Jul 20, 2012 | news
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| Chuck Close’s self-portrait and Scott Blake’s self-portrait using his Chuck Close filter. |
A couple of years ago, digital artist Scott Blake created a website called FreeChuckCloseArt.com that could apply a filter to any image to make it look like one of Chuck Close’s famous pixelated paintings.
Blake was described by The New York Observer as “an up-and-comer in the art realm with a zest for digital art and a knack for ticking off Mr. Close.”
After Close asked him to take the filter down and threatened a lawsuit, he did, but the two have been responding and critiquing each other ever since.
In response to the photo filter Close said, “it may be an amusing project and many people might like it, but it is MY art that is trivialized, MY career you are jeopardizing, MY legacy, which i have to think about for my children, and MY livelihood. i must fight to protect it.” (November 2010)
Chuck Close’s paintings are unique now, but does he have the right to own the format of pixelation just because he was the first to paint that way? Blake didn’t steal one single entity, he stole a format, an idea.
If Andy Warhol were around, would he sue Apple for PhotoBooth’s pop art filter?
DrawClose wrote a really great piece about the controversy here, and you can check out where the online photo filter used to be on Blake’s site here.
Photos and quotes from HyperAllergic.
Jul 20, 2012 | news
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| Attendees at June 3rd’s Average Joe Sale |
Miami Beach native Yuval Ofir recently opened a gallery called YO Space, an 800-square-foot gallery where he holds a monthly art event called the Average Joe Sale. Twelve artists sell original pieces, all for under $250.
Ofir’s hope is that these events will expose local artwork to those who can actually afford to buy it.
“Let’s face it,” he told The Miami Herald, “most of us can’t hand with the De La Cruz’s and Rubells of the world.”
One more person trying to spread beautiful things as far as they’ll reach.
Read The Miami Herald’s full story here.
You can also check out Ofir’s blog, YO Miami.
Jul 14, 2012 | news
Today Google’s homepage is “The Kiss,” commemorating the 150th birthday of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. My sister actually gave me a print of this painting for my birthday last year, but I hung it horizontally on accident and all my friends made fun of me. But I ended up liking it better that way, because I’d rather the couple be cuddling and laying down than on a hillside that ends after her feet for no reason. I don’t think Klimt would have minded that I hung it the wrong way. But they do look better standing on Google’s page.
Check out some Klimt history in the Christian Science Monitor’s article on this 150th celebration.
Jul 12, 2012 | news
Vomiting, sculpture-scaling, toddler attacks, and worse have happened to artworks inside museums.
And they’re worried about my flash being on.
Check out this list of art-atrocities posted by Mental Floss.
Jul 10, 2012 | news, street art
Faif, a Barcelona-based street artist, has been making some pretty great stuff lately, poking fun at how seriously we take art and society in general.
I really like the “roped off” “framed” pieces along the wall in the second picture below. The ropes block us from seeing that line of the piece, which makes sense because they’re meant to keep us back and away from them anyway.
Like walking into a snarky cartoon full of meaningless labels that point out how stupid all labels actually are.
Jul 5, 2012 | news
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| The city of Mobile, AL, seen from across the bay. |
Springboard for the Arts, a community development organization for artists, recently began a program in Minnesota that’ll help jumpstart the creation of local art.
50 community members buy “shares” in the work of nine local artists, and over the course of the summer, they’ll each receive nine original works created by them.
Cool way to make sure art keeps getting created– local art can be some of the best there is. Here’s a piece from my hometown, Fairhope, Alabama (full post coming soon:)
Check out the full story plus quotes from Springboard’s executive director on The Atlantic.
