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Sunday, February 12, 2017

Louise Bourgeois: Her Love of the Spider


The eminently provocative and intriguing work of Louise Bourgeois spanned two centuries. Her work; largely sculptural, often spoke to her love of the fabric/textile world. French born; she came from a family of individuals that made art and tapestries their business. The very essence of her being was tied to the creative activity of restoring and the selling of antique tapestries. It is no accident that she also connected to nature’s most prolific weaver; the spider. Her affinity for the spider was expressed over and over within her body of works. This abundantly evident throughout her life as she tireless worked through the decades. She would even acquire the nick-name “Spider-Woman.”    



The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.
                                                                                                       Louise Bourgeois



Louise Bourgeois’ father too affected her throughout her life emotionally and creatively in that he was harsh, overly critical and had multiple affairs with women. Bourgeois’ nanny was included in the number of his continuing infidelities. Louise was greatly affected and really never forgave her father. She would go on in life and replaced any misgivings with education, work and a desire for self-exanimation and curiosity. These models would encouragement and inform her for her life’s entirety. 



Once I was beset by anxiety but I pushed the fear away by studying the sky, determining when the moon would come out and where the sun would appear in the morning.
                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                        Louise Bourgeois



After marrying and moving to New York City she would continue as both teacher and student at the university level and even in public schools, Bourgeois was a force. Her salons at her home in Chelsea (Manhattan) would take on the name “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” because of her scathing and brutally honest critics that often expressed her dry, biting wit.  Friend and associate to many of her famous peers including Dekooning, Pollack and Ferdinand Léger (who informed her early on that she was a sculptor; not a painter.) She would be late acquiring wide success possibly due to gender. Her work could be construed as feminist and even surreal but she rejected all labels as she worked to express her emotions, memories and muses.



“My work deals with problems that are pre-gender...for example, jealousy is not male or female."
                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                          Louise Bourgeois



It was MoMA that would be the first museum to give Louise Bourgeois a retrospective in 1982. Other retrospectives would follow world-wide including Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage and London’s Tate Modern. Washington DC’s foremost museum of modern art The Hirshhorn would exhibit a Bourgeois retrospective in 2009. I was able to attend it several times and enjoyed passing her huge “Crouching Spider” at the museum’s entrance. The Hirshhorn retrospective was extremely inclusive boasting 120 pieces and showcased her every style and medium; plaster, bronze, marble, wood, resin, latex and found objects. Bourgeois was talented, intelligent, caring, thoughtful and beautiful in every aspect of her being. Her art is her testament to life.



It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive.

                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                            Louise Bourgeois



Sunday, January 22, 2017

Inauguration Day 2017...




Inauguration day has passed and Donald trump is in the White House. Yes; it was a sad day for the millions that voted against him/for Hillary. Protests went on around Washington DC, the rest of the country and across the free world. I do understand that Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu were pleased. Politics make for strange bedfellows and “the enemy of my enemy is my friend…”

I personally chose to dress in all black for the occasion. My fashion statement did not go unnoticed. I received a number of comments from my co-workers, friends and associates on my job. Many were amused and there were actually smiles and laughter in response to my effort.

Trump’s term as president is potentially dangerous for the United States and the world. In the midst of it all we must; as Michelle Obama said during the campaign “…they go low, we go high.” I was and am immeasurably happy to see the tremendous number of protests (world-wide) especially the peaceful ones. “Civil Disobedience” is a beautiful and necessary thing. The potential injustices and wrongs that Trump can inflict are too numerous to mention in a single blog. We have to express our disapproval of the presidency of an ignorant man elected possessing no character, hatred, bile, bigotry and unlimited personal greed.   


We will survive Donald J. Trump and there is the potential for a better world beyond the Trump years. Trump’s election is a “wake up call” indeed a call to action. Many have already heeded and righteousness will ultimately prevail.  


Sunday, January 1, 2017

JAMES VAN DER ZEE His Photographic Legacy



If there is one luminary among the greats of African-American photography (including the likes of; Gordon Parks, Carrie Mae Weems and Moneta Sleet Jr) it is James Van Der Zee that could be considered the “Father of the Form.” Van Der Zee was a major and respected force truly in all of American photography for the entirety of his professional career. He was part of and centered the Harlem Renaissance as he chronicled events and personal moments. The black & white images he captured and created are rich and rewarding. 


                                                                                                                     
         


















Van Der Zee was primarily a portrait photographer. His subjects included the wealthy and famous along with local residents of New York’s Harlem. He showcased beauty, elegance and confidence in his subjects. He also; when he deemed necessary, used dark room techniques to enhance his pieces giving an artistic and many times haunting quality to the works. Van Der Zee was dedicated and wholly committed in the best traditions that he helped invent.





































His subjects were always given his best accompanied with a sense of joy that remains evident in the work. Van Der Zee loved what he did with his life and work; it was his gift and we his beneficiaries; the recipient of those gifts. These things we treasure are the result of much work and calculation. Van Der Zee as all great artists’ made the results look easy but they come of course with the calculated effort of his eye and technical skill. Vander Zee is; the brilliant artist of “The Ages” of the eternal.