Museum Visit: Wade Guyton at the Whitney

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

New York–based artist Wade Guyton (b. 1972) makes bold paintings and drawings like these wall-sized  bands of color, using digital technologies: desktop computers, scanners, and giant inkjet printers. Guyton tears photographs from magazines, scans them and prints over them. He includes beautiful printing accidents, misprinted photos, broken graphic bands. The exhibition concludes with a spectacular artwork of broken black bands, over fifty feet long on two opposite walls, that Guyton created specifically for the Whitney space. 

The title of the Whitney survey, Wade Guyton OS, refers to a computer’s “operating system,” linking Guyton’s art to the operating systems of our time.

A Project Inspired by Wade Guyton

Select some photographs from a magazine. Either tear them out (with permission) or scan them. Print some large letters, or words on a new page. Print them over the photographs. Try several combinations. Fun, yes? Try enlarging sections. Try collages...real ones...cut and paste...Scan them. Do some more printing combinations. Do some more collages and print color bands over them.

Art News: Cy Twombly's Last Paintings

Today, I visited the Gagosian Gallery at 980 Madison Ave. near 77th Street,  to see the thrilling last paintings of Cy Twombly. I couldn't wait until they came to New York from London. 

In our earlier blog, "Cy Twombly's Scribbles," we wrote about Twombly's early drawings and paintings,  his classical Greek scribbles, his chalk scribbles on a blackboard, his color scribbles with soft pastels. Now in his "Last Paintings," his scribbles have grown to be the size of an entire wall. Painting in juicy oranges across acid green, giant loops leave a web of spidery drips. They are exciting paintings. They take you to a lush place Twombly discovered late in his life. So very beautiful. They will be at the Gagosian Gallery through Dec 22.  A fitting farewell to an amazing American painter.

Art News: Calder's Bronzes

A new exhibit at the L&M Gallery displays Alexander Calder's delightful bronzes. They were inspired by an architect friend, who asked Calder to create sculptures that could be constructed in concrete at a much larger size.

The Vine

Calder is known for his playful "circus" sculptures of acrobats and animals made of wire and bits of fabric. The "Bronzes" exhibition includes playful, little pinched clay animals, like the ones we made when we were children. 

Here is the link to "Calder: The Complete Bronzes," on view thru Dec 8 at L&M Arts, lmgallery.com

Art News: Puppets On Film

This weekend, Puppets on Film, an annual festival from the Jim Henson Foundation, and BAMcinematek, celebrates many different types of puppets. "It's great to see this wide range," said Cheryl Henson, Jim Henson's daughter, and the foundation's president, who organizes the series with Lindsay Briggs. "A lt is being made by young artists on limited budgets. We love the quirky, playful, non corporate, noncommercial approach."

More information and schedules for films and workshops at: bam.org/puppetsonfilm:

http://www.bam.org/film/2012/the-sweatshirt-sheep-puppetmaking-workshop

Art News: Goodnight Moon App

Reading the "Arts, Briefly" a column about art news in the New York Times, on Friday November 9th, 2012, I discovered that one of my favorite children's books, "Goodnight Moon," is now on sale as an interactive app. It was published by Loud Crow Interactive and is available at iTunes for $4.99. The digital version includes a narration and a piano soundtrack. There are two educational add-ons, a "Goodnight Moon" alphabet book and a counting book.