Observations on Art 3.31

"Art is anything you can get away with" is a quote widely attributed to Andy Warhol that says all you need to know about his theory of art. I say the quote is attributed to Warhol because, while I'm sure he said it and just as sure he lived it, the quote is actually by a Canadian media philosopher, Marshall McLuhan.

It doesn't really matter who said it because the quote isn't the topic of this post. It just makes a perfect opening for a Warhol story I heard last week that I hadn't heard in some time.

On April 21, 1964 Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery* held one of the first major exhibitions of Andy Warhol's work. The Stable exhibition was the first time the world saw Warhol's Brillo Boxes. Among those attending the show was James Harvey who had originally designed the box for the Brillo Manufacturing Company. Harvey and a friend had wandered into the Stable to see a show by a than still minor artist, Warhol. Upon seeing the stack of  boxes Harvey supposedly said to his friend "oh my god, I designed those."

Art critic Arthur Danto once asked, "What distinguishes Warhol’s Brillo Box from the Brillo boxes in which Brillo comes?" That's literally a million dollar question because on that day in 1964 Warhol's Brillo boxes were selling for hundreds of dollars and have since sold at auction for as much $5 million. For all practical purposes Harvey's Brillo boxes were worthless.

James Harvey died of cancer less than a year after the Stable Gallery show. One of the only remaining examples of Harvey's Brillo box is owned by Art Historian Irving Sandler. He keeps the box, an autographed gift from Harvey, in a case in his apartment not far from what was once the site of the Stable Gallery.

* trivia, the Stable Gallery was so named because it was originally housed in an unused livery stable on West 58^th Street in New York.

Observations on Art 3.15

Diana Thater - Day For Night

Armory Week usually brings about a kind of art overload, if that is possible, but there is always something I absolutely love. This year it was a series of videos by artist Diana Thater at the David Zwirner booth. To make the videos Thater said she "placed the flowers on a mirror that reflected the bright blue Los Angeles sky above and filmed them from above on a crane using a day for night filter, which movie directors use to make scenes shot in the day look like they occur at night, and had a rain machine pump rain between the camera and the flowers." The videos were played on the highest of hi-tech screens and are just a stunning shade of blue.

Not long after I mentioned that I have no use for Pinterest I read an article on ArtInfo that listed the ten best art related accounts to follow. Needless to say I'm finding myself addicted to what you could call art porn but I have yet to 'pin' a single thing. That lack of pinning brings to mind a question, how did I get seven followers? If you use Pinterest the article is a good place to start but I would add The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée du Louvre both of which have awesome boards, or maybe I'm just a snob at times.

A quote I posted on tumblr about a month ago has well over 5,000 reposts now. The quote is by Vladimir Nabokov and I'm sure its popularity is saying something about the world we live in but at the moment I don't feel like dwelling on it. This is the quote, "Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."

Speaking of quotes, and possibly in some way related to the above paragraph, today is March 15^th, The Ides of March. This would be the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in the year 44 BC. A seer had warned Caesar that harm would come to him no later than the Ides of March. While going to the Theatre of Pompey that day (eerie shades of Lincoln here) Caesar passed the same person and supposedly joked, "The ides of March have come," meaning he was still alive. The seer answered back, "Aye, but not gone." Four years later Octavian executed 300 Roman Senators on the anniversary of Caesar's death.

I have no idea why I think that is important but yet I do. I think it has something to do with the ignorance of  the currently be held CPAC and what people will think of us 2,000 years from now, that is if there are people. It can't be good.

As William Shakespeare wrote simply in Julius Caesar, "beware the Ides of March." I would stay away from theatres too.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 1.15

This may be bad form, or maybe it's just perfect, but I'm going to update you a little on guns on Martin Luther King's birthday. Originally I was going to post this as my Sunday observations, I had some good links to go with it, but other things came up and now the guardians of the empire seem to have lost my links.

In typical Amerikan lunacy NRA memberships and gun sales have surged since the Newtown massacre, magazine and rifle orders have a backlog of almost a year, but this time around there's a new wrinkle. There now seems to be a national ammunition shortage so bad police departments across the country are cutting back on training. In some cities the shortage has gotten so bad the police have resorted to buying ammo at local gun shops. This means there is a good chance the NRA's vaunted good guys with guns wont be able to hit the bad guys with guns should they see them. You can bet the gun industry is enjoying their rising profits once again courtesy of the NRA and the nutjobs that worship it.

A seriously funny side story to this is that some gun and ammo buyers are complaining about price gouging. Seriously. On one website a buyer whined about paying $999 for a case (1,000 rounds) of ammo listed at $399 in the site's catalog. I'm not going to get into the reasons somebody might need 1,000 rounds of .233 (bushmaster caliber) ammo but somebody left a good quote as a comment to his tirade. "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt," Abraham Lincoln.

For the record, as of today there have now been 936 gun related deaths in the U.S. since Newtown.

Observations from the Gallery 12.12

Just a quick post because on Sunday I mentioned a Charles Bukowski quote that was popular on my tumblr, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world." I thought it suggested people weren't all in a happy holiday mood but it seems a few days can make all the difference. Today they rediscovered a Tolstoy quote I had originally posted months ago ....

"If you want to be happy, be."

At the same time you may have noticed today's date is 12.12.12, Speaker Boehner is doing his best Nero impression, and North Korea has a satellite in orbit. Taken together the three make me wonder if the Mayans may have indeed been right.

And where have you gone NHL?

12/13 update - NBC News reported this morning that the North Korean satellite seems to be "tumbling out of control" and I don't think the were referring to the tumblr blogs. I just wanted to say ... heads up!

Sunday Observations 12.9

I'm going to start with a quick warning. The Eagles won a football game today, the Mayan apocalypse is upon us.

For possibly the first time in my life I have three biographies started. Now I've often had three books started but never three bios, I hope I don't get anything mixed up. I guess that isn't possible with these three books; Ted Kennedy's True Compass, Keith Richards's Life, and Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

Not sure if it's a sign of the times or what but at the moment one of the more popular quotes on my tumblrs is this from Charles Bukowski, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world."

I don't want to be totally depressing on a Sunday evening but this week I saw a good article in Forbes about sex trafficking which it says is now a $32 billion a year industry worldwide. I'm not going to get into it, the article isn't long if you want to read it, but I wanted to share this line. It's one of those things that is so obviously true but evidently isn't seen that way in this country. "Legally, they cannot consent to sex with an adult, so the use of the term “child prostitution” in the media is misleading. In any other context, this would be considered statutory rape."

A few days ago I said that there was a lot going on in the art world this week but I have yet to finish that post. One of the major things was the ribbon cutting at the new Louvre-Lens museum which will officially open later this week. The museum will contain over 300 works from the Louvre. The other thing was the Art Basel show in Miami. A funny geek thing happened this morning that relates to the Miami show. I was reading a Le Monde article about it and hit the tweet button which than said it was posted. It hadn't so I tried again with the same result. Turned out something in the french name of the culture section was telling twitter it was a direct message so it wouldn't send it.

Finally Ash's line of the week, "If you are going to call yourself a painter you really need to paint."

Truth.

Observations 11.17

I don't know if I have ever done a post that contained just a single quote before but given the state of the world yet again it seemed perfect dream for a gorgeous sunny morning.

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'"
 Eve Merriam (1916-1992)

Observations from the Window 9.16

It was still dark when I took my coffee and wandered to the roof early Friday morning. The slimmest of crescent moons hung over the Village in the cool air, simply one of those mornings I lived for in the mountains. Sometimes my mountains seem so far away, like they are from a totally different life. Still, Fall is in the air and if it's not quite the same in the Village there is no missing it on crisp clear mornings like the past few.

I have to say that the past three or four weeks have been rather hectic for me, sometimes excruciatingly so. There was my trip to Paris, the VQs made their return from Boston, and the political conventions didn't give my politically addicted brain much of a rest. On top of those I have been stressing over a personal issue for a couple of months now and I happened turn 30 in August.

So yes I do love this time of year but as with anything involving me it isn't all that clear cut. Fall just seems to be the time of year my brain reboots. I suppose you could call it the start of my mental year probably due to spending too many years at PSU. This year it just seems to be worse than others have been because of all the things I just mentioned. I start to dwell on what I want to do, where I want to be, and how the hell I'm going to get there. Painting, writing, and photography all are competing for limited time. This is also the one time of year I still so miss my mountains and I just don't have the time to get back there as much as I would like. That makes me start to think that maybe I should have just stayed there all along. See what I mean about the mess my brain becomes?

Than again it seems I left myself a clue this year. I did happen to ship all those acrylics back from Paris. There must have been a reason for that.

A brief Fall sports update; the Phillies are making a totally unexpected run at the last playoff spot in the National League (but proceeded to lose 2 out of 3 games to the worst team in baseball), the post-Paterno era of Penn State football is off to a totally expected dismal start (but crushed Navy for their first win), and the Flyers seem to be locked out in an NHL labor dispute (but ... well no buts here, locked out).

Finally a rather fitting quote from Leo Tolstoy that I posted on one of my tumblrs and has been reblogged over a thousand times ....

"If you want to be happy, be"

Observations from the window 6.8

I haven't been writing much lately mostly because I have a lot on my mind lately and it has created a mess in which I can't put anything into words. Maybe that is just what my version of writers block is, a swirly messy mind. I've started multiple posts and finished none including a couple art posts I totally want to get out there. Over the next week I'm going to try and finish them as update some others I left open ended.

One thing I am staying away from, for now anyway,  is politics. As much as I love it I can't write about it without getting a headache. Politics in this country is just totally out of control, running on massive amounts of both money and ideology. At times politics is just war under another name an at times war is fought with no mercy. Sadly this seems to be one of those times.

History is about to reach one of its turning points and this November's election may tell us just how painful this turning point is going to be. If those who would turn back the clock should gain total power it may take a complete crash for history to sweep them away but in the end they will be swept away.

Like war, at times history is merciless.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it ... always,” Mahatma Gandhi.

Observations from the Window 1.12

I was looking out the window at the rainy wet street and thinking how much better that is than the blizzard swept streets of a year ago. Sometimes rain is good, sometimes it just fits the mood.

Many times I have said how much I love a good quote and I sprinkle them liberally through my tumblr pages (Quotes). It's rare for one of them not to get a like or two and some turn out to be quite liked. Below are some of the more popular ones from the past few months. Each one has a minimum ten likes or reblogs with the first having a total of 366 so far. Taken together they seem to tell a story all their own.

(I'm going to break all the rules of writing here and not use quotation marks so they flow better or maybe because I'm an aesthetics freak as much as a quote one.)

Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

She looked at me like I was crazy. Most of my lovers do, and that’s partly why they love me, and partly why they leave. - Jeanette Winterson

Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why. - Hunter S. Thompson

If you want to work on your art, work on your life. - Anton Chekhov

But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself. - Albert Camus

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations. - George Orwell

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
- Jack Kerouac

'Think how you love me,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember.' - F. Scott Fitzgerald

In many ways a good quote is like a good photo. You may not agree with what the quote says, you may not even like it, but once you see or hear the quote it makes you think. It is short but with its few words it can make you think more than an afternoon of reading.

Sound bites from the past.

Observations from Amerika 12.2

It should come as no surprise that what follows occurred in the dark of night. I don't know how 93 US Senators, elected by the people of this nation, can look themselves in the face this morning. It boggles my mind how little media attention this whole thing has gotten.

Yesterday the Democratic controlled US Senate quietly passed the 680 page National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (s.1867) by a vote of 93-7. Included in sections 1031 and 1032 of the bill is wording that for all purposes declares the whole of the United States, actually the whole world, a battle zone. As such the US Military could for the first time since the Civil War be allowed to detain United States Citizens within the US and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial. These same US citizens could conceivably face a military and not civil court. That is if they are given a trial at all. As it always seems today the purpose of the provisions is to make it easier to fight and prosecute terrorists but now it seems we are all suspect.

The sections are opposed by President Obama who promises he will veto the entire appropriations bill if they are included. Its is also opposed by the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and many retired military leaders. Friday morning the White House said the veto threat still stands.

"The bill is an historic threat to American citizens and others because it expands and makes permanent the authority of the president to order the military to imprison without charge or trial American citizens," said Christopher Anders, ACLU senior legislative counsel. It should be noted that a compromise was reached in order to pass the bill. The compromise? It only includes US citizens “if we want it too.” One can only wonder what any future President Dick Cheney would think of that.

It all reminds me of a quote....

“For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: All Animals Are Equal But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm

notes:
Those voting against the bill were Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Ron Wyyden (D-OR).

update - To clarify what "if we want it to" means.
A compromise amendment was passed which just pushes the entire matter down the road. The compromise simply leaves it to the Supreme Court to decide should some future president decide to assert the authority the bill specifically authorizes him to do. Our current crop of politicians can't even seem to get taking away our freedom right.

Observations

With all the things going on right now this seems a strange post for a Monday morning but I was paging through an old book, saw this, and it made me smile. Too long for twitter and not right for tumblr I'll just post it here and hope it makes somebody else smile too.

“If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. If I knew that this would be the last time I would hear your voice, I’d take hold of each word to be able to hear it over and over again. If I knew this is the last time I see you, I’d tell you I love you, and would not just assume foolishly you know it already.”

Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Observations on Art 8.15

Dreams take many forms but is a dream worth everything? In that I mean is it worth giving up all else to make that dream happen? Everything comes at a price, even a dream, one just has to decide if it is a price you are willing to pay. The price of turning that dream into a reality.

"Notre devoir, en tant qu'hommes et femmes, est de procéder comme si les limites de notre capacité n'existait pas. Nous sommes des collaborateurs dans la création."*
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin


Paris de Women are Heroes from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

Ile St Louis is one of Paris’s oldest and most exclusive districts, a district of cobbled streets and tea-shops. It became the home of an installation by French artist and photographer JR called Women are Heroes. For the Women are Heroes exhibition JR and his volunteer assistants pasted up miles of posters of women’s eyes around Ile St Louis and the Louis Philippe bridge that links the island to Paris’s right bank.

Everybody has a dream. Some are fleeting, some are not.

*"Our duty as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. 
We are collaborators in creation."

Observations from the Window 7.6

Really nothing exciting here. As I vegged on the deck recovering from the pig roast on the 4th I was tweeting some quotes that I thought were fitting for the day. I was amazed at how they all still resonate today, some even two hundred years later. Anyway I thought I would put them all together in one place so here they are, all in one place. The first is a Sinclair Lewis quote that has been one of my favs for years.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
Sinclair Lewis

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
Thomas Jefferson

"Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
John Adams

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
James Madison

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
George Washington

"The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government."
Thomas Paine

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Benjamin Franklin

So there you have three of the loves of my strange life in one easy to read package. History, politics, and quotes. I often think the wingnuts should read the quotes of the people they are so fond of quoting. For what it's worth that was your history lesson for today. Don't say they didn't warn you.