Alexander Sokolov

American Sculptors

2007-11-18T12:56:00.000Z

Regarding the fairly long established, paid-listing chiefly American sculptor directory that is sculptor.org. I only perused the right-hand column of the thousands of sculptors who have joined. As I have certain criteria of sympathy, or comprehension, I listed very few names as favourites or somehow note-worthy, and in fact note the complete distance between american sculpture, and, say, french sculpture as listed on their similar sites.

I was much impressed by west-coast feline sculptor Gwynn Murrill, for the monumentality, that is, the calm and timelssness. The cubist stonecarver Michael Ernst I consider of extreme 3D integrity, though he is still young, and his series of 'hands' are most impressive. The perhaps buddhist artist calling himself Dogen, and thereby as this is a Zen term, making himself rather invisible, caught my attention as much by his verbal honesty as his ambitious life-sized glass figurative works. Others who began to persuade me were Terry S Mollo, Patrick McCartney, Sharon Lopez, Patrick Johnson and Evert Fornas. These sculptors exhibited figuration tending towards placid and thus monumental observation.

Other figurative artists so often seem to repent of being figurative and wish to inject their work into the air, and some flight, or, they tend to excessive movement that weakens by that over-ambition. They are not content with form and either reach for rhetoric, by implying some intent, or simply desire their forms to impress through movement alone.

Robert Holmes reflects Moore/McWilliam and Butler-isms, Lopez seems to know of Giacommetti, but of those others who tend to this my dislike against excess of movement, come Liu Jilin, Kolozsy, Jitkoff and William Duffy. In all it is remarkable that figuration is generally subordinate to a 'polemical' tendency, either as pseudo mytholical or barely self-conscious component for agglomeration within a greater concept, as with the totemism or fetish makers. It is noticeable that, given such as the indigenous Hopi sculptural tradition, that no indigenous artist appears, amongst many I perused, nor even with this last tendency were any creations evidently more benefiting from that tradition than, say, the african or polynesian. And, perhpas a sign of american cultural life, or not, the absence of any african-american artists is remarkable.

The thousands of others serve to give a real view of the state of modern sculpture in america, though one has to imagine that very many artists did not pin their works to this particular internet board. The styles visible are extremely various yet evidently spring from american sculptural education, and, in informal terms, include the following un-ordered compendium of modern american sculptural practise:

Assemblists
Constructivists
Figurative 'exceeders'
Stone discoverers, virginals for their excitement in the material satisfies them
Conceptualists, some of colorist bent, some more Minimalist
Modelling abandoners, who expressly halt before form assumes recognisability
Post- surrealist Doll fetishist totem -ists
Fret -ists, of 2D bent
Slug / Snake admirers, whose love for the activity of carving exceeds their taste
Mobile -ists
Pop art -ists , bordering on puzzle deconstructivists
Megalith Spire Column -ists
Portcullis- ists
Wire- ists
Panel -ists
Found rock -ists
Hindu- ists
Cubist precolumbian -ists
Srapyard -ists
Boiler pipe -ists
Fossile -ists
Tent ists
Globe -ists
Vegas tongue in cheek -ists
Wicker -ists
Falling dice -ists
Curve -ists
Fence -ists
Wheel -ists
Grid -ists
Hive -ists
Machine -ists
Suspended tank -ists
Box with contents -ists
Architecture -ists
Un-coiled Spring -ists
Vorticists
Mosaic -ists
Chain -ists
Organic -ists
Shell -ists
Fabric -ists
Americana -ists

The Curator, Globalisation and Politics

2007-11-09T07:42:00.000Z

A recently noted Curator has, naturally enough, sought to position his chosen artists towards the issue of economic globalisation, that is for them to address the economic imbalances making of China the present worksop of consumerism. Laudable as is the attention we should give to the fact of this new situation, that it be addressed through creative visualisation, rather than documentary photography, is perhaps grist to this page's milling of Curatorial practise. Modern art's abandonment into what was initially called the 'perimee' or 'out of date' syndrome, making of all art but a progression rather than a constancy, supposedly based even in its origin as far back as the Renaissance, took full hold only in modern times, roughly speaking after WWI. Therefrom the intitial criticism of this syndrome equally qualified its practise as that of 'postage-stamp' museum collections, based exclusively on time-stamp and novelty rather than any spiritual evaluation. The informality of the words belies the important effect.

Now we see quite rampant desire to initiate the novelty from without, driving artists, who, as ever, include many who are sensible of the forces of fashion, towards commissioned novelty. The Curator's pre-defined analyses lead the actual manufacture of artist response, and the Curator becomes 'super-artist' in a marvellous manner, directing a symphony of creators who are eager to dance to the tune. In the following words can be seen the ad-lib description of the Curator's position. The informality of the words belies the important effect:

"I have never worked in an institution in the past. I have been collaborating with, working with different institutions. It is the first time I have had a regular job, in one place. And that actually gives me an opportunity to do different things, to construct an ongoing program in one place, over time. It gives me an opportunity to fill a real intellectual need. To develop a long-term project. It is something very different than what I’ve done. What I did before was a kind of punctual kind of response to an urgent situation. And now, I have to think about more like a prediction of what’s going on, what’s to come.

"Like projecting certain perspectives.

"An exhibition is a kind of articulate moment of an ongoing creation, of the artist, of the different people. And it’s also a place that can allow different individual creators to come together, to come up with a moment of sharing, dialogue, looking, and creating something together.

"in a lot of cases artists have specific works, or projects, that you bring to a specific exhibition

"you borrow the exhibition, actually the works from the exhibition, if you get it from somewhere else, and you re-contextualize it.

"allows the work to obtain new senses, new meanings, and new significance

"we need exhibitions in society. Right? Because, that is a moment you create, a platform for a dialogue. It’s not only just to show the achievement of the artist.

"to re-articulate through the exhibition.

"He came here to visit, we had a dialogue, after a few days, he came up with an idea, and that remains.

"it’s not only the artwork in it, it’s the space itself. How I use the architecture itself.

"We agreed on this grey paint, which is like a dialogue with the original building — and a new intervention — and that goes on. And we add on different colors

"it’s really about articulating the uniqueness of each locality, as a part of participating in the global movement.

"this [art object] tells one story — only. I think they are together. Every world in itself has little worlds, each with its own complexity, its own history. And they can also get into a dialogue; they can merge with other worlds, generating a totally different geo-political situation. And since we are all living in this geo-political world at large, naturally they [these worlds] can be in contact.

"Even when you are working with very, very, individual, very eccentric artists who are completely isolated from the world, — some of them right? — You have to look at their rejection. As a position taken.

"I hope the exhibitions I have done can provide people the opportunity to question what “art” practice is, and to challenge themselves, and challenge the notion of art.

"I hope an exhibition can allow us to deny certain things usually considered established. Including the notion of art itself, the concept of art itself.

"I think it is very important that we constantly try to put things upside down, and see how it happens.

"In fact when you look at the art, how every major abstract movement happened, in the context, they are totally related to the political and social history. And it’s highly ideological. Like the Greenberg discourses, they are totally a product of the Cold War.

"What’s interesting to me is that historically there was a lot of hostility to abstraction, from both the right and the left, and it was basically Meyer Shapiro who came out in support of abstraction, based on an argument for pleasure.

"But I don’t think you get an argument of pleasure with Greenberg, it’s actually the opposite. It’s like a Protestant rigor, self- censorship.

A Renewed Imposition of 'Freedom':The Curator as 'Bulletproof''

2007-11-05T05:52:00.000Z

From one European country come revealing words which express the embattled position Curators can find themselves in. One of the post-'communist' but in effect monarchical societies newly adjoined to Europe, wishing for the full benefits of freedom, yet reveals to us a stark example of a Curator openly seeking to be bulletproof. This Country x is decided upon moving its national Museum of Modern Art , and rooting it within the broad context of 'international art'. Departing from a previously super-controlled artistic milieu, we find a curious re-imposition of yet another super-control which appears, by submission to a close coterie of multinational Curators, to echo a very similar super-control.

Drawing upon support garnered by personal contacts, as within a professionally fraternal milieu, the aim would appear to be the imposition of freedom under an imposition of practise defined via this close if international group. Just as the original Communist origins previously affecting this country could be seen to have originated within beneficial idealism, so the international Curatorial nexus, as close and controlled as any Communist Party structure, appears to believe itself equally beneficent.

The words of the leader-Curator reveal a sense of being as embattled as the original Communist Party internationalists, and the jargon is but little changed between the present representative of 'freedom' and the old original Soviet ideologues. A curious support within the international Curatorial 'scene' is visible, indeed claimed, as prop against reactionary elements and negative forces. The selected few, representatives of the ultimate in revolutionary thinking, determined upon freedom, bring to the nationally local the firepower to withstand internal reactionaries. The chief Curator shows, by the claim to thereby have become 'bulletproof', an exact picture of the present trans-national Curators as Comintern-like members.

The analogy exists within reality to such extent that once again it is advisable to limit the links normally so desired in publishing, though the 'leadership' referred to will of course recognise themselves in what are selected quotes from an interview of the national Curator:-

"It is actually very difficult to convince the press to get their attention towards something else beside killings, dirt and scams. Generally, we do not have time to sing praises to ourselves (not forgetting that about 90% of what [country x] mass-media hails as a cultural phenomenon is obsolete, made by epigones and with no value abroad - and it is extremely difficult for us to convince them to do otherwise. Falsehood is overwhelming us: false values, false modesty, a culture of mediocrity, when we have all the possibilities not to be like this; and the absence of money…"---------------

"I have very little time to write. I am taking care of =m presentation texts to the international partners and press and travel to conferences abroad to inform about the "emerging" [country x] art. I write almost exclusively in the foreign press. The public there is prepared for the type of discourse that I maintain and this is the case for my colleagues."-----------------------

"[Director], you are the [country x] curator with the most extensive international CV"--------

"a few young specialists would give you two answers to the question about their profession: curators, what are they really, and 'museographers', what are they"-----------

"We are an extremely united team.... Thus we are here about 4-5 "curatorial brains", each with a remarkable CV....the coordinator of New Media Department will work as transferred specialist......was.. the assistant curators at the Venice Biennale(the ignorant malevolent spoke badly)...& ,artist and curator, earned a lot of international prizes of digital art"-------------------

"The museum director, xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx, is undoubtedly the charismatic personality able to realize this project in [Country x]"--------------

"visits - lately more frequent then ever, of international contemporary art personalities who arrive here at our invitation or because they have heard about the major project of a contemporary art museum"----------------

"the most prestigious theorists of contemporary Art"----------------

"This is also how we co-opted the members in the international board, achieved on the basis of personal friendships, as well as on the very firm commitment of [country x's modern art museum]'s new location"---------------------

"The board is a reference to obtain international legitimacy and to get access in networks of significant cultural cooperation. The board members, outstanding personalities on the international scene, will be supportive (in fact, they already are) and I hope that they will succeed to offer a "passage-way" for [Country] artists to the international contemporary phenomena."-----------------

"The members are:"

="almost mythical international curatorial figure, the gallery owner who launched =b"

="ex-Director =n Institute for Contemporary Art, now free-lance"

="director =a magazine, Paris"

="art theoretician, curator and Director of =p Paris"

=" video artist and media theoretician"---------------------------------

....."The =r public it is not very familiarized with what is going in the visual field world-wide"-------------------------

--------********:::::::"At the international level we are, as it seems, "bulletproof" "::::::::********--------------

"it is said to be for the first time when something like this takes place, and the successful outcome belongs to a large degree to me....and =y .. who succeeded in overcoming the suspicions and endemic 'bad-faith' that naturally appears when something 'constructive' is undertaken"-----------

"because there were enough exclamation marks in the press, of a more or less negative connotation... inauguration will take place around two-three international exhibits, coming from Musée d'Art xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Paris, Palais de xxxxxxx and probably xxxxxx xxxxxx from Madrid, a series of site-specific interventions, which are addressing directly to the complicated history of the place, and an exhibit which I am responsible together with M, provisionally entitled =xxxxxxx[country] artist"-------

" A poor artist in the computer era doesn't work anymore, the romantic cliché is worn out."-------------------

"the emergence of a dynamic public, adaptable to changes, capable of a constructive dialogue with the artistic phenomena"-----------------

"public (in its majority retrograde in the visual area, less so the young generation), and on the other, a handful of specialists and artists internationally renown[ed], less so here (they don't have a dialogue with the press, not to mention with television), who continue to "fight the wind-mills" "-------------------

"We hope to do our work at international parameters, not local..."------------

Web 2

2007-09-03T06:53:00.000Z

Nothing has changed, only been confirmed. The necessities of order that drive people into nations in its digital manifestation insists that classification also be based on allegiance to people in a place. Art struggles for its liberation from this even in Web2/ the interactive Internet.

Money, investment and the Curatorial nexus: Julie Mehretu

2007-05-27T12:43:00.000Z

The nexus between money (those bubbles that fly off the froth of industrial cream ) and Curators is also clear. The case of artist Julie Mehretu embodies the nexus.

The dedicated 'Curator' School is now in full international function. The function is- to add stability to the artistic bubbles that rose to the top of the bucket since WWII, and to re-inforce the monetary value of those experiments carried forth by the usual set of isolated drunks and misfits that artists generally comprise, such that the patrons, who are the bubbles of industrial cream, can rest assured as to their investments.

The charade is near perfect- the art is dignified with relevance, the society of extreme cream can feel that their wealth is providing dribbets of goodness to the hoi polloi, the bureaucrats allocating state funding can justify their existence and their pensions, and those artists who are promoted are as dignified as these others: do not rock the boat, nor bite the hand that feeds you.

The underground is invisible artistically because the infection of drunk-like aesthetics has infected right down to the bottom of the bucket, and the underground lacks all resources of self-respect to withstand the entirely false structure weighing upon it.

The Curators are the Yes-Men of the powers funding the structure, and the structure above all must re-inforce ittself. The Museums of Modern Art are so infected that, since their entire holdings are either obtained from the Bubble Industrialists or subsidized by them, they cannot exhale for fear of aesthetic collapse.

Meanwhile the last paroxysms of International Capital, blind to the consequences of its rapine strategies, happily congregate to sup from the dregs of the aesthetic bucket, drinking as if this last findable drug could staunch their fears for the future. The aesthetically and humanly blind cogs of entirely inhuman industrial processi, those basement slaves of the super-bubbles, now join with their masters, in a repetition of Wall Street prior to the Great Crash- seeing art as their salvation. They know the rumours muttered in their power-basements, where the true mathematicians see the sums that do not add up or signify continuity- even before ecological factor enters their calculus, and run as if in panic , towards 'Art'.

The re-inforcement this new investment gives to the early bubble-cream investors in the great anti-aesthetic is welcome, and is channeled by the dealers, who as with the bubble-slave hedge-funders encourage and patronize the great concourse of 'Curators'. One doesn't need to say much about art dealers, except remember the reply of the Old Duke of so-and-so, who, when his daughter said that she planned to marry one- replied- 'My dear- I'd sooner that you walked the streets as a lady of the night'.

Of course the Curators should like to feel better about themselves than this, too. Doubtless they get sucked in, to the Bard College type, without knowing that they are to become but pawns to monsters, and doubtless they can sleep well in their beds feeling that their levels of aesthetic serve to ameliorate humanity's lot. However, they sleep in beds constructed upon the ashes of hope, and they promote as flags and beacons those whose aesthetic was snuffed out at weaning, by the cynicism and failure of Art Schools.

The cynicism is completed, the failure of society - in entirely separated politico-military fields, that is the ideological attachments to Empire that fed WWI and the completely avoidable descent into WWII disaster, was reflected by the Artists in their modernist practises. Their human reactions though are un curated, and only their processi of working are taken as their message, rather than their screams towards humanity. The processi alone, like as so many punks who have always to be bought off such that they shut-up, alone survived in the Curated Museum 'aspic'. The reasons for their distraught processi are forgotten and morally ignored, as the behemoths of evolving industrial-Empire replaced those earlier in existence.

The circle of frustration is felt but little in the ivory halls of cocktail exhibitions, where the coquetry of 19th century salons is replaced by the poseurdom of the 21st. The most culpable though, are the Curators, for they are the ones with the supposed rigour to think. These evidently are either blinded by their wishful impetii, persuaded that we advance not towards doom but to a shiny new world of digital expression or abounding inspiration, or else are- shame to say, walking in fear for their own slight ascension above the crushed and abject herd beneath them. Rather than risk their hard-earned (and costly) careers, they will brook no danger, but turn back towards the bucket where the monsters sup, and, holding their preciously educated noses, sup alongside.

Read it all, and weep ( or leap to invest in your own bucket) - http://www.collectorcircle.com/html/shecantbebought.html

Money, investment and the Curatorial nexus.

2007-05-27T12:41:00.000Z

Artistic Integrity( Unesco), Committees and the Curator.

2007-05-24T11:59:00.000Z

Alexander Sokolov analysis of UNESCO recommendations concerning artists: The Artist has a personal integrity of artistic inspiration to re-create his/her art, whether traditional to society or personally integral and is accorded dignity and well being as a result of this integrity, either as a public or reclusive worker in either a retrospective or an evolving human social culture.

*******Example of a central national Committee Policy with regard to support of Artists through purchase of their Artwork.

"The primary purpose behind the purchase of works for the Committee's Art
collection is to support the individual Artist. The Committee's's
criteria for selection are that the Artwork is central to the Artists'
practice and must be of high quality and ambition and be significant
within the general development of the Visual Arts. The Committee supports Artists
who are taking risks in their practice and explore new ways of working. The Committee has developed a considered and robust process around
the purchase of Artwork for its collection. An independent Curator advises
the Committee's Collection Subcommittee (see below) in the identification
and selection of work to be considered. The recommendations of the
subcommittee then go to Committee for consideration. ...Curators have a huge amount of experience and knowledge of the
Visual Arts."
********Note:This example's Collection acquisitions sub-Committee consisted of three Artists-with-Curatorial-experience, and one ex-regional, national Council Officer .

********Questions and answers relating to the definitions of what Artists are, and what Art Curators are.
Q: Is the Committee basis for Art Curators by appointment- on education/experience/previous appointments, international/national prestige, chosen academic practise/ or ability Academic publication, or ability to confirm an Artist's 'integrity'?
Q: Who judges the criteria- the Committee itself, another advisory sub-Committee, and if so did that include Visual Artists in the Committee?
Q: Who adjudges the Artistic integrity of the Curator if the Curator judges the integrity of the artists?
Q: What are the criteria laid down as guidelines to a purchasing/promoting Curator?

*********Example Answers (from above)

1)"...the Artwork is central to the artists' practice".
2)"... must be of high quality and ambition".
3)"...be significant within the general development of the visual arts".
4)"...taking risks in practice".

5)"...exploring new ways of working.".

Q: Curator judgements are:
(Example answers)
1)"...Independant".
2) are as 'short-listing', and then subject to sub-Committee and Committee approval
Q: What policy governs the Committee delegate/Curator attendance at an Artist Public Exhibition?
Q: What governs Curator attendance to an Artist's private/studio ?
Q: Is the identity of the Curator revealed to the Artist?
Q: Is the Curator permitted/encouraged to associate to an Art discipline by personal publishing career/personal Artistic career?
Q: What definitions of 'high quality' can be made by a Curator? Does this reckon the integrity of an Artists' attempt at expression of Art, or, qualify the produced expression.
Q: What definitions of 'ambition' can be assigned by a Curator? Does consistent integrity constitute an ambition?
Q: If an Artist is recognised as personally free within his integrity towards an artistic practise, is it considered prejudicial should that Artist renounce a section of his practise?
Q: If an Artist does not renounce a practise, is that adjudgeable as prejudicing integrity?
Q: What definitons of 'significant developement of an Art' can be made by a Curator? Does developement mean renunciation of earlier practise? If not, then continuation?
Q: Does the admitted distinction, on the part of Committees downwards, between 'contemporary Art' and 'traditional Art' of itself encourage renunciation of practises by Artists? Is this distinction prejudicial to the freedom of the integrity of Artistic expression by virtue of such 'downward' distinction?
*********In regard to the increasing cross-over between Artists and Curators, and Artists and Committee's, the following questions arise:
Q: Does the appointment of Visual Artists to a Committee membership affect the Curatorial
appointments made?
Q: Artists are 'elected' 0n what bases to Local/national/international Committees?
Q: Is an Artist enabled to Curate external disciplines? If yes, does the practising Integrity of the appointed Artists affect the Integrity of altenative Practise recognised by the Curator?
Example answer (from above):
1) yes, Artists sit on sub-Committee adjudicating the Curatorial selection.
Q: If Curatorial intervention has itself distinguished, by adjudication, such 'elected' Artists, what criteria support the Committee that oversees such 'elections' to itself?
Q: Are Artists that sit on full national Committee's, to adjudicate on Commissions and purchases, in some respects self-electing solely by virtue of other Committee membership in self-appointing Artists' organisations?
**********Elsewhere, example of a National Visual Art policy may include:
developement to achieve 'high artistic standards'
developement to achieve distinctive national expression
provision to sustain a supportive environment for artists
education such that individuals can learn to express themselves creatively
promotion of reflective practise, monitoring and review
encouragement of variation in the arts
the encouragement of high quality arts experience/ provision (to the public )
principles of equal opportunity
assistance to arts organisations
principles of partnership
**********Strategies adopted in Regions can be towards ( by example):
1) developement of partnerships between Committees and other organisations
2) intervention strategically towards artworks which challenge, enrich, renew and reaffirm
3) action towards training for artists and arts developement workers
4) improvement of communications between artists and art developement workers
5) supporting of "effective" artists, organisations and 'cultural enablers'
6) search for sustainable high performance career opportunities in the arts/ art developement work
**********Within these exapmle regional strategies can be included:
1) renewal of terms of reference towards delivery of objectives, institute policy base, audit, placement mechanisms for co-operation, connection to other regions and the national, support 'imaginative' use of Commission monies
2) alignment with current priorities and strengths of artists, articulation artform priorities for partnerships, evaluation key developement programmes
3) linkage nationally for allocation of funds to assist training needs of artists and art developement workers, support regional art training organisations, identify training providers, delivery of mentoring to artists, facilitation of skill sharing for artist and art developement workers, relation of regional language to 'contemporary' arts practise and criticism
4) ensuring the value of art is achknowledged in a region, assistance for active engagement of staff between regional bodies, assistance to interactive communication resources, identfication of developement potential with other organisations, assistance towards international contacts and anguages, promotion of regional arts elsewhere, commission of the means to do so, maximise the visibility of the strategy in collaboration with key partners
5) institution of competitive bursaries to artists, continuance to funding of individuals and groups, support for committed cultural and artistic 'enablers', support for artist contacts outside the region
6) provision of shared structures of support on the sub- and inter-regional level, stabilisation of priority organisations that deliver the strategy, selectively interpose artists into regional tourism, register, develope and refurbish buildings useable for the arts,assist other organisations to support artists and other organisations with altrnative or additional funds
************Implementation of this example strategy is by:
Redefinition of the role of arts developement team of workers, budgetary agreements, preparations of annual action plans, establishment of ongoing management and montitoring, the etablishment of structures for evaluation with mid-term review
************With the desired Conclusion being:
that the regional Committee and the national Committee will respond to regional needs by creating valuable regional staff to support good artistic practise, underpinning this national-regional partnership through shared goals and objectives to establish a core body of 'work' and a vlaue system around which new and other arts 'activities' can coalesce.

************Comments on Unesco Recommendations concerning Artists

UNESCO* Considering that the artist plays an important role in the life and evolution of society and that he should be given the opportunity to contribute to society's development and, as any other citizen, to exercise his responsibilities therein, while preserving (1) his creative inspiration and freedom of expression,
1) Any contribution to Society does not prejudice the freedom of the artist

UNESCO* Recalling the importance, universally acknowledged both nationally and inter-nationally, of the preservation and promotion of cultural identity and of the role in this field of artists who perpetuate(2) the practice of traditional arts and also interpret a nation's folklore,
2) 'Developement'(see below 6) as a policy factor should allow for traditional practise

UNESCO* Recognizing that the vigour and vitality of the arts depend, inter alia, on the well-being (3) of artists both individually and collectively
3)The Arts depend on an artists well-being.

UNESCO*Considering further that this recognition of their status as persons actively engaged in cultural work should in no way (4)compromise their freedom of creativity, expression and communication but should, on the contrary, confirm their dignity (5) and integrity,
4) Bases for recognition should not seek to compromise artistic freedom.
5) Bases for recognition should confirm dignity, and absence therefore of recognition amounts to indignification.

UNESCO*)Considering that the development of the arts, the esteem in which they are held and the promotion of arts education depend in large measure on the creativity(6) of artists,
6) Developement emanates from creativity, but earlier does not counter tradition.

UNESCO*Considering that contemporary artistic expression is presented in public places and that these should be laid out so as to take account of the opinions of the artists concerned(7), therefore that there should be close co-operation between architects, contractors and artists in order to lay down aesthetic guidelines for public places which will respond to the requirements of communication and make an effective contribution to the establishment of new and meaningful relationships between the public and its environment,
7) Artist must be included advisors in Committee's integrating their work into society

UNESCO*Taking into account the diversity of circumstances of artists in different countries and within the communities in which they are expected to develop their talents, and the varying significance attributed to their works by the societies in which they are produced,

UNESCO*Convinced, nevertheless, that despite such differences, questions of similar concern arise in all countries with regard to the status of the artist, and that a common will and inspiration are called for if a solution is to be found and if the status of the artist is to be improved, which is the intention of this Recommendation, .

UNESCO*. `Artist' is taken to mean any person who creates or gives creative expression to, or re-creates works of art, who considers his artistic creation to be an essential part of his life, who contributes in this way to the development of art and culture and who is or asks to be recognized as an artist, whether or not he is bound by any relations of employment or association(8).
8) On principle an Artist may reject all associations that he/she may maintain the integrities of artistic personal freedom for acreative expression, and contradiction is visible here between the essential part of his life and outside judgements as to a developement of culture.

UNESCO 2. The word `status' signifies, on the one hand, the regard accorded to artists(9), defined as above, in a society, on the basis of the importance attributed to the part they are called upon to play therein
9)There is in some countries no status other than that of a taxation recognition whose validation appears more simple, and relies solely on the decision that that which is Art is not possessive of any practical function or use.

Alexander Sokolov analysis of UNESCO: The Artist has a personal integrity of artistic inspiration to re-create his/her art, whether traditional to society or personally integral and is accorded dignity and well being as a result of this integrity, either as a public or reclusive worker in either a retrospective or an evolving human social culture.

Inclusivity, Institutional directives and the institution of Art

2007-05-08T06:06:00.000Z

The question arises- of whether classicism is in the end but the wish of a society to constrain acceptance upon itself of shared sensibility, of defined religion, of mores and of law. Today the visual artist is driven, even beyond any choice, to have to integrate into the search for a new classicism, that is for an art that can contribute to society, re-inforce it, educate it. Society wishes to pay, and the funds are separated from the physical needs of society and allocated towards the ineffable- that is- Art. However there exists no clarity as to the division between Art as producable and Art as teachable. Classicism itself can refer simply to what is 'accepted'.

Curatorial intermediation is a natural progression from this context of national budgetary recognition of visual art and of this acceptance. Whereas some of the other arts- History being the prime example- possess their academic hierarchies within aged and long collegiated Foundations, visual art being as it is but the individual manifestation of expression, has society's demands made of it purely as a result of its being giving monetary recognition. He who pays the piper, calls the tune.

History as artform appears to float upon a more even keel, if only because the productions take such inordinate time, and its academism has been specifically funded for so many generations, and from hundreds of years before this other very recent attempt to introduce the visual arts into society. History can in a final analysis more easily demonstrate itself.

The contradiction between a Van Gogh or a Gauguin and a Committee hardly needs remark, however once budgetary consideration has been allocated, a committee is but the result of the funding, approaching that requirement as of law. But- a Van Gogh or Gauguin submit to a legal constraint?

As society, that is to say in the chief instance national society, requires for itself order and, as the nation appears to be the base unit for collation of that order (though trans-national funding is contributed from national budgets as well as some older quasi historico-collegial Foundations(viz US Foundations), all Art, like all politics, is deemable as equally local. Thus within the national order appears the regional-ism.

Committee constraints aspire to direct artistic 'mediation' based upon the same composites of 'life' (that affect the Artist)- towards children largely, but one could as well say immigrants or any quantifiable group of human beings (mentally di-ordered, physically challenged or excluded, even tribally or religiously distinct ).

The exact mirror in other words of that Life which the artist privately cogitates.

Van Gogh indeed wished for society to be challenged by his privately driven social vision, and took himself 'into the people' in a political manner ( quantifiable as the miners of a region). Gauguin took himself away to seek the noble savage- quantifiably a more distant social search. In contrast to their personal trajectories, which was of exclusion, they pre-figure the present allocatory effort which is for 'inclusion'.

The situation thus rests at the trough, at the interface between society and the personal. Society here can be said to be the 'western', the democracies that purport to national independence (an economic falsity which we increasingly recognise), and it can be seen that the very revolutionary desires of Van Gogh and Gauguin, having succeeded in awakening society, create their antitheses- the gatekeepers to society's treasury of gold.

The gold is quickly categorised, it is that store in society which abstracts complete quantification of universally suffered time and energy. The energy is all bestowed by Nature and the time is all that lost by Man. Economics in sense is applicable to all, but can appear in quite different perspective to an african-american, a persian or a sub-continental, as to a westerner.

The treasury of society (tax taken upon a quantification), comes to allocate, and this very allocation in a society esteeming accountability, requires accountability. The allocation is made towards general benefit, that is, the excuse for the allocation is that it will render service/a good back to the general from the artistic, that is, from the un-quantifiable and personal artist. From the ineffable.

Immediately the issue of quantification of benefit elicits inter-mediation.

A 'curatorial class' of humanity is matriculated to justify back to the treasury and its gatekeepers that corruption or vermin does not eat away society's gold. Without this class, one could suppose that affairs would be even worse, that the absence of the gold and of the patronage by society's Committees would be continuance to the excluded situation of the Van Gogh or Gauguin- which was insecurity to the point of madness, and distaste of society to the point of self-exclusion. The Committee, however, confuses the inclusion of the artist with the inclusion of Art into the society.

An inclusion can never be made for the artist by virtue of his submission away from society, and towards his inner demon His/her independance is vital and inclusion itself can part him from his own inner need for renewal. Inclusion can therefore only be directed by the Committee- and is- back towards the quantifiable elements of society as described. The artist, always seeing through the personal intuitive prizm, remains as cut off as ever from society, existing as the critic firstly of him or herself. Alone by his every stroke, action, thought or cut the artist continues with nothing but the name he uses and with only the regulation of the external 'Committee'/patronage intermediaries changed. Arbitrations of purpose within Art are made as much now as in Gauguin's time. The attitude of the Paris audience to a Cezanne is simply replaced by that of the Committee as arbiter.

The intermediary class may be an improvement on the 19th Century , but the actual benefit to the artists may be doubtful. Who will list great art produced by Committee? Where is the progeny-where the Statue of Liberty now? The obtention of gold may allow society merely to entrap the restless artists' disquiet into artificial normality. The artists become 'socialised', even emasculated by separation from their natural suffering and independance.

Attempts have been made since the 1960's, in The Netherlands at least, to integrate the artist. This by the 70's had already resulted in counter polemic and self-exclusion by those few artists who alerted society to Committee abuse of the treasury. Self-appointment by lower regional Committtee's had already been caught in squandering, and quantificatory evaluations of artistic production already compromised. The quantification attempted to enter the realm of qualification to make of Art a pre-figuration in gold: pay by taxation and allocate by allocated purchase irrespective of quality. This continues in varied form and any polemic concerning quality is barely considered necessary, as the Curatorial will substitute for the qualified if not for the quality. At this point the Curator presumes the mantle of the artist, as of course solely the artist emits as primary producer and judge of his/her Art. The artist equally can assume the mantle of the Curator, and wisely is increasingly doing so.

The Committee within the Democracy assumes the correct, or aspires to. The aim is beneficial towards both Art and society, in political correctness. However more disorder results from the misconception that artistry can be percolated down to the un-initiated by direct interactions, as if the essentials will 'rub-off' from the artist upon the people. This very natural conclusion from those to whom accountability is the principal factor, purports to justify allocation based upon the quantification of social results. The processes of Arrt are controllable and technique can indeed be taught. Thus the allocation towards Art is more to a Teaching than to a Practice. The personal search of the artist is socialised from within the allocation itself, pre-programmed and pre-budgeted and controlled to the detail.

Society- that is to say the Committees who are taken as acceptable or as instituted- seeks to enter within the ineffable. The necessity to mediate sees artists themselves entering these committees, as they either appoint themselves through the ineradicability of their polemic ( usually as voluntary and independant collectives) or are c-opted in, to somehow legitimise quantificatory adjudications within which budgetary necessities must be squared with the ineffable abstraction of Art. As elected regional figures are almost never artists, and as Engineers constitute the physical advisory constituent, it was thought that the presence of artists would by itself bridge the societal gulf dividing it from the personal/ineffable Art. The artists when sitting upon Committee, as to assist, become votes, become empowered arbiters of the gold. Academia is latest form.

This un-satisfactory state of affairs now is replacing these Committee artists with the new class of quasi-,or meta-artists, called Curators. Accountability, that is all that is quantifiable, naturally will increasingly demand that the quantification extend into the constituent composition of the Committee's- who themselves quantify the allocations. The increasingly unsatisfactory situation of having artists attempt to quantify art, because the engineers and elected 'councillors' are 'un-trained', had to see this new class of Curatorial quantifiers arrive and enter in to their place. Society can tolerate this Curatorial class because of their more 'demonstrable' or quantifiable qualifications, as of course the artists never qualify themselves other than by the ineffibility of their Art.

Artists are made famous or not by their audience, or the Committee. The Committee serves as the proto-Audience, for they hold all the Keys to the gold and of course call for the artists to approach them. One Committee can serially influence the next Committee, and the Curatorial class equally evolve as if into an 'historians' collegiality, into an inertia reinforced as by a new academia- Art that exists as a quantified good to be sold back to society. And he who sells, holds to the value of that he trys to sell. That is the inertia, little different from 19th Century Paris.

The result arrives, therefore, that that accountability factor adjudges by the 'out-reach' or 'rub-off' type social inclusivity of Art. Now it takes forward the next step, and defines that the administrated class of inter-actionist artists, who will be adminstrated upon the quantifications of the higher Curatorial class, will not be artists, but teachers of art, in effect selling this as their good.

Hitherto the attempt is to co-opt the artists directly, as teachers in 'out-reach', however the in-quantifiability of the Art hoists the Committee structure upon the petard of this very inability. The Committee necessity for accountability based upon inclusivity attempts chiefly to bridge the social gulf between Art Schools and the populace. However it does this by demanding of the artists to be what they are not. It has hereby attempted to constrain the artists- with the treasury of the 'gold' as the enforcement- to bridge this social gap, when, even in the Art Schools it is not contemplated that an artist determine the direction of the scholastic entirety or Degree.

The real-world treasury financed Curatorial inter-mediation, from this new class of recognisably qualified Curators, rather than expect to adjudge the un-judgeable artist, must now realise that they shall chiefly exist only to sub-ordinate towards their own new sub-class of inter-active out-reach teachers, that is, towards similarly, though lesser qualified Teachers. In essence the qualifications as to the Curatorial will be within the same qualifications as to the Teaching, and Curators will be a priveliged version of these out-reach Teachers.

The artist and the funding of the artists, if there is any once this recognition takes hold, is or should be separate from teaching. An artist may involve himself in teaching, but his capacity to do so will hopefully be separable from his ability to express him/herself within the particular medium worked. Hopefully an honesty will at least recognise that barrier integral to ineffible art, such that self-appointing, or qualitatively qualifying persons can, at that point, know where their qualification and position arrests them, beneath the ineffable, leaving the artists to their personal internal battles that are held alone and within the ineffablity of their Art.

In short, division of art funding as to clear purpose- between funding of 'arts' and funding of artists, and clear division of the latter from the former- attempted judgement of the artist recognised as entirely another matter as from judgement of the social good.

Yahoo French Sculptors online

2007-05-05T18:21:00.000Z

Here's the reduced fr.Yahoo list

Etienne Audfray

The pointing method with Marcel Daniel <
Plantade, Gilles 's hard edge steel poses if " - La valeur d'une oeuvre d'art réside -t- elle
avant tout dans sa capacité à déjouer le temps ?. "

Euro-Architectuaralist par excellence Diteana, Marino

Figurist-academicism Aublet, Annick up there

and along with Vergé, Adèle

Fluid figuratif reductionists Vignaux, Noëlle and Gibani, Marie

Whereas Pardon, Pierre and Guilhem, Chantal possibly demonstrate new B-Arts trend

Carving emotionalist Montali, Franck

'digne héritier de BRANCUSI' Pardon, Pierre but- peu visible.

France being well taxed etc drives the early sitebuilding?

Corporationism and Art today

2007-05-05T07:02:00.000Z

Then there is the push by the Auction Houses . These are now positioning themselves to centralise the arts within their grip, and this is compared to the way publishing has gone. The instaneity of supposed 'art-price' results achieved under their aegis shows them that the way to go is to absorb those sectors not yet under their control, the galleries and curators, and by doing so achieve over-all corporate dominance. The galleries are sucked in by the supply of the corporate pricing services, and some bought out-right . It is but the renewal of the old scam, and the artists have little choice but to enter the game and ship off sufficient work to auction, and scam buy back in the old fashioned way.

It will be interesting to watch the intersect grow between the curatorial class and the corporations, that is to see the way the essential nationalist patronage factor will relate to the corporative.

Soundsculpture

2007-04-30T07:30:00.000Z

Digital pondering at http://sokolovsculpture.googlepages.com/soundsculpture

Joseph Nechvatal

2007-04-27T10:33:00.000Z

I can't but place a ref to this very long discussion - http://post.thing.net/node/1225 that is Catherine Perret in conversation with Joseph Nechvatal

Commerce and Collectives

2007-04-27T10:01:00.000Z

It would appear that the force driving collectivisation is purely commercial, from both the artistic corner and the commercial/dealer one.

Artist collectives - of which London provides some quantity - appear to exist as reaction to the atomisation inevitable within anarchy and its individualisation of direction. Therefore the appearance of these will relate to that exegesis upon the atomisation of style which is the result of the demise of classicism.

Of course this death was a long process and can really be marked from the time of Buenarotti himself, and the discoveries in the Renaissance of lost roman pseudo classicism. One has to comment that that incipience of death or destruction immediately finds its seed planted within the circle of human affairs , as noticed by earliest Chinese philosphy. Thus Buenarotti flags the destruction we experience, whilst his un-related successor Bernini brings down the lasting guillotine of perfection from his mastery of a mechanical reproduction for the transposition into marble of pre-ordained modelling- the cornerstone of the dreaded 'salon' art.

The dealer collectives are the international Art Fairs, a recent and ever expanding phenomenon, which sees the axes of nationalism intersecting to support the paucity of content available to the commercialist dealer gallerists. These latter feed as groups now under the reefs of nationalistically inspired Ferias / Foires / Fairs. The non-commercial Biennales of yore presumably inspired this success.

The state of affairs in the visual arts world

2007-04-26T22:44:00.000Z

Well it appears there are a few strands worthy of commentaries and these will take time.

There is the cyberspace Art situation, dividing up as it does between:

*'simple' established Art galleries throughout the world, reflecting the real world
*the would-be (paying) 'collectives' devoted to region or specialty, or none
*the freebie collectives with some principle underlying
*the entirely open collectives
*the cyber side of real-world nation based foundations, state bodies, even unions
*the arty orientated open fora largely reflecting wishes
*wiki(s) and blogs
*single artist websites reflecting the private real world
*auctions and monetary valuation sites supposedly measuring the real world

There is the remnant of modernist-academist war, petering out and only partly of interest for the absence within the academist corner of any sufficient worth, sense or justification to make the slightest impression upon modernism. The chief interest lies in the necessary analysis of the dominance of 'modernism' and the cyberspace situation is of course but reflection of the real-world curatorial replacement by its own essential academism. This remnant could possibly be considered the educational aspect of the art world

And there is the underlying reality founded- despite what appear to be near politically-correct curatorial attempts to pretend otherwise, upon purely nationalistic drive within the arts.

Between these factors , the art world can be seen as reflective, even more than it would itself claim, of current human societies as they really function. Even without being an arabist I can see the odd youngster attempting to enter through the cyber portals above and expressing similar signs as any south-american or latvian of icelander of his/her desire for an audience or recognition. As art is an expression of feeling and thought - a communication, this is of course natural to all but those for whom society of any kind has ceased or never begun to function, who may be a burgeoning number.

Conceptual comment:purism in monumental art- the Doors of Perception.

2007-04-20T19:49:00.000Z

Why sculpt? Why do you see what you do, that I tried? Why is it limited -to forms rather than the contemporay direction of conceptual comment?

The ancient Chinese -whose monumental (that is -true) sculpture is through Confucious understood as the concept of the simple fitness of form.

it is as if we cannot -however clever we be- lie to our very selves. The fitness of form is, as the Sun is or the clouds are. Humans are as they exist- 'our' natural forms- describe immediately our modes of feeling, and, the monumental -that borders on the reduced or puristic in as much a modern sense as any recent culture has achieved- provides us with the vocabulary for describing these inner feelings.

To 'grab' at feeling, to exert some description of feeling rather overloads the natural - the poetically natural- that which closer approaches the truths which reside within us all, but which are sadly distanced through our useful Doors of Perception.

2007-04-14T09:55:00.000Z

2007-04-14T08:53:00.000Z

What you see is a self portrait, made form marble from the Rambla from the canteras or quarries of Macael, in Almeria Province, at the east of Andalucia in southern Spain. So- it's art. Arte some have to say. Fine art. Visual art. High Art. In french it is 'plastic arts' and 'beaux arts'. Spanish- 'artes plasticas' and 'bellas artes'. In fact art is supposed to be a generic for, is it, literature/poetry, plastic arts, painting all together with history and mathematics.

Mathematics probably shares the solution- which is the best simple truest resolution or what as a sculptor could be called the simple fitness of form. I came here because http://sokolovsculpture.googlepages.com like all gpages doesn't get picked up on by s/engines( and especially not when 3-D 'forms' are the 2-D content), and can't be redirected usefully to a dotcom either.

Why no dotcom? Well it is regged, and supposedly up,and I'll redirect this blog there but ...I started that googlepages set up, for which really I should thank Google. It's easy- unless like me you have megabytes of tiny hazy edited down photographs or -in fact- jpegs. But the structuring works, and as long as there is this hiatus before really easy software bridges the gap into the mediawiki/blog/gallery future, normal hosts don't appeal. ' Geeklog ' and ' MediaGallery ' promise the future, and maybe that's the way to go- allowing some interested reader to safely email directly to a page, allowing a plethora of archiving power, but looking beneath the hood you soon see dire amounts of programming savvy requirement.

Incidentally there is at least one other Alexander Sokolov 'sculpting' out there, though you wouldn't confuse our work as he says he is anti- ' traditional sculpture '- or something. More about the marble of the Rambla another day.