Gartel Mentors
Colleagues & Friends
"There are three classes of people:
Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”
--Leonardo da Vinci
Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”
--Leonardo da Vinci
Decollage The Art of MIMMO ROTELLA
WOW. Where do I start? I had the privilege of meeting Mimmo Rotella or shall I say introduced to him when I had an exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany in 1997. Two men walked into the Amerika Haus where I was showing my work and they said to me, "You must come with me immediately." I turned pale white. They said they were on their way to France and that I should come with them. They were going to an exhibition of a friend, who just happened to be the number1 painter in all of Italy, Mimmo Rotella. I scratched my head wondering "Who would pay my ransom note, as I would surely be kidnapped?"
I politely said, "No thanks fellas....maybe next time." In America if someone said to you "come with me...." you surely would be dead in a matter of hours, found in a low lying ditch some where covered in ants. I guess its slightly different in Europe but what they were suggesting was that I go with them to a foreign country. (We are so dumbass in America we actually think that Germany in relation to France is another galaxy away.) Its only now that the Euro is united, that we tend to think that these countries are "closer" together.
So what IS eye raising about this experience is that I DID indeed take them up on their offer, but a few months later. That summer I was invited to exhibit in Rome and in that instance I had the opportunity to meet Mimmo Rotella. There was a conference and Mimmo gave a speech about his thoughts on Digital Art. As Mimmo was a painter and not knowing who he was, I only listened with half an ear paying attention. - Its crazy how we dismiss someone, "just because." My big error because Mimmo was a genius. He had been Italy's "Warhol" for so many years and a member of Pierre Restany's Nouveaux Realistes group, which included other artists, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Cesar, Spoerri, Arman and Niki de Saint Phalle.
Mimmo and I became instant friends. His great sense of humor, and his stories were so engaging you could listen for hours. It is a really strange feeling to meet someone you know is a ton smarter than you are. You feel like your pants are down to your knees and constantly pulling them up. Mimmo was the real deal. An authentic person. And for this reason it was clear to see how he could "deconstruct" art of others and make something new out of it. Re-contextualize something that held other meanings elsewhere. From that point on, his vision played an important influence on me. I saw a lot of parallels and similarities in our work. Our tools were different but there were similar expressions. Our manner of application regarding mixed media was different. But we both used photo based imagery and painting in combination. Knowing Mimmo influenced me to take it steps further and during the years I was in Italy 1997-1998, my collage work got "heavier" and full. I had to push the envelop to the end.
Mimmo was a good sport and had no problem posing for pictures. I think he liked me and that might have had something to do with it. He enjoyed the fact that I was a New Yorker and loved to tell me stories of living at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. (Trust me I have plenty of my own!! - )) I have to save other Mimmo stories for future BLOGS that will include him. For now, I just want to recognize my dear friend who recently passed. I was so glad to spend the time with him that I did. What a great guy, what a fantastic artist. His art will live forever. Im glad I had the opportunity to immortalize him GARTEL style.
WOW. Where do I start? I had the privilege of meeting Mimmo Rotella or shall I say introduced to him when I had an exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany in 1997. Two men walked into the Amerika Haus where I was showing my work and they said to me, "You must come with me immediately." I turned pale white. They said they were on their way to France and that I should come with them. They were going to an exhibition of a friend, who just happened to be the number1 painter in all of Italy, Mimmo Rotella. I scratched my head wondering "Who would pay my ransom note, as I would surely be kidnapped?"
I politely said, "No thanks fellas....maybe next time." In America if someone said to you "come with me...." you surely would be dead in a matter of hours, found in a low lying ditch some where covered in ants. I guess its slightly different in Europe but what they were suggesting was that I go with them to a foreign country. (We are so dumbass in America we actually think that Germany in relation to France is another galaxy away.) Its only now that the Euro is united, that we tend to think that these countries are "closer" together.
So what IS eye raising about this experience is that I DID indeed take them up on their offer, but a few months later. That summer I was invited to exhibit in Rome and in that instance I had the opportunity to meet Mimmo Rotella. There was a conference and Mimmo gave a speech about his thoughts on Digital Art. As Mimmo was a painter and not knowing who he was, I only listened with half an ear paying attention. - Its crazy how we dismiss someone, "just because." My big error because Mimmo was a genius. He had been Italy's "Warhol" for so many years and a member of Pierre Restany's Nouveaux Realistes group, which included other artists, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Cesar, Spoerri, Arman and Niki de Saint Phalle.
Mimmo and I became instant friends. His great sense of humor, and his stories were so engaging you could listen for hours. It is a really strange feeling to meet someone you know is a ton smarter than you are. You feel like your pants are down to your knees and constantly pulling them up. Mimmo was the real deal. An authentic person. And for this reason it was clear to see how he could "deconstruct" art of others and make something new out of it. Re-contextualize something that held other meanings elsewhere. From that point on, his vision played an important influence on me. I saw a lot of parallels and similarities in our work. Our tools were different but there were similar expressions. Our manner of application regarding mixed media was different. But we both used photo based imagery and painting in combination. Knowing Mimmo influenced me to take it steps further and during the years I was in Italy 1997-1998, my collage work got "heavier" and full. I had to push the envelop to the end.
Mimmo was a good sport and had no problem posing for pictures. I think he liked me and that might have had something to do with it. He enjoyed the fact that I was a New Yorker and loved to tell me stories of living at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. (Trust me I have plenty of my own!! - )) I have to save other Mimmo stories for future BLOGS that will include him. For now, I just want to recognize my dear friend who recently passed. I was so glad to spend the time with him that I did. What a great guy, what a fantastic artist. His art will live forever. Im glad I had the opportunity to immortalize him GARTEL style.
Continuing Inspiration
SMOCA Paik Exhibit
Video Guru Nam June Paik
This is not the first time I am writing about Nam June, nor will it be the last. My beginnings are due to this man's incredible vision. While I take credit for pioneering digital art, I bow my head in honor to my friend and mentor. His vision of video supercedes everyone else's. It also shows you how far ahead he was, and even with his major museum shows at the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museums in New York, people still do not fully understand what Nam June did for the world. In many ways, this is due to the fact that he was a Fluxist, and he did not take himself seriously. One might even go so far as calling him the "Rodney Dangerfield of the art world." (I am cautious when I say that.) The point being, he was full of humor and did not take himself seriously. I know first hand his mind was constantly racing because it had to catch up to his last thought.
I met Nam June at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York. It was a facility created by Gerry O'Grady, so that "video artists" could have a place to work. (What the heck was a video artist in 1975 I asked myself?) But at least I was asking. It took people 15-20 years on the average, before the "average" person could ask such a question. It really was a very small community of people and even smaller when it came to exhibition spaces and sales of art. Who even knew what the tangible product was and how could it be quantified?
Commerce aside, Nam June asked me day one, "Why are you photographing the screen with a still camera? "What are you doing? I replied, "I am a photographer but prior a painter. I see video art as a picture you hang on the wall like a painting." He said to me straight away,, "You are a crazy man." - I took this as a very high compliment. And so after creating these initial works, I knew in that moment that this was going to be my life's calling. That the electronic medium was going to be the communicative tool of the future.
Nam June fostered this kind of insight. He was very happy to know that he influenced a young mind. Several years later in his studio on Green Street in Soho, Nam June whispered to me, "Don't tell anyone I do not know how to use a computer." "Best kept secret," he said!" And so, I never said a word until now. It didn't matter, he had the vision and it was extraordinary.
Nam June was kind enough to write the Introduction to my first book, "Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance" which was published by Gibbs Smith in Utah. Nam June was both witty and funny. Typically Nam June. The book has been out of print and out of circulation. It can be found in many libraries. To Nam June's knowledge, it is the first full monograph written on anyone's Computer Art. I think of Nam June every day. He is indeed the reason I do what I do every day of my life. Thankful am I.
Honoring Paik Optica Festival
Spain
One year rolls into the next. I keep turning around and its preparation for ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH. This show has definitely kept the pulse of the entire art world on Miami. A good place to be considering Ive been here for the last 14 years, and have been there longer in my "mind's eye." My parents used to go down to Miami Beach when I was a young teenager vacationing at the Nautilus Hotel on 18th Street and Collins. My dad and I used to walk Lincoln Road when they had discount shoe stores with racks that only had sizes with no boxes and no salesman. It was the first wholesale shoe store I had ever seen. My dad was quite flamboyant and I recall him purchasing a pair of "orange suede shoes." Matter of fact, I still have them. Good news, my foot was the same size as my dad. However, of late Im sure it is a lot wider. ))
I mention ART BASEL in the blog because the magazine art.es from Spain was a co-sponsor of an event I threw at MANSION on Thursday December 7, 2006 during the the ART BASEL FAIR. In their magazine they showcased my tribute art work I created to my friend and mentor Nam June Paik. The work was revered as a special work during the OPTICA VIDEO FESTIVAL in Spain. I was happy to contribute as the last time I was in Spain was during my visit to the Guggenheim Bilbao with my friend and art agent Antonia Blasco. Spain is such a great country (at least to an outsider). It feels very much alive and creative. How can it not be when it highlights great artists like Goudi, Miro, Picasso, Dali, and Tapies? Great art can be found everywhere though everyone is claiming Christopher Columbus as their own.
My salutations to Nam June Paik at every turn. A genius of an artist, with a wonderful sense of humor. Forever missed by me.
Laurence Gartel
Boca Raton, Florida
July 21, 2008
This is not the first time I am writing about Nam June, nor will it be the last. My beginnings are due to this man's incredible vision. While I take credit for pioneering digital art, I bow my head in honor to my friend and mentor. His vision of video supercedes everyone else's. It also shows you how far ahead he was, and even with his major museum shows at the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museums in New York, people still do not fully understand what Nam June did for the world. In many ways, this is due to the fact that he was a Fluxist, and he did not take himself seriously. One might even go so far as calling him the "Rodney Dangerfield of the art world." (I am cautious when I say that.) The point being, he was full of humor and did not take himself seriously. I know first hand his mind was constantly racing because it had to catch up to his last thought.
I met Nam June at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York. It was a facility created by Gerry O'Grady, so that "video artists" could have a place to work. (What the heck was a video artist in 1975 I asked myself?) But at least I was asking. It took people 15-20 years on the average, before the "average" person could ask such a question. It really was a very small community of people and even smaller when it came to exhibition spaces and sales of art. Who even knew what the tangible product was and how could it be quantified?
Commerce aside, Nam June asked me day one, "Why are you photographing the screen with a still camera? "What are you doing? I replied, "I am a photographer but prior a painter. I see video art as a picture you hang on the wall like a painting." He said to me straight away,, "You are a crazy man." - I took this as a very high compliment. And so after creating these initial works, I knew in that moment that this was going to be my life's calling. That the electronic medium was going to be the communicative tool of the future.
Nam June fostered this kind of insight. He was very happy to know that he influenced a young mind. Several years later in his studio on Green Street in Soho, Nam June whispered to me, "Don't tell anyone I do not know how to use a computer." "Best kept secret," he said!" And so, I never said a word until now. It didn't matter, he had the vision and it was extraordinary.
Nam June was kind enough to write the Introduction to my first book, "Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance" which was published by Gibbs Smith in Utah. Nam June was both witty and funny. Typically Nam June. The book has been out of print and out of circulation. It can be found in many libraries. To Nam June's knowledge, it is the first full monograph written on anyone's Computer Art. I think of Nam June every day. He is indeed the reason I do what I do every day of my life. Thankful am I.
Honoring Paik Optica Festival
Spain
One year rolls into the next. I keep turning around and its preparation for ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH. This show has definitely kept the pulse of the entire art world on Miami. A good place to be considering Ive been here for the last 14 years, and have been there longer in my "mind's eye." My parents used to go down to Miami Beach when I was a young teenager vacationing at the Nautilus Hotel on 18th Street and Collins. My dad and I used to walk Lincoln Road when they had discount shoe stores with racks that only had sizes with no boxes and no salesman. It was the first wholesale shoe store I had ever seen. My dad was quite flamboyant and I recall him purchasing a pair of "orange suede shoes." Matter of fact, I still have them. Good news, my foot was the same size as my dad. However, of late Im sure it is a lot wider. ))
I mention ART BASEL in the blog because the magazine art.es from Spain was a co-sponsor of an event I threw at MANSION on Thursday December 7, 2006 during the the ART BASEL FAIR. In their magazine they showcased my tribute art work I created to my friend and mentor Nam June Paik. The work was revered as a special work during the OPTICA VIDEO FESTIVAL in Spain. I was happy to contribute as the last time I was in Spain was during my visit to the Guggenheim Bilbao with my friend and art agent Antonia Blasco. Spain is such a great country (at least to an outsider). It feels very much alive and creative. How can it not be when it highlights great artists like Goudi, Miro, Picasso, Dali, and Tapies? Great art can be found everywhere though everyone is claiming Christopher Columbus as their own.
My salutations to Nam June Paik at every turn. A genius of an artist, with a wonderful sense of humor. Forever missed by me.
Laurence Gartel
Boca Raton, Florida
July 21, 2008
Foreword by Paik
Gartel & Steve Rutt, Inventor Behind Video Animation
Steve Rutt, an engineer, inventor and artist whose early video animation system made images expand and contract and leap and dance, and in so doing helped propel the video-art revolution of the 1970s, died on May 20 in Manhattan. He was 66.
With Bill Etra, Mr. Rutt developed the Rutt/Etra video synthesizer in 1972. An analog device that lets the user manipulate a video signal in real time, it offered a means of producing animated images and special effects long before the advent of digital video technology.
The device was used by some of the most notable video artists of the period, including Nam June Paik, widely described as the father of the medium, and Woody and Steina Vasulka, who had founded the Kitchen, the avant-garde performance space in Manhattan, in 1971.
In an early example of video animation in a Hollywood movie, the Rutt/Etra generated the logo of the fictional Union Broadcasting System in “Network,” Sidney Lumet’s 1976 picture. It was also used in producing many television commercials.
The video camera is a literal creature. In its first incarnation, at midcentury, it was the sole, unwieldy province of television studios and was used strictly to document.
By the late 1960s, smaller, lighter video recorders like the Sony Portapak put video into the hands of individuals. But even then, what the camera saw was usually what the viewer got.
“People didn’t know what to do with it,” Jim Lindner, an authority on video preservation technology, said in a telephone interview. “It was almost like going back to the first film recording: people took pictures of moving trains and people walking down the street.”
Enter the artists, who recognized video’s potential as an expressive medium. “As part of this whole new exploration of this way to produce art, people wanted to do something different,” Mr. Lindner said. “In regular art, people had moved from representation to abstract art, and in video the same thing happened.”
What was needed was the ability to disarrange the image at will by transforming the signal that came from the camera. The Rutt/Etra, a 19-by-40-inch box teeming with knobs and dials, made this possible. While it was not the first video synthesizer, it is among the first to have been made specifically for individual users — small, inexpensive and uncomplicated enough to be employed without recourse to special facilities or trained engineers.
It let the artist control the horizontal and the vertical, roll the image or make it flutter, change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
Mr. Rutt and Mr. Etra built about two dozen of the machines, which sold for several thousand dollars and were bought by artists, universities and experimental production studios including the WNET Channel 13 Television Laboratory in New York.
Steven Alexander Rutt was born in Manhattan on Feb. 26, 1945, and reared in Great Neck, on Long Island. His father and uncle worked in the family’s electronics company. By the time he was a child, his daughter said, Steve was wiring his grade-school auditorium for sound and video.
Mr. Rutt’s marriage to Rebecca L. McGriff ended in divorce. Besides their daughter, Victoria, Mr. Rutt is survived by a sister, Mary Rutt.
A Manhattan resident, Mr. Rutt was the longtime owner of Rutt Video & Interactive, a video postproduction company there.
The Rutt/Etra synthesizer, which had a vogue of about a decade, was eventually displaced by digital technologies. But in a kind of post-modern electronic justice, there is now a plug-in app for the Mac that lets the makers of digital videos simulate the analog look of Rutt/Etra animation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/steve-rutt-an-inventor-behind-early-video-animation-dies-at-66.html
With Bill Etra, Mr. Rutt developed the Rutt/Etra video synthesizer in 1972. An analog device that lets the user manipulate a video signal in real time, it offered a means of producing animated images and special effects long before the advent of digital video technology.
The device was used by some of the most notable video artists of the period, including Nam June Paik, widely described as the father of the medium, and Woody and Steina Vasulka, who had founded the Kitchen, the avant-garde performance space in Manhattan, in 1971.
In an early example of video animation in a Hollywood movie, the Rutt/Etra generated the logo of the fictional Union Broadcasting System in “Network,” Sidney Lumet’s 1976 picture. It was also used in producing many television commercials.
The video camera is a literal creature. In its first incarnation, at midcentury, it was the sole, unwieldy province of television studios and was used strictly to document.
By the late 1960s, smaller, lighter video recorders like the Sony Portapak put video into the hands of individuals. But even then, what the camera saw was usually what the viewer got.
“People didn’t know what to do with it,” Jim Lindner, an authority on video preservation technology, said in a telephone interview. “It was almost like going back to the first film recording: people took pictures of moving trains and people walking down the street.”
Enter the artists, who recognized video’s potential as an expressive medium. “As part of this whole new exploration of this way to produce art, people wanted to do something different,” Mr. Lindner said. “In regular art, people had moved from representation to abstract art, and in video the same thing happened.”
What was needed was the ability to disarrange the image at will by transforming the signal that came from the camera. The Rutt/Etra, a 19-by-40-inch box teeming with knobs and dials, made this possible. While it was not the first video synthesizer, it is among the first to have been made specifically for individual users — small, inexpensive and uncomplicated enough to be employed without recourse to special facilities or trained engineers.
It let the artist control the horizontal and the vertical, roll the image or make it flutter, change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
Mr. Rutt and Mr. Etra built about two dozen of the machines, which sold for several thousand dollars and were bought by artists, universities and experimental production studios including the WNET Channel 13 Television Laboratory in New York.
Steven Alexander Rutt was born in Manhattan on Feb. 26, 1945, and reared in Great Neck, on Long Island. His father and uncle worked in the family’s electronics company. By the time he was a child, his daughter said, Steve was wiring his grade-school auditorium for sound and video.
Mr. Rutt’s marriage to Rebecca L. McGriff ended in divorce. Besides their daughter, Victoria, Mr. Rutt is survived by a sister, Mary Rutt.
A Manhattan resident, Mr. Rutt was the longtime owner of Rutt Video & Interactive, a video postproduction company there.
The Rutt/Etra synthesizer, which had a vogue of about a decade, was eventually displaced by digital technologies. But in a kind of post-modern electronic justice, there is now a plug-in app for the Mac that lets the makers of digital videos simulate the analog look of Rutt/Etra animation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/arts/steve-rutt-an-inventor-behind-early-video-animation-dies-at-66.html
Video Pioneer and good good friend, Peer Bode.
If I Were Kandinsky Blog, by Gartel
IN MEMORIUM
To mother CAROL GARTEL who taught me everything and fostered my talentL.
Here's to dancing on rainbows on other galaxies. - Your son.
To mother CAROL GARTEL who taught me everything and fostered my talentL.
Here's to dancing on rainbows on other galaxies. - Your son.
GARTEL receives the FOTOMentor "LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT" Award, Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 2009.
(c) 2011 Laurence M. Gartel;
All Rights Reserved for Graphic & Written Content
Use by Explicit Written Permission Only
[email protected]
All Rights Reserved for Graphic & Written Content
Use by Explicit Written Permission Only
[email protected]