Roland Reiss

ROLAND REISS is, first and foremost, a distinguished artist whose work has been widely exhibited and critically acclaimed since the 1960s. He has also been an important presence in the world of contemporary art for many years as one of its key teachers, a long time faculty member and department chair of the art school at the Claremont Graduate University, which has launched the careers of many of today's significant artists. He was also the moving spirit behind the celebrated summer program, "The Painting's Edge."

Tomorrow we are all lucky to have an interview with Roland Reiss to enjoy. In anticipation, here is some information on his upcoming event, Familiar Grounds.

Racial Profiling=Branding?

A propos, it occurs to me to wonder whether racial profiling involves a kind of "branding"? "Illegals" might be branded by the color of their skin, the clothes they wear... What do you think?

My friend, the artist Gary Lloyd over at CHI SPHERE sent me some thoughts, which I think bear on this notion. He wrote:

I've worked in the branding industry for 25 years but think it's been with us since we began to make marks.

My friend works as a physical anthropologist and identifies early marks and symbols as well as those used today in still existing isolated tribes. Identity and quality are survival tools used to come to quick choices re food, flight or flight, safety or risk etc.
It often takes the place of introspection or discovery as long as the archetypal mark is easy to relate to and has previous reinforced experiences related to the image.

Artists risk the stigma of branding themselves too early in their development. It really pissed Rothko off when a collector asked for "5 more purple ones", thinking that they were painted like shirts are manufactured.

I know many artists who had a good idea, worked through it and when the concept was exhausted changed to investigate another way of working only to be dropped by their dealers for not making more of the same.

Remember 'The New Coke'? Even corporate giants can't change once the branding has taken.