"Parkett" (2009)

Today I am looking at Parkett magazine, and it appears as though this magazine comes out just once a year because this issue just seems to be the 2009 issue, not a specific month or season of 2009. Parkett is quite large in comparison to the other magazines I've read while keeping this journal, and thus, feels a bit overwhelming. However, this should be an interesting issue to look through because it marks the 25th anniversary of Parkett magazine. The table of contents page is somewhat confusing, so my plan is to flip through the pages and see what I find.

And now I'm discovering why this magazine is so much larger than the others I've read: each article is printed in both English and German. To me, that is very cool. Too bad the second language isn't French! What is even more interesting is the fact that different images accompany the two articles (English version and German version), so for someone who does not speak German, he or she can still examine the images that are included in the original (German) text. This seems to go back to the whole issue of the accessibility of art, something that we have discussed in class and that I've seen further in a few of the articles I've read while keeping this journal.

And now I've stumbled upon an English translation of an interview that looks interesting. It is an interview with Beatriz Milhazes, an artist I first discovered when reading and writing about the November/December 2009 issue of Art on Paper on November 20th. In that issue, I saw one of her works (Batucada, 2009) featured as one of the most compelling prints published worldwide over the past year, and instantly liked it enough to want to purchase it, so I am very excited to read the English translation of this interview, and to look at the works featured in the original German text.

Beatriz Milhazes, Batucada, 2009

From the very start of the interview with Beatriz Milhazes, I am interested and intrigued. She discusses her fascination with Mexican culture, though she is Brazilian, and reveals that Frida Kahlo served as an influence on her art in the late 1980s in her use of ruffles and lace as adornments, and the depiction of flowers as more than just decoration, but also as something that holds an important role in the rituals of weddings and funerals. I'm noticing that Milhazes uses the word "fantasy"/"fantastic" a great deal when talking, and I can see how this is portrayed in her work. Also of interest is the fact that Milhazes states that "music defines the notion of soul", yet she prefers to create her works in silence because while working, she listens to "the rhythm of the painting." Milhazes also kind of sets the record straight in terms of her works being seen as sensual. She says that she knows that everyone considers her work to be very sensual, but her work is actually a lot about geometry and "how geometry structures life."

Milhazes also references Yves Klein in her discussion of the use of color in her works. She says that she learned that Klein once said that adding one color to another creates endless conflict, and that it is this conflict that she wants to start, a conflict with no winners, when she creates relationships between colors in her art. And in returning to Milhazes's love of music, she informs the reader that the titles of her works are separate from the works themselves--the titles are related to songs and lyrics. She says that her titles do not attempt to explain the works because words are dangerous and can "ruin the freedom of an image." And toward the end of the interview, the interviewer, Arto Lindsay, brings up the fact that Milhazes has begun to work with other mediums outside of painting to create stained glass windows and collages, and Milhazes responds by saying that working with different media inspires her and allows her to bring new questions into her paintings.

Beatriz Milhazes, Peace and Love, 2005, Gloucester Road Station Project Platform for Art Underground, London

Reading this interview has been very interesting because I have learned a great deal more about an artist I first discovered a few weeks ago. I think it is very cool that because of this art journal, I have discovered a contemporary artist whose work I really like, and have now been able to read an interview with her!

Lindsay, Arto. "Musical Expression: Arto Lindsay in Conversation with Beatriz Milhazes." Parkett 85 (2009): 132-137.