Quick Compare| My Kid Could Paint That..... Again

Child painters Aelita Andre (above) pictured this past week, and Marla Olmstead (below) from 2005

Is it me, or does the latest buzz around four year old painter Aelita Andre signal a kind of deja vu from just a few years ago. Many of you might recall the scandal surrounding another four year old "prodigy", Marla Olmstead, and the infamous 60 Minutes episode that questioned if the paintings she miraculously created were actually "authentic" and made by her. For some years now, I have utilized the story about Olmstead's rapid rise and then decline in fame as part my contemporary and modern art history classes, a story that was brilliantly chronicled in the award winning 2007 documentary My Kid Could Paint That by director Amir Bar-Lev. The comparisons between the two little girls is quite stunning-- see a clip from the trailer to the film on Olmstead and a report this past week about Andre to see for yourself:





Then like now, the conversations appear to circulate around the anxiety that many individuals unfamiliar with the history of modern art have when it comes to the assessment of abstract painting. How is it that an art form that appears so "easy", deskilled, and non-figurative can continue to garner such ridiculous prices at auction and serious sustained attention? Why is it that most art critics privilege this kind of art above the realist paintings of the past? No doubt abstract art touches on all of these nerves, and then some. It is an area of art making that carries a kind of polarized response, especially when placed within the context of a child producer. On the one hand, there are those who find it remarkable that a child could create paintings with such force, individual expression, and dynamic composition, while on the other hand, there is an audience smirking about the serious attention paid to art works that appear less than difficult to produce. Afterall, these are art works created by a child... right? And does it matter that both Marla Olmstead and Aelita Andre have at least one parent that is, or has been, a practicing artist? What about the serious financial gains that can be made from the story of a child prodigy who can paint? Is the entire situation just one massive spectacle about the problem with the state of contemporary art?

In discussing these very questions over the years with students, I have found that one of the very best explanations about the phenomena and massive public interest in child artists and the question of abstract and modern art emerges with an interview given by New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman, one of the key consultants on Amir Bar-Lev's documentary about Marla Olmstead. Embedded here below in two parts (it also appears as a special feature on the DVD version of the documentary), Kimmelman's remarks are very timely and reminds us once again of a far more important discourse brought about by the spectacle of a child painter, concerning both the expectations and constraints many individuals bring to the experience of looking at art. Now I just wonder how long Aelita Andre's 15 minutes are going to last.

Weekly Twitter Round Up

Where did this week go? Those were my thoughts today as I looked back to the single blog post I made this week, albeit a timely one with the opening of the Venice Biennale. But even the Twitterverse seems to be more in summer mode these days. I have been immersed in personal projects and attempting to do all those organizational things that fall to the back burner during the regular academic term. I have also been working on some research for conference papers-- two separate events set for the fall and a talk at the CAA in February 2012 (100th Anniversary!). Plans and meetings have also been proceeding nicely with the study abroad trip planned for next summer through Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Paris and Kassel, Germany for Documenta. I hope to have some more news and final details sorted for interested students by the end of August. Stay tuned. Oh yes, and the Canucks haven’t done so badly either—I think the Stanley Cup will be visiting Vancouver soon! Here are some of my favourite tweets from the past week:

A comprehensive guide to the 2011 Venice Biennale national pavilions

Academics begin to work with Wikipedia

Art & Language sing theory, backed up by The Red Crayola "Nine Gross and Conspicuous Errors" (1976)

Perhaps the most beautiful water dispenser in the world?

WSJ investigates the modern relationship between artists and their assistants.

The Cosby Sweater Project: Another hilarious blog concept! 

Keeping up With Tradition

And a bonus one......

What would you do to see the #Canucks in the Final? Dress up as Lady Gaga for a day of work? 

Venice Biennale 2011: Vancouver Artist Steven Shearer Represents Canada

Steven Shearer, 1900 (2005)

When I sat down to sketch out travel plans for my trip abroad this summer, I knew that I wanted to find a way to Venice to take in the atmosphere and energy of the Venice Biennale. Opening today and running until the end of November (with the film component of the exhibition scheduled for the end of August to September 10^th—this is part of the time I plan to be there), the international event promises to be as grand as its 116 year old history, with representation of Canada coming from local Vancouver artist, Steven Shearer.

Shearer, a graduate of Emily Carr, has exhibited his work internationally at the Tate Modern in London, The New Museum and the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York, and the Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zurich. In Canada, he has shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. His work, which includes a broad range of media, has been described as engaged with themes of dissent, youth alienation, and the relationship between “outsider” human subjects and the world they inhabit. The decision to select Shearer to represent Canada in Venice was announced last summer to the delight of many who have followed his early career. His solo exhibition “Steven Shearer: Exhume to Consume”, is set to include a selection of Shearer’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures and will be curated by Josée Drouin-Brisebois, head of the Contemporary Art collection at the National Gallery in Canada. The exhibition will also feature new works by the artist including a nine-metre-high free-standing mural created in response to the architecture of the adjacent British and German Pavilions. As e-flux reports, “The mural is part of an alternate entrance to the Pavilion via a tool shed-like structure, one of Shearer's signature motifs. This monumental facade features a new poem written by the artist, drawing from the vocabulary of Black and Death metal music, which conjures the sublime, nihilistic power of language, and seeks to provoke a visceral response in viewers.” 

Steven Shearer, Poems XII (2005)

Several years ago Deborah Campbell wrote a great piece for Canadian Art titled, “Steven Shearer: Bastard Offspring of the Photoconceptualists” in which she explored the unique approach of the multi media artist (Shearer uses photographs, makes installations, as well as collages, paints, and draws) whose location in Vancouver is still loosely connected to similar themes of social alienation and realist subject matter of other major figures of the local art scene such as Jeff Wall, Ken Lum, Stan Douglas etc. In the essay, Campbell sums up the appeal of Shearer’s art works in connection to their readily accessible themes of transgression, youth angst, and recognizeable images of “outsider” culture marketed to kids both today and in the past: “Like Bruegel or Dou, Shearer takes as his subjects examples of a social type typically ignored by a society that finds their very existence discomfiting. His subjects will never visit an art gallery, if indeed they know that such a place exists. Shearer's message isn't really any message at all, but rather an anthropological study of what he knows first-hand, from growing up in the burbs of Port Coquitlam in the 1970s and 80s, playing guitar and listening to heavy metal and covering his walls with the images he now explores with a combination of empathy and analytical distance.” 

Steven Shearer, Portrait of the Artist as a Lost Teen Idol (2006)

In this context, his deeply personal work might seem an unusual choice to represent Canada at one of the world’s largest and most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions, but I think that the decision also reflects an understanding of how Shearer’s fascination with mass media, especially in its increasingly fragmented, niched, and decontextualized forms, signals a shifting tide in the way today’s visual artists are making sense of the contemporary and technologically mediated world they inhabit. I look forward to blogging about the Venice Biennale in late August and sharing how Canada’s contribution to the exhibition has been met by the international art press. I do not think they (nor I) will be disappointed.

National Galley of Canada curator Josée Drouin-Brisebois discusses Shearer's upcoming appearance at the Venice Biennale:

Weekly Twitter Round Up

A relatively slow week in the Twitterverse after what seems like months of non-stop activity and major news events. Good thing as life has also found a bit more balance for me as I ease into the summer months. This past weekend and the improving weather was finally worthy of some outdoor activity—seawall walks, biking, patio surfing, meeting with friends etc.., dinner later tonight with family—and finding time to sketch out research plans and post information about classes I will be teaching in the fall (see yesterday’s post for details). All in all a wonderful and peaceful week. Enjoy my picks from this past week. 

P.S. Happy Birthday Brian! It was a blast this past weekend! I look forward to our European adventure in August!  

Without good metadata, even the greatest archives are as good as closed to many students and scholars

Facebook founder Zuckerberg tells G8 summit: don't regulate the web

Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington dies

Van Gogh restoration as performance art

Check it out: Richard Phillips' 90-second film, "Lindsay Lohan"

Sorry if we're late to the party, but this is still cool

David LaChapelle: An Unexpected Life 

New Courses for Fall 2011: Topics in Art and Revolution and Art Theory

As registration for Fall 2011 academic courses begins, I have once again been fielding questions regarding new courses I will be teaching in September. In addition to previously taught courses which I will be instructing again, FPA 167: Visual Art and Culture I (SFU) and ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies (Kwantlen), I will also be involved with teaching two new courses—see detailed descriptions below. Once again I am looking forward to a dynamic and engaging term in both classes!

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Wednesdays 7:00-9:50pm, Fir D128)

ARTH 3100: Art and the Age of Revolution

This course provides an introduction to the complex ways in which social and political change, and ideologies of gender, class, race and ethnicity, worked to shape aspects of 19^th and early 20^th century visual culture in Europe and North America. Emphasis will be placed on the roles played by industrialization, political ideology, rapid urban growth, global commerce, and the new media technologies of an expanding consumer culture in defining a wide range of visual culture. Throughout the term we will also examine different representations and debates around the idea of modernity and the “modern,” exploring the dynamic relationship between image and event. 

Alexander Rodchenko, Revolutionary Poster (1924)

Since the time period under investigation has often been called “The Age of Revolution”, we will also pay particular attention to shifting ideas related to labour and leisure, urban social space and spectacle, and issues bearing on empire expansion in relationship to key historical moments of radical political and social transformation (including but not limited to the French, American, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Revolutions). Importantly, this seminar will also consider the constructed nature of the discipline of art history within the context of revolutionary discourse in order to trouble assumptions, both historical and contemporary, regarding the nature of art, its relation to different social and political institutions, and issues of patronage and viewing publics.

Simon Fraser University (Tuesdays 2:30-5:30pm, Harbour Centre 2510) 

*note that registration in a tutorial is also necessary
FPA 210: Artworks, Theories, Contexts

This course offers a critical examination of selected art works in connection to key theoretical and historical turning points in art history and critical theory. Focusing on international visual art and culture from 1945 to the present, each class will be anchored around a specific theme and connected body of critical theory writing together with a close and interactive reading of one chosen artwork. This format will provide a launching off point to explore the range of associated historical events, factors of patronage and institutions, as well as changing attitudes to making and approaching art in modern and postmodern contexts. Throughout the course, we will consider traditional media forms alongside the addition of new media practices of recent decades. 

Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth (2007)

From photography to video, collage to assemblage, installation to performance, such media have extended notions of what art could materially consist of, but have also affected the anticipation of audiences for that work, having social as well as aesthetic implications. Ultimately, our attention will be on the network where art is made, presented to and reacted to by different parties, and to the ways that portions of the art system―such as art history and critical theory―have conceived of and explained the workings of such a system and the society it exists within.