MICHIEL KEUPER/

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Springtime / Raise your hands up in the air

Past Present (Past Presence), 2011 - ink, acrylic on magazine

Past Present (Past Presence), 2010 - ink, acrylic on magazine

all drawings © Michiel Keuper

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Juxtapositions VI / Ingres & Tumblr

Ingres - La Grande Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 91x162cm, Musée du Louvre

via Tumblr, 2011

Monday, March 21, 2011

Under the Radar / music, art and ideas

I'll be showing some of my paintings and works on paper during this one-evening event, this coming friday March 25 at RufReaktor in Berlin friedrichshain. For more info and location click here.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Juxtapositions V / Helen Frankenthaler & Saul Leiter

Helen Frankenthaler - Portrait of a Lady in White, 1979, acrylic on canvas, 209x123cm

Saul Leiter - Street Scene, 1959

Monday, March 14, 2011

Peter Orlovsky / Frist Poem

Peter Orlovsky - Venice, September 1957. Photo © Allen Ginsberg Estate

FRIST POEM

A rainbow comes pouring into my window, I am electrified. 
Songs burst from my breast, all my crying stops, mistory fills 
    the air. 
I look for my shues under my bed. 
A fat colored woman becomes my mother. 
I have no false teeth yet. Suddenly ten children sit on my lap. 
I grow a beard in one day. 
I drink a hole bottle of wine with my eyes shut. 
I draw on paper and I feel I am two again. I want everybody to 
    talk to me. 
I empty the garbage on the tabol. 
I invite thousands of bottles into my room, June bugs I call them. 
I use the typewritter as my pillow. 
A spoon becomes a fork before my eyes. 
Bums give all their money to me. 
All I need is a mirror for the rest of my life. 
My frist five years I lived in chicken coups with not enough 
    bacon. 
My mother showed her witch face in the night and told stories of 
    blue beards. 
My dreams lifted me right out of my bed. 
I dreamt I jumped into the nozzle of a gun to fight it out with a 
    bullet. 
I met Kafka and he jumped over a building to get away from me. 
My body turned into sugar, poured into tea I found the meaning 
    of life 
All I needed was ink to be a black boy. 
I walk on the street looking for eyes that will caress my face. 
I sang in the elevators believing I was going to heaven. 
I got off at the 86th floor, walked down the corridor looking for 
    fresh butts. 
My comes turns into a silver dollar on the bed. 
I look out the window and see nobody, I go down to the street, 
    look up at my window and see nobody. 
So I talk to the fire hydrant, asking "Do you have bigger tears 
    then I do?" 
Nobody around, I piss anywhere. 
My Gabriel horns, my Gabriel horns: unfold the cheerfulies, 
    my gay jubilation.

Peter Orlovsky, Nov. 24th, 1957, Paris

[from Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs, Pocket Poets Series #37, City Lights Books ©1978 by Peter Orlovsky.]

photo © LIFE

"
Peter Orlovsky was best known as Allen Ginsberg's lover and companion of almost three decades, from about the fifties to the seventies. What is less well known is that he was a wonderful poet in his own right. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and antholologies. Peter died May 30, 2010 at the age of 76.
(...) Peter couldn't spell. Or, let's look at it another way. This is how Peter spelled. I'm assuming that most publishers of his work attempted to keep his own spellings intact. I believe Peter's spelling rendered his thoughts accurately. (...)"

Brian Nation on Peter Orlovsky /
source: http://www.boppin.com/orlovsky.html

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Colour rage / Express yourself

via basilegeiser.tumblr.com

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Colour by nature / The blue stork

Blue stork in Biegen, Brandenburg, spring 2010

The secret of the stork... nobody knew how or why... Wonder if he comes back as colourful this year...

Friday, March 04, 2011

Juxtapositions IV / Ed van der Elsken & Théodore Chassériau

Ed van der Elsken, Amsterdam, 1956

Théodore Chassériau - Les deux soeurs, 1843, oil on canvas, 180x135cm, Louvre Paris

Monday, February 28, 2011

Kinetics / Ilona Kálnoky - 'aROUNDme'

Intriguing installation consisting of 5 rotating mirrors. In a way deceptively simple and at the same time compelling. The kind of installation so ingenuous and therefore the more surprising in its effect that it makes you wonder why nobody came up with this idea before. Or even: 'I could have thought of this...'. But then... I didn't.

In that regard it reminded me of some of the installations of Olafur Eliasson, who by the way was also a participant in this group show at Galerie Niels Borg Jensen.

The exhibition 'Space Invasion' showed works of artists who work around the concept of 'space' as well as 'body in space'. As the gallery is exclusively dedicated to print making and sets out for contemporary artists "to work with print media", most of the works exhibited were prints. As such, the Kálnoky installation 'aROUNDme' was an exception to the rule. A beautiful exception.

Other participating artists were Olafur Eliasson as mentioned, William Anastasi, Elmgreen & Dragset, Thomas Demand, Kirsten Everberg, Clay Ketter, Eva Löfdahl and Al Taylor.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Juxtapositions III / Don Rodan & Pablo Picasso

Don Rodan - 'Vanity', 1981

Pablo Picasso - 'The Harlequin's Family', 1905, gouache

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Juxtapositions II / Wolfgang Tillmans & Saul Leiter

Wolfgang Tillmans - 'Lighter III', 2006

Saul Leiter - 'Through Boards', 1957

First there was the visual connection that hit me, leafing through my box with postcards. But only while preparing this post, it struck me that Tillmans' title, 'Lighter III', is a phonetic reference to (Saul) Leiter. Coincidence? One might assume that Tillmans knows the master and it goes in the category 'quoting'. Intentional or subconscious, that remains a question. I'm intrigued since I'm fascinated as much by process as a final art work itself. But in the end, good art is good art I suppose.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Juxtapositions / Wolfgang Tillmans & Helen Frankenthaler

Wolfgang Tillmans - Kaskade, 2001

Helen Frankenthaler - Into the West, 1977, acrylic on canvas, 244x335cm

Friday, February 18, 2011

The State of Things / video

12 Hours State Vania Rovisco / Maria F. Scaroni from vaniarovisco on Vimeo.

In november 2010 I was invited to participate in 'The State of Things', a 12 hour ongoing performance by Maria Francesca Scaroni and Vania Rovisco. As they were continuously on stage from 10am to 10pm, 18 guests, amongst them dancers, actors, musicians, writers, photographers and artists, joined and interacted with them and the other performers. Audience was able to watch from 3 sides and could come and stay (or go and come back) during the whole performance for as long as they wanted.
During my first entrance, early afternoon, I painted 14 banners using liquid acrylic paint and ink (3.30).
In the second slot, early evening, I made a collage on the back wall, using the drawings as well as magazine cut outs (6.33). For photos of this and more look at my previous post on The State of Things > by clicking here and scroll down.

>> More information, photo's and video's to be found at: www.thestateofthingsprocess.wordpress.com.

>> Or visit the website of Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur (AADK), the Berlin-based artistic network, focusing on performance, live installation, video work, soundscapes and literature, that counts Maria and Vania amongst its members: www.aadk.org.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Another random / from the series 'Past Present (Past Presence)' 2010

'Past Present (Past Presence)', ink and acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper, 2010

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Flea market treasure find / Inspired by Matisse

Anonymous, 1980 / Henri Matisse, 'A Bottle of Schiedam', 1896

I cannot resist flea markets. And I cannot resist books. So you can just imagine what our apartment looks like. Exactly.

I gave up on the ideal of living in a Zen house long ago. I like the aesthetics and the illusion that it will make me stylish and peaceful, and yes, every now and then I am seduced by an occasional World of Interiors editorial, but I generally came to accept that I'm not ready to live in a Jil Sander shop environment and I am fine with it. It's not according to my nature. At least not now. I simply like (to find) things. And books. And I have a life.

Zen will be my next life. I promise.

Yesterday I found another great book. With paintings of Henri Matisse, cataloguing his work in Soviet Art collections. The book dates back from 1978, so it might not be up to date anymore. But then who knows. I was never in Russia. It is well documented, with a lot of cross references in the back. A treasure for the amateur art historian. When I took off my gloves to leaf through the pages to be really sure that it would be worthwhile carrying some extra kilos around town for the rest of the afternoon (with books I have very low standards, I admit), I made a cute discovery... somebody else had been inspired by Matisse some 30 years ago... Copying the masters, you can't start young enough.

The back of one of the drawings is dated 5-X-80. There is also a name, but it's hard to decipher. I think Gabriele comes closest. Should somebody recognize his or her early artistic attempts, let me know and I will return them to you. Great drawings. I hope you went on with it.

Henri Matisse, 'Woman in Green', 1909 / Anonymous, 1980

Anonymous, 1980 / Henri Matisse, 'Conversation', 1909

Anonymous, 1980 / Henri Matisse, 'Still life with Shell on black Marble', 1940

Henri Matisse, 'Young Woman in blue Blouse', 1939 / Anonymous, 1980

Book cover, Aurora-Kunstverlag, Leningrad, 1978

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Drawings / 'brotherhood'

no title, ink on paper © Michiel Keuper, 2010

Friday, January 14, 2011

Random / from the series 'Past Present (Past Presence)' 2010

'Past Present (Past Presence)', ink and acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper, 2010

Saturday, January 08, 2011

The State of Things / november 2010

In November 2010 I was invited to participate in 'The State of Things', a 12-hour ongoing performance of Maria Francesca Scaroni and Vania Rovisco. As they were continuously on stage from 10am to 10pm, 18 guests, amongst them dancers, actors, musicians, writers, photographers, and artists, joined and interacted with the performance and the other performers.
There was an open score, meaning that every participant had a certain time slot when to be on stage and roughly knowing what to do, or what to work with. Otherwise, the piece was not set; anything could happen, anything would happen.
During my first entrance, early afternoon, I painted 14 banners using liquid acrylic paint and ink. The transparent sheets I was painting on (each 33cm wide, 2mtr long) were hanging from lines that were put up across the space so the audience was able to watch from every angle. The banners, as well as the rest of the setting, were designed by Metka Pretnar.
In the second slot, in the evening, I made a collage on the back wall, using the drawings as well as magazine cut outs.

For a video, look > here

>> More information, photo's and video's to be found at www.thestateofthingsprocess.wordpress.com.
>> Or visit the website of Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur (AADK), the Berlin-based artistic network, specializing in performance, live installation, video work, soundscapes and literature, that counts Maria and Vania amongst its members: www.aadk.org.