New Korean Art at The Museum of Arts & Design, NYC + Understanding Milton Resnick + Turkey Chili

Korean Eye: Energy and Matter - Kim Hyun Soo - "Breik" 2008 

Sculpture is made of epoxy over steel, human hair, fur, oil paint and water based paint.

On view at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC until February 2012.

ART at "MAD"

The Museum of Arts & Design
Now Showing: "Korean Eye" 

Korean Eye: Energy and Matter - Park Seung Mo - "Bicycle", 2005

Made of Aluminum wire, fiberglass, lifecasting. Image courtesy of the artist.

On view at MAD until February 2012.

Korean Eye: Energy and Matter is the current exhibition at The Museum of Arts and Design. “MAD” is an art museum which explores the blurred zone between art, design and crafts. For more information on "MAD" NYC, please see our Postscript section at the end of this issue.

The exhibition, Korean Eye: Energy and Matter, shines a spotlight on new work by 21 emerging and established contemporary Korean artists and brings together photography, painting, video, and mixed media. It will be on view at MAD from November 1, 2011 through February 19, 2012. (A previous version of Korean Eye was shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London and in Seoul and Singapore.)

This show reflects a new era of diversity in Korean life, politics, and culture, plus offers a unique appreciation of Korea's rapidly developing artistic aesthetic in the modern Korean culture.

Korean Eye: Energy and Matter is accompanied by a 389-page book. The book showcases a collection of work by seventy-five contemporary Korean artists and features artist' biographies and statements. In conjunction with the exhibition, MAD will offer a range of lectures, docent tours, and a related film program.

Below are more of the contemporary art pieces in the exhibition, Korean Eye: Energy and Matter. 

Ji Yong Ho - "Bull Man 4", 2010

Used Tires, Synthetic Resin, Steel

Courtesy Gana Art Gallery, Korea

Choi TaeHoon - "Dual Skin Project", 2009

Stainless Steel Installation Coat, Table, Sofa.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Hong Young - "In Procession" (cropped) 2010

Embroidery, acrylic, digital print on cotton fabric

Photo courtesy of the artist

Jang Seun Hyo - "Mash in!-episode" (cropped) 2011

Digital Pigmented Print, Mulasec, Laser Cutting

Courtesy of Hzone Gallery, Korea

Jang Seung Hyo - "Uptown Girl", 2010

Resin, fiberglass, digital pigmented

print on cloth, Dupont clear coating.

Courtesy of Hzone Gallery, Korea

Ayoung Kim 

"Accept North Korea

Into The Necular Club

Or Bomb It Now,

11th of Oct. 2006" 

(cropped) 

Photograph

Lightjet Print

Courtesy of the artist

.

Inbai Kim

"Shake your eyes,

and devote them to your heart", 2010

Plaster, wood, medium-density fiberboard

Courtesy of the artist

& Arorio Gallery, Korea (cropped) 

Joon Kim

"Bird land - Chanel" (detail) 2009

Digitally collaged photo, C-print

Courtesy of the artist.

Koh Myung Keun - "The One-1" 2009

Digital Photo Collage printed on acetate.

Courtesy of the artist.

Lee Jaehyo - "0121-1110=111038"

Large chestnut wood inlay

8' x 4' x 4'

Courtesy of the artist

Translation series (detail)

Shin Meekyoung - "Translation series", 2009

Installation.

Vases are made of carved soap, 

pigment & varnish

Courtesy of the artist.

Cryptic Fog
from an Artistic Genius.
Understanding Milton Resnick!

The large scale painting, "SWAN" by Milton Resnick

New York artist David Reed wrote about Milton Resnick in Art in America magazine and Resnick's lessons about painting and thinking as an artist. Resnick spoke in complicated, cryptic comments regarding art, which took the students years to understand. Resnick would also correct the student's paintings by painting over them. All of this happened at the New York Studio School in the 1960s. (The N.Y. Studio School was formed when a group of painting students left Pratt, thinking that a pure studio experience, with guest artists coming in to teach them, would create the best art education.)

Resnick

Reed first met Resnick while riding the elevator up to the NYSS studio / classroom. The following is Reed's account of that experience: 

... A limping homeless person entered the elevator. His face was emaciated and pale, framed by long black hair that hung over the collar of a ragged, greasy overcoat. I expected him to get out and panhandle on one of the lower floors.... But he remained in the elevator until we both got off. Perhaps he had once been a painter, I thought to myself. As he exited the elevator, I was able to get a better look at his face. His features and gestures reminded me of the French writer Antonin Artaud as he appeared in old photographs. 

I followed this man over to where a group of students were at work on their paintings. He went first over to a female student, who was sitting on a stool, painting a small brown cubist still life on a tall easel.... I edged forward to hear what the transient was saying. He placed his hand on her canvas and scratched his nails over the painting, breaking the dried surface and smearing the underlying wet paint. Then placing his hands under the tails of his overcoat, he bent low, bowing to her while raising his coat behind him as if he were a huge bird and said:  "You have to break through the surface! Oh, I know, you think you’ll fall through the floor and end up in hell. But you won’t. You’ll be right here in this room!” The female student backed away from the transient in horror. Some students ran for help, others tried to grab him by the elbows and escort him back the elevator. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “You’ve misunderstood. I’m Milton Resnick. You asked me to come to teach.”

Resnick taught the students well, in his odd and hard-to-understand style. Some of Resnick's quotes follow. I think you will see why Reed commented, "I felt, just on the verge of understanding, but at the same time was not sure that I understood anything at all. He used terms that could have many meanings, making his points indirectly through metaphors and stories. (Did he mean this or perhaps that? A confirmation never came from Resnick.) I had never heard anything as compelling or profound." The students had hours of discussions afterwards, trying to restate and understand what Resnick had said to them.

Resnick told us that we had to decide between two ways of being painters. You could either “climb the ladder of art, struggle and sacrifice to make great works,” or “get on the moving belt, just move, you and the painting which equals your brain.” It took me a long time to figure out that he disapproved of the first and approved of the second.

Resnick told us that, as younger painters, we should put on “the shirt of Abstract Expressionism.” Each of us would then have to admit, “I can’t understand this shirt. It doesn’t fit my mind." Only then could we get on that moving belt. 

Milton Resnick was one of the last survivors of the first generation of the New York Abstract Expressionists. Born in Russia, Resnick and his family left and arrived in New York City in 1922 at age five. He settled in Brooklyn with his family and attended public school where a teacher re-named him from his birth name of Rachmiel and nickname of Milya to Milton. At age 14, he enrolled in the commercial art program at the Pratt Institute Evening School of Art in Brooklyn, but a teacher there suggested he switch to fine arts, so the next year he enrolled in the American Artists' School in New York City. Ad Reinhardt, future Abstract Expressionist, was a classmate, and they shared a budding interest in abstraction.

Resnick's father forbid any expression from his son of wanting to be an artist and faced with this disapproval of his commitment to painting, Resnick moved out in 1934 when he was 17. He supported himself as an elevator boy and continued at the American Artists' School, where he was given a small studio room and each day provided with materials left behind by students attending night classes. Resnick worked as and artist until age 87. Milton Resnick committed suicide on March 12, 2004.

(Sources: Based on an essay originally published in Art in America, written by David Reed - a New York-based painter; and from Wikipedia.)

FOOD:

“Less is More Chili”

Beautiful, Simple Turkey Chili

It's chilly outside meaning it is also the season for "chili" and chili cook-offs. Here is my turkey chili recipe, simple, delicious and meaty! It takes about an hour start to finish to prepare, but is worth it.

1 Package of ground lean Turkey (1.25 lbs)

1 Large Onion, diced

1 Green Bell Pepper, diced

2 Stalks of Celery, diced

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1 Tbls of Steak Seasoning mix (cracked pepper, garlic salt, sea salt, onion flakes + ground coriander, dill & caraway seeds)

1 Can of Hot Chili Beans in sauce (15 oz, drained - reserve liquid)

2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz each, drained - reserve liquid)

1 Rounded tsp Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 tsp Ground Cumin

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

10 shakes of Original Tobasco Hot Sauce

4 oz of Organic Tomato Catsup

1/4 tsp of liquid smoke

Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large high edged skillet cook the ground turkey in 2 Tbs of olive oil, add the steak seasoning over the meat. Chopping and stirring the meat until it has seperated into small kernels and just until the last of the pink dissappears. Pour cooked turkey into a bowl for later. Spray the pan with cooking oil or pour in a little olive oil and saute the diced onions, pepper and celery stirring occasionally until they start to brown. Add the canned tomatoes to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes to sweeten the tomatoes. Add the Chili Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Cumin, Paprika, Ground Cinnamon, liquid smoke and 10 shakes of Tobasco Hot Sauce. Add the beans and the cooked turkey to the pan and mix completely. Cook for 5 more minutes stirring occasionally. Add the catsup. Taste for seasoning, add Salt & Pepperto taste. 

Serve this chili straight-up, plain without being topped with cheese, onions or any other condiments - just beautiful, simple, delicious chili.

Until later,

Jack


POSTSCRIPT:
More about "MAD"
The Museum of Arts & Design, 
2 Columbus Circle, NYC

Accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1991, MAD focuses on contemporary creativity and the ways in which artists and designers from around the world transform materials through processes ranging from the artisanal to the digital. For nearly half a century, MAD has served as the country’s premier institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects created in media such as clay, glass, wood, metal, and fiber.

The seed for MAD was planted almost 70 years ago, when Aileen Osborn Webb—the nation’s premier craft patron and benefactor—established the American Craftsmen’s Council in 1942. In the decades that followed, MAD broadened its vision and expanded the scope of its exhibitions and programs. In 1979, MAD was renamed the American Craft Museum, reflecting its position, and in 1986, moved to a new location in four floors of a new building at 40 West 53rd Street. The new Museum’s space—designed by Roche-Dinkeloo, with an interior created by Fox & Fowle Architects—doubled the space of the original quarters. The opening exhibition was Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, which articulated the direction of MAD’s new era. Some of the objects were purely functional, while others placed a higher value on visual expression and conceptual content. Today, MAD celebrates materials and processes that are embraced by practitioners in the fields of craft, art and design, as well as architecture, fashion, interior design, technology, performing arts, and art / design-driven industries.

MAD's building on Columbus Circle.

The institution’s new name, adopted in 2002, reflects this wider spectrum of interest, as well as the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of MAD’s permanent collection and exhibition programming. In September, 2008, MAD opened the doors to its new home at 2 Columbus Circle to the public. With triple the exhibition space, and new amenities including a greatly expanded store, a 144-seat theater, and a restaurant, MAD is finally able to satisfy the growing public demand for its programs. 2 Columbus Circle’s design, accomplished  in collaboration with architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, weaves MAD into the social and cultural fabric of the newly revived Columbus Circle and its surrounding neighborhoods. The design includes a new façade that features textured terracotta panels and transparent fritted glass, materials that express MAD’s history of honoring the relationship between materials and maker. 

Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.madmuseum.org

For more information on the current exhibits at MAD visit http://collections.madmuseum.org/

ARTSnFOOD All rights reserved. Concept & Original Text © copyright 2011 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. Images are ©  copyright individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.