Selected pieces from the de Young Open 2023
👁 what inspired me 👁
Art Fatigue is very real for me. I used to go through galleries with a glutton’s stomach - hungry to try every dish at the buffet. You tend to get full too quickly and forget which dishes you liked and what they taste like.
I do it a bit different now. I leave museums after having seen one gallery. I go sit down and close my eyes for 15 minutes after a particularly evocative piece. I notice I have more fun, and I think I digest more too.
I specifically love artist retrospectives. It’s stunning to see one person develop their craft and form over time.
So when I learned that the De Young Open has over 800 pieces on display, I thought “challenge accepted.” In particular, the challenge of making it through this one exhibit of multitude, a maximalist collection of styles and stories and perspectives, and do my experience justice!
I managed this by scanning, a lot. Instead of digesting each piece I let my eyes wander and chose the ones that drew me in. As such, this curation of an already curated collection is quite subjective - it reflects pieces I found inspirational to my own personal style and taste as an artist, and brought me closer to exploring new forms or directions in my work.
These are currently offered without comment. There are things I notice about each one and I think a key element of cultivating taste is learning to understand why you are attracted to a piece’s aesthetics. So I might share more about that later in a comment or two. If something catches your eye, I’d be thrilled if you would leave a comment. Let’s have a conversation!
I hope you enjoy.
Love the pice by Alice Wiese. But that’s because I often gravitate toward textural studies devoid of color or shape, color studies in block like Rothko or Reinhardt’s work, media studies in singular color like Ellsworth Kelly’s work in the MoMa, and geometric studies like Agnes Martin’s work.
Also loved afternoon spill, less for the craftsmanship but more as an exercise in how a title works with visuals to evoke a feeling.
wonderful post! these works are so inspiring and i love how careful you were in giving attribution so the artists could be recognized for their work.
one piece of art stood out to me though - The Window by Laurie Parsons Hiatt. it looked very familiar to me from my vacation photos. i did some digging and sure enough, the sculpture in the photo is from the castle in Schwerin, Germany (where my brother in law is from).
the sculpture featured prominently in Laurie's photo is a work of art from another artist (based on my research in believe it is Kamil Kuskowski). sadly, however i saw no mention of this original artist in Laurie Parsons Hiatt's artist statement.
while it could be argued the photographer has added artistic merit with their framing and composition, i find it concerning that the original work of art by Kamil Kuskowski was not credited, especially since this photo is being presented and sold as an original work of art.
photo artist statement: https://deyoungopen2023.artcall.org/submissions/qr-view/428373
wikimedia listing of original sculpture: https://deyoungopen2023.artcall.org/submissions/qr-view/428373