There is certainly art everywhere, being produce at all levels, all over the United States. If you divide the US by regions where art is being produce, you can determine certain influences and styles, whether it is the landscape, the culture, the history, the people, even the climate that inspires the art. Its interesting to see how these factors influences or effects the art of each artist.
In some perspective I think local art, in interpretation may be misunderstood by some degree, perhaps with the ideology of Chicano Art. Visually they may carry the same tone but, in the overall aspect, local art has been more influenced by the region in specific border issues, and the merge of two cultures, and not necessarily by the struggles in the Chicano movements that drove the influences in Chicano Art throughout America.
Perhaps it must be classified for what it is "Border Art" making those who practice it "Border Artists". gt
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30 comments:
I hate the idea of labelling anything, but I also think in this case may help adding a trend of several works being produce as part of art history. gt
True, but unfortunally - To some degree, everything from and around the Tex - Mex border are negative things portrayed on the U.S. tv. and press- From all of this; our Mexican - Americans / Chicanos suffer from an inferiority complex, Low - Social/caste and cultural status, poverty, low -self steem , anger / rage towards both ruling societies and among ourselves [ " The crab - game " ] etc...
Getting deep on us there bro... deep! :-)
Border art doesn’t work for me. Is the US/Canada region also border art GT? Luckily we can choose what we want to be labeled as if we want to. I think most of us down here know what we are as “artists”. Labels are on most cases are assigned and not welcomed. I don’t think that because we live and work in a given area that we should be cataloged as such. We can choose. I also think that there are many artists who choose not to represent the area and that is their creative right. I can say this however; most do have a deep understanding of what the area is about and choose to represent it with pride regardless of assigned or self labels
I think the label suites any art inspired and or focused on border issues and or life on the border, with the intentional delivery. Border issues can differ in other borders, but in the end it is art inspired by what happens on the border. Its a generic idea(which could use further research, but nevertheless not to be undermind.
As a painter one of the things that I have noticed is, its hard not to be influenced by our region: culture etc., it has mold me into who I am, it is sometimes easy to see it come across in my art even unintentionaly.
Yes, I agree not everyone is a Border Artist, or Chicano Artist just because, of being brown, or living in Brownsville,....it is in simple a distinguishable definition.
gt
Artificial barriers and provincial attitudes about the art market can deeply restricts artists' carrer development. Preoccupation with regionalism has given rise to the expression "regional artist,"a self - limiting phrase that, unfortunally, some artist use to describe their status.
local artists/ painters believe that their market is limited to their local venues; their town or city of residence, or that some sort of universal censorship is imposed, illogically concluding that there is no market anywhere for their work if they are unable to find a receptive audience in their hometown.
All art (artist) is (are) greatly influenced and defined by the region and locality that produced them. For Example, Cezanne paintings of Mt. St Victorie in Aix en Provence. Jeff Koons seeing art as a commodity due to his job in Wall Street before venturing into art. The New York School of abstract Painting with painters such as Milton Resnick, Lee Kresner and Franz Kline to name a few reflecting the dynamic intellectual cultural milieu of the 50's. The Barbizon school in France started by Jean-Francois Millet that depicted the poor peasants and landscape of the region. Hokusai's views of Mt. Fuji. What would be of Michaelangelo without the marble quarried in Carrara. Not to mention Gustav Courbet who defined himself as provincial and a peasant and championed the common folk.There is a bevy of unique and relevant themes in our area that require be addressed by artist. This themes and concerns if properly presented and communicated thru our art will take on a universal quality which will make it accessible to anyone anywhere in the world. Just as labels are at times imposed on us I believe we have a right to choose a label we deem satisfactory to how we see ourselves as artist. The problem arises when there is no real understanding of what the topic, theme or concept is and the artist does not possess the intellect and skills for communicating his message .
Based on this: "Border Art" making (it by)those who practice it "Border Artists". I agree, but by no means an end to itself.
To RAG, the issue is being labeled as a border artist. I agree that some/we are inspired by that which is around them/us, but that is different to being labeled. Your thesis on those artists from the past is faulty. You can’t compare their world which was very small and restricted to our day and time which is wide open and artistically superior due to the evolution of art and the artist’s skill level. If you study the art of today, you will see that most art is universal in scope and that most artists are trying to work on a more personal level. Only those who chose to relish on trend, regionalism, or dogma do what you implied. These artists do so because they made that artistic move. As a traveler and student of art, I see no difference b/w Houston based artists and Dallas based artist. Small pockets do exist that cater to the oil/cattle and tech industry, a defining point, but most artists aren’t limited by that. A local Brownsville painter Bert Bustinza was interviewed by an El Paso newspaper a few years ago, and he stated that he didn’t care about anything related to the border or Chicano Art and that just because he choose to live here that he resented the label. He was more concern with the making of art. He was a Rutgers’ product. Labels restrict, hurt and in many cases serve as an excuse to discriminate. It’s like this; “he is from NY”. That automatically means he/she is better, which is a lot of crap. Or, he is from the Mexican border, which automatically means, inferior, also a bunch of crap.
To Traveler student,
Art is not like cumulative science or technology it does not evolve, progress or advance like these fields. An art movement or art period is not necessarily better ( "artistically superior," what guidelines are you using to determine this?) than preceding ones just because its more recent. The rococco is not better then the Mannerist period. Pop art is not better then abstract expressionism. What is faulty is your selective reading of my previous comment. In my previous statement I mentioned (art of today) Jeff Koons who I included in the list of artists to illustrate my point he is not an artist from the past. Let me mention two more artist who are internationally renowned yet their work is influenced by their respective areas of origin. Ai Weiwei a Chinese artist his work deals with the censorship and human right abuses in his native country. Amselm Kiefer a German artist his work addressed the effects of Nazi rule in modern Germany. Lets not also forget that avoiding a label has also become a trend in our contemporary art world look at Gerhard Richter he has made it a career of avoiding them, as an example of a successful artist many have followed his example. From what I know about and what little I have seen of Bert Bustinza his work was entirely non objective his concept was perhaps- this is me just guessing-entirely dealing with aesthetics, color, line, gestural mark making. Clearly not a border artist since it does not deal with any border theme. There are some of us who do have a genuine concern and love for the themes and people of this region and our work reflects it clearly. I do not have a problem been labeled and I have sought the label of border artist my current work is clearly about the border but maybe in the future depending on what theme I explore the label will not be appropriate. I am also confident enough as an artist to not be bothered by labels. In closing, We as artist spend our life dedicated to art, making art, educating people about it and discussing art yet we have to realize that art is entirely subjective with no objectively determined norms for judging it so all art talk in the end is nothing but opinion.
"it does not evolve, progress or advance..." OF COURSE IT DOES AND HAS AND IS IN ALL ASPECTS. WE KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SCINCE OF PAINT, METALS, PERSEVATION AND IT IS DUE TO ITS EVOLUTION, PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENTS IN OVERALL TECHNOLOGY OF ARTIST'S MATETIRALS AND PROCESSES. FROM BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF COLOR, THE HUMAN FIGURE TO THE DYNAMICS OF SPACE. YOU’RE WAY BEHIND IN THE BASICS. AS FOR JEFF KOONS, HE IS A DINOSUAR. SAME GOES FOR Kiefer, Richter AND ALL THOSE OTHER ARTISTS FROM THE 60’S. AS GOOD AS THEY WERE AND I LIKE THEM ALL, THEY SOLITIFY THE “EVOLUTION, PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENTS”. OH, I AM NOT AN ART STUDENT, I AM A STUDENT OF ART AND OWN SIGNIFICANT ART. YOUR LABEL STATEMENT IS WEAK. BUSTINZA WAS AN ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST WHO DID DO REPRESENTATIONS. BUT HIS TITLES DEFINE HIS WORK AND WHAT HE WAS STATING. YOU DRIFTED, HE WAS PROUD OF THE BORDER WAY OF LIFE AND WAS EVEN MORE PROUND OF HIS BROWNSVILLE ROOTS AND WAS NOT SHY TO SAY HE WAS FROM THE BORDER AREA; HOWEVER HE HATED THAT LABEL AS DO MANY WHO JUST WANT TO CREATE WITHOUT ANY TYPE OF IMPLICATIONS. SELF LABELS ARE GOOD TO A POINT; OTHERS BOXING YOU INTO ONE IS NOT ESPECIALLY ONE THAT HAS NEGATIVE CONOTATIONS. EXAMPLE, HE IS A BORDER LAWYER, A BORDER DOCTOR, A BORDER POLITICIAN, A BORDER ARTISTS….OH, OK…GET IT?
... Once " Labeled ", Then You will be Castized / Castrated For the rest of your artistic and personal life !!!
To Owner of Significant Art
I doubt artist today buying their ready made canvases and mixed paints at a local art store know more about the "science" of paint then an artist that went thru an apprenticeship and had to grind his own pigments with different oils hundreds of years ago. Isacc Newton using a glass prism refracted a ray of light an saw it was made up of all the colors in the rainbow. I think he published this theory in 1672. I humbly consider myself an authority in the human figure and sad to tell you but most artist knowledge of the figure in our modern world pales in commperison to artist working in the reneissance. We might possess more facts about the internal workings of the human body but this does not help us in creating a successful piece of art that deals with the figure. one is scientific knowledge the other artistic. As for the dynamics of space, well western art was on a illusionistic trend for many years until Picasso thought other wise and later on Greenberg stated the major characteristic of painting was its 2 dimensional quality and art got really flat up to our present day excluding some artist. So you see if art was cumulative like science art would be more illusionistic today then in the reneissance but most of todays art has no depth. So in a sense Picasso took a step backwards. It would be some what similar to the scientific community going back to thinking the earth was flat. I disagree I have an expert understanding of the basics. As for Bustinza someone mentioned him to me years ago and I only have seen a few images online by him. I respect his accomplishments and feel sorry for his untimely death and respect his views on border art you say he expressed. However, I have no problem with being called a border artist and choose to be one. What you call negative conotations about the border I would call exciting and inspiring. Again you are being selective with your reading of my statement Ai Weiwei, Richter, Kiefer are working as we write comments. We have clearly read different books. I don't agree with your point of view therefore I don't want to get it. All CAPS, no need to shout this isn't a tea party really.
history is the one who labels as it puts thinks into perspective
Ok, I wrote in all caps, because I was too lazy to change the cap button. Newton used a prism; we use computers, lasers, gamma rays, and things that Newton could not dream about. I have seen your work, your figures are server and stiff. You are a good painter, but you are not an expert, otherwise you would not be blogging. Experts teach in institutions where experts are needed and in the forefront of their discipline, which you are not. Also, your figures are cartoony and more neo classical then baroque. Your color is good and so is your light, but your paint film will collapse in time, not to mention issues with proportion and composition. Look up Mexican painter Victor Rodriquez, a self-taught figurative painter and you will see where I am coming from. As for grinding your own pigments, they had too back then. I am pretty sure that if the has a paint store back then, they would go and buy their paint and supplies there. There are very few artists today that will go thru that process, because it is better to paint, than to waste time mixing and grinding pigment. Still there are those who will. A local professor currently is experimenting with different tree saps as varnishes, so don’t generalize. Have you heard of holograms, tell me they aren’t scientific advancements in art, or how about opt art? The panting with light and the painting with computers are too advancements, if not cutting edge. Greenberg, gee, another dinosaur. Of course the major characteristic of painting is 2-d dah! As for Picasso, I agree we have been reading different books. I disagree. He reinvented space in art and broke away from the boring renaissance space type conventions that were used up to Cezanne. The introduction of none western art into European dogma, revolutionized 2-d art and moved it forward. Space based on nature is not the only type of space that is valid in art. Picasso, could well be the best art has, of course don’t tell that to Dali or Schnabel. Art is more illusionist today than the renaissance. Oriental perspective, primitive art and so on; have infused new life to what many think is art’s slow death. I don’t have a problem with you calling yourself a border artist and that you celebrate that; I say good for you. Mine is not my point of view, but a universal truth that is proven, documented, and out there for debate. As for Bustinza, he would have liked you. He like spunk in artist. Oh it’s OK to disagree.
Rodriquez, your full of yourself. One of many experts in S. Texas in the figure is Pedro Montano. I could go on and on, do you know what an expert is? Not even some of our local MDs are experts, and you are. What is the physiology or pathology of hemeostasis, What are the three functions of ATP in muscle contraction? What abridgment chemical triggers mastication in the mandible? You are just of a billion who can draw the figure. Figurativly speaking.
On space: follow link:
http://www.ski.org/CWTyler_lab/CWTyler/Art%20Investigations/C20th_Space/C20thSpace.html
Even better check this one out:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sHuXQtYrNPYC&pg=PT354&lpg=PT354&dq=painters+working+with+the+science+dimensional+space&source=bl&ots=pH9VhO5hDN&sig=1zDlLifBNLap50A-1kUB61l7Lxc&hl=en&ei=pGojTdbDJYWClAfi9rW0DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
or this one:
http://newlaboratoria.ru/www/eng/art_and_science_eng_1_3/
this guy is an expert
http://www.markusrothkranz.com/commercial.html
To Owner of Considerable Art and Mastication in the Mandible
Some of us have the courage and talent to actively pursue a career in the fine arts, we create art, apply for grants, residencies, and exhibitions. We seek media coverage from newspaper, television and blogs to communicate our message. Some seat by the sidelines behind the safety of their keyboard and even then lack the least amount of courage to even sign their name and stand behind their words. I don’t even agree that I am a good painter. I am a master painter. Knowledgeable people, curators, museum directors, collectors of important artist and true patrons of the arts would disagree with your description of me and my work. Better to live by the words of the qualified experts then those of a dilettante such as yourself. I can now see clearly where you are coming from. It speaks volumes about yourself that you mention a banal, commercial, unsophisticated, superficial photorealist as a paradigm of a figurative artist. What would Mr. Rodriguez be without a projector (it makes any one into a painter), a photograph and his airbrush even with these tools he can’t venture beyond a one figure composition. Its art that impresses the untrained and misguided eye. I suggest you read Thomas Puttfarken The discovery of pictorial composition so you become genuinely informed about what composition is and its distinct qualities throughout the history of art. Universal truth? How can some one who champions the advancement of art , the cutting edge and multi cultural influences still speak of such a reactionary concept as Universal truth in our day?
To Mastication in the Mandible
Thanks for your complement all great artist are full of themselves. It comes in handy when dealing with the pesty anonymous crabs grasping at my heels. I never claimed to be a medical expert, nor interested in being one. The terms you mention don’t have any thing to do with making art .Take the time to reread the statement. I spoke of my ability as a figurative artist.
I want to jump in. I am going to say this: acrylics, adobe paint, yes a product of trying to improve representation in art (photography) but which led to photo realism in painting based on science, Muybridge, Seurat, MC Escher, Hockney’s use of sending art thru space, digital vs. film, know that is science, the golden section, now this one is good, how about this on the so called masters did this: “One of Picasso's principal artistic discoveries on that trip (October–December) was colour—not the drab colours of the Spanish palette, the black of the shawls of Spanish women, or the ochres and browns of the Spanish landscape, but brilliant colour—the colour of Van Gogh, of new fashion, of a city celebrating a world's fair avoiding charcoal, pastels, watercolours, to under painting”, wasn’t Leo somewhat of a scientific guy?, oh most important, the new advances in teaching art via the internet—science, yes technology is a science, slides--gee you get to see the past and learn from it and not make those mistakes; well let me ask you this do you paint by daylight, candle oil lamb? Oh you use electricity, I could mention art and electricity--science too, and you are behind! Expert? See respect has to be earned.
I think about the idea of the label border art as a simple reference to look back to perhaps 30yrs from now, considering the amount of work being produce as trend in our current time, locally and throughout both the US and Mexico (to perhaps throughout the world) in reference to border issues (in specific our region-due to the hype in media attention and politics) and situations that have inspired this distinguishable art by all sorts of people, Brown, White, etc. Perhaps its a trend that may fade easily or perhaps its a trend that will repeat itself throughout time and the course of history.
Not all art is directed to be distinguishable border art - or artist who produce it - continue its production throughtout there careers - in simple it is a mere observation that we should recognize this trend, and that we understand it, as we seek to understand the evolution of art....
There should be a notible comparison that this type of art is distinguishable from Chicano art.
"In the end all art will have a label whether we choose to accept it or given to use beyond our death.." gt
Simple, Chicano Art is art made by Chicanos; those who identify as Chicanos. Border Art is a generalization of those who live along the border. These individuals might be aware or might not might not be aware of this "label". You can be both a Chicano and Border Artist. The lingering issue was the pros and cons of being labeled a border artist. This too can be applied to being a Chicano Artist. Is it good or bad? If it gives back than its good?, If it boxes you and and limits you than is bad?
Living in the Tex - Mex border is like living in a small - little - boxed - world, we lack so many cultural information like to supplement the healing work of hospital staffs, the The Foundation for Hospitals Arts provides original artwork to hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities.
Your talking about commercial art. corporate art is sterile and is disposable, do you want that?
Yes, I want Tha MONEY !
Than you know what you have to do! Go out and sell!
Many artists / painters allow themselves to to be strung along by art gallery dealers for several years without any guarantee that eventually they will receive gallery representation.
Citing greed as one of the most self - defeating business practices, and noting dealer's unwillingness to split commissions with other gallery dealers and art consultants.
Well, This will never - never happen here in Brownsville , because our only art gallery is closing down pretty soon.
......CHACHING !!!!!
chaching-ching
Ching-ao!!!
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