Blackstock's Collections

If you know me at all, you know I like art books. Another thing I like is collections of things (thus my own art series, Junk Pirate). I also like drawings. Put all these things together and you have the current favorite in my art book collection: Blackstock's Collections.

Published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2006, this book features a huge collection of Gregory Blackstock's drawings of collections of thing. All kinds of things. Divided into thirteen categories such as "Our Famous Birds", "The Noisemakers", "The Vehicles", and "Architectural Collection", then further divided into individual artworks based on specific collections within these categories. Each artwork features anywhere from two to several dozen items within the specific collection, articulately rendered and labeled in pen, pencil, crayon, and sharpie marker. Visual lists. All these objects, with their individual details and subtle differentiations, have been created from memory. Yes, from memory.

You see, Gregory Blackstock is a savant. Savant Syndrome is a remarkable condition in which a person with autism or another developmental disability has some extraordinary genius or ability that stands in stark contrast to their other limitations. Often, if not always, these amazing abilities as coupled with a photographic memory. Coupled with intense motivation and practice, and in Blackstock's case, a supportive family and art community, these amazing abilities have created a body of work that is an amazing document of the world around him, and all of us. From this work Blackstock has been labeled an "anthropologist of the everyday".

Unlike much "Outsider art", Blackstock's work lacks emotion and reveals nothing of an inner, personal world. Remarkably, his success in the art world has motivated him towards more work that is created with the intention of being showcased.

While it is hard to separate any work like this from the exceptional and rare memory talents and patience of its creator, I feel Blackstock's drawings have an appeal much beyond the 'freakshow' aspect. This art would be a nearly impossible thing to create from a normal mind (considering it was made without reference material), but that isn't what makes this work enjoyable. The talent feels genuine, and the drawings are compelling in and of themselves, an aspect I often find lacking in other Outsider art. 

Blackstock's Collections has 144 pages in color, plus an essay on the discovery of the artist's work and his first exhibition and an excellent essay of Savant Syndrome as it applies to Blackstock's work. Both essays are enjoyable, educational, and easy to read (a rarity for art book writing these days). It is available at almost every bookstore (find it on Amazon here) with a retail price of $19.95. My own copy of the book is falling apart at the binding, but this is less a testament to shotty craftsmanship than to my own brutish handling of my art books. 

LINKS: another good review of Blackstock's Collections at moleskinerie.com

an online article about Blackstock by Darold Treffert, MD, who wrote the essay in the book.

Garde Rail Gallery's artist page from Blackstock with other good links

I See It All by Deth P. Sun book signing event

Friday, April 24th
6:00 - 8:30 pm

Giant Robot San Francisco Presents:

The Clouds Caught On Fire

Recently self-published, The Clouds Caught On Fire features two years worth of collaborative drawings and paintings from San Francisco Bay Area artists Rich Jacobs and Billy Sprague. I have become aware Sprague's work through his zines and prints, and while I didn't initially recognize Jacob's name, his oval-headed dark-nosed head illustrations are very familiar. The works in the book were created as the artists continually exchanged individual pieces until one or other declared the art done. The art is very loose and unpretentious and the whole publication has the feeling of two artists friends having fun.

For the most part, the artwork looks like it is coming from one mind, which often isn't the case with many artistic collaborations where each artist's area of participation is easily recognizable. There are occasionally pieces where one artist's hand feels more dominant, but the results from page to page are remarkably cohesive.

The works are generally heavily layered mixed media abstractions. Loose patterning and hand-drawn textures are built using markers, opaque paints, washes, stencils, and photocopies. Sometimes a bilateral symmetry develops, other times more figurative works take form. These are often created upon found objects and used papers: braille, sheet music, maps, envelopes, even vinyl records.

The Clouds Caught On Fire is a full-color book, with 120 glossy pages. 8" x 10". Perfect bound. It is available in three edition: a softcover version for $35 (featured in photos), a hardcover for $60, and also a deluxe edition available only direct from the artists that features extra prints and stencils and stickers and stuff.

It was created in 2008 using the popular print-on-demand (POD) service blurb. If you aren't familiar with the several POD printer now online, here is a very quick primer: You upload your designed pages (or use their template) and using digital printing techniques they produce a relatively high quality full color book. You pay per book with no minimums, and there are price breaks for large quantities. Never before has low quantities of full color books been available so easily. These printers usually will sell your book online through their website, and some act as a "subsidiary publisher".

The advantage of POD is that it makes books like The Clouds Caught Fire possible. There is not a lot money that needs to go up front, and since books are printed as they sell, you won't get stuck with unsold inventory. "Color books in low quantities" makes doing a private edition for an exhibition or something possible. 

The problems with POD is that, while it may be affordable to make a color book for yourself, the pricing allows very little room for profit. Certainly there is no room for wholesale discounts. That leaves an artist with the options to sell the book directly or through the POD website and even then these books can get expensive. And I won't begin to get into the whole ISBN issues or some of the insane contracts out there.

All added up, and then factoring in that I had to pay sales tax and shipping for one book, Clouds ended up costing me almost $50. In this case, it was worth it; It feels good to know your money is going direct to the artists, and I appreciate the potential to have some rare and valuable self-published works from artists I enjoy. Something you won't find in a bookstore. But these kinds of dollars are a gamble if you aren't familiar with the artist's work and can't see the book beforehand. 

I am currently working on a more comprehensive blog that discusses POD printing and pricing. In the meanwhile, you can get this book direct from the artists or online at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/514628. You can also find some of Billy Sprague's zines on the Rowan Morrison online artist's bookstore and zine emporium. 

Damien Hirst: On The Way To Work

Like it or not, Damien Hirst is on top. Currently in his mid 40s, he has well surpassed Jasper Johns as the wealthiest living artist, and any discussion about excesses in art in either content or collection revolves around him. Last year, Hirst and his business manager, Frank Dunphy, bypassed the gallery system (which already worked on only 10% commission for Hirst) by having their works sold directly to collectors through Sotheby's. Despite the economic downturn, the 223 "new" works (many of them were recreations of old favorites... 5 sharks in tanks and 83 new butterfly collages) sold for nearly $200,000,000 dollars, exceeding expectations. One piece, the Golden Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns preserved in formaldehyde, sold for 10.3 million pounds. Not dollars, pounds. And I'm not even going to go into the whole diamond encrusted skull thing.

On The Way To Work is a collection of 12 interviews between Hirst and longtime friend Gordon Burn, spanning the years 1992 to 2000. The words are raw and off the cuff, with plenty of cursing and drinking stories in the mix. Sprinkled throughout the text are beautiful images of Hirst's artwork (including his terrible early assemblages), and candid photos from his childhood in Leeds and student years at Goldsmiths, University of London. At over 200 pages, it still is a quick read. More so than almost any other text based art book I've come across.

The interviews are casual, which gives a look at a celebrity without his guard up. The topics cover fame, money, the use of the art scene as a participant in the work, his own rise with the help of collector Charles Saatchi, his obsession with death, the work of Francis Bacon (whom Hirst considers the greatest artist of the 20th century), how to get a shark, the young British artists, and all other topics along those lines. Hirst upholds his anti-intellectual persona, but still comes across as deathly serious about art and its place in society.

Sure, Hirst can often come across as an asshole, and contradicts himself on more than one occasion, but in the end these things help to present him as, above all else, fearless. To speak with passion and certainty in the face of the likelihood of proving yourself wrong is admirable. When it is mixed with a bit of barroom charm and a sincere passion for the subject it is hard to not be enthralled. Nobody likes an asshole, but it can be admirable to see someone who is not afraid of being an asshole when it comes to express his opinions. 

The most interesting passages of the book are Hirst's discussion of his "color dot" paintings... more specifically how these paintings are made by others. When one of his many assistants wanted one of these paintings (that she had painted) as a gift, Hirst refused. His argument was that if she wanted the painting for its aesthetic value, she could paint one for herself. It was the fact that the painting was "a Hirst" that made her want it. She wanted the value of his signature, not the painting itself, which her own hand had created. The honesty and frankness in this discussion is refreshing. The issue of who is manufacturing the artwork of famous artists is rarely discussed, least of all by the artists themselves. And it is hard for Hirst not to look like an asshole in this situation, but he talks very openly about it. Fearless.

The book ends with the sale of Hymn, a giant bronze reproduction of an anatomical toy, which sold for a million pounds (and Hirst was later sued over). This is towards the beginning of his relationship with Frank Dunphy, which is a whole groundbreaking and heartbreaking saga in itself... One that is still being written. With the more recent sales of Hirst's restaurant decor as original works of art (a thing that, in the book, Hirst swore would not happen), and the continual upping of the ante with collectors, dealers, precious materials, and animal carcasses, it is clear that the timeline covered in On The Way To Work is just the beginning.

One The Way To Work is a fantastic read. It is insightful, unscripted, and fascinating. "Great art is when you come across an object and you have a fundamental, personal, one-to-one relationship with it, and you understand something you didn't already understand about what it means to be alive." I highly recommend this book for anybody into Hirst's work, or anybody who likes reading about artwork and the art business in general. 

The book has a retail price of $50, and can be found online for a bit less with some looking. There are also several other books of Hirst's artwork out there. 

I also encourage you to read more about the relationship of Hirst with Frank Dunphy in this article from the Wall Street Journal online: The Man Behind Damien Hirst. 

Catalogue - "Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean"

So this'll be my last entry for catalogue fever. ...and your last chance to go see this show as it closes January 31.

"Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean" at Dolby-Chadwick Gallery, San Fransisco is a remarkably straightforward painting show, and the accompanying catalogue is equally so. I've liked her work for a while now, and I'm impressed that she works in relative autonomy. She lives and works in Orange County, and enjoys success and attention, but isn't so overboard- hyped that it just gets annoying. She's got really great cadaver drawings on her website too.

The catalogue, 8.5" x 11", full color with a short forward, is of high quality and worth buying if you are a fan of painting.  However be warned that it doesn't contain every work in the show. "Waist High", 2008 (77" x 81"), which isn't in the catalogue, was one of my personal picks, as it was a little bit of a departure (from her usual format of overall compositions) with a viscous, buttery blob of brushwork in the upper-center of the canvas. Even the size of the brush is a lot bigger, so it feels like more a bold decision, and offers sort of a resting place.  


Sherie' Franssen, "Waist High", 2008, 77" x 81". Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery

Catalogue - "Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting"

3rd entry in my catalogue fever installments...

"Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting", at John Berggruen until February 28, is a jaw-dropping collection of my all time favorite painters from the Bay Area, and maybe ever. There are a lot of paintings in the show from private collectors, and unless a museum (and it would probably have to be in California) organizes another mega exhibit, the paintings will probably go back into privacy for a while.

Familiarize yourself already. Fortunately, the catalogue for the exhibit will give you a leg up. It's a 10" x 10" softcover, and all artwork has been re-photographed just for the publication. No repeats, or archival images. Steven Nash wrote the introductory essay, and after that are just plates, plates, plates. Nice ones, too. My only qualm with the show is that Joan Brown is conspicuously absent, even though it's just because nothing of hers was available, and I was a little less moved by the inclusion of Wayne Theibaud just because his visual treatment is so different.

Contact the gallery for a copy and get yours now. $30 bucks.


David Park, "Figures in a Landscape", 1953, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches, courtesy of John Berggruen Gallery

Catalogue - "Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular"

2nd entry for catalogue fever.

"Amy Sillman - Third Person Singular" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.

Note: If, like me, you're on the west coast (and, like me, unable to have seen this particular exhibition of works), New York painter Amy Sillman is currently one of six contemporary painters in "Oranges and Sardines" at Hammer Museum. Go see it if you get the chance, it's up until February 8.

The catalogue for "Third Person Singular" is a 7" x 9" hardcover edition with full color plates, and contains an interview between the artist and Ian Berry, and an essay by Anne Ellegood. The reproduction and page quality is really nice.

Her paintings are honest, with little dogma, and a nice variation on the concerns of abstract expressionism. There is history, decision-making, and discovery. I just feel like looking at a painting should be a journey that takes the viewer through the various intellectual and physical processes of the artist. This is her expressing with paint what words cannot do.

Oddly enough, I'm glad I chose this one over the catalogue for "Oranges and Sardines". It just seemed like the better choice...
Check www.si.edu to get your copy.


Amy Sillman, "S", 2007, Courtesy Smithsonian Institute