Recently saw the de Kooning show at the Modern. It is a beautiful and sensitive installation. I was impressed with what a master he was and how tragic his increasing Alzheimers was. He seemed to have it all together until about the mid-1960s when he faltered. I do not know if this was due to the early on-set or what. The impressive thing about the work prior to that was just how integrated his art was in terms of structure, drawing, color, form and space. He inherited all the best of Dutch and European traditions and married them with his own brand of abstraction. His use of color was eccentric and all his own and the way his line cut into space suggested layered dimensionsa and parallel universes.
Much has been made of his Divas but those Goddesses were embodiments of his own emotions concerning women and they were complex. I never saw them as women hating perse but rather his complex feelings about the women in his life and women in general as powerful and unpredictable figures.
The shocking part of the exhibition is the visual representations of his increasing disability. He was at the end a painting machine that went on cranking out paintings that reflected the spaces in his brain as his brush tried to encompass what was no longer there; the focused energy and emotions of a master artist.
Meditating
Learning patience
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas
Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas: Check out our new site: How the GOP Stole Christmas: https://www.dccc.org/pages/gopstolechristmas Yep you can bet deep pocket Koch brother-type Santa's are making sure he has a merry xmas at your expense. Vote them all out next year.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Healthcare for all a cultural issue
You betcha! Artists are cultural workers and as such often have no way to pay over $600.00 a month for healthcare. This group is trying to highlight the issue at a time when the flat-landers and know/no nothings are busy killing off what little safety net we have left in their version/vision of the American future they envision. The House just passed a murder woman bill that boggles the mind when it is wrapped in what they style 'Christian" compassion. Any hospital can refuse to perform a life-saving abortion. Human cell tissue is more alive than the woman carrying it-by their lights-out brains. And, Obama just jettisoned the long term part of the health plan as too expensive when it might have allowed family care givers to be paid rather than insurance companies squeezing the last pennies out of distressed working families. Is this the America we wanted to see. No, I don't think the 99% ever envisioned Eric Cantor and company's utopia. Great for the elites like the artistocrats of old and the peasants be damned. Fight the wars and die so the rich can play on. Well you know what the French did with that. They got carried away but had a point and delivered it sharply to the heads that oppressed them. Yes Artists need healthcare.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Twitter / Tweet Button
Twitter / Tweet Button So now new information on Van Gogh's portraits. Play it by ear seems to be the watch word at the Van Gogh foundation. They have discovered that portraits they thought were of Van Gogh himself actually are of his brother Theo. How--by ear--the one that isn't cut off is thought to be the clue to who is who!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Price to restore The Triumph of Civic Virtue marble statue in Queens is high
Price to restore The Triumph of Civic Virtue marble statue in Queens is high
Well here I am on my soap box trying to finds culture in Queens and folks who care enough to sign on to a grassroots group effort to rally the troops to save this American master's work. Contact me for a meet up if you have any interest in keeping this treasure in Queens.
Well here I am on my soap box trying to finds culture in Queens and folks who care enough to sign on to a grassroots group effort to rally the troops to save this American master's work. Contact me for a meet up if you have any interest in keeping this treasure in Queens.
The Agenda Project: America The Beautiful
This says it all. If you vote GOP or think you are a Christian when you sign on to the stupid and misleading policies that the extreme right supports-the only result is before your eyes. Is this what you really want American to be about? I don't think so. Gertrude Stein summed it up pretty well. What's in a name--if you call medicare "socialism" to scare people then you can cheat them out of just about everything they've worked for--social security and medicare. We have a broken system and the people who have broken it are getting fatter and greedier as the moments pass. Civil virtue is almost on a resporator and if people don't wise up the visual we just saw could become reality.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
PEN American Center - 2011 PEN World Voices Festival
PEN American Center - 2011 PEN World Voices Festival For those of us who believe that if they don't pay you-you don't have to be jerked around by them. If you were wondering about alternatives and haven't quit you day job you can have your say--find out ways and means for independents.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Secret Life of Poets: Two Sides of Emily Dickinson - She Writes
The Secret Life of Poets: Two Sides of Emily Dickinson - She Writes: "Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile -- the Winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor – Tonight –
In Thee!"
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile -- the Winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor – Tonight –
In Thee!"
Monday, April 25, 2011
A John Ascroft moment in Kew Gardens-is public sculpture doomed!
Power and its Abuses
I have lately lost faith in the power of reason. I think the time has come for those of us who call ourselves art critics to fish or cut bait.
Recently the College Art Association, to which I have belonged since the 1960s, has opted to take a pass on writing a letter of support regarding saving a public work of art by the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, entitled Civic Virtue (something sorely needed in these times). The work crumbles in Kew Gardens, while politicians--including my democratic populist representative--exploit it as a political football to advance their own ambitions. Killing two birds with one stone, Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) contends that the work is an eye sore and sexist--that the City of New York should sell it off on Craigslist rather than conserve it. His statements would be laughable were it not that he follows John Ashcroft, Pied-Piper like, in his efforts to rid the country of works of art he deems valueless. And his precedent is encouraging others in turn. [This sort of hypocrisy recalls the disingenuous cant of the Nazi party concerning decadent art during the 1930s--cut???.] In Maine, for example, the governor’s recent efforts to remove a 2007 public mural devoted to the subject of laborers represent the same self-serving politics as those of Weiner (and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall). Yet their opinions decidedly do not reflect the sentiments of the local community. Add to this the efforts to relocate Charles Alston and Hale Woodruff's murals from their public perch in an historically important Los Angeles building to the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History, and the signals are clear. Together these events underscore the fragility of an idea that we tend to take for granted: that public art is designed as "site-specific," contributes to a sense of place, and serves as an economic engine for localities that aren't necessarily in the metropolitan center.
Queens, in fact boasts only the residues of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs and the MacMonnies monument as cultural artifacts. People (mostly politicians), as art historian Michele Bogart has noted, seem to believe that if they don't like the work of public art, that it should just be moved out of sight (sorry for pun) and out of mind.
Politicians knee-jerk reactions are not acceptable when they have the power to act upon them. We who have thought long and hard about art know much better, and it behooves us to stand up for what we know is right. Pastor Martin Niemöllers much-cited statement comes immediately to mind:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.
The CAA elects not to speak out against irresponsible political statements and actions (which have potentially disasterous implications for all public art) because “its members might have some considerable differences of opinion” about these works of art. In making this decision, the organization has abdicated of one of its central responsibilities as a professional arts organization. The CAA should be establishing mechanisms for members to mobilize quickly to fire back when politicians behave as did the governor of Maine, or, as was the case with Congressman Weiner, cavelierely disregard the fact that the municipality has a long-standing, charter-mandated process in place for the removal and relocation of works of art. The CAA should be looking out for the interests of its public artist members and actively supporting the idea of conserving works that have been selected for a city’s permanent collection. Civic Virtue is but one example. If we allow it to disintegrate, then any public work that fails to capture the heart of political representatives is potentially in jeopardy.
To ignore the corruption of basic values that we know to be true in both art and life is to collude in our own corruption. Niemöller’s statement affirms that we must all stay vigilant and go against the current if we hope to preserve the creative freedoms we value.
I have lately lost faith in the power of reason. I think the time has come for those of us who call ourselves art critics to fish or cut bait.
Recently the College Art Association, to which I have belonged since the 1960s, has opted to take a pass on writing a letter of support regarding saving a public work of art by the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, entitled Civic Virtue (something sorely needed in these times). The work crumbles in Kew Gardens, while politicians--including my democratic populist representative--exploit it as a political football to advance their own ambitions. Killing two birds with one stone, Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) contends that the work is an eye sore and sexist--that the City of New York should sell it off on Craigslist rather than conserve it. His statements would be laughable were it not that he follows John Ashcroft, Pied-Piper like, in his efforts to rid the country of works of art he deems valueless. And his precedent is encouraging others in turn. [This sort of hypocrisy recalls the disingenuous cant of the Nazi party concerning decadent art during the 1930s--cut???.] In Maine, for example, the governor’s recent efforts to remove a 2007 public mural devoted to the subject of laborers represent the same self-serving politics as those of Weiner (and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall). Yet their opinions decidedly do not reflect the sentiments of the local community. Add to this the efforts to relocate Charles Alston and Hale Woodruff's murals from their public perch in an historically important Los Angeles building to the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History, and the signals are clear. Together these events underscore the fragility of an idea that we tend to take for granted: that public art is designed as "site-specific," contributes to a sense of place, and serves as an economic engine for localities that aren't necessarily in the metropolitan center.
Queens, in fact boasts only the residues of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs and the MacMonnies monument as cultural artifacts. People (mostly politicians), as art historian Michele Bogart has noted, seem to believe that if they don't like the work of public art, that it should just be moved out of sight (sorry for pun) and out of mind.
Politicians knee-jerk reactions are not acceptable when they have the power to act upon them. We who have thought long and hard about art know much better, and it behooves us to stand up for what we know is right. Pastor Martin Niemöllers much-cited statement comes immediately to mind:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.
The CAA elects not to speak out against irresponsible political statements and actions (which have potentially disasterous implications for all public art) because “its members might have some considerable differences of opinion” about these works of art. In making this decision, the organization has abdicated of one of its central responsibilities as a professional arts organization. The CAA should be establishing mechanisms for members to mobilize quickly to fire back when politicians behave as did the governor of Maine, or, as was the case with Congressman Weiner, cavelierely disregard the fact that the municipality has a long-standing, charter-mandated process in place for the removal and relocation of works of art. The CAA should be looking out for the interests of its public artist members and actively supporting the idea of conserving works that have been selected for a city’s permanent collection. Civic Virtue is but one example. If we allow it to disintegrate, then any public work that fails to capture the heart of political representatives is potentially in jeopardy.
To ignore the corruption of basic values that we know to be true in both art and life is to collude in our own corruption. Niemöller’s statement affirms that we must all stay vigilant and go against the current if we hope to preserve the creative freedoms we value.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Why Queens politicians are not public servants but only serving themselves
To be truly ignorant one has to be unwilling to listen and learn. This the case with the democrats who are suppose to represent my interests and the interests of those culturally concerned people in Queens.
An art historian from Stony Brook University has joined forces with Queens residents to restore the “Civic Virtue” statue outside Borough Hall, which they said has been unfairly maligned by area politicians, who have called for its removal without looking into the artwork’s history.
“Civic Virtue,” finished by American artist Frederick MacMonnies in 1919, depicts a nearly nude man with a sword, towering over two female figures. The sculpture was recently called sexist by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens and Brooklyn) and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who said they supported moving the statue out of the borough.
“I wouldn’t argue that politicians are wrong, or people are wrong, or stupid because they see this work as sexist in some way,” said Michele Bogart, an art history professor at Stony Brook and a Brooklyn resident. “I would argue they’re not paying close enough attention to the work. They’re reacting in a knee-jerk way and haven’t bothered to understand the history of it.”
Bogart, who had just finished writing a scholarly article on “Civic Virtue” when Weiner held a press conference calling for its removal in early March, said the statue could be used to teach students and the general public about the history of the city and the borough, as it was commissioned by the mayor in 1909 and ultimately dedicated in 1922. It was controversial from the beginning, with women’s rights groups calling it sexist after its dedication, which Bogart noted was just after the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
“Women’s groups looked at the work in a rather literal way and didn’t take account of the fact it was an allegorical personification of virtue triumphing over vice,” Bogart said.
Many residents have denounced the condemnation from Queens politicians. Community Board 9 recently passed a resolution calling for the statue’s restoration, which Bogart said could cost up to $1 million — far less than the $20 million price-tag Borough President Helen Marshall had cited. However, the more modest work of cleaning the statue, fixing some of the broken stonework, among other things, could cost in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, Bogart said.
“I wouldn’t believe there’s any government money for restoration, but we’re hoping to garner enough publicity so that private art organizations will find it worthy enough to at least try and dedicate some funds or help raise funds,” said CB 9 Chairwoman Andrea Crawford.
Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) said at a CB 9 meeting last week that it was highly unlikely any city funds would be dedicated to the statue.
“There’s no way we can put any city money into ‘Civic Virtue’ when we have to put money into infrastructure,” Koslowitz said at the meeting. “Roads need repairs, I’m putting money into parks and into the school system.”
CB 9 District Manager Mary Ann Carey said she has received a deluge of e-mails, phone calls and letters in support of restoring the statue and keeping it in the borough.
“This is a public work of art, and it should be conserved,” Carey said. “What other public art is there in Queens? There’s the Unisphere, and there’s this. Now they want to take this away.”
Bogart suggested the borough president allocate a small amount of money for the statue, which she said could be followed by support from private individuals and groups.
“The city does not have the funds right now, so all the community board is trying to do is get the backing of the Queens Borough president to provide a small amount of seed money that could be used to catalyze a movement to raise private funds to get the monument stabilized,” said Bogart, who began researching “Civic Virtue” while conducting research in the late 1980s for a book on public sculpture in the city.
Bogart suggested a plaque be placed by the statue summarizing its history.
“Use the work as a vehicle to educate people on the complexities of art, the representation of male-female relationships, about Queens and the city,” she said.
HEAR! HEAR but this plea has fallen on deaf ears and ineducatable brains. Don't believe what these people's media hype tells you. Experience and learn who these people are really for and what their ambitions really mean for the people of Queens. No vision-they fail to see a golden opportunity for tourism and education because they lack imagination and their minds are closed! Anyone who opposes them is labeled crazy (as in my case by Anthony Weiner and a sexists - this after I have authored six books dealing with the subject and hundredes of articles--so much for respecting those you are supposed to respect and who you want to work and vote for you. WOULD YOU? I don't think so.
An art historian from Stony Brook University has joined forces with Queens residents to restore the “Civic Virtue” statue outside Borough Hall, which they said has been unfairly maligned by area politicians, who have called for its removal without looking into the artwork’s history.
“Civic Virtue,” finished by American artist Frederick MacMonnies in 1919, depicts a nearly nude man with a sword, towering over two female figures. The sculpture was recently called sexist by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens and Brooklyn) and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who said they supported moving the statue out of the borough.
“I wouldn’t argue that politicians are wrong, or people are wrong, or stupid because they see this work as sexist in some way,” said Michele Bogart, an art history professor at Stony Brook and a Brooklyn resident. “I would argue they’re not paying close enough attention to the work. They’re reacting in a knee-jerk way and haven’t bothered to understand the history of it.”
Bogart, who had just finished writing a scholarly article on “Civic Virtue” when Weiner held a press conference calling for its removal in early March, said the statue could be used to teach students and the general public about the history of the city and the borough, as it was commissioned by the mayor in 1909 and ultimately dedicated in 1922. It was controversial from the beginning, with women’s rights groups calling it sexist after its dedication, which Bogart noted was just after the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
“Women’s groups looked at the work in a rather literal way and didn’t take account of the fact it was an allegorical personification of virtue triumphing over vice,” Bogart said.
Many residents have denounced the condemnation from Queens politicians. Community Board 9 recently passed a resolution calling for the statue’s restoration, which Bogart said could cost up to $1 million — far less than the $20 million price-tag Borough President Helen Marshall had cited. However, the more modest work of cleaning the statue, fixing some of the broken stonework, among other things, could cost in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, Bogart said.
“I wouldn’t believe there’s any government money for restoration, but we’re hoping to garner enough publicity so that private art organizations will find it worthy enough to at least try and dedicate some funds or help raise funds,” said CB 9 Chairwoman Andrea Crawford.
Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) said at a CB 9 meeting last week that it was highly unlikely any city funds would be dedicated to the statue.
“There’s no way we can put any city money into ‘Civic Virtue’ when we have to put money into infrastructure,” Koslowitz said at the meeting. “Roads need repairs, I’m putting money into parks and into the school system.”
CB 9 District Manager Mary Ann Carey said she has received a deluge of e-mails, phone calls and letters in support of restoring the statue and keeping it in the borough.
“This is a public work of art, and it should be conserved,” Carey said. “What other public art is there in Queens? There’s the Unisphere, and there’s this. Now they want to take this away.”
Bogart suggested the borough president allocate a small amount of money for the statue, which she said could be followed by support from private individuals and groups.
“The city does not have the funds right now, so all the community board is trying to do is get the backing of the Queens Borough president to provide a small amount of seed money that could be used to catalyze a movement to raise private funds to get the monument stabilized,” said Bogart, who began researching “Civic Virtue” while conducting research in the late 1980s for a book on public sculpture in the city.
Bogart suggested a plaque be placed by the statue summarizing its history.
“Use the work as a vehicle to educate people on the complexities of art, the representation of male-female relationships, about Queens and the city,” she said.
HEAR! HEAR but this plea has fallen on deaf ears and ineducatable brains. Don't believe what these people's media hype tells you. Experience and learn who these people are really for and what their ambitions really mean for the people of Queens. No vision-they fail to see a golden opportunity for tourism and education because they lack imagination and their minds are closed! Anyone who opposes them is labeled crazy (as in my case by Anthony Weiner and a sexists - this after I have authored six books dealing with the subject and hundredes of articles--so much for respecting those you are supposed to respect and who you want to work and vote for you. WOULD YOU? I don't think so.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Romaine Brooks book
FinRomaine Brooks was an American expatriate, artist, interior designer, fashion icon and lover, friend,and confidante to a brilliant cast of characters including: Ida Rubenstein, Natalie Barney, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Jean Cocteau, Bryher (Winifred Ellerman), Djuna Barnes, Colette, Janet Flanner, Carl Van Vechten, Radclyffe Hall, Mina Loy, Gertrude Stein, Renee Vivien, and Somerset Maugham.
Her struggle to overcome her traumatic dhildhood shadowed her and ultimately affected the direction of her art and life.
This radically new critical study re-positions Brooks as a major figure in the rise of modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century
ally pulling it together for my Romaine Brooks book summary so here it is in a nutshell.
Her struggle to overcome her traumatic dhildhood shadowed her and ultimately affected the direction of her art and life.
This radically new critical study re-positions Brooks as a major figure in the rise of modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century
ally pulling it together for my Romaine Brooks book summary so here it is in a nutshell.
Fashion in Film Fest Opens in New York - EyeScoop - Celebrity Photos, Fashion and Lifestyle News - WWD.com
Fashion in Film Fest Opens in New York - EyeScoop - Celebrity Photos, Fashion and Lifestyle News - WWD.com This is just plain great. Talk about high style and outrageously glamourous! I have early stills of Marlene and other "goddesses" and they still knock me out.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Stonewall-National-Library---Archive-Welcomes-Author-R--Tripp-Evans.html?soid=1102026594214&aid=Paj4UqwqyEc
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Stonewall-National-Library---Archive-Welcomes-Author-R--Tripp-Evans.html?soid=1102026594214&aid=Paj4UqwqyEc This is a great read. Tripp did a wonderful job. I reviewed the book for G&LR international. See my www.romainebrooks.com for a link
Monday, April 11, 2011
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Stonewall-National-Library---Archive-Update.html?soid=1102026594214&aid=2e_fo0DFrHw
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Stonewall-National-Library---Archive-Update.html?soid=1102026594214&aid=2e_fo0DFrHw
New leadership-new possibilities. Building on a job well done, Brian will enhance this strong foundation of bringing in the best of our communities.
New leadership-new possibilities. Building on a job well done, Brian will enhance this strong foundation of bringing in the best of our communities.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Eleanor Heartney on Art & Money politics in the art business - artnet Magazine
Eleanor Heartney on Art & Money politics in the art business - artnet Magazine Eleanor is absolutely on the mark and expresses what many artist and critics have been feeling and thinking as well as writing for some time now. The problem is the nerve to say it and get it out there where people can see and read our say. The rich can afford to pay taxes. They are benefiting in ways that would have been unthinkable during my father's working life. The politicians are riding rough shod over the working class and middle class. In art they are trying to erase our cultural heritage by refusing to fund restoration of works of art right here in Queens where I live (Frederick MacMonnies, Civic Virtue) Of course none of my so called representatives do have any! Anthony Weiner who is supposed to be one of the "good" guys suggested selling this master piece of American art on Craigs list! How do we elect these under educated cretins? In Maine much the same thing is taking place with the removable of a mural depicting the virtues of work and labor by ordinary people. To me these folks are the glue that holds our American society together. How people can be so misled as to vote against their own interests I simply do not understand but that is what has happened in this last election cycle.
Is it that only art critics and those who have been taught to think critically can see the writing on the wall? What happened to the so called honorable opposition. The democratic party that has become the demock-ratic party when it comes to representing the working class and working wage earners. That used to be an honorable thing to do. Now it is only money and who pulls the strings on the puppets who are allowed to be elected.
I have said this many times before - without campaign reform- the candidates we get are only those who have been hand-picked by special interests. So we have a choice less selection of the least of the worse not true civil servants. What can be done about this? Keep on holding the line I suppose.
As art critics we have to call it as we see it. Eleanor has done that. Now the question is what can we do to keep our artistic heritage from being destroyed by these monsters?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
PEN American Center - PEN Reads
PEN American Center - PEN Reads When it comes to film noir there are few masters of the genre who are as good as Cain. The new version is interesting in that it seems more sympathetic to Mildred than the Hollywood version. The setting captures depression America in a way that the old one does not. It explains why Mildred had to bake pies as a single mother responsible for her two daughters when her weakling of a husband walked out on them. It tells the story of single mothers everywhere as a trope and it presents a very unpleasant picture of American males. Men in general do not fare well in this novel. Also, it shows you very early on how the surviving daughter gets to be the way she is. This devolves from her parents shame about their class and circumstance. She is a monster in the making who becomes full blown as she reaches adulthood. Tune in next week for the continuing Saga.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Zeitgeist Films :: Queen to Play :: a film by Caroline Bottaro
Zeitgeist Films :: Queen to Play :: a film by Caroline Bottaro This looks like an interesting film. Passion as Romaine Brooks knew is everything! As the song says it's not how you start but how you finish that counts!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Winnaretta Singer another of Romaine's lovers
Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac, was the half-French, half-American daughter of the 19th century sewing machine magnate, Isaac Singer. From her youth in the late 1880s through to the end of her life in London during the Second World War, she stood at the center of European arts patronage. Working out of her vast and specially designed house in Paris, she funded and supported artists like Degas and Monet, composers like Faure, Stravinsky, Kurt Weill and Poulenc, as well as writers such as Verlaine, Proust and Virginia Woolf. Gerard McBurney will explore the life and career of this fascinating woman, concentrating especially on her work as a patron of music.
Clara Butt
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Incomparable Dephine Seyrig
Her own woman in every way, Delphine Seyrig was a fantastic actress and a lesbian icon. What Alain Resnais made of her in his Famous masterpiece, Last Year at Marienbad (1961) was written on her body as an actress and a screen for his and other male fantasies. What she brought to this impossible role was all her own. As anyone can see she is a strong woman with a style all her own. In this way she reminds me of Romaine Brooks who created a performative self and made it the guiding principle of her life.Last year
Recently revisited Last Year at Marienbad. I had seen it as an 18 year old when it first came out. What struck me was the difference between movies= entertainment and cinema=art. It was so readily apparent in ways that I had missed or only had a vague notion of as an emerging intellectual in the 1960s.
Of course, at that time whether one was in a cultural backwater like Miami or in New York City, French films defined the territory. The up-dated Louise Brooks look was in, everyone who aspired to intellectualism of any kind wore black and was learning French. Of our generation I suppose the embodiment of female intellectual was Susan Sontag (a closet lesbian). She defined the formula for how to write about art and culture for decades. Her projected persona was a total turn on with that white streak in her free flowing black hair and her black leather jacket dropping idiomatic French she was riveting--a role model for many young women writers and artists.
I suppose in my last post the thing that I liked best about the Korean film poetry was the directors attempt to create cinema not entertainment.
In choosing to review Alain Resnais' 1961 film I put myself in a critical frame of mind. What is me was the play of memory and how arbitrary it is in retrospect. When I thought about going to the Museum of the moving image which by the way, is spectacular for those of you who haven't seen it, and made the journey to Queens, I hesitated because I remembered it as being terribly long, tedious and boring. Of course I was 18, so did not have the film experience or life experienced truly appreciate the film for what it is in a word, is a masterpiece.
The cinematography remains strikingly visual and aesthetically supeior. What help me appreciate the film more fully was Voelker Schlondorff's video memory of it, which was shown in conjunction with Resnais' film. L'Annee Derniere A Marienbad requires patience and a commitment to see the film through. It is about prismatic thinking and the filmmakers ability to create a continuity. This is a collaboration that is complex. Requiring incredible skills and teamwork. Written by the French author Alain Robbe-Grillet,photographed by the extraordinary Sasha Vierney and edited by Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi . It is a tour de force of the creative imagination. A kind of psychological game puzzle that is never fully unraveled, which is what makes it so fascinating. We never know exactly whose point of view this is really taking place from. It is supposed to be about eight constant lover who has made a promise to a woman he met at Marienbad a year ago that he would wait for her to make up her mind to leave her husband and go away with him. However, we are never sure that this actually happened or if it is all in his imagination when he sees this woman. In the film. All of this action is projected on the magnificent actress Delphine Seyrig. She is a kind of human screen upon which all of these men project their desire.
For the director of the film she is a combination of Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks, and herself (a lesbian) as seen by Resnais through his film -addicted I-eye and love of silent films. For the writer it is a matter of imagining the it's your object of desire and for the cinematographer. It is the challenge of creating a visual narrative that complements the text.
For the actors. It is a matter of making themselves into whatever the director chooses for them to be.
And for the writer trying to come to terms with the limitations of what he has imagined and what can be shown through other media. When we add to this mix the spectator and his/her impressions we have the stuff that makes for cinema rather than entertainment. We are forced to think about the exterior picture in the interior monologue going on in the characters mind. What we visualize and what is actually there and how we remember it.
For me, this film holds up much better than many others of the period. This being said, I didn't like Renais' last film because for me it was too sentimental and smacked of a certain kind of the nostalgia that was not engaging. This may be a function of age is the director is 80 and coming to the end of the road that he like many of us has traveled for so long. It is a matter of summing up and taking the long view on our journeys and where they have taken us.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Poetry
Saw this film this afternoon. It is the 5th Korean film I've seen of late. Like Secret Sunshine it is another bleak and tragic tale of female suicide. In this case the protagonist is killed by her sense of right and wrong. Her heart is broken by what she knows she must do. What is striking about this film and the others is the bleak landscape that they are set against. Urban life in Korea looks like one horror after another of sexism, construction, rabbit warren homes and grandmothers taking care of children. Mainly, young, shiftless males who are over the top macho, lazy, good for nothings. And, people these are made by ambitious young male directors. So what gives here. The female characters come off as the ones with integrity, feelings and the strength to do whatever they have to. Very few men come off as caring or feeling in these films. I wonder why?
Makes me appreciate my current subject, Romaine Brooks will to survive and follow her destiny as an artist.
Makes me appreciate my current subject, Romaine Brooks will to survive and follow her destiny as an artist.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Writing funny
Henry James wrote, "Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." I love this quote my friend Laura sent me. It's delicious and right on target. More of us need to dance.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
So what did Unions do
This from Mother Jones: ABOUT A YEAR ago, the Pew Research Center looked looked at the sources reporters used for stories on the economy. The White House and members of Congress were often quoted, of course. Business leaders. Academics. Ordinary citizens. If you're under 40, you may not notice anything amiss. Who else is missing, then? Well: "Representatives of organized labor unions," Pew found, "were sources in a mere 2% of all the economy stories studied."
It wasn't always this way. Union leaders like John L. Lewis, George Meany, and Walter Reuther were routine sources for reporters from the '30s through the '70s. And why not? They made news. The contracts they signed were templates for entire industries. They had the power to bring commerce to a halt. They raised living standards for millions, they made and broke presidents, and they formed the backbone of one of America's two great political parties.
They did far more than that, though. As historian Kim Phillips-Fein puts it, "The strength of unions in postwar America had a profound impact on all people who worked for a living, even those who did not belong to a union themselves." (Emphasis mine.) Wages went up, even at nonunion companies. Health benefits expanded, private pensions rose, and vacations became more common. It was unions that made the American economy work for the middle class, and it was their later decline that turned the economy upside-down and made it into a playground for the business and financial classes.
Technically, American labor began its ebb in the early '50s. But as late as 1970, private-sector union density was still more than 25 percent, and the absolute number of union members was at its highest point in history. American unions had plenty of problems, ranging from unremitting hostility in the South to unimaginative leadership almost everywhere else, but it wasn't until the rise of the New Left in the '60s that these problems began to metastasize.
The problems were political, not economic. Organized labor requires government support to thrive—things like the right to organize workplaces, rules that prevent retaliation against union leaders, and requirements that management negotiate in good faith—and in America, that support traditionally came from the Democratic Party. The relationship was symbiotic: Unions provided money and ground game campaign organization, and in return Democrats supported economic policies like minimum-wage laws and expanded health care that helped not just union members per se—since they'd already won good wages and benefits at the bargaining table—but the interests of the working and middle classes writ large.
What has congress done since then? Pay itself and become puppets of the moneyed interests like the Koch's in Wisconsin. What is being fought for here is the survival of the middle-class and working American wage earners. It is for a decent standard of life with the possibility of upward mobility through hard work and education. Not bribery by the top 1% buying themselves a congressman or woman who has no interest in the people who vote her/him in but only in those who make large campaign contributions.
What about campaign reform? Does anyone ever hear about it any longer! NO and there is a reason. One vote per person does not work if the person you expect to carry your interests forward is bought and paid for by special interests. This is the case now and O'bama seems clueless as to how to hold democrats responsible for the values that the party is supposed to represent. At this point there is only one party--the business party that represents the 1% at the top of the feeding chain and is now unwilling to even give crumbs much less cake to anyone.
Wake up and smell the coffee. You can't afford not to.
It wasn't always this way. Union leaders like John L. Lewis, George Meany, and Walter Reuther were routine sources for reporters from the '30s through the '70s. And why not? They made news. The contracts they signed were templates for entire industries. They had the power to bring commerce to a halt. They raised living standards for millions, they made and broke presidents, and they formed the backbone of one of America's two great political parties.
They did far more than that, though. As historian Kim Phillips-Fein puts it, "The strength of unions in postwar America had a profound impact on all people who worked for a living, even those who did not belong to a union themselves." (Emphasis mine.) Wages went up, even at nonunion companies. Health benefits expanded, private pensions rose, and vacations became more common. It was unions that made the American economy work for the middle class, and it was their later decline that turned the economy upside-down and made it into a playground for the business and financial classes.
Technically, American labor began its ebb in the early '50s. But as late as 1970, private-sector union density was still more than 25 percent, and the absolute number of union members was at its highest point in history. American unions had plenty of problems, ranging from unremitting hostility in the South to unimaginative leadership almost everywhere else, but it wasn't until the rise of the New Left in the '60s that these problems began to metastasize.
The problems were political, not economic. Organized labor requires government support to thrive—things like the right to organize workplaces, rules that prevent retaliation against union leaders, and requirements that management negotiate in good faith—and in America, that support traditionally came from the Democratic Party. The relationship was symbiotic: Unions provided money and ground game campaign organization, and in return Democrats supported economic policies like minimum-wage laws and expanded health care that helped not just union members per se—since they'd already won good wages and benefits at the bargaining table—but the interests of the working and middle classes writ large.
What has congress done since then? Pay itself and become puppets of the moneyed interests like the Koch's in Wisconsin. What is being fought for here is the survival of the middle-class and working American wage earners. It is for a decent standard of life with the possibility of upward mobility through hard work and education. Not bribery by the top 1% buying themselves a congressman or woman who has no interest in the people who vote her/him in but only in those who make large campaign contributions.
What about campaign reform? Does anyone ever hear about it any longer! NO and there is a reason. One vote per person does not work if the person you expect to carry your interests forward is bought and paid for by special interests. This is the case now and O'bama seems clueless as to how to hold democrats responsible for the values that the party is supposed to represent. At this point there is only one party--the business party that represents the 1% at the top of the feeding chain and is now unwilling to even give crumbs much less cake to anyone.
Wake up and smell the coffee. You can't afford not to.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
College Art Association meeting
Eye opening sessions on new media and publishing. Opens up all kind of creative possibilities to have your say and various audiences. I only hope I can find a publiher for my Romaine Brooks book with this kind of creative vision. Other sessions were also useful, particulaarly Joanthan Katz's session dealing with censorship in the arts when it comes to GLBTQ images be they lesbian, gay, homoerotic, or AIDS as the National Portrait Gallery show(Hide/Seek-catalogue available) he organized with David Ward proved. We are still a very puritanical and unsophisticated nation.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Artistic Influences
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
How contemporary is Romaine
Have recently come from reading various news reports about the oppression of women in Islam. If clothes make the man I wonder what Brooks and thousands of women between the wars were saying with the fashion statments they tried to project. Brooks own great self portrait of 1923 and her other portraits of women who were determined to follow their own individual path no matter where it took them. Can you think of any?
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