Art & Inspiration Blog

Blue chip art is proven to be one of the best investments I both boon times and times of recession, as shown by the Mei Moses Fine Art Index.Plus, in modern history recessions and depressions have also proven to be fabulous opportunities for art investors to discover new, emerging artists who become the blue chip artists from that time period. The secret is to know what exactly to look for and buy.

While the economy and stock market continue to falter, blue chip galleries and auctions show increasing signs of revival and outright strength.

Yet, dealers continue to promote the idea that the best reason to buy art is because a person likes it (or love it). Most prominent dealers confirm that they advise their clients to only collect works that they love. While this works for other personal luxury purchases, such as watches, Jimmy Choo shoes and vehicles, after a certain price point, original art should always be understood as an investment.

The same dealers back up their artists in terms of their art education, previous shows, prominent collectors and past selling history to help a new collector feel secure. Over time, this security may prove false. There is a glut of many artists who have MFAs from excellent art schools who are failing to make a living at art or, more importantly innovate in any important way. And, there is also a glut of good, mid career artists, even artists whose works are in famous museums, whose works will never reach true blue chip status for the same reason.

During this recession collectors are showing that their best reason to buy art is because it is a good investment. Even the Nazi’s knew that art was an extremely valuable possession. This is why the stole so much art that they personally did not “love”, as it was the antithesis of their so-called ideals, as it was beloved or created by Jews, like Kandinsky.

Fine art has proven to be one of the very best investments ever, rivaling an early investment in Google – but like stocks, all fine art is not equally valuable for investors.

Essentially, there are two sure ways to invest well in art.

First Way to Invest Profitably in Art

The first is to invest in an important or significant work by a blue chip artist. A blue chip artist can be understood as an easily recognized name, a kind of brand, like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Turner, Pissarro and Monet and Degas, van Gogh, Kandinsky, Rothko, Johns or Weiner, etc.

Generally, a blue chip artist influences other innovative artists—who in turn influence other artists. In the above simple and short list, spanning from Caravaggio to Jasper Johns and Lawrence Weiner you can see how one innovative artist’s works inspires another.

Jasper Johns and Lawrence Weiner are contemporary living artists, but my work guarantees that them as prime influencers and thus, blue chip artists who will remain such over coming centuries. I am founding Post Conceptual Art theory – painting with symbols as strokes, which is a radically new step in the history of art. I have taken the inspiration of their letters and numbers and used them as strokes in a traditional painterly manner. In no way am I copying them, but I am standing on their shoulders. [Note: For a free, no strings download of the Post Conceptual Art manifesto PDF. Click: “A Paintings Meaning is Inherent in its Strokes” }. If you can afford it, buy the best works of Johns and Weiner – learning this from the likes of me is as close as you can get to insider art trading.

There are other names, including contemporary ones, which are easily recognized that may not be true blue chip artists. It is questionable that their art will influence other artistic innovators. Some of these artists may be incredible artists who quickly followed innovators like Pissarro and Monet and Degas, and as such carved a kind of historic spot for themselves, like Childe Hassam. Yet Hassam was not the innovator, and somehow, as a young girl wandering the Metropolitan and Museum of Modern Art the Impressionists who inspired me were Pissarro and Monet and Degas. Even though I was uneducated, their authenticity of innovation shone through to me.

The innovators are artists who found new techniques and focuses for making art. They do more than simply have their own recognizable style—they have their own unique way.

Many other chains of artistic innovators leading to artistic innovators may be easily constructed. It is kind of like the game of six degrees of separation played out over the timeline of art history.

Second, Less Expensive Way to Invest Profitably in Art

The second way to make “a killing” by investing in art – is to buy the early works of an artistic innovator before they are really discovered and their prices zoom skyward. This is easy advise but historically difficult to do. It is much like recognizing a nascent Google investment opportunity.

Ironically, in Modern and Contemporary times — when dealers are the middlemen between artists and patrons — the work of an emerging artistic innovator is almost always immediately unnoticed, unappreciated and even shunned, especially by the establishment.

When the Impressionists banded together to show their works, they were not only rejected by the establishment, they were ridiculed. Nothing sold.

Andy Warhol’s first show of his now iconic Soup Cans and Brillo Boxes was a complete dud. Nothing sold. His dealer, Irving Blum, took pity on him and bought some of the paintings for a pittance. A few years later this made him a very rich man.

Oh, and van Gogh. His otherwise successful art dealer and brother, Theo, only managed to sell one of his then strange seeming paintings in his lifetime.

Jackson Pollock spent cold winters in Springs, on the Eastern End of Long Island as heat is expensive and his works were not selling.

Lawrence Weiner spent cold winters on his houseboat in the Netherlands as heat is expensive and his works were not selling, although by that time Pollock’s were highly valued..

Why do people fail to immediately see artistic innovators? Ironically the answer is in the question, the work of artistic innovators are actually more difficult to see and understand that the work of artists who have already been accepted and are well known.

To see anything we need similar memories. Ninety percent of vision happens in the brain as it decodes impressions of light received from the eyes. It is actually much easier – and we are more accurate at—perceiving art (or anything) that is more familiar to us. We have more memories of this being art. We have learned to see the older art as art.

Keep in mind that any art that sells well will “inspire” other artists to paint in a similar copy-cat way. Copy-cats are not innovators. There are many “Pop” artists today who have developed slightly different styles from Warhol, Lichtenstein. The puzzle is how to tell if something new that somehow does not seem like art, possible is harder to see or understand as art, is something radical, is actually art or just awful. The questions to ask are: 1.) is this artist painting in a new and unique way that can be copied by others? If the answer to that is yes, the next question that also must be affirmative is: Does this new way (or method, or focus) have the potential to inspire other future artistic innovators?

What the Successful Investor Needs (Besides Money)

Recognized Blue Chip

Emerging Investors and Innovators

Finding new innovative artists may also be accomplished through dealers and galleries, especially those that feature emerging artists. However, your fingers can also do the walking online, through sites like artnet.com, artprice.com, the sites the art auction houses, plus, for the really new, by watching and finding artists through social media sites like artists’ blogs, Twitter, Facebook and You Tube. New innovators, those who are currently innovating – rather than hoeing the innovative paths they previously created – are most likely found in places that are also innovative, which at present includes social media.

Investing profitably in art takes money, but not necessarily a great deal of money. Herbert Vogel, a postman, and his wife Dorothy, a librarian in the Brooklyn Public Library, managed to amass a Modern and Contemporary art collection worth a fortune that they donated to the National Gallery. What the Vogels really invested was their time.

The Vogels met and befriended artists and bought works early in the artists’ careers. The only real advantage the Vogels had was their location, they were in New York City before the Internet and then Social Media was invented.

Today work by truly innovative emerging artists can be found for under $5,000 USA , and easily for under $10,000 for good sized works. While New York City remains the center of the Art World, every innovative artist and gallery in NYC, plus most of the rest of the world, can be found on the Internet. Anyone with a PC is in the right place at the right time.

To make collecting this new work more enticing note that almost always the early works of an artist are considered to be the most valuable. For example, only now are Warhol’s later works, such as the large Last Supper paintings, nearing the value of his Soup Cans.

So while the stock market jitters, gold soars and real estate tanks check out investing in art. The images you see, the ideas you come in contact with, the artists you will meet will be much more inspiring and interesting than the average broker. Plus, you are now armed with the insider art knowledge that what you need to find are the innovators.

The new twenty-first century art theory of Post Conceptual Art, including the branch called UnGraven Image makes a revolutionary leap in visual story telling by its use of symbols as strokes. This is the first art theory to ever actually focus upon the stroke.

From the beginning of time great art has been used to tell stories. The ability of art to tell visual stories is powerful. Usually and often found in great art, the story involves symbols, which add depths of meaning.

Great art such as works by van Gogh, Rembrandt, Poussin, Monet and Dali, etc., usually tells a visual story. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel , Picasso’s Guernica , Da Vinci’s and Warhol’s versions of The Last Supper , all tell stories and include symbols to convey additional visual messages.

Art began as symbolic representation in order to tell the stories and myths of the tribe and its beliefs. For instance, an ancient mask or cave painting of an animal is more likely to symbolize a god or spirit represented by an animal than represent a portrait of a specific animal that was seen or hunted.

Written language developed from symbolic representations. From the earliest writings found to current Chinese, symbols are used to represent ideas, which are then combined to form complex ideas and sentences. A giant leap occurred when symbols were used to represent sounds in speech giving birth to phonetic writing. Letters and numbers are always symbols.

Recent archeological discoveries point to Hebrew as the earliest may be phonetic written languages, but it lacked the symbols for vowels that were famously added by the Phoenicians. Two Hebrew letters of Torah font (the font used for Hebrew Bibles and prayer books by Jews and Christians) can be combined and/or repeated to form any and all of this font’s letters. These basic letters are the yud, which looks much like a comma (‘); and the vav resembles a spear standing upright like a number 1 that lacks the bottom perpendicular base. Each of these letters can be painted, drawn or formed with one stroke. This means Torah font is binary.

Genesis Aleph 2009 See: Larger version & print

According to its art manifesto by founder Judy Rey Wasserman, Post Conceptual Art uses any alpha or numeric or symbol set for strokes, but the branch of UnGraven Image only uses Torah Font. This is only font or symbol set in the world that is fully binary and phonic. Thus the strokes that create the more complex letters are also symbols themselves that represent sounds and ideas.

UnGraven Image art gets is strokes from original Bible texts. These strokes are used just as traditional artists use strokes. Strokes interweave, are overlapped, and used in layers and as glazes over other strokes. It is impossible to read the tests that comprise an artwork, just as we cannot see the atoms and particles that are the basis for the physical reality that surrounds us.

In Post Conceptual Art, the conceptual understanding of the strokes provides the foundational meaning of a work. This new art is a step away from pure Conceptualism or Word Art back to more traditional art thanks to its use of imagery. Yet the symbols, the concept of the texts used are the basis of each artwork.

As twenty-first century art, Post Conceptual Art, including the branch called UnGraven Image tell stories that are ancient yet visually cutting edge. This art echoes the most famous scientific concerns of our time, such as the search for the smallest particle that is the building block of the physical universe: the Higgs boson or “God particle” at Cern; or the harnessing of energy waves, such as light and wind, for power.

Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art theory and its branch known as UnGraven Image portray a radical and innovative new intrinsic, yet hidden, story that could only be told by art of the twenty-first century.

The Art Hamptons fair continues to grow and evolve. This year it showcased $300 million in art from 95 galleries from around the world, according to Rick Friedman, Founder and Executive Director of the show.

The announcement by Scope Hamptons that it would skip this year, no doubt aided Art Hamptons, which for the past two years has reigned as the tony area’s only art fair.

Visually, it is an interesting show as cutting edge emerging contemporary mixes with blue chip artists; and galleries from Asia, Latin America and Europe go toe to toe with local galleries; plus prices range from $2,000.00 to $2 million. Plus, this year’s fair is a carbon-neutral event, an achievement that deserves mention.

Friedman smartly schedules his fair to coincide with other important Hamptons art events, such as the Parrish Art Museum’s Midsummer Party, which occurs the weekend following the July 4 th weekend.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to artist Donald Sultan, a Sag Harbor resident. The Mary Ryan Gallery held an exhibit of Sultan’s work in their booth.

When I attend fairs, I know I will blog on what I appreciate because I like to share good art and news with my readers who are now often also my friends on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. There is not time or room in a blog to mention everything, but what follows is some of the best of what I found.

Early on in my trek through the fair, I was looking for Caren Golden and here gallery as I always enjoy seeing her and the Caren Golden Fine Art gallery’s artists, which I have mentioned in past blogs. I was well rewarded as I found work by Devorah Sperber , an artist whose work I first saw at the gallery’s booth at a Pulse fair. By then I had my limit of images fort hat blog, but now I have the opportunity to share one here. What you are seeing is spools of thread, used as strokes to create a portrait of Marilyn Monroe.

Devorah Sperber’s Marilyn 2, 2009

I’ve enjoyed shows and openings at Denise Bibro Fine Art in Chelsea and was happy to see this booth. I wanted to include some work by Jerry Meyer, but although Denise graciously offered to allow me to use an image here, due to my blog’s size constraints, I knew the important details would not be easily visible here. In THE HIT PARADE , Meyer presents a kind of juke box display that riffs on senior citizens. Song selections include: By the Hardening of the Arteries band- “Killing Me Softly”, by the Al Zymer and his Orchestra—“Where Did I Put the Car Keys?”, and by Lust to Dust—“I Left My Libedo in Toledo”.

It was fun to chat with local artist James Kennedy, whose was on view at the booth of the Surface Library II, in East Hampton.

As an artist, always enjoy meeting other artists. It was also good to meet Fedele Spadafora who was accompanying his art.

Gallerist Lisa Cooper of Elisa Contemporary Gallery donates a portion of every sale to philanthropic organizations that serve children and families through art. Currently the gallery supports Free Arts NYC and Creative Arts Workshops for kids. It was a pleasure meeting Lisa and seeing the art in her booth.

At Consorcio de Arte there were wonderfully lyrical new all white collage paintings by Paula Rivero, which would be included here, except the constraints of a smallish jpeg image cannot do them justice, as the texturing is what sets this work apart. Thanks to Solange Guez , Co-Director of the gallery, who took me into a separate room to see more of this exciting artist from Argentina.

A.I.R. Gallery was founded in 1972 as the first all women’s gallery in the United States. You do not need to know that to be drawn into their booth by the quality of the art they show. I enjoyed meeting gallery director Kat Griefan and Simone Meltesen, executive assistant.

Daria Dorosh’s Follow the Patter, Scene II

At last year’s fair images by and of Andy Warhol seemed to be everywhere. Although one can almost always find a reference to Warhol at any fair that includes secondary market galleries, this year the splendid glut was gone. However, a wonderful photograph that features Andy and Edie Sedgewick at Tulla Booth Gallery ‘s booth sated my Warhol hunger. Tulla is a charming lady who shows top notch fine art photography in her Sag Harbor gallery.

I enjoyed the work at Tria‘s booth where I discovered work by Casey Voyt, especially “They Came to Snuff the Rooster”. It was delightful to meet gallerists Carol Suchman and Paige Bart who are friendly and helpful. This gallery also supports various arts charities.

This year Mark Humphrey Gallery, hailing from my hometown of Southampton had a booth, which featured prints by Alex Katz, Damien Hirst and Roy Lichtenstein.

Silas Marder Gallery, a young local gallery that the Art Hampton’s fair was represented by a wall—no need for more considering the gallery is actually located next door to the site of the fair!

Moscow’s Galustyan Gallery introduces Russian artists to the world and international artists to Russia. Their booth had a mystical work by Robert Bery, who has helped in a legal fight to protect and extend the rights on NYC Street Artists.

Alexander Calder’s Fish and Faces, 1976

Mark Borghi Fine Art‘s booth is both last and first for me at this fair. Situated at the fair’s entrance i sets the bar. It is also always the last booth I visit, even though using an exit would be more convenient. I double back because I want to refresh my eyes and hold the vision of the works I see there as I leave the fair. Among the Modern Art treasures was an Alexander Calder that delights me with its playfulness and I hope it will do the same for you. In addition to gallery’s in NYC and LA, Mark Borghi maintains a year round gallery on Main Street in Bridgehampton, which has quiet little shows that can rival what is at the local museums in quality.

Bravo’s new reality TV series, Work of Art is continues to get press—bad press from arts media and artists, yet can be understood as a successful program as its ratings continue to grow.

This is the way of commercial TV, which is definitely not to be mistaken at any time for PBS, including when it comes to a show about fine art.  To make this perfectly clear, in the same time slot as Work of Art, on the following night is another reality show, Bethany Getting Married. Bethany is also one of the Real Housewives of New York.

The latest episode of Work of Art spawned a new controversy as within it, Trump Apprentice fashion, was a product placement commercial for Audi. While other reality shows may include product plugs in their assignments—which certainly helps pay for the show’s production costs, somehow, because this show is about fine art (OK, artists who are attempting to be fine artists), it is criticized.

Huh?

Fine artists created “commercials”, product placement, branding long before these things had names in any ancient language.

Got any coins or paper money? Artists put the face of Alexander the Great on coins, giving him branding and helping unify his vast empire. Artists created scenes of their governments conquering heroes, promoting them and making them immortal, long before anyone actually ran for office. And no company or person has ever come close to the way that the Catholic Church and Holy Roman Empire used art for branding, advertising, PR, and yes, even product placement. You can easily see this in most of the world’s greatest art museums and sites. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Donatello, Matisse, etc., anyone?

The critics—the writers questioning the Audi product placement  are all earning a living from media that is supported by advertising, whether a blog with Google Ads or print ads like those in the LA Times.

Isn’t art always, in some way also a kind of media?  What makes art so holy that artists or art distribution streams, such as a TV show cannot benefit from sponsorship? [Note: for Holy Art see a previous paragraph re the Catholic Church.]

The artist-contestants have been criticized for not openly questioning or commenting upon the “Audi commercial” inside the show, as apparently this should be understood as shocking.

What shocked me was that not a single artist grabbed up any – not a darn shred—of literature from the Audi showroom to either use in collages, as models for their art piece, or even as surfaces to paint upon. Not one artist used an Audi car image, exterior or interior —a definitely Audi image—in their work. To be fair, one artist did use the product name and logo in a humorous Word Art piece. Neither the winner nor runner up included any reference to Audi in their works.

If there is now a taboo about making art with product images, do we need to toss out Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans or Brillo boxes? If instead of an Audi ride and showroom, the same artist-contestants were taken to a supermarket, might we have seen product images in the contestants’ art pieces?

So far, none of the critics  focused on the fact that the real art world cast of the show, Simon de Pury, Bill Powers, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Jerry Saltz, and guest judge Richard Phillips never commented negatively or questioned Audi’s “commercial” within the show. They are art world savvy. They know that automobile manufacturers, banks, wines and liquors, retailers, media, etc., sponsor art shows and events. Sponsor = patron = advertising usually — and a wise museum director, curator, artist and critic knows this and is grateful for the arts funding.

As an artist, I kind of think that Audi can be seen as a patron to the show and also the artist-contestants, who are delighted with the free flow of art supplies and studio space that they are enjoying. I say bring on the sponsors and, (pun intended) Bravo to companies that helps foster interest in Contemporary Art and artists!

Judy Rey Wasserman is the founder of a Post Conceptual Art Theory, including a branch called UnGraven Image. You can download the manifesto for free Click HERE.
To see an enjoyable and visually inspiring You Tube Video and learn discover Post Conceptual images SEE: ungravenimage.com

Benjamin Franklin is one of the most interesting people in American history and possibly for all time.

He was a complex man, wise, witty and incredibly smart and savvy.

In my first Essence Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, I show him as somewhat younger, and more in his prime than we are used to seeing him. The image we normally find him on hundred dollar bills, where he resembles the guy on Quaker Oats, who probably was modeled after Franklin.

Were it not for his advanced age, Ben Franklin would have been one of the first presidents of the United States . As a Founding Father he was one of the prime movers who helped us gain our independence from England by creating an alliance with France.

Proverbs 13 (Ben Franklin)

By Judy Rey Wasserman

Franklin rose from working class beginnings to become a member of the high society of his time, both in the American states and also the French court. By the end of his life he had great achievements as politician, political theorist, statesman, author, scientist, inventor, soldier, civic activist and businessman.

As a scientist, Franklin discovered theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass ‘armonica’.

He was a model citizen. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania . He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society. From 1775 to 1776, Franklin was the Postmaster General under the Continental Congress and from 1785 to 1788, he served as the equivalent of governor of Pennsylvania .

Toward the end of his life, he became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

Franklin is also known for his sage wit and wisdom, usually found in his Poor Richard’s Almanac. When preparing to create the basic Essence Portrait of Ben Franklin, it seemed fitting to turn to the Bible’s Proverbs.13. and use the letters from the original Bible text for the strokes. I wonder if some of Franklin ‘s ideas and advice were inspired by this text.

To see and discover more about Judy Rey Wasserman’s Essence Portraits—the radical new portraiture of the 21 st Century go to : http://ungravenimage.com/essencevideos.php

The art world has a new problem and controversy, and while it seems innocent, it could be a humdinger,  a taste of what may ultimately transform the art world as we know it.

This innocent seeming assault on the art world concerns the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s new project called You Tube Play is searching for new video artists. The idea is that artists can submit their You Tube videos (one per artist) and from the entrants 20 videos will be selected to be shown for four days at the museum.

While the world outside struggles with a recession that includes tent cities caused by mortgage frauds and unemployment, an unprecedented ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused by highly paid executives cutting corners on safety measures, a year of killer quakes and dormant volcanoes awakening, plus wars and Internet rumors of wars, the Guggenheim’s open video casting call seems hardly controversial.

Yet, Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art and former curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, attacked the Guggenheim’s project in a New York Times article, saying,” “It’s time to stop kidding ourselves. The museum as revolving door for new talent is the enemy of art and of talent, not their friend — and the enemy of the public as well, since it … serves up art as if it was quick-to-spoil produce from a Fresh Direct warehouse.”

To the “rescue’ and on the other side rode in New York Magazine’s, Jerry Saltz, who, being far more social media savvy than Storr, brought the controversy before his Facebook fans and friends who are continuing the discussion. You Tube is also a social media site.

I discovered the controversy in a discussion begun and moderated by Jerry Saltz on Facebook. I already knew about the call as I had previously ReTweeted the announcement on Twitter from the Guggenheim.

In “ YouTube in the Guggenheim? Go for It! ”, Jerry Saltz points out, “YouTube videos are obviously a form of do-it-yourself art, outsider video, folk-expression, and other things the art world says it loves.”

While Saltz is correct, mainstream art and artists are also to be found on You Tube. The strong Internet connection of this proposed show and its connections to reach artists is the point and the heart of the controversy.

Artists are used to submitting works, slides and jpegs to shows held in galleries or not for profit spaces, but in the Guggenheim call the videos submitted are coming from the Internet. More often than not, an artist is included in a museum show due to submission by galleries or at least being seen in gallery shows, here the “gallery” is usurped by the Internet‘s video showcase site of You Tube.

The issue is not the democratization of art, but the Internet’s increasing ability to at least go toe-to-toe with museums and galleries in relation to art as the middle man or go to place to find art and artists.

While most galleries maintain websites that are seen as an advertisement and extension of their brick and mortar store, the Guggenheim project bypasses all brick and mortar, slides, CDs and goes directly to the Internet –a groundbreaking move for a major art institution.

Let’s swing this around and look from the perspective of an artist–an artist guaranteed to draw crowds to a museum show and fetch a very high price for any dealer or auction house.

How would van Gogh have used the Internet if he had the opportunity? How could it have changed van Gogh’s career?

Like most artists, certainly the greatest artists, van Gogh’s drive was to communicate. He did this through his letters, through conversations and sermons (thus he was also a public speaker) and, of course, through his art.

I bet that an emerging van Gogh would have posted his art in You Tube videos. He would join Jerry Saltz’s discussions of Facebook, have his own fan page and talk art with anyone who was interested. Vincent van Gogh (an impostor) shows up on Twitter, with pithy quotes, as does the Van Gogh Museum– I know because I follow them. I bet van Gogh would have a blog, too.

I use the word “bet” because I am literally doing that as an artist. I’m following the web savvy path that I believe van Gogh, Warhol, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Dali,, Pissaro, etc. would have taken.

If van Gogh had the Internet he would have had instant access to reach more people and share his ideas. He would not be stuck hoping that Theo could market his work. Van Gogh could have made extra change selling reproductive prints on eBay where van Gogh’s work sells today.

We are just beginning to see how the Internet will impact museums, galleries and collectors, because although artists like me will not sidestep them, we are not as strongly bound to them to make our work known. My work has already been seen by more people thanks to the Internet than the general attendance for the average gallery show in Chelsea . Would van Gogh pass that up?

The Guggenheim’s search idea is a 21 st Century idea. It is as relevant as a Google search—or perhaps Bing, as the entries will be culled down to just twenty by a
jury of nine professionals in disciplines like the visual arts, filmmaking and animation, graphic design and music brought together by the museum’s own Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation.

The Guggenheim’s not just working to stay relevant and popular; they are wisely looking in the place where the next great artists can be found. That the Guggenheim is honestly searching, rather that attempting to create a popular block buster show can be easily understood from the fact that their You Tube show is scheduled to only last four days.

We know that the patrons and dealers who discovered and gave the first shows to famous ground breaking artists art remembered and made immortal by art history. So far, no museum can make this claim.

Kudos to the Guggenheim for its initiating its courageous search and best of luck in discovering great artists. I bet they can be found on the Internet and You Tube because I bet van Gogh, Warhol, Monet, Degas, Dali, Rembrandt and many other groundbreaking artists would have seized this opportunity if they could have.

Note: See Judy Rey Wasserman’s You Tube video submitted to the Guggenheim’s YouTube Play project below.

Bravo’s new reality show Work of Art aired its first episode on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 11 p.m. EDT.

I have to give the show a thumbs up, because it is the only show on regular cable television that focuses on the Contemporary Art world and artists. It has no competition or role models except from other reality shows dealing with cooking, design, and performing talent, plus Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, which thankfully brought us several shows that dealt with Contemporary Art. Even PBS, which has the most and usually best shows about art, does not have a single weekly show that focuses on only Contemporary Art.

Yet, in relation to the world of Contemporary Art, Work of Art as a representational show dealing with reality is a kind of misleading. While singers, dancers and designers audition in similar ways on other reality shows in real life, i.e. reality, artists do not. What most resembled reality for artists all happened before this show ever aired; the culling down of all the artists and submissions to end up with this group show.

The premise is that the winner of this show will gain a prize of $100,000.00, and even better for a real artist with something to say: a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum. There is a hint of art world reality here as only one person can have a solo show by definition.

The competitiveness is a false construct for the art world and artists. Artists work to be within a stable of other good to great artists represented by a gallery. While Picasso had a famous ongoing competition with Matisse, this is rare. Most artists are fairly supportive and even help create the careers of other artists as Warhol did for Basquiat.

Many of the movements of Modern Art were the products of artists like the Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists who knew each other and were friends.  It is interesting to note that so far, the artists of the show do seem to be basically encouraging and even critiquing one another. Perhaps this will continue and prove to be a refreshing peek at real life artists.

The subtitle of this show is “The Next Great Artist”. So far not a single artist has produced a work that is so singularly original that we could believe this claim of greatness. Definitely there are some good artists on the show, people who can and will make professional careers for themselves—but will other artist of the next generations be inspired by them? Is anyone challenging traditions? Will they be remembered in 200 years? Des this need to happen for the show to be a success?

In the first challenge artists were paired up and given about 12 hours to produce a portrait of their partner.  Although artists can face time constraints when drawing from models, generally artists can and do take work back to the studio.

The main problem with the show lies in the time constraint given to the artists. Since the show’s producers seek to show a work by each member of the remaining group of artists on a weekly basis, the show follows the Project Runway format. But artists are not like fashion designers who are basically all using similar materials to present basically same sized works (clothes for models). Contemporary artists create works using different materials, processes, media and sizes.

The show needs to accommodate this, the way that America’s Got Talent and American Idol do, giving the artists a week or more, plus whatever they require (such as video cameras, welding equipment and space, or computers and printing equipment) to make the art they want to show to the world.  The way to attract a really “Next Great Artist” is to give a budding but 21^st Century artist the time to really show what they can produce to the world. That’s more enticing than a show at he Brooklyn Museum or $100,000.000 considering the reality show’s audience size. Then the show’s subtitle of “The Next Great Artist” might be fulfilled.

However, given only 12 hours and limited materials the show’s artists struggled to produce works as if they were in a classroom setting focusing more on producing what was requested for a grade than by being an off the wall original artist. The only two portraits that were not realistic were placed in the bottom three by the judges. One of the most original ideas made it to this sad heap, a work by Nao of Conceptual Art, which failed to identify itself as a portrait other than through its assigned (by the show) title: Portrait of Miles – but given some help, including a better title (Like Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living), plus time, might have completed its leap forward instead of falling flat of the mark.

As things stood, I would have chosen the same works, both as best and least as the judges. However, I am concerned at how Pollock, Judd, Koons, Holzer, Sherman, Kandinsky, Rothko or other artists who blazed new forms of art would have fared as emerging artists if confronted with this portrait assignment and given only 12 hours and limited materials?

What is overwhelmingly positive is that Bravo’s Work of Art brings a small slice of the Contemporary Art world into homes across America. While musicians and authors make the talk show route, appear on reality shows and also are popular as characters on fictional shows, fine artists, gallery owners and art critics are generally left out on TV.  For most of America, visits to cutting edge galleries of museums are rare as these exist in a handful of big cities like New York. When tourists visit New York, they are very likely to visit the major art museums but exceptionally unlikely to visit galleries, especially those that feature emerging artists.

The host of Work of Art is China Chow, who also serves as a judge. I am not really clear what qualifies her for this role other than her lovely presence, but so far she is doing a good job and is at least as qualified as the show’s also lovely producer, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who collects art. It works because in art, and I guess now for shows about art, what inevitably qualifies an one is the level of the work produced.

The art world luminaries who dominate the show for the artists and art world, including those at home watching and even tweeting, are judges: Bill Powers, partner in New York’s Half Gallery and literary art contributor, Jerry Saltz, current art critic for New York Magazine, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, curator and owner of Salon94 gallery; plus art auctioneer Simon de Pury who serves as mentor to the contestants.

While clever to sarcastic comments in print reviews, blogs, tweets and Facebook posts have compared the judges and mentor to those on other reality shows or even questioned their sanity for appearing on such a reality show, in the first episode they all did a good job of critiquing the art work in ways that both the artists and art world—plus those who are comfy at home watching this new entertainment, could understand. They also accomplished this without resorting to the drama, snide or rude comments or posturing sometimes seen on other reality shows.

“Art is a way of showing to the outside what’s on the inside.” – Jerry Saltz

As a reality show Work of Art is meant to entertain.  If it also broadens the audience, reach and understanding of good Contemporary fine art then this show is a resounding success for Contemporary Art. Plus, if it is a strong enough ratings success, it could inspire more programs that focus on art. So again, I say: thumbs up.

Join me @judyrey on Twitter to watch and Tweet on next Wednesday at 11 p.m. EDT under the tag of #workofart

Want to read more about the show? Jerry Saltz has his own insightful and humorous critique of the show and his participation in his New York Magazine article.

There is a bang up of a show, Ghada Amer:Color Misbehavior on now until June 19 2010, at Cheim & Read.

Ghada Amir’s trademark “paint” of colorful embroidery thread – a traditional feminine material – juxtaposes with her exploration of female sexuality.

Amir’s use of the tread is painterly, threads dangle like paint drops, there are excess threads, and even what can seem as tangles. The threads emulate brushstrokes and if one steps back and disengages from the significance of the imagery, her “strokes” are recall the drips and gestures of Pollock and Twombly.

Personally, as an artist whose focus in on the stroke, Ghanda Amer’s strokes are beguiling and unique .  [See: Manifesto of Post Conceptual Ungraven Image Art theory—A Painting's Meaning is Inherent in Its Strokes ”]

One of the show stoppers and a favorite of ours is major works in this show is The Black Bang 2010. “Waves of color shooting out from a black background, sensual and explosive,” said David Wasserman Robles, who went to the well attended gallery opening.

The Black Bang, 2010, Acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 72 x 64 inches

Like Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, Amir’s work is sensuous, feminist and celebrates female sexuality. Amir blazes her own path in this terrain by her use of medium and overlapping of strokes and images. This overlapping of imagery, especially appeals to me as it steps into Post Conceptual concepts.

Color Misbehavior, 2009, Embroidery and gel medium on canvas 70 x 59 inches

Ghada Amir often repeats her scene, brings a wallpaper pattern like resemblance to a work, so that a clearly handmade piece refers to mass production or the prim and proper pattern work of embroidery samplers – but Amir’s embroidery has busted out of its corset.

The Lollipop, 2009, Embroidery and gel medium on canvas on canvas, 50 x 60 inches

Ghada Amir’s work overturns pornography, making sex, from a female view, sensual, erotic but somehow cozy, intimate and playful, appealing beyond the feminism. David W. Robles said, “The show is sexual and dynamic, but it’s also really fun and vibrant.”

Cheim & Read is located at 547 West 25th Street New York , NY 10001 . They are open Tuesday through Saturday 10 am – 6 pm.

David W. Robles contributed to this blog. Many thanks to John Cheim and the gallery for the images and permission to use them.

This new Essence Portrait of Andrew Jackson was challenging to create as he was such a complex man, who embodied many dichotomies in his beliefs and politics, although he was not two faced. Like many of us, Andrew Jackson was fragmented but sought to do what seemed right to him.

Andrew Jackson is the third most visually reorganized historical president, after Washington and Lincoln, by the average American in the 21 st Century.

Such widespread recognition for Jackson is new as Jefferson or Teddy Roosevelt were more likely to be recognized previously by the generations born after their terms.

The change is due to ATMs that spurt $20.00 bills with Jackson ‘s portrait.

Ironically, in his time Jackson opposed and defeated the central bank, which led to the banking system that we now have.

Many of the problems and issues Jackson faced as a president are echoed in our own time. Plus, he is one of the founders of the Democratic Party, and his meant-to-be derogatory nickname “Jackass”, which he liked and embraced, became the symbol for the party itself.

I see Jackson as a bit fragmented, like a cracked mirror, and my portrait of him reflects that imagery. Jackson was not an elitist, but like Lincoln later did, arose from humble beginnings and trails. He worked to protect and widen popular democracy and the rights of white men, yet was a slave owner and also supported Indian removal. Yet he had a legally adopted son, a Creek Indian orphan.

In my portrait below Jackson’s hair is coiffed and combed yet at the ends there is a wildness of some unkempt strays. This symbolizes the dichotomy of Jackson, who was proper and righteous, but had a temper that made him also a scrappy fighter.

Exodus 20 (Andrew Jackson) by Judy Rey Wasserman

In the portrait notice that Jackson ‘s lower lip – the one that will tremble and give in to resolve, is clear and firm, as is the top lip opposing it in black. Divided but resolute. This refers to his other nickname “Old Hickory”, so called because once he resolved to something he was unmoving.

All of my portraits of the Presidents of the USA are created using the original letters Bible text of Exodus 20, which is the Ten Commandments. Presidents are the governmental executives whose job it is to uphold the law. The ten Commandments are the basic laws of the Bible, and credited with inspiring the framers of the Constitution in man ways, and most especially in that they are the same for all.

I urge you to read the information about Andrew Jackson at Wikipedia . He was truly a fascinating, inspiring and complex man.

For more about the new, 21st Century Post Conceptual Essence Portraits (including color images) see the video below and check out Portrait Painting Commissions

There are two basic kinds of portraits, whether the artist creates a hand drawn or painted work, a sculpture or a photo. When a portrait combines both types of portraiture we recognize it as great art.

When commissioning a portrait it helps to recognize both kinds of portraiture. Simply the ability to capture a likeness of an individual well does not make a portrait more than a memento or vanity piece.

Standard Portraits

One exists to portray the subject in a way that adds to his or her public reputation. This portraiture depicts the greatness of the subject in their physical beauty, wealth, societal position or achievement. Examples of this date back far in time to ancient civilizations’ that portray the heroic feats of their ruler or gods in human form.

This type of portraiture is found on money, and stamps. It hangs in board rooms and stately mansions. Statues of heroes on horseback, busts of emperors and many statues found in churches depict the triumphs or heroic suffering of the subject. Today, this kind of portraiture is bread and butter of the family friendly photographers who photograph weddings and children.

Abstracted Portraits

The other type of portraiture reveals the humanity of the subject, the emotions and frailty that make us human.

Portraits that are more abstracted usually fall into this category when the subjects are not photo-manipulated, as in Pop Art, which tends to be a standard protrait of how the media or society sees the subject. Examples of abstracted portraits include Picasso’s cubist and abstracted portraits, Calder’s wire portraits, portrait paintings by van Gogh, Rouault, Francis Bacon. and in contemporary art, George Condo.

Enter the Artist

Exodus 20 -Ten Commandments (Abraham Lincoln), Stars and Stripes

Every artist brings a bit of him or herself into the work. Great artists do more that depict a subject accurately they offer insight into how they see the subject and reality. Although this can be considered an artist’s style, it goes beyond that and is revelatory. This is why those who try to copy or paint in the style of a great portrait painter, seem good but some how lacking.

The unique view of the portrait artist can be also recognized by the snapshots taken by the people who love us. These “Kodak Moments” may lack in design or focus, but often capture what is special or unique about their subjects in ways professional mall photographers miss. That professional mall photographer works to capture images that flatter.

When commissioning a portrait find an artist who can capture and reveal more than an excellent likeness of their subjects.

Great Portrait Art

When an artist captures both the greatness of the soul plus the human frailty and vulnerability of the portrait subject we easily recognize it as great art. The humanity of the subject allows us to empathetically relate while the beauty, heroic achievement or emotion inspires us.

From the Renaissance to modern art, we find examples of this when artists paint common people or use their models to portray mythical figures. In religious Christian art, suffering and martyrdom was considered to be heroic, holy and great.

Rembrandt encountered difficulties with some of his commissions as his subjects objected to how he revealed their humanity, although they were depicted in their finery and in heroic action. The Night Watch is a prime example of this. Artists’ self portraits often bravely reveal the artists’ emotions and vulnerability, portraying both the humanness and divine within the subject.

Psalm 22 (Rembrandt) By Judy Rey Wasserman

The most famous painting in the world is the Mona Lisa. La Giaconda’s serene composure combined with a hint of her secret smile continues to beguile us as Da Vinci masterfully portrays the duality of her human and divine essence.  By capturing that mysterious and elusive duality Da Vinci made his subject famous and immortal throughout history.

Interested in commissioning an Essence Portrait of yourself or a loved one? Send an email to: portrait@ungravenimage.com If possible include a brief description of the person to be considered for the portrait, sex, age, interests, job, etc — but keep it very brief at this point. If you live in the USA or Canada please include your phone number for a free initial, no obligation consultation about your portrait.

Watch the video below to discover the new Post Conceptual portraiture of the 21st Century