Untitled (Niki Lauda) Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 36, 2025
As a young boy, I watched the horrific crash in the Nurburgring race track in Germany as it happened, live, on TV during the German GP of 1976.
Niki Lauda was the top Ferrari driver at that time, the reigning Formula 1 world champion.
The notoriously dangerous track was wet since it had been raining. Lauda’s Ferrari lost control, spun, hit the side rail and back to the track in flames and ended up getting hit by other cars unable to avoid him.
The sheer size of the circuit also meant that weather and track conditions around it could vary wildly with some sections dry and others wet, making a safe choice of tyres difficult or impossible.
He was seriously burned, but survived the accident and resumed racing that same year, once he recovered from his injuries.
This was the second tribute to a racing driver painting I made these past few weeks.
There is a variety of cool art currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla in San Diego. But as far as pushing paint on the surface of a canvas, nothing comes near this painting by Philip Guston ( 1913 – 1980 ). And don’t get me wrong, a few yards away there is a beautiful little Mark Rothko that is not too shabby either.
After contemplating Bottles for several minutes, and making a sketch of it, I walked around the room to see the other artworks.
This painting was in a spacious gallery with many other contemporary “important” pieces, including a marble sculpture by Ai Weiwei.
I went back to the Guston, and when the security guard looked in my direction, I remarked: “Best painting currently on display in this museum”. He said he agreed with me, even though his focus as an artist was music, and he really couldn’t articulate why he liked the painting.
“Bottles” is not a particularly chirpy piece. In it, Philip Guston was confronting his alcoholism: he wore his addiction on his sleeve, creating many many variations on this painful theme.
It is a beautiful work of art nonetheless. If you like painting, that is.
When the security guard looked in my direction, making eye contact with me, I told him: “Best painting among all the ones currently on display in this museum”.
We can see an accomplished artist having fun with painting, not unlike a child playing with his first set of color crayons. The traces of the wet on wet process, each brush stroke visible, the messy interaction of the different colors in the background, everything happening at the same time. It’s both a powerful and humble painting.
If you walked away feeling jealous, wishing you had done it, it’s ok. Good painting will do that to you.
Untitled ( “I’m a Materials Girl” “Xou da Xuxa” ) Tape, Aluminum, Acrylic, Charcoal on wood, Medium 2024
I was reading the book Wabi-Sabi – The Japanese Art of Impermanence – Understanding the Zen Philosophy of Beauty in Simplicity while working on this painting.
“Wabi sabi embodies the Zen nihilist cosmic view and seeks beauty in the imperfections found as all things, in a constant state of flux,…”
At first I did not feel the piece was done, and I intended to continue working on it. As I grappled with it, the information from the Wabi sabi philosophy helped me understand the piece was OK at this particular stage in the process. Therefore I left it alone, as you see here.
Some of the Wabi sabi “rules” I believe apply to Untitled (CAL) 2023:
“Color – Design criteria:
no harsh or strong colors.
Texture – Design criteria:
Asymmetry or irregularity
The form comes from the physical properties of the materials used.
Left: Untitled (Blu) Oil on canvas, 2017 Middle: Untitled ( Alexanders still life ) Right: Untitled ( Pink Tulip ) Oil on canvas, 2017
In 2021 Augusto dined at Alexander’s in North Park, San Diego, CA. That was during the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and they were passing out paper menus. He took advantage of that to create a sketch of one of the floral arrangements.
Alexanders Still Life – 2021, pencil on back of menu
