Setup for the RS21 Exhibit at the Maitland Art Center began last week. The installations have evolved to fit the new spacetime constraints, with some artists creating entirely new works for this iteration. The opening is this Friday, May 29th, from 6 to 8 pm. More details below. Hope to see you there!
Today at lunch Richard Colvin reported that Sergio won First Prize at Platform Florida’sEco-Vision show on Saturday! Congratulations to Sergio and well deserved for your talent and efforts!!
Attached are two images (hopefully): one of the gallery floor plan, with dimensions. Ignore the doors within the gallery, I am working with a new software and will eliminate the doors when I get to it. The other is an aerial view of the gallery just for fun.
I’m very grateful to have been a part of this show, and to have presented with such a great group!
Here’s a gallery with a few snaps I was able to take of the event. Hoping we see a lot more pictures and video coming out of this.
Here are some scans that Richard Reep made of Andre’s book:
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art-and-the-subconscious-the-drawings-part-1
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Jules Andre Smith founded The Research Studio in Maitland, Florida, in 1937. At that time, the world of art was undergoing incredible change, and some of the luminaries of the New York art world came through its doors in a quest to address the art problems of the day.
Smith’s book, Art and the Subconscious, was published the same year, and served as his manifesto:
Life for all of us is daily becoming more and more complicated, that is, for those of us who must face it fully with all its seething ramifications. Retirement and escape that were possible only a few years ago are now no longer available. Our interludes of peace, and the soul-restoring intervals of thought and contemplation can be at the best enjoyed only for brief moments.
It is no wonder that art can offer us such slight compensation toward the readjustment of our altered point of view; or that its manifestation in the hands of our “ultra” modern painters has taken such arresting and often disturbing forms. The fact is that our artists, quick to sense the change that has come about by a world in confusion, have met this challenge, or are attempting to meet it by means of new and different offerings. It is evident they are painting pictures no longer intended for men of composure or to be viewed with the old-time tranquil enjoyment; instead, their paintings today are executed for men who are living a life of perpetual hurry; they are paintings designed for our stream-lined existence and intended for those who no longer have time to look but only to glance at pictures and therefore demand as a reward for their visual contacts a mental stimulation that is in accord with the whirling existence in which we “live and move and have our being.”
The true creative artist is usually ahead of his time; at his best he is a prophet. He sees ever so far ahead of his contemporaries and usually annoys them by his visions and predictions, which in the end they accept, perhaps without realizing that their ultimate acceptance was as inevitable as their compliance with adventurous innovations, inventions and discoveries in lines other than art.
At its best art is a language of symbols. Art will always be new; and it will always be “made to order” to fit the needs of the present moment. The art of today is the product of our thoughts and our actions, and for that reason we should find it stimulating and wholly acceptable.
In the spirit of continuing Smith’s thesis, we present to you The Research Studio in the 21st Century.
As the Artists of the Research Studio working in the 21st Century, we find Smith’s words relevant, appropriate, and inspiring. To prepare for this installation, a series of discussions among the artists took place, and the discussions progressed in size and intensity. This installation is the end result of these freewheeling talks, which ranged from theory to practice, and that included a variety of visitors as well as the core artists.
At last week’s meeting, I brought up The Century of the Self, a documentary that I’ve found to be very good– so good in fact, that a minute or so after I began talking about it I realized that I was ranting a bit (sorry about that). I guess that’s a good a sign as any of how I feel about it…
The documentary traces the parallel evolution of the art and science of propaganda and the exploration of the human psyche, starting with Freud, then moving on from there, making stops along the way at the experimental, sometimes controversial Esalen Institute, and the creepily precise psychographic segmentation of the VALS program, among others.
While it might have seemed otherwise, I’m actually quite optimistic about the potential of these developments. I think the documentary cuts right to the core of a fundamental aspect of the modern human condition, and can serve as a great springboard for understanding, exploration, and engagement.
Episode summaries are available at BBC Four, and video streams of the episodes at Google Video.
This blog will hopefully serve as a communications hub of sorts for the Maitland Art Center’s ‘First Thursday’ event, scheduled for Febrary 5th 2009, and beyond that as a general discussion site for MAC associates and the central Florida art community.
Archived initial project conception and planning discussions (prior to this incarnation of the event) are available here.
What’s up with that funky looking rabbit, you ask? It’s Tochtli, an Aztec daysign.
