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MICHEL THÉVOZ: EXAMINING THE “PATHOLGY OF THE FRAME”
The Swiss art historian Michel Thévoz’s 2020 book Pathologie du cadre: Quand l’art brut s’éclate (Pathology of the Frame: When Art Brut Explodes) served as the basis of an exhibition at the Collection de l’Art Brut in Switzerland. Here, we look at Thévoz’s ideas about “frames” and “framing,” and at how some artists use framing devices within their compositions.
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DICK HIGGINS’ SOMETHING ELSE PRESS WAS SOMETHING ELSE
In 1963, Dick Higgins, an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, and key figure in the international Fluxus community of avant-gardists, established Something Else Press, which published concrete poetry, works by Fluxus artists, and other experimental material. It folded in 1974. Now, Primary Information, a Brooklyn-based company, has issued A Something Else Reader, an anthology featuring highlights from the works Higgins and his collaborators introduced decades ago. Sarah Fensom reports.
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WINTER IN THE BRUSH: MICHAEL NEWMAN’S NEW PAINTINGS
The American artist Michael Newman has been living and working on the east coast of Taiwan since just before the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020. Having lived in Japan for a long time in the past, his return to East Asia after having been based in rainy Seattle in recent years has brought him back in touch with a different kind of winter. We catch up with him and the new paintings he has been making during his region’s version of the baby-it’s-cold-outside season.
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DISCOVERY: SHIRLEY COHEN’S BOLD ART OF COLOR, HOPE, AND IDEALISM
The American self-taught artist Shirley Cohen, who died in 2019, in her nineties, created a diverse body of art: abstract and semi-abstract paintings, murals, experimental works on glass. Moved by the progressivism of the FDR era, Cohen’s art conveys a sense of joy and optimism through bold gestures, without sentimentality. A brutjournal DISCOVERY, coming soon.
HAROLD GRANUCCI’S GEOMETRY = A SAVANT’S ARTISTIC VISION
Born in 1916, Harold Granucci worked as an accountant and furniture-store owner; after retiring, he dedicated his time to creating compositions rooted in mathematically modeled patterns. Granucci, who died at the age of 90, left an artistic oeuvre that is still surfacing and will be presented at the 2023 Outsider Art Fair in New York (Mar 2–5). See our report, coming soon.
HENRY FLYNT: RUINOUS SPIRITUALITY
In the 1960s, the American artist-philosopher Henry Flynt, who was associated with Fluxus, coined the term “concept art” and became known for his anti-art demonstrations against certain art institutions. Known for his philosophical writings, he recently published a new book, Ruinous Spirituality. We’ll look at this new volume and also at its predecessor, which examined the topic of art and spirituality in its own ways. Coming soon.
EVA PETRIC: ELABORATING AN ART OF SHADOWS & EMOTIONS
Based in Vienna and New York, the artist Eva Petric is interested in scents and shadows. Examining these subjects in her work, she has created a “periodic table of shadow emotions.” She tells brutjournal about what she’s up to in the laboratory of her imagination. Coming soon.
VIEW THE FILM, FREE OF CHARGE: “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION”
The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created remarkable works — oil paintings, ink drawings on paper, complex etchings — that remain hard to classify according to existing style or genre labels. In 2017, Edward M. Gómez (brutjournal’s founder) and cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. This 42-minute-long film will reside permanently here, on the magazine’s website. It may be viewed in its entirety, free of charge. Watch it and get to know the bright, bizarre world of a techno-baroque visionary. Free access to the article and the film.
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