Jackson Pollock (esque): off the floor and onto the wall

This is a Pollock-inspired painting we made a few years ago for a Past/Present project Design Sponge asked us to do. In our mind it was an updated "painted-floorcloth"- based not on a geometric pattern but on the paint-splattered floor of Jackson Pollock's studio. However, it proved to be too wild and off the mark, and we were nixed, but happily left with a pretty close copy of a Pollock to hang on our wall (as the paint flew and it looked more and more like "Lavender Mist" I thought it would be so much better on the wall.)
But as I haven't gotten around to screwing 1x2s together for a stretcher, it's time for somebody else to enjoy it.

House paint, car paint, enamel, latex, acrylic, and oil on canvas.

The canvas is 4'6" x 6', unstretched and unframed.

In the shop


(and Happy 101st Birthday Jackson Pollock!)

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Late de Kooning on late Matisse

Matisse, too, was often in his thoughts. He admired the graphic simplicity of La Danse, which he had often seen in the Museum of Modern Art, and he loved the spirit of the cutouts. "Lately I've been thinking," he said in 1980, "that it would be nice to be influenced by Matisse. I mean, he's so lighthearted. I have a book about how he was old and he cut out colored patterns and he made it so joyous. I would like to do that, too- not like him, but joyous, more or less."

 My favorite de Kooning quote, from the book
de Kooning: An American Master, (page 589)

top: Matisse spread fom Life magazine, Aug 1970

de Kooning photo by Linda McCartney, from Linda's Pictures, 1976
de Kooning's Untitled, 1982

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"Learn it all, and throw it out." Helen Frankenthaler

"Easels were respectable, but destroy the easel. Sable brushes were wonderful but get a house brush."

Right on.

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New Pieces

In our shop! (click here)



And also we've marked down some things that have been hanging out too long...
                

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de Kooning, 1964

Willem de Kooning in his studio in Springs, NY, 1964, by Hans Namuth

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Rupert Jasen Smith

Mystery solved! After a long year of wondering who made this awesome diamond-dusted silkscreen Linda bought at a flea market, her intermittent Googling has finally paid off. Rupert Jasen Smith (not "Papa Josabeth" after all-phew!) was Andy Warhol's silkscreener/master printmaker/art director from the mid 70's until Warhol's death in 1987. Smith introduced the diamond dust into Warhol's silkscreens, and Warhol's line about that was "the diamond dust fell off Rupert's paintings and stuck to mine." 

a bio:

Rupert Jasen Smith was born in 1953 in New Jersey and died in 1988. He was raised in Palm beach, Florida. Smith received his bachelor of arts degree from Pratt Institute, New York City in 1973, in painting and printmaking. Shortly thereafter, he was offered the position of master printer at Tamarind Institute in Los Angeles, but declined, deciding to work independently in New York. Smith had spent most of his childhood intrigued by the tropical, lush surroundings indigenous to Florida and began painting and studied under the American landscape painter, A. E. Bakus. Surface quality became a significant aspect of his paintings and he experimented with illuminating a dimensional source within and on top of his canvases, eventually leading to the application of diamond dust particles onto his surfaces to enhance the prismatic properties of light and color. In 1974, Smith met Andy Warhol and assisted him with his hand-painted flowers editions. Smith was accepted formally by Warhol as his master printer and art director. Their collaborations expanded and Rupert worked with contemporary notables including Rauchenberg, Jenkins, Stella, Johns, and John Lennon. In 1975, Smith worked on the Merce Cunningham set for "Summer Space", designed by Rauchenberg and Johns. While continuing his position with Warhol, Smith devoted more time to developing his own art career and had numerous shows in prominent galleries, both in the U.S. and Europe. Elegant colors that remind one of the abstract expressionist paintings of the late 50's combined with a photo-pop transfiguration spiral Smith's works into a shimmering display of real and simulated lighting. A partial list of private collectors of his work prior to his death included: Julie Christie, Halston, Jenkins, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, John Lennon, Rauchenberg, and Warhol.

 So it was a pretty fun discovery, worth the wait, and far more exciting than a Papat Jambul.

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Wary Meyers Painting Pillows

Off the wall and onto the sofa! Our latest project is a collection of hand-painted (by me) and sewn (by Linda) down-and-feather-filled painting pillows. The first collection is all Abstract Expressionist, inspired by the works of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Approximately 18" square, the acrylic paint is thick in parts (like the actual paintings) and nicely pliable. $145 each.

Click here for the entire gallery and order information.

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Ludwig Sander

This is one of the first things I ever bought at a yard sale. About 30 years ago, from a tag sale in Ridgefield Ct, it's an oil on canvas titled "Small Blue", by Ludwig Sander. The tag on the back states that in March of 1959, from The Art Rental Gallery in Washington DC you could have bought it for $200, or rented it for $15. I think I paid $10. It wasn't in the best of shape- the paint was all crazed, and years traveling with me have added a few chips and patina, but it does have a nice old vs. new look to it now, and seems more like an object than a painting.

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