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The Work of Judy Kudlow
You’re going to have to listen to the podcast we just recorded to learn exactly how the matter came up–it had something to do with a conversation about defunding the National Endowment for the Arts–but James Lileks and guest host Larry Kudlow got going on the counter-revolution now taking place, here and there, among artists intent on rediscovering lost values such as mastery of technique and the celebration of, well, you know, beauty. One of the leading revolutionaries? Larry’s wife, Judith Pond Kudlow. Larry was too modest on her behalf to make much of this, but I’m happy to do some raving about Judy myself. Devoting herself to form, composition, color, light, and the sheer glory of paint skillfully applied to canvas: in her studio in the South Bronx, Judy is pursuing subversive activities.
You’ll find her online portfolio here, but above, a sample of her work. Who but a real artist could have produced such a splendid work by plucking a few items from her husband’s closet?
Published in General
I love that painting.
Thank you.
A second Renaissance is on the way, . . .
I once viewed a Morris Lewis exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in DC many years ago and could not grasp how a few squiggly lines on a canvas was art worthy of such a distinguished gallery. This painting in particular seemed memorably pointless:
So I went down to the gallery bookstore and opened the companion volume for the exhibit. Turns out he did not leave most of the canvas blank. He made ” a dramatic use of the white reserve.” Seriously. That is what it said.
From that day, I have made no further effort to accommodate myself to modernist art. How can you not know you are being conned when not painting anything at all is “a dramatic use of the white reserve.”
A former employee at the Hirschorn told me that shortly after it opened in 1974 the janitors would sometimes leave a mop in a bucket next to a trash can or other random items out in the gallery just to see if anyone stopped to inspect the assemblage as “art.” Not being Enlightened the janitors apparently retained perspective, common sense and a sense of humor–anathema to the illuminati.
I like a lot of modern art, but overall it’s mediocre and pretentious.
Judy’s work is wonderful.
If you hadn’t told me that was a painting…
It’s marvelous work, and I can almost tell the story of the owner of these ties.
Maybe a second version, with ties that have both tie clips and scotch tape to tie them down.
I love the color and line and texture in Judy’s painting.
Good work, Judith Pond Kudlow. This kind of art, which for lack of a more technical term I will call real art, is making a comeback. James will know — he being an authority on midcentury stuff — that this sort of art was considered so despicable in the 1950s and ’60s that anyone who offered it to a gallery would have been ridiculed into another dimension.
My wife and I are both artists, real ones. She’s a fine artist, I’m an illustrator. We listen to Ricochet podcasts both in the studio and in the car, and usually within hours of their being posted. Wouldn’tcha just know, in this case we hadn’t heard the main podcast yet.
What my hubby calls “real art” involves standards, which is a rather conservative position — hence you can actually find political conservatives in that arena. Not so much in the contemporary anti-art world, to put it mildly.
I looked up Dave and Jean, and they have some pretty incredible works of art also. My hat’s off to Judith Kudlow. I’m not the biggest fan of still lifes, but the ties are amazingly active and colorful! Glad to see that there are people doing “real art” out there, and they are Conservatives, to boot!
Allow me to offer one generalization about recognizing good art:
It has to impress people who have never been told what is good and what is not. Over the years, I have come to trust the judgment of kids under the age of 10. Older than that, they will have been indoctrinated into the Modernist view, which can be boiled down to: You like that, kid? You poor sap, you’re looking at it all wrong. Trust us. What looks like crap is good, and what looks good to you is crap.
In other words, are you going to believe us, the art establishment, or your lyin’ eyes?
Some of the worst tastes are acquired by attending the big Art Schools. The more prestigious the school, the more garbage you will learn with the least actual instruction. After a quick search I found this horrifying student review of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago:
http://www.studentsreview.com/viewprofile.php3?k=1300069909&u=437
Thanks, Steven, for your kind comments. . . I followed the link, and yes, SAIC is a pretty horrible-sounding art school. And the tuition is ludicrous. But I don’t know (and I’m not being cute about this) what else anyone would expect from such a place. I can’t tell what sort of employment you would get by having a degree from this outfit. I’ve been an illustrator all my life, and have never been asked for any kind of diploma. Publishers either liked my work or they did not. . . It is possible to find good training, but one would have to look for it among traditional ateliers.