Monday Morning Museum: Ukiyo-e Printmaking

Ukiyo-e Printmaking – Japan during the Edo period from the 1600s to 1867

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵 literally "pictures of the floating world"?) (Japanese pronunciation: [ukijo.e] or [ukijoꜜe]) is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Ando Hiroshige (see art example below), other Ukiyo-e printmakers are Hishikawa Moronnobu, Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and Toshusai Sharaku

Tsubo Plain at Susaki, Fukagawa by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Last Monday’s Art – Tonalism

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Monday Morning Museum: Tonalism

Tonalism – America from 1880 to 1910

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style. During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to George Inness (see art example below), the other prominent Tonalist is James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Sunset at Etretat, 1875, by George Inness (1825-1894)

Last Monday’s Art – Symbolism
Next Monday’s Art –

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Monday Morning Museum: Symbolism

Symbolism – Late Nineteenth Century

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly and translated into French, were a significant influence and the source of many stock tropes and images. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Odilon Redon (see art example below), the art of Symbolism also includes Gustav Moreau and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Le Char d’Apollon, circa 1910, by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Last Monday’s Art – Surrealism
Next Monday’s Art – Tonalism

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Monday Morning Museum: Surrealism

Surrealism – Europe from 1924 to the 1950s

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Joan Miró (see art example below), other Surrealists are Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Arp, Man Ray and René Magritte.

The Gold of the Azure, 1967, by Joan Miró (1893-1983)

This painting show’s Miró’s continued use of the signs and symbols of the forties as an expression of his poetic concept of painting. Stars, planets, the elementary configurations of the ever-present figures (man and woman, the masculine principle and the feminine principle) and on top of them a curving line – probably a bird that reinvents the horizon – all contribute to the definition of this space and offer a new vision of Miró’s cosmology. - Fundación Joan Miró de Barcelona.

Last Monday’s Art – Romanticism
Next Monday’s Art – Symbolism

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Monday Morning Museum: Romanticism

Romanticism – Late Eighteenth Century to Mid-Nineteenth Century

Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Caspar David Friedrich (see art example below), Romanticism is also practiced by John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner and William Blake.

The Wanderer Above the Mists, circa 1816-1818, by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

“…represent the loneliness of the modern subject placed in a majestic landscape, as well as the failure of man in a hostile natural environment. In Friedrich's oeuvre landscape is imbued with an existential meaning, it becomes a metaphor for human fate.” – Hamburger-Kunsthalle.de

Last Monday’s Art – The Rococo Style
Next Monday’s Art – Surrealism

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Not A Perfect Day As Rocker Lou Reed Takes His Last Walk On The Wild Side

Lou Reed - Monday 2 March 1942 Brooklyn, New York to Sunday 27 October 2013 Southampton, New York

Today guitarist and singer Lewis Allen “Lou” Reed died. A founding member of The Velvet Underground and a solo artist, Lou’s music career spanned fifty years. The only time I saw Lou in concert was on Friday 15 September 2000 at the Cirque Royal in Brussels, Belgium. It was the European Fall leg of his 2000 Ecstasy World Tour. I don’t remember specifics about the concert (though I did sit next to a nice Dutch-speaking man), however, I enjoyed it immensely. Here is the set list for that concert:

Paranoia Key of E - Turn To Me - Modern Dance - Ecstasy - Smaltown - Future Farmers of America - Turning Time Around - Romeo Had Juliette - White Prism - Rock Minuet - Mystic Child - Tatters - Set the Twilight Reeling - Baton Rouge - Busload of Faith - Dirty Blvd. - Sweet Jane - Perfect Day - loureed.es/live2000.htm

The one Lou Reed song that I’ve heard most often is “Sweet Jane”. Why that particular song you ask? Well, when I lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, I had friends who published a literary magazine called The Apple. And to support the magazine, “Apple” parties were held. They were lots of fun – food, beverages, dancing and a live band. I’ve forgotten the name of the band, but the leader was a guy named Donny and the parties always ended with his rendition and unique performance of Lou’s “Sweet Jane”. Since I went to “Apple” parties often, I heard “Sweet Jane” often. A most enjoyable memory! So in tribute to Lou Reed and to a blast from the past, I present “Sweet Jane”. Lou, I’m sure all your days are perfect wherever you are. Rock on Reed!



Top of post: Front of my personal Ecstasy Tour t-shirt

Monday Morning Museum: The Rococo Style

The Rococo Style – Europe from 1715 to 1774

Rococo (/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/ or /roʊkəˈkoʊ/), less commonly roccoco, also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, which affected several aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music and theatre. The Rococo developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially that of the Palace of Versailles. In such a way, Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, florid and graceful approach to Baroque art and architecture. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Jean-Honoré Fragonard (see art example below), other Rococo artists are François Boucher, Jean-Antoine Watteau and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

The Swing, 1767, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

The Swing is Fragonard's best-known painting, encapsulating for many the finesse, humour and joie de vivre of the Rococo. No other work better demonstrates his ability to combine erotic licence with a visionary feeling for nature. According to the poet Collé, the history painter Doyen was commissioned by an unnamed ‘gentleman of the Court’ to paint his young mistress on a swing, pushed by a bishop with himself admiring her legs from below. Fragonard, who became well-known for his erotic genre-pictures, proved better suited to paint the work, in which the impudent reference to the church has been omitted, leaving the girl as the main focus, delicious in her froth of pink silk, poised mid-air tantalizingly beyond the reach of both her elderly seated admirer and her excited young lover. – Wallace Collection.org

Last Monday’s Art – The Northern Renaissance
Next Monday’s Art – Romanticism

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Acknowledgements From Crooked Numbers By Tim O'Mara

I'm mentioned in one section of Tim's Acknowledgements in his new mystery Crooked Numbers which was released today. Especially very cool to be included with Otto Penzler! Here's what Tim wrote:

"Some of the nicest and most knowledgeable folks in the business can be found working in the independent bookstores. To name a few, I am so glad the following had this new guy's back: Scott Montgomery of Mystery People in Austin, Texas; Adrean Darce Brent of Mysterious Galaxy stores in southern California; Jamie and Robin Agnew of Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Jonah and Ellen Zimilies of [words] in Maplewood, New Jersey; Loren Aliperti of Book Revue in Huntington, New York; Otto Penzler and his staff at the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan; and Jenn Worthington of Word in glorious Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Support your local indie bookseller!"

Monday Morning Museum: The Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance - Germany and the Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

The Northern Renaissance is the Renaissance that occurred in the European countries north of Italy. Before 1497 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe. This influenced the German Renaissance, French Renaissance, English Renaissance, Renaissance in the Low Countries, Polish Renaissance and other national and localized movements, each with different characteristics and strengths. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Jan van Eyck (see art example below), other artists of the Northern Renaissance are Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and Hans Holbein.

The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, by Jan van Eyck (circa 1395-1441)

This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior.

The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting.

Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier. – The National Gallery, London

Last Monday’s Art – The Renaissance
Next Monday’s Art – The Rococo Style

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David Kusinitz – Friday 3 July 1953 To Tuesday 9 October 2012

Recently I read in a Clark University publication that a year ago today a college friend died. For me, Tuesday 9 October 2012 was a typical day of working, problem solving and reading. However, for my friend David, it was the last day of his all-too-short life. Not sure how I first met David, but most likely at a social function rather than in a class (we had different majors). We became members of a group of friends and eventually some of the friends (David included) ended up sharing an off-campus apartment. I used to tease David about his watching wrestling on Saturdays. You know, the type of wrestling with the outrageously costumed participants, usually representations of good versus evil, and good always won of course. It simply amused and bewildered me that an intelligent man would enjoy such fakery. And intelligent (double major) David was, as well as funny and kind.

As is still common, even in this social media pervasive time, we lost touch over the years. The last time I saw David was on a trip to Chicago to see him, his then girlfriend Joanne and his future wife Ann. It was a fun week of visiting the Sears Tower and the Art Institute; socializing at a local bar and Halloween party; and hanging out at the apartment and with some of their friends. David and I talked – probably a little about the past and a lot about the future – the usual conversations friends have. Although I don’t remember what was spoken, I do know there was laughter throughout the words.

Below are a few photos from our time in college. This is how I remember David and will continue to remember him. Yes, remember you I will David, my long ago friend.

大衛

"David" as written in traditional Chinese

David at his dorm room desk. © An Adrean Darce Brent Image

David talking to Ann and pointing at me! Ha-ha, so much for a candid shot.

© An Adrean Darce Brent Image

David, you’re looking stylish in your Dashiki.

© An Adrean Darce Brent Image

David and Joanne on the lawn at Tanglewood, enjoying the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

© An Adrean Darce Brent Image

“David Kusinitz” graphic created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: The Renaissance

The Renaissance – Italy in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries

The Renaissance (UK /rɨˈneɪsəns/, US /ˈrɛnɨsɑːns/, French pronunciation: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s], from French: Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: Rinascimento, from rinascere "to be reborn") was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Raphael Sanzio (see art example below), other Renaissance artists are Sandro Botticelli, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci.

St. George Fighting the Dragon, 1505 by Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)

Last Monday’s Art – Realism
Next Monday’s Art – The Northern Renaissance

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Monday Morning Museum: Realism

Realism – The mid-Nineteenth Century

Realism in the arts may be generally defined as the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. The term originated in the 19th century, and was used to describe the work of Gustave Courbet and a group of painters who rejected idealization, focusing instead on everyday life. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henry Ossawa Tanner (see art example below), other Realists are Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet and Thomas Eakins

The Banjo Lesson, 1893, by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

In 1893 on a short return visit to the United States, Tanner painted his most famous work, The Banjo Lesson, while in Philadelphia. The painting shows an elderly black man teaching a boy, assumed to be his grandson, how to play the banjo. This deceptively simple-looking work explores several important themes. Blacks had long been stereotyped as entertainers in American culture, and the image of a black man playing the banjo appears throughout American art of the late 19th century. Thomas Worth, Willy Miller, Walter M. Dunk, Eastman Johnson, and Tanner’s teacher Thomas Eakins had tackled the subject in their artwork.

These images are often reduced to a minstrel-type portrayal. Tanner painted a sensitive reinterpretation. Instead of a generalization, the painting portrays a specific moment of human interaction. The two characters concentrate intently on the task before them. They seem to be oblivious to the rest of the world, which enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. The skillfully painted portraits of the individuals make it obvious that these are real people and not types.

In addition to being a meaningful exploration of human qualities, the piece is masterfully painted. Tanner undertakes the difficult endeavor of portraying two separate and varying light sources. A natural white, blue glow from outside enters from the left while the warm light from a fireplace is apparent on the right. The figures are illuminated where the two light sources meet; some have hypothesized this as a manifestation of Tanner’s situation in transition between two worlds, his American past and his newfound home in France. – Wikipedia.org

Last Monday’s Art – The Pre-Raphaelites
Next Monday’s Art – The Renaissance

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Monday Morning Museum: The Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites – Britain from 1848 to the Late-Nineteenth Century

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood". – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (see art example below), the other member of the Pre-Raphaelites are William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, William Michael Rossetti, James Colloinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner.

Helen of Troy, 1863, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Last Monday’s Art – Precisionism
Next Monday’s Art – Realism

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Monday Morning Museum: Precisionism

Precisionism – America from the 1920s to the 1930s

Precisionism was the first indigenous modern-art movement in the United States and an early American contribution to the rise of Modernism. The Precisionist style, which first emerged after World War I and was at the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." – Wkipedia.org

In addition to Preston Dickinson (see art example below), other Precisionist are Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler.

Still Life With Vase of Chinese Lanterns, by Preston Dickinson (1891-1930

Last Monday’s Art – Post-Impressionism
Next Monday’s Art – The Pre-Raphaelites

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Monday Morning Museum: Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism – France from the 1880s to 1900

"Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour." - Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henri Rousseau (see art example below), other Post-Impressionists are Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Willem van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Struggle Between Tiger and Bull, circa 1908-1909 by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)

Last Monday’s Art – Pop Art
Next Monday’s Art – Precisionism

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Monday Morning Museum: Pop Art

Pop Art – From the 1950s to 1960s

“Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.” – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Andy Warhol (see art example below), other practitioners of Pop Art are Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein.

The Birth of Venus by Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Last Monday’s Art – Pointillism
Next Monday’s Art – Post-Impressionism

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The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The “I Have A Dream” Speech

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lincoln Memorial
Washington, D. C.
Wednesday 28 August 1963




50th March on Washington image from the website local328.org

Monday Morning Museum: Pointillism

Pointillism – France in the 1880s

“Pointillism /ˈpwɛntɨlɪzəm/ is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation.” – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henri-Edmond Cross (see art example below), other Pointillists are Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Camille Pissarro

Les Iles d’Or, circa 1891-1892 by Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910)

“An exhibition of the work of Henry-Edmond Cross opened at the Druet Gallery in Paris on 21 March 1905. Emile Verhaeren, in a letter prefacing the catalogue, described the surroundings in which his friend had been living since he had joined him in the South of France: "I see the sea close by, the mountain chain of the Maures and in the distance the islands of Hyères, so beautiful that they are called the Golden Isles. […] the mountains unroll their ornamental line along the horizon and in the curve of the beaches, between the points of a succession of large capes, the fine yellow sand sparkles in the light". The poet could be describing the landscape of The Golden Isles which Cross painted in 1891-1892.

Although the subject of the canvas is indeed the islands, Cross has eliminated all picturesque elements and concentrated on the effects of light on colour. The various elements in the landscape become three large coloured bands: the sand, sea and sky.

In keeping with the Neo-impressionist technique that he had recently begun to apply, he used rounded brushstrokes of various sizes from the dabs in the foreground to the tiny dots on the horizon, adjusting the spacing to create a slight effect of perspective. The very high horizon line running across the composition is a direct reference to the Japanese art of Ukiyo-e prints.

Such a resolutely modern work could not fail to please Felix Fénéon, an ardent defender of Neo-impressionism, who bought it. The canvas was no doubt Cross' most daring work; it joined the national collections in 1947 after the first auction of the critic's collection.” – Musée d’Orsay

Last Monday’s Art – Photorealism
Next Monday’s Art – Pop Art

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