Observingart: collecting art

How to Give Your Collection Away But Still Have Use of It?
Daniel Grant uses the Wall Street Journal to outline the process of making an irrevocable trust for an art collection which allows the owners to donate their art to a trust, keep it and pay rent on the art. Read article at Art Market Monitor

Drawing Week in Paris … and the impact of the Chinese market
A long-term graph of the best auction results in the field of drawing shows that the explosion of the drawing market is a recent phenomenon that more or less coincides with the development of the Chinese market.  Read article at Art Market Monitor

Harlequin and ape

The harlekin figure with his androgynous character also has an ambiguous gender character, affecting the relationship between the harlekin figure and monkey . Aspects of gender identity emerges as sublimated ; symbols and aspects associated with each gender projected into the opposite.

Om harlekinfiguren med sin androgyne karakter også har en tvetydig kjønnskarakter, berører selve forholdet mellom harlekinfiguren og apen. Aspekter ved kjønnsidentiteten fremstår som sublimert; symboler og aspekter forbundet med enkelte kjønn projiseres over i det motsatte.

«Bjørn Ransve», Audun Eckhoff, Orfeus Forlag 2000

Observingarts: Bjørn Ransve, Edvard Munch, Scandinavian contemporary art

"Den norske ekspresjonist-generasjonen er representert ved blant andre Rolf Nesch, før utstillingen avrundes med 1960/70-tallet og kunstnerne Per Kirkeby, Bjørn Ransve, Ola Billgren og Kjartan Slettemark».
«Danske Kirkeby, norske Ransve og svenske Billgren hører til vår tids store malere, mens norsk-svenske Slettemark var, og er, en mester i iscenesettelse." 

"The Norwegian expressionist generation is represented by, among others, Rolf Nesch, before the exhibition ends with 1960-1970's and artists Per Kirkeby , Bjørn Ransve, Ola Billgren and Kjartan Slettemark". "Danish Kirkeby, Norwegian Ransve and Swedish Billgren belong to our time great painters, while Norwegian - Swedish Slettemark was, and is, a master of staging".

Quotes from article in Aftenposten: http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/anmeldelser/Munch-ismer-7135143.html

Observingarts: Bjørn Ransve and Edvard Munch

                                              Bjørn Ransve,demon II, 1971, oil on canvas.

"Mer tydelig er referanser til Edvard Munch hos en yngre generasjon, som deltok i maleriets nygjennombrudd i 1980-årene. Flere av dem fikk utløsende impulser fra det nye tyske maleriet som knyttet forbindelser direkte til Munch og tysk ekspresjonisme. Dagens yngste norske kunstnergenerasjon uttrykker seg ofte i andre medier enn maleriet, men også hos dem kan sees referanser til Edvard Munch, og særlig til hans psykisk mest ladede skildringer av menneskelige relasjoner".

"More clearly are references to Edvard Munch with a younger generation, who participated in the new breakthrough of painting in the 1980s. Several of them got triggering impulses from the new German painting tying relations directly to Munch and German expressionism. The generation of the youngest Norwegian artist often expresses itself in media other than painting, but also with them can be seen references to Edvard Munch, and especially to his mental most charged depictions of human relationships.

Kilde/source and more context and pictures at: http://old.munch-museet.no/ekko/

Bjørn Ransve: Ape / monkey

The monkey was traditionally the companion of the jester and is depicted with them in arts representation of these characters. In Ransves versions, both jester and the monkey are portrayed as lonely figures. While harlequin has mask type. It is first and foremost in the monkey we see the human depth and sensitivity. It is moreover in portrait of the monkey the artist comes closest to his own self-portrait.

Apen var tradisjonelt gjøglernes følgesvenn, og er gjengitt sammen med dem i kunstens fremstilling av disse figurene. I Ransves versjoner blir både gjøgleren og apen fremstilt som ensomme figurer. Mens  harlekinen har maske type. Det er først og fremst i apen vi ser den menneskelige dybden og følsomhet. Det er dessuten i apemaleriene at kunstneren kommer nærmest sitt eget selvportrett.

«Bjørn Ransve», Audun Eckhoff, Orfeus Forlag 2000

Observearts: Yellow Black Indian by Bjørn Ransve

Yellow Black Indian, 1984. Indian inc and acrylic on board. 150 x 150 cm

Hos Ransve er indianerbildene malt rett på ubehandlede treplater, ofte med tusjfarve, på en slik måte at virkningen i stor grad etableres på grunnlag av streken. Slik vokser maleriene frem fra tegningen, på en ny måte i Ransves maleri. Dette har flere viktige implikasjoner for betydningen av disse bildene. Teknikken er risikabel, idet tusjen ved påføring umiddelbart suges opp av den porøse tregrunnen og endringer underveis er umulig. Som i de terpentinuttynnede apemaleriene har altså Ransve igjen gjort det maksimalt vanskelig for seg selv.

«Bjørn Ransve», Audun Eckhoff, Orfeus Forlag 2000

Observearts: Bjørn Ransve, Ornamental Indian

Ornamental Indian,  Blue, 1984. Indian inc and acrylic on board. 150 x 150 cm.

Indianeren er en skikkelse som bare kan fremstilles i profil eller en face, altså flatemessig. Enhver annen løsning ville tendere mot fotografiets romlighet. Indianerens selvfremstilling konvergerer altså med modernismens flatemaleri.

The indian is a figure that can only be produced in profile or en face, thus flat wise. Any other
solution would tend towards the spatiality of the photography. The repesentation of the indian, thus converges with the flat painting of modernism.

«Bjørn Ransve», Audun Eckhoff, Orfeus Forlag 2000

Observearts: Bjørn Ransve, Horse head

                        Large Horse Head,  1979. Oil on board, 130 x 125 cm.

Towards the middle of the 1980’s, a certain tension towards an objective process also starts to appear, while the first attempts to rescue the painting from being a mere vehicle for the image, start to become apparent. The aim is to make the painting the object of itself, as well as its own image. This means that the artwork is free from any need for content.

Rita Selvaggio, “Memories of an unending beginning”. “Ransve paintings 1962 – 2009” Arnoldsche 

Observearts: Craig LaRotonda "The Elysian"

"Craig’s extensive body of work as illustrator has given this artist broad recognition, and his fine art can be found in the homes of collectors such as Johnny Depp, Kirsten Dunst, Guillermo Del Toro and James Gunn". More at: AltPic

Find out more about Craig and his work at http://www.revelationart.net/

Observearts: Craig LaRotonda, Major Tom's All Time Low

Craig LaRotonda

Major Tom's All Time Low

16" x 20" "

Acrylic on Wood

Observearts: Machines of grace, Craig LaRotonda

Craig LaRotonda

Machines of Grace

8" x 10"  

Acrylic on Wood 

Observearts: dark angel

Craig LaRotonda

"The summoning"

34" x 30"

Acrylic on Wood 

Nature as ideal and freedom of execution.

“Despite considerable variations in motif and approach, Bjørn Ransve focused on the figure in space as his primary theme from the time of his artistic debut around 1970 until the mid – 1980s. The relation between nature as ideal and freedom of execution had been a consistent source of tension in his images, helping to situate his work in the art-historical context”.

Audun Eckhoff, “Magic mirror// Point Zero”. “Ransve paintings 1962 – 2009” Arnoldsche 

"Blue Harkequin" by Bjørn Ransve

Blue Harkequin, 1981. Oil on canvas. 200 x 76 cm.

On this subject (Harlequin), it is difficult to avoid mentioning the example of Picasso who mirrored the famous trickster of the Italian commedia dell’arte, and made him a key element in many of his early works, as the numerous references in the literature on Picasso seem to attest.

Rita Selvaggio, “Memories of an unending beginning”. “Ransve paintings 1962 – 2009” Arnoldsche 

Big city, bright lights

We have had the pleasure of being introduced to the art of Carolyn Meyer during our stay in California. This CA base artist is well known for her abstracted urban landscape paintings. They can be found in many private and corporate collections worldwide. - See recent and old pictures at
http://carolynmeyerart.com/ or join Carolyn for a New York stroll:

The Darkest Light

"His paintings and sculptures incorporate mixed media and aging techniques, ultimately creating surreal figurative works with a dark narrative and a grotesque elegance. His distorted creatures are subjects captured in a timeless space; surviving the brutality and beauty of existence".  

Source: Fineartamercia

Craig LaRotonda

The Darkest Light
24" x 30"
Acrylic on Wood

Observearts:Flow and fixation

Observing arts: the productive exchange and flow of ideas, patterns, challenging intuition, the making of  individual and collective constructs. Negotioations, agreement and diagrement. Individuality vs. collectivism. Associations and  - references of interpretation. Art through words, art through hearts. 

I want to share this rare interview with Frances Bacon. 

Source: A rare Francis Bacon interview from a 1971 BBC documentary.

                                       

Painting by Bjørn Ransve. 

Observearts: David Lippenberger

The tragicomic figure at the center of my paintings, although resembling me, is a "universalized version of myself, an "Everyman." This distorted figure exists in an uneasy agreement with his surroundings". From: http://www.davidlippenberger.com/home

David Lippenberger: "Man sitting in empty room" 

2003. 

Mixed media on panel. 

Observearts: culture/ nature

Two quite distinct, different and unique perspectives on the relationship between nature and culture, animal and man. 

Bjørn Ransve.
Ape and cranium, 1981
Oil on board, 120 x 121 cm.

Observearts:Lars Hertevig

Lars Hertervig (16 February 1830 – 6 January 1902) was a Norwegian painter. His semi-fantastical work with motives from the coastal landscape in the traditional district of Ryfylke is regarded as one of the peaks of Norwegian painting. Source: Wikipedia

In Norwegian: 

                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPmYeVE9zo


In English:

                                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NndF-x6GkN0