"I have always tended to take art contextually. If I have any merits as a critic, they have to do with my ability as a storyteller — and above all I wanted to tell a story." Robert Hughes in Salon, May 23, 1997
Robert Hughes in New York City - 1970's
In a 1997 piece on "60 Minutes," correspondent Steve Kroft said to Robert Hughes that he was the most powerful art critic in the world. Hughes deftly avoided the moniker and described his job as being akin to being the most important beekeeper in the world and that his influence said more about Time magazine than it did about the importance of his writing. But Robert Hughes writing is important. For many of us it was the first real taste of the transcendence and power of great art. Since I discovered the art criticism of Robert Hughes in Time magazine when I was a teenager, I have eagerly awaited each of his new works. Robert's articles, books, and documentaries helped open the worlds of art and history to me. Robert wrote clearly about art, taking pains to avoid jargon and faddish arguments. Hughes expressed that he was drawn to artworks that explored the questions: "Why am I here? And what am I doing here?" This search for philosophical and metaphysical concepts underscored much of the great art that Hughes explored in his work and shared with us.
The Critic's Eyes Robert Hughes - 2008
With great sadness I note that at the age of 74, Robert has died after suffering through a long illness. Robert Hughes will be greatly missed.
Robert Hughes on 60 Minutes in 1997
Robert Hughes in Italy - 1960's
The Mona Lisa Curse Written and Presented by Robert Hughes
Edvard Munch The Scream 23.5" x 32" pastel on board 1895
This pastel, one of four versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream, sold tonight at Sotheby's for a new world record for any work of art at auction - $119.9 million.
In blood red paint on the front of the original frame that holds this pastel version of The Scream, Munch wrote the words to his poem that inspired the image:
I was walking along the road with two friends. The Sun was setting — The Sky turned a bloody red And I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood Still, deathly tired — over the blue-black Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire My Friends walked on — I remained behind — shivering with Anxiety. I felt the great Scream in Nature.
Carol Vogel in the New York Times writes: "Munch made four versions of The Scream, three of which are now in Norwegian museums; the one that sold on Wednesday, a pastel on board from 1895, was the only one still in private hands. It was sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman and shipping heir whose father was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist."
In response to Spring for Music's Round Two query in the 2012 Great Blogger
Challenge:
We live in an aggressively visual age; images dominate the popular culture. But which art form has the most to say about contemporary culture, and why?
Tokyo Streets photo by Gregg Chadwick
The dense visual language of the Tokyo cityscape immediately came to mind when I considered Spring for Music's second query in the 2012 Great Blogger Challenge.
The visual cacophony of signs and images that line the streets of the city's shopping districts provide a visual metaphor for the images that threaten to overload us each day as we turn on our computers and televisions. But do images themselves say more than other art forms about contemporary culture? The uncertainty and ambiguity often found in our 21st century lives calls for a rich cultural exploration that images may only hint at.
When presented with an image, most people begin a process, which is often involuntary, of decoding. The mystery of the moment is often disregarded as we search for meaning as we engage in a kind of mental translation. Who or what is depicted? Should the viewer smile or cry? Would I like to possess this thing, person, moment?
Perhaps if we look through a few photographs we can get a sense of the problem at hand. The photo below is often confusing to individual viewers. What is happening here? Is it a sort of photoshopped collage? Without text or a caption it is difficult to pull meaning from the image.
Context helps in the understanding of the image. I took the photo at the Ghibli Museum outside Tokyo, where the life and work of the amazing Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki is celebrated.
It is true that we are bombarded daily by imagery. What is often missed is that this phenomenon is nothing new. For example, Lucas Cranach's copy of Hieronymous Bosch's Altarpiece with the Last Judgement provides a cornucopia of beatific and horrific imagery all at once.
Lucas Cranach
Altarpiece with the Last Judgement
(copy of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych)
c.1524
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
photo by Gregg Chadwick
A closer look at a detail of Cranach's painting presents symbolic messages that simultaneously dazzle the eye and imply a sonic landscape for the ear.
Lucas Cranach
Altarpiece with the Last Judgement (detail)
(copy of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych)
c.1524
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
photo by Gregg Chadwick
While images tend to be viewed individually or with a small group, the experience of music may be more communal. Composing is often a solitary process, but performance usually involves a give and take between musician and audience.
Image and Music in Venice, Italy photo by Gregg Chadwick
In this communal aspect, music has a lot to say about contemporary culture.
Music has the ability to move us to a communal expression of hope in the face of trouble and, for at least a moment, a rush of joy. This musical rush is akin to the shared glory that spectators feel as their team triumphs on the sporting field. The philosophers Hubert Dreyfus, from UC Berkeley, and Sean Kelly, from Harvard, speak of this Homeric feeling of wonder and gratitude in their marvelous book, All Things Shining:
'There are moments in sport - either in the playing of them or in the witnessing of them - during which something so overpowering happens that it wells up before you as a palpable presence and carries you along as on a powerful wave. At that moment there is no question of ironic distance from the event. That is the moment when the sacred shines."
Like the fans at a Giants football game, the crowd at a concert also gets swept up in a joyous, sacred expression of shared hopes and dreams that hard times cannot defeat.
U2 has used their music to reflect upon contemporary global events. Drawing on the troubles in Northern Ireland, they addressed the contemporary issues in Iran. Audiences responded.
U2 performing Sunday Bloody Sunday during their 360 degrees world tour at the Rose Bowl on October 25th, 2009.
As the song Sunday Bloody Sunday opens, U2 scrolls the lyrics from the Rumi poem Azadi. The word Azadi itself simply means Freedom. U2 supported Artists 4 Freedom by using the Rumi poem which provides the lyrics to Dj Spooky and Sussan Deyhim's track, Azadi (The New Complexity). U2's multimedia screens mash together the lyrics to Azadi along with photos of the protestors in Iran and artworks by Shirin Neshat. I too was inspired and painted Neda the day after her murder in Iran.
Bruce Springsteen's most recent album Wrecking Ball is a scathing indictment of the current state of American society. This album weaves together history, politics, and contemporary societal issues to create a powerful musical expression that challenges and then ultimately unites and ignites his audience. The powerful songs on this album have inspired me in relation to image and meaning.
Gregg Chadwick Call and Echo 24"x18" oil on linen 2011
Living Colour's version of Springsteen's American Skin (41 Shots) is a heartbreaking song that honors the senseless death of Amadou Diallo at the hands of the NYPD as he reached for his wallet in an attempt to placate a group of undercover cop's demands. More than once, because of this event, I have told my son, "If an officer stops you - Promise me, you always be polite. And that you'll never. never run away. Promise that you'll always keep your hands in sight."
The death of Trayvon Martin has obviously weighed on Bruce Springsteen and his audiences this past week in Tampa, Boston, and Philadelphia. During three consecutive shows, the band played American Skin (41 Shots) and Springsteen released the professionally shot video on his website along with the lyrics to the song. On Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Springsteen dedicated the song with the words, "This is for Trayvon."
Clearly, music creates a dynamic interaction with a live audience that speaks to and of contemporary culture in powerful and life affirming ways.
- from Empire State of Mind - recorded by Jay Z and Alicia Keys
Lyrics by Angela Hunte and Jane't "Jnay" Sewell-Ulepic
Vermeer in New York Metropolitan Museum, New York photo by Gregg Chadwick
Like Florence in the 15th century, Amsterdam in the 17th century and Paris in the 19th century - post World War II New York City seemed to embody the dreams and cultural aspirations of the age. Does New York still claim that distinction? And does it matter?
J.F. Kennedy Jr. would often say that New York City was a verb - not a noun. In that sense the city remains a global source of action and inspiration rather than a place to physically aspire to. In our floating 21st century world, communication via Skype, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr connects us almost instantaneously. Translations via Google allow us to speak across borders. And in an age of Wikileaks, international secrets are revealed to an audience of millions with the flick of a key. Family, pilgrimage and career sends many on journeys crisscrossing the globe.
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel photo courtesy Opera Chic, Milano
For me, the conductor Gustavo Dudamel perfectly embodies our new reality. By serving as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Simón BolÃvar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Dudamel's passionate music and teaching impacts three continents simultaneously.
Dudamel's artistic path seems to make the question, "Is New York the cultural capital of America?" superfluous while at the same time pointing out the inherent flaw in the question itself. Of course America refers not just to the United States but to the connected countries of North, Central and and South America.
Gregg Chadwick Brecht's Song 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011
There is no one cultural center in the Americas. But there is the city of dreams that drew Federico Garcia Lorca to study and write Poet in New York at Columbia, Diego Rivera to paint Man at the Crossroads at Rockefeller Center, Patti Smith to write and sing and fall in love and life with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea Hotel. This city of dreams is not the clean and tidy Giuliani/Bloomberg New York that suggests a Big Apple theme park but instead the New York City of cultural myth and memory.
Students and Pollock Metropolitan Museum, New York photo by Gregg Chadwick
Like Smith and Mapplethorpe, I jumpstarted my life with the inspiration of New York City. For many years, like a talisman, planted flag, or a beacon, a massive painting from my graduate exhibition at NYU hung in the front window of a brownstone on Washington Square. Over the years, each time I visited the Village, I would return to see if my painting still hung on the square. If it did, I knew a physical part of me remained in New York and that my dream still lived.
Metropolitan Museum, New York photo by Gregg Chadwick
In the past few years like Gustavo Dudamel, I've carried my cultural capital with me as I traveled, studied, created and exhibited in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and the Netherlands.
In this transient, changing, yet ever connected world, I came face to face with humanity's fragility and celebrated its tensile strength.
The pulse, blur and vibrancy of our human experience reveals vital traces of who we are in a time that is simultaneously past and present, here and there, personal and global. Through our shared cultural exploits we learn that perhaps the relevant question is not where is the capital, but instead how do I create my own?
Nemesis-Ai Weiwei: The Elusiveness of Being. By Geandy Pavon
"The concept of the project is to impose the face of the victim on buildings walls that house government offices … The light on the wall is a symbol of revelation." -Geandy Pavon
Provocative work by Cuban-American artist Geandy Pavon as he projects a billboard sized portrait of Ai Weiwei onto the Chinese consulate in New York City.
Winslow Homer The Veteran in a New Field 24 1/8" x 38 1/8" oil on canvas 1865 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Veterans Day is more than just a day off. Instead it is a time to reflect on duty, honor, service, and life. Winslow Homer's The Veteran in a New Field portrays a Union veteran of the American Civil War back at work on the farm. But the painting is not instantly celebratory. There are no angels and there is no parade. Instead a psychic weight seems to be guiding the veteran's scythe as it cuts the stand of grain, much like the volleys of shot and shell mowed down troops, on both sides of that brutal war.
There is hope though in the warm, life giving color of the wheat, a Northern crop, and the cerulean sky. All wars must eventually come to an end. Uniforms are cast off. Homer paints the ex-soldier's jacket and canteen tossed onto the newly cut field. Life does go on.
The soldier will inevitably struggle to find his place in the mundane world of civilian work. And the civilian world struggles to understand these warriors bereft of armor and weapons plopped back into society. Wounds need time and care to heal.
Art can help bridge this gap.
Stories need to be told.
Today, at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago and on HBO in the film Wartorn 1861-2010, veterans of our current wars have been given a chance to tell their stories. Please see below for more details.
On this Veterans Day I want to thank my father Robert Chadwick for his service in the United States Marine Corps, my father in law Ralph Heilemann for his service in the United States Navy, my sister-in-law Heidi Bavlnka for her service in the United States Army, my uncle Jake Desch for his service in the United States Airforce, my cousin Michael Lowther for his service in the United States Marine Corps, my friend Paul Patchem for his service in the United States Navy, and my buddy Mark Stephens for his service in the United States Navy.
Opening today at the National Veteran's Art Museum in Chicago, Illinois is the exhibit Intrusive Thoughts: An exhibition of work by Veterans of the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Global War on Terror.
"Intrusive thoughts are unwelcome involuntary thoughts, images, or unpleasant ideas that may become obsessions are upsetting or distressing, and can be difficult to manage or eliminate. Although they are commonly unseen, there are silent signs of our current occupations in our local communities, households, and memories. This show will feature work by veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror that will bring these signs from the shadows to the forefront and give these traumas a voice in the political and cultural discussion of today."
The exhibition includes artwork by Jeremy Stainthorp Berggren, Erica Slone, Combat Paper Project, Peter Sullivan, Jacob Flom, Jon Turner, Ash Kyrie, Chris Vongsawat, Leonard Shelton, Joyce Wagner, and Warrior Writers Project.
Opens Tonight, November 11, 2010 7PM Artist Talks/Presentation 5-8 PM | National Veterans Art Museum 1801 S. Indiana Ave. 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60616
Screenshot from HBO Films Documentary Wartorn 1861-2010
And tonight on HBO, the documentary Wartorn 1861-2010 The film examines what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Civil War, through two World Wars and Vietnam, and recent cases from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Using a technique often used by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, soldiers stories are told through letters and journals as well as photographs, combat footage, and interviews with veterans and family members of soldiers with PTSD. Also included are insightful conversations between James Gandolfini and top U.S. military personnel, enlisted men in Iraq, and medical experts working at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Directed By: Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent
Producers: Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill and Ellen Goosenberg Kent
Executive Producers: James Gandolfini and Sheila Nevins
Co-Producer Lori Shinseki
Co-Producer Archival Segments Caroline Waterlow
Edited by Geof Bartz A.C.E., Andrew Morreale and Jay Sterrenberg
Co-Executive Producer Alexandra Ryan
Associate Producers Trixie Flynn and Thomas Richardson
Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein
Wartorn 1861-2010 premieres on Veteran’s Day 2010 – Thursday, November 11 at 9/8c, on HBO.
"All men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." - President Thomas Jefferson
Let's Define Our Terms About the Proposed Islamic Center on Park Place
I. Is the Proposed Islamic Center at Ground Zero?
No, the new building will not be at the the former site of the World Trade Center and cannot be seen from Ground Zero.
II. What is the Proposed Plan for the Building?
The Park 51 Group has proposed a thirteen story building which will include:
1. Recreation spaces and fitness facilities (swimming pool, gym, basketball court) 2. 500-seat auditorium 3. Restaurant and Culinary School 4. Cultural amenities: Art exhibitions, Musical Performances 5. Education programs 6. Library, reading room and art studios 7. Childcare services 8. A prayer area ( On the thirteenth floor will be an Islamic prayer room which will be run be run separately from Park 51 but open to the New York Community) 9. September 11th memorial and quiet contemplation space (open to all)
Cordoba House will be a center for multifaith dialogue and engagement within Park 51's broader range of programs and activities. Cordoba House will be developing under the leadership of Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, a program manager for Park 51 in the interim stage.
III. Does the City of New York own the land that the Islamic Center will be constructed on?
No, the City of New York does not own the land. Nor does the Federal Government. This is private property and the owner purchased the vacant building when no one else could see the value. This building has remained empty since September 11th when a wheel from one of the planes came crashing through the structure. Many of the buildings nearby are vacant and the neighborhood is struggling to pull away from possible blight. Businesses that existed before September 11th have failed due to the loss of foot traffic. The Islamic Center will bring people and activity into the area and will benefit the struggling shop owners nearby.
IV. The Proposed Islamic Center is Not a Mosque?
"That it may even be called a mosque is debatable. It is designed as a multi-use complex with a space set aside for prayer -- no minarets, no muezzin calls to prayer blaring onto Park Place." -Clyde Haberman of the New York Times
Matt Sledge explains, "The 92nd Street Y, on which the Cordoba House is explicitly modeled, has a whole host of Jewish events that take place inside of it, but no one calls it a synagogue."
V. Isn't the Proposed Cordoba Center offensive to the families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001?
Many Muslims in the World Trade Center towers died during the September 11th attacks. Their relatives mourn and shed tears the same way the families of Jews, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Agnostics, and Atheists do. Some of the first responders were Muslims and perished when the Twin Towers collapsed.
VI. Just how far is the Proposed Islamic Center from Ground Zero?
"From 45 Park Place, the former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House, it's two blocks, around a corner, to get to the WTC site. Park Place doesn't lie between the construction site and any mass transit stations, so you would need to go out of your way to have it offend you." -Matt Sledge
Matt Sledge in the Huffington Post explains his video: "If you look up the walking directions you'll notice that it takes a couple of minutes to walk the distance (approximately a tenth of a mile) between the two spots. Pretty much two minutes exactly when I took the trip with a shaky video camera. Here's the clip, first sped up to 4X speed then slowed down to 1X:"
VII. Who is in favor of building the Islamic Center?
Yesterday New York City's former Mayor Ed Koch agreed with President Obama, current New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the local community board overseeing the proposed Islamic Center's construction, that New York should "protect the legitimate rights of American Muslims to build" the proposed Islamic Center.
"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." -President Barack Obama
Ed Koch writes that President Obama's "position will be remembered by later generations of Americans with the same high regard as President George Washington's letter in 1790 to the Jews of Rhode Island who built the Touro Synagogue in that state." Mayor Koch relates how Moses Seixas of the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, wrote to George Washington:
" -- a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance -- but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: -- deeming every one, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine:"
President Washington responded with these powerful words:
"... The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
Gregg Chadwick New Amsterdam 20"x16" oil on linen 2010
VIII. Is the area around the proposed Islamic Center zoned for religious centers?
Numerous religious centers and houses of worship exist in Lower Manhattan. St Peter's Church, the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York City was built in 1840. The church was damaged during the September 11, 2001 attacks. St. Paul's Chapel, at 209 Broadway, an Episcopal church, sits opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site. It is the oldest surviving church building in the city. There already is a Mosque four blocks away from ground zero. It was created long before the Twin Towers were built.
IX. Who is Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf?
"A vast common ground does exist, a point that the leader of the Cordoba Center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, evokes in his book "What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America." There is no better way to defeat the morally bankrupt ideology of al-Qaida than to seek that common ground." -Professor Parvez Ahmed
"Imam Feisal has participated at the Aspen Institute in Muslim-Christian-Jewish working groups looking at ways to promote greater religious tolerance," Walter Isaacson, head of The Aspen Institute told the Huffington Post. "He has consistently denounced radical Islam and terrorism, and promoted a moderate and tolerant Islam. Some of this work was done under the auspices of his own group, the Cordoba Initiative. I liked his book, and I participated in some of the meetings in 2004 or so. This is why I find it a shame that his good work is being undermined by this inflamed dispute. He is the type of leader we should be celebrating in America, not undermining."
Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf actively promotes peace and understanding between religions and defines what President Obama called for in his comments at the White House on Friday evening during a dinner to mark the start of Ramadan:
"A nation where the ability of peoples of different faiths to coexist peacefully and with mutual respect for one another stands in contrast to the religious conflict that persists around the globe."
X. What do New Yorkers think?
"The people who live and work here are not obsessed with 9/11. The blocks around Ground Zero are like every other hard-working neighborhood in New York, where Muslims are just another thread of the city fabric. At this point the only argument against this project is fear, specifically fear of Muslims, and that’s a bigoted, cowardly and completely indefensible position." -Daryl Lang
Blogger Daryl Lang, a New York City resident, posted this week a provocative collection of photos that depict the current neighborhood around the World Trade Center site. Businesses in the two block radius range from a strip club, to fast food joints, to an off track betting parlor.
XI. What do you think about the Proposed Islamic Center?
"If there is going to be a reformist movement in Islam, it is going to emerge from places like the proposed institute. We should be encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them. Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S. government would be funding it." -Fareed Zakaria
September 11, 2001 will not be forgotten. But as the rubble is cleared and wounds heal, life continues in Lower Manhattan. Hard working New Yorkers of all faiths and cultures try to find their own small part of the American Dream. Are we going to allow fear mongers to push the Park 51 project out of lower Manhattan? Ed Koch reminds us of an ugly moment in American history and encourages us " not to do again, albeit in different form and to a different group, what we did to Japanese-Americans during World War II when we rounded them up without cause. No Japanese-American was ever charged with treason, notwithstanding that they were placed in internment camps for the balance of the war." The Park 51 project should be built in Lower Manhattan and all Americans should celebrate our freedoms by supporting all faiths and all cultural groups. Moments such as these define the character of the United States.
"We're all about multiple points of entry, offering programming in the areas of arts and culture, education and recreation. Within that larger vision, Cordoba House will be a center for multifaith dialogue and engagement within Park51's broader range of programs and activities." -From the Cordoba House website
Stranded by the volcanic cloud over Northern Europe, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg conducts governmental business on his iPad. Is there an app for running a nation?
Excerpt from “Gotham”: film by Bill Morrison, music by Michael Gordon.
Composer Michael Gordon has an inspiring piece on art, family, home, and music in today's online New York Times:
Once, at my last piano lesson before heading off for vacation, I asked Mrs. Kutzen what her plans were for the summer. Her reply: “Michael, musicians don’t take vacations.” I filed this line away in a special part of my brain, an informal collection of “accidental music lessons.” My interpretation of Mrs. Kutzen’s words has changed through the years, like a Talmudic discourse that is argued from different points of view:
1. Musicians just don’t ever feel quite right going an extended period of time without playing their instrument.
2. Music isn’t a job that you punch in and out of. It’s an obsession, a calling and your purpose in life.
3. Musicians don’t make a lot of money and you’re not going to be able to afford a vacation anyway.
-January 25, 2010, 5:54 PM The Accidental Music Lesson By Michael Gordon for the New York Times
