Artist: Sebastian Black
Exhibition title: Man Seeking Qualities
Venue: Princess, New York, US
Date: January, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Princess
Sebastian Black, Man Seeking Qualities, 2018, exhibition view, Princess, New York
Sebastian Black, Man Seeking Qualities, 2018, exhibition view, Princess, New York
Sebastian Black, Man Seeking Qualities, 2018, exhibition view, Princess, New York
Sebastian Black, Man Seeking Qualities, 2018, exhibition view, Princess, New York
Sebastian Black, Man Seeking Qualities, 2018, exhibition view, Princess, New York
Sebastian Black, Thank you. Thank you. Now I would like to talk about how the Bush administration covered up the tapestry of Guernica by the entrance to the U.N. Security Council with some blue curtains [ears] so that those poor ladies wouldn’t have to watch Colin Powell’s W.[mouth] M.[eyes] D.[nose] slideshow. Nelson Rockefeller commissioned that tapestry and gave it to the U.N. to promote peace on earth. What would he say about such hijinks? He who had Lenin sandblasted [whiskers] off his Diego Rivera mural might have offered valuable insight! Oh those poor Guernican gals! With their hands like baseball mitts and their ears like clam fritters, [muzzle] forced to listen while Secretary Powell made his terrible case. I hope they find peace and quiet. Once in Italy I saw a painting of a damsel. She had a an ivory bosom and dimples [pupils] where her knuckles should have been. She was in the middle of a gilt frame in the middle of a great hall [muzzle, head] where nobody was saying anything. I hope they find peace like that, 2018 Oil on linen, 60 x 45 in (152.4 x 114.3 cm)
Sebastian Black, The job of us artists is to draw new lines. All the old lines are straight [whiskers], even the curvy ones and us artists gotta draw new ones. Us American artists, we thought the road was really something. For a hundred years we poked at its vanishing point [mouth] with our thoughts. Like sea lions we thought we could balance our dreams on its pointed tip [nose]. Like sea lions we were wrong! Us artists need to learn more from the Parisian Communards who barricaded the streets but pierced the houses [eyes, pupils] and flowed thata-way. They “found flowers [muzzle] which are chairs” said Rimbaud confusingly. Oh artists! We are the Most Influential Artist’s of 2017 yet we must be influenced in turn. Let us remember to gaze upon that the tear shaped cloud of starlings [ear] gyrating over Central Park South and to wonder at their reflection in a glass facade [ear] as we turn to enter the Apple Store, 2018, Oil on linen, 60 x 45 in (152.4 x 114.3 cm)
Sebastian Black, There were six long art students, thin like spaghetti, standing around the nude model [whiskers]. The model posed with her head thrust forward and her fingers locked together behind her back [nose, mouth]. Her stage was a little round platform with a blanket thrown over it [muzzle]. The art students looked up at her and one by one broke their vine charcoal into two pieces [pupils]. They rubbed the black sticks onto pads of newsprint until the shape of the powder that crumbled off resembled the shape of the model. Meanwhile, the teacher sat by the window and fiddled with a paint flecked oval boombox [head]. He carried it around the room like a thurifer, trailing plumes of static. He waved it about, and pushed its antennae this way and that [ears] until, finally, it shouted “Autozone!, 2018, Oil on linen, 60 x 45 in (152.4 x 114.3 cm)
Sebastian Black, The Pfeilstorch smiled when he met his arrow [nose, mouth]. Two clouds recoiled, grew dark [eyes, pupils] and cried [whiskers]. Acacias and baobabs sighed in the rain [muzzle]. Somehow the Pfeilstorch flew on. The hunter bent his bow [ears] in frustration but it would not snap. The limp string [head] brushed against the savanna but the bow would not snap, 2018, Oil on linen, 36 x 24 in (91.4 x 61 cm)
