8 Sept - Eric Tillinghast in Art in America

LAUNCHPROJECTS - Eric Tillinghast received a fantastic review in this month's Art in America, written by Jan Adlmann. In the review he discussed Tillinghast's solo exhibition Water at LAUNCHPROJECTS and his site-specific installation Rain Machine at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe (pictured right).

Adlmann references David Hockney's L.A. pool paintings when describing Tillinghast's works on paper, a flattering reference that we heard frequently in addition to comparisons of the work to Ed Ruscha's swimming pools. Connections to past artists places Tillinghast within a significant art historical trajectory, while his explorations and works remain innovative and unique.

When discussing Eric's Rain Machine installation Adlmann recalls an installation by the same title that neither Eric nor I had known, Andy Warhol's Rain Machine (pictured left) created in 1969 for a LACMA exhibition Art and Technology. "Reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s 1971 installation Rain Machine (Daisy Waterfall), the concept here might well be seen as a present day rethinking of the impluvia (court- yard rainwater catchments) in the villas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Crucial to the viewer’s apprehension of the work was the faintly audible plashing of the piece, which lulled us to the verge of reverie" (Adlmann).

This parallel represents a remarkable confluence of art ideas and eras. Without prior awareness of Warhol's installation, Eric Tillinghast draws a close parallel between the past and the present - a fusion of art and technology in the form of making rain.

To read the full review, click here: TILLINGHAST REVIEW - ART IN AMERICA

5 Sept - The Art of the Everyday

LAUNCHPROJECTS - Ben and I were at the post office buying stamps and found out that in March the USPS hired Jonathan Fineberg, professor and author of Art Since 1940, to select 10 seminal Modernist paintings to be reproduced as the "Abstract Expressionist" stamp collection. The stamps included in the collection are: The Golden Wall by Hans Hofmann, Romanesque Façade by Adolph Gottlieb, Orange and Yellow by Mark Rothko, The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb by Arshile Gorky, 1948-C by Clyfford Still, Asheville by Willem de Kooning, Achilles by Barnett Newman, Convergence by Jackson Pollock, La Grande Vallée 0 by Joan Mitchell and Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 by Robert Motherwell. They are "curated" onto the page in a format to represent a museum exhibition. And I thought it couldn't get better than the Simpsons collection.

The Motherwell selected also happens to be one of the paintings that will be featured in Patrick McFarlin's upcoming exhibition "Obituaries and (mini) Masterpieces at LAUNCHPROJECTS opening September 16. More information on that show is on our website: http://www.launchprojects.com/

Pictured above: Stamps, McFarlin's (mini) Motherwell.