Gallery BAC : Soho

“ . . .Throw out and keep throwing out.
Elegance means elimination.”

Gallery BAC, NY photographs by David John

Listen, the snow is falling o’er town,
Listen the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Between your bed and mine,
Between your head and my mind.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town. - Yoko Ono

A quiet afternoon spent in Gallery BAC, with Swedish, French, and Danish works by the masters. The gallery is across the street from BDDW, and Mondrian Soho. - David John

"Founded in 2001 by the Architect Carlos Aparicio, BAC showcases a very unique selection of 20th Century European antiques. Within the walls of a converted warehouse in the SoHo district of Manhattan, BAC presents a spectacular collection that is driven by a great understanding of the period and a desire to display a very special and sophisticated point of view." (here)

Gallery BAC here
"Jean-Michel Frank in Argentina" read NY Times article here.

"Seems as if we're circling
for very different reasons
But one day the Eagle has to land"





Rose Tarlow
vs
Georges Jouve

"a simple desire for the forms to tell the story."

"Georges Jouve is known as one of the most important ceramists of the 20th century. He succeeded in modernizing the art of pottery by developing unique techniques motivated by his individual style of sensual and sometimes ironic creations that illustrate a subtle combination of rigor, savoir-faire and imagination.

Jouve graduated from the prestigious Ecole Boulle where he received both theoretical instruction in Art History in addition to his technical studies as a sculptor. During World War II, Jouve was captured by the Germans, escaped from a camp and took refuge at his step parents home in a potters village in the South of France called Dieulefit. During that period, Jouve learnt from the local potter's traditions. He created decorative objects modeled in clay and inspired by the religious figurines that were common in that region. In 1944, Jouve opened his studio in Paris and was invited by Jacques Adnet to participate in the exhibitions of the Compagnie des Arts Francais. He subsequently participated annually in numerous 'Salons' in France and internationally: Salon des Artistes decorateurs in Paris, Association Francaise d'Action Artistique in Rio de Janeiro, and Vienna, Toronto, Rome and Cairo." (text from here)


Go to Rose Tarlow

"I have always had an aversion
to the concepts of in style and out of style."



lyrics from here.

Laura Owens, 2011
vs
Gio Ponti, 1930

modern painting and the lamp?

"My work gets created in this space of freedom, and that’s why a lot of it has to do with experimentation, invention, and sort of a juxtaposition of things you wouldn’t normally juxtapose. I keep using the word “FREEDOM”—I know there’s probably a better word, but maybe I feel like painting doesn’t have enough of that as a category so I’ll use it anyway." - Laura Owens












Laura Owens
vs
Gio Ponti

the modern painting and the lamp?

Laura Owens: When you were asking your question I immediately got the image of what happens when you see people as superior to you. Something happens. If you have heroes, and they’re way way above you, it usually means you have to have some people that are inferior to you. I feel like I am constantly looking at everyone I meet and trying to see them in an equal way, with equal standing to me. So that means I have to go into the experience of viewing a van Gogh painting with the mindset, Oh this guy was standing in front of an empty canvas and just painted it one day, you know? There was a real human being who made this painting, not a heroic untouchable, inhuman god. This person went to the bathroom and had all the normal human problems with, you know…

I feel like what’s most important for painting—which has been hierarchically on the top for a really long time in terms of what is considered fine art, by comparison with something like a comic book or what’s considered low art—is that painting should open up laterally to include other cultures and things that don’t immediately resonate as a painting but are obviously of equal contribution to the genre.

When I look at textiles from Peru or from India and use those elements in a painting, it doesn’t in any way erase the functional quality of those works. It’s not an either-or proposition—that when you take something to the museum you turn it into “fine art” and erase all the contextualization of it. Rather, all sorts of things can co-mingle and be as influential to young artists as, say, a Mondrian. Does that make sense?


I feel like there’s a space of personal freedom for me where my art-making happens. When I go to that space, I’m completely in this world of possibility. There’s no inner emotional state that I could compare it to; it’s a space that has its own properties, and they don’t have to do with happy or sad or any of that. I would never say to myself, “Okay, let me go into this space of freedom in order to show you about the pain I have.” Do you know what I mean? I’m not in the space of freedom if I’m in pain. I’m in sort of a contracted, negative, or dark space.

My work gets created in this space of freedom, and that’s why a lot of it has to do with experimentation, invention, and sort of a juxtaposition of things you wouldn’t normally juxtapose. I keep using the word “freedom”—I know there’s probably a better word, but maybe I feel like painting doesn’t have enough of that as a category so I’ll use it anyway......







please read the whole interview here.... via the believer....
image of Gio Ponti lamp via Wright Auctions..... here.
Laura Owens image via Galeria Gisela Capitain









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