Saturday, July 31, 2010

Maury Chaykin 1949-2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The End Of July or the last collage of July 2010

Black And White. 1973. Paint On Paper. Recently found.










Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Recently unearthed teenage art photographed







The first 4 are paintings I did when I was around 17 years old. All four were done for art projects. The small landscape was done in Prospect Park, the last image is a tear sheet from Other Scenes newspaper which was an alternative newspaper from the 1960's. They had a contest for someone to design a complete issue in 1968 or 69 and I won, but John Wilcock the published decided to have several artists do the issue. I was pissed but I got the most pages that were spread out over several issues. Done in black and white the collages when published were color tinted.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Doug Ohlson 1936-2010


Saturday, July 24, 2010

One Painting and five pastels from 1980






Friday, July 23, 2010

Teen Art.












































Most of these paintings and drawings were done when I was around 18 years old. The first one was based on Poe's The Raven, a class project, the next one was also done for a class project, its a painting based on the New York City subway system. The next one was also done for a class project and I guess I was looking at Stuart Davis, The last two paintings on paper were done in my hippy druggy days.

Black And White. 1973. Paint On Paper

Thursday, July 22, 2010

An Artist is finally present























Happily the empress of emptiness, that high priestess of hype Marina Abramović is now gone from the MOMA, and has taken all her nudies with her. Also finally gone is the Tim Burton fun house of doodie doodles and ugly movie props, so I ventured back to this shopping mall of art on .53th street to check out Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917. The exhibit only covers 5 years of this extraordinary artist’s career so don’t go expecting to see a full retrospective but there are enough great paintings that I was pretty much satisfied. However I still wanted more. I was surprised and pleased that the crowds were manageable, I only threw about 3 dirty looks at people around me and took my sweet time taking in his breathtaking and still fresh paintings. I even backtracked to several of the galleries to get a second look at some of my favorite works. Even though I had grown up seeing many of these paintings since quite a few are from the Moma’s collection I was surprised by how large some of them are, but not by their unrelenting beauty. I spent a lot of time just looking at his surfaces and the large areas of luscious colors and unexpected line work that have influenced painters and artists ever since he painted them. I have never been a big fan of his sculptures and I’m still not, and the small etchings and prints could have easily been left out as far as I’m concerned, but why quibble when one has the chance to see lots of this great painter’s work in one place. While there I also took in the small but wonderful show of Lee Bontecou’s work which includes several of her ferocious early welded steel canvas and fabric sculptures that hang on the wall and jut out at you . There is also one of her more recent delicate wire and ceramic mobile sculptures that is suspended from the ceiling and resemble small constellations that throw off somewhat showy and dramatic shadows on the white platform beneath it. Also on exhibit is a show of photographs by women photographers This is a loosely put together historical show, that has some great images by Dorothea Lange, Arbus, Lisette Model, Nan Goldin and many others, but also includes some misses, (no pun intended) including the wildly overrated Cindy Sherman, who still leaves me wondering why her boring photographs are so highly regarded and praised, and a bad group of pedestrian color photos from the 1970’s by the otherwise great Helen Levitt whose best work is her black and white photographs of New York street life from the 1940’s and 50‘s. The Museum of Modern Art is good at putting up these small well installed shows featuring works from their extensive collection, and in the drawing galleries the curators have mounted a mostly enjoyable but easy show called “The Modern Myth: Drawing Mythologies in Modern Times.” This broad themed show gives them lots of freedom and leeway in the examples that they chose to show, but I found enough beautiful images here to keep me happy until two Euro-Trash Jonas Brothers look a likes decided to let off some farts as I stood behind them. Maybe the Moma should post a sign: “To all the Euro trash young visitors one does not fart in our galleries especially when someone is standing behind you, or something to that affect. Also annoying as usual were the tourists who snap their little digital cameras at every work of art in sight, which I find very annoying. I have come up with a new gorilla tactic and that is to walk in front of them just as they are going to click and snap.Hopefully many of them have some nice blurry photos of me in front of the Pollock or the Warhol. One woman was actually on the floor trying to get her snap and I just continued to look at the painting. . Did she think I would actually move and get out of her way? And finally I took in the Bruce Nauman sound piece “Days” which according to Moma’s description is “A collection of distinctive voices that produces a chorus—at times cacophonous, at others, resonant—and creates a sonic cocoon that envelops the visitor. The work invokes both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate, and commemorate time.” Banality yes, profundity no. This would have been an interesting piece in 1971 but in 2010 it’s totally unnecessary and just not compelling, and of course the Moma acquired it for their permanent collection.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Night Train To Munich


I finally caught up with Night Train To Munich that was recently put out by Criterion. Directed by the sometimes very good Carol Reed, this will no doubt remind some of Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” due to the plot the cast and the screenplay by Sydney Gilliat and Frank Launder who also pen...ned the Hitchcock film. Margaret Lockwood who plays a similar part as she did in The Lady Vanishes is ably supported by the two charming very British hapless and sometimes helpless travelers, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne playing Charters & Caldicott (sounds like a book store or a candy company) who reprise their roles from the Hitchcock thriller and who stumble into the action and the start of world war II. The film has suspense, intrigue along with nice little touches of sly humor, some of it black mostly supplied by Charters & Caldicott. At one point Charters is attempting to read Hitler's tome Mein Kampf which he picked up in a German train station book stall (it was either that or Gone With The Wind) and remarks "It's not exactly Honeymoon material, is it?" and quips to Caldicott "I'm still in Hitler's boyhood". More unexpected comic relief is supplied by Irene Handle who plays a gruff very self-assured female Nazi station master. A young and debonair Rex Harrison plays a hawker and singer of popular sheet music songs in a small sea side amusement park in Britain who leads a double and sometimes triple life and who soon becomes involved in the intrigue and danger surrounding Lockwood and her father. The movie even has a similar opening as the Lady Vanishes. There is a long shot of a miniature mountain retreat in which the camera moves slowly in and enters the house through a window in which we see an angry Adolph Hitler banging his fist on a spread out map of Austria on the eve of Germany’s invasion of the country. There is then a montage of newsreel footage of the Germans marching into Austria which is soon followed by them invading Czechoslovakia. Lockwood’s dad is a Czech scientist who has invented a formula for a super steel new kind of armor plating and the Germans want him to work for them but he escapes to England by plane during the invasion. Margaret who plays his glamorous daughter doesn’t make the plane and is put in concentration camp where still looking pretty and pert meets up with Paul Henreid who is also a prisoner. Henreid is billed here as Paul von Hernried and was a few years away from lighting those many cigarettes for Bette Davis in “Now Voyager“. Henreid and Lockwood escape the camp with the help of a sympatric guard and soon the cat and mouse chase is on. There are some nice plot twists at the beginning that had me fooled, all of which of course culminates on that night train to Munich. There is a charming use of miniatures; lots of double and triple crosses but one should not start thinking too much about the improbable plot. Not nearly as great as “The Lady Vanishes” but enjoyable viewing for a hot summer night.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Wall sculptures or plaques. 2009-2010.







Wall sculptures or plaques. 2009-2010. Each plaque measures 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" with the overall size variable. 10 plaques in all. Mixed.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Summer Collage 2010. 9 1/2" x 12 1/2" Mixed

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tote Bags For Sale











Tote bags for sale with my designs on them, front and back. $22.00 each. Think how smart you'll look coming home from shopping with these unique tote bags. You'll be the envy of Chelsea, or Beverly Hills. You can check out all my products at this link. So go ahead be green and shop till you drop.
You can see more of my totes and more products with my designs on them at
http://www.cafepress.com/irajoelhaber
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