Cédric Andrieux (Live Arts)
•    Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Romeo and Juliet (Live Arts)
•    Nevermore Theater Project, The Tell-Tale Heart (Fringe)
•    Hyphen-Nation Arts, The Jane Goodall:  Experience (Fringe)
•    Plays and Players, Hear Again Radio Project (Fringe)
•    Madhouse Theater Company, Dysfictional Circumstances (Fringe)

Ensemble in EgoPo’s Marat/Sade. Photo by Joshua Wallace.

The top three productions are by a trio of the most consistently excellent, compelling theater companies in Philadelphia.

Following its stirring adaptation of Beckett’s Company last year, EgoPo will kick off its “Theater of Cruelty” season at the Fringe with Peter Weiss’s Marat/Sade.  Brenna Geffers directs a roster of all-stars, including Ross Beschler, Steven Wright, David Blatt, and Theatre Exile’s Joe Canuso, in the controversial and unrelentingly sadistic play-within-a-play, staged in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

Catharine Slusar in Theatre Exile’s Iron. Photo by Robert Hakalski.

Theatre Exile, too, returns to the Festival after a five-year hiatus, with Philly Fringe co-founder Deborah Block (co-artistic director at Exile) directing award-winning actresses Catharine Slusar and Kim Carson in Iron.  Set in a woman’s prison, Iron tells the story of a mother and daughter struggling to come to terms with each other, and with themselves, 15 years after a brutal murder.

Poster for Luna’s Thom Pain (based on nothing). Photo by Scott Fowler.

And Gregory Scott Campbell directs another of Luna Theater’s characteristically quirky shows, Thom Pain–a haunting anecdotal monologue by New York playwright Will Eno, which won the Fringe First Award in Edinburgh.  With their accomplished casts, directors, and design teams, these disturbing dramas promise to be the most professional of the Festival, while still exhibiting the cutting-edge intensity for which the companies, and the Fringe, are known.

Thaddeus Phillips in Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental’s ¡EL CONQUISTADOR! Photo by Evan Kafka.

My next three picks are part of the Live Arts Festival, distinguished from the Philly Fringe by selection process.  The Philly Fringe is unfiltered; both new and established artists can present their work without an invitation or preliminary judging.  Live Arts features renowned contemporary performing artists from the U.S. and around the world, who have been invited to the Festival by producing director Nick Stuccio.

Thaddeus Phillips’ Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental was selected to present its innovative fusion of live theater and film, ¡El Conquistador!  Combining the daydreams of an impoverished underdog with the popular phenomenon of telenovelas (Latin American soap operas), the performance (presented in Spanish, with English supertitles) makes reference to such classic sources as Hamlet and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Cédric Andrieux in Jérôme Bel’s Cédric Andrieux. Photo by Jaime Roque de la Cruz.

Also noteworthy in Live Arts is Cédric Andrieux, a behind-the-scenes autobiography of the eponymous French dancer, in collaboration with choreographer Jérôme Bel.  I can’t help but think of Avedon’s famous photos of Nureyev’s feet, evincing the torturous training that results in a work of beauty on stage.

Robert M. Johanson and Anne Gridley in Nature Theater of Oklahoma's Romeo & Juliet. Photo by Peter Nirgini.

And the New York based Nature Theater of Oklahoma presents an amusing retelling of Romeo and Juliet, synthesized from telephone interviews with everyday people who were asked to give an account of the story in their own words.  Their embellishments, inaccuracies, and reinventions include scenes and characters that were never part of Shakespeare’s original.

John Zak in Nevermore Theater Project's The Tell-Tale Heart. Photo by Domenick Scudera.

Nevermore Theater Project offers another time-honored classic in the Fringe, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.  This one is a faithful word-for-word staging of the dark short story, starring Barrymore recipient John Zak as Poe’s man on the brink of insanity, and performed at the appropriately creepy Mütter Museum (admission to the museum’s collections is not included).

Marcel Williams Foster in Hyphen-Nation Arts’ The Jane Goodall: Experience. Photo by Libby Cady.

Three more Fringe events round out my Top 10 list, all promising to be both unique and entertaining.

Hyphen-Nation Arts’ The Jane Goodall:  Experience features Marcel Williams Foster as the renowned anthropologist, in a performance/lecture/tribute to the 50th anniversary of her pioneering research in Tanzania.  Now working in the world of dance and theater, Foster trained at Goodall’s Institute, and incorporates years of research, a profound love of apes, and a virtuoso shift between humans and primates in his self-described “peculiar drag parody.”

Ryan Walter, Lauren Basler, and David Stanger in Plays and Players' Hear Again Radio Project. Photo by Alistair E. May.

More traditional is Plays and Players’ Hear Again Radio Project, comprising vintage radio dramas from the 1940s, performed live with authentic costumes, sound effects, music, and commercials.

Colleen Corcoran in Madhouse Theater Company’s Dysfictional Circumstances. Photo by John Stanton.

Last but not least is Madhouse Theater Company’s Dysfictional Circumstances, a twisted dark comedy about Nazi propagandist filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, which just won the Audience Choice Award for New Work in the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia’s Spark Showcase.

Beth Nixon and Alex Torra in Cankerblossom by Pig Iron Theatre Company. Photo by Jason Frank Rothenberg.

If you love inane Jerry Lewis movies circa 1960, and find over-sized glasses, crossed eyes, protruding teeth, and grating voices hilarious, you probably number among the masses that can’t seem to get enough of Pig Iron Theatre Company.  In light of the success of last year’s Welcome to Yuba City (both in the Live Arts Festival and with the Barrymore Awards), I would be remiss if I didn’t remind fans to get their tickets early, because this year’s offerings by Pig Iron (Cankerblossom) and Charlotte Ford (Chicken) are sure to sell out fast.

Charlotte Ford in Chicken. Photo by Jay Dunn.

Also among the annual favorites is Brian Sanders’ JUNK, this year performing Sanctuary (which comes with a warning that the production may contain nudity).  Described as “a dance of intense movement, ritual, and mistaken assumptions about the past,” and using a 14 x 120’ wall as the stage, the perfectly toned gravity-defying dancers will undoubtedly wow Live Arts audiences again in 2010.

Sanctuary by Brian Sanders' JUNK. Photo by Steve Belkowitz.

The 14th annual Philly Festival runs September 3-18.  If you’re truly living on the fringe, it’s not likely you’ll be able to see much of it, so choose your shows wisely (tickets & info here).  At a pricey $325/person ($650/couple), the “all-access pass” gives access to all shows, not access for all people.