in memoriam

Courtesy Agência Brasil

Oscar Niemeyer 

1907 - 2012

    The world lost a legend yesterday -- Brasilia architect Oscar Niemeyer passed away in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the age of 104.

    While he designed many magnificent buildings and structures, I have always been partial to his designs for Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.

    Together with Le Corbu, Niemeyer defined a generation of the arts for me and first led me to an appreciation of the Modernist spirit and aesthetic -- a long journey for a prairie cowboy to make.

    Niemeyer changed structures and design in positive ways that will long outlive both him and those buildings.

    Thank you, sir.  You will be long remembered.

Painting the Place Between

from the collection …

Painting the Place Between

(01 Dec, 2012 – 17 Feb, 2013)

Minnesota Museum of American Art

30 Nov 2012, St Paul, MN

    I have not attended MMAA’s programming events for several years due to having moved to Chicago for school.  Let me say, their new Project Space at 4^th and Robert Street in downtown St Paul is exceptionally light and approachable, and the same artistic community I have grown to love and value over the years, was in appearance at the event celebrating core holdings representing Minnesota’s regional artistic heritage.  The theme of the show seemed to focus on a sense of place – an odd but fitting theme for a city celebrating the 150^th Anniversary of its rather dark history in removing Native American tribes from their homes along the Mississippi River and resorting to armed force to evict many of them from the state entirely.  The background cultural context is the approaching anniversary of the hanging of 38 (of 300 sentenced) Siouan patriots as traitors, the day after Christmas, and a growing sense of and appreciation for the presumed unrealistic goal presented by many Native American Minnesotans that the historic Fort Snelling be razed, its removal reopening emotional and cultural access by the Native American community to that area which had once been a cultural heartland for their civilization.

    Not since my time spent in Cape Town, South Africa, or more precisely, Tshwane, fka Pretoria, and Mbombela, fka Nelspruit, have I sensed such a salient, if silent, contestation of the sense of place in a wider, post-colonial geography. 

Song Yer Thao Field (2012)

    While the curatorial staff intended the show to “shape a vision of our natural space as mediated by the artist’s subjective experience and the shared legacy and aura of painting on canvas… offer[ing] up evidence of the role the painter plays in how we view and interpret our landscapes as common ground and shared legacy,” the question on everyone’s mind is by what right and to what extent is this legacy truly shared, to what extent is this legacy contested, and how do the arts impact or facilitate either geographic appropriation or multi-cultural resistance.  While the works by Betsy Byers, Bette Carlon, Jil Evangs, Andrew Wykes, and Phyllis Wiener definitely are in dialogue with the Western cultural canons, they are also dialoguing with American imperialist art traditions dating back to Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and even Ansel Adams.  All of the artists are perceived to be white Minnesotans, with the exception of Hmong artist Song Yer Thao whose Field (2012), rather than contrasting with the other works, lends stylistic support to that of Jil Evans, Phyllis Wiener and Holly Swift.  Still, one to left to ponder whether Fort Snelling has given up its cannon for the canon.

Book Review

More Pictures to Grow Up With  (1946)

by Katharine Gibson

   

    Most know that I am a used book aficionado.  No, I don’t mean rare books or first editions.  Not even pedestrian art critics make enough money for that sort of lifestyle.  Rather, I mean those books which are classics based on having been passed between at least two generations.

    In the world of art books, I found that going back to the pre-WW II days brings a refreshingly straight-forward perspective to the field.  You see, back in the day, art was understood by a relatively egalitarian populace to belong to all people – and all people were expected to have at least a basic understanding of art.   I find that two fields have declined precipitously since the war – being visual arts and poetry, but that much of the fault lies with the critics, the private galleries and the artists who arguably have cultivated a less approachable, highly elitist environment that has benefited only the gallery owners.

    Katharine Gibson’s pleasant book is aimed introducing art appreciation to the middle elementary school student.  She does not talk down to the reader but does rather, find aspects of art that might be more appealing to children.  Gibson starts with pets – introducing children to the world of art and its concepts through the agency of animals while dealing with complicated concepts such as the difference between art and design, artistic intent, choice of medium, and so on.  I greatly appreciate her review of the concept of narrative within a work of art, whether it be an Italian Renaissance painting, a French tapestry, and Egyptian tomb motif or a Greek vase.  By the end of the first chapter, a child (or adult for that matter) is well prepared for his or her first enjoyable trip to the gallery or museum.

en Pe'trett auf fäaschmiete

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mennonite Portrait wins 2012 British Taylor Wessing Prize

en Pe'trett auf fäaschmiete

 

© Jordi Ruiz Cirera, 2011-12.

And the prize goes to – a portrait of a Mennonite youth.  Yes, in fact, the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 has gone to London-based, Spanish photographer Jordi Ruiz Cirera for his hauntingly beautiful 2011 photographic portrait of a young Bolivian Mennonite, Magarita Teichroeb. 

Four to Watch

Four to Watch

   You will have to excuse my silence.  No, I did not stop noting and appreciating good art – in fact, some of the most interesting pieces have come out of the last twenty-four months.  Rather, I have been more pre-occupied with that other aspect of art and culture – the establishment and maintenance of narrative theory (in other words, grad-school).  While this has taken up most of my time, it is with relief and joy that I return to our conversation about the everyday, pedestrian enjoyment of the art that surrounds us.

   In this regard, I feel it somewhat necessary to re-establish some of my aesthetic tastes and leanings with you.  While I cannot provide you with an exhaustive, culturally critical analysis of the various regional and world markets, I have identified four areas that I feel are on the up-swing – pending their ability to maintain the necessarily social and political stability to foster the creative process and their ability to gain an audience.

    As the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games has demonstrated, the great games can serve as a ready catalyst for great artistic endeavors – and for generating the appreciative audience to support the works being presented.

Alfieri's The Sisters

The Sisters (2005)

03 Oct 2012

    Richard Alfieri’s 2005 film adaptation of Anton Chekov’s The Sisters, by the same name, is both brilliant and disturbing.  As is usual, I tend to miss the point extolled by the jacket commentator:  “… the story of familial deception and ultimate revelation … [and] the ties that bind them despite their dysfunctional family dynamics…”

   What I am missing is the sense of family dynamic – in fact, to my reading of the film, the action is defined specifically by the lack of family dynamic.  There is no family.

   The issue of the male child in the family is removed from consideration by the omission of the female matriarch – the mother died long before the story’s narrative begins – with no exploration but the minimal side references of bitterness, Marcia redirects from hostility she feels towards her mother, onto her father.  The makes even more intriguing the repressed sexual anger and tension between her and her father.  Clearly, her husband is nothing more or less than a surrogate father figure – of this the narrative is quite clear.

   What we are left with is the incidental relationship amongst four grown women (for this, the character of Nancy (Elizabeth Banks), is of larger impact than that of Andrew, the brother (Alessandro Nivola).  Leaving the cast of relevant characters as Marcia Prior Glass (Maria Bello), Olga Prior (Mary Stuart Masterson), and the youngest sister, Irene Prior (Erika Christensen).

    To my mind, there are two themes – and I think it important to reiterate that this play reflects the perspectives of two men – Alfieri, the writer, and Chekov, the originator, and to a lesser extent, director Arthur Seidelman, another male, and to explore the following with that clearly in mind.

Wall Photo Sets New Record

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Jeff Wall, Jewish Russlander Photographer

Eena dee schienent Bilda aufnemmt

Jeff Wall by Hermann Wendler, 2007

   IIn tracing and detailing the extent of the Russian Mennonite diaspora, one spends a lot of time on the look-out for key names – such as Toews, Unrau, Wiens, etc.  Many names, however, exist well beyond the diaspora – Becker, Unger, Wall, etc. 

   Regarding the surname Wall, I have always been intrigued by the artist Jeff David Wall of Vancouver, British Columbia – is he of the Dutch Wall’s, the Norwegian Wahl’s, the Irish Wall’s (who are actually Dutch) or the Mennonite Wall’s – if he is Mennonite, is he of the Belgian Vanderwalle’s  or de Walles, or of the Frisien Walde / Waldens?  Nor is Wall’s photo of any assistance.  I, for example, look just like my father, grandfather, great-grandfather – all the way back to C.M. Wall, the earliest for whom an image exists.  Wall does not look unlike a Dutch-Flemish Wall, but they have also, possibly due to shared heritage, also looked suspiciously Irish.

   So leaving off the Jerry Springer – Montel Williams investigatory work , Arthur Lubow, of the New York Times, actually published the answer to the dilemma in his bio-piece on Jeff Wall , 25 February, 2007.  In a piece title “The Luminist,” Lubow reveals that Jeff Wall, that great Canadian photographic artist is actually – “Jewish”.  “Jewish?” one asks.  “Jewish” he says.

Quilt Diplomacy

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Tribal and Mennonite Quilt Diplomacy

ne je’stekjde Dakj

     Mennonites and Amish have long been known for their excellent quilting skills.  In the North American West, they have found themselves to be in good company – especially on the Fort Peck Reservation, home also to several Mennonite communities and nearby Hutterite Colonies.

    I have been in a special position to appreciate this as the grandson of the perpetual head of the EMB Ladies’ AID quilt committee and the son of a mother who herself learned to quilt from Native American quilters at the school in which she taught.  I deeply treasure both my Schmekfest Quilt and my two star quilts – one made by my mother and one given to me upon graduation by her best friend. 

Japanese Pottery, Goshen Ind

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Collected Meanings: Japanese Pottery (repost)

en Leem Tap (?)

Collected Meanings:   

Japanese Pottery and Travel Stories

Dick Lehman

Goshen College Visual Arts Gallery

Goshen, Indiana

12 July, 2010

     My first reaction to this exhibit was one of curious pleasure mixed with acute apprehension.  Asian ceramics always tweak my interest.  My aunt Ruby FitzGerald (FitzRu) studied pottery under a Japanese Master (one of the first Western women to do so), and I have always freely lost myself in the Asian ceramics collections of the Art Institute Chicago and the Minneapolis Art Institute.  On the other hand -- of what real use is an Asian ceramics collection? 

    I need not have worried.  Dick Lehman is both an expert in the field of ceramics and an accomplished collector.  Collected Meanings explores decades of collecting and travel experiences in Japan as both a record of an on-going cultural exchange between the United States and Japan, and as an educational introduction to the variety of methods, textures, finishes, and shapes historically common to Japanese ceramics. 

    One might begin Lehman’s tour in one of two ways.  One might rush right into the cases of ceramics and begin exploring, or one might choose to engage the well placed magazine articles and travel memoirs posted along the wall.