Month: February 2009

A contemporary artists that I recently came across and really like is Elizabeth Silver.  I found her in a magazine, I believe Art News may have reviewed her, and I was struck by her work.  Her work is figurative and very gestural, using line and color to create form and interest in a very gestural way.  I was impressed by the first words in her artist statement, “For me, the line’s the thing: the heart and guts of my art. My drawing and painting always begin – and frequently end – with line.”  I have always personally savored the quality of line in my own work, but in my recent oils I feel like I have lost that quality for no reason other than not having the patience or the brushes to do it big.  I am reminded that I would like to focus on line again in my own work and embrace the things that excite me in art, instead of painting toward expectations that are artificial.

To see Elizabeth Silver’s work, please visit:

http://www.elizabethsilverexpressionist.com/

Lives of the Artists, by Calvin Tomkins, is a fun easy read that offers significant insight.  Tomkins writes about meetings and interviews with several well known contemporary artists.  These are not the stuffy pretentious interviews that we often find in magazines.  The artists often let Tomkins into their home, into their studio, and into their life.  Thus, the interviews are more casual, real, and personal.  Tomkins also provides us with biographical information about each artist, so we read about them with a sense of understanding about who they are, what they do, and how they do it.  We learn about figures such as Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney, Julian Schnabel, and Damien Hirst.  The artists we meet in these chapters are not sensationalized art super stars but simple, thoughtful real people.  More importantly, I think anyone with any interest in contemporary art would find these stories compelling.