(no subject)
MOTO
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May 5, 2006, I turned 10,000 miles on the motorcycle's odometer. I have owned the bike less than 8 months - the "bad" months for riding, in Chicago. I have started to build a KLR650 maintenance page, here: http://germz.org/klr650/maintenance.html
BOOKS
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So, today, someone tossed a book at me: "Here," the person said, "You can have this for two weeks. I saw it staring at me, and I thought of you." I looked down: My Love Affair with Modern Art, a memoir by Katharine Kuh, Ed. Avis Berman. (*Recommended.) Kuh was a curator, a gallery owner. She was a Chicagoan, connected to the Art Institute. My Love Affair with Modern Art was/is a collection of vignettes that sketch her relationships with 15, or so, notable figures in the field. I struggled/struggle with how I ought to take the prose: On the one hand, Kuh was (apparently) a wealthy North Shore matron, a woman who had attented private schools (Vassar, University of Chicago: M.A. Art History;) on the other hand, Kuh had struggled with polio. And her "voice" was both feminine and also Jewish. So that Kuh was something of a mixed case: insider, and outsider. With whom did Kuh identify? Did the artists find in her someone whom it was advantageous to flatter? Or, was Kuh genuinely sensitive to "radical" perspectives? I am still fiddling with My Love Affair with Modern Art (multiple readings, implied.) The treatments of Brancusi and Noguchi lept out at me; they were good for me to read, now. I think that I like Katharine - a lot. It is interesting to me that she "controlled" much of the work to which I was exposed - much of the work that reached out to me, and shaped me. Who sets the stage? Who decides how the story is told? She died in 1994.
Every 2-4 weeks I pull a new catch from the Library's shelves; it's how I keep my mind alive. Last month, I read these:
200 Years of American Sculpture
Tom Armstrong, et al, Whitney Museum, pub. 1976
(*Recommended. Best publication of its sort that I have seen, commonly available.)
The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand
Ed. Keith Sinclair, 2nd edition
(*Recommended. This was the better of the two histories, I think. I like what comes off the Oxford Press a lot; I also like pictures. I've been searching for images of Maori architecture.)
The History of New Zealand
Tom Brooking
Mencken: The American Iconoclast
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
(Zzzz.)
This is Our War: A Soldier's Portfolio
Ed. Devon Freedman
(256 photos taken by servicemen/women)
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
Ed. Michael Dobson & Stanley Wells
(The stage. Robin Goodfellow.)
ART
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We had the 14th Annual Art Chicago Exposition, Hyde Park Art Center Relocation, and Nova Expo on the same weekend. The botched planning/timing/execution was horrible, by all accounts. But, I got out, and hit everything. And I hit the openings on the following Friday. If I saw something that I liked, or someone who carried something that I liked, I made a note:
14th Annual Art Chicago
April 28 - May 1
http://www.artchicago.com
Duru Artspace, Seoul, Korea
Kim Sun Doo: painting
http://www.duruart.com
Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
Carolyn Ottmers: cast aluminum, hanging, flora sculptures
http://www.secristgallery.com
Galerie Bhak, Seoul, Korea
Hee-Ju Chung: painting
http://galeriebhak.com
Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, California
http://www.juliebakerfineart.com
Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia
Cheryl Warrick:
http://dolanmaxwell.com
Ashley Gallery, Philadelphia
http://www.ashleygallery.com
Lumas, Germany
http://www.lumas.com
Bell Studio, Inc., Chicago
Vivian van Blerk: color photography
http://www.bellstudio.net
Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago
Dan Devening: painting
http://www.royboydgallery.com
Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee
Fred Stonehouse: painting
http://www.toryfolliard.com
Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco
Ed Musante: painting (birds) on cigar boxes
EDITORIAL CHOICES
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It is amazing to what degree events are controlled through the portrayal of events. I saw, recently, a documentary of Timothy Treadwell - the "Bear Guy" up in Alaska. The producer/narrator was not shy about inserting commentary on the "true" nature of Nature: in his (the producer/narrator's) opinion it (Nature) was chaotic, and cold. The end result was that Treadwell's death in a bear attack was made to become a metaphor for humankind's relationship with the Universe in toto. But, careful attention to the words of "regular" Alaskans, in the documentary, indicated a high degree of respect for anyone who was able to survive on the Land - on the Land's own terms. How to tell the story?
Not for fear of Daniel Johnston, but for fear of the bias of the producer of the documentary of Daniel Johnston, I have avoided The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
Interesting lives - How to tell the story:
Eva Hesse, sculptor:
1936 - born, hamburg, germany
1939 - family escapes nazi regime, to nyc
* parents divorce; mother committs suicide
1959 - b.f.a. yale
1966 - eva divorces; her father dies
1969 - begins series of surgeries for brain tumor
1970 - dies, aged 34 years
H.C. Westermann, sculptor:
1922 - born, los angeles
* lumberjack pac nw
1942 - enlists in marine corps
* pacific tour, wwii
1947 - enrolls at art institute, chicago
* korean war
1952 - begins career as "professional" artist
* "death ship" series reflects exposure to violence.
* selfish note to self, updated: sculpture dept, saic, basement, gray floor, tunnel to the museum ~bam~ Zanzi called me a Westermann...when I walked the halls, there, I reminded him of Westermann. I had no idea what he was talking about. Today I learned. http://www.mcachicago.org/westermanncurriculum/images/westermannpic_home.jpg
