Appropriation/Exchange: Posada and his Descendents

Robert Boyd

 
Dennis McNett, Wolfbat Storyteller (Mask), 2011, wood armature, paper mâché, woodcut prints, 36 x 30 x 26 inches

Dennis McNett in the information card that accompanies Wolfbat Storyteller writes that as a teen, he was impressed by punk rock and skateboard graphics. "When I took my first printmaking class and pulled my first woodblock print it was graphic, bold, and raw. It had the same aesthetic of everything I was into during my early teens." As a printmaker, his eyes were opened to German Expressionist graphics, Japanese woodcuts and the great Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Studying Posada, he saw the "similarity with the punk movement, energy, and graphic sensibility." I think this particular artistic journey is one that many of the artists in Messengers of the Posada Influence, on view at the Museum of Printing History, have more-or-less taken.

This is on my mind because of an editorial recently published by Free Press Houston , "White People Are Killing Day of the Dead". Its author, Luciano Picasso, calls the use of the Day of the Dead by what he identifies as "white organizations" racist.

This goes for Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas. Their 26th Dia de Los Muertos exhibit is the 26th time they turn Day of the Dead into a cultural garage sale to make money. They lump in Dia de Los Muertos with a Gala and Retablo Silent Auction so they can insult us twice over, and there is not one actual alter on their premises that speaks to that day. They make money off this mess to pay for their White programming all year long. I’m sure they will give us the same lip service the Texas Book Festival gave: we have a Hispanic intern  . . . yada yada yada . . . the equivalent of “I’m not racist because I shagged a Hispanic once.”

This goes for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). This is another example of a White arts group taking money for Latino outreach and never reaching Latinos. They’ve got several events for “Day of the Dead” including a DJ party with IKEA-the Swedish plundering of our demographic, and a couple of sorry ass lectures by Germans showing slides of their cool adventures in Mexico. Wow, deep. See, this proves that MFAH stands for Mother Fucking Ass Holes.

It's hard to read this editorial because it is so vituperative and hate-filled. I guess the Museum of Printing History is lucky they didn't get called out by name. I doubt Luciano Picasso would have approved of Wolfbat Storyteller.

But it is hard for me to see McNett's appropriation of Posada's imagery (and via Posada, imagery from the Day of the Dead) as anything but homage to a master. It is an expression of respect.


Artemio Rodriguez, Dia de Muertos en Edo, 2012, linoleum cut print, 25.5 x 16 inches

Of course Luciano Picasso's editorial implies a one-dimensional world of racist appropriators of a victim's culture. It can't explain an image like Dia de Muertos en Edo. Who's appropriating what? Artemio Rodriguez, a Mexican print-maker, went to Japan where he made this print. It's a playful combination of two disparate cultural elements--a 19th century street scene in Edo (as Tokyo was was called until 1868) and the Day of the Dead calaveras.


Artemio Rodriguez, Payasos piden a la virgen alto a la maldita crisis, 2013, linoleum cut, 18.5 x 22 inches

A satirical artist like Rodriguez doesn't worry about offending cultural sensibilities, such as when he sends this group of clowns to make an offering to the Virgin Mary. Except that this is an actual thing--clowns do march every year to make offerings to the Virgin! That's what true satirists discover--and that includes Posada himself--that reality frequently exceeds your ability to make fun of it. All you can do is draw it and proclaim, this crazy thing exists.


Tom Huck, Possum Promenade from "The Bloody Bucket" series, 2000-2005, woodcut, 51.5 x 37.5 inches

Printmaker Tom Huck spoke on the night of the opening. His talk covered his own work and Posada's about whom he was very knowledgeable. The influence was direct--he even tried to use paper that matched the color of the yellowed newsprint on which Posada's woodcuts were printed. But his work avoids the motifs of Posada. Huck comes up with his own. But where the two artists are similar is in their rage and their humor. "The Bloody Bucket" was a series of enormous manic satirical prints. Like Posada or Hogarth or Gillray or so many others, he can be quite jolly while exposing the underside of the society in which we live. The Bloody Bucket was a bar in his hometown of Potosi, Missouri. He takes typical habitués and creates narrative images of them--some mildly pathetic, like the loveable loser dancing with a broom above.


Tom Huck, Joe's Meat Grinder from "The Bloody Bucket" series, 2000-2005, woodcut, 51.75 x 45.75 inches 

Other barflies are less appealing, like the racist WWII vets in Joe's Meat Grinder.  Huck spoke about how he'd hear about "the greatest generation" in reverent terms, and how that didn't jibe with his own experiences at all--that the WWII vets he knew were all unreconstructed racists. That's what a good satirist does--he goes after sacred cows.


The Amazing Hancock Brothers and Carlos Hernandez, Posada: 100 Years On (24 of 100 prints), 2013, screenprint, 18 x 24 inches each

Carlos Hernandez and the Amazing Hancock Brothers teamed up for this enormous tribute to their master. The individual prints in Posada: 100 Years On are full of visual quotes from Posada. Hernandez and the Hancock's have similar styles, but the layering of image and color here reminds me more of Hernadez's work than the Hancocks. Of course, in a collaborative work like this, it's hard to know who did what, and certainly they all have a similar aesthetic--they are, as Huck spoke about in his talk, "outlaw printmakers," who take inspiration from folk culture and often despised subcultures (sideshow banners, for example). Obviously the Day of the Dead is huge for Hernandez--his work is full of calaveras. Every year he puts together a Day of the Dead Rock Stars exhibit. He designed a calavera label for St. Arnold's beer. Their kaleidoscopic remixing of Posada is a beautiful tribute.


The Amazing Hancock Brothers and Carlos Hernandez, Posada: 100 Years On (detail), 2013, screenprint, 18 x 24 inches each

When I see a show like this, I'm reminded of one of my favorite songs, "Chiclete Com Banana", written by Gordurinha and Almira Castilho.

Eu só boto bebop no meu samba
Quando o Tio Sam tocar o tamborim
Quando ele pegar no pandeiro e no zabumba
Quando ele aprender que o samba não é rumba
Aí então eu vou misturar Miami com Copacabana
Chiclete eu misturo com banana
E o meu samba vai ficar assim:
bop-be-bop-be-bop bop-be-bop-be-bop
Eu quero ver a confusão

(I’ll only put bebop in my samba
When Uncle Sam plays the tamborim
When he grabs the pandeiro and zabumba
When he learns that samba isn’t rumba
Then I’ll mix Miami with Copacabana
I’ll mix chewing gum with bananas
And my samba will turn out like this:
bop-be-bop-be-bop bop-be-bop-be-bop
I want to see the confusion )

I first heard this sung by Gilberto Gil, but I like the original 1959 Jackson do Pandeiro version better. When I see the work of the artists in this show, from the U.S. and Mexico, I see the "confusion." And it's glorious.

Pan Recommends for the week of October 17 to October 23

Robert Boyd

THURSDAY


an older piece by Claire Cusack

Claire Cusack: 3 at  Koelsch Gallery, 6–9 pm. A show by assemblagist Claire Cusack.


Tom Huck, The Commander in Thief Rides Again, 2008, Linocut, 18 x 24 inches

Messengers of the Posada Influence featuring Artemio Rodriguez, The Amazing Hancock Brothers, Tom Huck, Dennis McNett and Carlos Hernandez at the Museum of Printing History, 6–8 pm. I saw this partly hung last weekend at Zinefest Houston, and it looks great. There is also a talk today at 5:30 by Tom Huck.

FRIDAY


Nicola Parente installation

Nicola Parente: Pelagico at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, 6–8 pm. Big abstractions by Nicola Parente that remind me (in the photos I've seen) a little of Gerhard Richter's squeegee paintings.


Franklin Sirmans

Lecture by Franklin Sirmans on Prospect.3 at the Menil Collection, 7–8 pm. LACMA curator Franklin Sirmans is the director of next year's Prospect 3, the highly regarded biennial in New Orleans. He'll be talking a bit about his plans for it.



Ellen Fullman: Performance at the CAMH, 7–9 pm Friday and Saturday. For Ellen Fullman's performance, think "world's longest guitar."

SATURDAY


Michael Kennaugh, Red Figure, 2013, graphite, acrylic and wood, 8 x 12 x 9 inches

 Michael Kennaugh, New Work: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture at Moody Gallery, from October 19 (opening reception October 26). Even though the reception is not until next week, you can swing by this Saturday and see work by Michael Kennaugh.


Louviere + Vanessa, Loup Garou, 2005, photograph on metal plate, 53x 33 inches

Louviere + Vanessa at  d. m. allison, 6–8 pm. I don't know anything about these photographers, Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown, but the images on the d.m. allison website are dynamite. (The pair have one of the weirdest websites I have ever seen--you have to draw arrows to navigate it.)

 
Jason Villegas, Polo Pile Tapestry, 2011, fabric assemblage, 35 x 40 inches

Jason Villegas: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly at Peveto, 6–8 pm. The preeminent master of art made of old polo shirts, Jason Villegas, returns. Should be a fun show.


still from PARALLEL by Harun Farocki, 2012, 2-channel installation on single-channel video, color, sound, 17:00 

Aurora Picture Show Presents Kino B: Contemporary Cinema by Berlin-based Artists (Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell, Harun Farocki, Isabella Gresser, Bernd Lützeler, Anna Marziano, Deborah S. Phillips, Michael Poetschko, and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané) at the Aurora Picture Show, 7:30–9:30 pm. A bunch of cool-looking short films and videos.

SUNDAY

 
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pagoda 409, Tyrrhenian Sea, Priano, 1994, 2011, optical glass with black-and-white film

Words and Things: Buddhist Texts and Ritual Objects from Japan at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 11 am – 5 pm. Some very old, very beautiful Buddhist calligraphy and objects, as well as at least one modern one (above).



Houston SLAB Parade & Family Festival at McGregor Park, 1 to 6 pm. Will feature music, spoken-word performance, street artists and, of course, some bad ass vehicles.

Tattooed Squeegee Boys

Robert Boyd

I went to two print events on April 26 and 27 A lot of prints I see these days art quite genteel and pleasant. Printmaking's evolved into a rather polite artform. But it wasn't always the case--look at Minotauromachy, on view in the Picasso show at the MFAH. Look at the nasty satirical prints of 18th century England. And it wasn't the case at Burning Bones Press and the Continental Club.


Tom Huck, Pile-O-Poon from the portfolio Hillbilly Kama Sutra, 2010-12, linoleum cut print, 16" x 16"

Tom Huck is a woodcut and linoleum cut artist from St. Louis. He had a show at Burning Bones Press, a printmaking studio on Yale that is run by Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez is known for his silkscreen gig posters and music images--you might have seen them in exhibits at Cactus Records. As you can see by Huck's work and Hernandez's (in the links), this is neither polite nor genteel. Nor is it academic nor does it consciously operate within a particular theoretical system. It makes no pretense at being avant garde. It is not intellectual nor is it middle-class. It is not the kind of art typically shown in a high-street gallery. Sometimes it's called low-brow art. Whatever the economic origins of the artists, it self-consciously adopts a working class stance. And the price of much of the work is pretty working class, too. You can buy a Carlos Hernandez print from his Etsy shop for $25, although many cost quite a bit more.


Sad Tom Huck

We were chatting about George Jones, who passed away that day, and I asked Huck to pose for a photo. He had a big grin, but I said, "Don't smile so much--George Jones is dead." So that's Tom Huck thinkin' about George Jones. His print operation is called Evil Prints, and he counts as his influences "Albrecht Durer, Jose Guadalupe Posada, R. Crumb and Honore Daumier."


Tom Huck, Stag Night from the portfolio Hillbilly Kama Sutra, 2010-12, linoleum cut print, 16" x 16"


Tom Huck, Pleezing from the portfolio Hillbilly Kama Sutra, 2010-12, linoleum cut print, 16" x 32"


Tom Huck, Hillbilly Kama Sutra portfolio, 2010-12, linoleum cut print, 16" x 16"

The Hillbilly Kama Sutra was a commission for Blab!, a semi-regular periodical devoted to "lowbrow" art and comics. I love the portfolio cover--wood veneer with a glory hole.

The next day, there was an all-day event called "It Came From the Bayou" at the Continental Club, cosponsored by Burning Bones Press and AIGA Houston,  the local designers' organization. Printmakers came from all over the country to show off and sell their work. Everyone had tables, so it felt a bit like a comic convention.


The Continental Club taken over by printmakers


The pool tables in the back were used for display--Tom Huck's table is in the foreground.


From Tom Huck's table


The prints included their share of skateboard art

While a lot of the art included stand-alone pieces, a lot of it was in service of something else--gig posters, skateboard deck designs, etc. The functional art reflects the culture on display--they do rock posters and skateboard art because these are things they're into. (For some print artists, there is no separation between their enthusiasms and their art--the Fort Thunder artists in Providence in the 90s did silk-screened gig posters, hosted music shows, and played in bands themselves.)

The default medium is silkscreen. Silkscreens are quick to do (useful if you have to do a gig poster for a show next week) and have a poster-like visual punch. Obviously silkscreen posters have been associated with rock shows since the sixties, with a revival in the 90s when people like Kozik and Coop came along. But I was surprised at how many woodcut artists were here. If silkscreen is the perfect print medium for designers, woodcut is perfect for showing off one's drawing prowess.

But what I didn't see much of were etchings, engravings or stone lithography. My guess is that those print media are not ideal for the kinds of prints displayed here--large and with maximum graphic impact.



Matt Rebholz signing a comic for me

Matt Rebholz was the exception to the silkscreen/woodcut rule, showing intaglio prints with very fine linework. But he also had two issues of a comic book called The Astronomer for sale. This comic was funded by an outrageously successful Kickstarter campaign (he asked for $4000 and got over $11,000). The comic combines various myths and legends into one grungy epic of cosmic Aztec/Norse Yetis. It reflects another aspect of this subculture--comics (specifically alternative comics).


The Astronomer issue 1 by Matt Rebholz


Courtney Woodliff and her art

Another artist whose work I liked a lot was Coutney Woodliff. It also had an alternative comics vibe, reminding me stylistically of Krystine Kryttre, Jeff/Jess Johnson, Julie Doucet and Michael Dougan. In other words, it has a kind of 80s/90s feel to me. She was selling prints pretty cheap, so I bought one.



This violent image is like a collision with Johnny Cash, Courtney Love and Ed Gein. And that kind of defines the esthetic on display at this show. This was a kind of art that thrilled me when I was younger. Nowadays I get a little tired of the adolescent sensibility of a lot of this art (skulls! chicks! rock music!), but frankly I sometimes need the energy it gives me, especially after a season of somewhat enervating art by people like Liz Magic Laser and Tony Feher.


Sean Starwars' table

This was Sean Starwars table, and unlike many of the artists present, Sean Starwars didn't use his prints to show off his bravura drawing skills or brilliant design--they seem deliberately primitive and consequently rather refreshing. Sometimes stupid has a vitality all its own.



Nonetheless, the average artist here showed a high degree of craft. I wasn't surprised to see this Tshirt on the Infinity Prints table--master printers like Durer are held in high regard by these modern descendents.


Cannonball Press

This giant print from Cannonball Press suggests another influence--carnival and circus posters. The influences on the art here were schizoid--one one hand, renaissance artists like Durer and Hans Holbein are revered; at the same time, abject art like carnival signs and tattoo art are big influences. This speaks to the collapsing of hierarchies that was supposed to have happened with the end of modernism. But from where I sit, those hierarchies still hold sway for the most part--no less than 19th century French artists, we have our academies which offers artists official credentials (an MFA) and collectively look somewhat askance at the kind of artists shown at "It Came From the Bayou." But I don't want to portray this as some kind of great injustice. For one thing, the wall between these art worlds is porous--look at the rise of graffiti art in the estimation of the art world. And second, the printmakers at "It Came From the Bayou" and artists like them have made their own thing. They don't really need validation from Artforum.

There was a third event on Sunday at St. Arnold's brewery, but I didn't attend it. I had seen enough prints that weekend. But this is just the start of the annual print invasion here. PrintHouston has lots of shows and events lined up this summer. I suspect they will mostly printmaking of the polite, genteel school as opposed to the kind Courtney Woodliff and Tom Huck do. But it is nice that PrintHouston started off its season with this big barbaric yawp. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pan Recommends for the week of April 25 to May 1

Robert Boyd

Lots of stuff happening this weekend in the Colquitt and Montrose galleries, but also in spaces we don't hear from that often. Here are a few of the things that caught our eye.

THURSDAY



Nnnnnnnnooooooooooooo by Carrie Cook at the Project Gallery at the UH School of Art, 6-9 pm. I liked her work at the MFA Thesis show, so I expect that this one will be pretty good as well.


Untitled, Victor Vasarely, 37.5" x 38.875", silkscreen

Optical Spaces: The Art of Victor Vasarely at the Museum of Printing History, 6 pm. Vasarely was an artist whose work seemed destined for the walls of dorm rooms. Cosmic eye-candy to be sure, and fun to look at for that reason.

FRIDAY


Tom Huck's THE HILLBILLY KAMA SUTRA at Burning Bones Press, 6 pm. I'm not sure I can add much to what Huck says in this video except to recommend you crank up the Southern Culture on the Skids and check this show out.


Marcelyn McNeil, Lemonworld, 54"x52", oil on canvas

Marcelyn McNeil: Lemonworld at Anya Tish Gallery at 6 pm. I like the way McNeil balances geometric abstraction and expressive brushwork. Her paintings have a beautiful rough-hewn feel.


Anastasia Pelias, Elaine, for Elaine (shade grey, translucent yellow, payne’s grey), 2013 oil on canvas, one painting in two pieces, 72 x 144 inches

Anastasia Pelias: Ritual Devotion at Zoya Tommy Contemporary, 6 pm. And if you need more abstraction, go across the hall to Zoya Tommy and check out New Orleans painter Anastasia Pelias.


University of Houston School of Art: Annual BFA Student Exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum, 6 pm. You saw the MFA Thesis show--now come out and see what the undergrads have been doing.


still from Latham Zearfoss's “Myth of My Anchestors”

Stinky Pinky: a Screening of Experimental Queer Shorts featuring films by Kristin Anchor, Rahne Alexander, Zach Meyer, Dorian Bonelli, Tessa Siddle, Chris Vargas, Matt Wolf, & Latham Zearfoss at Skydive from 8 to 11 pm. Skydive is back with a short film program.

SATURDAY


Burning Bones Press & AIGA's: It Came From The Bayou! featuring Tom Huck, Cannonball Press and Dennis McNett, Sean Starwars, The Amazing Hancock Brothers, Workhorse Printmakers and Burning Bones Press at The Continental Club , noon to 6 pm. Printmaking demos, lots of prints, and the sounds of DJ PsychedelicSexPanther--sounds like a high energy event.


Russell Prince, The Silver Chair, 2012, mixed media collage, 20X30”

Russell Prince: Pastmodern at Front Gallery 4–6 pm. Collagist Russell Prince is a show curated by Jay Wehnert from Intuitive Eye.



Kelley Devine: Face Face at Winter Street Studios Gallery, 5-9 pm. Giant faces give viewers cold appraising gazes in the art of Kelley Divine, on view at Winter Street.



Obscure Workings: Anthony J Suber at Commerce Street Gallery, 6 pm. An artist I have never heard of, but I liked the artwork on his website.


Troy Dugas, Falstaff, 2009 Beer labels, 60 x 60" -- this old piece will probably not be in the show, but it's typical of Dugas's work  

Troy Dugas: Modernized for Mildness and Rusty Scruby: Sink Sketches in the micro space at McMurtrey Gallery, 6 pm. Two artists who take printed material, cut it up, and make visuallydazzling new things out of it--they seem like a natural pairing.