424 Findlay Street
Cincinnati, OH 45214
www.solwaygallery.com
513.621.0069

John Cage  A Centennial Celebration (With Friends)

Opening reception: Friday, January 20, 5-8:30pm
Exhibition continues through April 20, 2012

John Cage (Yokohama, 1986)
photo credit: Akira Kinoshita, Courtesy of the John Cage Trust

John Cage   A Centennial Celebration (With Friends) an exhibition of
works by John Cage including prints, drawings, multiples, and scores. With
Friends includes works by William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, Merce
Cunningham, Marcel Duchamp, Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Morris
Graves, Richard Hamilton, Al Hansen, Dick Higgins, Jasper Johns, Allan
Kaprow, Alison Knowles, Tom Marioni, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben
Patterson, Robert Rauschenberg, Ray Johnson, Mark Tobey, Emmett Williams
and Robert Watts.

Carl Solway Gallery celebrates its 50th Anniversary and the 100th
anniversary of John Cage’s birth with a tribute to Cage (1912-1992), the
avant-garde American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and
visual artist. In the words of Carl Solway, “No one was more influential
in helping to shape both my personal life and my professional career than
John Cage. His thinking influenced and expanded the nature of music, dance,
painting and our perception of both art and life.”

The friendship between Carl Solway and John Cage began in 1968, when he was
an artist- in- residence at the College Conservatory of Music in
Cincinnati.  Their association led to the publication in 1969 of Cage’s
first visual graphic works titled Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel,
consisting of eight editioned sculptural objects called Plexigrams and two
lithographs. These early works, created in tribute to Marcel Duchamp
(1887-1968), are included in museums and private collections worldwide.
Throughout the remaining 23 years of his life, Cage continued to produce
prints, drawings and multiples, often incorporating the same notions of
chance and unpredictability characteristic of his revolutionary approach to
musical composition.  In searching for ways to circumvent tradition and
break new ground, he often derived the elements of his pieces and their
formal compositions by consulting the I-Ching, the Chinese “Book of
Changes”, a numerical system with 64 possible outcomes.  The exhibition
will include a rich array of these visual works, musical scores and
historical documents.

John Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912.  He began forging a complex
network of friends and collaborators during his early studies and musical
performances in southern California and Seattle.  In Los Angeles, he
studied with composer Arnold Schoenberg and through Cornish College of the
Arts in Seattle, he became acquainted with the Northwest mystical painters
Mark Tobey (1890-1976) and Morris Graves (1910-2001). There he also met his
future life partner, the dancer and choreographer, Merce Cunningham
(1919-2009), with whom he would collaborate for decades on countless
projects.

Cage moved to New York City in 1942.  He taught at Black Mountain College
in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1952 where he met the
visionary designer Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), best known as the
inventor of the geodesic dome, and the visual artists Robert Rauschenberg
(1925-2008) and Jasper Johns (1930- ). For many years, John Cage taught at
Wesleyan University in Connecticut, The New School for Social Research in
New York City and Rutgers University in New Jersey. Through his classes and
performances, he influenced and connected with artists involved in the
Fluxus movement, several of whom shared backgrounds in avant-garde music.
This loose association of playful and irreverent artists engaged in a
myriad of activities including performances, book arts, mail art and
sculpture. One of its members, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered video as
an art form.  Yoko Ono (1933-), Ben Patterson (1934-), Dick Higgins
(1938-1998), Alison Knowles (1933-), Emmett Williams (1925-2007) and Robert
Watts (1923-1988) were among those associated with Fluxus.

John Cage’s many friendships and affiliations also included the British
Pop artist Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), the Beat Generation poet Allen
Ginsberg (1926-1997) and conceptual artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Tom
Marioni (1937- ), William Anastasi (1933- ) and Allan Kaprow (1927-2006).
Passions for studying Zen Buddhism, playing chess and hunting for mushrooms
informed Cage’s life throughout all of these phases.  Duchamp was his
most influential chess partner, but this highly strategic game also proved
to be an important connection for Carl Solway.  To quote Solway,
“Numerous times, we played chess in my gallery on Saturdays. I always
lost. John consoled me by saying that when he played with Marcel Duchamp he
always lost. Then John laughed with his famous and frequent joyous
outburst”.

Cage facilitated Carl Solway’s introduction to many innovative artists
prominent in the 1960s and 1970s.  Working relationships subsequently
developed with Richard Hamilton, Buckminster Fuller, Nam June Paik, Yoko
Ono, Allan Kaprow and Ben Patterson among others.

Many of the works in this exhibition emphasize the interconnections between
Cage and friends.  A healthy dose of humor distinguishes many pieces.
Among the highlights will be Marcel Duchamp’s Czech Check, circa 1964-65,
a conceptual membership card to the Czechoslovak Mycological Society of
Prague for John Cage.  Mycology is the study of mushrooms.  This work was
purchased by Cincinnati arts patron, Alice Weston, and first shown at the
Contemporary Arts Center in 1971.  A gouache mandala by Morris Graves and a
gestural sumi ink drawing by Mark Tobey characterize the mystical artwork
influential to Cage during his formative years in Seattle.  Prints from the
1960s by Robert Rauschenberg will be featured as well as a 1999 image
depicting John Cage with his Model A Ford titled John (Ruminations).   It
references a legendary 1953 collaboration between Rauschenberg and Cage,
Automobile Tire Print, in which Cage drove the Model A with a paint soaked
tire over a 23-foot expanse of glued-together sheets of typing paper
prepared by Rauschenberg. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Carl Solway
Gallery collaborated with Buckminster Fuller to publish a portfolio of
prints and fabricate sculptures.  A number of these works will be on view.
Nam June Paik’s video, Tribute to John Cage, will be shown in the
gallery.  Another video piece, Good Morning Mr. Orwell, will be screened on
the evening of March 1 (see performance schedule below).

Cage continues to influence younger generations of artists including Dove
Bradshaw (1949- ), who was an artistic advisor to the Merce Cunningham
Dance Company.  Her work incorporates the effects of time, weather and
atmospheric conditions. The exhibition will include her Radio Rocks from
1999. In this sculpture, rocks piled into cairns act as multi-directional
antennas for receiving radio transmissions.

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In addition to the exhibition, Carl Solway Gallery will host a series of
related performances.

Schedule of Thursday Evening Performances at Carl Solway Gallery
Celebrating the Cage Centennial

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sonatas and Ryoanji Interludes
Soprano Audrey Luna and multiple pianists present pieces from Cage’s
seminal work for prepared piano connected through music he derived from his
own drawings inspired by the famous Japanese Zen rock garden.

————————————————-

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Extended Lullaby
Percussion Group Cincinnati combines early turn-table classics with later
Cunningham-related pieces: Branches for amplified cactus and BeachBirds /
Extended Lullaby, using the rare music-box sculpture in the gallery’s
collection of Cage artifacts.

————————————————-

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Videos by Nam June Paik, “Good Morning Mr. Orwell”, “Tribute to John
Cage”, and Cage readings from “Silence”.

————————————————-

Thursday March 22, 2012

Not Wanting To Say Anything About Marcel
Bonnie Whiting Smith and Allen Otte in an evening of texted music for
speaking percussionist/pianist.  Texts of Cage, Thoreau, Joyce, and others,
with Music for Marcel Duchamp as the basis of the newest piece:
“Connecting Egypt to Madison and the history of the American labor
movement”.

Free concerts begin at 7:30 pm, limited seating available. Please call
gallery for reservations at 513.621.0069

For more information or images, please contact Anita Douthat at
anita@solwaygallery.com

John Cage, 17 Drawings by Thoreau, 1978, from a series of unique color
photo-etchings

John Cage, Fontana Mix (Grey), 1981, screenprint on Arches paper, with
three Mylar templates

Hamilton saw our future coming: He even designed a computer as a readymade artwork in the early days of digital. He saw and accepted the way technology changes the human condition. Yet he cared about, and fought for, the human ghost in the machine. That is what makes him a great artist.

—- Jonathan Jones on Richard Hamilton

more from The Guardian

image: Richard Hamilton, Palindrome, 1974

Nam June Paik TV Buddha -1974

OBL watching himself

Wow.

By Bill Wyman

Lester Bangs, the late, great early-rock critic, once said he dreamed of having a basement with every album ever released in it. That’s a fantasy shared by many music fans—and, mutatis mutandis, film buffs as well. We all know the Internet has made available a lot of things that were previously hard to get. Recently, though, there are indications of something even more enticing, almost paradisiacal, something that might have made Bangs put down the cough syrup and sit up straight: that almost everything is available.

Cocksucker blues

If you silence the son you silence the father. We believe in Ai WeiWei. We, as he, believe in China. If you silence him you silence us. We want to believe we can be better all the time. Prove him and you to be right and make us all proud to be citizens of this amazingly beautiful world we inhabit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/ai-weiwei

please sign…  http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

Michael and Carl Solway with a pair of 3D portfolios by Ben Patterson

The Halloween print auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New  York were fairly lackluster, with the seasonable exception of the extraordinary Edvard Munch Vampire prints that were the top sellers at both houses. Sotheby’s hand-colored example  fetched  $1,202,500, and Christie’s gorgeous  Vampire II brought  $662,500, from an online bidder, no less.

And despite the spooky economy, sell-through rates at both houses were respectable:  Sotheby’s sold almost 89 percent of the 385 lots for a total of $11.7 million, while Christie’s sold 79 percent of 454 lots for $8.9 million.

Meanwhile, the IFPDA Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory, Nov. 4-7, 2010, is what really defines “print week” in New York. Curiously, many of the star attractions are unique works, rather than editioned artworks.

A case in point is the enormous new Mel Bochner monotype Head Honcho that greets visitors in the IFPDA booth of Two Palms Press. Measuring 94 x 67 in., it sold immediately for $45,000. The new Cecily Brown monotypes are $22,000 each, prompting memories of several years ago, when examples from an earlier suite of large and colorful monotypes could be had for a bargain $7,000.

Showing for the first time at the IFPDA fair is Cincinnati art dealer Carl Solway, who went into his archives to pull out some early gems that still look fresh. Ben Patterson’s 3D portfolios done in 1996 ($6,000 each) offer a visual history of art from a Fluxus point of view with typical Patterson collaged jokes, including toilet paper and wind-up toys. Michael Solway, who, after 12 years has closed his Los Angeles Gallery, is on hand to help his dad.

Ambitious new editions by sculptors offered a big “wow” factor both in scale and visual punch. At Marlborough Graphics, director Kim Schmidt is showing off a spectacular new Manolo Valdés etching on four sheets. In an edition of 15, the release price is $26,000. By the way, here’s a clue for the IFPDA “treasure hunt” benefiting breast cancer research: When they ask what artist is making his “Broadway debut,” remember the installation of some 25 Valdés sculptures up and down the Great White Way.

Julie Mehretu is one of the stars of the Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl booth, with her enormous (87 x 180 in.), 12-panel etching Auguries. The edition of 24 is already sold out at a price, according to some dealers, of around $60,000. Ann Hamilton’s new sculptural print Ciliary, an eyelike meditation on the human eye, is handsome at $18,000.

One of the most exciting works at the fair is the new Jane Hammond print featured in the booth of Jim Kempner Fine Art. In reality a 3D paper pulp construction, Natural Curiosities sold immediately for $22,000. The artist made prints of snake skins and then hand-painted them, and shaped paper pulp into 3D turtle backs and other reptilian parts. The print is done in an edition of 10, and Kempner has only one more available.

At London dealer Alan Cristea’s booth, Christiane Baumgartner provides another show-stopper with her new 57 x 73 in. woodcut Manhattan Transfer.  Baumgartner took photos at the helicopter pad on the West Side highway and transferred the image to a sheet of wood. Then she hand-carved the enormous woodcut by lying on her stomach and hand-printed the work using on her own special KOZO paper. Done in an edition of six, it’s $19,500 framed.

Among the more exciting modern offerings are the rare Max Pechstein prints and Max BeckmannJörg Maas Kunsthandel from Berlin. The early 1901 Pechstein lithograph from his Paris years, showing the Fauvist influence, of which there are only a few known copies, sold for just over $100,000 on opening night. A rare Beckman watercolor, of which there are only 100 in the world, is one of the most expensive works in the fair, offered at $2.5 million. watercolors at

Among the Old Master print dealers, Kunsthandlung Helmut Rumbler from Frankfurt/Main has a lifetime working proof of a Goya print from the “Tauromachia” portfolio that was never used during the artist’s lifetime. Priced at $250,000, it is reserved for an institution. A later impression is also on view in the booth and it is fascinating to compare the two states.

DEBORAH RIPLEY is a senior print specialist at Artnet.

Jim Campbell, Broken Window, 2010, at Madison Square Park

If you are going to artist Jim Campbell‘s extraordinary installation “Scattered Light” at Madison Square Park in Manhattan, do it as I did, ’round midnight with someone you love. From different perspectives, this expanse of 2,000 randomly blinking white lights turns from a block of romantic ice to a marvelous frieze that projects the shadows of those walking behind it and back into a curtain of pure unending white.

Digital snaps, which everyone is taking, transform the work even further, as the image, in its blinkingness, congeals into a white solid and back into thin air like a dark phenomenon in microcosm. To investigate how Campbell pulled off this technical marvel, I induced my companion to vault me over a stanchion and the “Keep Out” sign on the eastern side of the park, and promptly (typically!) cut my leg.

This side of the park is dug up with tractors sitting around. In the dark, I couldn’t make out whether this was an ill-timed “shovel-ready project” or a necessary part of the installation. In a patch of grass, more than a dozen white squares blink off and on like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, relating perhaps to the blinking white bulbs in front of them. The effect of the piece on a sparse late night group of passersby was pure joy: spontaneous kissing, leaping dogs, smiling meditation and pure wonder: everything that art is supposed to be and rarely is these days.

I have said it before: Madison Square Park is the finest venue for contemporary art in New York. It puts aside the neurotic, ambiguous and often market-driven concerns of our elite curatorial class and, show after show, delivers pure pleasure at the highest level.

Jim Campbell, “Scattered Light,” Oct. 21, 2010-Feb. 28, 2011, at Madison Square Park, 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
CHARLIE FINCH is co-author of Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press).

Hannah Wilke: Early Drawings

By ROBERTA SMITH

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts

31 Mercer Street

SoHo

Through Saturday

Before Hannah Wilke became Hannah Wilke, feminist provocateur with a camera (and gum or ceramic vulvas in a range of sizes), she was a spirited, often wicked draftswoman. This informative exhibition features 49 of her early efforts on paper, mostly from the 1960s, but also the ’70s. Beginning with works in ink and charcoal that mine the vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism with increasingly emphatic marks and shapes, these drawings constantly flirt with sexual suggestion.

Strong color seems to encourage the tendency, and by the mid-’60s, a series of pastel and graphite works features satiric phalluses, saturated tones and a thinly disguised glee. Among the strongest images are several pastels from 1964 that take things a step further into symmetrical forms that seem to conflate torsos, faces and internal organs into monumental masklike arrangements.

One can imagine Ms. Wilke being inspired first by the brooding reliefs of Lee Bontecou and then the early paintings of Eva Hesse or perhaps the more obstreperous sexuality of Lee Lozano’s cartoonish depictions of brightly colored tools. Whatever the course of influence, there is surely a drawing exhibition to be done focusing on these four artists.

Ms. Wilke also had a penchant for refinement and explicit autobiographical references. Both tendencies comes out in the drawing “This Was Once My Mother’s Plate” from the mid-’60s, and in “Left-Wing Angel,” a delicately rendered portrait of herself with angel wings, from 1976.

In the early ’90s, after Wilke had documented her mother’s fight with cancer in numerous large photographs, she also recorded unstintingly her own battle with the same disease. But the earlier image of her angelic self assumed a life of its own after she died in 1993, at 52 It is engraved on her tombstone. ROBERTA SMITH

from the Guardian UK

Pure, Chile, is your blue sky;
Pure breezes cross you as well.
And your flower-embroidered field
Is the happy copy of Eden
Majestic is the white mountain
That was given to you as a bastion by the Lord
That was given to you as a bastion by the Lord
And that sea that calmly washes your shores
Promises you a future splendour
And that sea that calmly washes your shores
Promises you a splendid future

Sweet fatherland, accept the vows
With which Chile swore at your altars:
Either the tomb of the free will you be
Or the refuge against oppression
Either the tomb of the free will you be
Or the refuge against oppression
Either the tomb of the free will you be
Or the refuge against oppression
Or the refuge against oppression
Or the refuge against oppression

—————–

In a television interview, Mario Sepúlveda said he was “very happy” and proud of the Chilean rescue workers. He went on to encourage people to treat each other with love, according to a translator on CNN. “Love is the most beautiful thing in the world,” he said.

New York Times

Joan Snyder: A Year in the Painting Life

Betty Cunningham Gallery

541 West 25th Street

Chelsea

Through Oct. 30

Summer Fugue, 2010
triptych
overall size 72″ x 132″

In terms of painting, it has been quite a year for Joan Snyder, who turned 70 in April. Ms. Snyder continues to work in a spirited, in-your-face, opulently textured, outrageously colorful style that she devised some 40 years ago. As ever, it forces Abstract Expressionist fervor through a Minimalist sieve into its own private Idaho of Post-Minimalism.

Ms. Snyder is doing this better than ever, with a sense of restraint and economy that helpfully brakes her tendency toward excess and self-indulgence. More often than not, she achieves a new balance between built-up and relatively untouched, between overloaded and empty, that gives everyone a needed bit of breathing room.

The buildup is considerable: dripping dashes and loops of notational brushwork commingle with patches of cheesecloth or silk, burlap, plaster, the twigs and seeds of plants, occasional bits of glitter or strands of rope, rosebuds or leaves, and just plain dirt. As usual, a certain horizontality of brushwork and hints of a modernist grid lurking in the background hold things together.

The suggestions vary: blossoms, wounds, fireworks. In works like “Oh April” and “Brooklyn,” you can imagine Ms. Snyder studying the exhibition of late-Monet water lilies at the Gagosian Gallery last spring with very different results. But then again, these works may be landscapes.

In all cases, the combination of sensuousness and honesty attracts. The works establish the act of painting as, at base, what it is: a series of episodic gestures, momentary thoughts and local feelings that occur linearly but, meeting on a single surface, accumulate into much more.

Roberta Smith

A version of this article appeared in print on October 1, 2010, on page C28 of the New York edition

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company