Saturday, November 9, 2013

From the Web: Ushio Shinohara - Cutie and the Boxer



I've always admired the work of Ushio Shinohara. There is now a movie, Cutie and the Boxer, about his boxing paintings. 

Cutie and the Boxer
The Japanese Neo-Dadaist Makes a Slow-Mo Splash
A paean to eternal themes of love, sacrifice and the enduring pull of the creative process, Zachary Heinzerling makes his filmmaking debut with Cutie and the Boxer, a meditative observation of painter and boxer Ushio Shinohara. This exclusive sequence, shot on a Phantom camera, shows Ushiro pummeling the glass ‘canvas’ with affecting vigor. The former enfant terrible moved to New York from his native Japan in 1969 in search of international recognition that has never quite materialized. In the Sundance-fêted documentary, Heinzerling captures the Octogenarian and his long-suffering wife and de facto assistant Noriko preparing for their first joint exhibition: Ushio will present a selection of his ‘box paintings’––Jackson Pollock-inspired abstractions created by hurling paint-covered boxing gloves across a massive canvas, and Noriko, a showcase a series of witty illustrations entitled “Cutie and the Bullie,” which satirize their turbulent 40-year-old marriage. “Ultimately, my goal was to absorb the audience in the raw spirit and beauty that emanates from the couple,” explains Heinzerling. “To open a door onto the creative and very private world where the rhythms of the Shinoharas’s lives play out.” The result is an intimate tapestry of a challenging partnership, cemented by a bond that transcends their various artistic and financial impediments.

Article sourced from: nowness.com
Additionally, further information regarding Ushio Shinohara
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Sunday, November 3, 2013

From the Archive: Studio d'una Citta




Continuing with ‘From the Archive’. My 2003 work Studio d’una Citta (etching, cyanotype, woodcut, and lithograph). 

Antonietta Covino-Beehre’s set of eight prints, entitled Studio d’una citta were enclosed in a box with an etched copper lid. The scenes of Rome and Florence in Italy and their surrounding areas were made using traditional printmaking techniques of etching, cyanotype, wood engraving and lithography. Covino-Beehre has explored her paternal Italian heritage and its associated domestic traditions in her winning work. The boxed set makes an interesting addition to the City of Fremantle Art Collection as it represents several printmaking practices in the one work, and through its subject of Italian heritage which is a rich cultural element of the Fremantle community.

The 28th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award 2003: "Among the most exciting inclusions in every print award are the artists' books, one of which took out this year's first prize. A wonderful work titled Studio D'una Cittá (Study of a City) by Antonietta Covino-Beehre. Created to fit in a casket like box, the eight-folded gabled prints also have centrally opening folds or doors. The set of prints removed from the box become a small installation of buildings, each exploring monuments, texts, textures, colours that attest to the grandeur that once was Rome and that fascinates and romances even today. The layering of images and narratives recall the strata of Roman history which seem neverending". (Artlink Vol. 23 No.4 - Paola Anselmi)