~TAYLOR McKIMEN’S: THE HISTORY OF ART & bye the way: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY !!
‘TAYLOR McKIMENS: COMMISSIONS BY BRIGHT LYONS, 2008-2015’
FEB 3 – TUES, FEB 18, 2015
BRIGHT LYONS, POP-UP – 455 West 19th St, Chelsea, NYC
“THE STARRY MESSENGER” . . .
well, lookie here, Taylor’s show – is in synch with the . . stars !!
that means . . for sure, I’m up, for taking . . another LOOK !!
TAYLOR McKIMENS, ‘You and I’, 2014, acrylic paint. 14 x 10.75 in.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, Y’ALL . . !!
though actually I’m not 100% if this is . .’You and I’, or: ‘Far from Me’ ?!!
the artworks weren’t listed exactly in synch with the installation at the opening, they must have done some last minute re-arranging.
so I didn’t get the note, and somebody else can do the . . grad school paper.
but I do see hearts, and plenty of them on her dress, and they most def . . are in the POP vernacular, or what !!
though that ‘chain around her neck’, pardon the expression (!!) is causing me some mystery, and sleepless nights.
whose got the other half ?
and ps: in case you didn’t pick it up, the narrow hem around her t-shirt – clearly speaks: comic book.
this is a close-up of the woman’s head, in Taylor’s ‘Victory’, 2015 painting, discussed at some length in the previous post. what’s so strangely interesting about these paintings, is that while they most strongly project ‘cutting edge’ contemporary art – they also carry secret passageways to and from great ART, mostly vernacular, and definite outcasts . . from the past.
so, is ‘ex-outsider’ a formal term ?
and, now of course very revered and respected painters, in this case: it’s clear to see the ‘hand’ of the mighty outsider, now a god . . VAN GOGH.
in short in Taylor MCKimens’ paintings – Van Gogh meets comic book story-telling & neon color spurts – in 21st C Brooklyn !!
off-tangent: the definition of ‘outsider’ has morphed & changed, and in some sense remained exactly the same – incredibly through the centuries.
you better thank your lucky stars – there’s a fluid path . . in the rat world. I mean: art world. even if it does take .. centuries.
“CLOTHED IN GLORY – An 1889 self-portrait painted in Saint-Remy, where Van Gogh spent the final year of his life.” – WSJ, BOOKS SECTION, Sat/Sun Jan 17-18, 2015.
VAN GOGH making the . . news.
and damn, that’s a true . . ‘SELFIE’, if I ever did see . . one, not to repeat myself, but . . just laying out the cultural cards, as they plainly fall.
in black and white, and read all over.
but back to TAYLOR:
it hadn’t really dawned on me why I was so haunted by the show, until I noted this Wall Street Journal, Books section – on the top of my reading desk !!
yep, weekend of Jan 17-18, 2015, VINCENT VAN GOGH is not only in the news, his self-portrait, his ‘SELFIE’ . . . is headlining . . . the cultural pack heading into New Year 2015, and if you dwell on these kind of things, trends, even slightly, you can well pause to consider why the WSJ editors picked a ‘selfie’ instead of let’s say, a landscape – as their large format, go-to-image ?!!
anyway, so it’s not just American painter Taylor McKimens who is looking back.
look look . . lookie back, young dudes.
apparently Brit painter JULIAN BELL is also looking back, and he seems to have astounded everybody with his new Biography, ‘Van Gogh: A Power Seething’. (great title). a quote form the book: “My existence is not without reason,” the artist once wrote to his brother Theo. “There is something inside me, what can it be ?” the WSJ reviewer, JONATHAN LOPEZ, says Julian Bell “answers that question forcefully”.
see: ‘THE STARRY MESSENGER’, ‘Van Gogh: A Power Seething’ – by JULIAN BELL, WSJ
close-up, detail, TAYLOR McKIMENS . . ‘You and I’, 2014.
which brings us back to . . Valentine’s Day, 2015 – where you can also observe the animated gestural Van Gogh influence, that Taylor borrows to 3-D ‘model’ his figures, but you can also pick up some – GAUGUIN . . kind of his contemporary evil ‘twin’.
in the flat planes, esp across the face. the flower in the hair. the expression – etc, etc. the passion.
so, GAUGUIN’S also in the news, too.
“Paul Gauguin painted ‘Nafea Faa Ipolpo (When Will You Marry?)’, a portrait of two Tahitian girls, in 1892.” – WALL STREET JOURNAL, FRI FEB 6, 2015.
‘GAUGUIN PAINTING SELLS FOR NEAR $300 MILLION’ – BY KELLY CROW.
in short: “A colorful painting of two Tahitian women by Paul Gauguin has reportedly been sold by a Swiss family foundation to a group of state museums in Qatar for nearly $300 million, a record sum for a single work of art.”
read the article for yourself: “Gauguin Painting Sells …”, WSJ – FEB 6, 2015.
but what’s also interesting about this painting is how it speaks to the forward direction of Taylor’s work, which seems to be leaving the pick-up truck, dive bar culture of the southwest desert, and Brooklyn (!!), the exotic women of the hot islands of Gauguin, and the even hotter, thicker emotions – of Van Gogh – and taking the whole heap, kit and kaboddle / comic book art and all, flat planes and painterly gestures, animated inanimate details . . and moving them all . . . towards THE LIGHT !!
as opposed to the . . HEAT.
big diff.
and there’s a wonderful strangeness to that – too.
detail, TAYLOR McKIMENS, ‘Greek Head’, 2015. 14 x 11 in.
the L-i-g-h-t of the . . THE GREEKS – !!
moving forward, by going even further backward ?
that’s an interesting concept – as well.
one can just feel the light, refracting & reflecting off the coolness of that cold hard white marble, desert ? what desert. it’s all gods and civilization, thought. marble, and water-dwelling oracles !! the linear color areas, and crazed messy details of LIFE – are morphing into patterns of stained glass reflection that speak to answers, order and pattern. entropy is banished, and a flood of optimism shines rays over the small, but very alive, and evolving universe of the living – in a word: Brooklyn. just joking, calm down !!
Happy Valentine’s Day, from artlovers – your original content provider, and her take on the art scene . . multiplied by the everyday tarot cards, life in media-driven NYC throws at us, all.
a ‘selfie’ is a ‘blog’ is an . . insider/outsider ?
better believe it !!
oh, to the Greeks . . and their Starry Constellations !! Cupid and all.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH