Frieze Art Fair 2010

Frieze Art Fair takes place every October in Regent’s Park, London. It features over 170 of the most exciting contemporary art galleries in the world. The fair also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, a prestigious talks programme and an artist-led education schedule. It is one of the biggest modern art events in London's art calendar.


Here are a few things that caught my eyes this year...

This are portraits of men who stayed unmarried in a village somewhere in Latin America. Somehow it reminded me of the miners in Chile...

Anish Kapoor's Turning The World Upside Down

I am loving the new outdoor sculptures by Anish Kapoor in Kensington Gardens.These are a collection of his recent works that have never before shown together (Sky Mirror has been installed in New York).

They will be in residence at Kensington Gardens from September 2010 to March 2011 reflecting the moods of the changing seasons.

It's so awesome I have no more words for it...

There is my Autumn collection!

Sky Mirror 2006

Stainless Steel

10m diameter

C- Curve 2007

Stainless Steel

220 x 770 x 300 cm

Non-object (Spire) 2008

Stainless Steel

302 x 300 x 300 cm

Sky Mirror (2009)

Stainless Steel

270 cm diameter

 The Serpentine

Shadow & Sky Mirror

It's No Game

It has been an uneventful fabulously slow Summer. And I love it.

I have seen Exposed, Francis Alys (Tate Modern), Picasso: Peace & Freedom (Tate Liverpool), Saatchi's British Art Now, Rude Britannia and Henry Moore (Tate Britain); saw ENRON again, The Comedy of Error (Open Air Theatre), all of which I enjoyed immensely. None of which I have had time to write about.

That is... until now...

I have been participating in a public dance showcase at Tate Modern, working alongside Michael Clark, legendary british choreographer, and his team of excellent dancers.  80 of us with no previous dance training from the public have been practicing every Friday for an hour and a half for the past 5 weeks.  By the way, we're doing it to David Bowie's "It's No Game" and it really is no game.

I have never heard of Michael Clark before but I can see how people admire him. I've only been wikipedia and youtube-ing him for the last couple of weeks... and seeing his vision planned out on stage, I really really like what I have seen. He seems like a  quiet and timid person but you can tell a man by the people who work for him. They are some of the most patient, genuinely nice, inspiring and fun people to work with.  Imagining less than 10 of them helping out 80+ of us untrained dancers to do a routine all at the same time. I have to stress again, IT REALLY IS NO GAME.  But somehow they have managed to keep us all coming back for more every Friday. I have been totally impressed with their dedication and the energy they have channelled through to us.

Our performance is taking place this Bank Holiday Weekend in the Turbine Hall for FREE! Our first performance is tomorrow. It is featured here in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/aug/24/michael-clark-tate-modern

I have to say I'm very excited and somewhat not stressed out at all, even though they have really only finalized the routine today.

This is a video of Michael at work and one of our rehearsals

Happy Birthday Tate Modern

I'm doing rather terribly w/this blog. Discipline isn't necessary my strong fortress and I am trying to change that. The fact is also that sometimes I found myself overwhelmed with a sense of guilt as there is so much of the other thing I need to focus on. Art is my religion but currently it seems I can only afford to turn to God when I have time! Does that make sense?

Also this blog is very personal... I write mostly for myself with an occasional visits of close friends so I  don't feel that much pressure to write. I just know I want to do more of it.

Anyhoo I cannot fail to mention in this blog the recent fabulous event of Tate Modern turning 10! (I know I know that was almost a month ago). I have been extremely busy socially and couldn't pop into the Turbine hall on the Fridays and Saturday but I was there on Sunday to join in the overwhelmingly celebratory atmosphere at the Tate Modern.

I attended "No Soul for Sale", which took place in the Turbine Hall, where independent art spaces of contemporary art all over the world meet in one place  to show case their work. Their artistic declarations also filled the halls. I had seen San Art, a organization/gallery based in Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam on the programme and I really wanted to meet them! More about San Art later.

Contempory art arrived in Great Britain later than other European countries, even later than the United States*. Tate is only 10 year old but it is doing extremely well. One of the most visited contemporary art galleries in the world (5million± visits annually)... Even more than the MOMA. I think Sir Nicholas Serota has achieved so much for Tate Modern and Tate in general under his directorship... He is a big inspiration, such a brilliant, visionary but humble man.

This is a great documentary marking Tate Modern's 10 years on the Culture Show . I also love the BBC! It constantly feeds my thirst for knowledge in many areas.

These are some videos from Tate Channel as it celebrate Tate Modern's birthday!

Some interesting facts --- did you know that the Museum of Modern Art opened in 1929, the year of the Great Depression. And even though with a then young man Alfred Barr as its director (he was only twenty-seven), it was actually formulated by three women, so-called by art historians as "the founding mothers". They were Abbie Rockefeller, Miss Lizzie P. Bliss and Mrs Cornelius J Sullivan.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

BBC1's Modern Masters

There is a wonderful new programme on BBC1 called "Modern Masters" charting the life and explaining the works of modern artists that influenced contemporary art, design and architecture. I am enjoying the series enormously as Matisse, Dali and Picasso are each dedicated an episode.  Including Andy Warhol.

The programme is presented by Alastair Sooke, who is only 28. His boyish charm, enthusiasm and at times emotional moment really bring an engaging and exciting light to younger audience. It feels like a friend is telling you all these things rather than a university professor lecturing you.  I was a bit speechless when Alistair was sitting in Matisse's cathedral and was somewhat overwhelmed by what he saw... I am generally not a big fan of men who cry so it was surprising to see his emotions. In a good way.

Even though I know about the lives and works of these artists, I still learned new things about them from this series. I thought that each episode was very comprehensive and well-made in the span of only 60 minutes.

People in the UK watch it here!

MODERN MASTERS

Abstract from Press Release w/Alastair

Why were these four artists (Picasso, Matisse, Dali, and Warhol) chosen for BBC One's Modern Masters?

There were arguments to be made for a number of 20th-century artists, but the ones we chose all had something in common: in their own lifetimes they were international celebrities, multimillionaires who were lauded by the general public, and not just the critics. As a result, they had a profound influence not only on art history, but also on the world around us. In so many ways, we can still see their legacy today.

Filming must have been quite an experience...

We spent three months filming towards the end of 2009, and I had the time of my life. One minute I was interviewing John Richardson, the most respected Picasso scholar in the world; the next, I was chatting to Dennis Hopper, who used to hang out with Warhol in the Sixties. That's what I wanted to illustrate in this series: modern art doesn't only belong in the gallery, but touches on so many different and surprising areas, from film to fashion to architecture – even car design.

Did you discover much you didn't know about the four artists?

Yes! You learn so much more about an artist by following in his or her footsteps. Of course, I'd read a great deal about their careers, but seeing the places where they lived and made art, and meeting people who actually knew them, gave me an entirely new sense of their work. And seeing many of their masterpieces at first hand in museums all over the world, often when nobody else was there – well, that was a real thrill, and an immense privilege.

What do you think motivated them?

None of our modern masters followed the rules handed down to them by academic tradition and art history. Picasso was inspired by the African masks and tribal sculpture that he discovered in Parisian flea-shops, whereas most young artists of his era were dutifully studying antique sculptures in the Louvre. Matisse pioneered Fauvism by painting the world around him in bright, almost delirious colours that made people laugh in his face and assume he was nothing but a lunatic. Dali's paintings encapsulated his own fears and anxieties and deepest desires with a candour never before seen in the history of art. And Warhol broke every rule going: he aspired to become a machine, churning out screen-printed works of art in his studio, which was known as the Factory, at a time when people prized the individuality and painterly touch of artists above everything else. I found that inspirational.

Did they have anything in common?

The thing that really struck me was that none of them conformed to anything. For years, Picasso was courted by the Surrealists – but he never wanted to pin himself down to any one art movement. All of the artists had a restless, almost anarchic spirit – even Matisse, who looks so professorial, in his suit and tie, in the photographs of him that have survived. They refused to accept convention. They wanted to break with tradition, and, to do this, earned for themselves a great sense of personal freedom. There's some kind of life lesson in that.

Was filming the series an intense experience for you personally?

I was surprised by my reaction to several works of art, but perhaps most memorable of all was my visit to the Dominican chapel that Matisse designed, down to the very last detail, towards the end of his life in the small town of Vence where he lived in southern France. I found it so moving that someone so old, who had come through so much, could meticulously plan and build such a beautifully tranquil space. Here was a man who had often suffered from terrible anxiety, who was a rabid insomniac for much of his life, who had survived duodenal cancer, and who had lived to hear his daughter's terrible memories of being tortured by the Gestapo during the Second World War. And he had built such a special space, which was the culmination of his life's work as well as a real triumph of the human spirit over adversity. I was overwhelmed. I could have stayed there all day.

Do you wish you had been alive at the same time as these modern masters?

Absolutely. That period of early modernism now feels like such a heroic golden age in the history of art. These artists were titanic figures, wrestling with the past, breaking with tradition, and forging a completely new visual language that was simply extraordinary. I think it must have been really intoxicating to live through that era. I like to think I would have championed their work. But, if so, I would have been in a real minority, since most people at the time thought that these artists were completely crazy!

Did you encounter anything unexpected during filming?

I expected to interview some important people in the art world, for sure, but I never thought in a million years that I'd share a drink with Pamela Anderson, chat to Dennis Hopper, or exchange a few words with the French president's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy! Lots of people find Noel Fielding from the Mighty Boosh hilarious – and here he was telling me that Dali's Surrealist vision had an enormous influence on his decision to become a comedian. It just goes to prove that the work of these four modern masters continues to touch people in all areas of life today. That's really amazing.

Source BBC Press Office