Charles White; the Greatest Draftsman

                                                                                                                             

In many ways Charles White is the greatest draftsman the African/American community has produced.  White is a master of grand style. Robust, massive, detailed works that to look upon is to see into the heart of a people that have persevered for generation on faith and an unparalled inner harmony of self, god and nature. His works are intentional pieces; they are testaments to the power of dedication to the higher callings of the artist. They can sometimes be viewed as propaganda pieces but they are of propaganda of necessity and not one of exclusion or a false superiority. White; by reaching into the self and the genetic id of a people has tapped into the universality of the human spirit. In short his works speak to all nations and every human condition.

 

 

The Nineteen Forties through Seventies were White’s productive years and his style evolved and matured as his skill of craft grew. He was married for time to another luminary artist, Elizabeth Catlett. There are individual works by both artists that show a commonality of style and influences.

White was recognized on a global scale throughout his life. He was much lauded and influential as a teacher as well as a professional artist and a friend to the creative men and women of his time. His works of power, beauty and grace virtually shout to the highest of hills of joy and into the deep valleys of despair with the eloquence only the greatest of artists are able to imbue into their works.

The Social Critique and Satire of Daumier

 

                                                 

      

 Honore Daumier has been part of the “Canon” forever; it seems he was possibly born into it, an artist’s artist, his own pinnacle. Daumier was a painter, sculptor and lithographer. Most importantly he was a social satirist of the highest order. The numbers he acquired are staggering; 4,000 lithographs, 1,000 each of drawings and wood engravings, 500 paintings and 100 sculptures. An impressive feat for an artist of any era. Daumier was to be influential for generations. 

 The artist to immediately follow him, especially those to study and work in France including Lautrec, Manet, Degas and the young Picasso show his influence. The works of many American cartoonist and illustrators including Brad Holland, Jules Feiffer, Pat Oliphant, Chuck Jones and Tim Burton are testament to the Daumier wit and style. The Daumier legacy is rich, there wonderful elements to his imaginings and his technique was sound.

 

 

 

 

 

Daumier’s work can be viewed as both High and Low Art. His subjects also were high and low; the bourgeois, the working/poor classes, government leaders, and especially judges and lawyers were targets of his satire. He reported the worlds he inhabited and the art world connoisseurs and critics were not lost to his efforts, they are represented by Daumier with the same virtuosity and vigorous vanity. His lines were graceful, elegant and grand.  

 

 The works are beautiful to behold and equal to the test of time and scrutiny. He was imprisoned briefly for a scathing remorseless depiction of the king titled “Gargantua.” This incarceration failed to soften his social critiques. Daumier would continue to work and spared no one; creating brilliant things throughout his life until his eventual loss of sight.

 

 

 

 Ironically it was a year before his death that he would be recognized for his masterful and original paintings. France has given the world many greats. Daumier…decidedly, dangerously dissident!

 

 

Kathryn Bigelow: Zero Dark Thirty

Sunday afternoon January 20^th I find myself sitting, stunned in a dark movie theatre. The credits roll as the score plays for one of the most powerful films I have seen in many years. There’s a lot to digest here and I haven’t been this shaken and awed by a film since Francis Ford Coppola’s  “Apocalypse Now.” I remain motionless. “Directed by Kathryn Bigelow” flows from the darkness and reveals itself onto the screen then fades away. After a time I have to leave the theatre; this brilliant, unusual production piece, “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Bigelow has created nothing short of a masterpiece. It will be viewed and studied for years to come. It is already being dissected and analyzed. It is also already an intense controversy. This is the stuff that makes legends; makes the world think. Torture is nothing short of the most vile, hideous and least human of acts that human beings perform on each other. There is no connection to the heroic in it’s execution and Americans need to see themselves as heroes. The depiction of the torture of the detainees in a CIA Black Site is so realistic and brutal that I almost left the theatre at one point, to watch it is to somehow comply with it.  I sat through the scenes that went on for at least 20 minutes (an eternity in film time) and it is to the great credit of the film maker that she was able to bring me back into her vision. It was the scene with the monkeys that brought me back.  

“Zero Dark Thirty” is military slang for thirty minutes past midnight (Oh Dark Thirty) or an arbitrary time between midnight and dawn. It is very late night or very early morning depending on your point of view. The film too is very much left to the viewer’s perspective. This is good for events that are so critical to the national psyche and are actual events in the nation’s history. The bringing to justice of Osama Bin Laden was important and it was not pretty. There is no real glorification or “Hollywood” clichés involved. The film opens to a total black screen with archive recordings of the attack of the World Trade Center. Our imaginations and memories are already put to work. It cuts directly to the torture of an “Enemy Combatant” who strangely comes to remind me of Jesus. What follows is without a single moment of detachment for the viewer.

 

 

Bigelow’s vision of the events following Nine Eleven is impressive, provocative and to the credit of all her team of collaorators and crew. Bigelow takes her place now among the great artist/film-makers with this dedicated piece. I can only think that there are greater works still from her to come.