Art and the Homeless

Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy (Revised July 24, 2026) My artistic intention has always been to serve an emotionally nutritional plate of aesthetics. As Augustus Saint-Gaudens noted, "What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art." Saint-Gaudens, an American artist of high standard who worked before Van Gogh cemented madness as an essential ingredient of the avant-garde, might have viewed Van Gogh’s condition as merely the right dash of "garlic" to elevate the dish. But while madness can be the spice of genius, there are other flavors that spoil the pot. The Gout and the Nouveau Riche My first knowledge of gout came through a friend, a businessman and bon vivant, who once confessed he always dreamed of becoming an "overnight success." At the time, he had not yet reached his goal, in his own eyes; however, eventually, his obvious success surpassed his modesty, and could no longer be denied. He deserved it. He had earned it. Surpassing wealth is a ba...

When Picasso was asked his opinion of Matisse's 1907 painting "Blue Nude," Picasso said, "If he wants to paint a woman, let him paint a woman; if he wants to make a design, let him make a design. This is between the two." Not one to offer a simple, "It's not me," Picasso took the idea and ran with it. There is a difference, Picasso argues, between art and design. Art is not design. Style should be incidental, not intentional, not “by design.” Artistic design was controversial at the time. Ironically (given the tendentious tone of Picasso's assessment of the Matisse), in the same year of 1907, Picasso would paint his "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," a more stylized painting than the "Blue Nude," by Matisse. Indulged by his dealer and close associates as a conceit of the budding master, it may well have been meant as satire, a parody of modernist developments, and wasn't shown to the public until 1914. There is far more of...

Modern art's momentum increased dramatically around the turn of the 20th Century. It's impossible to say in which year modernism in art had its turning point. It's a false dilemma. It happened. It's more useful to refer to 20th Century art as opposed to 19th Century art. In the first years of the 20th Century, the direction of Modern Art was uncertain, while the proto-modern art of the last decade of the 19th Century carried the baggage of the entire century. I would go so far as to claim the 19th Century produced no modern art. The problem is the term "modernism," and, in particular, the -ism predicate suffix. The problem of Modern Art in general is the explosion of -isms. It is almost the definition of modern art to know one -ism from another. If art is chronolog-ized by Century, or even better by decade, correspondences with other historical events can help place the work of art in meaningful context. Montmartre, for instance, for about two decades in the 1...

Art can be broadly classified as either subjective art, that is, art with a subject, or as subjective art, meaning abstract art. Bodies, scenery, objects, etc., are all subjects of art. Abstract art is subject-ive art. I like to think of the artist himself as the subject of abstract art, as his (subjective) inner state. The subject of art may be from memory or spontaneous imagination (improvised), otherwise it's drawn from object-ive, physical reference. That leaves one more category, the most obvious, when the subject of art is drawn from images -such as photos. Although it would seem the natural thing to do, painting the homeless outside, in their own environment, does not tell it like it is. The paintings of the Impressionists were vibrant with sunlight, an effect which could not be re-created in the studio, indoors. Being out-of-doors is the main problem of the homeless. The presence of another sketchy character with a wild look in the eye does nothing to help. The city street,...

The paintings by (not of) George W. Bush are as historically important as his written memoirs of his administration.  It's unfortunate that he has been taking master classes from an art teacher. He doesn't need help. He is the consummate amateur artist. The difference between the amateur, and the academically trained artist (which is not reversible), is that the amateur artist can be trained to be an academic artist, while the academically trained artist cannot, by any means, become an amateur artist.  The French have a phrase, violon d’Ingres, meaning a cultured hobby. It refers to the passion the French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres had for playing the violin. Art was his calling, not playing the violin, but every genius must be forgiven an idiosyncrasy.  Former President George W. Bush is chided for being the ultimate political insider because his father was, as he was, President of the United States. At the same time, art insiders snub his paintings for the o...