If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

The "Eyes" Have It. Paintings by Sas Christian Compared To The Keane's Big Eyed Paintings

I know that like fashion, art trends tend to repeat every few decades.
There's certainly no better example than the recent and growing resurgence of interest in Big-Eyed Waif paintings. In the 60s and 70s Margaret D.H. Keane's paintings were all the rage. In case you think I meant Walter Keane's paintings, I didn't. You see, although they were signed as Walter, and sold as his, the paintings were actually done by his wife Margaret. Not wanting to relinquish the rights to the artwork, Walter and Margaret's divorce proceeding went all the way to Federal court. At the hearing, Margaret painted in front of the judge to prove her point. In 1965, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.

You may think of these big-eyed paintings as 'retro' or 'kitsch' but considering original oil paintings of Keane's go for upwards of $25,000, that's a pretty penny to pay for "novelty" art. But what caught my attention, in addition to the publication of an art book celebrating this genre called Big-Eyed Masters, is another newly published book of works by contemporary artist Sas Christian.

cover of Sas Christian's Looking In

Christian's paintings are uncannily similar in both subject matter and composition to Keane's but she insists that her paintings are not inspired this artist. Instead she says- and I quote from her own biography, "She was never inspired by one person in particular, however now the artists she most admires would be Bouguereau, Tamara De Lempicka, Mark Ryden... Sas draws inspiration from everyday occurrences, movies and music." It's hard to believe Christian is not aware of her works' likeness to Keane's. Perhaps her more macabre treatment of the subject matter is why she likens herself to Ryden.

Some of her paintings incorporate blood or slightly sadist sexual imagery that was absent from Keane's sad and teary paintings. It is also possible that because of Christian's youth and venue (she was born in London) she's not aware of Keane's work. But even more odd to me is the lack of parallels drawn between the two by her publishers and other art critics. Both artists work is very soulful with the subject directly confronting the viewer. Neither paints 'happy' portraits and both paint youthful subjects, often with pets. There's even an asian flavor to some of each artists works. Granted Christian's work is less painterly and more illustrative as well as more 'realistic' if I can use that term loosely. Clearly both artists are talented and prolific and their work has a certain eerie appeal. But it's hard to deny the similarities.

Below are some examples of Keane's work from over 30 years ago side by side with Christian's present work.

Above: More of Margaret Keane's work

Above: More of Sas Christian's work

As much as I enjoy Christian's work, it looks pretty derivative to me.
All those in favor say "eye".

Trade in An Old Habit for a New One

With the introduction of Absolut's Pear Vodka comes a fun series of videos encouraging you to get rid of an old habit by blowing it up.

Whether you're addicted to Caffeine or Shoes (or as in my case, both), the videos are a fun visceral way to introduce this product.

Interesing Article on Paint from the NY Times

New York Times
February 14, 2007
Paints’ Mysteries Challenge Protectors of Modern Art (Abridged)
By RANDY KENNEDY

LOS ANGELES — In a sprawling, white-on-white lab here that looks like a set from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a British scientist named Thomas Learner recently lifted the top from a small box of slides, the kind that usually contain microscopic samples of bacteria or chemicals.
But this was a different kind of lab, and the slides were coated with dozens of shades of dried acrylic paint, at once as ordinary as house paint and as precious as rare isotopes. This is because the acrylics had been taken from the Santa Monica studio of Sam Francis, the abstract painter, who died in 1994 and who, like many artists of his generation, had largely abandoned the oils that had been the medium of painting for at least five centuries. Instead, he turned to their modern successors: acrylics, enamels, alkyds and many other substances that are more synthetic than organic.

The new paints, which began to emerge in the 1930s and made their way into many studios by the 1950s, allowed artists to do things they couldn’t do with oil. Morris Louis used thinned acrylic to stain, rather than coat, canvases, creating an ethereal effect. Jackson Pollock used gloss enamel because it poured and dripped the way he wanted. Bridget Riley and Frank Stella both used ordinary house paints, Mr. Stella because they “had the nice dead kind of color” that he wanted, right out of the can.

But while conservators have inherited generations’ worth of knowledge about oil paints, they know comparatively little about synthetics and how to protect the masterpieces created by using them, many of which are rapidly approaching the half-century mark.

Acrylics, for example, can leave surfaces softer than oil paints do, and so dust and dirt stick to them more easily. The surfaces can also be breeding grounds for mold. How should they be cleaned? Or transported? What should the temperature and humidity be in the museums where they are displayed? And what can institutions do — besides panic or weep — if real problems arise, if a deep red on a Mark Rothko painting slowly becomes a pale blue, for example, or if cracks appear in a Pollock easily worth tens of millions of dollars? (These two crises have arisen in recent years.)

In 2002 the Getty Conservation Institute here, working with the Tate in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, began an ambitious project called Modern Paints to answer such questions. It is only one part of a much larger undertaking for conservators of modern art, who now must deal with painting, sculpture and installation materials as strange and fragile as latex, old cathode ray tubes, whale-bone dust, fluorescent tubes, preserved sheep and at least one shaggy, taxidermied angora goat.

Over the last few years, in its labs perched high in the hills of Brentwood, the Getty has brought complex technology costing millions of dollars to bear on modern paints, building up a database of thousands of kinds of pigments, solvents, chemical binders and other substances. In the process it has helped cast light not only on better ways to clean, care for and transport modern paintings, but also on the ways that artists — some, like Morris Louis, highly reclusive — worked.

As just one reminder of the kind of lab this was, a cardboard storage box sitting on one table was emblazoned with the hand-lettered warning: “Beware!! Works of Art Below.”

Click here to read the full article

Room(s) With A View, Santa Monica, CA

The Penthouse, a new restaurant and lounge opening on Monday at the revamped Huntley Santa Monica Beach, is the latest effort to turn the hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., formerly a Radisson, into a hot spot. Two blocks from the beach, the space was designed by Thomas Schoos, above, who is responsible for the interiors of the popular Los Angeles restaurants Koi and Table 8.

The Penthouse, with a shimmering wall of Capiz shells, a glass fireplace and curtained cabanas for privacy, above, was designed to appeal to bright young things, Mr. Schoos said. But the best feature predates the designer’s hand: a jaw-dropping view of the Pacific coastline. “It’s like being on the beach, minus the sand,” he said.

Huntley Santa Monica Beach, 1111 Second Street, Santa Monica, (310) 394-5454.

Tattoo You. And your furniture. And your jewelry. And your clothes.

Tatts are back in a big way.
Instead of permanently marring your skin and risking Hep C, why not get tattoos on everything but your body? Here are a few thoughts...

just click on the images below to get more information or to purchase

See more of my Tattoo You. And This. And That. And then..... list at ThisNext.

San Francisco: No Room For Parking, But There's Always Room For Jell-O.

above: San Francisco's Marina made of Jell-O

Liz Hickok is a San Francisco based artist working in photography, video, sculpture, and installation, and currently... Jell-O.

Above: San Francisco's famous Alamo Square

Above: Liz Hickok's Jell-O Alamo Square

News of Hickok's "San Francisco in Jell-O" series is spreading quickly. Her work has been included in such publications as The New York Times, Harper's, and San Francisco magazine, as well as on the cover of Artweek. She has been featured on several different local and national news and radio programs such as the CBS Early Show, VH1, Spark* (KQED, Bay Area), All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation (NPR). Below are more fun images of the City by the Bay in Jell-O.

Foggy San Francisco:

The Palace Of Fine Arts:

The Ferry Building:

Twin Peaks:

The Bay Bridge:

Her San Francisco Jell-O creations are available as limited edition C-prints on her site.

Liz Hickok

Can You Take A Pretty Picture?

Communication Arts invites you to enter your work in the 48th Photography Competition.

Now is the time to promote your talent by having your work selected for the largest and most important juried competition for photography.

Selected award-winning pieces will appear in the August Photography Annual of Communication Arts magazine. More than 70,000 copies will be distributed worldwide, assuring important exposure for the creators of this outstanding work.

Deadline: March 13, 2007

Click here for submission guidelines, PDF entry forms and FAQs:
http://www.commarts.com/competition

Send A Virtual Mix Tape for Vday!

Genius execution and idea! Thanks to Kim Genkinger for bringing this fun interactive valentine by Exopolis to my attention!

Pick a song from lots of fun ones (I prefer the Pixies song), label the tape and send it cyber.

Right here, baby.