Art and the Homeless

An artist isn’t expected to write like a writer, but even painters keep a notebook. Van Damm Street to L.I.E. (a poem) Whitney electricity flat screen in every Can art compete with TV? kinematic movie without plot printouts got juice paintings dead Self-criticism is hypocritical, but refusing to exhibit for fear of criticism is more hypocritical. Can anything be that bad? Perfect Match (a poem) NYC Dept. of Buildings tenant conflicts Winter space heaters fires old neighborhoods police confidential fuse blows aspirin A work of art must look like a work of art, whether it is hung in a museum, or a resale store. Felicia's Fantasy (a poem) Celeste straddle furrow waterbed brush two girlfriends having a drink together, one drops a tablet into the other’s glass “If you love me you will drink it.” tragic commitment 

January is Maurice Utrillo month. Utrillo is usually thought of as somewhat of a naïf painter of Paris streets. What has not been remarked about Utrillo is his petit mal sensitivity, verging on depression, attributable to the leaden Paris sky. It is the best excuse I can offer why I have never visited Paris. Why go, when I have Utrillo? It's simply not necessary to travel -given the many fine reproductions available of Utrillo's brooding on the subject of Paris grey. I have long considered existential despair a neurological disorder, what psychologists call depression, a predisposition exacerbated by bad weather. Utrillo's painting is a Bromide for those who suffer from being absent from Paris. It's an instance of what Charcot might have called le trouble névrotique  -except for Utrillo's redeeming talent, which lifts the dullness of the complaint above itself. I doubt Utrillo knew how bad the weather of Paris really was, having been born, and lived his whole life...

Author Kathryn Harkup knows too much. Her book Superspy Science, subtitled "Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond" (2022) is, I fear, an invitation to copy cat crime. It's not the spy gadgets and formulas of the book's title (which was likely influenced by the Bloomsbury Sigma editors), but the fascinating cast of characters real and fictional, exposed. Now, anyone who knew Ian Fleming can be considered a “person of interest,” in law enforcement jargon. The reader is introduced to Boothroyd (Geoffrey), a notorious British "gun expert." He is a person of some importance, as (we read), he owns 45 registered firearms. That's a notable private arsenal in a country of strict gun laws. Boothroyd, apparently, is to blame for Bond losing his favorite Beretta pistol in the movie, for all the reasons given in the movie by actor "Q." Certainly most if not all of Ian Fleming's characters are based on real people. All the facts will never ...

After the failure and collapse of abstract art, Alberti's tract, On Painting, has new relevance that would have surprised Alberti. It is the intellectual foundation stone of the study of painting as a liberal art. Alberti is the world's first professor of painting. When Alberti wrote, literacy was the reigning grace of the Renaissance man's repertoire of accomplishments. Alberti was not a painter. On Painting was written as a practical guide from the point of view of philosophy, and in particular, Plato's philosophy, which was, at the time, favored by The Academy. Paying homage to Plato, Alberti cites the theory, articulated by Quintilian, that the art of painting originated with the tendency to see familiar faces in shadows and other random environment, and to fix those impressions by art. Art thus originated in the mind, the mind of man, the measure of all things. This would seem to support the assertion by abstractionists that representational art is woefully mire...