Defending the Muse: Michael Stein and Paul Georges

Paul Georges
The Studio
120”x79 1/2” oil on canvas 1965
The Whitney Museum Collection, New York
Courtesy Paul Georges Estate

Michael Stein's new novel "The Rape of the Muse" ponders the worth of art and the place of beauty in our contemporary society. Stein's re-imagining of painter Paul Georges' trial for libel in 1980 updates the events to the 21st century and fleshes out the characters with a post September 11th ennui. When Georges' trial took place in 1980, the Neo-Expressionist boom in art was just beginning. Emotional, brightly colored paintings using the figure as a theme filled galleries in New York and Europe. In that time Paul Georges’ artwork was included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum in New York, the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. But still, Georges was an outsider looking in on an art world that often considered narrative painting to be atavistic at best - reactionary at worst.

Paul Georges
The Mugging of the Muse
80”x103” oil on canvas 1972-1974
Courtesy Paul Georges Estate

Michael Stein adeptly weaves elements of Paul Georges' life into the story of his fictive painter - Harris Montrose. Montrose cares deeply about the gift and responsibility of art. This humble esteem for the muse that stokes his creative fire leads to a showdown with an artistic colleague over a limned image. Are we all fair game for artistic interpretation? Is anything really private anymore? Is the language of painting relevant to our time?

Stein brings in a young artist, already marked by the reigning critics as one to watch, who is psychologically blocked from the creative process. This young artist, Rand Taber, becomes Montrose's studio assistant. As if in a scene from Martin Scorsese's segment in the film "New York Stories", Taber learns life lessons from his mentor Montrose. In this sense, Michael Stein seems to hold up the elder painter as a pugnacious model of validity. Harris Montrose paints like his life depends on it. The muse needs to be honored. And if anyone gets in the way they should heed the warnings. The muse shall be avenged.

It is refreshing to read a work in which art is considered deeply as much more than a commodity or a means to privilege. Michael Stein’s “The Rape of the Muse” is gutsy – almost an aesthetic bar fight of a novel. It is heartening to feel Paul Georges’ passion seep into Stein’s writing. Art is not just style. At its best, art considers life and then makes something new. Michael Stein’s “The Rape of the Muse” digs into the life and work of the forceful painter Paul Georges and conjures up a story for our moment.

Highly recommended.

Michael Stein

More at:
Life and Art of Paul Georges
Michael Stein's Website

The Price of Beauty

by Gregg Chadwick

Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)
Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi)
(#58 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)
Sheet: 14 3/16" x 9 1/8" woodblock print 9th month of 1857
Brooklyn Museum
Photo Courtesy The Brooklyn Museum


Japanese fiction is a great love of mine. My taste ranges widely from the postmodern antics of Murakami, to the quiet intellectualism of Endo, to the luminous spaces of Kawabata, and to the pent up rage of Mishima. In a culture which traditionally values quietly getting along even when catastrophe strikes, fiction allows a space for readers to wail with those who hurt and lash out at those who would oppress. Japanese novels of mystery and horror provide such a space to ponder the darker recesses of humanity. Mystery writer Keigo Higashino, originally from Osaka and now resident in Tokyo, is currently one of the best selling authors in Japan. Reading "The Devotion of Suspect X" provides understanding of his popularity. Higashino's prose is both quietly poetic and noir like in its straightforwardness.

"The Devotion of Suspect X" is set in 21st century Japan and describes the plight of a single mother with a young daughter as she takes drastic action to escape an abusive, estranged husband. A brilliant math teacher who lives down the hall comes to her aid. Or does he?
From there the story takes off. Make sure you read the book until the very end.

In much Japanese writing, an evocation of place is of utmost importance. This setting creates a mood in which the characters move and interact. The first chapter of "The Devotion of Suspect X" finds us in Tokyo near the Shin-Ohashi bridge, which is memorable for its depiction by the brilliant 19th century Japanese woodcut artist, Ando Hiroshige, in "Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake" (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi) from his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. A Japanese reader, and those quite familiar with Japan, would likely find Hiroshige's memorable image, of figures huddling under straw umbrellas as they scurry across the bridge in an effort to hide from a driving. slanting rain, pop into their head. I know I did. And this image provided a rich backdrop of life under pressure from time and nature.

I enjoyed "The Devotion of Suspect X" very much and now have a new Japanese author to follow - Keigo Higashino.

More at:
Keigo Higashino
Hiroshige's "Shin-Ohashi Bridge"