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Monday, May 7, 2012

I am, therefore God exists. III

Nicole Page-Smith, Untitled, 1995

I continued to look at art from a large number of sources: galleries, art magazines, libraries, arts bookshops, etc. also really liking American art from the 1960's and 1970's for example, Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois.

Louise Bourgeois, Fillette, 1968

Eva Hesse, No title, 1970

Nicole Page-Smith, Melbourne studio 1999,

Australia

I then moved to New Zealand in late 2000 and although, stuck in the 70's, the place seemed quaint and interesting. I find it quite odd in my two countries that libraries, news-agencies and bookshops are full of books and magazines from the the whole history of art to the present day but few people seem to have a general understanding. Reference books and magazines also make a far more informed internet search, the worlds biggest library.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I am, therefore God exists. II

Nicole Page-Smith, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, 1993,

Melbourne, Australia

After Art-school, I carried on my research to include the whole history of sculpture. I started with Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan sculpture, reading literature including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plutarch, Homer, Virgil, then Dante and Milton. My research continued to include Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque sculpture. I remember applying for the Cite residency in Paris, saying I wanted to visit the Louvre to see the Borghese Collection but of course the Arts funding body, The Australia Council, were about as far away from my head-space as the depth of the ocean.

Sleeping Hermaphroditus, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE

after a Hellenistic original of the the 2nd century BC and

Old Centaur teased by Eros, Roman copy (1st-2nd centuries AD)

of a Greek original of the 2nd century BC.

Musee du Louvre, Paris

Candida Hofer, Musee du Louvre Paris, X and VII, 2005

Pierre Jahan, La Victorie de Samothrace, Musee du Louvre, 1945

Nicole Page-Smith, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, 1993,

Melbourne, Australia

Saturday, May 5, 2012

I am, therefore God exists.

Nicole Page-Smith, Tony Oliver Gallery, 1990,

Melbourne, Australia

Reading Rilke, when I was twenty, I realized I didn't know anything about a classical education, so I set about giving myself one. Art-school was next to useless in providing any information about the history of sculpture but I remember in our art history tutorials, my art history lecturer almost 'losing-it' because none of the six or so students had read Thomas Hardy. I found the situation interesting that someone could be so passionate about an author and consequently read almost all of his books. We were given topics for essays and encouraged to look at other University libraries, I also frequented the State Library of Victoria because it had an amazing art library, most of which was inaccessible to the public via direct access. I remember the staff being very helpful with the reference material required to access the archive but we would have to sit for a good ten to fifteen minutes, in the waiting section, looking at the international art magazines on offer, while they tried to find the book you were after. This was the time that I also came across a lot of European sculptors that I had not previously known about, for example Germaine Richier.

Germaine Richier, 1954

Photograph by Brassai

I liked studying in this library because of the enormous leather bound desks and old chairs. They also had a small selection of books available to the general public, mainly older books of European art with luscious black and white photographs, I felt seduced by the aesthetic.