"The more I look at it, the more I like it" - Marcel Duchamp interview (1956)

From the YouTube description:

Filmed amidst the Arensberg collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where 35 works by Marcel Duchamp are gathered, this 1956 interview features the artist talking with James Johnson Sweeney, former director of the Guggenheim Museum. 

Duchamp describes his transition away from Impressionism toward a Cubist, and then post-Cubist, approach, providing commentary while standing before Nude Descending a Staircase (“I was not aware of Italian Futurism when I painted it”) and The Large Glass (“The two crackings are symmetrically arranged and there is…almost an intention there…a ready-made intention, in other words, that I respect and love.”). These concepts are paradoxically, although quite logically, articulated alongside his desire for “dryness” and mechanical precision. Viewers also gain insight into Duchamp’s thoughts on painting for an “ideal” public—a notion he clearly distinguishes from ivory-tower elitism.

Request Granted

Francis Picabia - Couple au Profile de Marcel Duchamp, 1924-1927 (oil on board)

Williamsburg Art and Historical Center Open Call to Artists

26th Annual WAH Salon Show

Curated by Yuko Nii, Assisted by Germania Reyes  

 

Show Dates: Sat. Feb. 1 -  Sat. Mar. 1, 2025

Opening Reception: Sat. Feb. 1, 3pm - 5pm

Submission Deadline: Wed. Jan. 22 

   You will receive the acceptance notice as we review your submission

Delivery Dates:

Sat. Jan. 18, 5-7p

Sun. Jan. 19, 1-5pm  

Sat. Jan. 25, 1-5pm

Sun. Jan. 26, 1-5pm

Gallery Hours: Sat. & Sun. 1-5pm

25th WAH Salon Gallery Photo

Dear Artists and Friends,

It has been my great delight to start the fresh new year with our Annual WAH Salon WAH Show normally in January, but this year the show starts on Feb. 1st, due to the necessary adjustment we needed to make in order for the “Rising Canon” performance event being held on Jan. 31.

And each annual salon show always brings my memory back to when and how the WAH Salon Art Club was conceived and actualized back In 1998. Having founded the not for profit WAH Center in late1996 based upon my “Bridge Concept,” I was determined to ensure an enduring and long lasting high quality art center. To realize my desire, I came up with the idea of a membership program in which artists would become members of an art club and participate in an annual member’s group show. The very first meeting took place in1997 with a small group of a dozen local artists who showed their interest in becoming members of the “Art Club” as we named it back then. Each artist expressed his or her wish to contribute democratically with shared responsibilities to make it happen. But the more they talked, the more disagreements they had so that nothing worked well. It was impossible for us to go forward to having the first annual show. So, I decided to take sole responsibility for the annual members’ show with the help of a coordinator. I named the art club the “WAH Salon”, and thus we started the “1st Annual WAH Salon” show in January 1998. Ever since the number of the WAH Salon member has increased every year, and the quality of the annual show has improved over the years. Because many of the WAH Salon members have stayed with us for many years during that long period, everybody got to know each other better and they have enjoyed intimate friendships. I’ve also had great pleasure to get to know them well enough so that I consider them like my own family. They are indeed the WAH Salon "family" members.” Thus, the Salon has been serving a very meaningful pivotal part of what the art center is about, giving artists an opportunity to show their works at the very beginning of each year to our audience. This is the time for our loyal Salon members can enjoy getting together with their fellow artists in good cheers and they can deepen their intimate friendships!. This is the time for me to welcome our new Salon members and to introduce them to our friends. I look forward to seeing the happy healthy looks of the salon members and be thrilled to view their new works!!

While many artists joined the Salon some years ago, some discontinued their memberships, but some new artists have joined the membership. They have been contributing their youthful fresh visions, making a good balance with the mature member’s artworks. So, overall the Salon show presents one of the most unique, interesting and rich scope of what is going on in the minds and hearts of the current salon members. Although It was never my intention to limit the number of the Salon members, it is interesting to notice that the number of the members has been quite steady every year being around 60 artists. Due to the limited 2nd floor gallery space, each artist is allowed to exhibit 3 artworks in each show.

Thus I am very pleased and proud that the WAH Salon has grown to be a harmonious, healthy and even exuberant art club. We have proven that the joy of creating can be shared widely and openly with other free spirited artists. With their accumulated kindnesses and generosity volunteering for all all the tasks needed for each annual Salon show, we were able to grow together to become today's WAH Salon Art Club. I am very happy to celebrate the 26th WAH Salon show in good health and high spirit!!

 

I will see you there!

 

Much Love Always,

Yuko Nii                                                

                        

ENTRY FORMS & SAMPLES DOWNLOAD HERE:  https://www.wahcenter.net/2025/01/open-call-the-26th-annual-wah-salon-show/

"Stargazer" at Portal 5, January 11 through February 9

The show featuring paintings by Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget opened this past Saturday. 

Michael Brennan will be in the gallery Saturdays & Sundays, 12-5.   

Please click HERE for directions, door codes, to make an appointment to visit, photographs, and descriptive materials.

Portal 5, 373 Broadway, suite 511, Tribeca, NYC, (646) 249-8563

From the Portal 5 website:

Stargazer is a two-person exhibition by NYC area artists Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget of recent works informed by their mutual love of astronomy and abstraction.

Brennan will present a set of new, small- to mid-sized monochromatic oil paintings on canvas and Deleget will premiere a suite of framed Sunspot Drawings annotated with astronomical information.

The exhibition will be supplemented by a selection of publications about astronomy and abstraction from the artists' respective libraries. 

Please click HERE for more on Michael Brennan. 

International Surrealism Now 2025, The Philippines

From January 15 to February 15, the International Surrealism Now exhibition will be on display, organised by the ADFP Foundation, mentored by the Portuguese artist Santiago Ribeiro, who has been travelling with his art to numerous corners of the world.

International Surrealism Now began in 2010, organised by the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, and now features 126 artists from 52 countries.

 

The facilities where the event will take place are at the Conimbriga Hotel do Paço, whose building origins date back to the 14th century. Here, kings and distinguished members of the European nobility slept. Initially destroyed in the French invasions, the hotel was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1993, it became Pousada de Portugal, and since 2019, it has been a charming 4-star hotel.

 

Please click HERE for more information.

 

Santiago Ribeiro, Spiral, 2009

 

 

Gemini 11 astronaut Dick Gordon "riding" the Agena target vehicle

This image has moved people to call Gordon "a real-life space cowboy." Later, Gordon would fly to the Moon as Command Module pilot in Apollo 12.

Richard Francis Gordon, 1929-2017

Typical Gemini-Agena flight profile