The next article was particularly notable to me in that I had never come across the artist before -Ralph Fasanella (1914 - 1997) was born in New york and spent pretty well all his life there painting scenes from the city and having read the piece I then sought out the work and was surprised in that the way it was approached by Berger really didn't indicate what it was like -really only its content;
here are works by the last two artists for your interest.:
Ralph Fasanella -Bridges -1974
L.S.Lowry -Coming from the mill - 1941-48
There is quite a similarity in the style, is there not? ...and if you were to look at a large group of these this becomes even more apparent. Do these artists constitute part of the area that some call Primitive, Naive or even Outsider art? Probably not.
Some years ago the Douglas Hyde had an exhibition of such work and there was a similar show in IMMA. I bought a Thames & Hudson book at the time and am now having some difficulty in laying my hands on it (but I will!) and I couldn't make up my mind as to where I stood on the subject. One part of me feels that Berger's ideological position is colouring his views on these artists and then I fear that I am adopting a slightly intellectually snobbish position. I sometimes feel that there are dangers in accepting 'everything' as art and that if one does it becomes a good deal more difficult to exercise judgement.
Inconclusive, I am afraid.
Turner Prize was awarded tonight (without any attribution being made as to their publicity, I might add) and I would have to say it was very strong. The winner was a video about the Woolworths Fire by Elizabeth Price and seemed to be a very disturbing piece with an amazing sound-track.
Elizabeth Price -courtesy of the Irish Times
One of the other finalists had these remarkable drawings which he had been doing over ten years. They were enormous and the detail was astonishing.
The week begins again:
The Spot Diary
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