This past weekend I visited the Institute of Contemporary Art and saw the exhibition Street Level. Before seeing Street Level, street art to me was graffiti. However, Street Level shows that street art can be a collage assembling a sneaker, an installation of plenty used speakers, or a photograph sequence showing a skateboarder skating on a chalked-out half-pipe.

This is an interesting show and will be held until Oct. 19. Don’t miss it if you like street art.

There’s been plenty written about Bas Jan Ader in the past few years.  This may be due to the recent romantization of his career (due in part to his rebellion against the “high art” of his day, his unique combination of comedy and poetry, and most of all, his untimely demise), however, I am one to believe that he was a truly brilliant mind speaking to one specific commonality: the human being’s inability to relate with others and the inevitable isolation that follows.  Now more than ever, the delicacy of human interaction strikes true in our lives.  We spend more time communicating with others via the computer screen than we do face to face.

Today, I had the unique experience of touring the SMFA masters thesis studios and talking directly with the artists - face to face.  In doing so, I noticed a trend that many of the artists there (as pointed out by one artist, Andrea Evans, in specific) were attempting to grasp at the difficulties that we all face in relating with each other.  Or, in the terms of Ader (via The Coasters): we’ve all been “Searchin” for a way to break down that barrier and find a way to connect.  But what happens when we finally do?

Below, you will find a formal analysis of Jan Bas Ader’s 1971 work, “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” (arguably, his most famous piece).  In this, I’m not going to try to shove anything down your throat - because frankly, I want you to come to your own conclusions as to why Ader’s work has continued to be resonant nearly 40 years later.

When initially viewing a work of art, an observer takes into account its content, style, and how these together make the viewer feel.  However, the viewer must also take into account how items such as formal content and historical context affect (and possibly manipulate) their feelings toward the work.  Bas Jan Ader’s “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” is a short black and white film shot on 16mm.  The film begins with a handwritten title card, first telling the artist and the year made (1971), and then the title of the film.  The artist, shot in close-up with a grey backdrop, then proceeds to cry (or make himself cry) in front of the camera.  The film amounts to a length of 3 minutes and 34 seconds and as the time progresses, the artist’s sobs grow and diminish in waves.  When I first saw this piece, I was fascinated by the apparent honesty that Ader was exhibiting to his audience.  Obviously, he leaves many questions unanswered (namely: “Why the hell is he crying?”). Nonetheless, he exhibits his human qualities: his frailty and his willingness to express himself freely.  In this paper, I will examine “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” under opposite viewpoints in order to determine what I make of a work that intrigues me so much.

Ader, having lived in California since the early sixties, started becoming recognized for his work in the early 1970’s.  In 1970, he filmed his first in a series of “falls” (in which he filmed himself falling from various states and locations).  In early
1971, Ader took a break from his “fall” series to film “I’m Too Sad to Tell You.”  1971 was also the year that he completed his “fall” series beginning with “Broken Fall (Organic)” in which he hung from a tree branch about twenty-five feet above a shallow creek for approximately a minute and a half, and then proceeded to let go and fall into the creek below.  His piece “Nightfall,” the longest of the fall series at 4 minutes 16 seconds, consists of Ader, in a small room lit by two lights on the floor, lifting a large rock above his head and dropping it on first the right light and then the second light.  In the last of Ader’s “fall” series, “Broken Fall (Geometric),” Ader stood on a cobblestone road next to a police barricade and makes himself trip and fall into the barricade from a standing position.  After completing this series (and “I’m Too Sad to Tell You,” which is not a part of the series), Ader started work on a triptych that he hoped to complete titled “In Search of the Miraculous.”  This work was composed of photographs of Ader wandering L.A. with captions stating “Yeh I’ve been searchin’” (this is a reference to a Coasters song), a “sea shanty” choir performing the Henry Russell song “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” and Ader’s final voyage in a small sailboat from Cap Cod, MA to Falmouth, England.  Ader considered his performance voyage along with the choir performance as the second part of his triptych, but never completed his work.  In 1976, about a year after he had set sail, Ader’s boat was found in Ireland and he was “declared lost at sea.” (from Jan Verwoert’s 2006 book, Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous).

Bas Jan Ader’s “I’m Too Sad to Tell You,” is a work of art made by a Conceptual artist in a time defined by artistic and cultural rebellion.  Ader’s piece contextually fits into the start of the seventies rebellion of the cultural norm.  The simplicity of the piece is derived from the fact that Ader “boil[s] the representation of grand emotion down to its most basic form, a picture of someone crying in closeup” (Verwoert 18).  The revolutionary and rebellious mindset of the seventies opened the door for Conceptual artists to freely express their minds, be it politically or existentially.  Ader, though his life and career were cut short, was a part of this mindset and can be easily categorized as such.  His abstract works were well received in the seventies and were highly influential in the development of Conceptual art.  Contextually, Bas Jan Ader was a product of his environment and in turn, his environment was heavily affected and influenced by his work.

It’s pointless to discuss why Ader is crying because frankly, he was too sad to tell us his intent.  However, when considering his work as a whole and within its context, it is still appropriate to question the implications of his tears.  When reviewing Ader’s works, it could be determined that he was a man driven mostly by romantic ideals.  His work could be an expression of his search for love (the miraculous), willingness to “fall” for love, and as expressed in “I’m Too Sad to Tell You,” his regret over love lost.   This may seem like a farfetched and unfounded claim, but due mostly to Ader’s untimely death, his body of works has been heavily romanticized.  As a result, Ader has been proclaimed as a “wandering tragic hero on a quest for the sublime” (Verwoert 3).  In this case, “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” could be an expression of Ader’s ability to express his femininity.

Ader’s works could also be easily read with a tongue and cheek sense of humor.  It’s safe to say that the components that make up the “fall” series are also the essence of slapstick comedy.  Also, I would like to point out that “Searchin’” by The Coasters is an extremely light hearted song and by using it as an inspiration for his abbreviated triptych, he had to have had some sense of humor (or at least some sense of hope in finding what he was searching for).  In this light, “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” aligns with its context in that it could be viewed as Ader’s humorous rebellion against the conceptual art world:
“According to his friend Bill Leavitt, Ader considered cool California hipster artists like Alan Ruppersberg or Jack Goldstein a bit of a joke, and was apparently quite prepared to make a bigger joke, at the considerable risk of blowing his own cool cover in the process.
For example, in one of his more famous pieces, I’m Too Sad To Tell You (1970), the handsome artist is crying in front of the camera, exhibiting an overt ‘femininity’ that we can readily appreciate today but which would have been wholly unacceptable in the macho artworld of California in the 1960s, had it not been for the implied irony of the piece.” (From Rene Daalder: http://www.contemporarymagazine.com/feature60.htm)
If this viewpoint is true, Ader’s willingness to rebel against his contemporaries and their ideals would strongly reflect the rebellious nature of the time period in which he produced his work.

Whenever I view the work, I find it to be not only fascinating, as I stated earlier, but also to be very calming and serene.  This is due mainly to its simplicity.  Bas Jan Ader, who I view to be simply curious as to what would happen if he were to cry in front of a camera, shot “I’m Too Sad to Tell You.”  However, when examined along with its context and related content, it surely would have been a jarring sight to see a man crying so accessibly to his audience.  “I’m Too Sad to Tell You” could be purely viewed as a beautiful action, but also as a tactful, well-addressed rebellion against gender roles and the “coolness” of masculinity.  Ader was willing to put himself in front of the camera to first be viewed in such a feminine and “uncool” way.  This requires a great sense of humor and awareness of the world around him.  What I originally made of Ader’s work and what I make of Ader’s work within its context are two very different things.  This variation in theories surrounding the piece also establishes a beauty of mystery in “I’m Too Sad to Tell You.”  As expressed by the title, there is no apparent answer to why Ader is crying, and thus there is no specific reason given to the audience.  All we can determine is that he is somehow crying, and it is up to the viewer to determine why (if they even choose to do so).  Due to the ambiguity of “I’m Too Sad to Tell You,” the duality of my interpretations can exist in Ader’s world because there is no right or wrong answer.

It’s supposed to be a good thing when art meets marketing, because marketing bridges the gap between a piece of art and those who appreciate it. However, it becomes almost nauseating when art actually is the marketing. An e-mail from the Kluger Agency, who represents Mariah Carey and Ludacris, proposed offering the owner of Double Happiness Jeans, a virtual sweatshop in Second Life, an opportunity to include Double Happiness Jeans, with the right price, in the lyrics of an upcoming Pussycat Dolls song. While Pussycat Dolls is not a band with too much integrity that will cause heart attacks to their fans, it’s still scary to imagine the possibility of other artists writing songs to advertise products and companies that pay them.

However, who is to blame? Digital music and file sharing have forced the musicians to scour for new revenue sources. Music itself has become less of a product, but more of marketing, branding, merchandising, and targeting rolled into one. This trend can be verified by the fact that more and more major artists such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails offer their music for free or whatever price people want to pay. Licensing deals, brand extensions, product lines, live events, movie and TV deals are where the money really is.

What about the contemporary art industry? The sales shows that an art piece is still the product, one that can sell for millions of dollars. Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the two main auction houses, together sold an eye-popping $12.5 billion in artwork last year—an annual increase of more than 40 percent. However, who determines the value of an art piece? Artists?  Buyers? Dealers? Or galleries? My answer is the marketing. Marketing stimulates demand, marketing creates a social status of ownership, and then marketing determines the value of an art piece. The success of some of the most popular artists throughout history is often due to their performance as businessmen. Damien Hirst, undeniably the most profitable artist alive, was once accused by The New York Times of being less of an artist than “the manager of the hedge fund of Damien Hirst’s art.” And as we all know, Andy Warhol once observed: “Good business is the best art.”

Art, when it meets marketing, sells.

Unfortunately museums in the United States aren’t quite as generous as those in London - most of whom open their doors for free to art patrons. However, this Saturday, September 27th is Museum Day across the country. Organized by the Smithsonian Magazine, Museum Day is a great opportunity to discover new venues that you would have otherwise put off. Visit the Museum Day website and use their interactive map to find a participating venue near you.

Towards the end of summer, I started learning Adobe Flash from scratch and after two months of learning, I built and launched my first Flash Web site a week ago.

Here is a little background of my Web design skill level before I started: I have experiences in using Photoshop, Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS and have built two Web sites. So I’m familiar with Adobe’s interface and Web design and development, but never used Flash before.

I found a plenty of online tutorials that are extremely helpful. And I selected and organized them into my top 5 tutorials for the very beginners (like me) to build a Flash Web site.

1. Adobe Video Workshop Adobe itself is a great source for learning its products and this video inventory is great for beginners. Select “Flash” in the top left column, choose “getting started” in the top right column, and double click the videos in the center column and the learning begins.
2. Tutvid.com This site provides video tutorials for specific applications commonly used in Web design such as drop down menu and photo gallery.
3. Good-Tutorials This is a tutorial aggregator that organizes tutorials into various topics such as “Animation” and “Interactivity”.
4. Latest Videos This another tutorial aggregator focuses on video tutorials.
5. Flash My Mind If you want to dig into ActionScript 3.0, this site has comprehensive tutorials elaborating the AS 3.0. They are very well organized and easy to navigate step by step.

There are a lot more out there but this should be a great set to start with.

The winner of the 2008 Next Star Artist Competition, Herb Williams, is currently having a solo exhibition of his work at the Monsoon Gallery in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. According to the Monsoon Gallery press release “The Monsoon show will include many flowers ­ a perfect subject choice due to the intense saturation of color the crayons give Williams ­ as well as several homages to great artists throughout history. Williams’ art can be enjoyed by all, but audiences with knowledge of art history will especially enjoy seeing his take on the work of artists such as Jim Dine, Alexander Calder, Paul Cezanne, and Albrecht Durer”

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
July 11 - September 3
Opening Friday, July 11

Location:
Monsoon Gallery
11 East 3rd Street
Bethlehem, PA 18015
610.866.6600
www.monsoongalleries.com

Press Reviews:

• According to Caroline
• Museum PR News
• Montgomery Newspapers

Image Source:
“Homage To Andre Serrano”
15? x 17? x 17?
mixed media
in artist collection
©Herb Williams

About the Author
Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

A report into the questionable conduct of some of Australia’s top art dealers and auction houses by the current affairs program Four Corners has led to a formal complaint being made regarding the practices of Australia’s top art auction house. Rodney Menzies of Australia’s leading art auction house, Deutscher Menzies, has been accused of inadequate disclosure in relation to minimum price guarantees given to the owners of works being sold through the auction house. Also part of the complaint are allegations of unethical practices relating to the sale of works of art through his own auction house that Mr. Menzies either owns or has part ownership in as part of a syndicate. These unethical practices include instances in which Mr. Menzies has allegedly sold works that he owns through his auction house and then purchased that work through, or as part of, an entity that he either wholly owns or partly owns for the purposes of creating better results for his auction house.

The complaint has been made against Mr. Menzies by several rival art auction houses who are of the opinion that this lack of disclosure and misleading conduct have resulted in inflated prices and misleadingly positive perception of the performance of his auction house and the art market as a whole. Several examples of this misleading conduct are available on the Four Corners website including the example below which indicates that Mr. Menzies purchased a work outright that he had himself consigned to the auction as part of a syndicate of owners.

Arthur Boyd’s Death of a Husband

This picture was consigned to the August 2000 DM sale and sold to private buyer who consigned it to the DM September 2004 sale and was purchased by a partnership syndicate (including Mr. Menzies as a partnership member), the picture was subsequently consigned to the LM February 2007 LM sale and 100% ownership of the picture was purchased by Mr. Menzies. Mr. Menzies consigned the picture to the DM June 2008 sale and it was sold to a private buyer.”

Misleading conduct by art auction houses and art dealers is a very serious matter that is putting the future of the art market at risk for what can only be considered as opportunistic greed. If these art dealers and auction houses participating in questionable practices had any brains they would be trying to ensure the longevity of the art market boom instead of using inflationary tactics to make more money faster.

View program on Australian art market.

Image Source: Owner of Menzies Art Brands, Rod Menzies, with a painting by Brett Whiteley titled “Olgas”

About the Author
Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

The more information you have about artists and the art market, the better your chances of being a successful art investor.  Check out the full post to see my top ten sources for videos

“New law proposed in response to exhibition: It would criminalise those who harm animals when making art”

Sounds like a logical proposition, right? Not when such a law is based on an artwork that was created to bring attention to the slaughter animals face—not because of the artist, but farmers. As The Art Newspaper reported, Algerian-French Adel Abdessemed made a video installation to demonstrate the killing of farm animals, which raised legislators’ attention when it was shown at the San Francisco Art Institute. The Institute closed the show after receiving death threats from animal rights extremists. “The SFAI says that Abdessemed was documenting traditional methods of food production in Mexico and that no gratuitous violence took place to make the videos,” the paper reported. It seems to me that Abdessemed was taping something that would have occurred with or without his presence, and in the same vile manner, and he wanted the public to know what otherwise would have been hidden from them. Is that not the essence of a documentary?

And then the law proposal emerges. What does this pending law tell us? Not that killing animals is wrong. No. The person who brought such a horror to the public attention (yet again, since we never seem to get the hint) is being silenced while those who write death threats against their own kind are rewarded.

Abdessemed is someone fighting for social causes, for the good of man—and animal—kind, using art as his platform. Would attempts be made to silence a journalist in the same way? In all likelihood, a journalist would have been rewarded for bringing this issue to public attention. Perhaps the farm where the documentary was filmed would be fined, suspended, or even shut down completely. If Abdessemed was a journalist, rather than an artist.

Maybe that’s a strong statement. Either way, the Institute should have stood its ground, perhaps requesting protection from the government. Instead, the government’s response was completely backwards, and such thoughtless acts against artists should not be tolerated. Neither should the slaughter of animals—so maybe the headline should have read, “New law proposed in response to exhibition: It would criminalize those who harm animals” Period.

Click here to read the original article that caused such outrage.

American artist Herb Williams has been announced as the winner of the 2008 Next Star Artist competition, the global search for the visual artist with the highest potential for success in the art market. The winner of the competition was chosen by a panel of fifteen judges that consisted of influential people from various sectors of the art world.

Herb Williams is a Nashville, Tennessee based sculptor whose innovative use of crayons to construct highly tactile and engaging sculptures are impressive to say the least and attracted plenty of attention from the Next Star Artist judges. According to his website (www.herbwilliamsart.com), Williams is the “only individual in the world with an account with Crayola”. As the winner of the competition, Williams will receive an amazing promotion and PR package that includes, amongst other things, a solo online exhibition, an online media blitz, and three months of mentoring, advice and promotion by art consultant and art market analyst Nicholas Forrest.

“The reason that I created the Next Star Artist competition is that I come across so many fantastic artists who either do not have the skills to promote themselves or are just not in a position to take advantage of the promotional opportunities that are available. I would like to congratulate Herb Williams for winning the first Next Star Artist competition and would also like to thank all the artist’s who entered the competition and wish them all the best of luck in their future endeavors” Nicholas Forrest (founder of Next Star Artist competition)

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For more information visit the Next Star Website or email Nicholas Forrest