It’s things like this, scattered around the world, these remnants of our earlier civilizations and our earliest incarnations and our earliest selves and our walking and talking with the arts and our pictures of ourselves and the world around us that I find fascinating. Because we haven’t changed that much, have we?
Month: October 2019
Sunday
I get the feeling that this cup could be held together with duct tape and still be pretty. It’s already basically held together with super glue and a prayer. And yet, for all my glib sarcasm, it’s still here and it’s old as hell and it’s in pieces, but it’s here.
Saturday
I love this because it’s a poem wrapped in a bow, tied up in the knots in a forgotten language that only the soul understands. It is a siren song to those who hear it and chaos to those who do not.
Friday
Maybe it’s my overactive imagination, but I feel like I see lovers embracing in this work – the lines are there, the emotion is there, the sense of movement is there. But, then again, I am the weird kid.
Thursday
Of all the contemporary/modern artists on display at SLAM, Gerhard Richter is my favorite. I know how that sounds, but I adore all of the pieces of his that the museum owns – including this one. I hadn’t seen it before they unveiled the Bauhaus retrospective exhibition, but I kept coming back to it and going, “Oh, I love that so much.” I hadn’t even looked at the plaque, just the painting itself – and then suddenly, it all made so much sense. It has a very dreamy feel, much like Grey Mirrors (literally grey paneled mirrors) and Betty (a portrait version of his daughter), while maintaining an almost abstract version of real objects.
Wednesday
One thing about Cezanne: you can’t mistake his work for anyone else’s. It’s too distinct, even within the repetitious Impressionist movement.
Tuesday
Another example of the ‘small but mighty’ club, this panel painting is a precursor to the impressionist dynastic linage of Monet, Manet, and Degas. You can see hints of what would become Monet’s outdoor inspiration in the skyline’s coloring and the execution of the sand, and the juxtaposition of colors speaks of Manet and a bit of van Gogh, if you had to point to those who took their inspiration from these earlier works.
Monday
This painting looks more like a crayon sketch than a painting in many ways, and I think that’s why I like it so much. It isn’t studied or overly pretentious in any way whatsoever.
Sunday
It still astounds me that people can take a block of stone and go, “Hey, there’s a person inside of here.” And then chip away at that block of stone until there’s literally a sculpture of a person sitting there. I don’t even know how they do it. It’s a special kind of magic.
Saturday
This particular work was one of the most hyped pieces of newly acquired art in the SLAM collection in 2019, and with good reason: it is absolutely beyond visually striking. Beyond its visual appeal, its cultural impact is like a meteor strike in this city: this is not just a painting. This is a movement, a symphony, a riot in C Major.