The Art of the Manhole Cover

When we are young, we walk down a street looking ahead, but when we get old, we tend to look down and watch our step. As I was stepping down off a curb in Santa Fe the other day, I noticed a manhole cover I had probably passed 100 times before, but this time I really looked at it.

I took a photo as it seemed an interesting design. Wondering what the symbols were, I began to do some research. Incredibly, I was not the first person to take notice of a manhole cover! 😊 There was even an exhibition in 1996 on the subject in the public courtyard of the Wadsworth Atheneum. It was in counterpoint to the exhibition inside about Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt 45. As a statement on gun violence, artist Bradley McCallum melted down 11,194 guns confiscated by Connecticut police, creating the commemorative manhole covers that were installed in the city streets of Hartford after the exhibition.

The earliest manhole covers were stone or wood slabs used to cover trenches that carried sewage away from cities. They date from 3500 BCE. With the industrial revolution in the mid 19th century when more complicated water, sewer and gas systems were installed they were updated and often marked with what system was down below.

Getting back to “my” manhole cover, I found that the design was based on the seal for the city of Santa Fe, with symbols from the coats of arms of Spain and Mexico, plus the 13 stars for the United States. 

Further down the rabbit hole I went! The official seal of Santa Fe has three dates on it, none of which is the one when New Mexico became a State in 1912. The dates represent the sequence in which the three countries have held sovereignty over Santa Fe. 1610 marks the formal establishment of the city as the Capital of the Spanish “Kingdom of New Mexico”. In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and the Santa Fe Trail was opened. 1846 was the year during the Mexican-American War when General Stephen Watts Kearny led the Army of the West into Santa Fe and declared it part of the United States. The date on “my” manhole cover, however, is 1998, clearly the date it was made!

Manhole covers have been called “The Art of the Streets”. Diana Stuart wrote a book called “Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City”.

She laments the fact that these bits of urban architecture are being lost to urban renewal. There is one way to preserve these objects, and that is by collecting them, and people have done so, but maybe not in city apartments, as they are rather heavy. Most are made of cast iron and weigh between 100 and 250 pounds, depending on their size!

Most manhole covers are monochromatic, and you have to be looking for them to notice their design. You certainly can’t see them when you are driving over them. In Japan, however, manhole covers are created as colorful works of art. This actually makes people want to look down, that is, if they have the time. The vast majority of municipalities have their own manhole covers as a point of pride and creative art. As an example, here is one from Shizuoka City commemorating, among other things, the World Cultural Heritage site of Mt. Fuji and Miho Matsubara Beach.

By all means, when walking, look straight ahead and take in the sights and view the skies as well, but don’t forget, every once in a while, to look down and see what treasures of urban architecture you might find.

No Ifs Ands Or Buts

If you have had it with the news and politics, please don’t read this one!

"Eines Tages kommt die Stunde der Vergeltung!" ("One day the hour of retribution will come.") So said Joseph Goebbels, June 5, 1943. Goebbels was the chief propagandist for the Nazi party and was designated by Hitler to follow him as Chancellor. On March 4, 2023, Donald Trump said, "I am your retribution."

The United States has been given by our founders a Constitution, establishing a structure to ensure checks and balances with three branches of government. It can, however, be easily destroyed in just a few days when all knuckle under to a dictator and it becomes none for all and all for one.

A Washington insider said to me, “Everyone in D.C. is fearful”. I can certainly understand that. If someone gives a truthful report that the administration does not like, they get fired. If a Congressperson from the same party disagrees, they get “primaried”. Then, some followers threaten and intimidate individuals and even use violence against them. The current environment encourages it from the top.

I am so tired of hearing from the pundits that we are headed towards an autocracy or that Trump wants to be king. Charles IV of Great Britain is a King: Donald J. Trump is a dictator, as he promised to be on day one. People hold out hope for the Midterms, but if MAGA has its way, the vote will be counted just as it is in Hungary or Russia. As I am writing this, 51 Democratic legislators who left the state of Texas to block irregular redistricting are threatened with arrest by their governor, and the FBI has been sent out to find them!

Interesting, how easy it is to intimidate powerful law firms or even tech companies to knuckle under. There seems to be no limit to greed. Securing increasing profits has become the overriding goal.

When your universities give in to blackmail by a corrupt government, that seems to be the last straw. But no ... I just read the headline in the New York Times, “Judges Openly Doubt Government as Justice Dept. Misleads and Dodges Orders”. When the judges lose trust in the Justice Department, our system falls apart. The ultimate cudgel is when the Supreme Court (the court of last resort) seems to side with the administration nine times out of ten, and two of those Justices have been shown to have been corrupted. What is left?

Remember the Nazi exhibition of "Entartete Kunst", Degenerate Art? Well, some art has been taken off the wall, such as at the National Portrait Gallery, and shows have been cancelled all over, etc. Restrictions are also being applied to the performing arts, as not all shows are welcome at the Kennedy Center. The building may even have its name changed to please the President. Through the ages, art has often been used as a tool of protest, and the administration is working to snuff that out.

History is being edited to remove unflattering facts. In science, the validity of vaccinations and even climate change is being denied.

As we know, methods were used to encourage voluntary emigration from Germany, and then there were camps for the undesirables. Not to mention people being disappeared. We are witnessing just such measures here.

“Lebensraum,” i.e. "living space," was a core Nazi ideology. As Trump fulfills his desire to rule this country as a dictator, he floats the possibility of taking over other countries such as Canada and Greenland. He enjoys changing the identity of parts he does not “own,” e.g. the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. Most Americans and the vast majority of Europeans wish to stop another dictator from moving towards world domination by taking over Ukraine. We can see the pattern closer to home.

I think we can stop using terms of “Falling into”, “Risking”, or Headed Toward Autocracy … we have already arrived there! 

Folk Music Still Has Lessons For Us

I grew up in a period of upheaval, maybe not as destructive to our democracy as now, but the issues were still very serious. World War II, the McCarthy era, the Civil Rights Movement, and the assassinations of the leader of that movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., a beloved President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and his brother, Robert Kennedy, who was then Attorney General and a candidate for President.

Coinciding with those events were related songs, and many of the lyrics are still relevant today. The authors are noted after the verse.

If only it were true:

I learned our government must be strong;

It’s always right and never wrong!

Our leaders are the finest men

And we elect them again and again

And that’s what I learned in school today,

That’s what I learned in school. (Tom Paxton)

Please:

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' (Bob Dylan 1964)

Now, what do we have:

Show me a prison, show me a jail
Show me a prisoner whose face has gone pale
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
And there but for fortune, may go you or I (Phi Ochs)

Hard to forget:

As through this world I’ve wandered

I’ve seen lots of funny men

Some will rob you with a six-gun

Some with a fountain pen. (Woody Guthrie)

Today we have ICE:

The crops are all in, and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are filed in their creosote dumps
They're flying 'em back to the Mexico border
To take all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita
Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees. (Woody Guthrie)

In Hope:


I've seen my brothers working,
Throughout this mighty land,
l prayed we'd get together,
And together make a stand. (Les Rice)

Is The Art Market Dead?

The other night at dinner, someone said that the art market was dying. Art, just simply, does not die. The interest continues. The Metropolitan Museum just announced that during the last year they have had a record number of visitors, 5.7 million, more people than the population of over half the states in this country.

There are always people creating art, and there is always an audience; therefore, there will always be people selling it.

For some time, I have been reading reports that the art market is down. One of the reasons for stories like this is that the auction houses had not sold for as many billions as they had in past years. Further, the statistics of a decline in the global figures of total sales of art are heavily weighted by the top-tier sales.

The recent cancellation by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) of their annual exhibition in New York “the Art Show”, however has significance. The announcement cast it as “a strategic pause to reassess and strengthen the fair's model” The announcement stated “This decision is not due to financial pressure or lack of exhibitor interest, but rather to realign the fair with the organization's core mission and adapt to the evolving cultural and market landscape.”

Years ago my gallery was a member until the ADAA decided that they would change their focus to members in modern and contemporary art. Though I have absolutely no inside knowledge, if enough of the name dealers were interested in participating, the show would go on. It would appear that dealers are looking to sales venues other than fairs.

The obvious fact that there is no one art market is often overlooked. Different areas of art go in and out of fashion. Over the years we have collected photography, Art Nouveau Furniture and Native American Art. In my next life time, I want to look at posters of the late 19th century, Renaissance manuscripts and Chinese furniture. I could go on and on. Each of these has had its market ups and downs. Dry spells for a dealer in any field are often especially hard since a dealer has to adapt the scope of his inventory as styles and tastes change. The most successful dealers learn to shift with the tide.

Within any given area of art, there has been a widening gulf between the most coveted examples by the artists deemed to be most important and the rest of the field. We collected photographs when they only cost a few hundred dollars, even for artists who were considered important. This was in the 1970s and 80’s. Then, years later, they sold for thousands. Here are a few statements from the web about collecting photography:

“In the first half of 2024, 85% of photographs sold at auction went for less than $1,000, making photography a relatively accessible entry point for new collectors. However, photographs by established and renowned photographers can command much higher prices, with some reaching millions of dollars.

Literally only a handful of photographs have sold for millions of dollars, but that is always what gets attention.

As I have said, often, if you are interested in investment, stay away from the art market. The vast majority of artists in any medium need a second job to make ends meet. Relatively few artists have had major success during their productive years, and it is unlikely that their work will enjoy the often-cited posthumous success of Van Gogh, who is said to have sold only one painting in his lifetime.

Buying a work of art is not like making a decision on a stock where you are judging a category and a specific business. The art market is much more mercurial. There is a reason for hesitation when things start to get so absurd that a banana taped to a wall brings millions. People are not that stupid. If they have money to burn, they may enjoy the fun, but they do not think that they will sell it for more or even keep it on their wall after the hype dies down or the banana rots.

My point is that the art market is not “dying”, but rather that people are not spending as much on big names in troubled, unsettled times, and it is even possible that they are tired of some of the hype that has accompanied high-end auctions.

Making Li-Sense

This is just the second in a series of two! Coming from the East Coast, I was barely aware of what they called the Vanity Plate, but particularly in the State of New Mexico, they are quite common. Some of them are very amusing and I enjoy photographing them. I guarantee none of these photos were taken while I had one hand on the wheel shooting as I was driving … at least I hope not😊

"Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

I have referred to myself as ...

So, I went off to play poker ...

Lost a lot, and my wife was not happy and yelled ...

And I replied, don’t be such a ...

She said, have you been into the ...

I admit it, I lied and said “No, in Santa Fe we have the ...

Somehow, being in the arts, we calmed down and reminded each other we ...

And she said ...

And I said ...

These Cars Are Vintage

Every July 4th, we have an event of "Pancakes on the Plaza" and a vintage car show ...

Last year, the vintage cars were just around the Plaza ... this year, they stretched about 3 blocks long ...

It seems people love vintage car shows. Many go for nostalgia, a trip down memory lane: the cars we owned way back when, the ones we always coveted but never acquired, the styling that transported us to another time in our lives.

There are those, of course, who are really into these things. They know every model of every year, going back to the first car. Then there are those who are only interested in the inner workings of the engine, etc. It reminds me of the clients who would buy French 18th-century clocks from my gallery. In our minds, we were selling the beautiful cases that were built to house the clock works, but we had clients who were far more interested in what made them tick! Of course, there were those who just slapped a battery inside, so they did not have to wind it every day!!

This 1929 Model A Ford, you had to crank up from the front to start the motor ...

Here is another 1929 Ford which I am illustrating because I wish I could keep a spare tire on my car just like that!

Last year, I illustrated a Volkswagen Bug similar to my first car ... 

https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2024/07/cars-reminiscent-of-my-past.html 

This year, they had a 1960 Volkswagen Bug with the very small taillights like my first 1959 Bug. This time there was an opportunity to see the interior with the stick shift and clutch, ie, a third pedal on the floor that was necessary to work the manual transmission.

I now drive a 4-door sedan, which I consider a normal-sized car, and I must admit I am not happy with the size of these huge cars and trucks with just a single driver in them. If I am backing out of a parking space, there is no way for me to see oncoming vehicles. But I did see in the show a big 1929 Packard that must have been fun for the entire family. I am showing 3 images with different features. It has 4 front lights and on one side another light for good measure, but do notice the wire connecting it is suitable to remove and turn it around as a search light. I could use that sometimes. Finally, take a look at the interior, the owner’s family is going around in style and … maybe showing off a bit as well. 

Every kid has to have a car he can dream about, and here is one that would be high on my list: a 2008 Lotus limited edition Exige S Club Racer ...

The morning was for me an imaginary trip “Back to the Future”.

A Fair with Nothing to Sell … but Acceptance

July 4th, Independence Day, has just passed, and as we see that the historical celebration’s significance disappears, we must try to stay positive. To that end, there has been increasing turnout in many cities to show support for the LGBTQ+ community in events during Gay Pride Month. Observances became international in 1970 following the Stonewall Riots that erupted after a police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.

Here, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Pride Day Parade and celebration were a truly joyous occasion. I saw one figure in print that there were 10,000 individuals attending. Though I am quite sure that figure was greatly exaggerated, our streets were filled with smiling faces of participants and those who came to show support and enjoy the spectacle.

Santa Fe is a relatively small town with a population of the city just under 90,000 inhabitants, but it attracts visitors from all over. Its offerings include hiking, biking, skiing, as well as museums, restaurants, and lately, theater, disproportionate to its size. In the first half of this year, I have seen license plates from 40 different states as well as those from Mexico, Canada, and various Native American Tribes. Many of the latter were represented in the parade, as participants or in booths or as onlookers.

The center of town was full of music and kiosks stretching from the Plaza to City Hall. What was so refreshing was that those manning the kiosks were not selling but rather giving away buttons, stickers, flags, bracelets, wreaths, all in Gay colors. Some also offered free drinks or candy, and one even had brownies. As marchers passed, they threw candies to the crowds.

The parade started off with about a dozen police on motorcycles, then fire trucks, an ambulance, and even a Department of Sanitation truck. Then came the Mayor, Alan Webber, decked out in a glittering jacket and hat.

Many marchers were dressed in rainbow colors, some carrying signs and others just walking in support of the cause. Some wore costumes designed to call attention to their convictions.

Marchers represented many different groups from Girls Inc. to a Veterans organization. There was even a school bus with a sign referencing support for trans kids. The School for the Arts also sent its young representatives.

There were stands representing the Police, the city clerk, and even the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Different religions were represented, including a Jewish Synagogue and several denominations of Christians.

One booth that surprised me was the one for a Buddhist organization.

It really was one for all and all for one! I found the event uplifting, giving faith in one’s fellow man for a change.

Mucha’s Come to Town

Timeless Mucha: the Magic Line opened last week at the New Mexico Museum of Art and will continue through September 20. The exhibition tour started at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. and will go on to the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Nelson Atkins Museum and finally the Museo Kaluz in Mexico City.

I obviously do a lot of research online and was getting frustrated with information I could not find, ending up going around in circles. Then in my online search I found some of what I was looking for in Missives from the Art World, a Missive I had written 6 years ago at the time of a tour of a previous Mucha show and had totally forgotten! 

https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2019/07/alphonse-mucha.html

Alphonse Mucha (Czech 1860-1939) spent much of his professional life in Paris. He became a major exponent of the Art Nouveau style. In 1992 after the death of Mucha’s son, Jiri, his wife Geraldine and their son John formed the Mucha Foundation to preserve his estate, gather more of his work and promote his memory by establishing a museum in Prague and organizing international exhibitions.

"Self-Portrait" by Mucha

Mucha honed his graphic skill through classical training in Vienna, Munich and Paris, and was influenced by other artists of the period in France including Gaugin. His work, in turn, influenced artists in the later 20th century.

This exhibition is comprised of drawings, posters and photographs demonstrating the artist’s incredible draughtsmanship as well as his eye for detail, composition and color. In this pencil on cardboard study of a man in an evening coat, you get an idea of his formative classical training and meticulous work.

Photography at the time was mainly used for documentation but for Mucha it served as an initial step in his artistic process. He made sketches from photographs of nudes he posed in his studio, adding flowing garments and elaborate backgrounds, or staged fully costumed vignettes as in this example of his late work for Hearst’s International Magazine, July 1922. 

As a struggling illustrator, his big break came when he created a poster for Sarah Bernhardt. Fortuitously, he had stopped in a frame shop where he learned that the superstar of her day wanted a new poster within two weeks to rekindle interest in her play Gismonda. He took on the project and rushed to the theater where she was performing to sketch her there. Breaking with the conventional format for publicity posters he created elongated vertical images that were plastered all over Paris. The posters were not only successful as publicity for Ms. Bernhardt, they became instant collectors’ items bringing the artist to the fore and gaining the actress additional acclaim. Bernhardt signed him to a six-year contract and several of the monumental posters he designed for her subsequent plays form the core of the current exhibition, standing as indisputable masterpieces of graphic art.

Mucha went on to commissions for commercial advertising and product packaging that are included in the exhibition. Though his Art Nouveau style had fallen out of fashion by the time of his death, the show concludes with a section of psychedelic rock posters and album covers that testify to the revival of his influence in the 1960’s and 70’s. Here is one example.

Mucha’s imagery may be overly familiar from reproduction, but it goes without saying that it is always best to see a work of art in the original where you can appreciate the detail and feel the spirit that the artist wished to convey.

I Had To Be There!

When I was 15 years old my high school French teacher asked for volunteers to join him at a near-bye Woolworths for a sit-in at their food counter to protest the fact that those who were called Negros, at the time, were not allowed to sit there. I am ashamed to say I did not join them. Probably mostly out of fear, but maybe also that I did not want it to take up my Saturday! Until the Saturday before last, I continued to avoid demonstrations out of fear of crowds, whether celebrating or protesting.

On No Kings Day, I finally found no excuse sufficient to keep me from participation ... and what a lesson it was for me in civic pride and sociology. Here in Santa Fe, there was some police presence in front of the Capitol, but none visible when the body of protesters marched onward to loop around and into the Plaza (our central public square). There the entire demonstration was peaceful, orderly and there was a feeling of camaraderie.

The temperature was well over 90 degrees, and since I am 80 and walk with a cane, my wife and I opted to wait on the Plaza for the crowd to arrive. There was a positive communal spirit all around. A lady who saw me with my cane immediately offered me her seat on one of the few benches in the shade. A gentleman, around my age, joined us and purchased water from a vendor. Without our asking he brought us some. Nearby was an unofficial, old fashioned folk singer with guitar and harmonica, who sang some protest songs from long ago and others where he wrote his own lyrics to known tunes. Here is a video of him singing and one of his verses ...

This is for all the migrant people ...

Livin’ in fear from day to day ...

Don’t give up, cause you got the support of many ...

Who don’t want you to go away ...

Demonstrators carried all kinds of homemade signs mocking Trump and protesting his policies, but many also had American flags. This was a great relief to me as I have been so distressed to see the recent misuse of our flag as a symbol of the far right, the white supremacists and the fanatical religious right. It should be a symbol of pride and love of our country.

Crowd size is often used as an indicator of the strength of popular sentiment. The City of Santa Fe has a population of close to 90,000. Although it was difficult to count the number of protestors since they were spread out downtown, based on the numbers in previous demonstrations that were more centrally located, the No Kings turnout has been estimated around 5,000. That would represent more than 5% of the population.

Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, has come up with the rule that says that when 3 ½ % of the population demonstrates it can lead to real change. We didn’t reach that threshold nationwide, but we did in our town!

In the range of statements expressed in the demonstrators’ signs, the two-sided one my wife made was in the middle of the spectrum, with few milder or much stronger.

I had to be there!