Out of Lascaux

Industrial Art

Several days ago, I discovered Industrial Art. The artist posts very interesting paintings and sketches of mining complexes in Canada. I started digging a bit more when I discovered the artist is a woman who teaches art. Her stuff is great. When you've finished digging around the archives in Industrial Art, check out the other three blogs listed at the bottom of the page and see what else she does.

The MOMA Revisited

In an article titled A Modest Proposal in the Village Voice, Jerry Saltz says he's been to the MoMA 14 times since it re-opened. 14 times?!?! I guess he's not paying for his own tickets. Anyway, he proposes that the museum should exhibit the works in strictly chronological order. That way, we could see who influenced whom and who did what first.

As it is, the museum is divided by floors - and they assume you will start on the 5th floor and work your way down: Special Exhibitions; Painting and Sculpture I; Painting and Sculpture II; Architecture and Design; Contemporary Galleries; Sculpture Garden. The rooms are devoted to major works by a few artists like Pollock and Picasso. The set-up works, especially when it's crowded, but I like Saltz's "75 Years" better.

He also presents "Nine Ideas for a Better MoMA" which are reasonable. Not enough women represented, and too many contemporary white guys and Germans.

However, I would like to take a moment to think about the function of the MoMA. Is it a museum of Modern Art? Or is it a museum of Contemporary Art? The two are not the same, not for a long time now. How long will we call something "Modern" once it has passed it's 100th birthday? I have a feeling we will be calling Picasso's work Modern Art for centuries to come. This means we need to re-think the meaning of the term Modern Art. And perhaps the MoMA should consider concentrating on Modern Art and leaving Contemporary Art for galleries and museums of Contemporary Art. Although I suppose the MoMA could be seen as a bridge between the two.

I was going to go on to say something like this before I started doing a little web surfing:
The art historian in me says, "Oh, but to understand a contemporary artist, we must look at what came before." But, that isn't necessarily true. Contemporary Art is light years away from its moden predecessors. To say that to understand Mark Dion you must look at Picasso is like saying to understand Picasso you must look at Michelangelo. It doesn't work.

But I was wrong, and my art historian voice has triumphed. Mark Dion can only be understood once we realize that Duchamp came first. And Sigmund Polke is better undestood after looking at Picasso and Warhol. Contemporary Art is often too difficult a concept to grasp without looking at how classic art was deconstructed by the Modern Masters of the 20th century. Those not emersed in art history need some kind of wading pool before jumping into the deep end. Otherwise, it's all nonsense.

Now, whether an artist was actually influenced by older masters is another matter. Some will claim they were not at all influenced, and some will make direct references. Whatever the case, they will never be completely fee of that "cultural baggage." Not every artist looks at it as "baggage," I'm sure. I know of at least one artist who studied art history with diligence before launching himself into the world of Contemporary Art. Bob Melzmuf felt he needed to understand his predecessors before he could truly break away from them.

But, back to the MoMA. I still believe there is a fundamental schizofrenia at work there. One way to get around it may be to say, "Look at what all this art and innovation has led up to today!" But then you have relegated the Modern Masters to mere predecessors useful only in their ability to help us understand what's being produced today. I don't hold with that idea at all. So, the Museum for Modern Art = Museum of Modern Masters. Notice the word "contemporary" gets left out completely.

UPDATE: A certain blogger pointed out that I neglected to do two things. 1) I neglected to mention that he was the one who pointed the Village Voice article out to me. Yeah, he did, but I didn't have anything to link to over there. He's too busy being a rocket scientist. 2) I neglected to link to my earlier article on the MoMA in which I discussed an article from the American Conservative - also kindly pointed out by said blogger. The aforementioned article would be here if they had deigned to publish it online. Anyway, go to my earlier article to read what it said.

Views of NY

Over on Brian's Culture Blog, check out the block of thumbnail pictures of New York City taken from the Empire State Building. Each one opens up into a breathtaking view.

History Channel

I am so glad that our cable company added History International to our staion lineup. We've always had the History Channel, but lately it's become the Modern Marvels channel - Modern Marvels, every day, all day. Except when they interrupt it for Hitler and the SS. If we're really lucky, we can see another episode of Wild West Tech. Woohoo!

But now we can break up the monotony with an actual variety of shows that are actually about historic stuff like Romans and ... World War II. Oh, well, at least it's not more Modern Marvels. I do have to wonder what they think the demographics on this channel are, though. I sat through life insurance commericals, health insurance commercials, medicaid commercials, and the best of Nat King Cole. Hmmm....

Lions & Tigers & Lesbians, Oh My!

At first glance, I almost agreed with some of the comments in this article from the New York Times. Seems that the cute cartoon show on PBS called "Postcards from Buster" has an episode with (gasp) lesbians in it. Well, I started by agreeing with this statement:

... Education Secretary Margaret Spellings denounced the program, starring Buster Baxter, a cute animated rabbit who until now has been known primarily as a close friend of Arthur, the world's most famous aardvark. Ms. Spellings said many parents would not want children exposed to a lesbian life style.

In all fairness, I think that may be true. However, the article goes on to describe how Buster visits different states in the U.S. and sends video postcards back to his dad in a mix of live action and animation.

Buster appears briefly onscreen, but mainly narrates these live-action segments, which show real children and how they live. One episode featured a family with five children, living in a trailer in Virginia, all sharing one room. In another, Buster visits a Mormon family in Utah. He has dropped in on fundamentalist Christians and Muslims as well as American Indians and Hmong. He has shown the lives of children who have only one parent, and those who live with grandparents.

Ah! So it's ok to expose our children to poverty in Virginia, and religions in which women are clearly non-entities, but it's not ok to show an alternative lifestyle? Well, personally, I think children should be exposed to ALL kinds of people and ways of life, but if I were going to object, it would be to exposing him to any kind of fundamenalist religion. They do not represent the majority of Christians or Muslims, and are therefore misleading.

Fortunately, WGBH is standing behind their show. They do plan to air it in March, though many other affiliates will not.

Brigid Sullivan, vice president for children's programming at WGBH, has been producing children's shows for 20 years, including "Arthur," for many years the top-rated children's show. "This asked for a project on diversity to all of America's children," she said. "We took it seriously and thought that with 'Arthur,' the No. 1 show on television for kids for years, we had something to draw kids in. Buster is Arthur's best friend, the child of divorce, he has asthma. Children sympathize with him. We had a breakthrough format, this animated bunny with his camera getting live-action sequence. Not to present a make-believe world of diversity but a real world."

Explaining the goal of the show, Ms. Sullivan said: "We want to reflect all of America's children."

"This is not about their parents," she said.

The Copts

A friend sent me this article about the murder of a Christian Egyptian family in Jersey City. I am interested for two reasons" 1) I lived in Egypt for a short time and 2) my SCA persona is a Coptic Christian from Egypt of the 11th century - so I know something about them. Now, it seems to me that this has not really been covered by the media, though I did catch it on one of the cable news channels when there was a "scuffle" during the funeral. The above article claims that, even though the family received death threats from Muslims, the Jersey City police department is doing nothing to follow up on it. Apparently, it is beaing dismissed as a robbery, even though the entire family - father, wife and two daughters - were tied up and executed. And the whole Coptic community there - about 6,000 from what I heard - knows this was a religious hate killing and feel they are being ignored. I think they're right. For one thing, it's too politically incorrect to accuse Muslims of hate crimes: apparently, they can only be victims, not perpetrators. The other factor I think is working here is fear, plain and simple. The Jersey City police department - along with many others- are afraid of angering the Muslims. So they blow off the Coptic community as if THEY are the ones commiting hate crimes. Well, I saw many Coptic churches in Alexandria, churches that were once lovingly cared for and quite beautiful before the Islamic Brotherhood rose to power. Now, guess what stands outside these decaying places of worship? High walls and armed police, each and every one. The threat is not in the Copts heads, it's very real.

The Green Quilt

My second quilt is finished. It's made for my son's bed, so it's smaller than the first, and I learned from mistakes I made on the first quilt. Here it is.

NY Gates

I will be really interested to see how this turns out in February. The drawings are wonderful. I hope the actual project compares favorably.

Attention Income

An article in today's New York Times comments on Artfacts.net, "a privately owned, London-based guide to modern and contemporary art" which has the audacity to rank artists according to their "attention income." If you aren't a Chicago economist, you are probably asking, "what is attention income?" It's another phrase for "fame." The author, Ms.Sarah Boxer, snarkily says at the outset:

Forget about quality. Forget about sales. Let's pretend we're in junior high and rank artists by popularity. Let's see how much attention they're getting and whether it's coming from the cool kids.

Cute, but basing an artist's popularity on his...well... popularity is not a new idea. In this day and age when the average person has no way to tell if art is "good" or 'bad," what else do you have to go on? Here's how Artifacts.net ranks artists:

To rank these international artists, the staff of Artfacts.net starts by looking at exhibition announcements, newsletters and Web sites. Then the point toting begins.

Solo shows are worth more than group shows or art fairs. Documenta, in Kassel, Germany, is worth more than the Venice Biennale. Public museums count more than galleries. And different museums have different weights. Those in cities like Paris or New York count for more. Small museums and university museums count for almost nothing. "Exhibitions held in a museum with a great collection of famous artists, like the Centre Pompidou, will receive more points than a relatively unknown private gallery," the Web site says.

Ok, sounds like a reasonable way to do it. But if you read this method correctly, it's not so much about popularity as it is about prestige. Which museums think Picasso is cool, which International Expos think Warhol is worthwhile. And, yes, I'm sure money comes into it, because you don't want to show someone no one will come to see. But the whole thing is circular, because people will only want to see it because it's at that exhibit. Ms. Boxer mentions this circular reasoning in relation to defining "famous museums:"

And how is a famous gallery or museum defined? Circularly. An institution with famous artists is famous, and a famous artist is one who shows in a famous institution.

If you think about the whole thing too much, your head will explode.

Ms.Boxer mentions that Artfact's system is flawed - artists move up and down in bizarre ways, sometimes even falling off the chart completely. In my opinion, that's not the only wonky thing about the system. It seems rather odd to have two dead artists up at the top followed by many living ones struggling to achieve their greatness. It hardly seems fair to mix the two. And as I said just last week, modern art is not in the same category as contemporary art, not anymore.

I have to say that I like the idea of "attention income," perhaps because of my ties to Chicago economists. On one hand the idea sounds reasonable, as good a way as any to define an artist's impact on the art world. On the other hand, it's highly flawed in that the way an artist gains attention is often arbitrarily decided by a few powerful gallery owners and museum curators. Perhaps we should have a People's Choice award for up-and-coming artists? One where those who have a financial stake in an artist's reputation would be barred from voting. I think that would give us a truer view of an artist's "attention income."

Culture Blogging

I see that at least two very prominent culture blogs - two of my favorites - are leaning away from the personal and more towards the musical, the theme of their blogs. Is this a new trend, I wonder? Am I outdated? Has the blogging world passed me by? Perhaps I should be posting more on art. It wouldn't kill me, mind you, it's just that I have a lot of other stuff to say right now. And my server space is running dangerously low, what with pictures of volleyball players and all taking it up. I may have to do some house cleaning before I start getting serious about art history again, but it will probably happen.

My First Quilt

Way back before I went on hiatus I started making a quilt. Now, conventional wisdom says you should start with something small for your first quilt, something you can finish. I, however, have never been known for following conventional anything. So I decided to make a Queen Sized quilt for my bed. Alex wisdom says if I could finish that, I could finish anything. 8 or 9 months later, I did.

The top was pieced mostly on the machine to better my chances of actually finishing before the next millenium, but the quilting was entirely done by hand. Lots of it. It's just a basic 9 patch, again to keep it simple enough to finish. I am quite pleased with it. And now, I'm almost done with a quilt for my son's bed - a twin this time. I decided to go easy on myself and made the quilting pattern a lot simpler. I'll show that when I'm done with it. Hope you like green.

Blogrolling

I shortened my blogroll when I came back because I just don't have time to read all of them. But I keep running across new blogs to read. Scribblingwoman is yet another blog written by an intelligent woman with interesting things to say.

Movie Meme

I had a lot of fun with this meme from Byzantium's Shores that I think I'll try it myself. Hopefully, I have enough readers to actually make it work. Below are 10 quotes from my favorite movies (it was supposed to be 12, but I can't think of that many). As people guess which movies they're from, I'll strike them out. Be aware that the quotes may not be word-for-word as they are coming from my rather faulty memory.

1. "I can't use you real life!"

2. "Laugh it up, monkey boys!"

3. "A man's gotta make a living." "Dying ain't much of a livin'."

Clint the squint in The Outlaw Josey Wales.

4. "Where's your god, now?"

5. "You want tuppence to feed the birds? What will that get you? Fat birds!"

Yup, that's Mary Poppins alright. That was when the bank was trying to convince the boy to invest his tuppence in an account rather than feed the birds.

6. "He won't haggle!"

An obligatory Monty Python reference from Life of Brian

7. "So, the popinjay has pricked the fencing master."

Oooh, scribblingwoman got this one, too. I knew she and I had stuff in common. It's from The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone.

8. "Call me Jamie-Boy."

9. "Top of the world, ma!"

James Cagney in White Heat. Oh, yeah.

10. "So, what is it exactly that you teach, Mr.Logan?" "Art."

Kudzu City

Apparently, kudzu turns abandoned houses into giant chia pets.

Via Reflections in D Minor.

Winter Skies

I've seen a lot of blogs with beautiful winter pictures on them. Makes me jealous. I decided to make you jealous. It's t-shirt weather in El Paso. Here's my son on the playhouse in our backyard.

I would have photographed some lovely green thing, but I don't see anything blogworthy around the house. I guess I'll have to go farther afield for that.

My Blogger Twin

This figures. At least I'm not Glenn Reynolds (shudder).

Your Famous Blogger Twin is Wil Wheaton

You're a friendly, funny guy (or girl) next door With more than a touch of geekiness

I only wish they hadn't used that STNG picture. Blech! I much prefer him as a blogger than a weasel Wesley. Thanks to The Anger of Compassion

The MoMA

I spent the holidays in Connecticut with my sister and her family this year. Loved the snow. My son - who has never really seen a good snowfall - got to experience the unique pleasure of walking on snow so cold it crunches beneath your feet like cornstarch. He also got to walk on ice, though only on the very edge next to the bank - I would not let him go beyond a point where I could not reach him with an outstretched hand. The next day, the weather warmed up and everything melted. Then we got to experience the not-so-unique sensation of bleary, gray days. We don't get many of them in El Paso.

My son initially didn't want to go - he's not so keen on that set of cousins - but I bribed him with a trip to New York to see the new Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Surprisingly, he was very excited about this. So was I, since it has just opened after a long bout of rebuilding. At $20, I think the tickets are way overpriced. And of course, it was crowded.

The building is amazingly cold and sterile. Big, empty white and gray spaces accented with abstract art. Somehow, it felt like everything should have been behind plexiglass. While I was happy to see things like Van Gogh's Starry Night, and a work by Clyfford Still, my son was inspired by the Picassos and Brancusi's Bird in Flight. That boy does surprise me sometimes, but I am delighted that he takes pleasure in these things. We were particularly taken with the modern design section: chairs, tables, computers, musical instruments, cars, etc. The 60's produced some wonderfully unique designs, perhaps more so than the 30's and the whole Art Deco style.

I read an article (I don't remember where, my husband showed it to me) which basically called the MoMA a mausoleum for modern art. The author has a point. We have reached a stage where "modern art" is now only art history. It was a jumping off point, and we left those shores long ago. Now we're drowning in contemporary conceptual art, and stuff that just isn't original anymore. I mean, how do you top all that shock art when we can't be shocked anymore? Where do we go from here?

So, don't go to the MoMA looking for avant garde art. That's not what it's for. Go to see the masters of the 20th century. They are reasonably well represented.

Personal Stuff

So, I'm already leaning towards continuing this blog, if I can just keep up the motivation and momentum.
A quick personal update is in order, since I haven't been in touch for a year. My mother passed away in July. She had been struggling against Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma for almost 6 years. My sister and I were with her at home to the last. I am very thankful to Mariposa Hospice. They were wonderful and took care of everything for me.
I didn't get into graduate school. Just as well with my mother's health and such.
I'm still unemployed, but it's mostly by choice. I am homeschooling my 12-year-old and his best friend, so I really need to be home.
I have a bookstore on eBay - Lady's Maid Books, and a store at Cafe Press - literatim. The eBay store has your basic used books, many hard to find. I have lots of paperbacks, but those will be going away in Febraury - eBay is raising their fees and I won't be able to afford to sell the cheaper items. Literatim sells T-shirts, mugs and the like with literary quotes. This one is fun for me, but if I don't sell anything soon, it will go bye-bye, too.
So, that's my life in a nutshell. On to more interesting things.

UPDATE: I closed the cafepress store. I can't afford to keep it open. Thanks to those who took a look.

Readers & Such

Ok, so I'm checking my sitemeter, and I'm still finding myself on blogrolls of blogs I never heard of! What the heck? For instance, there's Absolute Uncertainty, February 30, and phaneronoemikon. So, maybe I should just carry on. Wouldn't want to disappoint my hordes of readers, now would I?

UPDATE: I have discovered that February 30 used to be Cinderellabloggerfella, so that's cool.