Artist Interviews

An Interview with marina Abramovic

Here are some highlights from an interview between Marina Abramovic and the Wall Street Journal regarding her recent MoMA show, “The Artist is Present”

On how long she sat in a chair during the exhibition…

“To be exactly precise it was 736 hours and 30 minutes.”

On what she disliked the most about her experience…

“First of all, this was extremely painful physically. It looks simple. I am sitting peacefully there, but it is incredibly painful for the body and the muscles and for the eyes. You are sitting there, and you are reflecting on your own life, all the things that are important, not important but what’s really happening? Seeing the other people you come to that state where you start to feel unconditional love for the total stranger. That is what happened to me. My entire heart opened to the level that was incredible. You see them and by being still they become eyes like the door of the soul, you really start knowing them on the most intimate level. That is why people avoid looking in the eyes, especially here in New York. I looked by now, 1,565 pair of eyes. This is enormous amount of eyes. It was so touching to see I knew the people so intimately but never spoke word with them”

On what she did when the MoMA was closed on Tuesdays…

“Tuesdays are like every other day. First of all, six months before I started preparing myself. It is like going to the war. It has been so much strictness in my life. I stopped eating meat. I have become vegetarian. I train myself to only take liquids in the night so I will not take any liquids during the day. I will take a liquid every 45 minutes during the night. I take the liquid, go to sleep. Wake up. I take the liquid, go to sleep. My last glass of water I take at 8:00 in the morning and then not anymore.”

Who is Maria Abramovic?

A little about the Yugoslavian Performance Artist…

Marina Abramovic was born in 1946 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since the early 1970s, when she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, the artist has pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form. Since delving into the world of performance art, Abramovic has explored the physical and mental limits of her being. She has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in the quest for emotional and spiritual transofmration.

Abramovic has presented her work with performances, sound, photography, video, sculpture and Transitory Objects for Human and Non Human Use in solo exhibitions at major institutions in the US and Europe. Her work has also been included in many large-scale international exhibitions.

Click here to read more.

Alice Neel’s Legacy of Realism

Alice Neel, renowned for her unique style and known as a pioneering figure for women artists of the 20th century, started out as a Social Realist and definantly painted figurative work during the height of Abstract Expressionism. Now the subject of a major retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Neel focused on the least fashionable of realist genres - portraiture, which had long since been declared dead.

Since her death, the artist has continued to influence the contemporary art world - especially the work of figurative painters.

South African-born painter Marlene Dumas recently sat down with NY Times reporter Phoebe Hoban to discuss Neel’s legacy.

“The dark side is what makes [Neel’s paintings] so good… I can relate there, but it isn’t only the horror and darkness, because there is humor. It’s this mixture. That’s why I can relate also to her children and nakedness.”

Furthermore, like Neel, artist Elizabeth Peyton has painted portraits of the cultural elite, people in her immediate milieu, and those who are both. She feels deeply connected to Neel and says that Neel has inspired her own style and technique. In discussing her portrait of a friend, Jonathan Horowitz, Peyton says,

“I was most interested in people, and that seemed like the most important thing - humans, humanity… I feel pictures of people contain their time in an important way that communicates to other times.”

Peyton went on to say that she was impressed by Neel’s powerful ability “to connect with all kinds of people.”

“You could say she took on the whole thing of people, and all that encompasses, in a fearless way,” Peyton continues. “I love that she doesn’t try to ‘get it right,’ that the gesture or feeling is always more important in her work than an exact description of the sitter. This is especially true of Neel’s faces. They are really their own universe,created by her.”

Alice Neel : The Facts

Who is Alice Neel?

Alice Neel is considered one of the great American painters of the 20th century (she was also a pioneer among women artists)

What and how did she paint?

Neel painted people, landscapes and still lifes. She was never in step with avant-garde movements - painting in her own unique style (influenced by the spirit of northern European and Scandanavian expressionism and the darker arts of Spanish painting).

Early Life and Career:

The artist was born in Philadelphia in 1900 and trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. In the 1930s she moved to NYC’s Greenwich Village and enrolled as a member of the Works Progress Administration (for which she painted urban scenes.) Her portraits of the 1930s embraced left wing writers, artists and trade unionists.

And Later:

Neel moved to Spanish Harlem in 1938, where she painted images of the Puerto Rican community, casual acquaintances, neighbors and people she encountered on the street.

In the 1960s, she moved to the Upper West Side and made a determined effort to reintegrate with the art world - which led to a series of dynamic portraits of artists, curators and gallery owners. She also continued to paint political personalities - like black activists and women’s movement supporters.

Info Via Neel’s Website