Robert Motherwell 1915-1991
Though best known for his paintings, Robert Motherwell produced hundreds of drawings during his long career. He explored the idea of automatic drawing, combining accidental and intentional marks on paper.
Robert Motherwell Drawing: As Fast as the Mind Itself is an exhibit of more than 100 works, spanning the 1940s through the 1980s, presented by the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston. Motherwell was not just a gifted and thoughtful artist, he was also a writer, educator and speaker who brought understanding of abstraction to the American art world.
Robert Motherwell Drawing: As Fast as the Mind Itself will be on exhibit through March 12, 2023.
Jonas Wood b.1977
In 2021, Jonas Wood organized a World Series of Poker tournament for artists and celebrities. This year’s tournament, not coincidentally, coincided with Frieze Los Angeles.
Wood got knocked out of the game after just a few hours of play, but Jack Black, Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Caio Twombly (Cy Twombly’s grandson) and other art dealers and artists, including Richard Price, hung in there.
The games began back in the mid-2000s, when Wood organized poker nights in his Culver City studio. His wife, artist Shio Kusaka, is a serious player. They were joined by artist Mark Grotjahn, who said that he made more money gambling early in his career, than he did in sales of his painting.
“I have some friends who are super-famous poker players, or I know people who know people who can get people to come,” Wood said. “So the idea was ‘let’s invite a bunch of rad people from the art world who play poker and then let’s invite a couple poker superstars to come.’ So it’s almost like pros versus joes.”
Friends began bringing friends and soon Ellen Degeneres was invited by art collector and furniture dealer Patrick Seguin. The first large tournament was held in 2021 at the in the ballroom of the Hollywood Roosevelt during the Felix Art Fair.
Jack Black lasted nearly until the end of this year's game. The big winner was Jason Koons, a professional poker player. The upside of Koons’ win was that he donated all of his winnings to the Echo Park Bookstore Stories, whose founder, Alex Maslansky, died unexpectedly in January.
Jonas Wood is not just an enthusiastic poker player, he’s also a great artist. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
References:
Nate Freeman. How a Pseudo-Secret, Celeb-Friendly Poker Game Became the Art World’s Playground. Vanity Fair. March 2, 2023.
Katy Rogers. Motherwell: The Drawings of a Painter. The Brooklyn Rail. February 2023.
