Alison Elizabeth Taylor at JAMES COHAN GALLERY

[hankjunior]

I see great art everyday, and it wasnt made by someone with a paintbrush or hammer and chisel. anything goes as long as it works.

[Lee899123]

Having visited Taylor's studio, I find the comments here about "machines" perplexing. She begins each piece with a detailed, freehand graphite drawing. She inks it by hand, and cuts resulting shapes out of veneer. Any equipment used in the creation of these works is an extension, not a replacement, of the artist's hand.

[MrWowforever]

i think the commentary got side-tracked, these are beautifully 'made' pieces; it's the...'and cuts resulting shapes out of veneer' that triggered the dialogue, i think. this is after mr. kalm hit us with all this adamantly hand(brush)made, big painting from germany. also, the dialogue with machine v. hand has been a constant thread in these videos and the larger art world. mrs. taylors work looks mimetic and cut with fine tools...i admire the skill, but skill(tools and hand) comes with baggage.

[asdffd]

WOW, there really is a Good Humor Man!

[RonSchira]

Weapons of mass production, I like that.

[LawrenceCharlesMille]

The bicycle rider appears to be a reference to Andrew Wyeth. He too uses a difficult medium, but avoids the tangled story line. Details like the fish decal on the rear window of the truck catch the mind like velcro. Woodcraft? Story? For me, in this case, the medium is the message.

[RonSchira]

It's all about the medium, we're more awed by the technique than the narrative, and the real story is the bike rider with the camera.

[LawrenceCharlesMille]

I agree. It's a decorative art form. The story is in the David Lynch, Eric Fischl manner. The medium would work better with a classical myth where the viewer knows the story.

[MrWowforever]

machines imitate perfection. when i watch an actual person being perfect, or trying, i empathize with the effort, i am impressed. machines don't produce empathy, they don't practice. we r drifting.......thank you......machines don't drift.........

[RonSchira]

We have Mister Softie in Reading...

[RonSchira]

Spawndonacle,

I agree with you, but I have been noticing that more people are impressed by the end product and don't care if it was done by human hands. It's the same old surface versus substance argument and I fear that our lack of esthetic appreciation in the educational system and the hammering of applied arts into the college mentality has made dinosaurs of Modernist thought. We are taught to make saleable art as a career, not to advance the course of History or find meaning in life.

[kellylynn2008]

no program can outwit the random hand, no machine can be spontaneous and never are more people right just because there are more of them. nothing since the invention of the camera has come close to van gogh, who painted thru the invention of the camera, thru modernism and thru cinema, painting survives.. just my opinion.

[MrWowforever]

the proliferation of fabrication practically begs for the handmade to slip in, you need an opposite...:)

[purewonka]

That's a stunning show.

[RonSchira]

Generally speaking, do you think that the majority of the art viewing public wants to see more of the "well-made object" than the spontaneous gestures of an iconoclast? If they were painted instead, would they wow the audience?

[jameskalm]

Ron,

Good question. From what I see at the fairs, and in major shows like the Biennial I'd say that there is a growing class of collectors that can't grasp anything but straight ahead figuration. These are basically conservative folks who want to get their monies worth and want work that takes work, or at least looks that way (hired hands). It's the New Academicism, shinny finish, no distortion, tedious technique, literary, lots of computer interface helps too. JK

[jameslour]

James,

Can you clarify? More collectors wanting "figuration"? And with "no distortion, tedious technique and lots of computer interface"? So, they don't want the more gestural and personal? I guess I got hung up on "figuration".

thanks,

Jim

[jameskalm]

I'm just talking about what I see here in NYC, seems photography is the biggest influence, ironically many painters and sculptors are imitating that surface and subject mater. But there is a quality of tedium that seems popular. JK

[jameslour]

thanks, jim

[MrWowforever]

mr kalm.. are you referring also to the 'koons-enquist' style, the hired hand look of jeff koons and damien hirsts recent paintings(damien loeb, will cotton, marilyn minter, among others)? i like your phrase 'quality of tedium', that hits home fantastically. thanks, again.

[jameskalm]

I have a piece in this month's Brooklyn Rail titled "Computer Brain or Human Stain" about the "Academy of the Machine" vs. the skuzziness of handmade art. Some folks want to deny their stinky humanity.

[MrWowforever]

nice....i'll grab it, thanks:)

[davidfstarr]

Thanks James!

[thenudeartist]

awesome stuff

[MrWowforever]

nice close-up of the wood