The Eye Sculpture

On the ides of June, while squinting at a cluster of threatening clouds from his perch on a grassy construction site just outside of Sparta, WI. this small city, Chicago sculptor Tony Tasset is, to use his words, totally freaking out.

“You know those reality shows?” Tasset says, a slightly uneasy smile on his face. “This is that part when the team is up against their deadline, and it looks like they’re never going to finish on time.”

Tasset’s “team” is made up of a half-dozen fiberglass workers at Sparta’s Fast Corp. (Fiberglass Animals Shapes and Trademarks), who have been assigned to construct the artist’s largest piece to date: a giant eyeball aptly named Eye, which, upon completion, will stand three stories tall and stare east from the Loop’s Pritzker Park, at State and Van Buren streets. Tasset was commissioned for the job last fall by the Chicago Loop Alliance, and Fast Corp., with which he had collaborated on prior sculptures (including a 12-foot-high eyeball), took the engineering reins earlier this year.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Art work at the home of Chuck and Pilar Bahde of Rancho Santa Fe (photo by Charlie Neuman)

When Chuck Bahde bought the rambling wooden house in Rancho Santa Fe, the 5-acre spread already had plenty of grass and gardens. But that wasn’t to his liking. Besides, it seemed such a waste of water to keep the lawn green. So Bahde set out to create a new landscape, filled with meandering streams, pools and waterfalls — all created with blue and green glass, hand-painted rocks and plastic.

Today dozens of artworks adorn Bahde’s expansive property, in addition to the waterless pools and rivers. Every last piece is made from recycled or found materials. Pebbles, broken bottles, computer chips, seashells, beads, railroad ties, old-fashioned glass doorknobs and even an old, 5-cent parking meter have been turned into artwork in his hands.

A solar panel from a defunct pool-heating system is now the basis for a towering sculpture called “The Wave.” Plastic CDs are put to use as sun-catchers, and warped, time-faded, wooden tennis rackets and a tiny gold trophy add to the décor surrounding the tennis courts. Every rock lining the numerous pathways was found on the property, he said.

An untitled sculpture pointed across a walkway at the home of Chuck and Pilar Bahde of Rancho Santa Fe. “My sculptures are unusual. Some say I’m a little weird,” said Chuck Bahde, strolling past another of his sculptures, this one twisting skyward. (photo by Charlie Neuman)

Bahde, 84, was an industrial architect by trade and a graduate of the Institute of Design In Chicago. Over the years he enjoyed a wide-ranging career that included everything from designing and building custom homes in the Midwest to practicing public relations in Europe, where he met his wife, Pilar, who is Swiss and Spanish.

“I was more or less a job-jumper, because I was curious,” he said.

Though he started creating art while in school, and design work was often part of his job, Bahde was never a professional artist. “My sculptures are unusual. Some say I’m a little weird,” he said with a laugh.

But few aside from family members and friends have seen his sculptures and unique landscape of art. “I just do things for myself,” he said.

A vacation in San Diego and a subsequent job offer from Convair, where Bahde worked designing airliner interiors, led the couple to settle in San Diego to raise their two children. After many years living in Point Loma and actively participating in the planning group and other community efforts, the Bahdes bought the Rancho Santa Fe property in 1974. He has been remodeling the house, and the yard, ever since.

Bahde’s landscape is ever-changing, as he continues to add to it and create newer pieces. Even more sculptures fill several garages that once housed a car collection; Bahde plans to put them on exhibit at a gallery someday.

But he is most proud of the fact that his intricate and eye-catching landscape takes very little water to maintain, other than what is needed for the macadamia trees, two coral trees and a small rose garden that were already on the property when he bought it.

In fact, the recent rains kept Bahde busy drying out the “pools,” since standing water could loosen the glue holding the mosaic-like surface together.

Bahde credits a school coach, in part, with some of the modesty that has kept him from making his artwork public. “My first football coach told me: ‘As good as you all are, I don’t want to see you bragging. Just show people what you can do.’ ”

Written by: Leslie Wolf Branscomb, a freelance writer in San Diego
Source: SignOn San Diego

Arts and Music: Skin Art

The word tattoo is derived from the Tahitian word “tatau” which means to mark something. The history of tattoos is as diverse as the people who wear them. The reasons for having a tattoo are just as varied. A tattoo can be a rite of passage, a sign of belonging to a clan or group, a status symbol, a token of bravery, a mark of beauty, uniqueness or self expression.

The usual method of tattooing involved piercing or cutting the skin with a sharp object, rubbing colored pigment into the wounds and letting them heal. There were many variations on this method. Even today’s techniques use the same principle.

Tattooing was widespread among Native American tribes. For example, the Sioux believed that after death the spirit of a warrior mounts a horse and sets forth on its journey to the afterlife. Along the way, the warrior meets an old woman who demands to see his tattoos. If he has none, she turns him back to wander the world as a ghost.

Arts and Music: Skin Art

Tattooing was practiced in many Asian cultures. Elaborate facial tattoos were especially prevalent among the Maoris of New Zealand. Even among modern Maoris, these tattoos are still a source of pride.

Tattooing was brought to Europe in the early 1800s by sailors who’d discovered it in the South Pacific. Over time it became a fad among the aristocracy. Even members of the British royal family sported tattoos. Inevitably, the practice of tattooing spread to America. The first permanent tattoo shop in New York City was set up in 1846. Most of the customers were military servicemen, and the tattoos tended to be patriotic or romantic in nature, especially with the onset of the civil war.

Arts and Music: Skin Art

Getting a tattoo wasn’t for the fainthearted. The needles were attached to a wooden handle. The tattoo artist dipped the needles in ink and moved his hand up and down rhythmically, puncturing the skin two or three times per second. The technique required great dexterity and took years of practice to perfect. Even for the best artists, the process was painfully slow.

After Samuel O’Reilly invented the electric tattoo needle in 1891, tattooing became easier, cheaper and more common. Even women began getting tattoos. A few people had their entire bodies covered with skin art – a guarantee of employment in traveling side shows. In the American West, most tattooing would have been done in the larger cities. A cowboy with a tattoo would probably have either been in the military or in prison, where inmates tattooed each other, often badly.

Arts and Music: Skin Art

In today’s society, tattoos are more popular than at any time in American history. With academically trained artists entering the profession, tattooing can rise to the level of fine art. These two examples were done by Teresa, an artist working in Santa Cruz, CA. She has a degree in art and a growing reputation as a painter. She also happens to be my daughter, and, yes, I have a sample of her early work, a little butterfly on my back. I wear it proudly. For me, it’s a connection to someone I love.

Source: Unusual Historicals
By Elizabeth Lane

A number of shocking sex scenes await theatre-goers in Bruce Labruce’s new play ‘The Bad Breast’ at the HAU 2 (Hebbel am Ufer, Haus 2) theatre.

From a mom-and-son couple enjoying a passionate ‘69′ embrace with their heads between each other’s legs to a woman flashing her breasts and private parts – such scenes may fascinate, surprise and repulse viewers, but is it even art?

The mother-on-son action in 'The Bad Breast' is certainly wild, but is it art?

Either way, the piece by the Canadian author, playwright and film-maker (46) certainly caught the audience off-guard with its bizarre doctor sex games when it premiered on December 10.

The story revolves around a mother who has developed an incestual relationship with her son after breast-feeding him for ten years, leading her to start seeing a psychoanalyst specializing in the female breast.

But why the need for all the pornographic scenes?

A spokesman for the theatre told BILD that Labruce comes from a film background and as an artist he often grapples with the theme of pornography.

The ‘B.Z.’ newspaper described him as “the King of homo-pornos”. He has even made a film about sex within Germany’s notorious Baader-Meinhof terrorist group which was screened at the Berlinale Film Festival.

“I am primarily an entertainer who wants to show another view of feminine sexuality. The play isn’t really pornographic, it is a farce, a satire,” Labruce told ‘B.Z.’

An actor buries his face in his colleague's nether regions - just one of the spectacles the play has to offer.

Feminine hysteria is also a theme touched on in the piece by Canadian playwright and filmmaker Bruce Labruce.

An actress during dress rehearsals on December 9.

The mother-on-son action in 'The Bad Breast' is certainly wild, but is it art?

Source: Bild.de
Photos: SABINE BRINKER plotpoint

Now 25 years after his death it turned out he was right – about one work by Vincent van Gogh.

The painting, “Le Blute-Fin Mill,” goes on public display Wednesday in the small Museum de Fundatie in the central Dutch town of Zwolle.

This image released by Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, shows a painting entitled "Le Blute-Fin Mill", by Vincent van Gogh. The newly authenticated Van Gogh has gone on display 35 years after an art collector bought it in Paris, convinced it was painted by the famed Dutch master but never able to prove it. Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said "Le Blute-Fin Mill" was done in 1886. He said its large human figures are unusual for a Van Gogh landscape but it has his typically bright colors. (AP Photo/Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle)

Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said the painting was unusual for the 19th century impressionist, depicting large human figures in a landscape. The painting shows Parisians climbing wooden stairs to a windmill in the Montmartre district.

But the work was typical of Van Gogh’s at that time in other ways, with its bright colors lathered roughly on the canvas. Van Tilborgh said it was painted in 1886 when the artist was living in Paris. The canvas bore the stamp of an art store he was known to frequent, and used pigments that were common in other works, van Tilborgh said.

The painting “adds to his oeuvre,” the curator told The Associated Press. “You can link it to certain works of Van Gogh in that period, but not that many of them,” he said.

It is the first Van Gogh to be authenticated since 1995 and the sixth to be added to the confirmed list of the artist’s paintings since the latest edition of the standard catalog was published in 1970, van Tilborgh said.

Van Gogh painted about 900 works in his brief career. Afflicted by mental illness, he died of a self-inflicted wound in 1890 at age 37.

Hannema bought the painting in 1975 from an antique and art dealer in Paris who did not believe it was of much value. But the Dutch collector did. He paid 5,000 Dutch guilders for this and another unknown work, or about euro 2,000 ($2,700), but immediately insured the painting for 16 times what he paid.

Hannema touted the painting with “absolute certainty” as a Van Gogh, but no one was listening. He had been discredited since he bought a Vermeer in 1937 that later was shown to be a forgery.

Hannema became director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 at age 26. Born to a wealthy art-collecting family, he was talented, successful, good looking and supremely confident in his judgment of art, said Ralph Keuning, the director of Museum de Fundatie.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands he was given responsibility for all the museums in the country. After the war in 1945 he was arrested and stood trial for collaboration, but he was never convicted and was released from internment two years later.

He continued to add to his own collection, seeking out high quality work by lesser known artists and always looking for unattributed works of masters. He was mistaken nearly all the time.

“He was the laughing stock of the art world,” van Tilborgh said. “His tragedy was that he was always thinking in terms of the big names.”

In 1958 Hannema created an institute for his collection and was allowed to live in Nijenhuis Castle in the village of Heino on condition that he allow public access to the works, which included many fine classical and modern pieces. Some were on permanent display in two small buildings on the grounds, and he conducted tours by appointment of his home until his death in 1984.

Keuning said Le Blute-Fin Mill was not prominently displayed during Hannema’s lifetime. “He was more obsessed by his Vermeers,” which he believed to be authentic.

The collection formed the bulk of the Museum de Fundatie, one of the smaller institutions in this museum-rich country. It acquired another palace in the nearby town of Zwolle in 2005. More than half of the 7,000 items in its possession comes from Hannema’s collection, said museum spokesman Koen Schuurhuis.

The museum had sought once before, in 1993, to have experts authenticate Le Blute-Fin Mill to prepare for an exhibition, Schuurhuis said. But the Amsterdam experts had no time, and the painting went on display as a work that Hannema “claimed” was a Van Gogh.

By: Arhur Max, The Associated Press
Source: Wahington Post

Spotlight by Nick Gentry

“Over the years billions upon billions of disks and tapes have been manufactured and today they are widely regarded as junk. This makes them an affordable thing to make art with,” explains the artist of his work. “Reusing objects that would ordinarily have been sent to landfill makes a comment on the throwaway culture of today. Maybe this work can encourage people to think more creatively about the objects that are deemed to be obsolete or useless.”

Self Portrait 02 by Nick Gentry

Each portrait involves several steps to achieve the unfinished, almost industrial feel of the art. Gentry starts with preliminary sketches and then creates a grid of the images, with each component divided into disk-shaped sections.

Sonata by Nick Gentry

“Spray paint is applied to the disks using a stencil to preserve the label and metal slider. Preserving the labels is key, as the handwriting and scribbling are integral to the personality and history of each piece,” Gentry explains. “Elements of people’s lives are stored on the disks and although that data can never be accessed again I like to preserve some of that for viewing.”

After the disks are placed in tonally appropriate areas, almost like pixels, to create a collage, Gentry sketches the outline of the head and the features in pencil, with oil paint to finish the details.

Infinite Echoes by Nick Gentry

“This process is quite selective as only certain features are finished completely. I like to leave a lot unfinished as it allows the viewer to see the layers, showing how the work has been created,” he explains. “What brings the work to life is that blend of the nostalgic and familiar, together with the freshness of a new form of expression.”

Source: GreenMuze

Corrugated Art: Incredible Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

Langan’s goal is to encourage people to look at materials in a new way. He believes that corrugated cardboard has interesting characteristics which are usually ignored; by bringing those characteristics to the forefront, he’s encouraging us all to rethink our perceptions of what’s useful and what’s not. While most of us would recycle (or simply throw away) old cardboard boxes, this art shows us what could be done with them instead.

Corrugated Art: Incredible Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

Using nothing more than corrugated cardboard, a hobby knife and non-toxic glue, Langan creates three-dimensional pictures that are detailed and full of life. His work ranges from corporate logo pieces to recreations of famous works of art. Each piece can take up to 100 hours to complete, and when finished they are truly striking.

Corrugated Art: Incredible Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

Langan’s work has been featured at environment-themed events and in the boardrooms of major companies. He makes no claims to being the most environmentally-friendly artist out there; in fact, he denies having much impact on the waste stream at all. But he says, simply, that his art is “something rather than nothing.” Which is to say that he’s made something beautiful where before there was only a plain brown box.

Corrugated Art: Incredible Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

The artist hopes that his art will inspire others to ask what they can do to help the recycling movement. This impressive corrugated art isn’t going to save the world, of course. But if it helps a few people to see that they can help make a dent in the waste stream with simple actions, then Langan’s goal will be fulfilled.

Corrugated Art: Incredible Upcycled Cardboard Sculptures

Source: Dalimunthe

Lotus by Japan's Masahiro Hasegawa who will be participating at Adiss.

The six-week event has been organised by Zayed University in collaboration with Salwa Zeidan Gallery.

The finished works will then go on public display all over Abu Dhabi city. By adding 17 monumental pieces to the city, the initiative will elevate public awareness of art in general.

“The objective of the symposium is to initiate artistic and cultural co-operation between artists of different backgrounds, and promote the UAE as a new meeting place for artistic and cultural creativity. In its inaugural run, Adiss will open its doors to the world under the theme of “Bridging Societies through the Language of Art” and will bring together 17 sculptors from around the world to reveal their creativity on site from the heart of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi,” said Dr Sulaiman Al Jassim, Vice-President of Zayed University.

Abeer Al Mutawa, Community Services Advisor of Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, said the initiative was in line with the body’s main strategy of affirming Abu Dhabi’s position as a truly modern city and boost the Emirate’s ambitions of building a global reputation as a top destination for the arts.

Salwa Zeidan, Director of the Selwa Zeidan Gallery, said the idea has been in development for over two years now.

“The aim here is to have Adiss take on the form of a performing art event, an open sculpture studio involving participation of both artists and the public. Art is for everybody, not only for connoisseurs and art critics,” she said at an event to launch the symposium.

“When we first made the announcement, we received an overwhelming response of more than 400 applicants from different corners of the globe. We then carefully reviewed every single entry and shortlisted a number of them based on their background and medium. Once we narrowed the numbers down, we asked each artist to submit 3 designs of sculptures that could complement the city of Abu Dhabi,” she said, explaining how the artists were selected. “The artistic concept of the submitted works ranged from abstract ideas to semi-realistic designs mainly aimed at complementing the beautiful city of Abu Dhabi, its history, and its culture.

“We also wanted to give one emerging artists who shows promising talent a chance and selected Husam Chaya from Lebanon to take part in Adiss 2010 and intend to introduce a new artist every year.”

Artists of the world participating in this first edition of Adiss and who will bring together their collective talents to create a most active and dynamic event are Billy Lee from the United Kingdom, Caroline Ramersdorfer from Austria, Ehab El Laban from Eqypt, Fabrizio Dieci from Italy, Gheorghi Filin and Petre Petrov from Bulgaria, Gregor Kregar from Slovenia, Hassan Sharif from the UAE, Hwang Seoung-Woo from Korea, Jo Kley from Germany, Jon Barlow Hudson from the US, John Gogaberishvili from Republic of Georgia, Juanjo Novella from Spain, Konstantin Dimopoulos from Australia, Masahiro Hasegawa and Yoshin Ogata from Japan.

Another area of focus is the lecture programme and workshops, which aim to advance the cultural dialogue between Abu Dhabi and the rest of the world. Topics being discussed include public art, its history and how it fits into Abu Dhabi; art in the urban scene; and art and the environment. All the sessions will take place at the Zayed University auditorium.

Source: Emirates Business