acquistion

9 images from the Kyoto Series have been acquired by the Boston Public Library Permanent Collection.  Several more images, including the one above, need to be added.  If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the library toward the acquisition of further photographs from the Kyoto series please contact me by email or Ron Michaux of Rolly-Michaux Gallery at 617.536.9898.

"The Print Department of the Boston Public Library continues to actively build our collections of contemporary photography by photographers working in the New England region.

"We were happy to add the photographer Robert Castagna to that growing list of photographers represented in our collection.  Our relationship with Robert started in 2002 when we purchased a selection of photographs that he took in the Copley Square area that were part of his exhibition in the Boston Room of the BPL called 'Just Outside'.

"The BPL is now actively pursuing the acquisition of images from Robert's latest project: The Kyoto Series.  The series not only represents the continuation of the photographer's strong imaging work but also his development as a photographer.  We hope that by acquiring images from the Kyoto Series we will continue the process of building a collection of Robert's work that will begin to represent the arc of his career as a photographer."

 

decomposition

I've always heard of composition in art, especially photography.  However how often do you hear about decomposition in art?  I'm sure in some circles it's quite well known, however I recently ran across the term in a terrific book.  I often take-out art books from the library and enjoy leafing through them at leisure while at home.  This week I was looking through "Modern Art, 1900-1945: The Age of Avant-Gardes" by Gabriele and Crepaldi.  It's a great book with large prints and very readable and informative information about the work and artists.  Very little artspeak is used and the sections are broken into genres that really assist in understanding the many styles of art.  While reading a passage concerning a stunning painting by Georgia O'Keefe entitled "Street, New York, I" the authors used the term "decompositions". In this sense, decomposition means the artists ability to break down the subject into its basic elements.  And of course O'Keefe did this so well in the above referenced painting.  

I love abstraction and often use abstraction in my art and compositions.  However I never understood exactly what I was trying to do until I ran across this term "decomposition" used in such a context.  As soon as I read it my eyes and mind opened up.  I mentioned it to my wife who is a painter and music composer and she had a similar experience.  Much of the fun in art is taking a subject matter and presenting it in such a way that one can see its essence, using rudimentary shapes and design; namely decomposing.  Many artists use this technique including myself.  However I never had it so succinctly crystalized.

artist-museum partnership

With all of the talk about economic stimulus packages I thought I'd mention a revision to law which could be made, that would allow artists to donate their art work and receive a tax break equivalent to the arts actual value.  In other words, currently the law allows a donor to purchase art and then donate it to an institution and receive a deduction on their taxes.  However if an artist donates his/her art

work his donation is worth only the paper it is printed upon.  

Today with donations to institutions and museums suffering from the recession, this would benefit both the artist and the museum.  The image above was part of my Kyoto Series that appeared on the cover of artscope magazine in Boston.  Although pieces were purchased and donated to the Boston Public Library's permanent collection, several of the images are left to be donated.  Of course I'm happy to donate them, however I feel a proper tax deduction should be allowed.  In this way both the collection and the artist (myself) would benefit.  Kyoto and Boston are sister-cities and therefore the collection is quite relevant to the BPL's photographic collection.

For information on the bill go to Artist-Museum Partnership Act.

For common sense information on the bill go to Partnership Act for artists.

Brandeis Rose Art Museum

What's up with Brandeis?  By now most people are aware of the scandal that has unfolded at Brandeis University.  Let's face it, times are tough.  As one drives up to the Rose Art Museum one sees a sign designating the Shapiro's donations at work.  The Shapiro's, large donors to education, arts and other institutions, have been hit hard by the economy and most notably Madoff.  So when the President of Brandeis freaks out and declares the Rose Art Museum will close and sell off its art who can really blame him.  Listen or watch one hour of news media and you start to get a nagging feeling that we are about to implode economically.  It really starts to freak you out.

But what I think is much more significant from this debacle at Brandeis is the fact that the board decided that art must pay.  Individuals such as Madoff (and there are many of these individuals out there: individuals who evidently thought that they could loan money where it was not appropriate, individuals who thought that an economy was not based on reality but instead inflated figures on a piece of paper, corporate execs who borrow money, don't make it go right and walk away under the shield of the protective corporation, Presidents who borrow money endlessly for war, etc.) have ruined the economy and the first place one looks to shear costs is art.  Maybe this is appropriate as art certainly is not food, or a home, or health insurance.  And let's face it art has ballooned just like the rest of the economy selling for outrageous sums of money, amounts that truly seem absurd. 

But I'm thinking otherwise.  I'm thinking that this type of thinking and prioritizing is what got us in the soup to begin with.  Art is often imaginative, but it also has a way of getting at the truth of reality.  Let's really look at this.  Art is the antithesis of war.  Remember how the Iraq museums were sacked after our "victory"?  It's starting to come home to roost.  How much money is spent on war?  How much is spent on art?  

I could go on and on about this.  However I'm getting this nagging feeling that I better do something more productive so I don't implode.  My point:  The selling off of art at Brandeis is symbolic of what is wrong with America.  Hopefully the economy starts to turn around and Brandeis can use this infamy and media attention to bring about a resurgence of interest in art in their environment.   

BRANDEIS ROSE ART MUSEUM MONTAGE was created by Robert Castagna.