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...

What a person didn't do is never as interesting as what one did. Accordingly, as Saul Alinsky warms to his topic in Rules for Radicals , the topic shifts from political theory to political fact. It should be read back-to-back, either before or after, Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground . Alinsky writes like one of Dostoevsky's political and social malcontents on the verge of taking direct action. Alinsky might have been a character in a Dostoevsky novel.  Alinsky became a household word upon the election of Barack Obama. The enthusiasm for underhanded tactics in the cause of social justice went viral. It was obvious everybody who joined the discussion had not read the book. That in itself did nothing to recommend it. Nonetheless, I mulled what was being said about it. After long deliberation it occurred to me I might be the last one in on the joke. Could Rules for Radicals be a unique example of political humor? That was the inducement I needed to finally read Rules for Rad...

This is about race. It's not, really, but if that isn't a hard-hitting opening line I don't know what is. Before I get to the matter of interest to me, I must put the race factor into perspective. It's not so much race, but discrimination on the basis of race that is a problem, and one that calls for special scrutiny of its own. I hope it becomes apparent that it is not a factor in what follows. Some white people (Caucasian, non-Hispanic) are discomfited by perceived misunderstandings about their intended meaning when expressing opinions concerning “discrimination” in matters of taste. What they mean is discretion, or discernment, in matters of taste—not racial discrimination—a blatantly unfair (and different) matter altogether.  Racial discrimination is not discretion. It is prejudice. How, then, are we to consider the creativity of a black artist—a jazz musician in this instance—without either making race central to the argument, or omitting it altogether? I say it ca...

I perceive people living in the streets, and for that matter all mad men, not as living a life of dissipation, but of having failed precipitously to have realized their full potential. They aimed too high and, failing to accurately estimate the aim, fell low, very low, of the mark. Lower than they would if they had not aimed so high in the first place. They dared ponder the unanswered questions, the unanswerable questions, such as the enigma of existence itself, the Cosmic question, First Cause, Supreme Being, and others like, bringing their own downfall. When I write 'they' I mean all deep divers (myself included). That I do not say 'we,' is due to having put into perspective the cosmic question. Never again will I be so rash as to think I might think the deepest thoughts through to absolute knowledge.  The Age of Science is notable for its mad men, for its cases of complex delusions, subjects of scientific study in their own right. What apparently drew scientific att...