On the Authentic

The search for the authentic in contemporary art


Gustave Le Gray, The Great Wave, Sete, 1857. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

The art world has been subject to vast changes over the last half-century, from the increased popularity of art as a career, to the rise of commercial galleries, to the power of the collector. At the same time, the art market has gone through the roof, attaining prices previously unheard of.

Art has become trendy among the young and upwardly mobile, creating a demand for edgy, flashy yet not-too-difficult work. As if to answer this demand, art schools are churning out thousands of young painters and installation artists annually, each of whom fully expects to make a successful career from art making. Mega collectors like Charles Saatchi in the UK, Martin Margulies and the Rubells in the US have become media stars with their own galleries filled with artists whose work they collect, complete with catalogues and full time staff.

For collectors and art world hangers-on, fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze in London and others now as far abroad as Dubai, Mexico City and Shanghai have attained an incredible glamour, despite being little more than high-profile shopping events, where art is shoved, cheek by jowl, into booths under harsh lighting with little, if any context.


Gustave Le Gray, The Effect of the Sun, 1856. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

Art is a truly global phenomenon, much of which smacks, to VoCA, of superficiality – the very thing that great art should dispel. Much art today has little integrity and you might say that such art is a reflection of our society. In fact, much of today’s art speaks the language of advertising (and vice versa.) But great art should remain a creative act that puts into imagery fundamental human experiences for which words are inadequate.

The advent of technology and the Internet has created a space where we are both frustrated by and designing ways of dealing with our remove from one another and from our environment. Technology today means that “older” no longer equals “wiser”.


P.E. Emerson, Ricking the Reed, 1886. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

One way for a viewer to restore faith in art – and after Toronto’s ROM Bomb incident (click HERE) many may have lost it – is to seek out authenticity, that is, works of art from an earlier time. The Malcolmson Collection of vintage photography is one such exhibition, presently on view at Lennox Contemporary in Toronto.

In the mid 1800s, photographers like Edouard Baldus, Roger Fenton, Gustave Le Gray, Salzmann and Charles Negre were similarly dealing with the possibilities of a new technology that was to change the way we would see the world. They were the pioneers of a new medium, inventors more than artists.


Edmund Baldus - Chateau Princesse Mathilde, 1854. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson


Eugene Cuvelier – Cart on Road, 1862. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

Harry Malcolmson writes in the exhibition notes: “The early photographers were inventors in the sense their role as first practitioners was to “invent” a vocabulary and context for the deployment of the extraordinary device. The aesthetic accomplishment was not the objective, but a byproduct (of) the training and skills of individual picture takers.”

The exhibition features a print of Gustave Le Gray’s The Great Wave, Sete, 1857. This is one of the most admired images in 19th century photography.


August Salzmann – Valley of Josaphat, 1854. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

Other seminal works include Maxime Du Camp early 1850s pioneering travels in Egypt, Auguste Salzmann’s images of Jerusalem, vernacular views of Indian and Sir Lankan subjects.


Julia Margaret Cameron, The Guardian Angel, 1868. Image courtesy of Harry Malcolmson

For more information on the exhibition, please click HERE

L'Animateur video

L'Animateur - courtesy of tech.no.lo.gic. Check it out:

L'animateur
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Arty Christmas Gifts Part Two

6. PLUG IN ICA – WINNIPEG


Neil Farber, Farber Drawing 683, 1999. Image: plugin.org

One of the members of the Royal Art Lodge, Neil Farber's work features an odd cast of characters that includes waif-like children, cats, dogs, and ghosts, combining innocence with a complicated and often foreboding sense of the absurd. Farber's drawings remind us that among the range of emotions, humor is arguably the most complicated – and perhaps the most human.


Jeanne Randolph, Ethics of Luxury. Image: plugin.org

In Ethics of Luxury, renowned Canadian thinker and artist Jeanne Randolph gives us a magnum opus focusing on one of the most pressing issues facing us today - how we act morally and ethically while participating in a culture of abundance, opulence and consumerism. Randolph argues that when we use our imagaintion, as we do when we create, appreciate and live with art, we are acting ethically, expressing our sense of morality in a practical, material way.

Buy art work or multiples at the gallery shop.

Farber Drawing 683, Mixed media. Signed by Neil Farber, 1999.

Ethics of Luxury, 144 pp., softcover, 5x7 inches, b/w illustrations. $19.95 CDN

For more informaion, please click HERE


7. ART METROPOLE - TORONTO


Jaime Sin, 14kt pop tabs, 2007. Image: artmetropole.com


General Idea (Ghent Scarf), 1984. Image: artmetropole.com

A miniature version of General Idea’s Ghent Flag screenprinted on nylon. Based on the flag of the City of Ghent, with a poodle replacing the rampant lion, the original flags were flown around the city during the exhibition “General Idea” at Musuem Van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent 1985 where the scarf was featured. Housed in a black card box with hot gold stamping with two title sheets providing a short introduction by Jan Hoet in English and Flemish.

Jaime Sin, 14kt pop tabs, 2007. 2.5 x 1.5 x cm, 14 karat gold. $279 CDN
Comes with an envelope and certificate of authenticity from the artist.

General Idea (Ghent Scarf), 1984, Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Ghent Belgium. Edition of 500, signed and numbered. $525 CDN

For more information, please click HERE

8. DAVID MIRVISH BOOKS ON ART - TORONTO


Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada. Image: dmbooks.com

Lavishly illustrated with 200 works of art, this is the first comprehensive history of abstract painting in Canada from the 1920s right up to the present.

The story begins in the 1920s and 1930s with the work of such pioneers as Kathleen Munn, Betram Brooker, Lawren Harris, and Jock MacDonald. Then in the 1940s Montreal saw the emergence of the Automatistes, Canada's first truly avant-garde movement. In the 1950s abstraction spread across the country, with regional variations. In the 1960s Vancouver artists cultivated their own hard-edge Pop version of geometric abstraction. By the 1970s Halifax led by the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, became a hub of international conceptual art and concrete painting.

The book concludes in tthe twenty-first century, with abstract painting alive and well.

For more information, please click HERE


9. NSCAD UNIVERSITY PRESS - HALIFAX


Claes Oldenburg, Raw Notes (2005) Deluxe Edition. Image: nscad.ns.ca

In 1972, Oldenburg scrupulously assembled every bit of textual material relating to four performances of the sixties: Stars, Moveyhouse, Massage, and The Typewriter.

According to his specifications, the text in the book was typed rather than set and appears on only one side of the page. Examples of the original manuscript are reproduced in sixty-three script plates, including stage plans, scores, sketches for programs and posters. More than two hundred annotations by the author expand the text.

The 2005 reprinting of Raw Notes has meticulously followed the original design and is a cased edition of 90, including a signed and numbered copy of Raw Notes (554 pages, 53 bw plates) and an original signed and numbered lithograph by Claes Oldenburg entitled The Office. A Typewriter Print. Ghost Version. A six-coloured print on 33” x 27.5" Arches Book Text, signed and numbered by Claes Oldenburg. $1250 CDN


10. INTERNATIONAL

Some of VoCA's favorite international online art shopping:

Nieves is an independent publishing house based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Founded in 2001, Nieves' focus is on publishing Artist Books and Zines.

Please click HERE

Iconoclast is a project-based studio working in collaboration with artists and institutions to produce exhibitions, publications, artists’ editions and more.

Please click HERE

Parkett is published in direct collaboration with important international artists, whose oeuvre is explored in several essays by leading writers and critics. Each artist also creates a special signed and numbered edition exclusive to Parkett, which may take any form, from unique works of art to prints and multiples.

Please click HERE

London's Whitechapel Gallery produces artist editions, Whitchapel editions, documents of contemporary art, CDs and more.

Please click HERE

For more information on international art shopping at museum stores, please read this article HERE

Arty Christmas Gifts Part One

Although VoCA won’t be thinking of Christmas shopping for at least another week, here are some ideas for arty presents that support Canadian museums, artists and artist-run centres.

After all, art has been "the new fashion" for quite some time...


1. PRESENTATION HOUSE GALLERY - VANCOUVER


Lynn Valley #2/Kleenex Mathematics. Image: presentationhousegall.com

Lynn Valley is an ongoing series of publications edited exclusively by artists, published by the gallery with Bywater Bros. Editions from Toronto.

Lynn Valley #2/ Kleenex Mathematics expands on super hot Cologne based artist Johannes Wohnseifer’s recent explorations with spam email. Working with a series of diaristic photographs taken in the past two years, Wohnseifer has overlain unedited spam texts, creating collages of word and image that blends autobiographic detail, historical allusion and dense visual puns with the found poetics of strategically designed, nonsensical language.

The book is 64 pages, softcover, edition of 1000.

For more information, please click HERE.


2. VANCOUVER ART GALLERY - VANCOUVER


A Zero-Yen House by Kyohei Sakaguchi. (This image is NOT the edition available from the VAG).
Image: inhabitat.com

The latest artwork in the gallery's Artist Edition series is the first by Tokyo-based artist Kyohei Sakaguchi.

The work of Kyohei Sakaguchi examines the significance of non-traditional and informal architecture. In the past few years, he has documented an elaborate sub-culture of architecture that includes diverse types of temporary and semi-permanent houses built in public spaces by homeless persons utilizing scavenged materials.

Priced at $175 (unframed), each of the 65 photographs includes a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Proceeds from the sale of Artist Editions support the Vancouver Art Gallery 's exhibitions and programming.

Please click HERE for more information.


3. THE BANFF CENTRE – BANFF, ALBERTA


Lori Blondeau, Belle Sauvage, 2005. Image: banffcentre.ca

These edition projects were commissioned by and entirely produced at The Banff Centre. Prints from these editions are available for purchase at The Banff Centre's Walter Phillips Gallery. All proceeds from the sale of the editions support Visual Arts at the Centre, and provide ongoing opportunities for professional artists.

As a Cree/Saulteaux artist, Lori Blondeau’s artistic practice continues to explore the influence of popular media and culture (contemporary and historical) on Aboriginal self-identity, self-image, and self-definition. The title of the work, Belle Sauvage, references the central subject; a persona Blondeau has assumed in her performance art.

Lori Blondeau, Belle Sauvage, 2005, edition of 16, $500. A six-colour silkscreen print on BFK Rives 100 per cent cotton rag paper.

For more information, please click HERE.


4. PAUL AND WENDY PROJECTS – TORONTO


The Royal Art Lodge, Poster Making, 2007. Image: paulandwendyprojects.com

Paul Van Kooy and Wendy Gomoll have met and worked with a community of contemporary artists over the
years. The ambition of Paul + Wendy Projects is to produce limited edition art works by these artists whose work they love.

Poster Making, By the Royal Art Lodge. Handprinted Serigraph on acid free archival paper. Edition of 75, numbered, signed, embossed and date stamped by the artists. $250 CAD

The current members of The Royal Art Lodge are Michael Dumontier, Marcel Dzama and Neil Farber. The group was founded in Winnipeg in 1996. Since 2003, they have focused on painting as their main collaborative output.

Please click HERE for more information.


5. MARTHA STREET STUDIO - WINNIPEG


Simon Hughes, Some Icebergs, 2006. Image: printmakers.mb.ca

MPA was formed in the spring of 1984 by a group of Manitoba print artists. Now a non-profit organization, the studio has become one of the largest, best equipped and most diversified open printmaking facilities in Canada. New editions include work by Micah Lexier, Paul Butler, Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline and Michael Dumontier.

Simon Hughes, Some Icebergs. 2006, edition of 15. The portfolio of 3 images is hand-printed on Magnani Pescia paper using a multi-layered silk-screen process.

For more information, please click HERE.

Steven Shearer at The Power Plant, Toronto

Steven Shearer, Andrea Bowers and Stephen Andrews at the Power Plant from December 1 – 10 February, 2008.


Steven Shearer, Window, 2005. Image: renaissancesociety.org

VoCA saw the Power Plant’s winter exhibition this weekend. Steven Shearer, whose work takes up the main gallery spaces, is the Vancouver artist who has made a name for himself by making art about death metal music. He was shortlisted for Canada’s Sobey Art Award in 2006.

At first glance, we didn’t find much to like about this exhibition. The walls of the first gallery were hung with works from digital collages detailing seemingly hundreds of small images of 1970s teen idols, to fine drawings of head bangers and richly coloured paintings of stoner rock fans.

Several pieces took the form of archives of song titles, or merchandise gathered from eBay. The work comes across as the document of a middle-American lifestyle that there is no entry point for if you don’t relate to it or aren’t aware of the music. There were large crudely-made collages that looked like something every suburban teen might have on his or her bedroom wall. We thought, Ok these people exist…so what? The gallery text notes that Shearer “celebrates the anger, aggression and creativity that bubble beneath the surface of polite society.” Sure, but was there anything deeper to this work? Anything truly thought-provoking?


Steven Shearer, Puffs (detail). Image courtesy the Power Plant

We weren’t sure, so we walked through again. This time, we admired the tiny drawings in crayon and ballpoint pen, whose style is reminiscent of those famous Rembrandt etchings. We saw, in his paintings, the colouring and style of the Fauvist painters and of Norweigan painter Edward Munch’s The Scream. There were echoes of the filmic effects of Luc Tuymans – particularly in a lovely landscape painting, washed red as if a gel had been placed in front of a camera.

In one gallery, there was a mysterious metal garden shed, lit from inside. We couldn’t see its point, so we kept walking.


Steven Shearer, Drag. Image courtesy the Power Plant


Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. Image: wikimedia.org

We still weren’t convinced on the collages, so we walked through again. This time, as we approached the second gallery, the sound of a guitar revved up and a hideously loud screeching – emanating from the garden shed – filled the gallery. This guitar solo was triumphant, parent-loathing noise, so loud as to be almost unbearable. It went on for several torturous minutes, while my companion gave a very engaging impromptu performance of air-guitar.


Steven Shearer, Longhairs (detail), 2004. Image: sobeyartaward.ca


Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1630. Image: pep-web.org

This sound piece was a baroque gesture, a comment on the idea of emotional expression (which is what art is, after all) – modern music that expresses teenage angst-ridden rage. As atrocious as this sound can be to some, it speaks to a culture for whom lack of authenticity is a deep frustration.

All in all, VoCA found it to be a worthwhile exhibition. We’re still not convinced on the collages, though.

On Art Forgery

Gustav Klimt, Giuditta I. Image: dipintiautenticita.com

The booming art market means that crime really can pay, especially if you know how to knock up a phoney Picasso or dodgy Dali....Read more in this article from the Independent:

Click HERE


A recent copy of Giuditta I. Image: dipintiautenticita.com

For more information on determining authenticity of contemporary artworks, please click HERE