22nd May 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

More This week I've been watching one of my favourite sketchers Enrique Flores (4ojos) posting reportage sketches about the amazing peaceful  protests by young people in Madrid within the context of today's elections.  This, in a way, is the Spanish version of the revolutions which have been sweeping through the Arab world since the beginning of the year.

It's always worth recording the fact that those who sketch and blog can also contribute to a much wider understanding of how life is lived in some parts of the world.   It's the drawing version of the cameraphone!

Hundreds of young Spaniards camped out in the Puerta del Sol all last week as a part of a peaceful protest relating to the government's handling of the economic crisis. With nearly five million people jobless, Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe.  It's nothing to do with political parties per se - and a lot of those who camped out are still sitting there working out how to get some consensus on what happens next.

Just after midnight on 21st May, around about 30,000 Spanish protesters defied a government ban (to assemble or demonstrate on the day before an election - which is today) and filled Madrid's Puerta del Sol.to protest about high unemployment and austerity measures.

This is Enrique Flores's blog 4ojos and the posts about this week's camp in the Puerta del Sol.  As he said in the email to me the text is all in Spanish but the sketches speak for themselves.

The problem is the system - sketch by Enrico Flores (4ojos)

What I found interesting was how the sketches changed as the week went on - not only were they more numerous, they also began to focus less on the banners and the people and more on recording the practical aspects of being a demonstrator - like how do you put tent pegs into tarmac (love that one!) and the long queues for the "facilities"!  Now that's what I call a civilised society - "facilities" for the protestors - who I understand were also handed brushes to clean up the square after the overnight vigil!  Plus lots about what was being said by various participants - which, of course, I can't read but it looks interesting and it's an important contemporaneous record.  On Sunday it was returning to the question of how to achieve a more participatory democracy.

• acampada en sol - the camp started on Monday 16th May
• acampada sol desalojada
• acampada sol, dia 2
• acampada sol, dia 3
• acampada sol, dia 4
• acampada sol, dia 5 
• público - in which Enrique's sketches make the local paper Publico
• videos 
• acampada sol, dia 6 including observations on the practical life of camping in a public square

• viva la canción/1 (22nd May)
• acampada sol, dia 7 (22nd May)

It's such a  unique record that I guess a book will not be long in the making.  Here are some of the film versions of the same thing

• A minute long video on YouTube of what it was like as midnight changed and the demonstrators commenced an unlawful act  - Spain demonstrations continue in defiance of rally ban - which almost seemed like a joyful event.  Very sensibly the police decided to do nothing.  Enrique's blog has links to a lot more videos from inside the crowds.
• These are the BBC slideshow of what it was like

Today Spain goes to the polls.  The current government is not expected to survive.  I wonder if Enrique will be sending the incoming government a record of his sketching?  I think he should.

Art Blogs and Artists

(After) Self-Portrait c1799
by JMW Turner (1775-1851)

Drawing and Sketching

• This time last week I discovered that I'd lost a sketchbook.  I hoped it might turn up somewhere but the uneasy feeling remained when I woke up in the morning.  
• Lost and found - one sketchbook is the account of how it all happened and what it felt like
• I then gave my sketchbook a treat when I got it back and sketched JMW Turner - and so Turner finished my sketchbook

Botanical Art

• This is an essay on Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937) Botanist and Illustrator by botanical artist Dianne Sutherland (Dianne Sutherland - Botanical Artist).  Dianne completed this essay as an assignment while studying the Distance Learning Diploma Course offered by the Society of Botanical Artists.  You can read her post here about attending the SBA 2011 exhibition and graduation.

Painting

• The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour now have a new blog called Artists of the RI.  This is their very first post about Naomi Tydeman RI.
• You can now also see all the paintings which won awards ion their recent Annual Exhibition on their website Prizes Awarded at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 2011 Exhibition
• I'm toying with taking gouache paints to Provence and have been reading Deborarh Secor's blog Deborah Secor - gouache.  

Photography

• I like good photography and allow an occasional foray into photography on this blog.  I was greatly intrigued by the notion that Taryn Simon is a contender for the title of most important photographer of her generation.  Then I checked out this interview and this article Cow-dung toothpaste? Taryn Simon's book Contraband unloads America's baggage

Simon is currently one of the hottest properties on the international art photography market. Her prints fetch stellar prices at auction and have been acquired by leading institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Modern in London. Taryn Simon: the woman in the picture

Sculpture and Installation

• The whole Ai Weiwei issue begins to look a bit more complicated.  This Guardian article Ai Weiwei's company evaded taxes, claim Chinese police indicates the Chinese Police assert that the detained artist's company has evaded 'a huge amount' of taxes and destroyed accounting documents.  Now if there's one thing you don't want to do is annoy the taxman!

More New Art Blogs

• The BBC arts critic Will Gompertz is moving to a new blog site - More from Will 

Art Economy and Art Collectors

• Frieze announces launch of two new fairs Frieze Art Fair has announced that it will launch two brand new fairs for 2012.

Art Competitions

• Who would ever have thought that Three women artists win Threadneedle Prize in first three years - but they did!  The deadline for this year's exhibition closes soon.

Art Exhibitions

Major Galleries

• I had an email this weekend from the Royal Academy of Art to say that booking has now opened for Degas and the Ballet - Picturing Movement which will be in the RA Main Galleries 17 September – 11 December 2011 Nine images from the exhibition are already on display in a slideshow on the website

The exhibition will be the first to present Degas’s progressive engagement with the figure in movement in the context of parallel advances in photography and early film; indeed, the artist was keenly aware of these technological developments and often directly involved with them.

• Martin Gayford reviews Tracey Emin's retrospective at the Hayward Gallery for Bloomberg in Tracey Emin’s Saucy, Egoistic Relics Seduce in London Show: Martin Gayford.  I realised just recently that although i think she's overrated as an artist, what she really is a poet.  Her work is very verbal - and if there's more than one way of making art there's got to be more than one way of creating poetry! “Love Is What You Want” is at the Hayward Gallery, London until 29th August Invented Modernity” remains through July 3 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris; musee-orsay.fr/en/home.  Here's a review by the New York Times
• After being stuck at home unable to walk very far when it opened, last week I was finally able to write up my Review: 'Watercolour' exhibition at Tate Britain.  After we'd got through the episode of the lost sketchbook!

Art Galleries

• Egon Schiele. Women - 19 May to 30 June 2011 An exhibition of 40 unseen works by Austrian artist Egon Schiele can now be seen at Richard Nagy's Old Bond Street gallery space.  I'm not including links because all though I love his drawing and painting style I'm really not interested in some of his subject matters and this particular exhibition is emphatically not for the prudish!

Art Bloggers

• Recent paintings by Duane Keiser (A Painting A Day) will be on view from June 3-July 1 at an art show at 1211 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219

Open Studios

• The first ever Angus Open Studios event in Angus in Scotland opens next week and runs from 26th-30th May.  Over 70 artists and craftspeople will be opening their studios to the general public, and hoping for lots of visitors over the five days.  One of the artists showcasing her paintings will be coloured pencil artist and blogger Lesley Crawford (Lesley Crawford) whose studio will be open each day 10.30-5.30.  

Art Education

• Bristol Drawing School is a not for profit private arts venue and education facility that aims to encourage and nurture the art of drawing.  They've also had a blog since 2007 but aren't very good at posting to it.

Art Galleries and Museums

• Museums cannot use the sale of art objects for operating expenses.  So says the New York Board of Regents which approved reestrictions on Museum Sales; Museums overseen by the Regents are now expressly forbidden to sell artworks to raise money for operating expenses.

Art History

• Even contemporary art becomes history.  Is there always a point at which the Young Turks begin to look like the old fogies? Next generation turns its back on Emin and Hirst is a really fascinating article which discusses how the YBA artists are now viewed by younger artists and suggests that the notion of concept art might be dead.

Art Studios

• Lori McNee (Lori McNee Fine Art and Tips) had a post last week about Creating Art in Small Studios;- I love the stuff hanging off the wall!  It includes a bunch of photos from other people showing what their small studios look like.  I think we might possibly have a debate about the word "small" in a cultural context - but other than that it is as always fascinating to take a peek!

Art supplies

• Marion Boddy-Evans (Painting.about.com) has a review of Sennelier Oil Pastels.  I keep wondering whether if you wanted to produce "washy" oil paintings whether Zest-It and some decent oil pastels might be all you need.  Any thoughts?

Art Videos

• On Saturday I posted links to a couple of videos about British painters - see Two videos - painting people

Books 

• I bought a jolly nice book about Samuel Palmer at Tate Britain last week - Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881: Vision And Landscape.  I've been looking for a good one for some time and this one looks like it's going to get the right balanace between authoritative and accessible.  It's published by the British Museum and relates an exhibition which was held in 2005.  

Copyright

• Lat week the Hargreaves Report was published.  Digital Opportunity - A review of Intellectual Property and Growth can be downloaded from the website of the Intellectual Property Office.  I'll be reviewing what it means next week.  In the meantime if you'd like to see for yourself, click this link and download the report (1.1MB pdf file) and have a read. 
• What hope has the ordinary punter of understanding anything when the BBC Arts Editor writes an article confusing copyright issues relating to orphan works and the concept of the public domain - see Shedding light on copyright confusion

....and finally

LS Lowry's depiction of one of the streets in Salford which inspired the TV series Coronation Street will go to auction next month.  This BBC news item on Lowry's Coronation Street on sale