According to Wikipedia, Onli is a rare Artist who has created two visual art genres.

According to Wikipedia, Onli is a rare Artist who has created two visual art genres.
All artwork on this blog is Copyright 2024 Turtel Onli , and other dates. All Rights Protected & not to be remixed, rebooted or used commercially without a signed agreement with Prof. Onli. The smaller images on the right are links to reels or related websites.

Friday, April 21, 2023

 Standards and Values are set by a host of players and factors.  Critics. Historians. Academies. Investors. Patrons. Collectorrs. Fans. 

Renown curator Dan Nadel on a visit to Prof. Onli's residency in 2020 at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago.


( The above is a video link to ONLI STUDIOS & Prof. Onli's new project for the Northeastern Illinois University Business Innovation & Growth Center. )

 In the visual arts it is almost impossible to make a legal career out of copying the visual art of another established visual artist. That is called forgery. Fake! or at best copying.  But in the performing Arts, like Acting, Dance or Music, copying to great rigor is considered a measure of excellence and often rewarded with wealth and acclaim.  

Drawn by Prof. Onli during an actual performance.

The Literary Arts is more likely in between these two extremes.



So how does one factor in being distinct in the Visual Arts to the monied or acclaimed success of the career potential or real practice of a Visual Artist?  A nexus of vision, rigor, vigor, creativity, culture, content, technique and commerce. Plus, education and persistence definitely.


(Wow!  This is a narrowing laser-like pressure. Especially when one can be distinct and highly skilled yet overlooked and minimized by the powerful yum-yuck of taste makers, trends and unspoken political agendas in the Visual Arts.) 


Art enthusiasts experiencing Onli's Rhythmistic works 
honored on the outer wall, mural-sized, at the MCA Chicago.

A long-time collector of Prof. Onli's Rhythmistic Fine Art appreciating his art-works 
on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.



Fortunately, Prof. Onli has Rhythmismed his way through these uncharted waters.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

 "Question? If an Artiste names a genre and the art world refuses to embrace it, did it really happen?  Does omission rule reality?  Can one undo what was done, yet not sanctioned?  


Recently Prof. Onli wrote to a major, well-connected dealer of Fine Art created by Black Americans & the Africobra group. In it he stated how he was a youthful peer to Africobra in the 1970s when he founded and directed B.A.G., The Black Arts Guild. Onli was suggesting this dealer represent one or more of his Rhythmistic bodies of Fine Art.


NOTE: Click on each image to enlarge your viewing experience.


Poster from a B.A.G. exhibition at the AFAM Art Gallery in Chicago, 


B,A,G. Members in Washington DC. in 1972. Prof. Onli is on the far right.


  

"Family Group" Oils on canvas circa 1970. Turtel Onli


A dynamic straight line ran through his decades long practices from being included in the prestigious Johnson Publishing Company Fine Art Collection in 1971 to the art being sold at auction via the elite Swann Galleries recently. 

Rhythmism, in the mid 1970s, predated the current trending of Afrofuturism.  

Hype from a recent solo exhibition program by Prof. Onli at the University of Chicago.

Then on the commercial side, Onli launched the growing impactful Black Age of Comics in 1992.  Hmm? How Black was the Graphic Novels, Games or Animation industries before that?  One of his early Rhythmistic Black Age characters was recently featured on the outer wall of the Musuem of Contemporary Art, Chicago.





 Onli also offered various acclaimed collections of Rhythmistic Fine Art for representation.  Of course, this is not the first overture to this dealer or others. 


In this era where fake Basquiats can rage in highly vetted art circles and the trending of mediocre romantic social statements reign large as great artistic expressions or museum attractions one can see why this dealer and so many others are slow to participate inRhythmism, a Future-Primitf Approach to Visual Art. 


 Being that Onli boldly launched two movements in the Visual Arts without the permission or sanctions from the status quo.....they are short-circuited by their state of conclusive orthodoxy. It does not compute.  To them and the Visual Arts Power brokers......a visual Artist must never coin the artistic term to define a genre or a movement.  

This artistic branding is done exclusively by well-connected Art Historians, Art Critics and or course those who control Fine Art markets.




NOTE: Dali did not coin Surrealism. Warhol did not coin Pop Art. Van Gogh did not coin Impressionism.  The value is in his dedicated prolific practice. Onli saw the open path....coined the term......and shared its potential. 


Now it may be up to the more enlightened well-resourced independent stakeholders who say they are about real diversity, openness and growth to celebrate, and invest in Rhythmism, The Future-Primitif Approach To Visual Art.  Of course, that includes its bold founder, Prof. Turtel Onli. M.A.A.T.

A review per art critic Harold Haydon,
 former Director of the Midway Studios of the 
University of Chicago.

Onli was dating his Rhythmistic Fine Art 1999 in the late 1970s to serve notice that he understood the politics and trends of the Fine & Commercial Art worlds were simply not ready or willing to accept his Rhythmistic Future-Primitif approaches to the Visual Arts. Once 1999 happened he reverted to traditional dating and signing of his works. 

"Benchmark" is a collection of functional art as utilitarian benches in the important Chicago Children's Musuem at Chicago's popular Navy Pier.  Onli is shown in this photo in his studio working on his bench that that important collection. That was in 1995. The bench is still there. In fact, it has gained attention from serious collectors annually who visit while attending the international Art event, EXPO CHICAGO, also at Navy Pier.

So far there is no response from that dealer.  Such has been that case with established fine art dealers since the 1970s.

 Prof. Onl's take on all of this is, "RHYTHMISM LIVES!!!"





Wednesday, April 5, 2023

 Drafting on the exclusive excitement in Chicago that is the EXPO CHICAGO April 13th / 16th 2023 Weekend ONLI STUDIOS LLC is hosting a RSVP soft opening to its new Loft Art Space in the dynamic Ravenswood District of Chicago. 

Five well- resourced and connected major players in the international fine art world are being discreetly invited.

 They will be treated to the in-studio power of indie-unrepresented Visual Fine Art with immense growth potential that has a long-acclaimed practice that includes being featured at the Musuem of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The New Musuem of Contemporary Art, NY, The FIAP, Paris, and a COVID era Residency in Chicago at the Hyde Park Art Center.

They will see & experience excerpts from Prof. Onli's following Rhythmistic Art Collections or bodies of work. 

 "No Evils".


 "The Naga".


 

"Passion Fruit".




NOTE: All of the art and images on this blog are copyright 2023 Turtel Oni and other registrations dates.  They are not to be rebooted, remixed, or reproduced for any commercial use without a signed negotiated compensation agreement with Turtel Onli.