Miami Art Fair

 It's the time of year for the art fairs in South Florida.  The oldest, and still my favorite,

is the Miami Art Fair.  It used to be held further north, in Wynwood, but it now takes

place right across from the Arsht Cultural Center further south.  This year there are

more than 240 galleries taking part, with thousands of art works.

Roy Lichtenstein.  "Landscape Mobile."  1991  Pop Art

Lichtenstein here combines several styles - cartoon drawing, a Calder mobile, landscape,

and abstraction.  It is simple and yet sophisticated.

Morris Louis "Omega."  Manuel Neri "Woman."  Joan Mitchell "Then and Now."

The two paintings are abstract expressionism; the Mitchell was asking $6.8 million.

Manuel Neri.  "Standing Woman." plaster 1995
Manuel Neri (b. 1930) is an American sculptor who is recognized for his life-size
figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble, as well as for his
association with the Bay Area Figurative Movement during the 1960s.
He lives and works in San Francisco.

Henri Matisse.  "Swimmer,"  1947  One page in the book "Jazz."

Matisse was commission to illustrate a book of poems.  His physical condition was

deteriorating, and he could not hold a pen or brush.  So he used a shears to cut forms

out of construction paper and had an assistant arrange them on the floor.

The forms are wonderfully sinuous, like seaweed wafting in the ocean.

Henri Matisse.  "Trapeze."  from "Jazz"  1947.

More cut-out forms showing a trapese, the net below, shadows from the spotlights

drifting over the audience.  One page was selling for $50,000.

Keith Haring.  "Toreador."

Keith Haring was an American graffiti artist who worked with strong outlines,

simple forms, bright colors.  The image is derived ultimately from Picasso.

David Drebin.  "Don't Ever Call Me Again"   Neon

Drebin is one the artists who uses words both as colored images and also

for the intellectual content they bear.  These neon signs are highly decorative

and skilfully made, yet I can't get away from the meanings as well.

Lionel Scocciamaro.  "Four Objects."  Fiberglass  2016

I chatted with Lionel in the booth.  These are four of twelve objects on display.

He began by putting a piece of tree trunk on a wood lathe and creating this form.

He then made a mold of it.  Then he put three layers of resin inside.  When they dried and

hardened, he painted them with enamels, then coated them with  three coats of acrylic.

They are about 14 inches high.

Robert Indiana.  "Hope."  Steel  2004.  Pop Art.

This sculpture is about 3 feet high.  It is an intricate sculpture of curving lines,

solid masses, voids, colors and shadows.  It is also a word from which I cannot

separate myself.  It ahs become highly popular all over the world.

Al Held.  "F12-87 R."
Al Held was an American Abstract Expressionist painter.  He was
particularly well known for his large scale Hard Edge paintings
depicting infinite and often confusing space.  He taught art
at Yale University.

Thomas Downing.  "Eight by Eight."  8x8 feet

Thomas Downing (1928–1985) was an American painter, associated with the 

Washington Color Field Movement, along with Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis.

Hans Hofmann.  "Red, Yellow, Black."  Hofmann was from Germany,

but fled to the U.S. and became a highly influential teacher.  In paintings such

as this he explored how areas of color affected each other so that some seem to

come forward and others to recede to the back of the space.

Friedel Dzubas.  "Summer 1972."   4 x 4 feet

Dzubas was a German born abstract artist who fled Nazi Germany and

came to live in new York.  His paintings are part of the Color Field

and Lyrical Abstraction movements.  This wonderful work

radiates the warmth and glow of a summer afternoon.

Jules Olitsky.  "Patutsky Passion."  1963

Olitsky was another of the Color Field painters who worked

on a very large scale with large fields of color.

Lucio Fontana.  "Concewtto Spaziale - Pink."

Fontana one day accidentally pierces a canvas he was working on with 

a knife.  He found the result intriguing.  Notice the many subtle variations

in the rose and pink color, which look like space receding.  And then the

hole actually recedes and opens up.

Speedy Graphito.  "Art Trouble."  2016  8x8 feet

Speedy is actually a French artist in Paris who is extremely popular,

working both in fine arts and also advertising, using a Pop Art and

Graffiti Art style.  Here he juxtaposes Pinocchio with famous Pop

paintings by Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Wesselmann.

Speedy Graphito.  "Bankable."  2016

Speedy combines popular and valuable Pop images by artists and the Disney Studios.

Any one of these images would provide an income for life.

Keith Haring.  "Head."  1978

Keith Haring playfully works with a Picasso-like head and

turns it into a cartoon figure.  He died at 32.

Keith Haring.  "Poster for Nuclear Disarmament Poster."  1982

Haring created posters for many social issues and meetings; he simple

cartoon-like figures could be "read" and understood in any country.

Jonone.  "Walking through Darkness."  2016   8 feet x 12 feet
Jonone was born in Harlem to parents from the Dominican Republic.  His introduction to
street art began when he would see graffiti and tags on subway cars and city walls.  When 
he was 17, he began painting graffiti on the walls and trains in his neighborhood.
He said "The subway is a museum that runs through the city."  He lives in Paris.

Jonone.  "Pointing Finger."  2016

The blue color here is known as French blue and can be found

in many areas of French life, like the smocks workers or

students wear.  It is a wonderful color.