SEPTEMBER 27
click on the picture below to see a larger image
CHILD'S CLOCK FACE, 2008
22" x 30", Acrylic on paper, $7,500
KALTENBACH ANNOTATIONS:
This is the face design for a nursery clock. At ten after ten and
ten before two the clock plays 'Happy Days are Here Again'. As is obvious from
some of these works, I am interested in what I refer to as 'Soft Art". These are
pieces that are kitsch in the sense described so well by Clemet Greenberg. This
is art that is comprehensible to people who have not been trained to look at
art. Usually there is a distinct lack of irony in the content.
This interest began in 1968 when an artist named Tim Lambert stayed with me while searching for a loft. He worked at Lord and Taylor's department store. As a result I went there and saw an art gallery just off the furniture section. It was showing quintessential couch paintings. I was delighted to see a New York gallery that was so far from contemporary art. I sat, (on a couch,) and thought about this for quite a while. Coming from a place where fine art definitely wasn't for decoration it seemed that these artists had gotten into painting without knowing that. Without even knowing what it could be.
Sitting on that couch, I decided to do my first Life Drama. My project was to do couch paintings for a month and then what ever the results, I would approach the gallery director. Tim Lambert had told me there actually was one. He made an appointment for me so I bought frames for the nine paintings I had painted in the thirty days of the project and took them up to show her. She was very nice to me and considerate of my feelings in what she said; which was, "I think that you have a lot of potential. Go back to the studio and paint and come and see me next year.
I decided that this Life Drama was a tragedy, not because I had failed to get the show but because this artist hadn't come to understand what fine art is. This was a grueling project. I hadn't painted since I had switched to sculpture as an undergrad. There were fun aspects to it though. One was the looks on the faces of my contemporaries when they visited and saw my easel with a couch painting in progress on it. I placed the others against the wall nearby so as I painted the enigmatic tableau grew.
But another year of this? Although I consider myself good at making myself do stuff I don’t want to do, I couldn’t face another day of painting.
WORKS THAT RELATE TO CHILD'S CLOCK FACE:
Couch Painting 1 (Lord & Taylor series) by Es Que, 1968
12" x 9", acrylic on canvas, Price on Request
Couch Painting 6 (Lord & Taylor series) by Es Que, 1968/2010
18" x 18", framed archival digital print stretched on canvas, ed. of 5, $3,500
Couch Painting 7 (Lord & Taylor series) by Es Que, 1968/2010
18" x 18", framed archival digital print stretched on canvas, ed. of 5, $3,500