I first studied art and then I acquired a design background. I'm sure growing up with mid-century furniture subliminally exposed me to great design. Inside our Herman Miller cabinet was where I went to play hide and seek. Not only was my mother’s eye spot on but NYC offered me exposure from an early age to art and museums. My parents were so proud when they could introduce us to the jewel of the newly built Seagrams building - the Four Season's Restaurant.

One of the great benefits of having art and objects in our environment is that they lift our eyes up and around to different spots in the room. They add a dynamic presence that can effortlessly be integrated into any space.

The amount of space we live within is paramount to how we fill it. In the confines of a small space, we might think we want to keep walls unadorned and table tops sparse. Whereas we assume a larger space can carry the weight of more objects. In reality the opposite is true. If we put more into a smaller space, it actually feels larger. This is because the makeup of a  room is filled with a variety of rest points and movement. Think of a cavernous empty room verses different “cozy” seating areas filled with segregated ambiance. A previous post on Scale deals with Rhythm Harmony and Eye Circulation and goes into greater detail on how this works. 

finding what we like

where?

EVERYWHERE around us – developing our eye as we go…

~The question begs to be asked how do we gain an appreciation and sensitivity to art and collecting? It starts with educating ourselves and becoming familiar with what we like. We can develop a knowing eye by visiting a local art museum, gallery, taking in art on the street or simply the layout of the street. Visiting a local auction house, take courses at a local college or university expands our horizons. Not inclined to take classes? Then how about buying a book or goggling pieces you see around you? All these and many more can be a route to self-education. Slowly we become our own best expert. Step by step, a spark of recognition and appreciation for our environment grows.

Auction houses - a fun way to spend an afternoon participating or simply observing.

~From estate sales to flea markets: these are great venues to see great painting, posters and objects. And if you like something go-ahead and bid - knowing you’re buying it at an affordable price. Auction house pieces are beautiful and well priced for a variety of budgets and resale by the professional. Even though the name on the piece might not be well know, that doesn’t mean it’s not just as good as a famous person’s. It just means they might not have been in the right place at the right time and therefore never got their name known. 

Here's a link to one of my favorite Auction Houses - Clarke Auction Gallery:

https://clarkeny.com/departments/fine-art/

“the eye has to travel.”

Diana Vreeland

Post high school I studied weaving, then fine arts and spent many years working in art studios for others and myself. Along the way I developed my own work while I spent endless hours visiting art galleries, museums and going to concerts. Maybe that’s why it’s become relatively easy for me to look at something and know if (and why) I like it – or don’t. Amassing this catalogue of knowledge for contemporary art (the past 100 years) I offer the fruits of that knowledge – my taste, my take.

When I was young, in my naiveté I did not believe we were products of our environment. I thought that I could easily transcend the restraints of where I grew up and who I grew up with. Boy, was I ever wrong! In retrospect, this attitude seems a lofty ideal of youth, a breaking away from the nest. My love of studying history is what may have helped me realize we are who we are – nature and nurture combined. To this day I love co-habiting with art and found objects I’ve collected or been gifted - my chachkas.

      MARK ROTHKO

Artists are the barometers of a nation, a notion – from a seed of thought their way blossoms into a way of seeing. Each deeply affected by his/her place and time. And each subsequent artist who joins these ranks is building upon the work of their predecessors.  

In some instances the artist was trying to come to terms with being a part of or a cause of war or contributing to another’s war-torn environment. Facinatingly, some of our own mid century art movements were aided by covert CIA actions. For instance, they clandestinely funded the budding Abstract Expressionist movement in the mid 20th C. It was the government’s way to bolster themselves against enemy #1: the USSR during the Cold War Era. Ironically this was when Stalin forbade the creativity of his non-representational artists for the sake of bringing back realism. 

Many of our artists in the height of the McCarthy era and the Vietnam War were the very resistors of our government intervention. Therefore, to deceive who was funding this mission, false shell companies were created to divert our taxpayer money and private wealth.

The Cold War ended and the USSR disbanded with another covert mission: to fund and bring into power the Islamic Extremists, the Taliban, in an effort to bring down the Soviet Union during their invasion of Afghanistan. It worked in the short term but war after war has backfired – as all “short term” not well thought out covert actions to control outcomes seem to.

But I’ve wandered…

My abbreviated list of groundbreaking artists from the last century include Brancusi, Duchamp, Matisse, Picasso, Joseph Beuys, Cage, Scwitters, Joseph Cornell, Lenore Tawney and Warhol. And the list goes on and on. Even though we might not like or agree with their work they made an impact on the world around us by the way they saw it. Each of the following artists was a groundbreaker for his/her time and place. In this context they had the gift to persevere and to make their vision a reality. 

My uncle was instrumental in a lawsuit representing Rothko’s daughter and son fighting the thieves that tried to keep his prices low and keep him in an agitated state that eventually led to his suicide. The case went on for over a decade. My Uncle once told me his own life felt threatened and if they could have gotten away with it, these art dealers would have done away with him as well. Now Rothko’s art prices are through the roof expensive – each painting selling in the hundreds of millions of dollars (thank you CIA!). And yes, my uncle was promised if he won the case he would be given a painting.  Unfortunately this never materialized.

What I especially love about Picabia and Duchamp's imagery is its attempt to animate and to bring consecutive movements/moments onto a contained piece of 2D cloth. Without knowing this work of Duchamp’s or Picabia in the 80’s, I toyed with the concept of layering movement to a textile line I was designing and printing. In one piece I was recreating the movements of the contemporary Japanese dancer, Min Tanaka. More about this in Art 3  consecutive movement.