Japanese Tea Culture at the Yale Unversity Art Gallery

The exhibition "Tea Culture of Japan: Chanoyu Past and Present" is closing this weekend. Be sure to go check it out if you haven't already!

Cellutations

This spring at Dimensions we've been focusing on interactive works of art -- works that challenge the distinction between artist and viewer, that engage an audience in a participatory creative experience, that allow people who don't consider themselves "artists" to be just that. I've just heard about an exhibition organized by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven which has similar goals. Called "Cellutations", the exhibition is a cellphone art show which which invites submissions of photographs taken on cellphones. The photos are to be submitted via email and will be printed and put on display from June 1-July 10. Like the work we've been doing at Dimensions, this show highlights the relationship between the everyday and art.

To submit, email cellutations@gmail.com.

The above photo is taken from the Arts Council website and was taken by Martha Lewis.
Here is a link for more info:
http://www.newhavenarts.org/programs/exhibitions/smallspace.html

GROUP SHOW-- OPENING RECEPTION 4.13.09

smARThistory

Check this thing out--a multimedia alternative to "the large expensive art history textbook."

http://www.smarthistory.org/about-smarthistory.html

Why art?

Sorry that I haven't posted in so long! I've been meaning to share this article/issue for a while now:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/27638

Last month, Connecticut faced a series of budget cuts that reduced and eliminated funding for many arts programs, including New Haven's Festival of Arts and Ideas. Similarly, across the country, many public schools have witnessed cuts to their arts programs. The current economic situation forces administrators, politicians, to make difficult choices, but why is it that the arts are among the first to go? Budget cuts such as this force us to think about and justify the importance of art to society, something I believe strongly in but have had some difficulty articulating. Art provides a facet for human creativity, for flourishing, for happiness, in many ways it is a manifestation of something essentially human: but are the arts "necessary" to life, or rather just a luxury? If one had to choose between funding for homeless shelters (which are badly in need of money in New Haven) and funding for the arts, I think homeless shelters are a more important priority. But if that is the case, then aren't there always "more important" priorities than the arts, even in relatively good economic times? I wonder: how can we defend art's place in our world? I'd love to hear any thoughts on this issue!

Picasso and the Allure of Language

The exhibition "Picasso and the Allure of Language" opened yesterday at the Yale University Art Gallery -- the show looks fantastic, and in conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a lecture tomorrow that should be very exciting...

RENOWNED EXPERTS SPEAK ON PICASSO:

"John Richardson and Mary Ann Caws in Conversation"

THIS Thursday January 29, 5:30 pm
Reception at 6:30 pm

Yale University Art Gallery
Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Lecture Hall
Free and open to the public

Space is limited; overflow seating with simulcast will be available.

John Richardson, acclaimed author of the multi-volume biography "A Life of Picasso," speaks on Picasso in conversation with Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, English, and French, Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Mr. Richardson, widely considered to be the world's foremost expert on Picasso, will focus on the years 1917-32, roughly coinciding with the Surrealist era, on which Ms. Caws is a leading authority. This special event is generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund and is in conjunction with the special exhibition "Picasso and the Allure of Language."

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Yale University Art Gallery
Free and open to the public.
1111 Chapel Street (at York Street), 203.432.0600
HTTP://ARTGALLERY.YALE.EDU

Anti-establishment?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/weekinreview/25kennedy.html?ref=design

Since at our last meeting we were discussing the interplay between high and low art, and my post last month dealt with the relationship between art and politics, I find it particularly timely to share the above article by Randy Kennedy, published yesterday in the New York Times regarding the hanging of Barack Obama’s portrait by street artist Shepard Fairey in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. The article raises many interesting points – to what degree is Fairey like Obama himself, in joining the establishment to change it, in heralding a new populism? – and most directly takes up the seeming incongruity of the incident, what Kennedy describes as the “establishment’s most public embrace of a quintessentially anti-establishment brand of art.” But the irony lies less with the National Portrait Gallery’s decision and moreover on the side of street artists. How can “anti-establishment” art remain such if it becomes part of the establishment? Is street art’s growing emergence within the domain of the museum merely giving into or rather a victory over high art?

Kennedy suggests that for Fairey and other “younger” artists, the museum is no different from YouTube or a public wall. Unlike the hostility of such street artists as Banksy (see more on Banksy in our recent issue of Dimensions), artists of Fairey’s generation embrace the establishment as yet another place for one’s art to be seen, thereby fulfilling the original goal of the graffiti artist. But I’m not sure if I am entirely convinced: there is something about Banksy’s rebellion (Kennedy describes Banksy’s furtive heist of MoMA in 2005) that makes him in my eyes more authentic, at least if street art wishes to claim the label “anti-establishment.” I think the question still remains: Is Banksy or Fairey truer to the ideals of street art? At what point does Fairey stop being an “outlaw”? And can we challenge and change best by joining the system or revolting against it?