Ai Weiwei at the Des Moines Art Center

AI WEIWEI IS NEVER SORRY

World renowned artist and Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei has released the above picture commemorating the Chinese New Year for download onto your computer. Some might think it seems strange that an artist would just give away his work, but the image itself explains why he is giving it away.

The mirrored figures seem to represent a dualism, two inherently alike but contrasting images each loaded with considerable symbolism that represent new and old culture. The left figure appears to be self portrait while the right looks like the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao.  Other important symbolic features I notice the open laptop and Twitter bird, a video camera, a cell phone, and the web character "@", all of which seem to represent the artist's Twitter and online activities which he uses to promote his visual arts and provoke Chinese Officials.  His Instagram alone is an online exhibit of his digital photo art that is both shocking and subtle.  Ai Weiwei likes sharing his work with the online community frequently and fervently, thus the New Years present. Thanks Ai Weiwei, you're a swell dude.

Another symbol in the above image I find particularly interesting is the number of sunflower seeds scattered in the negative space around both figures.  These represent a massive project currently on display at the Tate Museum called "Sunflower Seeds".  This work consists of 100 MILLION hand painted, ceramic sunflower seeds that Ai Weiwei filmed himself walking on.  

A portion, something like 250,000, of the seeds are currently on display at the Des Moines Art Center in a conical pile, Ai Weiwei foot prints intact.

http://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/webres/File/NEWS/NEWS_jfm_2013_web.pdf

The symbolism of his art is indebted to censorship and he takes full advantage of that fact by making thought provoking visual art to represent free artistic expression.  This of course gets him thrown into jail from time to time in China but he is still a very respected artist there who was even commissioned as a consultant for design of the Olympic Stadium. His world art fame achieved considerable exposure last year when a documentary about his career and views titled "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" won a Sundance Film Festival prize.  The film is now streaming on NetFlix.  Check out the pile of his work while it is still in Des Moines. Even though it is a quaint preview into this impressive artist's career it still speaks of the energy and power which his work possesses.

Manhatten Short Film Festival 10/5

"One World, One Week, One Festival"

Manhattan Short has descended upon Des Moines again this year and due to its popularity, the Des Moines Art Center will show it TWO weekends in a row. I have confirmation from the first showing that this is an event you don't want to miss if you're a film fan, but if you intend to get a seat you had better show up early because the first viewing premiered to a full house.  The second viewing takes place on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6:30pm in the Levitt Auditorium at the Des Moines Art Center---AND IT'S FREE!

Manhattan Short is unique because it is the first global film festival and they don't believe "the masses are asses". Starting Sep. 28 and ending Oct. 7 an estimated total of 100,000 people from 300 cities and six continents (unfortunately not in Antarctica because the emperor penguins can't agree on a location to build a theater) will view and vote for the best film. After the votes are tallied the winner will be announced via their press page. Sweet.

This is the 15th year of the film festival and organizers had to respond to its increasing popularity after reportedly received 520 entries from 49 countries with genres ranging from comedy to drama, thereby making Manhattan Short a truly diverse film experience.

-CK

Jackson Pollack and the Des Moines Print Club

Last week, during the Art Center's usual Thursday evening hours, a special lecturer was invited to speak in the Levitt Auditorium about Jackson Pollock.

Joann Moser, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and one-time curator at the University of Iowa, has studied Pollock's works and spent a plethora of time with his largest work titled "Mural"- which was displayed at the Des Moines Art Center this summer on loan from the University of Iowa.

'Mural' - Oil on canvas, Jackson Pollack

Her lecture's focus was not on the 8'x20' behemoth that Peggy Guggenheim commissioned for her flat in NYC, but instead on Pollock's virtually unknown intaglio prints that he made at Atelier 17 in the mid 40's.

'For and Eye, an Eye' -Intaglio, Mauricio Lasansky

Atelier 17 was a print-making studio that started in Paris and moved to New York (where Pollock studied) after the outbreak of WWII.  The studio was started by an English artist named Stanley William Hayter, who's vast influence is connected to many other famous 20th century artists besides Pollock.  While at Atelier 17 Pollock jumped into the medium of intaglio and made seven engravings and found a new and important perspective.  

Intaglio is a form of print making where artists use metal tools to etch, mark, and/or engrave a plate that holds the ink for the print.  After the ink is applied and wiped away from the areas intended to provide negative space, the plate and paper are then sent through a rolling press which transfers the ink and visible indentations onto the paper.  Some intaglio artists, like Mauricio Lasansky (who too created works under Hayter's influence) would also use acid to etch into soft metal plates - which was his preferred material- thereby creating deep pools of ink for the paper to absorb. Lasansky used these jet-black ink pools to create dark moods for some of his works that are thought to reflect his feelings toward the Holocaust (like 'For an Eye, an Eye). 


Pollock's intaglio prints are not impressive (nor do I find them particularly entertaining- in fact they are almost childlike because they lack the overwhelming complexity that his paintings possess) but this phase in his art career was an important step in order for him to make abstract expressionism his own and by examining his intaglio works this becomes very clear.

In her lecture, Moser said that it was while working at Atelier 17 that Pollock showed important growth and without this experience he may never have become the artist we know him for today.  According to MoMA "Hayter’s personal engraving style, based on improvisation and chance, influenced Jackson Pollock, who made seven engravings with Hayter in 1944–5" (even though Pollock later denounced chance as part of his art, stating/believing that he could control the chaos of drip/splatter painting).

In 'Untitled', Moser pointed out the places where burrs made by inexperience and his tools forced Pollock to make something artistic of the accidents, thus introducing chance and feeding his improvisation.  After examining the print up close I can attest to the changed in style that Pollock shows in this piece as opposed to his earlier "organized chaos" work 'Mural'.

'Untitled' - Intaglio, Jackson Pollock

Pollock's dry point engraving will be on display at the Art Center until Sep. 23 as part of the 'Hornets' Nest' exhibit along with several other great prints from their permanent collection. Go and check it out, it's free and stuff.

-CK