Cars and Painting Easel

I hate to do this to you but there is a current car commercial treading in so much ridiculousness you have to see it.

“A woman has a surprise for this man. For his birthday, she got him a painting easel. She decorates a wall with his paintings. Luckily, their Subaru takes him places he’s always wanted to go.”

The official tagline for the spot is “Confidence In Motion”. I immediately thought of a piece Nicole Eisenman made a long time ago containing as many images as possible depicting the concept of an artist in woman’s fashion magazines.

(I think that was from her exhibit at Jack Tilton).

Speaking of Eisenman, I was incredibly bummed to find I am missing her exhibit Matrix 248 that is currently up at Berkeley Art Museum by just a few days. Her Tea Party painting and the story behind it is pure Eisenman.

Back to my original thought, curious what prompted the Subaru spot? The paintings kind of remind me of Dana Schutz.

 

Fischl

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Just listening to Tyler Greene’s podcast interview with Eric Fischl, discussing his new book. Fischl asserts that when he was just getting out of grad school he went through a period of making Diebenkorns. Only a person who studied painting on the West Coast would be familiar. He said Diebenkorn left the door open for other painters, as did DeKoonig, while Pollack and Picasso closed it. I thought that was beautiful and of course agree. I have been thinking a lot about Diebenkorn lately as a painting re-entry.

I thought of another thing while listening to Tyler’s podcast, which is pronunciation. For those of us farm-raised and still wet behind the ears (i.e. don’t live in New York City) the lack of knowledge of correctly pronouncing artists names can be a hilarity.

At any rate, Tyler’s podcast is as thoughtful as his the writing he produces. He is such a champion of art. I’ve been a long standing fan and he, along with Diebenkorn are helping me pick up the pieces here.