Clark Fitch - A Meeting of Great MIMES
There’s something very, very Dadaist about this painting from Clark Fitch. It’s almost a scene from an old arthouse beat movie, and indeed there’s a really beatnik look to the piece itself - the formica and glass setting of the room, the kissing couple oblivious to the oddity of the world around them and the upward-sweeping composition of five mime artists in the background, observing and acting. One little feature that I like is that there’s only one unique mime - the two foremost ones are mirror images of each other, and the two furthest back are barely hinted at - just black sweaters and white faces, which makes the raucous, dramatic female mime in pink stand out among them. Dadaism was an art movement about rebellion, and it laid the foundations for Pop Art and postmodernism - both of which can be seen in the technical features of this intriguing piece, like the use of the woodcut filter and the shabby-chic grey and pink colour harmony.
Other paintings which desrve a mention this week are the utterly charming Merry Christmas and Merry Christmas II by Francesco Todini, the strangely disturbing Baby Boss by William Borde, Visit of Autumn by the ever-exquisite Ray Kamizoe and Lady of the Stars by Maggie Barra. And take a look at Anne Pogoda’s newer version of Apple’s Kiss, featured in issue 23 of the magazine. In fact, I’m planning to put that one on my wall!
November 17th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
The ” Picture of the Week” is behind schedule. Two weeks ago you selected an image that was shown for three days and then was replaced by an image that was shown for over a week and a half. I, like many submit images in hopes of being selected P/W but was not given a chance last week because no image was chosen. This week you were right on schedule. But, all images submitted last week missed their chance. What happened?
November 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Yeah extenuating circumstances knocked the Pic of the Week a little off course last week. We’re now back on track