November 30, 2004

Zen Arcade, Side 1

 

 

                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                                           
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       

Zen Arcade, Side 1, 2004, HTML, 594 x 575 pixels

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:38 AM

November 29, 2004

Black/Red 1-32

 

 

Black/Red 1-32, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each (view HTML version, 202 kb)

 

About Black/Red 1-32

  • To start, I just picked a couple of colors, black and red; it seemed appropriate to the season (late fall, but I'm also thinking of these colors as this is our first fall in this neighborhood; the light is different, fades earlier, more trees, a canyon and creek just below us), and the idea was simply to work with all kinds of blacks and reds, colors that could be taken for or mean black and red. And there are also colors in-between, such as, for example, how far can you push red before it becomes its complement, green, and what happens when different blacks and reds are mixed?
  • Besides sticking to this palette I used some of the usual tricks: overlap, transparency, non-alignment for subtle tension.
  • There is nothing immediately specific about what the drawings are based on; they're mostly based on other drawings, it would seem. That's not to say, however, that there is no subject matter. There is also a lot of... place and presence, environment and atmosphere
  • I've been partial to smaller drawings lately, tending towards vertical rectangles, so I let myself go with a fairly familiar format of 12 x 10 cells, 20 x 20 pixels each (left).
  • I let the vertical orientation take over, and didn't sweat it if just about every drawing had gravity. That is, there is a strong sense of bottom, of right-side-up; I didn't try to fight that aspect of realist composition. And I'm not really that big a fan of Pollock (the aerial allover can be annoying).
  • I used two effects I don't often use - shadow and lots of color gradation; I've avoided these as they too easily veer into illustration, but for this series I indulged myself in these effects just to see what would happen. The world didn't end.
  • In only one or two other drawing series have I made pairs of drawings on a single day; usually I do one drawing a day. With this series I wanted to work through more ideas more quickly and in smaller chunks.
  • I had no idea this would turn into thirty two drawings, although a series of sixteen days isn't untypical. I could've kept going, but for some reason it feels time to start something else. At thirty two drawings there's a kind of reinforced endlessness. So, for now, ending is good.
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 02:40 PM

November 28, 2004

Black/Red 31 & 32

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 31 & 32, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:50 AM

November 27, 2004

Black/Red 29 & 30

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 29 & 30, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 11:54 AM

November 26, 2004

Black/Red 27 & 28

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 27 & 28, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:24 AM

November 25, 2004

Black/Red 25 & 26

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 25 & 26, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:38 AM

November 24, 2004

Black/Red 23 & 24

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 23 & 24, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:15 AM

November 23, 2004

Black/Red 21 & 22

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 21 & 22, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:26 AM

Blue & Green 4-6

 

 

Blue & Green 4-6, 2004, pastel and water on paper, 12 x 9" each (scanned)

1-3 in this series posted 20041121.

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:09 AM

November 22, 2004

Black/Red 19 & 20

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 19 & 20, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:54 AM

Blue & Green 1-3

 

 

Blue & Green 1-3, 2004, pastel and water on paper, 12 x 9" each (scanned)

Returning to the blue and green palette, working through some ideas from HTML drawings, getting ready for painting a small series of panels, thinking about how, in paint, I might handle overlay, tranparency, and the figure/object vs. the field.

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:50 AM

November 21, 2004

Black/Red 17 & 18

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 17 & 18, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:47 AM

November 20, 2004

Black/Red 15 & 16

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 15 & 16, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:19 AM

November 19, 2004

Black/Red 13 & 14

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 13 & 14, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 11:20 AM

NY MoMA installation views

 

 

My work installed at inserted into the new MoMA, opening tomorrow (gallery views liberally borrowed from NYT)




 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 11:15 AM

November 18, 2004

Black/Red 11 & 12

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Black/Red 11 & 12, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 03:55 PM

November 17, 2004

Black/Red 9 & 10

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Red/Black 9 & 10, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:41 AM

Tom Moody writes...

 

 

Tom Moody posted an HTML drawing and writes, "A CD-ROM was recently published of the HTML drawings that appear daily on the blog. I continue to be intrigued and impressed with Ashley's use of the weblog as a medium for abstract art made in the same language as the medium. It's transparency in every good sense of the word."

Thanks, Tom.

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:39 AM

November 16, 2004

Black/Red 7 & 8

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Red/Black 7 & 8, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels each

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:50 AM

November 15, 2004

Black/Red 5 & 6

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

 

Red/Black 5 & 6, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 05:14 PM

November 14, 2004

Black/Red 3 & 4

 

 

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

 

Red/Black 3 & 4, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:49 AM

November 13, 2004

Black/Red 1 & 2

 

 

                   
   
 
       
 
 
 
       
 
 
   
 
                   
     
     
 
 
 
       
 
 
   
 
 

 

Red/Black 1 & 2, 2004, HTML, 240 x 200 pixels

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 08:42 PM

November 12, 2004

Untitled 1-11 (Tu Fu, translated by Rexroth)

 

 

Untitled 1-11 (Tu Fu, translated by Rexroth), 2004, HTML, dimensions variable (see HTML with poems)

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 04:36 PM

November 11, 2004

Untitled (Deep in the Mountain Wilderness)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Deep in the Mountain Wilderness), 2004, HTML, 345 x 605 pixels

 

DEEP IN THE MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS

Deep in the mountain wilderness
Where nobody ever comes
Only once in a great while
Something like the sound of a far off voice,
The low rays of the sun
Slip through the dark forest,
And gleam again on the shadowy moss.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 01:11 AM

November 10, 2004

Untitled (Moon Festival)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Untitled (Moon Festival), 2004, HTML, 345 x 605 pixels

 

MOON FESTIVAL

The Autumn constellations
Begin to rise. The brilliant
Moonlight shines on the crowds.
The moon toad swims in the river
And does not drown. The moon rabbit
Pounds the bitter herbs of the
Elixir of eternal life.
His drug only makes my heart
More bitter. The silver brilliance
Only makes my hair more white.
I know that the country is
Overrun with war. The moonlight
Means nothing to the soldiers
Camped in the western deserts.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 10:01 PM

November 08, 2004

Untitled (Clear Evening After Rain)

 

 

   
 
   
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Clear Evening After Rain), 2004, HTML, 365 x 550 pixels

 

CLEAR EVENING AFTER RAIN

The sun sinks towards the horizon.
The light clouds are blown away.
A rainbow shines on the river.
The last raindrops spatter the rocks.
Cranes and herons soar in the sky.
Fat bears feed along the banks.
I wait here for the west wind
And enjoy the crescent moon
Shining through misty bamboos.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 11:22 PM

Untitled (Jade Flower Palace)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Jade Flower Palace), 2004, HTML, 358 x 528 pixels

 

JADE FLOWER PALACE

The stream swirls. The wind moans in
The pines. Grey rats scurry over
Broken tiles. What prince, long ago,
Built this palace, standing in
Ruins beside the cliffs? There are
Green ghost fires in the black rooms.
The shattered pavements are all
Washed away. Ten thousand organ
Pipes whistle and roar. The storm
Scatters the red autumn leaves.
His dancing girls are yellow dust.
Their painted cheeks have crumbled
Away. His gold chariots
And courtiers are gone. Only
A stone horse is left of his
Glory. I sit on the grass and
Start a poem, but the pathos of
It overcomes me. The future
Slips imperceptibly away.
Who can say what the years will bring?

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 03:03 PM

Richard Schur's Paintings: Stacked, Packed, and Whacked

 

 

This is a revision of the essay originally posted 20041104. This version will be in a book produced for an exhibition of western abstract painting opening at Canton Museum in Guang Zhou in spring 2005, which then travels to Duo Run Museum, Shanghai; Hu Bei Kunstakademie, Academy Gallery, Wu Han; and White Space Gallery, Bejing

Update 20041129: this essay is now published at richard-schur.de.





Richard Schur's Paintings: Stacked, Packed, and Whacked


Richard Schur 2004Wobbly colored blocks; bleeding edges; overlapping sheets of brilliant acrylic; barely aligned grids; out-of-square rectangles divided and abutted to create a mosaic of spaces: German artist Richard Schur's recent paintings are intense abstractions packed with quirky tensions and odd pleasures, a range of associations, and honest nods to history.


The stretcher's edges are practically the only right angles in these paintings. Although Schur uses tape to draw rectangular areas in each painting there are no straight and crisp lines; he tapes by eye, free-hand, and the paint bleeds and fuzzes out beneath the taped edges. Schur uses a normally precise tool to craft handmade objects, which gives the paintings a human scale and texture, and a kind of softness one finds, say, when comparing an adobe building to one of factory-made bricks.


The painting's awkward, misaligned rectangles join and separate into different spaces, places, or bodies: an old sagging building; a wacky carnival; a fractal that has forgotten its inherited pattern; a cancer rapidly running amuck; fluttering prayer flags; or an object that appears alternately distant and close.

The densest grids in the most recent paintings form jerky, warped, pulsing fields. Trace your eyes over these grids: What is pushing on the painting from behind? What unseen force pushes in on the front of the painting? What surrounds the painting, putting pressure on all the shapes inside it, bending or compressing them, making them jam up against each other and shift? Looking at these paintings I instantly think of walls, children's blocks, quilts, and maps. Richard Schur 2004 These densely packed rectangles make me think of cut stones tightly stacked in the Great Wall, Machu Picchu, and the Wailing Wall. I think of high stacks of children's colored wood blocks momentarily still just before collapsing and scattering across the floor. I am reminded of the quilts by the African-American women of Gee's Bend, Alabama, and of Japanese Buddhist Kesa robes which are made from discarded fabric into the brick-like pattern of rice fields as a devotional act. Aerial maps are an easy association, but in my version I am looking down on vast farmlands where the harvest consists of jelly beans, gummi bears, and chocolate bars.


Schur's paintings make me wonder how Piet Mondrian (Netherlands, 1872-1944) might paint after a drunken afternoon with Shitao (China, 1642-1707). I think of how Concrete artist Richard Lohse (Switzerland, 1902-1988) might shift his forms and color after a week of doodling surrounded by Giotto's frescoes (Italy, 1267-1337) in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Just for fun, I imagine Sol Lewitt (US, 1928) borrowing color and space from Indian miniatures, and just to be ridiculous, I think of Barnett Newman's (US, 1905-1970)and Andy Warhol's (US, 1928-1987) love child attending a Montessori School with Paul Klee (Switzerland, 1879-1940) reproductions hanging in the cafeteria . Silly, maybe, but the colors, forms, and spaces evoked by the image of these scenarios perhaps get a bit at the wonderful things that Richard Schur's paintings can do.


Chris Ashley
Oakland, California
Novermber 2004

Top right: Untitled (91), 2004, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 180 cm
Bottom left: Untitled (93), 2004, acrylic on cotton, 41 x 36 cm

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 01:56 PM

November 07, 2004

Untitled (Clear After Rain)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Clear After Rain), HTML, 330 x 490 pixels

 

CLEAR AFTER RAIN

Autumn, cloud blades on the horizon.
The west wind blows from ten thousand miles.
Dawn, in the clear morning air,
Farmers busy after long rain.
The desert trees shed their few green leaves.
The mountain pears are tiny but ripe.
A Tartar flute plays by the city gate.
A single wild goose climbs into the void.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:14 AM

November 06, 2004

Untitled (A Restless Night in Camp)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (A Restless Night in Camp), 2004, HTML, 355 x 500 pixels

 

A RESTLESS NIGHT IN CAMP

In the penetrating damp
I sleep under the bamboos,
Under the penetrating
Moonlight in the wilderness.
The thick dew turns to fine mist.
One by one the stars go out.
Only the fireflies are left.
Birds cry over the water.
War breeds its consequences.
Is is useless to worry,
Wakeful while the long night goes.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 09:42 PM

Van Gogh: Newly Mowed Lawn with Weeping Tree

 

 



Newly Mowed Lawn with Weeping Tree


Arles: 6-8 August 1888

(Houston, The Menil Collection)

F 1451, JH 1545

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 08:16 PM

November 05, 2004

Untitled (Banquet at the Tso Family Manor)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Banquet at the Tso Family Manor), 2004, HTML, 355 x 495 pixels

 

BANQUET AT THE TSO FAMILY MANOR

The windy forest is checkered
By the light of the setting,
Waning moon. I tune the lute,
Its strings are moist with dew.
The brook flows in the darkness
Below the flower path. The thatched
Roof is crowned with constellations.
As we write the candles burn short.
Our wits grow sharp as swords while
The wine goes round. When the poem
Contest is ended, someone
Sings a song of the South. And
I think of my little boat,
And long to be on my way.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:37 AM

November 04, 2004

Untitled (Night Thoughts While Traveling)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Night Thoughts While Traveling), 2004, HTML, 346 x 491 pixels

 

NIGHT THOUGHTS WHILE TRAVELING

A light breeze rustles the reeds
Along the river banks. The
Mast of my lonely boat soars
Into the night. Stars blossom
Over the vast desert of
Waters. Moonlight flows on the
Surging river. My poems have
Made me famous but I grow
Old, ill and tired, blown hither
And yon; I am like a gull
Lost between heaven and earth.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 04:48 PM

DRAFT: Richard Schur's Paintings

 

 

Written on the occasion of a series of exhibitions in China featuring a group of German artists, including Richard Schur; this is a draft I'll tinker with over the next couple of days revised and reposted on 20041107.

 

Richard Schur’s Paintings: Stacked, Packed, and Whacked

Richard Schur 2004Wobbly blocks of color; bleeding edges; flat overlapping sheets of brilliant acrylic color; shapes jostling into barely aligned grids; out-of-square rectangles that divide and nudge against each other to create a mosaic of spaces: German artist Richard Schur’s recent paintings[1] are intense picture objects, abstractions packed with visual and intellectual hooks, both quirky tensions and odd pleasures, that generate complex structures, a range of associations, and honest nods to history. The paintings are, frankly, initially delightful decorative walls and signs, and apparently colorful veneers which are, when I use my eye to scratch the surface, much more than the merely bold abstractions that they may at first glance appear to be.

The only straight edges to be found in these paintings are at the edge of the stretcher; one of the first things to note is that all of the drawing in each painting is done with tape. However, instead of using tape to make nice straight and crisp lines, which are at least two obvious reasons for using it, Schur trumps these assumptions by throwing out rulers and straight edges to do free-hand taping, and by allowing paint to bleed and fuzz out beneath the taped edges. The practice of using a normally precise tool in order to craft handmade objects gives the paintings a human scale and a human texture, a kind of softness and posture one would notice when, say, comparing an adobe building to one of factory-made bricks.

Schur’s improvisatory practice of repeatedly taping and re-taping sections, painting new shapes over old, and rotating the canvas to find direction and defy visual gravity, leads to a complex accumulation of soft-edged rectangles in multiple colors. The blurry boundaries between rectangles, sometimes explicitly overlapping, invite and encourage the eye to move along and across the division between shapes to peer over and around corners into deep and shallow spaces. These spaces are further articulated by both color and paint quality— the intense color and evenly applied matte paint may at first reinforce a reading of flat space, and it is this material aspect that makes the painting a painted, even decorated object before it becomes a picture. But give the eye a moment and soon it is slipping into and out of rooms, windows, and alleys and confronting walls and closed doors, as if an extremely dense version of Hans Hofman’s push pull effect. Some paintings, usually the larger ones, have eventually noticeable sub-groupings of shapes; if you zoom your eyes out while looking at a painting, perhaps squints just a bit, areas of similar hue, tint, or shade appear, as if some aspect of a super-grid or a shadow hovers over the composition. Schur’s paintings are especially successful because of the way in which they are read as having multiple layers and kinds of flat and rhythmic spaces.

Richard Schur 2004The painting’s skewed, misshapen, misaligned rectangles project different kinds of spaces, places, or bodies: a tumbledown, rustic town; a cancer rapidly running amuck, a whacky carnival, a fractal that has forgotten its inherited pattern, something seen as if either from a distance or close up. The grid in the most recent paintings is a jerky field of warped shapes and pulsing edges that is visually, physically, and emotionally experienced. Use your eyes to trace over the irregular grid in each painting: What is behind the painting pushing out towards you? What is in front of the painting, pushing in? What surrounds the painting, putting pressure on all the shapes inside the painting? What movement is shaking these rectangles, bending or compressing them?

When I look at these paintings I can’t help but think right away of walls, children’s blocks and games, quilts, maps, and fields. For example, these densely packed rectangles make me think of the variously shaped and sized stones tightly stacked into walls at Machu Picchu in the Andes, or the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I also think of playing with colored wood blocks that have been stacked into towers, just to see how high they can go before losing balance and falling, scattering across the floor with a loud clacking sound, and also of board games, and the organization and community it takes to play the game. I am reminded of the recently exhibited and deservedly well-known quilts by the African-American women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and of Japanese Buddhist Kesa robes which are made as a devotional act from discarded fabric and use the brick-like pattern of rice fields. Aerial maps are an easy association, but in my version I am looking down on vast farmlands where the harvest consists of jelly beans, gummi bears, and chocolate bars.

Schur’s handling of scale is appropriate and confident. Scale, of course, isn’t about size, but is instead about the relationship of a painting’s drawing, color, and composition to the size of the canvas. For example, compare Untitled (91), (2004, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 180 cm)[2] (above) with Untitled (93), 2004, acrylic on cotton, 41 x 36 cm)[3] (left); while Untitled (91) is five times larger than Untitled (93), the components of each painting are specific to the size of the overall painting, comprising a successively integrated and holistic image and object in both cases.

Schur’s paintings make me wonder how Piet Mondrian would have painted after a few drunken lessons with Shih Tao (1642-1707). I think of how Swiss Concrete artist Richard Lohse (1902-1988) might soften his forms after a week doodling in the Scrovegni Chapel under Giotto’s frescoes. Just for fun, imagine Sol Lewitt borrowing color and space from Indian miniatures, and just to be ridiculous, think of Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol’s love child raised in a Montessori School with Klee reproductions. Silly, maybe, but the forms, colors, spaces, and practices evinced in these scenarios perhaps get a bit at the wonderful things that Richard Schur’s paintings can do.

Chris Ashley
Oakland, California, USA
November 2004

[1] http://www.richard-schur.de/
[2] http://www.richard-schur.de/91.htm
[3] http://www.richard-schur.de/93.htm

Richard Schur is Assistant to Prof. Jerry Zeniuk, Academy of Fine Arts Munich. His recent exhibitions include: 2004 "Frische Farbe!", Gallery Bodenseekreis, Meersburg; "munich school?", Kunstverein Aichach; "Und im Winde klirren die Fahnen"; Gallery Ben Kaufmann, Munich

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:59 AM

November 03, 2004

Untitled (Stars and Moon on the River)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Stars and Moon on the River), 2004, HTML, 335 x 447 pixels

 

STARS AND MOON ON THE RIVER

The Autumn might is clear
After the thunderstorm.
Venus glows on the river.
The Milky Way is white as snow.
The dark sky is vast and deep.
The Northern Crown sets in the dusk.
The moon like a clear mirror
Rises from the great void. When it
Has climbed high in the sky, moonlit
Frost glitters on the chrysanthemums.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:40 AM

November 02, 2004

Untitled (Full Moon)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Full Moon), 2004, HTML, 313 x 382 pixels

 

FULL MOON

Isolate and full, the moon
Floats over the house by the river.
Into the night the cold water rushes away below the gate.
The bright gold spilled on the river is never still.
The brilliance of my quilt is greater than precious silk.
The circle without blemish.
The empty mountains without sound.
The moon hangs in the vacant, wide constellations.
Pine cones drop in the old garden.
The senna trees bloom.
The same clear glory extends for ten thousand miles.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 01:08 AM

Scraps 1-4

 

 

Scrap 1, 2004, ink and watercolor on paper, 8.5 x 16 cm (scanned)
Scrap 2, 2004, ink and watercolor on paper, 9 x 17.2 cm (scanned)
Scrap 3, 2004, ink and watercolor on paper, 8.8 x 20.5 cm (scanned)
Scrap 2, 2004, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 x 21.5 cm (scanned)
 

Wang Xizhi Watching Geese, about 1295 (sections 1, 2)
Qian Xuan (ca. 1235?before 1307)
Handscroll; ink and color on paper; 9 1/8 x 36 1/2 in. (23.2 x 92.7 cm)
Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.6)

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 12:30 AM

November 01, 2004

Untitled (Traveling Northward)

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
 
 

 

Untitled (Traveling Northward), 2004, HTML, 313 x 382 pixels

 

TRAVELING NORTHWARD

Screech owls moan in the yellowing
Mulberry trees. Field mice scurry,
Preparing their holes for winter.
Midnight, we cross an old battefield.
The moonlight shines cold on white bones.

TU FU

 

From One Hundred Poems From The Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

 

 

 

 

Posted by chrisashley at 09:40 PM