art and movies.
For those of us not familiar or not very familiar with the artist
Raoul De Keyser's paintings there is a superb show of his up now at the
David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea. Consisting of 22 canvases some very
small and compact these are sincere abstract works that impressed me
with their colors and shapes and recall and bring to mind landscapes in
the mist. Born in Belgium in 1930 and dead in 2012 it appears to me that
he had a brilliant and rich life as an artist. Not all the paintings are great, but most are wonderful and seductive. One of the best shows I've seen so far this year.
Also great and wonderful is the show of photographs by the recently deceased master Malick Sidibe now on view at the Jack Shainman gallery. Although not as memorable as some of his previous shows there are still some terrific images of impact here including many photos of clothed female figures photographed from behind. I especially like his portraits with those beautiful decorative borders, unfortunately there are very few of those here, as are his photos of dancers whooping it up in their Saturday night finery.
And while I’m here I should mention "Neon Bull" Gabriel Mascaro’s strong and beautiful new film set among the workers and caretakers of bulls in Brazil’s far-flung rodeos called vaquejadas. The film focuses on a group of workers who travel from place to place with the rodeo including the very handsome and sexy Iremar played with great conviction by Juliano Cazarrého who cleans the bulls and in his spare time designs and makes costumes and clothes that one of his female co-workers wears in her side show like semi strip dance act, you have to get a load of her in one get up in which she wears a horses head and hoofs. Iremar’s one big dream is to be able to save up enough money to buy a professional sewing machine one day. There is also a female child, the daughter of the stripper-co worker in the mix who is brash and wise in her ways who adds a big dash of confusion to their lives. Iremar who drips sexuality is a deep and complex man, macho and bullish but also sensitive and creative. Everything here is raw, worn and run down, you can almost smell the dung that these workers are constantly shoveling and the smell of sex is also strong and in our faces and quite explicit including a gorgeous dimly lit scene of the male workers washing themselves in the nude with buckets of water that is like a painting come to life and an outrageous and very explicit scene in an textile factory late one night between Iremar and a very pregnant security guard. This was a strange and disconcerting film for me, like being trapped in some distant unknown land without a passport and a way to get out but difficult not to fall into its spell no matter how rough and ugly it is. And do I have to even mention that this is not a film for everyone. One of the best films of the year so far.
Also great and wonderful is the show of photographs by the recently deceased master Malick Sidibe now on view at the Jack Shainman gallery. Although not as memorable as some of his previous shows there are still some terrific images of impact here including many photos of clothed female figures photographed from behind. I especially like his portraits with those beautiful decorative borders, unfortunately there are very few of those here, as are his photos of dancers whooping it up in their Saturday night finery.
And while I’m here I should mention "Neon Bull" Gabriel Mascaro’s strong and beautiful new film set among the workers and caretakers of bulls in Brazil’s far-flung rodeos called vaquejadas. The film focuses on a group of workers who travel from place to place with the rodeo including the very handsome and sexy Iremar played with great conviction by Juliano Cazarrého who cleans the bulls and in his spare time designs and makes costumes and clothes that one of his female co-workers wears in her side show like semi strip dance act, you have to get a load of her in one get up in which she wears a horses head and hoofs. Iremar’s one big dream is to be able to save up enough money to buy a professional sewing machine one day. There is also a female child, the daughter of the stripper-co worker in the mix who is brash and wise in her ways who adds a big dash of confusion to their lives. Iremar who drips sexuality is a deep and complex man, macho and bullish but also sensitive and creative. Everything here is raw, worn and run down, you can almost smell the dung that these workers are constantly shoveling and the smell of sex is also strong and in our faces and quite explicit including a gorgeous dimly lit scene of the male workers washing themselves in the nude with buckets of water that is like a painting come to life and an outrageous and very explicit scene in an textile factory late one night between Iremar and a very pregnant security guard. This was a strange and disconcerting film for me, like being trapped in some distant unknown land without a passport and a way to get out but difficult not to fall into its spell no matter how rough and ugly it is. And do I have to even mention that this is not a film for everyone. One of the best films of the year so far.
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