Last weekend in Santa Fe, I made the rounds of the galleries looking at the latest in Western Art. I saw some good stuff, but I have to say, the best painting I saw was an old classic painting by Buck Dunton:
Buck Dunton's "My Children"The brush work in the sage brush is muy Van Gogh. It's hard to see here, but the high lights in the horse with his rear pointing towards us has a very Van Gogh methodology (it says so on the placard next to the painting), but, in my book, it is done so in a way that takes it beyond even what Vincent was trying to do.
On the other hand, Robert Daughters, also in the same gallery at the New Mexico Museum of Art, apes Van Gogh, but in a more literal fashion:
Robert Daughters' "Taos Pueblo"
I totally dig both methods but I have to say Dunton's angle seems more original.
Yesterday, Kathy and I went down to Sky Harbor to get a pre-boarding pass and then went to the Phoenix Art Museum to see the Leonardo Da Vinci (I never knew his only name was Leonardo and that da Vinci merely means he was from Vinci, the town). Saw his original sketchbooks, on loan because they are owned by Bill Gates!) and realized I do the same thing in my sketchbooks, other than the fact that Leonardo wrote backwards! And that he solved many scientific problems and predicted many future inventions (the submarine and the jackhammer to name just two). And other than that, my sketch books are, well, a pale imitation.
Daily Whip Out: "March 26, 2015 sketches, including Ratcliff Ridge"
Also at the Phoenix Art Museum is a big Andy Warhold exhibit and what's amazing about it is the fact that he often took Polaroids of his subject, then blew it up and screen printed it on a big canvas and then painted lips and a few lines on it and called it a day (and charged $50k each on commissions). it sounds so cheap and easy, but, hey, it still stands. They look as modern as can be, even though they were painted 25 and 30 years ago. That is amazing.
At the end of of the exhibit there is an opportunity to do an Andy Warhol type screen test. Evidently Warhol made some 450 screen tests on models and actors that wanted to be in his films. By the way, his concept for his films was, "If it makes sense at all, it's not art." Anyway, I sat down and took the screen test. I will warn you, it's every bit as boring as an actual Andy Warhol movie, but if you stay until the end you will see a vision of beauty.
BBB's Warhol Screen Test
Meanwhile, got up this morning and worked on an idea I'm pursuing for the next issue of True West.
Daily Whip Out: "Billy Still Rides High Over Lincoln"
Went home for lunch and got another one going:
BBB Daily Whip Out: "Epiphany at Inscription Rock"
"No historian lines up all the dots. Every work of history is a ridiculously selective selection from the universe of possible dots."
—Louis Menand, in The New Yorker
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