No. 23: Robert Russell
Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Postcards, a special bowl, Three Graces by Peter Paul Rubens, Lisa's eyes and The Sabbath
Robert Russell is an LA-based painter whose work I first fell in love with through his teacup paintings.. each one is so unique. He’s painted about 40.
His work returns to ideas of memory, iconography, and mortality in a personal painting language that is attentive to beauty, the history of art, and the role of photography. He’s known for a nuanced photorealism – his latest series depicts Allach porcelain figurines produced by forced labor in Nazi concentration camps and factories.
Rob’s work in a group show at Anat Ebgi in new york.. stop by! But for now —
I. an album
Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Postcards from 2017 has given me so much joy and solace, especially during the pandemic. Our homes became our workplaces, our schools, our bunkers, as well as all of its prior functions. This album was a constant throughout the house during those lonesome years. I think the album shifted the space for all of us at home and allowed it to feel both more expansive and open to the outside despite the overwhelming isolation.
II. a bowl
Ron Radziner is an architect who is the co-founder of Marmol Radziner. I am so grateful to have become dear friends with Ron and his wife, Robin. They recently acquired one of my Allach Porcelain paintings of a baby goat from my last show. This stunning bowl arrived as a gift from Robin and Ron at Christmas time along with a quote from Richard Powers’ The Overstory:
Time is one spreading ring wrapped around another, outward and outward until the thinnest skin of now depends for its being on the enormous mass of everything.
This beautiful object functions architecturally the way that Yoshimura and Erik Satie’s music does. It both settles quietly into as well as creates its own space.
III. a painting
The Three Graces is a painting of the Three Graces by Peter Paul Rubens (photo on the left). The painting remained in Ruben’s personal collection until his death. I get it! I want it too. I copied the piece in order to have it (photo on the right). So much of what I paint is in order to have it. When I paint in the style or mode of another artist I get to try on their methods and wear their movements and impulses. Ruben’s then permeated my subsequent work and infected the practice. So much of my Allach series was done in the skin of Ruben’s.
IV. a (particular) woman’s eyes
My wife’s eyes are bright and clear and earnest and inquisitive, loving and gorgeous.
V. a day of the week
How better to end these 5 “things” than with Abraham Joshua Heschel’s perfect book, The Sabbath… the day that Heschel says calls for our “detachment from things.” This beautiful, holy book is a sacred text. The act of reading it actually does the thing that he is writing about. It sanctifies time and makes meaning, it creates “a palace in time”. The Sabbath, he says, isn't simply about rest but rather about actively and intentionally making meaning in our lives from the toil of daily living. The sabbath is active and joyous and indeed ecstatic. I look forward to Friday sundown all week long when we gather our family and many friends, my wife Lisa (whose eyes you just saw), cooks a massive delicious vegan meal, we drink heaps of great wine and make meaning in community in our sacred palace in time.
~ bulletin ~
los angeles
Open: Karyn Lyons’ The End of the Night at Anat Ebgi. Nicole Wittenberg’s show at Ferberger Gallery. Emily Ferguson’s show at Half Gallery. Sam Gilliam’s The Last Five Years at David Kordansky. Shota Nakamura’s Light Room at C L E A R I N G. Wanda Koop’s Objects of Interest at Night Gallery. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting at LACMA. John Cage & Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s The Grasshopper Lies Heavy at CASTLE. Sergio Palacios’ Wall Painting at Shrine. Fashion still life photographer Sheila Metzner’s From Life at The Getty.
new york
Open: Bode’s Annual Lovers Bazaar (objections of affection selected by Emily herself) opens today until v-day. Group show The First Taste at Anat Ebgi including Robert Russell, Soumya Netrabile, and more. Joan Snyder’s Come Close at Canada. No One Thing: David Smith, Late Sculptures at Hauser & Wirth. Eddie Martinez’s Wavelengths at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Daniel Lum’s first solo show Lullaby at Turn Gallery. Cindy Sherman’s show at the new Hauser & Wirth on Wooster. Desert + Coast: Seven Elder Aboriginal Painters at Salon94. Nathaniel Oliver’s My Journey Was Long So Yours Could Be Shorter at Karma. Women Dressing at The Met.
Tomorrow: Available Works book fair at WSA through Sunday.