SANDY GARNETT ART BLOG

I’ve got a collector who wants to see my Field of Figures Revolutionary sculptures large, 10 ft or so.   I am doing my homework on fabricating a bronze figure of these proportions.  I suspect this may become a reality.  I can’t wait.

I saw Lucien Freud’s new work at Acquevella, John Currin’s solo show at Gagosian, Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner, the Vollard show and German Portraits of the 20’s at the Met with my friend Kevan today.  Usually I don’t see so much in one shot, but this was a surprisingly manageable feat as I’m a figurative painter, contemporary shows are often unnecessarily sparse, and I like strange narrative, which painters like Schad, Dix, Grosz and company made collectively with abandon between two World Wars.  There is an ominous air to the show, a host of horrors tucked away or paraded in public for all to see.  Portrait and caricature collide and produce images of startling power for their fine art weirdness.  It’s like outsider art before outsider art or something, but these guys were so ‘inside’.  Ms. Yuskavage and Mr. Currin manufacture strangeness and the work often comes off as a stage set, particularly in Currin’s paintings, whose figures are often arranged like apples and oranges.

I remember seeing the Rockwell retrospective at the Guggenheim of all places, then shooting down to see Mr. Currin at Andrea Rosen.  Currin’s works looked amateurish when juxtaposed to Rockwell’s mastery.  Rockwell remains dismissed and for idiotic reasons by the New York art world, but his painting is something to compare onself against.  Mr. Currin’s retrospective at the Whitney recently displayed prowess, some excellent although uneven picture making.  It’s almost as though he moves between representational styles and can’t really settle on any, so he combines and recombines in this show.  Currin is at his best when his paintings display a consistency of realism.  The Gagosian gallery like most New York galleries is more pretentious than museums, making a point of NOT displaying the information next to its paintings, and the people who occupy the gallery make a point of being unfriendly because they are just too busy to bother.  How does one apply for such a position?  There are two portraits that are half lengths with some weird props that got my attention because they are consistent.  And some of the flesh Mr. Currin paints is soft and creamy, which is nice, but again inconsistent and frustrating throughout the show.  There is some odd pornography, random iconography, and in the end the show is drabbly unsatisfying, although technically above board and Currin.  Mr. Currin does not possess remarkable painter chops… he seems to muddle together irony and enough offensive or off kilter perversity to remain in the news.  This paired with his perfectly tailored resume, New York sculptor wife, and boyish good looks have made him a fine career.  With such a small output at age 46 he will likely remain large but never really move mountains.  As a professional painter and sculptor, he is more a circus park amusement to me… and as a painter’s painter I want to be blown away and shake the hand of someone who pulls that off, which Mr. Currin does not do for a million dollar price tag.  I do respect Mr. Currin’s position, which he has worked hard for, so I don’t seek to offend him personally.  I go to his shows and he does not go to mine.

I will say that Mr. Gagosian is smart to show his midcareer artists in that uptown gallery, and to space the works as he does.  It is the perfect format for a painter who does not paint monumental.  I am reminded of Cecily Brown’s recent show there and Glenn Brown’s recent show in the same gallery, two artists I follow and two shows that were nicely hung.  By contrast, the Yuskavage show at Zwirner is vacuous plain and simple… 6 or 7 paintings in an enormous space swamp the art.  I was reminded of Frank Gehry’s art killing architecture.  This format is problematic.  Mr. Zwirner’s space is amazing but small art cannot possibly support this iceburg of white wall.

I am attracted to the worlds Ms. Yuskavage has consistently been spinning for a decade.  The bosoms are good, which I like to paint on my women, I like the fairytale narrative running through her works, I do not respond to her palette much and I often think her painting is dashed off.  This can work for and against her.  She has acquired a fluency to produce these paintings that is fresh and simple… maybe by composing sketches perfectly then shooting them, whatever, that often have the effect of hazy first meanderings that are the final product.  I am reminded of Elfquest-like illustrations, I am reminded of Inka Essenhigh’s cynical yet technically fluent language, and I would like to have seen more art.  The best compliment that can be paid to both Mr. Currin and Ms. Yuskavage is that their works are immediately identifiable.  But I want inspiration, and I am often not inspired as much as impressed by their big sales.  I will say that I like figure painters winning after having been flogged for most of last century.  I respect the consistency that these two play in the figurative game as I know what I’ll get when I see them.  This is a blessing and a curse for blue chip artists.

I almost got the chance to visit Philip Pearlstein on this very day that I ran over to see Freud.  Freud is an old friend to me, a unique old London Schooler with a dark eye who does not fuss with stories.  He tells the figure and the space that figure occupies.  This is his world.  There is rarely a pretense, which I find refreshing always about Freud.  I can feel him painting, it’s Freud, the model and me in the painting, Freud unmasked.  When I started painting I was drawn to Balthus, who recently passed quietly away, and Freud, two odd duck figurative painters who did what they liked during a tumultuous period in art history and didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.  I took this path to a certain extent, opting to make every penny of my living selling art and ninja living in cheap commercial space for a decade.  I don’t give a damn what people think of my art unless they like it.  If an artist cares too much about what everyone thinks that artist won’t be one for long.

I sold this Figure on Door to my friends Rena and Dan at the Open Studios.  This is a study for one of my silhouette figures that go into my Field of Figures.  I painted this door a couple of years ago and it sold this week.  I’ve sold a lot of inventory works this year, but I still have over 210 paintings inventoried of 825.

I sometimes worry about my inventory, then I look at my numbers.  Since 2000 I have painted 285 paintings, over 250 of which have sold.  These are not bad stats, and do not account for thee 540 paintings I painted in the 1990’s.  Most of my inventory is comprised of paintings from the 1990’s.

Every painting in my career has a catalogue number on it.  This is one of the most important things that a new painter should do because if you keep at it suddenly you’ve got too many works.  And before you sell the work shoot it as you will likely never see it again.

My open studios was big.  I sold a Field of Figures sculpture among other things.  I sold work off the walls and picked up some commissions.  I’m currently following up and this is the fun stuff, when you start flirting with new collectors after having spent months in your cave doing good work.  It’s always nice to get out and shake some hands.

I got some friends over to do a fingerprint portrait photo shoot, a series I’ve been working on and off with for 8 years, another lifetime series of work and my first real series of photography pieces.  Here is Mitch.  In this series I take the subject’s fingerprint and project it on his or her face.  Mitch is my friend Ingrid’s son.  He’ always hanging out with the adults so he’s super cool.

I sold this to my friend Frank this week.  I painted this picture during my last open studio in May.  My mom and aunt were at the Moma the other day to see Brice Marden’s retro and they bumped into him, as he was there doing an interview with Charlie Rose.  He was gracious and charming, which is very nice to hear.  With the press buzzing around Marden I think this week of him when looking at this painting, although he has never been a direct inspiration.  I think mazes, fingerprints and the deconstructed skeletons of modernism that Marden was also looking at, although his influences are clearly filtered through the Ab Ex artists that I respect but tend to bypass as I am more interested in Reconstructing Deconstruction.  When looking at the 100 artists who spin my tanks as a first generation Reconstructionist, Picasso’s Charnel House, Klee, Duschamps’ Nude Descending Staircase, Saul Steinberg’s famous maps, Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie, and on and on.  The line is such a mistress.  Thanks Frank.

I just sold this 2003 painting to my friend Jenn.  Thank you Jenn.
This painting is one of several string player pictures I’ve played with in my career.  I return to this general form often.  This painting showed in 2003 at Palet in New York City.  It was well received and almost sold, but it has been living in my inventory since like a lot of paintings that almost sell but don’t.  I have learned that eventually every painting finds an owner and this picture has found a good home in New Orleans.

 I think I sold another picture last week as well.  More on this next week when that occurs, if it does.

Here’s a new portrait that got me some more portrait action.  Last year 13% of my income was portrait commission work, which is how I like it.  This year I’m in the same ballpark.  I get more commissions in the fall for Christmas.  Right now I’ve got a couple more coming in.  This portrait of Will hit the mark for the parents.  I think there’s a little Rockwell and Homer in this portrait.  Representational art, which was beaten to a bloody pulp in 20th century American art for no good reason in the end, is a challenging world.  The hardest possible thing in art that I’ve taught myself has been portraiture.  A lot of people bypass representational work because they aren’t good enough or it’s too hard.  There are a lot of boring representational painters out there, plenty of bad painters, but more art is bad than good, so this applies to any genre.  Portraiture is nice income, keeps me sharp in this discipline and I apply this work to all parts of my creative canon.  Artists who pooh pooh portraiture are of little interest to me in the end because this is a very shortsighted in this Reconstructionist era in which bridges are built between the genres in art.  This is why I work concurrently on five bodies of work that involve different genres.  Without portraiture I would not have the capacity to paint in these other styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I delivered this portrait last week.  It will hang in the Stamford Superior Court, which is pretty cool.  I delivered another portrait last week and I just picked up three more, which means a lot of portraiture for a month.  I am also working on a modified Field of Figures for a potential collector, I am working on my marketing materials, and I just took some part time help, a first for me.  I only have two hands, and the busier I get the more help I could use.

What else… I set up a lighting area to shoot my work as I want to bring the shooting, color correcting and printing of my work in house.  One has to spend a lot of money and learn a lot about all of the elements in this equation, but in the end it is very efficient I think once I get over the growing pains.

    I delivered a portrait last week and one this morning, both of which were received very well.  I’ll post these images when the shots are back.  I’m working on shooting art, lighting, playing with my new lense, painting, website, nonstop what else is new.  This weekend I have to put my game face on and produce.  Some minor loft renovations, start a picture, sort out this damn casting thing with a proper form, get the web blast synchronized with the shopping cart I’m starting.  I can’t wait to have help all the time.  I’d like to think one day that will come.  The best thing about the one man show thing is that I’m always moving around, getting my hands into some new project.  The problem here is that painting requires extended periods of monastic focus, meditation, what have you, so there is a balance to achieve that is always tugging me one way or another.  This is something that any creator who makes a living in art must come to understand and work on daily.  It’s so easy to fall off either side, and there is suddenly not balance, and a studio crumbles to the ground like a hundred year old farm house on fire.  This is why I like to build with concrete blocks, rituals embedded in my day and life to keep me rolling back to my productive patterns, whatever diversions I take.  Usually my diversions are art related, but when one is shooting down the rabbit hole after another masterpiece one has to remember to tie a rope around one’s waist.

Oh a nice last note… got word that a collector may be interested in a stone Revolutionary Family Totem for her entryway.  This would be cool, particularly as my collector historically has purchased conservative, traditional works.  I think she’s ready to get her freak on with some new contemporary sculpture… gotta love it.