Quotes from the World of Art

I collect quotes as many of you know. I am going back to that theme but from the artist’s point of view so I trust some will be new to you. I will let the artists speak for themselves and marvel at their insights. I believe that to be an artist you must be able to see yourself first, in order to understand others. In their own words ...

I always think that I need to search for another subject to write about, but in this case, I can walk in Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) shoes. He said “I don’t search, I find” the subjects are right there before you. All you have to do, is open your eyes.

Patrick McGrath Muniz (1975-), a painter born in Puerto Rico now working in Texas, uses traditional Spanish religious images to give social commentary on current and existential events. His work depicts the past as well as the present as he puts it, “Nothing is Really Lost until it is Forgotten”. We say this about history as well as friends and relatives we have lost. The artist illustrates those memories.

In 1932 Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was commissioned to create a mural for Rockefeller Center. Even though he was told what was expected of him he added elements of his own socialist views. According to David Rockefeller, “The picture of Lenin was on the right-hand side, and on the left, a picture of [my] father drinking martinis with a harlot and various other things that were unflattering to the family and clearly inappropriate to have as the center of Rockefeller Center". When Rivera refused to paint over the offending passages the mural was destroyed. Rivera revisited his vision replicating the commission for the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City saying, “I restored the murdered painting”.

I think we can agree that Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) was a great artist but what is it in her art that, as my father would have said, “gives us a heartbeat”. I think that a lady from the Philippines I was sitting next to on a long plane trip got it right. Out of the blue she said, “Georgia O’Keeffe reminds me how profound simplicity can be. It reminded me of a quote from Georgia, herself. In 1921 she was recorded as saying "I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then".

Robert Capa (1913-1954) was a famous war photographer, and he died as he lived. Shortly after his arrival in Hanoi to cover the war in Indochina for Life magazine he was killed when he stepped on a landmine. It is easy to understand his quote and its irony, "It is the War Photographer's fervent wish to be unemployed".

Being a portrait painter can be a comfortable profession if you have a clientele of important people and honor comes with the creating an iconic image like Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. But it has its downside as well. Stuart (1755-1828) lamented this other side of the coin. "What a business this of a portrait painter - you bring him a potato and expect he will paint you a peach.”

I have so many more quotes I would like to share but I like to keep my Missives short in the hopes that they will be read! Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy 2023.

Accidental Art Discoveries

What a strange thought, to find a worthwhile work of art by accident. How does that happen? I have written about new technical advances that have allowed us to see the artist’s under drawing below the surface of a painting or see over-paint by another artist in order to cover the parts of a body thought to be unsuited for others to see. There is even a case of the discovery of a Goya that had underneath its surface, a whole other painting by the artist.

What seems to be not that unusual is finding coins on the beach. Not those that fell out of a sunbather’s pocket but ancient coins. There is a hobby of searching the sand with metal detectors for treasure that might have been swept ashore from shipwrecks. A 2011 article in the Maryland Dispatch reported a nine year old girl who was looking for sea glass for her collection came across what looked to be an old bracelet. Covered with grime it was hard to see exactly what it was, so the fourth grader and her mother took it to the nearby DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum on Fenwick Island, Delaware. The “Museum proprietor” Dale Clifton, is an expert in items from the many shipwrecks that are recorded off the Maryland and Delaware coast. Dipping the girl’s “bracelet” in a solution to remove the corrosion and grime, he revealed that it was a piece of wire that had become attached to a copper coin that was dated 1655. Although Mr. Clifton said the coin might be worth between $30 to $100, he thought the discoverer would not want to part with it, but rather keep it as a lifetime souvenir.

What about a discovery in your own kitchen? On the site of “Auction Central News” as well as other publications one can find a story about a British surgeon who bought a vase as a decoration for a nook in his kitchen. It cost him a few hundred pounds in the 1980’s. A visitor to his home, who happened to be an antiques specialist, spotted it in the kitchen and identified it as an 18th century ceramic made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor. It was inherited by the surgeon’s son who put it at action at Dreweatts in London. This exceptionally large 2 foot high vase was featured in their Chinese Ceramics sale with an estimate of £100,000-£150,000, it brought £1,449,000 ($1,700,000). Was this piece lost before it was “discovered”….you tell me.

Then there was a scrap metal dealer who paid the handsome price of $14,000 for a piece he found at a market thinking that he would melt it down and the object might be literally worth it’s weight in gold. To his good fortune and posterity’s, he did not melt it down before looking into what it might be. To his surprise he found out that it could be worth as much as thirty-three million dollars. Research had revealed that the piece was the third of fifty jeweled eggs made by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family between 1885 and the end of its reign with the Russian revolution in 1917. This particular Imperial egg was presented by Czar Alexander III to Maria Feodorovna in 1887. It was displayed at Wartski’s in London in 2014 and is now in a private collection.

My favorite story of an art discovery was mentioned in a publication called Complex. In Montignac, France, in 1940 a group of teenagers were walking with their dog when it disappeared into a hole in the ground. (Judging from the handwritten signs posted all over Santa Fe, dogs are continuously getting lost particularly in our arroyos.) In this case, however, the kids were able to follow their pup into what turned out be a series of caves covered with paintings—hundreds of animal paintings. A publication called, of all things, “Dogster” elaborated on the story. The dog’s name was Robot, unusual at that time since the term was coined in a sci-fi movie just 20 years earlier. Robot had happened upon the famous Lascaux caves. Even at 15,000 - 17,000 years old, they weren't the most ancient cave art ever discovered in the region before World War II, but the significance of this find was the sophistication of the paintings. The horses and deer had been closely observed and rendered. The discovery showed an evolution that stretched over 20,000 years. What our mongrel-hero came upon that September day was nothing less than the evidence of our ancestors’ artistic evolution.

I believe serendipitous finds are more enjoyable and satisfying than stories of those seeking buried treasure.

Is Art Important?

I was told recently that art is just a frill we don’t really need it. Certainly not the first time I have heard that. Michael Kimmelman, while he was art critic for The New York Times, wrote about the Christo Gates, (1978- realized in 2005). "Art is never necessary. It is merely indispensable". Again, I have picked a subject that books can and have been written about, but here is my brief take.

It seems that in the public mind the term “Art” is just paintings, drawings and maybe sculpture and lately photography. People don’t seem to remember the terminology “The Arts” which would include, theater, music, dance, literature and design and not necessarily in that order. An emotionally moving piece of music and theater is a song that stirs me to want to march along. It is from the musicle, Les Misérables, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q82twrdr0U&t=70s

What is special about art? On a site called “Artwork Archive” I found this definition, “Art allows us to examine what it means to be human, to voice and express, and to bring people and ideas together.” When I asked a friend in Valentine, Nebraska why art was necessary, he wrote “Art makes us think and feel at the same time. It can provoke a vehemently repulsive response”, think of images regarding Ukraine today, “but it can also calm us and remind us of who we are or where we came from.”

The power of the visual is seen in the instinct of children to collect pebbles or shells. Visual art adds on an emotional and intellectual response. Then comes the desire to preserve and collect this evidence of times gone by.

As I mentioned in my Missive on Ukraine Banksy has been going around the country of Ukraine painting murals on the walls of buildings that have been bombed by the Russians. What better way to call attention to man’s inhumanity to man and I am quite sure some will be preserved in situ, even after the war.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/dec/03/ukraine-detains-eight-people-over-theft-of-banksy-mural-in-kyiv

Every culture has some form of ceramic art. Much of Native American culture has roots in the art of this medium I wrote recently about the exhibition “Grounded in Clay” https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2022/08/grounded-in-clay-tradition.html. In the first half of the 18th century both France and Germany went into competition establishing international prestige through their royal porcelain factories of Sèvres & Meissen. Their products are still appreciated while the factories continue innovating today. Historic pieces in this media teach future generations not only of ways people ate and drank but also what was considered of intangible value. 

Knowledge in all areas of life is based on what we have learned from the past and art could be considered the greatest teacher. My father talked about Grete Ring (1887-1952) who was one of the first women to study art history. Earning her doctorate under the famous German art historian Heinrich Wölfflin , she was highly regarded as a scholar and critic. From 1921 on she worked as an art dealer. Her comment on the subject sums it up for me, "Why should one talk about art, if not to open the eyes of others to it".

The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, this nearly life size marble sculpture was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican Museums where it remains. Whether it was created by the Greeks or Romans is under debate but there is little question that its origins go back to the Greeks. History, through its art, lives on.

What is it we remember from past civilizations? What has been preserved? … it is their art.

The Italian Cover-Up

As we have seen in this country censorship is rampant. Children should not learn about sex … history should only be about pleasant subjects and not upset the children. Sad to see it happening but it is nothing new. A recent piece of art news makes me want to revisit the subject from a different perspective.

A recent article was published by the Guardian gleaned from the Associated Press, November 13, 2022. “Art Restorers in Florence have begun a 6 month project to clean and virtually “unveil” a long-censored nude painting by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653). With the discovery that the original subject was nude the painting has taken on new significance as a symbol of allowing women artists free expression. Artemisia who was one of the first to dare to break into the man’s world of art.

The work was commissioned in 1616 for the home of the great-nephew of Michelangelo which eventually became the Casa Buonarroti museum where it has been displayed on the ceiling. Veils and drapery were commissioned to cover the offending parts of the “Allegory of Inclination” about 70 years after it was painted. The nude is thought to be a self-portrait. Obviously, she would have been the most readily available model.

Restorers won’t be able to remove the cover-up because it was painted over too soon after the painting was finished. They can, however, distinguish the brush strokes of the original artist from those of the cover-up artist. The restoration team lead by the lead conservator Elizabeth Wicks plan to create a digital image of the original version and will be shown in an exhibition of the project opening next September.

The nude figure has long been a subject of censorship… protecting the innocent! In a 2016 issue of the Guardian, Jonathan Jones wrote an article titled, “The Great Cover-up: Renaissance Nudity Still has the Power to Shock” It recounts how Renaissance artists rediscovered the beauty of the nude in the art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. But then it “crashed into religious revivals, iconoclasm and holy wars during the Reformation and counter Reformation, not to mentions the later hypocrisies of the Victorian Age”.

Probably the best-known case is that of Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) “Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512). The depiction of male genetalia caused a critic at the time to say the fresco was more fit for a gay bathhouse than the Pope’s church. When Michelangelo died, a painter was hired to cover the crotches of the airborne nudes with draperies. The controversy was renewed during the 1980’s restoration of the fresco. The draperies were finally left untouched.

That was not the only Michelangelo cover-up. After the artist’s death a bronze loincloth was added to his sculpture of the “Risen Christ” (1519-1521) in Santa Maria Sopra.

Massacio’s (1401-1428) Adam and Eve, “Expulsion from the Garden of Eden”, circa 1425, in the Brancacci Chapel received a decency cover-up in the 17th century. These additions. However, were removed by a restorer in the 1980’s. Here we have before and after.

There are so many other examples and the battle continues all over the world. A news channel from Paw Paw, Michigan announced in 2019 that the Van Buren County Commission decided to cover up two, century-old murals inside the courthouse that depict women's bare breasts. The paintings were done by a local artist, Frank Lewis Van Ness in 1908 of classical Greek characters. Judge Kathleen Brinkly wrote in her recommendation letter to the commission, "To have paintings of bare breasted women in a courthouse displays a lack of respect for women, and for men who respect women."

UKRAINE PLUNDERED

The devastation in Ukraine caused by the Russian assault on civilian populations leaving cities without water or electricity, is hard to imagine from our comfortable lives. Looking to the future we all hope that Ukraine comes out of this not only victorious but also with their culture intact. If I repeat anything I wrote in the spring I will defend myself by stressing the increased cultural sins of the Russian forces and their leader.

It seems to be indiscriminate whether the Russians steal or destroy the art.

In the one case, however, the case of the Scythian Gold they clearly knew what they were doing. When I first read about this in the spring I was happy that the Ukrainians had hidden their most valuable, in every sense of the word, Scythian gold but obviously to no avail.

“When Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine began” according to The Guardian from last April, “the director of the Museum of Local History in Melitopol, in the south-east of the country, Leila Ibrahimova, arranged for a hoard of gold artefacts from ancient Scythia to be hidden. Just a few weeks later, she was kidnapped and interrogated by Russian troops. They demanded to know where the Scythian gold was; she refused to cooperate. Subsequently the museum’s curator Galina Andriivna Kucher was taken at gunpoint to the museum and asked to show a Russian “expert” and agents where the gold was. She also refused to locate the collection. Kucher was later abducted from her home on 30 April and her whereabouts remainsed unknown.”

In June, The Daily Beast wrote of the Russian plunder: “Since Russia began its invasion in February, 250 cultural institutions have been targeted by Russian munitions. Thousands of important museums pieces have been destroyed during the bombing of Mariupol and elsewhere. In Melitopol, Scythian gold artifacts worth millions that date back to the fourth century B.C. were stolen from crates the museum had hidden them in.”

According to a report on the theft in the New York Times, Russian troops eventually found the gold hoard boxed up in the museum’s basement. The items were taken to Donetsk, in the Russian-controlled Donbas region, for “safety”, with the museum’s newly installed puppet director, Evgeny Gorlachev, stating that the gold artefacts were not just for Ukrainians but “of great cultural value for the entire former Soviet Union”. His carefully chosen words were designed to erase the collection’s Ukrainian heritage and replace it with a Soviet one, suggesting Ukraine was back within Russia’s sphere of influence and control.

In July the American publication, Newsweek reported the following, “The accusation made by the Mariupol City Council on its Telegram account said that the alleged theft by Russians mimics actions of the Nazis during World War II, when Adolf Hitler's Third Reich ordered the seizure of cultural property that did not reflect Nazi ideals and could be sold for financial gain for the purpose of creating a new cultural museum in Austria.”

The Russian rape of art from Ukraine has intensified. Recently I saw an article in the German Art Magazine, Weltkunst, stating that 15,000 works were taken by the Russians as they were driven out of Kherson this month. The stolen art ranged from 17th century Icons to contemporary art. According to the article the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Museum was cleaned out!

The KYIV Independent newspaper reported that four trucks with stolen art arrived in Simferopol, a city in Russian-occupied Crimea and who knows where else they brought the purloined art. I am quite sure art experts were not there to vet what was taken so it was just to cause as much distress as possible. I know how upset I would be if objects that had sentimental value were suddenly taken from my home.

The Jerusalem Post expanded on the report that the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine wrote on its Twitter account: "The occupiers stole everything from Kherson: paintings from art galleries, antiquities from museums, historic manuscripts from libraries. But their most prized loot was a raccoon they stole from a zoo. Steal a raccoon and Die." They were even spotted stealing a Llama!

As I write this missive, what is of most immediate concern is the loss of human life and the suffering of those who survive, but in the long term the remains of the history and culture of a country are vital to its identity and the will of its people to carry on.

The Paul Allen Collection

Paul Allen (1953-2018) was a businessman, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He also owned a football team and a basketball team. He is best known, however, for having been a co-founder of Microsoft with his good friend Bill Gates. Now, I just read about the sale of his real-estate empire, but this missive is about his art collection which was recently sold at Christies.

I will give you the punch line up front. Part one of the auction brought in $1.5 billion dollars eclipsing the recent record of $992 million that the Macklowe sale brought at Sotheby’s.

A knee jerk reaction would be to dismiss this as an example of the ridiculous prices that modern art brings these days, but that would be totally wrong. When anyone asks me if art is a good investment, I say emphatically, NO! Sometimes, however, I amend that to say, unless you have the millions to buy the very best works by the leading artists and diversify into many fields. Until now I have never actually seen such collection.

Unfortunately, I have only seen the Paul Allen Collection in the Christie’s online catalog, but I could not believe my eyes. Here was a billionaire who obviously bought only what he liked. He did not try to fill in the blanks of a postage stamp album (which some art collectors try to do) or concentrate on one period of art, or one artist. Not that there is anything wrong with that. My wife and I, however, have had several collections of works that cost us from the hundreds to some thousands of dollars, but I cannot remember ever buying anything in the 5-digit range. We lost money on everything we sold except for our photography collection which we bought mostly in the late 70’s and 80’s.

Speaking of photography, Edward Steichen’s 1904 photograph of the Flatiron Building in New York City was offered to us back when we collected in the field. We didn’t buy it because I just didn’t love it. Christies estimated Allen’s 1905 print of that image at $2-3 million, which I would have been happy with, but it brought $11 million dollars, even better!

One of my favorite artists Lucien Freud (1922-2011) was represented in the Allen collection with a masterpiece, “Large interior, W11 (after Watteau)” (1981-83). It brought $86,265,000. Like most of the pictures in the sale it has an extensive list of publications and exhibitions and the known provenance. Clearly Allen did his homework with the advice of scholars as well as the top art dealers from whom he usually bought his works of art.

“Day Dream” by Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is a nude that might seem an unusual subject for the artist, but it is from a series of paintings he did of his muse, Helga. From Wikipedia I learned “Helga ‘Testy’ Testorf was a neighbor of Wyeth's in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and over the course of fifteen years posed for Wyeth indoors and out of doors, nude and clothed, in attitudes that reminded writers of figures painted by Botticelli and Edouard Manet. To John Updike, her body ‘is what Winslow Homers maidens would have looked like beneath their Calico.’ " If someone had asked me if this painting was a good investment, I would have said, no. I would have advised acquiring a painting more typical of the artist’s work, certainly not a nude which are often more difficult to sell. Wrong again! The painting was estimated at 2-3 million and brought $23,290,000.

There are several paintings by David Hockney (1937- ) in the sale but I have chosen this masterpiece “The Conversation” (1980) because we were well acquainted with one of the sitters, Henry Geldzahler. My wife worked with Henry when he was the curator of 20thcentury art at the Metropolitan Museum and he was a personal friend of many of the contemporary artists of the time, including Hockney. The painting, by a living artist, brought almost 8 million dollars.

What I so admire in the Allen collection is its breadth with quality being the only constant. Most of the works in the auction are from the 20th century with a few from the 21st. But the biggest surprise, for me, was the roundel masterpiece by Sandro Botticell (1445-1510) “Madonna of the Magnificat”, circa 1480’s. The provenance includes Rosenberg & Stiebel and we sold it to Barbara Piaseca Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson fortune. While not exactly in fashion because you cannot find paintings as important as this on the market today, it still brought a respectable $40 million.

In the New York Times Blake Gopnik lamented the fact that the Allen collection did not go to The National Gallery or the Metropolitan Museum. I would ask why have those treasures go to a gargantuan museum with enough of their own masterpieces. If they were to go to a museum, why not a small institution which would put it on the map and the Allen collection masterpieces would attract visitors.

Through the sale, however, individual works of art will be spread far and wide and, in the scheme of things, many will end up in public collections. The proceeds are to go to charities that Allen chose helping those in need of assistance in many areas. Why does nobody ever see the positive sides of events. It is far too easy to criticize instead.

The Art of Getting Attention

What do “The Extinction Rebellion”, “The Last Generation” and “New Seasons of Actions” have to do with each other? They are all part of an international movement to address climate change, and involve demonstrators going into museums and throwing food stuffs at famous paintings and gluing their hands or heads to pictures, frames or adjacent walls. Here two protestors glued a head and a hand to “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” by Vermeer at the Mauritshuis in the Hague, The Netherlands.

The first time I read about the climate activists was the report where they threw tomato soup at a van Gogh painting of Sunflowers in the National Gallery in London. I was upset. But then when I learned the picture was glazed (protective glass in front), I had another thought. What a wonderful way to bring attention to a worldwide problem. Later I found that this was not a singular action, but it has become a movement all over Europe, not just in the Hague and London but in France one smeared cake on the Mona Lisa; in Germany they threw mashed potatoes (instant or homemade is anybody’s guess!) at Claude Monet’s “Moules”; in Italy they chose pea soup to throw at van Gogh’s “The Sower”; in Spain, they glued their hands to Goya’s Majas, and in Italy to Botticelli’s “Pimavera”… and who knows where else, oh yes, in Melbourne Australia two members of the Extinction Rebellion glued their hands to Picasso’s “Massacre in Korea”.

They have not just chosen art museums for protests but also a Dinosaur Exhibition in Berlin and Madame Tussauds in London where they smeared chocolate cake on the face of King Charles III. Sorry but, I do not take Madame Tussauds too seriously, I find that one amusing. Shame on me!

I read various articles about the repercussions of these acts. In the case of Melbourne, the perpetrators were arrested and released when it was found the painting was undamaged. Barron’s reported that a Dutch court sentenced two climate activists to two months in jail, one of them suspended, for targeting Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring". But possibly in the best revenge of all, activists glued themselves to the floor of the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany and rather than call the police, the staff closed-up the museum for the night and left them there, allegedly unable to use the bathroom. The protest lasted for two nights and then the authorities arrested them.

Here are a couple of the statements from these activists while they were in the museums. "We are in a climate catastrophe, and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting," and "I'm afraid because the science tells us that we won't be able to feed our families in 2050 ... This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food.” Here is a brief video from Twitter of the German protest at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam Germany regarding the mashed potatoes thrown at a Monet:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1584185689541054464

So far protesters have chosen works of art with protective glazing for their attacks and damage has been mainly to frames. Unfortunately, these sorts of actions can lead to extremes with people who just wish to get personal attention and then great paintings may get damaged. To invert what the climate activists have said, if this trend continues and we do survive past 2050, we may have lost some of our great treasures in the process.

Old Songs with Lessons for Today

If you have been reading these Missives for a while you already know that I love what was known as folk music and today is often called Country Music and Musicals. Recently some songs have been coming to mind that were written 60 plus years ago but remain apt today.

I will name the song and the name of the lyricist, when the song was written and pick a pertinent stanza. Under the lyrics the singer and YouTube link to the entire song.

Border issues are nothing new. “Deportee”, aka.“Plane Wreck at Los Gatos” written by Woody Guthrie, 1948. It is about the migrants that were brought in from Mexico to work in the fields and deported from California on the plane that crashed in Los Gatos Canyon.

“You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you is ”Deportees”
“Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted
Our work contract’s up and we have to move on.
Six hundred miles to the Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves”

Sung by Woodie’s son Arlo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2eO65BqxBE

Do you remember the John Birch Society, lyrics by Michael Brown, 1961.

It was the forerunner of many groups today such as the Oath Keepers. It was then in the middle of the Cold War between the United States and Russia.

“Be careful when you get there, we hate to be bereft
But we’re taking down the names of everybody turning left”
“Join the John Birch Society, help us fill the ranks
To get this movement started we need lots of tools and cranks”

Sung by the Chad Mitchel Trio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdxJm3rMd_U

What Did You Learn in School Today, written by Tom Paxton and first sung by Pete Seeger in 1963.

What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie.
I learned that soldiers never die.
I learned that everybody’s free,
And that’s what the teacher said to me.
That’s what I learned in school.

Sung by Pete Seeger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf5Jn8O3s0c

Tom Paxton also wrote “Buy a Gun for your Son” in 1965

“So buy a gun for your son right away, sir
Shake his hand like a man and let him play, sir
Let his little mind expand, place a weapon in his hand
For the skills he learns today will someday pay, Sir.”

Sung by Tom Paxton and a short interview by Pete Seeger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WphNO24h9nA

This song written by Bob Dylan in 1964, “The Times they are a’changin’”

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Sung by Bob Dylan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9_nWlSX6Us

This is from a musical written in 1949. The show was “South Pacific” and the song was “You’ve got to be carefully taught”.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

Sung by Bill Lee (dubbing John Kerr) seen with Ezio Pinza from the 1958 movie version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk

“Where have all the Flowers Gone” was adapted from a traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Pete Seeger borrowed an Irish melody and adapted it for a an anti-war song in 1955. The last line of every verse is an appropriate ending.

“Oh, When will they ever learn
“Oh, When will they ever learn”

Sung by Peter, Paul and Mary at their 25th anniversary concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgXNVA9ngx8

Operation Paperclip

What a strange name, Operation Paperclip. I had heard the name but could not remember it until I listened to a book called, “The German Wife” by Kelly Rimmer. It is the story of a German family heading toward and through World War II Juxtaposed to an American family that lost so much in the Dust Bowl. This is one I suggest you listen to rather than read since the accent changes from German to the American South helps to distinguish where the reader is in the world.

Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program, given its name for the paperclips that U.S. officers attached to the folders of German experts they wished to employ. German scientists, engineers and technicians were spirited out of Germany as the war was ending, and for many years afterward, to be conscripted for a certain amount of time in the interest of the American Government.

The concept originated with the U.S. military effort to take the advanced weapons from the Germans, including biological and chemical agents. Soon government officials realized they should also bring the Nazi scientists, doctors, physicists, and chemists. The Germans were so far ahead of the Americans that it is believed that if they had had time to finish the programs, that were nearing completion, the war might not have ended for quite a while.

You can imagine that Nazi scientists were not going to be warmly received by the American public who became aware of the gas chambers found at the end of the war, so the American military did its best to wipe clean the records of these individuals.

The book is, of course, historic fiction but serendipitously I discovered that an old friend, a former curator and director at a university museum, was closely connected to a real-life story. Though I have known her for decades I only recently learned that she was born in Germany at the end of WWII and her father had been part of this program. He was an engineer and, in 1948, when he had the chance to come to the United States, he leaped at the opportunity. No, not because he had always hoped to come over, but it was known that the Russians, actually kidnapped scientists to bring them to work on their rocket programs and other scientific projects. The Americans, of course, wanted the scientists for the same reason. It was part of the Cold War arms race. Here is a photo of Werhner von Braun, who had a very dark past, but then was “heralded as the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century” with John F. Kennedy.

My friend told me that her father had joined the Nazi Party with the hopeful thought that if they heard some more reasonable voices, it could stop the extremists. [Sound familiar]? He wanted nothing to do with them after attending one party meeting. She also told me how close her parents came to being annihilated by an allied bomb and only survived because it turned out to be a dud and they could escape before the second one actually went off.

Her family came to the United States on a cargo ship and did not live in luxury. Building their own house they, “became the first doomsday preppers (food and shelter – basic security) was all that mattered”. Her father, by my interpretation, became an indentured servant to the U.S. military for a time. He worked at the predecessor to what is today the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton Ohio. As an engineer his specialty in simple terms was as a “plasma physicist” i.e. an expert in the ionosphere. If I repeated what I read in his obituary only another scientist would understand it. Half the words I had never seen before! His work became highly valued after Sputnik went up in 1957 and he won several civilian honors.

Then

Now

The book I referred to at the beginning recounted how the families of German scientists were shunned by the Americans and children would not play with the Germans. My friend did not refer to this specifically but said that for her family it had been a very lonely experience.

I often check first with Wikipedia before delving deeper. In this case, after a short article I found 158 footnotes, a whole bunch of references as well as further reading. If you are curious there is plenty more out there.

The High Road to Taos

I have not written about Taos, New Mexico, for some time but this take is a little different from the others. A couple of days away from town was a birthday present from my wife, Penelope. The idea was not only to get away for a night but to do it in the fall which, like in many places, is so beautiful at this time of year. 

There are two ways to get to Taos from Santa Fe. One is relatively direct and takes roughly an hour and a half. The other, the high road, takes about an hour longer. Of course, it depends on your speed but with all the hills and switchbacks it also depends on your driving skills and, I’m afraid, your age! But boy is the high road worth it.

It is hard to take photos from a moving vehicle on a curving mountain road but there were a few, very few, places where a car could safely go off the road as photo opportunities. From this one view I took you can see why in 1975 the High Road was listed in the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties.

In 2016 Mike Butler published a book called “The High Road to Taos” with about 200 black and white photos dating from the 1930’and 40’s from The Library of Congress. The High Road has always been a tourist and pioneer attraction.

Some guidebooks give you up to seven hours to take the High Road because there are so many historic villages and pueblos along the way. In 2012 I wrote about our tour of Taos Pueblo ...
https://www.geraldstiebel.com/search?q=taos+pueblo

Penelope had picked our luncheon spot called Sugar Nymphs Café in the village of Peñasco.

To give you an idea of the vintage of the place, these old fashioned washing machines stood outside.

The café shares the building with an old time theater which I could only peak into. In the “lobby” was a vintage movie projector.

It did not look like a great place to eat but i was in for a very pleasant surprise.

I ordered my favorite chili cheeseburger and Penelope a BLT, simple but delicious, mine was no patty but a thick burger cooked to rare perfection. It came with a large bowl of cauliflower soup. Did not sound that great to me but home made with lots of vegetables. If I return some day, I hope they have that soup again. We had to sample their signature drink made with syrups and berries like I have never tasted before. Adding to the atmosphere was a totally black cat with bright green eyes.

Coming into Taos we passed Saint Francis Church, Rancho de Taos, a famous subject for Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe. When we were there six years ago, we were pretty much alone but the church was closed. This time the parking lot was full and we did get into the church, as guests for a wedding were just dispersing, everyone decked out in their Sunday best. Here is Ansel Adams’ 1929 photo of the church.

We stayed at the Historic Taos Inn, which opened in 1936 and has retained its style. Its restaurant, Doc Martin’s, lived up to its reputation with a great chili relleno and margaritas. Our room was small but really cozy, with fireplace in a reading nook.

The next morning, we visited the Taos Art Museum at the Fechin house, home of Nicholai Fechin (1888-1955) a Russian painter who specialized in portraits. Here is a 1933 portrait of his daughter, Eya.

Born in Kazan, Russia he came to the United Sates with his wife and daughter in 1923. The family lived in Taos from 1927 until 1933. During that time, he transformed and added to an adobe house which is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He not only carved the furniture but incorporated architectural ornament recalling Russian folk art.

Returning home via the low road, the pouring rain made us very happy that we had come in on the high road on a beautiful sunny and warm day.

The Line Between Galleries and Museums is Blurring

Not so long ago I might have questioned the blurred lines between galleries and museums, but now i am not so sure. Some of us go to museums to learn more about a certain field but most of us go because we saw an ad for a special exhibition that might interest and/or entertain us. We can now find the same in some commercial art galleries.

In my last blog I quoted Michaela Boland from an article she wrote about Gagosian’s Gallery Exhibition of Aboriginal Paintings from Steve Martin’s collection, “Desert Painters of Australia will be one of Gagosian's regular non-selling exhibitions held as a way of influencing tastes, expanding art collecting and testing the market.” Why is that different from what museums do?

The Eden Gallery, a modern art gallery on Madison Avenue in New York published a whole blog on the subject. The author says there is a growing grey area between the Museum and gallery. She/he goes on to say, “An art museum will usually have a permanent private collection of artworks, which they have purchased or been gifted, that the museum will have on display on a long-term basis. An art museum will also display artworks that are on loan, either from other museums or by individuals. These artworks are usually part of short-term exhibits that will change several times a year.”

I cannot deny that the Museum has a permanent collection, and the art dealer does not (unless you count the dealer’s unsold inventory!). But it is not as if museums don’t sell from their collections. Museums traditionally have sold duplicates and works they feel are no longer worthy of there collection. In recent times they have been “permitted” to sell even major pieces to make ends meet. In the museum’s case they use an intermediary which is usually an auction house or maybe they “gift” the work to another institution.

My New York gallery was known, in particular, for its French 18th Century decorative arts and once in a while a piece was sold but then it was replaced so there was a rotation and clients learned from what they saw and what we could teach them. This Planisphere Clock (Pendule à planisphère) 1745-49 was sold by my Gallery to the Getty Museum.

Why is the museum different? They too rotate their collection for special exhibitions or for conservation considerations. The British Museum has a collection of 8 million objects where only 8,000 or 1% are on view at any one time.

My wife, a former curator, points out that the goals are different: the dealer seeks to find the best works and place them with new owners, while the museum curator seeks (or used to seek) to build on an institution’s representation of what they believe is the best artistic products (past and current) for future generations.

The museum rarely experiments to see what might catch on with the public. The contemporary gallery, however, will take chances that this different art might catch on. Major contemporary art galleries are becoming more adventurous and that seems to be attractive to curators who want to get away from positions that may seem rather static or not in line with their vision. It seems to me that there is a certain cross pollenating here.

When second in command, Sylvie Patry, failed to get the top job at Paris's Musée d'Orsay, she left to become artistic director at Kamel Mennour which has several galleries in Paris dealing in contemporary art. There Patry can continue to work with living artists. She is not alone as far as Museum curators “moving to the dark side” as one pundit put it and she is not the only one to go into the private sector.

In 2019 Pace Gallery lured Curator Mark Beasley away from the Hirshhorn Museum to head a new department called Pace Live. Beasley, was formerly curator of media and performance art at the Hirshhorn and was hired “to oversee the new multi-disciplinary program that includes music, dance, film, performance, and conversation. Pace Live aims to give artists, scholars, and critics the opportunity to experiment across a range of disciplines and find new ways to connect with the public.”

I don’t think that galleries are going to take anything away from museums, but the lines are becoming more blurred. For some art lovers it may be more exciting to visit a gallery where you can, at least, have the illusion of being able to acquire the work you are looking at which makes it a more exciting and participatory experience, today known as “experiential”.