Unregistered

Dear Forum Visitors,

I have had this post in my mind for several days.... fortunately the articles I wanted to talk about are still listed in the Index for NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/design/index.html
I wish I had known about this when I was teaching..... FREE online news/current events for you to share with your students.

Here are the two articles I found of interest:

Art Review | Zhang Huan

Chinese Art, in One Man’s Translation
By HOLLAND COTTER
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/ar...gn&oref=slogin
Of all the rebels who now form the new Chinese art establishment, Zhang Huan remains one of the harder figures to pin down.

Zhang Huan's web site:
http://www.zhanghuan.com/index.asp
Not a site to turn your students loose on (some images for mature
students only) - but one you should take some time to browse.
Performance Art and Photography - Sculpture - Drawings and Paintings -
Installations - Public Works.

Zhang Huan has a solo exhibition ("Zhang Huan: Altered States") at
Asia Society, New York - through January 20 (asiasociety.org )


Art Review | 'Makers and Modelers'

It’s Just Clay, but How About a Little Respect?
By ROBERTA SMITH
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/ar...tml?ref=design
The Gladstone Gallery offers a sprawling, ebullient season opener of contemporary ceramics by 31 artists.

I had to chuckle... I looked at the slide show first for this exhibit
and my initial response to some of it was "I have seen high school
work better than that" (smile).
Art Review | 'Makers and Modelers'
It's Just Clay, but How About a Little Respect?
By ROBERTA SMITH

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"The frequency of mushy little figures here confirms this. (Ceramics
accommodates so many levels of skill that the statement "My 5-year-old
could do that" has an unusually high rate of accuracy.)"
----------------------------

Well... a five year old could not have made the work selected for the
slide show - definitely take a look if you teach middle school and/or
high school ceramics.

From the article:

>>But, perplexingly, the mainstream art world's appreciation of
contemporary ceramics remains a capricious, on-and-off, up-and-down
thing — even when, as now, it seems to be in on/up mode. The latest
symptom is "Makers and Modelers: Works in Ceramic," a sprawling,
ebullient season opener of works by 31 artists at the Gladstone
Gallery in Chelsea.

This show tries to position ceramics in the mainstream by ignoring
just about anyone who hasn't more or less achieved high-end
acceptance, a snobbish ploy. "Vessels are so over" is the apparent
subtext of this potpourri of the figurative, abstract and
installational.

Makers and Modelers: Works in Ceramic" is at the Gladstone Gallery,
515 West 24th Street, Chelsea, through Oct. 13.

More on Thomas Schutte
http://www.thomas-schuette.de/website_content.php
(an artist featured in this exhibit):
Ceramic sculpture and more - take a look (some objectionable titles -
don't let kiddies browse)
Thomas Schutte Google Search brings up more

More on Klara Kristalova
http://www.kristalova.se/eng.index.html
Good inspiration for high school and middle school ceramic sculpture.
Everything I saw on this site is OK for kiddie viewing.
Google search Klara Kristalova brings up more

Here is one line I found about her work...
"Kristalova is a storyteller who uses the plasticity of sculpture to
build small micro worlds, where something peculiar has just happened
or is about to happen."

Happy Surfing,

Judy Decker

John

Great post. Thanks, Judy.