More Words

It seems that readers enjoyed my words from artists last week so here are some more but this time in a more specific area:  the field of portraiture and pictures of people by photographers.

Artists and particularly photographers come from different points of view when it comes to depicting people.  I cannot resist starting with the words of a painter, John Singer Sargent, who said of portraiture, "What a business this of a portrait painter - you bring him a potato and expect he will paint you a peach."  While a contemporary New Mexico photographer, Tira Howard, who specializes in people writes, “For me, in the act of taking photographs, I often feel a sensation akin to falling in love with my subject. I can feel the hurts, desires, and fears of others as if it was a physical touch. It keeps the medium alive and exciting for me.”

Tira Howard (far right) and family

Robert Mapplethorpe said something similar with less empathy: “The important part for me, more important than the photographs, is the relationship I have with the people I photograph”.  As opposed to contemporary Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra who says, “When you take a photograph of somebody you have a relationship with the picture, not necessarily with them.  Most of the people you don’t ever see again”

Growing up in New York City, one of my favorite photographers was Arthur (Usher) Fellig better known simply as Weegee.  He was a street photographer, known for his photographs of crime scenes.  His work appeared in newspapers and even film stills and is represented in a number of museums. About his work he said, “Now the easiest kind of a job to cover was murder because the stiff would be laying on the ground.  He couldn’t get up and walk away or get temperamental.  He would be good for at least two hours.  At a fire you had to work very fast.”  What he did not say here was he was often in a race with the police to get to the crime scene first!

Another street photographer who we actually knew because we went to the right parties was Bill Cunningham.  He was the fashion photographer who published in the New York Times from 1978 until his death in 2016.  He just loved fashion and he said about his work, “I let the streets talk to me. The streets speak to you - how you find out what's new, what people are wearing, what people aren't wearing”. Like me, Bill rode his bicycle everywhere in New York.  Here he is photographing at the Easter Parade when everyone walks down a closed-off Fifth Avenue in their best finery.

The German photographer, August Sander said, “I never made a person look bad.  They do that themselves.  The portrait is your mirror”.  Now that quote is worth a seminar!  Was it really the sitter or the camera or the eye of the photographer that was at fault?

Sekretärin, 1931

One of the most famous American photographers, Edward Steichen said, “I’d like to know who first got it into his head that dreaminess and mist is art.  Take things as they are: take good photographs and the art will take care of itself.”  However, he did not shy away from the mist when it suited his purposes: one of his most famous photos is of the Flatiron Building in New York which has plenty of mist and so does his Self-Portrait. 

Edward Steichen Self-Portrait,
Art Institute of Chicago

We all come up with reasons for why we do things to explain ourselves to ourselves and as you see come up with many answers to the same question.

The Artist’s Word

I am supposed to be writing missives about the art world but find that difficult while museums and galleries are closed. The art news is slim, as well, so  I thought I would look at some quotations from artists.  Artists express themselves with their creations but some also speak as creatively as they paint, draw or sculpt.

Bridget Riley is a British artist whose work is in many museum collections from the Tate Britain to MOMA, New York.  She has said, “My work is completed by the viewer”.  What a wonderful concept since if there is no viewer there, is there art?  It is not unique to Riley. You might even understand the quote better when you see a painting she did in 1963 titled simply, “Fall”.

Mark Rothko put it a bit more poetically, “The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them”.  I know there is a Rembrandt or two that my wife has wept in front of, but I have never seen anyone weep before a Rothko.  In a group, however, such as in the Rothko Chapel in Houston they can be moving.  Though, it is practically impossible when the Chapel is full of people. Also, It is impossible to take a good photo of the Chapel with Rothko’s nuanced colors, but here is a photo from the internet.

Artists, naturally, speak a lot about color but some feel their work is not about the colors used.  Edward Hopper said, “I am more concerned with light than color” and his paintings prove it.

Edward Hopper, 1940, Museum of Modern Art

Pablo Picasso looked at it this way, “The blue period was not a question of light or color.  It was an inner necessity to paint like that.”  If it had been anyone other than Picasso saying that I might think this was the only color he could afford at the time!

Picasso, 1903,The Phillips Collection

Very few artists can make a living through their art and all had different jobs to keep them going, even the successful ones started out struggling. Mixed media artist Jane Hammond advised, “Find something to do that will make you some money, that can support your art, and that you can become good at so you can make a decent wage and that you actually don’t hate.” 

Here is what a few had to say about it:

“At one time I was a bill collector in Harlem”, Alex Katz

Sol Lewitt wrote: “One summer I worked in a factory, and that was pretty bad, I didn’t last too long.  Then I got a job in the Street Department and digging a ditch…“

“I didn’t start photography until about 1929 and up until that time I had worked as a waiter on the railway, a bartender and road gangs, played semi-professional basketball, semi-professional football, worked in a brick plant, you name it….” That from the wonderful photographer, Gordon Parks

Indomitable ambition is surely essential to the success of any artist. Let me end with a quote from the abstract sculptor, Richard Serra, “I was in analysis, and I told my analyst I wanted to be the best sculptor in the world and he said, “Richard, calm down”.  Here is his 2005, Reverse Curve, shown at the Gagosian Gallery last year.

Political Humor at the Expense of You Know Who!

For your sake, if you are a big fan of our President don’t read any further and save yourself the anguish.  Instead, either read my previous Missive or the next one.  But there is too much humor out there not to share it during these crazy times. This Missive will take you longer than usual for though the writing is slim, some of these links are a bit longer than usual.  Also, remember that there may be adds before the actual humorous event is played which can be deleted after about 5 seconds.

Can you imagine what would happen if the president would come over to visit Ralph Cramden and the Honeymooners. This is a pretty good possibility.

Do you remember what the original song called “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie” was about? 

Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (known as the Big Bopper) and Ritchie Valens, who all died in a plane crash in 1959.   It was memorialized in the song by Don Mclean and what he called “the day the music died”.  Here is an updated version regarding the day democracy died sung by our founders:

People have been so happy with Governor Cuomo of New York that they are proposing him as a candidate for president, which he has rejected.  Here is what would happen if he would sing directly to Trump.

Remember the old African folk song that Peter Seeger made famous, Wimoweh: The Lion Sleeps Tonight?  Here is a more up to date version: The Liar Tweets Tonight.

Here is a slightly different take on the Battle Hymn of the Republic which we may need more than ever. 

I am going to end with a bit that is longer than all the others, which has lost some of its humor but just as sharp as it was at Barack Obama’s final White House Correspondence dinner.  It is over 30 minutes long but I think you will enjoy it if only for nostalgic reasons, remembering when we never even dreamed there would be a time like this when we’d be without leadership:

What Day Is It? What Day Is It?

Do you find yourself asking your significant other or yourself, “What day is it, what day is it?”  It is an interesting phenomenon that when we have no rhythm to our day, we become disoriented.  This morning I had a simple internet problem and couldn’t remember how to fix it until I stopped thinking about it.

We have been “sequestered”:  Standard dictionary example: “The jurors were sequestered under guard for the remainder of the trial.”  We are not under guard, but we have been sequestered by the governor acting as judge of our situation.  Intellectually I know it is for the best and I thank her for her good judgment, but who wants to be told you need to, nay you have to stay home?  We are not very good in this country about caring for “the greater good”.  It somehow goes against our idea of freedom.

I have heard from some in New York City that they can’t go out because there are so many people in the street. From others, I hear that they go out after dinner when, as David Remnick wrote in the New Yorker, “The streets of New York City are so desolate now that you half expect tumbleweed to blow along the pavement where cars and cabs once clustered.”

My wife and I are so lucky.  We live in a wonderful place, in a nice house on an arroyo (dry riverbed) where there are few people. (Every once in a while, you wave to someone also walking there).  I much rather be here than in a city where there is little chance of escape.  Can you imagine being in an apartment complex where you know someone has caught the Covid-19?

Still, I find it very trying as I have found many people do.  People need people.  Remember this song from the Broadway show, “Funny Girl”. 

It is perfectly natural to interact with the person you live with but sometimes you don’t want to be asked “what are you working on?”, “May I interrupt?” or “Where are you going?”  If she/he closes their door ...  What secrets are they keeping from me? Something you might never think normally but suddenly the door closed … oh, it is just because someone was listening to something at a high volume and did not wish to disturb … feel pretty foolish?  All because we are being asked to stay in place.

In our home, my wife and I have an office, our own space.  So why do I have an office in town, as well? … For several reasons.  Frankly, I need to get out of the house.  I need a routine and someplace to go to, as I have always done.  It used to be a gallery now it’s a small office. When my wife used to travel for work, and I was home alone I would go to a restaurant just to see other people.   My in-town office allows me to walk around and interact with people.  Down the corridor are the offices of a number of independent professionals. As most of us keep our doors open there is informal communication that has led to easy friendships. 

James J. Cramer, whose daily television shows cover the stock market, recently took a day off from the shows that he now does remotely.  The next morning, he said he would never do that again because he had received so many emails starting out, “Are you O.K.?”.  I have written just that to a lot of people, recently.  It is a genuinely nice thought, but I can understand getting tired of it when you here the same thing from hundreds of people.

I felt ridiculous finding myself crying at the drop of a hat but then I discovered I was not alone.  Other people are also having trouble keeping a sleep schedule or just not sleeping.  Many have become nervous wrecks and don’t know why.  Even my vitamin company sent me this when I ordered CBD!

Try as we may to reassure ourselves, we are not really O.K. This missive was written so that we can all realize that we are not alone.

Some of The Best Ones!

Same as you we have been receiving many humorous pieces in order to take us out of our upset and depression over the circumstances that we all find ourselves in.  I thought I would post a few, some of which you may not have even seen.  I can promise you that none of them are political in nature … that would be a whole different Missive ... maybe next time!

Most of these will be links but here is one in print from a former Museum Director:

My Self-Isolation Quarantine Diary:

• Day 1: I Can Do This! Got enough food and wine to last a month!
• Day 2: Opening my 8th bottle of wine. I fear wine supplies might not last.
• Day 3: Strawberries - some have 210 seeds; some have 235 seeds. Who Knew??
• Day 4: 8pm - removed my Day Pajamas and put on my Night Pajamas.
• Day 5: Today, I tried to make Hand Sanitizer. It came out as Jello Shots!!
• Day 6: I get to take the Garbage out. I’m so excited, I can’t decide what to wear.
• Day 7: Laughing way too much at my own jokes!!
• Day 8: Went to a new restaurant called “The Kitchen”. You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have NO clue how this place is still in business.
• Day 9: I put liquor bottles in every room. Tonight, I’m getting dressed up and going Bar hopping.
• Day 10: Struck up a conversation with a Spider today. Seems nice. He’s a Web Designer.
• Day 11: Isolation is hard. I swear my fridge just said, “ What the hell do you want now?”
• Day 12: I realized why dogs get so excited about something moving outside, going for walks, or car rides. I think I just barked at a squirrel.
• Day 13: If you keep a glass of wine in each hand, you can’t accidentally touch your face.
• Day 14: Watched birds fight over a worm. The Cardinals led the Blue Jays 3-1.

I think Day 9 might be the most fun!  Since we are on the subject of staying home, this one was one of my favorites but beware it is not for sensitive ears!

https://www.facebook.com/SPILife/videos/10158016720648260/?v=10158016720648260&external_log_id=25dadca4a50f67b7953706563065681c&q=stay%20at%20home%20you%20prick

The Getty project: That wonderful museum that peers down on Los Angeles from its Brentwood mountaintop asked individuals to use what supplies they had at home to recreate a famous painting.  Which is your favorite?  Scroll down to the images:

https://www.sadanduseless.com/recreated-art/?fbclid=IwAR1u9JyMFPdatVoDK4d5i1al7G9au68PumqssrLP1XAim4PhvrWV3N_ttkY#.XoSNw0r8HtE.facebook

Since the economy is on everybody’s mind as well.  Here is a lesson in economics under a number of regimes.   I used to belong to The Art Dealers Association which was founded by a lawyer.  He would frequently look at the dealers and say, “You dealers always get your legal information from your accountants” which was not untrue. This lesson in economics, our lawyer recently sent, is the reverse.

If you are a musical family or maybe if you just love musicals, you might try what this British family did.  Take a favorite song, in this case, one themed on Les Miserables and come up with the appropriate words for the current situation.  There have been a bunch of these adaptations, but I really loved this one, though that maybe because I love the original.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/01/825232156/u-k-familys-lockdown-themed-rendition-of-les-mis-is-a-delight

I will end with one that is so heartwarming while being humorous as well.  The 18-month old grandson of Zubin Mehta, the renowned conductor who is soon retiring, is captured as he watches grandpa on TV.

So What ?!

So what?! Your local museum has closed, the Louvre is closed; you cannot travel anyway and you can find any work of art you are looking for online.  What is the difference, does it matter?

I have given a lot of thought to that question recently and have come up with a few answers.  Please let me know what you come up with.  On the most basic level the museum was a place to go to relax, contemplate and pray for a transcendent experience in front of a work of art.

For many years we collected photography, these were works of art and quite different from just making a print off of the computer.  Why?  Because, as anyone who has worked in a dark room or learned the history of photography knows, there are many methods of printing on many different kinds of photo paper.  Printing is an interpretation of an image and one even can tell a heavier or lighter hand.

In my case, I did not fall in love with Ansel Adams original concept of “Moon Rise, Hernandez, New Mexico” but his later version which he printed with stark contrast when the image became so popular and this was easier than doing the dodging under the enlarger that was necessary for the original. Only through seeing original prints done by Adams in an exhibition at the Andrew Smith gallery when he was in Santa Fe did I come to appreciate his changing perspective on his original vision.  Here is an image of Adams and the image as it came out of the camera and a later print.

Anyone, lucky enough to have been to the Frick Collection in New York City probably remembers not only the art, but also the center court with its large skylight and beautiful fountain where you can sit on one of the benches surrounding the pool and just chill out. My wife tells me she learned to love the Frick in high school when she went, not just to look at paintings, but to do homework in the peaceful surrounding of the court.

Why does the original matter?  Would you be shocked if I said it does not 100% of the time and I am thinking the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa.  If you can only see a very small painting behind bulletproof glass, with hundreds of other people trying to get as close as possible to photograph it, it is impossible to commune with the Leonardo’s work.  If you were able to be with the picture, without the crowd, it would be a whole different experience.

If you turn a corner and are confronted by Rembrandt’s portrait of his son Titus at the Wallace Collection in London, I guarantee a different experience altogether, perhaps the right expression is, awe-inspiring.

If you are lucky enough to have a significant other with whom to share a transcendental experience in front of the same painting that is rare but oh, how rewarding.  This is true for me, at least. 

Since we all need to look forward to something when the current global nightmare is over, enjoying works of art in the original is one of the best.

PS:  Last week I started something new with my Missives, adding a comment I received to the end, when appropriate.  My cousin from St. Louis responded to the Ogden Nash poem I posted last week with another one that is the perfect retort:

 A mighty creature is the germ, 

Though smaller than the pachyderm. 

His customary dwelling place 

Is deep within the human race. 

His childish pride he often pleases 

By giving people strange diseases. 

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? 

You probably contain a germ.

Humorous Poems

I hope that my missives both inform and entertain and since there is not a great deal to inform about these days let us try the latter.

I have always loved poetry and combining that with my sense of humor I might say that I enjoy ditties.  The champion of this art form as far as I am concerned is Ogden Nash.  He produced over 500 poems with his unconventional rhyming schemes and is this country’s preeminent master of humorous poetry.   

One that I learned as a kid and remember to this day is:

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree

At least until the billboards fall

I shall not see a tree at all

This is, of course, a take-off on Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “Trees”.

Most appropriate for today’s unfortunate circumstances is the following that may apply to those who test negative for COVID-19 but feel miserable nonetheless.

Common Cold

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Give ear, you scientific fossil!
Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;
The Cold of which researchers dream,
The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.
This honored system humbly holds
The Super-cold to end all colds;
The Cold Crusading for Democracy;
The Führer of the Streptococcracy.

Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!
Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;
Don Juan was a budding gallant,
And Shakespeare's plays show signs of talent;
The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.
Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!