Just Another Person Who Thinks She Knows Something
25 December
There is something about this that is just impermanent and fleeting, dark and destructive, visceral and cruel, even though it is none of those things and is just vague lines on a canvas. It might be the coloring, all primary and aggressive in a relentless way, or it might be the positioning of the figures, in a claustrophobic way, with no space between them and no feeling of dimension. But it is not a comfortable painting in any way, and it is not meant to invoke a feeling of such.
24 December
I remember when this used to hang right outside the entryway to Panorama, the Museum’s restaurant, back in the day. You’d have to go beneath the chandelier to go up to Panorama from the bottom floor, and it was like being bathed in broken, bright light from heaven. The lighting is different now, but it’s still so lovely if you can get just the right day – the light just sings.
(We had some issues beginning December 16, and lost all content tables between the 16 and the 23, so I’m beginning to repost beginning the 23rd of December.)
This painting reminds me of science fiction novel covers from the 1970s and early 1980s, or at least the backgrounds thereof. There is something both abstract and comforting about it in a context like that, even though it is slightly disconcerting in other ways.
Okay, seriously, this trumps anything that modern jewelers are churning out – hands down. If you think otherwise, there is clearly something wrong with you.
Mmmm, traditional Greek sculpture. Let’s just admire it. I really don’t need to make pithy commentary, do I?
I love that this is so unassuming and totally sitting there, going, “hey, I’m just a piece of art pretending to be a real painting, but I’m legitimately a painting in my own right, but I’m kind of casually just going to be over here in the corner like the redheaded bastard step-kid, mmmkay?”
So… fun times. Religious art again. Because, ya know, Bible Belt and all. I am not a massive fan, but hey, it’s a huge part of our world heritage and so on and so forth. Whatever, it’s a thing. What bothers me about this is the descriptive plaque being completely ignorant about the fact that Mary would likely not have owned a Torah, and likely she would not have been reading even had she been a wealthy Jewish woman of the time, let alone marrying a carpenter – but yeah, let’s creatively fudge the facts to fit the Jesus mythos.
*waves from the cheap seats* I want to prop my papers on this and lecture like a bitch for hours at a time and make people miserable for… Oh wait, isn’t that like talking into the internet void about art?
While this is my second favorite work of contemporary sculpture, I never really ascribed to it any of the conventional meanings. In fact, to me, it’s much more of a feeling of abstract notions rather than a direct equation, unlike most people’s interpretations of the work. I feel very calm and centered when I look at it, with a nudge in the direction of intellectual stimulus, rather than, say, wanting to go watch something on television or the like.
The Persian fritware is so good at utilizing metallic glazes. I love this piece because it is so complex as to be abstract, and yet, is completely simple at the same time. It is a delightful example of its typical type.