Archive for the ‘Museums’ Category
Saturday, April 18th, 2020
“While I use titles that reveal information about the work, I also seek words and phrases that can veil or obscure. I seek titles that support work, but I also seek words and terms that challenge or engage the viewer. I tend to be most satisfied when a title has a bit of mystique or tension. Interestingly, I find that as a work is coming to conclusion, and I know it is almost finished, title ideas tend to flow forth. I write down these ideas and impressions, and then go rather methodically through a decision making process until I am satisfied with a solution.”
— Jane Nodine
The miniature featured here was selected for the permanent collection, chosen from the seven pieces that I sent to Santa Fe for exchange. If you’re scratching your head about the titles within my overall series, I don’t blame you. The odd word combinations evolved from baking terminology (the exchange theme), fused with aspects of the prevailing public health crisis, and, to a lesser degree, visual associations with the artwork itself. I rarely find naming to be an effortless process. Every once in a while, it’s just as smoothly intuitive as creating a collage.
Something that comes more easily for me than titling is color harmony, particularly after a scheme has emerged early in the collage process. And then I find myself rejecting certain ingredients for no other reason than a balance of hues. There are always exceptions, of course. Some compositions tend to demand a “maximalist” approach that accommodates a fuller spectral array. The more complicated a composition, the greater challenge it presents in my choosing a satisfactory name for it. If the process becomes a bit too rational, the task is set aside. When I come back to it, the working title is often scrapped and something more spontaneous is the permanent choice.
The Oxidation of Reduced Elasticity
collage miniature by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
part of a series created for the
Baker’s 1/2-Dozen Collage Exchange
— acquired for the IMCAC permanent collection
Posted in Collage, Exchange, J A Dixon, Methodology, Museums, Titles | No Comments »
Sunday, March 29th, 2020
“Works will be sorted and exchanged as equally as possible according to quality. The intention of all of the Museum’s exchanges is to establish a dialog and exchange of ideas about how to work in the mediums of collage and montage among colleagues. By exchanging actual examples we get to see first hand how each other works. This is intended to lead to higher standards and more inspired and satisfying work.”
— Cecil Touchon
Not having participated in an international collage exchange since 2016, I set my sights on the spring installment of a tradition established at the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction.
The basic reference point for the exchange is the customary 12 donuts plus free sample. “Except, to make it easier, we have changed it to a Baker’s 1/2 Dozen Exchange,” according to Cecil Touchon, the Museum’s director. Six to trade with contributing artists and one to be retained as part of the Museum’s permanent collection for future study and exhibit.
I created a series of eleven miniatures within a common black-background theme and kept three for myself. From the remaining eight, I identified one as a specific donation to IMCAC (featured below), with the understanding that Touchon would select another for retention and supply the others to designated participants. I couldn’t help but insert a visual homage to the typographic artist himself. Now all I have to do is wait patiently before I get back six original artworks by collage contemporaries.
The original notion of a collage museum compiled by generations of artists themselves (rather than patrons, collectors, or philanthropists) is a powerful idea to me. I can never tip my hat to Cecil often enough. Archiving the large and growing repository is both a labor of love and a significant gesture of commitment to the medium. Working collage artists should be honored to support the cause and make their best effort to be included in the Museum’s flagship collection intended for traveling exhibitions. A good way to do it is to dedicate some creative time to their periodic exchange. And each of us receives valuable artwork in return.
The Fog of Glazed Eggwash
collage miniature by J A Dixon
8 x 10 inches
part of a series created for the
Baker’s 1/2-Dozen Collage Exchange
— donated to the IMCAC permanent collection
Posted in C Touchon, Collage, Exchange, J A Dixon, Museums, Theme/Variation | No Comments »
Thursday, January 2nd, 2020
“Real trust does not need verification;
if you have to verify, it is not trust.”
– Charles H Green
Being part of a regional group invited to unveil a “fourth-quarter” creation in January is something that I’ve come to deeply appreciate. It’s getting difficult to remember any other way to conclude a year of creative activity. Because I’ve routinely written here about our New Year New Art tradition, I don’t want to overdo the point. To bypass the typical curatorial scrutiny and be entrusted with hanging something sight unseen is a gratification that every working artist should know.
Zeitgeist originated as part of a process that I began over a year ago, but it had taken a back seat to a couple of other ideas that got more attention at the time. All three had been sparked by the NYNA catalyst. The only restriction that comes with the invitation is that the artwork be completed after August. This time, I didn’t get rolling until after the Thanksgiving holiday.
I’d just returned from a trip to Pennsylvania. Long-postponed pilgrimages to Chadds Ford and Fallingwater finally had been realized. Visions from the Barnes Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art were spilling over within my inner sight. I decided to bring the third of the thumbnail concepts to fruition in a manner that would not have occurred to me in 2018. I wanted to create a highly energetic, maximalist piece without losing control of its compositional stability. A loose structure offered a starting point, but I had to alternate intuitive bursts of “Merz assembly” with rational decisions that would visually anchor the dynamism. In addition, coordinated “B-Roll” embellishments were prepared nearby in the studio and inserted at the final stage. The process would bring into greater focus a refined method of harnessing small-format spontaneity when working big.
look back
at early- and
late-stage views
of my newest
big-scale work
(click each
to enlarge)
My personal orientation to collage remains with smaller dimensions, although some may question the continued self-description as a “miniaturist.” The practice seems to be evolving toward more frequent oversized works, in which I usually embed at least one miniature element that could stand on its own. The annual New Year New Art showcase has provided beneficial opportunities for me to shift from a comfortable frame of reference and build a body of larger collage paintings.
Zeitgeist
collage painting on canvas by J A Dixon
36 x 20.25 inches
available for purchase
Posted in 1) Available!, Abstraction, Collage, Embedded Miniatures, Exhibitions, Influences, J A Dixon, Larger Works, Maximalism/Minimalism, Merz, Methodology, Museums, New Year New Art, Thumbnails | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 18th, 2018
Sharing a major announcement in the world of collage and assemblage: The Ontological Museum has undertaken an entire makeover of its online archives. Let all doff their hats to Cecil Touchon!
Beware — connoisseurs of the collage medium can be swept into this magnificent black hole of imagery. Just a few outstanding examples are featured below.
Fellow collage artists, it is up to us to grow and preserve this extraordinary collection. Become a subscribing member!
The Sun Always Shines on TV
collage artwork by Cory Peeke, 2010
7 am
collage artwork by Joan Schulze, 2010
Ritual 2
mixed-media collage by Svetlana Pesetskaya, 2011
Case #10
small things by Hope Kroll for Fluxcase Micro Museum, 2011
(title unknown)
mixed-media collage on paper by Denise Pitchon, 2012
Queen Rose Score
collage on paper by Matthew Rose, 2012
(title unknown)
collage for Dada Centennial by Bob Rizzo, 2016
Homage to Merzbau
collage artwork by Sabine Remy, 2016
(title unknown)
asemic collage on paper by Jim White, 2018
(images courtesy of The Ontological Museum)
Posted in B Rizzo, C Peeke, C Touchon, Collage, D Pitchon, Dada, Fluxus, H Kroll, J Schulze, J White, Links, M Rose, Merz, Museums, S Pesetskaya, S Remy | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 17th, 2018
“Schwitters began making collages in 1918 and produced them in large numbers for the remainder of his career. In 1919 he began using the term ‘Merz’ (which originated from the German word ‘Kommerz’, meaning ‘commerce’) to describe his principle of assembling found materials.”
— Louise Hughes
Das Kirschbild — a fitting followup for the previous entry on abstraction.
And for those of us who never tire of learning new things about the incomparable Master of Merz:
• from the Armitt Museum Collection in the Lake District
• from the Tate Britain
• from the Guggenheim
• from the Sprengel Museum Hannover
Merzbild 32 A. Das Kirschbild
Kurt Schwitters, 1921
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Posted in Dada, Influences, K Schwitters, Links, Merz, Museums | No Comments »
Sunday, May 7th, 2017
It is with high anticipation that I await my first look at the new publication which documents the Dada Centennial exhibition organized by the Ontological Museum. My sincere thanks to Cecil Touchon for including the essay that I wrote last year — On Kurt Schwitters and a Century of Dada — but, most of all, for volunteering so much of his time to this historic observation and to the ongoing administration of the institution he founded, now located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The exhibition at the archives of the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction opened on November 4, 2016 and lasted through January 31, 2017. A worldwide array of Dada-inspired artists sent artworks for the show that will be added to the permanent collection. They are all displayed in the full-color, 275-page catalog that is available for purchase. A “Merz Painting” by Peter Dowker is featured on the cover. In addition to my essay, the publication has an introduction by Touchon, another essay by Drager Meurtant, Birth of Merz by Schwitters, original verse by Dada artists, writings by Hugo Ball, three of my experimental miniatures, and collage art by some whose work I have spotlighted here at TCM, including Dowker, Hope Kroll, Zach Collins, Nikki Soppelsa, Erin Case, Joel Lambeth, Melinda Tidwell, Evan Clayton Horback, and Katrien De Blauwer.
When I experienced the milestone Schwitters exhibition at the Berkeley Museum of Art in 2011, I failed to bring home the forty-dollar catalog. When I got back to Kentucky, I discovered that the compendium was already worth $200. I do not know what long-term plan the Ontological Museum has for this publication, but it may not always be available. Go online, take advantage of the current discount, and buy it now.
Grateful Ode to Merz
collage miniature on Bristol by J A Dixon
homage to Kurt Schwitters
collection of The Ontological Museum
Posted in C Touchon, Collage, Dada, E C Horback, E Case, Exhibitions, H Kroll, J A Dixon, J Lambeth, K De Blauwer, K Schwitters, M Tidwell, Merz, Museums, N Soppelsa, P Dowker, Publications, Z Collins | No Comments »
Sunday, March 19th, 2017
“Sustainability can’t be like some sort of a moral sacrifice or political dilemma or a philanthropical cause. It has to be a design challenge.”
— Bjarke Ingels
From the time I first paid a visit to its astonishing Jewel Room, after we moved our studio to Kentucky, I continued to sustain a high regard for Lexington’s Headley-Whitney Museum. I have written before 
about the lost treasures of George Headley, and how they inspired my Bibelot Series of collage miniatures, but I only recently acknowledged an undisclosed desire to have my work displayed at the institution. It pleases me to say that the daydreaming phase is over, because three of my larger works are part of their 2017 kick-off exhibition: ART | GREEN | DESIGN.
The show features examples of art and design that are inspired by and exemplify eco-friendly ideals. I am gratified to be represented among a group of exceptionally creative individuals. It causes me to realize just how much my activity in this chosen medium is driven by a practice of sorting through the cast-off material of our wasteful society and upcyling it as a worthwhile artifact. Cherry Balm, Pearallelograms, and Matthew’s Touchonic Lodge are fitting examples of that orientation.
An unidentified assemblage that I liked (left), and Kentuckian Brandon Long, my friend who creates handsome abstract squares from recycled roofing metal.
Details from three of my collage artworks, selected by the museum to include in
the show: Cherry Balm, Pearallelograms, and Matthew’s Touchonic Lodge.
Posted in 1) Available!, B Long, Exhibitions, Fruit Series, J A Dixon, Larger Works, Museums | No Comments »
