Sun...Sea...Art

I had not even realized what my idea of paradise was until I went to Aspat Beach yesterday.  Solida Beach Club is situated on its own private bay with acres of flat land that provides its occupants a variety of different lounging options.

From what I understand, the owner is a businessman from Ankara who is realizing the ultimate utopia by supporting the arts, history and nature in this proverbial gold mine instead of selling out to developers.   There is a beach area as well as a big, wide lawn that is littered with lawn chairs, hammocks and swings under palm trees or canopies.  But there is a catch to this paradise... you have to share the space with sculptures that were produced by artists at Aspat for Aspat.  I believe in August this Eden of delights turns into an artist's colony and the art work strewn throughout the grounds are the end-products of these activities.

Between swimming and lounging around, I walked around the premises and took pictures of whatever caught my fancy.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the information for all the works, so some will have to remain anonymous for now.

http://aspat.com.tr/eng/index.html
Terma Resort Solida Beach Aspat,
Aspat, Turgutreis/Bodrum
Tel:  0252 393 8520
Fax: 0252 393 8522
info@aspatbeach.com
GSM: 0533 734 0426

Meysem Samsun, Halumce Bedrettinem, 2004

 

Berika Ipekbayrak

Nilhan Sesalan, Suslu Yaprak Agaci, 2003

Erdinc Bakla

Batu Siharulidze, Eagean, 2006

Ayhan Yilmaz, Isimsiz, 2003

Monet's Grand Decorations Effects

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Green, Blue, Green on Blue, 1968

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2007

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2007

Chicago, Chicago...

I wanted to share some more of my Chicago experience here... this song from Frank Sinatra was the music in my head as I walked around this amazing city...

The view from the Michigan Avenue Bridge

I got into Chicago the day after their famous St. Patrick Day's Parade and was lucky enough to get a glimpse of the river they had colored green for the occasion.  The view itself is lovely but the green river added an extra special photo opportunity, I think...

The Famous Water Tower on Michigan Avenue

There seems to be a lot to do and see in Chicago but my limited time was spent on Michigan Avenue walking to the Art Institute or back from the Art Institute and running in and out of interesting sites I saw along the way.
Michigan Avenue is the most major road, and Magnificent Mile, for the most exclusive stores plus the best shopping in the city, and the famous Water Tower are all on North Michigan Avenue.

Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate, (Millennium Park)

As I was making my way down to the Art Institute, I noticed this wonderful sculpture and I had to go and see up close.  Cloud Gate sits on a plaza above street level and is impossible to miss.  I had no idea that this sculpture by one of my favorite artists Anish Kapoor was in Chicago, so it was even more exciting to stumble upon it as I walked down the street.       

I was so fascinated with this sculpture that I think I might have gone a little bit over board with the photographs I took.  Honestly, though, I can't imagine anyone passing by it without taking at least a second or a third look.     






Cloud Gate is Anish Kapoor's first outdoor public monument in the United States, and as with all his other works, it has a magnetic quality that draws the viewer in.   

"What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the  Chicago skyline... so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in with those very tall buildings reflected in the work.  And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same  thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflections of the city around."
                                

                                                                                                      Anish Kapoor

 These are the two towers of Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain, that are supposed to be the ends of a shallow reflecting pool.  It is recalling the traditional fountains with the faces of mythological figures with open mouths beings portrayed with water, the symbol of life,  flowing out of their mouths.  Due to the season the pools was empty but the projections of the faces of 1000 Chicago residents was still going on.

Frank Gehry, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 
(Millennium Park)

Millennium Park is like a wonderful mirage in the middle of the city that surrounds the individual with all its tall, modern buildings.  When I was walking around Chicago I felt like a little  figure walking around in an  architectural model.  I really fell in love with this effect of being engulfed within the cityscape yet feeling as if I could look upon the whole from another perspective.  Millennium Park seems to fit perfectly into the rest of the texture of the city since it is not just a park but almost an outdoor museum with all the different parts designed by world renown artists and architects.  

view of Millennium Park and Frank Ghery designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion from
Nichols Bridgeway connecting the Park with the Art Institute of Chicago

Of course, one of the main attractions of the park for me was the bridge that connected it to the Art Institute's Modern wing.  

Frank Ghery, BP Bridge,
(Millennium Park, Chicago)

I wanted to walk through the Park to get a view of Lake Michigan, so we used the BP bridge which was a winding, stainless steel structure with magnificent views of the city and the lake at the same time.  

A Sculpture Group on the riverwalk

We walked down to the Lake and around to the Riverwalk.  We just took where the path led us without any itinerary or end destination in  mind.  

Trump Tower

We actually ended up right below the bridge on Michigan Avenue which was an easy walk back home. 

Baldessari @ the Met - For those who missed it...

John Baldessari's "Palm Tree/Seascape" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art© John Baldessari, photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Baldessari exhibit "Pure Beauty" was at the LACMA when I was visiting in August which I didn't get a chance to see but made a note to self to catch in New York.  It was the realization that I was going to miss it once again that prompted me to drop everything and run to the  Metropolitan Museum of Art, last week, four days before it  closed.  

It was such a groundbreaking experience for me as a student of Art, that I wish I had the chance to tell all my friends and take my kids to see it.  Unfortunately, it closed yesterday but I still want to share the experience with everyone.  I put up the link for the Met Audio Guide (you can download it by clicking on the title of this post  or http://www.metmuseum.org/audio/exhibitions/AudioGuide_Baldessari.zip) the numbers for some of the works are underneath them so those who are interested can take the tour right here and now...

There is also a link to an interactive artwork -'JOHN BALDESSARI - in still life 2001-2010' which lets you recreate the 17th century Dutch painting below anyway you like.  It is extremely cool...

 

http://in-still-life.com/index.php

WHAT IS IT THAT DISTINGUISHES ART FROM REAL LIFE???

John Baldessari's retrospective 'Pure Beauty' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, asks this question and forces the viewer to contemplate the answer repeatedly...

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1966–1968
Acrylic on canvas; 68 x 56 1/2 in. (172.7 x 143.5 cm)
The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica
© John Baldessari

His quirky sense of humor is ever-present in all of his works.

John Baldessari, 'The backs of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California, Sunday 29, January 1963" photography, 1963.
 © John Baldessari

According the Met Audio-Guide here Baldessari is utilizing the mundane without elevating it to 'High Art' status in an attempt to construct meaning from the ground up.  (Met Audio-Guide 401) 

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Commissioned Painting: A Painting by Elmira Bourke, 1969
Acrylic and oil on canvas; 59 1/4 x 45 1/2 in. (150.5 x 115.6 cm)
Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris
© John Baldessari

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Commissioned Painting: A Painting by Anita Storck, 1969
Acrylic and oil on canvas; 59 1/4 x 45 1/2 in. (150.5 x 115.6 cm)
Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris
© John Baldessari

 "Is style really important or is it the idea behind the art?"

These are two of the three artworks on display commissioned by Baldessari from contemporary artists of  paintings of photographs he had taken of his friends pointing at an object of their choice, the title was added later by a sign painter... (Met Audio-Guide 406)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
California Map Project, 1969
© John Baldessari

'Making Art that existed out in the world'

Baldessari took a map of California and drove around the state to find the literal places where the letters fell on the map.   

"mistaking the map for the territory... in treating the letters on the map like real places, Baldessari deliberately makes this mistake"(Met Audio-Guide 408)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971
Black-and-white video with sound, 13:06 min
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, 2010 (2010.262)
© John Baldessari

The Artist turns the typical school boy's boring punishment for bad behavior of repetition into a pledge of not producing 'boring art' (Met Audio-Guide 413)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Virtues and Vices (for Giotto), 1981
© John Baldessari


Hope, Prudence, Temperance, Sloth, Gluttony, Avarice 

Baldessari originally hung these photographic images matched with the seven virtues and vices in a chapel-like alcove and dedicated them to Giotto recalling his frescoes from the Arena Chapel. (Met Audio-Guide 420)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Lizard to Pianist (with Gold Sphere), 1984
Gelatin silver prints and color photographs on board
© John Baldessari

Title is telling us how to look at the work...Building the work up in almost an architectural manner  (Met Audio-Guide 421)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Kiss / Panic, 1984
Gelatin silver prints with oil tint on board, in eleven parts; 80 x 72 in. (203.2 x 182.9 cm) overall
Glenstone
© John Baldessari

At the time Baldessari made this work, he was becoming interested in Freud and  began to think of his collection of film stills as a collective unconcious...(Met Audio-Guide 422)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Heel, 1986
Gelatin silver prints with oil tint, oil stick, and acrylic; 106 1/2 x 86 15/16 in. (270.5 x 220.9 cm) overall
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Modern and Contemporary Art Council Fund
© John Baldessari

Is the title referring the the body part or the character of the man in the picture or the command being given to the dog? 

"One of the hallmarks of my work have always been omitting information and deleting it, that might be very necessary to understand the image... but, thinking that what you leave out the spectator with their imagination could replace" John Baldessari (Met Audio-Guide 423)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
The Overlap Series: Jogger (with Cosmic Event), 2000–2001
Lambda prints on Sintra with acrylic and crayon; 84 x 43 3/4 in. (213.4 x 111.1 cm) overall
Jennifer B. Stockman
© John Baldessari

On the one side it is a snapshot of a street scene outside of his studio, on the other it is a scene out of a movie that is constructed out of someone's imagination and in the middle where they overlap -Baldessari painted to change the surface because he is against categories...(Met Audio-Guide 424)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
The Duress Series: Person Climbing Exterior Wall of Tall Building / Person on Ledge of Tall Building / Person on Girders of Unfinished Tall Building, 2003
Digital prints with acrylic on Sintra; 60 x 180 in. (152.4 x 457.2 cm) overall
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
© John Baldessari

The figure which is basically a plastic raised or recessed silhouette, is optically and literally popping out of the picture because it is simplified and painted flat in the three primary colors...(Met Audio-Guide 425)

John Baldessari(American, b. 1931),
 Prima Facie (Third State): From Aghast to Upset, 2005.© John Baldessari

Prima Facie - How things appear on the surface upon first glance...(Met Audio-Guide 427)

John Baldessari (American, b. 1931)
Prima Facie (Fifth State): Warm Brownie / American Cheese / Carrot Stick / Black Bean Soup / Perky Peach / Leek, 2006
Pigment prints on canvas with latex paint; 92 in. x 9 ft. 6 in. (233.7 x 289.6 cm) overall
Glenstone
© John Baldessari

How we attribute meaning to color... (Met Audio-Guide 428)

The strange yet alluring juxtapositions, oscillation of words and images, the sharp sense of humor, the artist's intentions and my own interpretations of the works was very inspiring and exhilarating ... Baldessari's statement of 'looking at art as a form of life, a process of seeing possibilities and making new meanings' resonated within me, motivating me to new heights.

Sedef Piker (Turkish-American, b. 1966)
My BrainCloud, 2011



the end