The Codex Coner and Michael Goldberg [c. 1510 vs c.1980]

The Codex Coner is one of the most beautiful surviving architectural manuals from the Renaissance. Created around 1510, the illustrated manual was complied in Rome and documents historical and contemporary Roman architecture by the likes of Bramante (1444--1514), Raphael (1483--1520), and Michelangelo (1475--1564). The scope of it's contents and information are unmatched and can be attributed to draftsman & Florentine carpenter: Bernardo della Volpaia (c.1475--1521).

The manual was discovered by Michael Goldberg during his time in Italy and influenced a major body of his work from the late 1970's until the mid-late 1980's. 'Codex Coner Piede Vicentino' by Michael Goldberg 1980 [pictured below left] references the fundamental structures of Roman architecture, the divisional lines appearing as abstracted columns supporting the uneven weight of the pink colorfield. The technique Goldberg used to create these works on handmade paper was particularly fresh. Matt medium was applied to the paper with water to create a wet surface that Goldberg would draw into with lecturers chalk - a material that the artist would find an affinity with and subsequently use in paintings for the remainder of his career. Renowned collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel found particular interest in this work and acquired several drawings for their collection. 'Codex Coner Piede Vicentino' was donated to Yale University as a part of the Vogel's 50 x 50 - 50 Works for 50 States, after Dorothy's passing in 2012. We are thrilled to work with the Goldberg Estate to include 2 of these amazing and historically important works in our limited edition print collection. Visit our SHOP to see the available work, or enquire with the gallery about sales of the original works.

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Introducing New Limited Edition Prints by Elise Lee

Elise Lee's signature graphic pop style draws inspiration from minimalism and Asian Pop Art to create an exciting, uplifting & clean cut visual experience. Playing with the iconography of donuts, love hearts and sausage tubes, Lee's work is quirky and fun - perfect for a space that needs a little life.

Lee earned her post graduate degree in Fine Art from the renowned Pratt Institute in New York City before moving to Los Angeles where she currently lives and works. She exhibits across the United States and in Korea and has been published in Art Buzz, Art Slant and Studio Visit Magazine. TWFineArt is Lee's exclusive dealer in Australia and we are thrilled to introduce her to our portfolio of limited edition prints. Elise's range of prints can be sized from SMALL: 400 mm x 500mm to XL 800mm x 1000mm and look fantastic set against a minimal backdrop or room design. Visit our SHOP to view Elise's full series of available work. We will print, frame, pack and ship the work directly to your door, or you can pick it up in the TWFineArt Gallery & GuideShop on James Street in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.

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Mixing Art into your Space

We always like to inspire with some design ideas. If you are unsure as to how a particular contemporary artwork print will look in your space, simply email us a picture of your room [enquiries@twfineart.com], and we'll scale and position the piece into your space using our state of the art software. The great thing about the limited edition print is that you can achieve the million dollar feeling, without the million dollar price tag. Our prints are archival, printed on the highest quality german Cotton Rag paper with densely pigmented archival inks that preserve the genuine touch and look of the original artwork, for a small fraction of the price of the original. In these interiors we've placed limited edition prints from our portfolio, precision framed and sized to best suit the space. They are available in the TWFineArt SHOP. Curatorial help is just an email away! [caption id="attachment_10354" align="aligncenter" width="453"]

Yellowstone Light - Large Print by Julika Lackner $200 + Maple Frame $425 = $625[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10353" align="aligncenter" width="453"]

Natural Selection #18 by Chris Trueman. XL Print $295 + Frame in Black $425 = $710

Natural Selection #18 by Chris Trueman. XL Print $295 + Black Frame $425 = $710[/caption]

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Art Without Words or Wall Plaques

The contemporary visual art experience has gotten all caught up with the written word. It's quite unusual now to walk into a gallery and see the artwork without an accompanying blurb that attempts to convince you that the art is new, pertinent to the world around and will someday have a place in history - therefore purchasable. It's no secret that the value in art tends to rise from it's historical relevance, it's innovation in relation to the period in which it was created. Problem is that dealers and galleries are using social relevance and art jargon as written propaganda to sell paintings. Contemporary artworks are priced to parallel the pricing of artwork that has long since been part of the cannon without the guarantee that the art will ever be cannonized - despite what the exhibition blurb or wall plaque may insinuate. It would be nice if art returned to an aesthetic experience - people might even feel that they can relate to it without the intellectual rhetoric that plagues today's visual art experience. Remove the big bucks from the equation and we might actually see less writing in the galleries and more focus on the work itself. Artist Lucio Pozzi summed it up perfectly in his essay Affirmations 8/19/2008: 'I want to re-visualize visual art. I wish for words to remain parallel to- but disengaged from the visual event. Recently the visual has become dependent on the verbal. A work of visual art today seems to need explanations to exist. I have been wondering why this has come to be. The reason, I feel, is nostalgia for consensus about the purpose of art, a consensus that no longer is possible. Art was obvious in the societies of old. It was necessary. It was fulfilling tasks that were agreed upon by everyone. When Modernity, with the advent of the Renaissance, exploded the hierarchies that supported art in the past, what was assumed to be certain became uncertain.

In response to the Big Bang, art people desperately scrambled to search for referential structures that could replace the lost foundations of the past. Art history became a cacophony of concurrent contradictory proposals. Surrogate standards were proposed from left and right. Each was submitted as the single exclusive foundation for a new consensus in the arts. These surrogate standards came under the guise of verbal explanations, manifestos, captions, taking the place of that which before had been obvious. The mistake was to assume that consensus is still a necessary condition for artistic discourse. 3. THE NEW The strongest surrogate standard of recent times was the concept of progress in the arts. Like an addictive poison it is the surrogate standard that many of us still rally to, again and again. We hang on to it as if it were a last raft before we drown and instead it makes us sink deeper and deeper into a bureaucratic quagmire. Bereft of arguments to validate our preferences many of us qualify or disqualify a work of art by determining whether it is new or not.

Concern for newness blinds us to the inherent characteristics of the single artwork. Several of the formulaic tenets that hamper an open creativity in the field of art derive from the prison of the new. Concern for newness causes us to shift attention from our feelings to matters that belong in the field of packaging more than in the field of visual substance. The package becomes more important than what it contains. An artist is encouraged to think her or his art in terms of how it shall be promoted rather than of how emotions and intellect weave into its substance. Concern for novelty reduces the time frame an artist works within to that of a short-lived commentary, consumed and tossed away in a hurry. It prevents a long view capable of engaging the deeper potentialities of existence, the mystery of life and death, the surprise and panic of discovery. 4. VALUE I understood early that I wished to avoid reliance on surrogate gauges for art but I also found no reliable standards shared by the community at large. I found only infinite options. It became clear to me that after the Big Bang it is impossible to assume that we may rely on any shared criteria of validation and evaluation in the arts. Value has become as uncertain as art itself. 5. CREATIVE MISUNDERSTANDING If there is no common purpose and no judgement is possible, there is no community of intent and no communication in the arts. Then what is there? In the arts that are not applied to utilitarian purposes, instead of communication there is flexible and revisable exchange, instead of judgement there is opinion, instead of conclusion there is open dialogue. Author and viewer are linked not by agreement but by creative misunderstanding. Neither party submits to the dictates of the other.'

Wise words from an amazing artist and thinker!!

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Introducing the Art of Gert Geyer

I recently had the pleasure of meeting South East Queensland artist Gert Geyer. In addition to being a fantastic bubble blower (witnessed at the Brunswick Street mall re-opening) Gert combines an illustrative touch with the whimsy and spontaneous creativity of the fine artist to create these magical, graphic works of art. The border between illustration and fine art has always been a difficult one to define. If I was to define it though, I would say that illustration tells a very specific story by communicating ideas or meaning with visual tools. Fine art on the other hand is quite an open ended exploration of the visual language. Gert is a hybrid of the two disciplines. She skillfully draws reference from the world around her, then utilizes text and hard edge imagery to create beautiful pieces reminiscent of the work of Stuart Davis and Alex Katz. There is a lovely 1970's quality to the imagery, with a great play on space, pattern and color. We will be collaborating with Gert over the coming month to create a unique series of limited edition prints and are looking very forward to having a very talented Brisbane local on our roster of contemporary international artists!

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TW FineArt