Is it Tiffany or Robin's Egg blue?

When you say  Hermes orange, or Tiffany blue,  does Kapoor black come to mind? British artist Anish Kapoor has secured the exclusive right to use the high-tech color "Vantablack", a color developed for military purposes. The pigment is so dark that it absorbs 99.96 percent of light making anything coated with it nearly invisible. I heard that the former Soviet Union went to great lengths during the Cold War to discover the formula.


Kapoor is not the first artist to secure rights to a color.  Think Yves Klein. Did you know you are supposed to pay a licensing fee to the estate if you use that color (International Klein Blue)? And how would you ever know if you strayed into Yves Klein territory when for instance doing a painting of a swimming pool with a myriad of blues?

What do you think of an artist monopolizing a color? Should brand identity stand in the way of artistic expression? Will Kapoor aggressively pursue his rights and sue fellow artists?  Will you be arrested by painting with Kapoor Black?

And what if you are using it as a commentary on Kapoor, or a reference to the military, or the nature and presence of a painting with the absence of color? Shouldn't that all be covered under freedom of expression and merit legal protection?

Tom Sachs comes to mind with his use of safety orange. It informs our understanding of his work. I love that he's thought about orange.

I think we are at the beginning of a large conversation. What do you think pink?

COLOR. By Tom Sachs from Tom Sachs on Vimeo.

Tom Sachs: Nugget Playing Cards

Tom Sachs is known for recreating iconic artifacts in actual size out of the unexpected. Among his pieces have been the Apollo Lunar Module constructed out of plywood,  a Chanel chain saw, a blue whale made of foamcore and a cardboard Glock. Most of them are expensive. This truly unique deck of cards is a catalogue of all of them with descriptions for each, and is just about the only way you can own every piece he's made unless you are insanely rich (call us if you're insanely rich). They are limited to a run of 666. Who do you give it to? Poor aesthetes, high-minded gamblers, devil worshipers...

 O.K. I bought a deck. It was so cool. I was trying to figure out a way to display it. It seemed too stuffy to mount each card with with hinges on a piece of archival board. So then I thought about plastic baseball card sleeves, so you could keep from getting your greasy mitts all over them. But then...I discovered wall hanging, opening and closing, display cases for special baseball cards. Wow! They came in oak or black but that didn't seem in the spirit of Tom Sachs. So I called the company up and asked them if they would send me an unstained, unpainted one.  I'm a painter. Why not paint it myself? What color? Safety Orange, of course. When it came, the interior was made of plywood, oh joy, oh rapture. So I put on my Official Tom Sachs Fan Club Hat, covered the plywood interior and sprayed away. It's going to be swell. A place to keep my cards, display my cards, take out my cards, put all my cards on the table and play with them too.

How much is a deck? 20 bucks, plus shipping. Where to get it. Tom Sachs web store.  It's swell!

 


   

Procrastination

I think all of us procrastinate at some point in our studio practice. I have been reading a book about how writers and artists get themselves working, titled Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. It was a gift from another artist friend, Linda Tharp. I usually procrastinate by cleaning my studio. Below is a wonderful video by Tom Sachs, that addresses that part of my studio practice.

I do so love Tom Sachs...

Anticipating a colorful spring

Tom and James do some hard work!

Tom Sachs new paintings and sculptures at Sperone Westwater remind us of the creativity of artists and the laborious work that goes into the creation of an art object. It also showcases the totally groovy way artists use materials and techniques like resin or  pyrography, where "paint strokes" are burned and etched into wood.

His cultural iconography from McDonalds to James Brown addresses the conception, production, consumption and circulation of modern-day stuff.

My  favorite seen here is "James Brown’s Hair Products" (2009) and relates to color studies by artists such as Albers and Richter.

There's also a nice interview in "Huffpo" with lots if pix. See Keeping Time With Tom Sachs: An Interview With the Artist .

Good Taste/Bad taste

I stumbled on an installation in process the other day. Turns out it was a sculpture by Tom Sachs. I didn't realize the full scope. Hello Kitty weeps tears into the pool it sits in. How poetic! How maudlin! How Hello Kitty!