This coming Fall, 2011, ArtForeign will be publishing a series of articles entitled, IS PAINTING DEAD?, examing the course of contemporary painting and where it's headed.
I owe my inclusion to a reknown photographer who asked to remain anonymous. She came upon my work two years ago and enthusiastically bought a painting, and has been an advocate ever since. She's responsible for submiting my name to ArtForeign as a candidate for the series.
The following are clips from the article, which ArtForeign generously allowed me to use on my site
JEFF BRETSCHNEIDER, DECEMBER, 2010
After long experience, and the conviction that a good idea is only as good as its execution, artist Jeff Bretschneider started making what may be his seminal work.
Now that computers can simulate the stroke of a brush, more artists are expressing themselves via software and laser printers. This may be a signal that the end of traditional painting is near.
Jeff's work challenges the growing shift towards digital, and demonstrates what one artist can do when faced
with change. His response is to reinvent the art. He took a stretched painting, ripped off the canvas, and re-stretched it with mesh. The mesh is an open weave, transparent, and acts like canvas. He then primed and painted it as if it was canvas. But it’'s what Jeff did next that gives the work it's voice. He took the painted mesh and joined it atop another painting. Together the paintings build on a matrix of information and engage our mind’s eye a game of comparison/contrast. Visually, this can be interpreted on many levels, the first being, it works!
As more artists trend digitally, Jeff's creativity is resolute. Rather than abandon painting, he's opted to broaden it's visualality. His work reflects our Photoshop culture of multi-layered content and reveals our attraction to the amplified visual. In an art world where style and branding is the engine of commerce, these paintings should go far. They ask one small effort; Look not at them. Look into them.
CUSTOM MADE
Each painting is made of two separate pictures, so a sturdy frame is important. I custom build each frame using #2 Pine which I finish with a durable enamel.
FRAME COLOR
I use dark grey to black for exhibitions, but there are no rules. I'll play any color combination. Often a frame of color elevates the visual, serving the painting and the space it's shown in. if you want to change the color and its appropriate for the painting, I can assist.
Changing a frame color is simple. All I need is a swatch or paint chip to mix and match the new color. The enamel takes 24 to 48 hours to properly cure. Rush Jobs (less than 6 hours) can be done, but require extra care. I recommend a FLAT or LOW LUSTRE (SATIN) finish.
There is an additional charge for this service.
OPTION
Customers that prefer a different frame can purchase the painting without and have it framed elsewhere. From that point on the piece will be considered altered. Changing the frame for decorative reasons is perfectly acceptable, but there's a tradeoff. If you bought the work as an investment, it's appreciative value will be based on its initial construction and presentation. I advise storing the original frame somewhere safe.
Other Framing questions? Please call or email
DELIVERY
FREE DELIVERY
Purchases of $1000 or more include free delivery within a 100 mile radius of New York City.
Beyond the radius, charges are applied or shipping arranged.
SHIPPING
Shipping is contracted through Craters and Freighters of New York, They handle all the intricate details; crating, insurance, customs,
etc., and are available 24/7 with online tracking.
Shipping is separate, the cost applied to the painting price.
People who meet me (particularly the young, those gambling in the arts) and they find out I had associations with the New York scene (specifically the downtown) of the 70's and 80's, often ask; 'What was it like? Did you know so and so?' Their inquisitivenes is driven by a verbal and written New York mythology that subtly changes from generation to generation. I've heard the Basquiat tale told many ways; One, as a golden calf to worship, and Two, someone's poor memory, crudely exagerated.
20 years ago, Phoebe Hoban called me. She was writing a Basquiat biography and asked for my input. Her seriousness won my participation and we Q and A'd over a week. Prior to this, I had been interviewed by a filmaker named Krzysztof, who envisioned a feature film on Jean. His movie was never produced, but I did hear rumor the material Krzysztof collected, and the first draft script he wrote, was purchased by Julian Schnabel, who then used some of it to make his film, BASQUIAT, with Jeffrey Wright.
I knew Jean before inner uneasiness and dope stole him. His phenomenal rise was an exciting thing to watch. But as time passed, and he grew more famous, I saw less of him. Jean was an artist with his own acutely adjusted antenna, and because of that, his life, work, and premature death, have become art mythology. Rather than retell what I remember about him and risk distorting facts, I refer to my anecdotes in Phoebe Hoban's book, "Basquiat, A Quick Killing in Art". She started writing it shortly after his death, so the recollections were fresh. By turning to that book, I'm assured a narrative that's consistant and never veers into whim and fancy.
In retrospect, I thank the Supreme for allowing me time and space to mature, for I am not the same man represented 3 decades ago in this book --LOL--In fact, I'm worse!
JEFF BRETSCHNEIDER - 2010
1981
THE PUBLIC ADDRESS SHOW
Annina Nosei Gallery
The day after the show, Jean-Michel, who had been up all night partying, rode out to Brooklyn in a limo with two friends, musician Arto Lindsay and Jeff Bretschneider. “"It was about six-thirty and I was getting dressed,”" says Gerard Basquiat. "“Jean-Michel was wearing a pin-striped suit and he came into the kitchen and he said, ‘Papa, I’ve made it.’ And he gave his younger sister Jeanine a pocketful of money.”"
Recalls Bretschneider, "“He went in and gave money to his father, and he was very concerned about his sister. He went there to park the limo out in front, to walk in with his clothes, and to show his father he had made some money. But I know he walked out of there feeling really empty. Whatever he went back for, it wasn'’t there.”"
(from Phoebe Hoban’s, “A Quick Killing In Art”)
MARCH, 1983
GAGOSIAN GALLERY
LOS ANGELES
The opening itself was glamorous even by Hollywood standards. “It’s like a Hollywood premiere …all this energy and vitality,” Irving Blum told the gossip columnist of The Hollywood Reporter. He was in town with Roy Lichtenstein. Also present were Gene Kelly, Diandra Douglas, and producer Steve Tisch.
“"It was a wonderful Spring evening in Los Angeles",” reminisces Jeff Bretschneider, who flew out to California for the occasion. "“It was a huge, garage like space, swarming with people. I went with John Lurie and it was a fucking mob scene. Like a lot of openings in the eighties, it was not about what work was on the walls, but which people were in the room."”
Bretschneider taped the event for posterity. "“I decided to videotape peoples reactions to Jean'’s work. One young couple told me it was the biggest con they ever saw. Another guy told me he was one of Jean-Michel’s best friends. I had never seen him before, but people were already saying they were ‘a friend of the artist.’ I met another woman who said she had a friend who owned five Basquiats. Five Basquiats! One for each home! Shenge [a friend who would later become one of Basquiat’s assistants] was rolling joints in the office, where Jean was hanging out. Suddenly, Gagosian comes in with Roy Lichtenstein, this icon, and introduces him to Jean."”
When Basquiat took off for the private dinner after the show, Bretschneider left too. But, it seemed, Jean did not intend to include his New York friends." “I saw Larry’s Mercedes pull up beside my rental car,” says Bretschneider. “And I looked at Jean and we exchanged smiles. Then they just pulled away. Jean and Larry and Larry’s beautiful girlfriend. Jean was already moving up the ladder."
”(from Phoebe Hoban’s, Basquiat: “A Quick Killing In Art”)
MAY, 1984
MARY BOONE GALLERY
“ Basquiat’s first show at Mary Boone, which opened on May 5, 1984, was a huge success, despite the fact that Boone herself felt that it had been rushed. " “It was supposed to be in the fall of 1985, but then Julian (Schnabel) left, and I thought I needed something really energetic at that point,"” she says. " “Usually I don’t do a show with an artist immediately, not until I’ve already created a market for the work. So it was a very last-minute decision."”
Everyone showed up at the opening, including the artist’s father (Gerard), who seemed to appreciate his son’s work only in public, and Andy Warhol. Recalls Jeff Bretschneider, " “Jean had moved into blue-chip status. Andy was standing in the entrance of the gallery, and he stood there the entire length of the show. It was a barometer to where Jean was in the art world. But the paintings were more like a wallpaper version of his work. The opening was like a circus. It was like the Day of the Locusts, with people pushing up against this velvet rope that separated Jean-Michel from the thronging mass, and Jean-Michel was letting in whoever he thought was appropriate. Some woman offered Jean her baby, and he lifted it up with his arms above him, and looked at us with a big smile. I'’ll never forget that.”"
(from Phoebe Hoban'’s, Basquiat: “A Quick Killing In Art”)
MILAN - The ARNALDO PAVESI GALLERY has asked JEFF BRETSCHNEIDER to join their upcoming 2012 season.
Fortunes changed for Pavesi 10 years ago when he began traveling outside Italy to find new art for his gallery. His focal point has been New York. Pavisi's reputation for trying out new aesthetics is reknown. "He's got an eye made of crystal, " said a competing gallery in Milan. "Arnaldo can see art 10 years ahead." In Milan, what's important is not who you show, but what you show.
Rigga Rossi is supporter and patron of new art. She was asked about Pavesi's latest find. "I've known Arnaldo a long time. He's had winners and losers.The reason he's bringing Mr.Bretschneider here is because of the work. It's unique. Bretschneider challenges traditional painting and has a clear message--- It's about the direction of painting, it's confrontation with digital media, and ultimately, how an image is delivered."
Bretschneider departs from painting on canvas. He uses mesh, which simulates canvas. He stretches one atop the other, paints, and creates a multi-surfaced dimension of space, color and form. You don't look at it, You look into it.
The Arnaldo Pavesi Gallery plans to show Bretschneider at the 2012 Bergamo Arte Fiera and the Miart 2012 at Milano Fiera.
di Marrisa Fumaroli
Il Giornale Dell Arte
16/08/2011
Business slows during the winter months of January and February, so I'm devoting this page to a sale I made this past Summer, 2010. It was a record for me in terms of number of paintings (8) bought by a private individual, all at once,all going into one home.
Thomas Kelly is a broker and analyst for National Securities in New York. When He and his wife, Nicole, came upon my work one saturday morning, there was an instant connection, followed by a deposit and delivery date.
The best sales are when the work sells itself.
