The Power of Suggestion

Leonardo da Vinci
Woman's Head Almost in Profile 

"Since the time of Pliny the Elder unfinished works were cherished because they seemed to reveal the thoughts of the artist. In the Renaissance, Leonardo honored the sketch as capturing the very instant of inspiration....Inspiration thus was valued as something even more urgent and vital than the conceptual planning of a work of art."
From Peter Sutton's catalog essay accompanying the exhibition, "Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens":

In the past few years, two exhibitions have captured my attention because of the light they shed on the process of creation. "Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman" was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during the frigid winter of 2003. The current exhibition, "Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens", at the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California continues this theme. Both da Vinci's drawings and Ruben's painted studies are exploratory, yet supremely confident. These sketches allow the viewer to enter into the work and imagine what the fully fleshed out scene would be like.  


Peter Paul Rubens
Head of a Man

"C'est parce que, dans ce travail si spontané, nous saisissons sur le vif l'acte de création. Parce que, en tout contemplant, nous semblons prendre part à cet acte, que l'étude de ce esquisses nous intéresse tant."
"Thanks to the spontaneity of this work, we grasp the living act of creation. The sketches interest us so because in their contemplation we take part in this act."
—Leo van Puyvelde
Les Esquisses de Rubens (Basel, 1940)

The informality of these studies allowed da Vinci and Rubens to depict real people with vigor and appreciation unencumbered by the masks of madonna or moor. In these works we are privileged to step back into time and glimpse the genesis of art as well as encounter faces from the past. I can't help but wonder about these encounters between artist and model. Was there a flesh and blood woman who posed for Leonardo? Or did his immense artistic vision, honed by years of drawing, conjure her out of thin air? And who was the handsome black man who posed for Rubens? The open quality of these studies encourages this mode of questioning.


Gregg Chadwick
what the world whispers
38"x38" oil on linen 2005

In my own work I am drawn to this world of nuance and suggestion. We are left with questions, mere hints about our time on earth and the thread of history and influence that links us to the past.

Goya, Napoleon and Bush

"Contemptuous of the Insults"
Goya 1816-1820
From: "A Revolutionary Age: Drawing in Europe, 1770–1820" organized by the Getty as a companion exhibition to the traveling exhibition
" Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile"

"Sometimes the most determined of invaders, equipped with strong armies and copious intelligence about its enemy can make myopic blunders that later seem close to madness"
Robert Hughes, from "Goya"- on Napoleon's invasion of Spain

Two years into our debacle in Iraq it is helpful to turn to art and history for some perspective. Napoleon invaded and occupied Spain from 1808 to 1813 prompting Goya's series of etchings, "The Disasters of War", and a related group of drawings . Currently on view in the Getty is a small, ink wash drawing from this period depicting a modish, probably anti-monarchist Spaniard (note the outfit- no pretensions to court style). He mockingly doffs his hat to two miniaturized French soldiers while expressing disdain with his right hand in response to the soldier's insults. The Getty's notes to the exhibition point out Goya's anti-Napoleonic stance as evidenced in this drawing which illumines Spanish contempt for the Napoleonic forces laying waste to their country. The Spanish people resisted the French occupation with guerilla warfare (Robert Hughes points out in his study of Goya that this is the first use of the now familiar term to describe battle by irregular forces) and eventually defeated and expelled the French forces with the help of the English army.

One of the important points to bear in mind is the initial hope found by the Spanish middle class in the French Revolution and the possibilities inherent in a democratic society based on the Enlightenment with a separation between church and state. But Napoleon destroyed this goodwill through his own egoism and brutality. Invading someone else's home rarely endears one to the local population.

While viewing this drawing I thought of our little-Napoleon and his misguided efforts to export democracy by force. His words from two years ago still ring hollow:
"Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
We will meet that threat now with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of firefighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities."
-George Bush March 19, 2003. From an address to the American people on the start of the war in Iraq. (Note the emphasis on weapons of mass murder and the not so subtle attempt to link Iraq with the September 11, 2001 attacks.)

Napoleon was kicked out but in many ways Spain was still defeated. The Spanish people continued to suffer under both a puffed up, penniless monarchy, to be followed by the brutality of Franco in the 20th Century, and a fear- driven, reactionary and provincial Spanish church. It was illegal in Spain until the 1970's to declare oneself anything but Christian. This sad coda to an earlier, misguided occupation does not bode well for the people of Iraq.


Art

Keeping Artists, Writers and Intellectuals Out

"The list of foreign writers, artists and intellectuals who, at one time or another, have been denied entry to the United States on ideological grounds is a long one. It includes English novelist Graham Greene, Italian playwright Dario Fo, and French actor Yves Montand, as well as Nobel-prize-winning authors."
-Joanne Mariner

Find Law columnist and human rights attorney Joanne Mariner analyzes the case of Dora Maria Tellez, a Nicaraguan historian and former Sandinista official who was recently denied a U.S. visa. Tellez was barred from entering the U.S. for her purported involvement in terrorist acts, but Mariner argues that the decision to bar Tellez had little to do with national security and everything to do with politics:

Playing Politics with Visas

Superior Court Judge Rules Against California Ban on Gay Marriage

Bouquet
photo by Gregg Chadwick

From Judge Richard Kramer's decision:
"The state's protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional. In 1948 California's statutory ban on interracial marriages was challenged as violating the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. Advocates of the racial ban asserted that because historically and culturally, blacks had not been permitted to marry whites, the statute was justified. This argument was rejected by the court."


Judge Kramer continues,"Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before."

Art Speaks

photo by Gregg Chadwick

"In ads, displays, altars, graphic design, fashion, magazines, signage, architecture, television, movies, web sites, on and on we’re being addressed and coddled and seduced and terrorized and we can't talk about it because we don’t have words for it. Visual "language" is a one way communication."
-David Byrne, entry from

david byrne's tour journal

I was at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles yesterday and was struck by the tortured language used in the wall labels. As soon as the text moved from historical information - artist, date, place, and provenance- the thoughts grew murky. Some of it is art historical posturing. But part of the difficulty is the lack of a contemporary vocabulary that engages visual communication as well as verbal communication. Yes, we are bombarded with visual stimulii. But the typical response from art critics such as Kenneth Baker, who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, is to declare that this visual white noise makes certain types of communication impossible for visual artists. That what we are left with is a palimpsest of earlier images. And all we can do is pick through the tattered and effaced clues to search for meaning.

Contemporary artists can and do use visual language to communicate. We have not given all of this power away to advertising agencies. At times we too, "coddle,terrorize, or seduce." But we also can create a visual field that communicates an idea such as peace or contemplation without verbal clues. This visual communication is powerful,almost shamanistic, and quite wondrous to watch.

David Byrne is correct in stating that we don't have words for visual language. But, just as importantly, we do not use our sophisticated visual sensors to receive this communication. As an audience, many of us have not developed the slow and careful process of looking deeply at art. In museums and galleries we race by, gobbling up wall label after wall label, without taking the time to stop and let the artwork speak to us.

One painting spoke more forcefully than any other, yesterday, at the Getty. A Jackson Pollock work from the late '40's, on loan from the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown L.A. hung in a room dedicated to the Impressionists. Pollock's enamel and aluminum paint glittered next to a Monet. I sat and watched as the work stopped people in their tracks. A young girl grabbed her father's arm as he took her close to the painting's surface, almost into it. They spoke quietly and looked. And after a while, the girl stepped back and gently swung her arm in ovals miming the drip of wet paint onto a canvas on a floor.


Art

Temple of the Mind- Upcoming Exhibition

gregg chadwick
temple of the mind
(for montien boonma)
60"x28" oil on linen 2005

Ordinary men hate solitude.
But the master makes use of it,
embracing his aloneness,realizing
he is one with the whole universe.
Lao-Tzu, Tao-te-Ching

I am currently gathering a group of paintings together for my next exhibition which opens on May 6th, 2005 at the
Art Rental & Sales Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
The opening reception will run from 6:30-8:30 and will be held in the Leo S. Bing Center, Lower Level at LACMA.

These new paintings are appreciations of the deep mystery of life and acknowledge the connection that exists between all existence.

The exhibition will run from May 6th through June 9th.
The gallery is open 11am - 4 pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Closed Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.
Phone: 323-857-6500



Art

Stolen Thai Crown?

An international art incident seems to be brewing this week complete with gold, royalty, theft, smuggling and muck-raking journalism. A gold crown on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of

"The Kingdom of Siam" exhibition, currently at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, appears to have been looted from a crypt in the historical city of Ayutthaya in 1957. It entered the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection in 1982. After Jom Patch, from the Thai network ITV, reported last week that the crown might have been looted in the '50's from a sacred chamber at the Buddhist temple of Wat Ratchaburana at Ayutthaya, a furor erupted in Thailand.

From Jesse Hamlin at the San Francisco Chronicle-
"I am kind of brokenhearted,'' says Forrest McGill, the museum's chief curator, a Thai art scholar who wrote his doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan on the kingdom of Ayutthaya. "A group of American and Thai scholars has been working together on this for years, produced a major scholarly catalog and an exhibition of material that has hardly ever been seen before. And we can't get the focus on that because, for now at least, the focus seems to be on this one object.''

Not to worry Forrest- the exhibition continues and the news stories on the crown will focus more attention on the exhibition than it would have received otherwise. The important thing is to use your knowledge of the Ayutthaya artifacts and the initial looting of the site to help trace the path of this one object from Thailand, to a mysterious art dealer named Klejman who acquired the piece in 1965, to Sotheby's from which the Philadelphia Museum acquired the work in 1982.

Pattaratorn Chirapravati, a California professor and co-curator of the exhibition told ITV that the crown " was probably taken out of Thailand when Wat Ratchaburana was broken into." An interesting note: Pattaratorn is related to the Thai royal family - the great-great-granddaughter of King Chulalongkorn of Thailand.

There is a precedent for the return of historical artifacts to Thailand- In 1988, the Art Institute of Chicago repatriated a 1,000-year-old stone carving of a Hindu god, which had vanished from northeastern Thailand in the 1960s and later was displayed at the museum. This theft triggered a surge of nationalist sentiment, including lyrics in a hit song by a Thai pop singer decrying the loss and the reluctance of the Art Institute to return the sculpture.

I was encouraged that in a written statement provided to the press, Philadelphia Museum of Art director Anne d'Harnoncourt took responsibility, "We take the issue of provenance very seriously and would of course be ready to explore any questions about the history of the object with the appropriate Thai officials.''

Monterey Art Museum Benefit - March 5th

Gregg Chadwick

Of Sleep and Skies

33"x20" monotype 1999

To be auctioned on Saturday, March 5th at the Monterey Museum of Art Benefit

Courtesy the Lisa Coscino Gallery & the Artist

MARCH 5

Art Lovers' Benefit. 6-10 p.m. Saturday, March 5 at the Highlands Inn, Carmel. Food, entertainment and music. A live art auction will benefit the Monterey Museum of Art's educational programs. Tickets are $125 per person. Auction artwork may be previewed and absentee bids can be placed until Feb. 28. The art is in the Buck Gallery at the Monterey Museum of Art, 559 Pacific St., Monterey. Information: 372-5477, ext. 66.

Collapse by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond's new book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" will prove to be as influential for this generation as Rachel Carson's, "Silent Spring" was to the embryonic environmental movement of the early 1960's. In "Collapse", Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations This is an important book and President Bush better be reading it right now. Unlike most books of the moment, Diamond's "Collapse" is brilliantly written and persuasively argued. Diamond takes an unstinting look at the failures of past societies - from the deforestation and eventually depopulation of Easter Island to the vanishing civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Jared argues that,"environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways." In one of the book's most chilling sections, Diamond lists the countries around the globe with the most environmental degradation -coupled with unbearable population density- and then ticks off the same as contemporary global trouble spots. Rwanda, Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan all make the list. Jared argues that change is needed to prevent the future demise of our 21st Century civilizations and that hard, political and cultural choices lay ahead. Jared teaches at UCLA and, lately, whenever I am in the student store on campus, I stop to look at the area devoted to his work and I think of this book's major question,” how can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?"

Coming Soon: Opens- May 1, 2005
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County presents "Collapse?"
this exhibition will draw on ideas from Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed".

"Collapse?" at The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

To Never Forget: Faces of the Fallen Now at Syracuse University

The exhibition "To Never Forget: Faces of the Fallen" organized by Chester Arnold at the College of Marin has now traveled to Syracuse University.


Photo by Ashley McDowell

More than 1,400 paintings of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since March 2003 line the first floor wall of Syracuse University's Shaffer Art Building.

The initial “Faces of the Fallen” originated when Chester Arnold at the College of Marin was moved by a story in The New York Times on U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Faculty and students at the college painted, drew and produced more than 1, 100 portraits of soldiers killed since the war began.

Stephen Zaima, professor of painting in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, arranged to bring the exhibit to Syracuse University. Students, faculty, staff and Syracuse community members will paint an additional 350 portraits of soldiers who have died since the exhibit began at the College of Marin in November 2004.

All of the portraits in the exhibition will eventually be given to the families of the soldiers depicted.

Hours for the exhibit are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; and weekends 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Paid parking is available in Comstock Avenue lots. For more information, contact the Studio Arts department at (315) 443-4613 or jlwinne@syr.edu

The exhibition which runs March 3-April 1 is free and open to the public.

For me, the blank grey panels placed to mark individuals whose images were unavailable remind me of Gerhard Richter's work and give the entire collection an even more poignant presence.

The Kingdom of Siam

Currently at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is the exhibition- THE KINGDOM OF SIAM: THE ART OF CENTRAL THAILAND, 1350-1800



The exhibition is the first to focus on art from Thailand’s lost kingdom of Ayutthaya, and the first exhibition of classical art from Thailand shown in the United States in more than thirty years. This exhibition is rich in spiritual and artistic inspiration.
The works are exhibited in chronological order, and according to the curators (classical Thai art authority Dr. Forrest McGill, the Asian Art Museum’s Chief Curator and Wattis Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art and M. L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Assistant Professor of Asian Art, California State University, Sacramento): three major themes are explored: the development of a distinct national culture; cosmopolitanism and the importance of trade; and art as an instrument of royal power.

On the day I visited, the galleries housing the traveling exhibition were crowded, yet hushed. Two Thai monks gazed reverently at the objects on display. The saffron color of their robes added a taste of Siam to the grey San Francisco afternoon.



More than neighboring kingdoms, including perpetual rival Burma, Ayutthaya was cosmopolitan and outward–looking. The 1600s and early 1700s were a period of great prosperity and cultural accomplishment, but in 1767 Burmese armies destroyed the capital. These conflicts were dramatized in the recent Thai blockbuster- "Suriyothai", which can be described as a sort of Thai "Gone With the Wind". The human suffering was great, and the loss of artworks and records incalculable. As one peers into the open cavity in the huge Buddha head in the lobby, its original sculpted flame crown torn off by time or battle, the costs of this warfare become clear. In our present era, with forces battling over territory and ideology in Iraq, the calm, internal gaze of the one who became awake provides hope for an alternate path.

Tastemakers and the Artist's Vision

"There is indeed a downtown POV here in NY and elsewhere that likes to guard its favors. Downtown tastemakers will quietly rave about something or someone until that music or art achieves a relative popularity- then it is denigrated as having "been better when I first saw them". A lot of alt music publications and websites share this weird snobbism, it's a way of establishing a little in-crowd."
-David Byrne, blog entry 01/30/05 from

david byrne's tour journal

at the met
photo by Gregg Chadwick

I have been discussing the idea of artist and audience recently with a diverse group of fellow artists and collectors.
David Byrne's take on downtown tastemakers seems quite apt. The importance of being the first to find a new artist and then to quickly denigrate them as their popularity grows seems to have a relation to our contemporary inundation with advertising campaigns extolling the new and the fresh, as well as our fear of aging or worst of all-irrelevance. Most artists I know, work in their studios for years guided by their own personal vision. At times our work is part of the moment or zeitgeist. At other times we are forging ahead into a dark wood, unsure of the final destination. If we are fortunate our audience makes the journey with us. Recently I had a conversation with Michael Hertzberg, who produced the comic masterpiece "Blazing Saddles" and worked with Mel Brooks on numerous other projects. As we spoke, a large photo of Mel Brooks in full Native American regalia beamed down on us. Michael expressed -"I don't think a true artist creates for an audience at all. Instead the artist works on finding their own vision. A sort of vision quest as expressed in many Native American cultures." It was a very bold statement and seemed to point out the responsibility inherent in creation and in the viewing of great art. More to follow...

Photographer Zana Briski's "Born Into Brothels" Wins Best Doc at Oscars

Tonight's Oscars shed light on many fine performances. I was especially taken with Jamie Foxx's speech during the acceptance of his best actor award and Jorge Drexler's off the cuff rendition of "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries" which won best song. The film I am most intrigued with is Zana Briski and Ross Kaufmann's "Born Into Brothels"
which won best doc.

Summary follows from A.O.Scott's review in the New York Times:
"Zana Briski, a New York photojournalist, spent several years in the red light district of Calcutta, where she ran a photography class for the children of prostitutes, encouraging them to document the squalor and the vibrant humanity that surrounded them. The seven children featured in this lovely documentary are not only Ms. Briski's subjects, but her collaborators, and it is thrilling to watch them discover their own artistic talents. This flowering is counterposed with a chronicle of Ms. Briski's efforts to get the children out of the red light district and into boarding school, a story that yields both optimisim and a recognition of just how cruel and intractable the conditions that face these children and others like them really are."

Also see: Kids With Cameras

Art that Schwarzenegger Needs to See

Vietnam Women's Memorial

In honor of the 11,500 women who served with the US forces in Vietnam. Most as nurses or connected to medical units. Dedicated in 1993 as part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall.

Schwarzenegger Fears A Nurse in Uniform

by Gregg Chadwick

The latest California actor turned governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has picked a battle that he can not win. Arnold is a cartoon warrior. His opponents up to now have been mainly celluloid villains and opinion poll watching politicos. What Arnold has found out in his rash decision to issue an emergency order rolling back nursing ratios in emergency rooms is that California's top nurses are tenacious and brilliant: "Arnold behaves like an arrogant patriarch with respect to women's occupations," said Rose Ann De Moro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "Nurses, teachers, home health workers -- it's vulgar how he's run roughshod over them. He's arrogant, and he's a bully."

The AP reports how these events started "in December, when a small group of nurses gathered at a state women's conference to protest Schwarzenegger's decision to side with hospitals and limit the state's nurse-to-patient ratio. With his wife,Maria Shriver in the audience, Schwarzenegger responded to the protesters by saying, "The special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts." The nurses union denounced his comment, and the attacks on the governor have escalated since."

"The arrogance of taking on teachers, nurses and other professions where women are underpaid, overworked and vital to society is beyond the pale," said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights."But Arnold is someone who treats women as objects, so it's natural for him to have a tendency to disregard and devalue professions that are made up of women."

Last week, critical care nurse Kelly DiGiacomo had a ticket to attend the Sacramento premiere of Governor Schwarzenegger's new film-Be Cool: Get Shorty II. While seated in the audience, in her nurses’ uniform, DiGiacomo was approached by an undercover officer who demanded to see her ticket and pulled her out of the audience. DiGiacomo was then detained in a small back room where she was interrogated for an hour by an undercover officer while other officers guarded her. She was then held for another 30 minutes before her release.

 “It’s appalling that the highest constitutional officer of our state feels a nurse’s uniform is threatening, and is unwilling to allow a working nurse to attend a public event,” said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.

“RNs have a right and a very good reason to protest the governor’s rollback of patient care protections to please his corporate healthcare donors. His attempt to suspend First Amendment rights for RNs because they advocate for patients, not for corporate interests, is deplorable,” DeMoro said. DeMoro also blasted the governor for “a disgraceful waste of public money to fund his private security detail to harass nurses.”

Arnold's emergency order, made at the request of the California Healthcare Association (the lobbying arm of the hospital industry), puts tens of thousands of Californians at risk for mortality, medical errors, and infections. The California Nurses Association has called on Arnold to:

1. Maintain the 1:4 minimum ratio in the Emergency Room at all times.
2. Implement the 1:5 ratio in Medical–Surgical Departments.

also see schwarzenegger vs. nurses:

sfindymedia.org

The California Nurses Association has suggested to call and e-mail the Governor's office: Call 916-445-2841, extension 7 during business hours and leave a message saying:"I am offended by your remarks about nurses and I oppose your attack on the safe staffing ratio law.”
E-mail the governor at governor@governor.ca.gov and cc CNA at press@calnurses.org.

Rock n' Roll Suicide

by Gregg Chadwick

Hunter S. Thompson's recent self-inflicted death brought to mind Elliott Smith's tragic suicide as well as Kurt Cobain's and Mark Rothko's from years before. We mourn their loss and as Moby says about Hunter on his blog- "the world is a lesser place without you." But our society also sneers at those who take their own lives- confusing mental illness with cowardice.

The visionary artist David Best will have none of that and his Temple of Honor constructed at the Burning Man arts festival in 2003 was created and burned as a contemporary, propitiatory offering of sorts for all those who have committed suicide. The interior of the Temple of Honor was lined with handwritten names, pictures, photos and poems for the lost. These scraps were burned with our prejudices for those whose internal struggles proved too much. We miss Hunter's ragged wit and Elliott's soulful Beatlesque music and Kurt's fiery presence and Rothko's vision. In my mind I picture all of them together like angels listening with compassion to the sorrows of the world in a chapel lined with the paintings of Mark Rothko.

david best, temple of honor aflame

burning man 2003

photo by Gregg Chadwick

the curve of a back and the desert floor

by Gregg Chadwick


I just got back from a weekend at Joshua Tree with a group of writers and actors. We talked deeeply about the process of creation. And I spoke about what inspires me. The writer Phil Cousineau would describe my processs of artistic discovery as "pulling moments" from the hustle of life. Each of these pulled moments undergoes scrutiny and at times reverie. Some become a source for new work. For me the desert landscape encouraged visual metaphors. The sweep of the huge rock formations reminded me of the curve of a woman's back- a sleek movement across a canvas perhaps. Now it is up to me to carry these thoughts into the work.

Gregg Chadwick
Silk
38"x48" oil on linen 2002 

Alexander and Jane Eliot

"Intolerance is the father of illusion and evil deeds.Tolerance is not its opposite; tolerance is neutral. The opposite of intolerance is creative imagination, sympathetically exercised in the service of ever illusive truth. The people I trust and admire take that path. Scholars, scientists, priests, and philosophers have helped guide me ... A fiery legion of artists and writers flung wide the gates and beckoned my near- sighted soul to go deeper"
-Alexander Eliot, "The Timeless Myths"


esprit d'escalier
30"x20" monotype 2005
inspired by the vision of alex and jane eliot

In Japan, individuals of extraordinary talent and vision are recognized as living national treasures as they live out their later years. The American intellectual couple Alexander and Jane Eliot should be given honorary Japanese citizenship and awarded that honor. Recently when I met with Alex and Jane in their warm Venice bungalow I was struck by their graciousness and humility. The front room is crowded with treasures gathered from their years together. And their minds are full of some of the twentieth century's most important memories.

Alex was the lead art critic for Time magazine from 1945 until 1960. His articles on the growth of American post-war art and the rise of New York as the center of the art world were unsigned per Time's policy of that era. But he was able to gather some of the most pertinent information into his volume,"Three Hundred Years of American Painting" - published in 1957. The book was a huge success and along with a Guggenheim grant enabled Alex and Jane to move to Greece to further their studies of art and myth and to raise their children in an international atmosphere away from what President Eisenhower labeled as the growing "military-industrial complex."

It pains them both to watch as the current administration stokes the fires of international conflict and evokes the painful memories of fascism. Jane is unstinting in her criticism of the Bush presidency, "I was a child in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. And I know what fascism looks like." Then her memories flood in and she points to a blackened metal circle suspended on her sculpted grotto that fills a wall in the front room. The grotto is a sort of historical-mythic manger with elements gathered from their years of travel and Jane's countless friendships with writers and artists. Jane recounts a moment from her childhood as she watched a fire set by Franco's soldiers destroy a Spanish church. She stood transfixed in its red glow. Jane watched the sculpted saints burn and then the halo above Mary fell free as her wooden body was engulfed in the flames. The glowing orange circle hit the ground and rolled across the plaza eventually landing at Jane's feet. She hurriedly grabbed the halo and hid it in her bag. As a child it seemed a sign of hope for peace. And again we need that hope.


alex eliot
from the black mountain project

The conversation turns to Alex . "Yes, I met Matisse in the south of France in his later years" Alex says. "He wasn't well and Matisse was making those vibrant paper collages while confined to his bed. Well, I was given an audience with Matisse and as I was leaving something got into my head. There was a question I needed to ask. I had made it to the top of the mountain as it were and I was not going to leave without finding out the answer. I had gone to Black Mountain to learn to be an artist and then on to the Boston School of Fine Arts but I needed to know from the master. So I turned back to Matisse and asked,"What should I do next?"
In response Matisse propped himself up on his bed and like a mantra repeated one word -"Draw, draw, draw ..."
   
In a recent review Alex set forth what can be considered his views on the visionary nature of art:
"Art is not just a matter of keen observation and craftsmanlike representation. At best, it's a visionary process. The great American philosopher William James posited that the consciousness of humanity as a whole is transmitted as "beams": "Glows of feeling," James said, "glimpses of insight, and streams of knowledge and perception float into our finite world." A true masterpiece of any art transmits transcendental "rays" in the Jamesian sense."

In his book "Sight and Insight" Alexander Eliot describes a Chinese painter who, upon completing his masterwork, paints a door in the foreground, opens that door - walks through and is never seen again. I expect Alex and Jane to find that door and to walk through together leaving their art and writings as clues for us to find our own path.

one love

Bob Marley would have turned sixty today. Marley's life was brief but his legacy has been long and widespread. His music brought the hopes and dreams of the African diaspora into homes and clubs worldwide and was influential in dispelling the notion that important music was created only in the economic powers of Western Europe and the United States. Marley's gift was to cast the music of rebellion into infectious rhythms that lifted the spirit without abandoning the reality of political struggle in an unjust world.



"In this great future, you can't forget your past."
-Bob Marley, "No Woman, No Cry"

In Kingston, Jamaica and for the first time in The Rastafarian holy land of Ethiopia crowds gathered to hear Bob Marley's songs of freedom and his hope for a united Africa. The Associated Press reported that in Ethiopia's capital- Addis Ababa -tens of thousands attended a memorial concert entitled "Africa Unite'' after one of Marley's songs. African stars paid tribute by performing at the concert, including Youssou N'dour and Baaba Maal of Senegal and Angelique Kidjo of Benin. Marley's five sons, his widow Rita and other former members of Marley's band the Wailers also performed.

In a letter published in Sunday's "Jamaica Gleaner" American reggae historian Robert Roskind wrote,"this concert is much more than entertainment and an honouring of Jamaica's best-known artiste and healer. This evening will be a call to every Jamaican individually, and to the nation as a whole, to claim their God-given destiny to teach love, forgiveness and compassion in their lives. We as individuals need to answer this call. Jamaica as a country needs to answer this call. And the world needs this example of healing through one love.''

faces of the fallen

Chester Arnold, the visionary Bay Area painter who exhibits at the Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, has inspired his students at the College of Marin to create a moving exhibition of memorial portraits of American troops killed in action in Iraq. According to the
San Francisco Chronicle
Chester Arnold encouraged his students to take on the project after the United States military death toll in Iraq reached one thousand killed in action, "Perhaps ‘Faces’ can change the political debate,” said Chester Arnold. “Instead of ‘red states vs. blue states,’ I hope that we can find common ground as we did after September 11th.”

In the College of Marin’s “To Never Forget: Faces of the Fallen” exhibit art students and faculty have painted portraits of American troops killed in Iraq – more than 1200.

From the

College of Marin's website:
“Faces” has tapped into a river of emotion in towns and communities across America, many of which have brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, neighbors and friends in Iraq. More than 100 news outlets have profiled the exhibit, including ABC-TV national news and The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and New York Newsday. Now, every day the college receives heart-felt responses from family, friends and others around the country needing a chance to remember and reflect on our losses. Some request portraits of their fallen relatives. Others ask that the exhibit tour the country, or be posted online. Visitors have come from as far away as Tennessee to see the faces of their loved ones.

January 18 through February 22, 2005
Monday - Friday
 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday
10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Art Gallery, Fine Arts Building
College of Marin
835 College Avenue
Kentfield, CA 94904

For more information about this exhibit, call 415-485-9494.
I had the pleasure to create monotypes for the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art's Monotype Marathon alongside Chester Arnold last June and now applaud his courage in tackling this war in his classes and his art.
Also see:

Arlington

Veteran's Day

Update: Now at Syracuse University, New York

David Best's Chapel of the Laborer

Update: Chapel to be torn down today- Thursday, February 3rd

Throughout the day yesterday, people came to see, photograph and touch the towering structure. Some left notes tucked in the building's walls complimenting the work.

"What a wonderful temple!!! I love everything about it. Please let it stay!!!" read a note signed "Sharon."

Some were in Spanish, such as one signed by Carlos Diaz that described the chapel as "bonito," or pretty.

by Gregg Chadwick

David Best - Chapel of the Laborer, San Rafael

photo by Alan Dep

David Best set out to build a temporary chapel for day laborers in San Rafael, California, "I wanted to break into a poor community, to build a central location where the laborers could reflect," said Best to Leslie Fulbright of the San Francisco Chronicle. "But the city has made us all illegal -- the Virgin Mary, the day laborers and me."

David Best

Temple of Honor - Burning Man 2003

photo by Gregg Chadwick

David Best is known for his massive yet elegant wood and paper structures created as temples of memory in the Nevada desert each year for the Burning Man Arts Festival. Best's creations become convergence points for reflection and prayer without the heavy handed overlay of dogma and guilt found in many organized religious spaces.

"This is where people come to buy groceries and make phone calls. It's a hub, and a place where someone can go and sit and cry about not being with family," Best said of the San Rafael space chosen for his chapel.

On Tuesday Councilman Cyr Miller stopped by in an attempt to persuade David that the city supported Best's art. Moments later, Best invited a Guatemalan immigrant to sit down inside the shrine and was promptly reprimanded - "That is not allowed," Miller said then threw up his hands and sighed saying he had no choice but to demand the removal of the chapel.

The chapel was to be part of Art Works Downtown's new exhibit- "Offerings and Sanctuaries".

From the Chronicle:"Phyllis Thelen, president of the nonprofit art association, said this is its first venture beyond the gallery walls. She said that although the city was very helpful with finding locations and getting permits, officials had no choice but to condemn Best's project after the owner complained.

"We've been back and forth all morning," Thelen said Tuesday. The owner "said her insurance company threatened to cancel her policy. It's unfortunate, especially because the manager thought she had the authority to approve it."

Call or fax the city of San Rafael and express your disapproval. David Best is a major artist and the City of San Rafael was fortunate to have him take part-
Contact information below

City of San Rafael
1400 Fifth Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901

Main Fax # (415) 459-2242
_________________________________

ELECTED OFFICIALS



MAYOR ALBERT J. BORO

First elected to Council in 11/87;
elected Mayor in 11/91;
re-elected in 11/95, 11/99 and 11/03.
(Term expires: 11/2007)
(415) 485-3074

COUNCILMEMBER GARY O. PHILLIPS

First appointed to Council in 2/95;
he was then elected to same position in 11/95;
re-elected in 11/99 and 11/03.
(Term expires: 11/2007)
(415) 485-3074


COUNCILMEMBER PAUL M. COHEN

First elected to Council in 11/91;
re-elected in 11/95, 11/99 and 11/03.
(Term expires: 11/2007)
(415) 485-3074
(415) 455-9550 (phone & fax)


VICE-MAYOR BARBARA HELLER

First elected to Council in 11/93;
re-elected in 11/97 and 11/01.
(Term expires: 11/2005)
(415) 485-3074
(415) 457-9820 (phone & fax)


COUNCILMEMBER CYR N. MILLER

First appointed to Council in 6/96;
he was then elected to same position in 11/97 and 11/01.
(Term expires: 11/2005)
(415) 485-3074
(415) 258-9519


GARY T. RAGGHIANTI, Part-time City Attorney

First appointed City Attorney in 11/84;
he was then elected to same position in 11/87.
Has been re-elected every four years.
(Term expires: 11/2007)
(415) 485-3080

Art

6o Years On

by Gregg Chadwick

Raising the Red Flag Over the Reichstag, Berlin May 2, 1945
photo by Yevgeny Khaldei

Today near the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp world leaders gathered to remember the camp's liberation in 1945 by the Red Army. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke proudly of the Soviet soldiers who gave themselves to free Auschwitz: "They switched off the ovens, they saved Krakow," Vladimir Putin said of the Soviet soldiers. But Putin also said there was still much to be ashamed of in the current situation."We unfortunately still see signs of anti-Semitism in our country."

I am reminded of the great Russian war photographer Yevgeny Khaldei. I had the honor of meeting him almost ten years ago when the end of the cold war seemed to mark an era of future peace, Yevgeny's body was starting to fail but his mind was sharp and his descriptions of the struggle against the Nazis were vivid. As a war photographer,Yevgeny adhered to the ideological confines of his superiors. It can be argued that despite the circumstances he managed to remain a true artist. "Some people think that we could do nothing at all unless we were told to do it", Yevgeny said," but the war gave one the freedom to make one's own decisions. We knew our superiors would not publish all our photographs, but we still made the pictures."

A heroic life is made up of extraordinary moments lived in the context of daily existence. Despite the horrors of Nazism and the war as well as the deprivations he suffered for being Jewish, Yevgeny was still able to see the beauty and courage hidden within the details of his experiences and offer us hope for the future. Yevgeny said," I have always tried to make photographs that will be interesting to look at today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

The recent string of anti-Semitic attacks across Europe , the widely publicized photograph of Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, wearing a Nazi uniform at a costume party earlier this month and a walkout by far-right German legislators during a minute's silence for Nazi victims on Friday, have raised concerns that the horrors of the Holocaust are being forgotten. It is my call as an artist not to forget, but instead to create art in the spirit of Yevgeny Khaldei that marks the moments of our time.

also see:art for a change: the art of liberated auschwitz

Game 6 -Red Sox, Death & the Critic

White Noise
60"x60" oil on linen 2002

Don DeLillo's first film, "Game 6", is being screened at Sundance tonight. For those in Park City this evening find your way to a ticket. DeLillo is the masterful novelist whose work includes Underworld, Mao II, The Body Artist and White Noise (which inspired my painting of the same title). The film sounds intriguing and like much of DeLillo's work the screenplay is darkly humorous.
Michael Keaton stars as a playwright and lifelong Red Sox fan who skips out on his new play's opening night, October 25, 1986, to catch Game 6 of the World Series. While a merciless, gun toting critic, played by Robert Downey Jr. views the play in disguise, Michael Keaton watches in horror as his beloved Red Sox fall to the Mets. In the original draft, discussed in an interview with Don DeLillo by Jennifer Altman in the Los Angeles Times, the playwright and the critic eventually engage in an artist's gunfight (doesn't Chris Burden come to mind?). The only victim - the critic's cat. Bowing to pressure DeLillo rescued the cat in re-writes. Don DeLillo decribes his work as the "mixing of ordinary life with an occasional cosmic meditation."

Directed by Michael Hoffman

Michael Keaton in Don DeLillo's Game 6

reading neruda

Gregg Chadwick

ciudad de la memoria

38"x38" oil on linen 2005

Private Collection, Beverly Hills

At times a work of art from years before still speaks directly to the present moment. I was reading Neruda today miles away from the coronation in D.C. This mix of Neruda's words and my most recent painting, "Ciudad de la Memoria", seemed to spark something new and important while at the same time bringing light to America's dark shadows.


"La United Fruit Co."

Cuando sonó la trompeta, estuvo
todo preparado en la tierra
y Jehová repartió el mundo
a Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, y otras entidades:
la Compañía Frutera Inc.
se reservó lo más jugoso,
la costa central de mi tierra,
la dulce cintura de América.
Bautizó de nuevo sus tierras
como "'Repúblicas Bananas",
y sobre los muertos dormidos,
sobre los héroes inquietos
que conquistaron la grandeza,
la libertad y las banderas,
estableció la ópera bufa:
enajenó los albedríos,
regaló coronas de César,
desenvainó la envidia, atrajo
la dictadura de las moscas,
moscas Trujillo, moscas Tachos,
moscas Carias, moscas Martínez,
moscas Ubico, moscas húmedas
de sangre humilde y mermelada,
moscas borrachas que zumban
sobre las tumbas populares,
moscas de circo, sabias moscas
entendidas en tiranía.

Entre las moscas sanguinarias
la Frutera desembarca,
arrasando el café y las frutas
en sus barcos que deslizaron
como bandejas el tesoro
de nuestras tierras sumergidas.

Mientras tanto, por los abismos
azucarados de los puertos,
caían indios sepultados
en el vapor de la mañana:
un cuerpo rueda, una cosa
sin nombre, un número caído
un racimo de fruta muerta
derramada en el pudridero.

- Pablo Neruda

"The United Fruit Co."

When the trumpet sounded, everything
on earth was prepared
and Jehovah distributed the world
to Coca Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors and other entities:
The Fruit Company Inc.
reserved the juiciest for itself,
the central coast of my land,
the sweet waist of America.
It re-baptized the lands
"Banana Republics"
and on the sleeping dead,
on the restless heroes
who'd conquered greatness,
liberty and flags,
it founded a comic opera:
it alienated free wills,
gave crowns of Caesar as gifts,
unsheathed jealousy, attracted
the dictatorship of the flies,
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies,
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies soppy
with humble blood and marmelade,
drunken flies that buzz
around common graves,
circus flies, learned flies
adept at tyranny.

The Company disembarks
among the blood-thirsty flies,
brim-filling their boats that slide
with the coffee and fruit treasure
of our submerged lands like trays.

Meanwhile, along the sugared up
abysms of the ports,
indians fall over, buried
in the morning mist:
a body rolls, a thing
without a name, a fallen number,
a bunch of dead fruit
spills into the pile of rot.

-Translated by Jack Hirschman from The Essential Neruda

mystery train

-gregg chadwick, buddha's hand 2004

We spoke of the tsunami in an L.A. pub last night. Over the sound system the piano intro to "Let it Be" stopped our conversation. Tentatively, yet without prompting, we sang together the first line,"When I find myself in times of trouble..." It was a brief moment but it cut through the evening. The conversation veered to John Lennon's murder and then on to the small disasters in all our lives. I looked around the room, a collection of friends celebrating life. Smiles in our eyes as the little kids at our table drew their own inner worlds. A ten year old lost in a book, i-pod buds in his ears filtering out our musical memories as he created his own. Across the room an older couple sipped wine and whispered to each other. It was as if we all were in the dining car on a train, heading for separate destinations, yet for a brief moment brought together. This random collection of faces would never be together again. Someday each one of us, like the victims of the tsunami would take our walk into the shadows. Or as Van Morrison might sing,"into the mystery." I thought of a fellow traveler, the writer Phil Cousineau and how much this evening missed him. And I realized how much art had brought us all together: words, music, painting and film. I realized how much art gives us common ground to celebrate and to mourn.

As I write this a phone is handed to me - a line to Amsterdam- just after midnight. I can hear Dutch voices and fireworks crackling across the city. The world has never seemed smaller to me both in sadness and in celebration. Happy New Year!

by the sea

By the Sea

Stretching into the distance
the sea
swallows a hundred rivers
for thousands of miles
the spray joins the waves
to the sky

-Muso Soseki (translation: W.S. Merwin)

I'm reading the poems of Muso Soseki today, a Japanese poet born in Ise in 1275, ten years after Dante. Ise is on the coast far to the west of what was then Edo and the sea has a real presence. We tend to sentimentalize the ocean now, travel is easier and at times it seems that we have harnessed the massive power of the tides, currents and waves. A sense of ease disappeared on December 26th as a massive shift of tectonic plates off of Java sent a wall of water that swallowed coastlines for thousands of miles, engulfing rich and poor: Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians.



- kenro izu, borobudur, java

Kenro Izu's palladium photograph of Java is timeless. The landscape stripped of living human presence. Java as a museum - ancient, yet yielding to the forces of wind, rain, and time. The jungle is slowly pulling these structures back into the ground, crumbling the stone into earth again. Somehow we can sense this process while viewing Izu's photo. And we can feel our own mortality. Life is short. So many mourn today in Java, Sri Lanka, India, Phuket and across the Indian Ocean. As we remember the lost and help the injured it becomes very clear that we are in this together. We stand together with the great figures of Borobudur as silent sentinels marking our own brief time.

tsunami help: links to news and relief

A foreign boy is carried by a Thai rescue worker after being evacuated from a nearby island resort off Krabi, southern Thailand.
(Roslan Rahman AFP/Getty Images)

tsunami help

chiang mai disaster relief info

sumankumar.com

bbc

how to send help

red cross disaster relief - via amazon

jeff ooi- malaysia

unicef

 

Thanks from Emily Jacir to All Who Believed

gregg

i should write an official letter of thanks for your blog because (of) the good news! ... I can't thank you enough for your efforts! We won! If it was not for people like you who wrote letters I am sure this change would not have occurred.
Thanks
Emily

The 49th Day-Hope and Readings for the New Year

"Everyone has their Vietnam. Everyone has their war. May we embark together on a pilgrimage of ending these wars and truly living peace."
-Claude Anshin Thomas, "At Hell's Gate"


gregg chadwick
the 49th day
38"x38" oil on linen 2004
collection of bill badalato

Listening to Bono and Pavarotti sing "Miss Sarajevo" as I stretch new canvases for the upcoming year. The fresh smell of new linen mixes in the room with the fragrance of a just pulled espresso. The light this morning is crisp and warm. My world seems to be at peace until a line from the song slips into my mind :"Is there a time for keeping your head down, for getting on with your day?" I can picture Sarajevo in black snow. One by one, men, women and children race across a broad street. I can hear the crack of a sniper's rifle in my mind...

That imagined gunshot haunts me. A taunting reply to my question "How does one paint peace?" I pick up Claude Anshin Thomas' new book from a stack on the studio floor - "At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey From War to Peace." I flip through the pages looking for the passage on Bosnia and instead find what I really need: "To live in the present moment and find peace in our lives, we need to be mindful in all that we do, in every action that we take... We are easily distracted by our thoughts, images of the past and the future, our dreams, our hopes, our regrets."

Claude fought in Vietnam, his youth lost as a gunner in assault helicopters, piles of spent shells gathered at his feet and piles of lives lost in the jungle below. Claude is now a Zen monk, practicing pilgrimages of peace and non-violence to war scarred spots across the globe. His message is simple yet heroic.

Claude was embraced by the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, during a meditation retreat for Vietnam veterans. It is my sincere hope for the years ahead that we will see American, Iraqi War, veterans embraced by Iraqi religious leaders in meditation retreats so the cycle of war ends for these new veterans as it has for Claude Anshin Thomas.

I wish you peace in the new year.

A Balance of Shadows

"Our task now is to mend our broken world... And what our world needs now is not belief, not certainty, but compassionate action and practically expressed respect for the sacred value of all human beings, even our enemies"
-Karen Armstrong, "The Spiral Staircase"


gregg chadwick
a balance of shadows
72"x96" oil on linen 2004

emily jacir exhibition to run w/o conditions :via kevin mullins, curator -ulrich museum, wichita state

I wish to provide you with the following official statement regarding the upcoming exhibition by Emily Jacir:

      "Wichita State University is aware of the discussion generated by the scheduled exhibition of work by artist Emily Jacir at the Ulrich Museum of Art.  The University is committed to going forward with the exhibition without conditions or limitations that could be considered to compromise the integrity of Ms. Jacir's work as an artist.  The University appreciates the widespread interest in the artist and the exhibition."

You are welcome to forward this e-mail as appropriate.

Thank you,

Elizabeth King
Vice President for University Advancement
Wichita State University

---
more detailed information can be found at:
newsgrist
from the floor
deep appreciation to newsgrist, from the floor, kevin mullins, elizabeth king, david butler and deborah gordon for helping this important exhibition proceed as planned

exile and memory

emily jacir
from "where we come from"

At times the subtext of events and images from Palestine to San Francisco to Berlin helps illumine an artwork, its inspiration and possibly its meaning. Emily Jacir's recent project "Where We Come From" is concerned with the ideas of memory and exile. As a Palestinian-American, Emily is able to travel in a comparatively free manner across and through the Palestinian-Israeli borderlands using her US passport as a sort of get out of jail free card. With this ability Emily was able to create an art project in which she asked exiled Palestinians: “If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” Many of the requests would be considered simple, almost banal, if they were not impossible for the exiles to fulfill: “Go to my mother’s grave in Jerusalem on her birthday and put flowers and pray.” “Drink the water in my parents’ village.” Emily journeyed with US passport and cameras in hand in an attempt to grant these requests and record the journey. The finished piece is a collection of memories and documentation that seems to feel much like the exiles own experience. As viewers we are priveleged to enter into Emily's process yet in the end humbled by our inability to do anything.


gregg chadwick
zoo station
38"x38" oil on linen 2004

My painting Zoo Station is also concerned with the experience of Palestinian exile and memory and seems relevant to the dialogue and controversy brewing around Emily's work. I post it as a fellow artist in a gesture of support for Emily in her struggles with Wichita State University concerning the upcoming exhibition of "Where We Come From" at the Ulrich Museum.
Zoo Station began with my observation of dual protests across Montgomery Street in the financial district of San Francisco. I was visually taken with a protester on the Palestinian side of the street who seemed to carrry the air of a figure from Daumier or even Manet's "Liberty Leading the People". A kind of quiet heroism surrounded her. Her presence entered into the painting "Zoo Station". As is often the case in my work, the setting changed as the painting developed. Over a series of months this Palestinian woman ended up in Berlin. Reading Richard Bernstein's piece
in the New York Times adds another layer to the experience of this work.

Emily Jacir Calls for Help

----- Forwarded message from emily jacir -----


Dear all,


I was slated to have a one person show at the Ulrich Museum in Wichita, Kansas in January 26th. The piece was Where We Come From which was included by Dan Cameron on the 8th Istanbul Biennale "Poetic Justice", and a small excerpt of it was also included in this years Whitney Bienniel.


This show has been planned for over a year, much to my horror two days ago I was told that the The Jewish Federation of Kansas has put pressure on the University and the Museum so that they have been granted permission to place brochures and a sign in the gallery expressing their views concerning the politics of the Middle East. Actually, the University and Museum have no idea what text is contained in the brochures and what the posters are but have given them permission nonetheless.

This is a complete infringement on my right to free speech, not to mention an insult to me as an artist. It is intolerable that I have to go through this just because of my background. I am sure no other artist would accept to work under such conditions. They are placing a huge unnecessary burden on my exhibit with the presence of the brochures which are intended to silence or censor my work. I am shocked that they would place such conditions in a the space of a museum.

On the one hand they are allowing me to speak but on another they are trying to control my work by placing brochures, thereby contextualizing and framing my work in ways I have no control over. Not only is this an infringement to free speech but it also disturbs the integrity of my work.

This also sets a bad precedent for them - the next time the University has a show that some group wants to object to they will have to put that group's sign up in the gallery.

I feel violated as an artist by their decision to put a sign in the exhibition with my pictures. This modifies my installation and the work is no longer what it was intended to be.

I think people should be able to see my work on its own terms and be able to form their own opinion. I am not against having a conversation, or organizing panels where a variety of views can be expressed if necessary.


If this group is allowed to do this then perhaps other groups should also demand that their own signs and brochures be placed in the gallery as well. How could they be refused? The Museum has now opened up my exhibition space as space for comments from one political group so why deny others?

I am very upset and people are telling me I should cancel the exhibition. I am not sure what to do....I don't want to cancel because it is not fair that the people in Wichita are unable to see my work because of this fiasco but on the other hand these terms are unacceptable....

Please help me. Does anyone have contacts with the ACLU or ideas?

Emily Jacir

The Director of the Museum is David Butler.

Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art
Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, Kansas 67260
contact: Dr. David Butler, Director
telephone: 316-978-3664, fax: 316-978-3898
e-mail: david.butler@wichita.edu

Kevin Mullins is the Curator who invited me to Wichita.
Kevin.Mullins@wichita.edu
316 978-5851

For more on Emily Jacir, her project and how to help:

"where we come from" at debs & co.
ulrich museum
newsgrist
adbusters
contemporary
the thing: look for arts intolerence, emily jacir thread in undercurrents

painting with light: alan caudillo - cinematographer

by Gregg Chadwick


alan caudillo
photo by Gregg Chadwick

the witty, important film "a day without a mexican" is now available on dvd. alan caudillo was the director of photography on the film and i recently had the chance to spend an afternoon at the norton simon museum in pasadena with alan. our conversations centered around the place of light in film and painting.

alan- " the light one finds in vermeer and other painters of the dutch school is always in my mind when i begin to plan the overall look of a film. on one level the light flooding in from a side window as one finds in vermeer or in this gabriel metsu unifies the scene. everything in the frame looks good. the shadow areas are rich and vibrant and the light is almost spiritual.
on a more technical level as the actors move through a scene, when lit in this vermeer-like light, whether they are in shadow or moving in light they are readable through the lens. there are no bad moments in this kind of light."


gabriel metsu
woman at her toilette
norton simon museum
photo by Gregg Chadwick

alan-" i continually am amazed at the light in paintings. as a painter, gregg, you have ultimate control over the light in your work. if you paint it with skill and direction the sense of light is just there. as a cinematographer i have to physically light the scene and then let the actors loose in this light filled box that i have created. "

gregg- "alan, you also are a painter. do you bring this sensibility into your work in film?"

alan- " yes, when i look at paintings i like to figure at how they were accomplished and then bring those findings into my film-work. when looking at this metsu i can imagine the light fixture outside the window illuminating the scene. all i need to do is set up the camera and let it happen."

gregg- "it is your skill behind the camera and your vision that makes it happen"

part1

Judge OKs Barnes Collection Move to Philly

vincent van gogh
postman
21"x15" oil on canvas 1889
the barnes collection

Montgomery County Judge Stanley Ott has issued a ruling today that opens the way for the Barnes Collection to move from its hard to access Lower Merion site to downtown Philadelphia. Judge Ott in his statement wrote that there was "no viable alternative" to save the foundation from financial collapse.

Albert Barnes in his will instructed that the collection never be moved. His will also limited photographic reproduction of the paintings and forbade artworks to travel on loan. For many years art scholars and artists were forced to rely on black and white photos of the work. These restrictions have been lifted at least partially in recent years.

Could this be the end of an era as the Barnes Collection moves into the 21st century? Or is this the start of something new and important for the city of Philadelphia?
More to follow...

for john lennon & dimebag darrell & theo van gogh

the world is a lesser place w/o you...

civil disobediences

Henry David Thoreau was inspired to write “Civil Disobedience” after a night in a Concord, Massachusetts jail for refusing to pay a tax in support of the Mexican-American War. A new book takes its title from this essay which also inspired Martin Luther King's, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".



"A corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?"
-Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"

Anne Waldman and Lisa Berman in

Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action (CoffeeHouse Press)


have edited an important volume that drives home the importance of the artist/activist in contemporary America. In the introduction Anne Waldman creates a vivid picture of the artist in our growing security state:

" Do we really want to expel poets from the Republic? Imagine Plato going through security at the Athens Airport, then arriving in the USA for a Modern Language Association convention. Would he be affronted? Amused? Would not the threat of censorship be worrisome? Would he appreciate the decor? If Henry David Thoreau were to travel, would he suffer humiliation and indignation? What might compare back then? Imagine your favorite radical literary heroes going through security: Lao Tze, Sappho, William Blake, Mary and Percy Shelley, Gertrude Stein, W. E. B. DuBois.
There is currently--and one feels this is not going to go away--a strange and disturbing “disjunct” or “rip” in our culture that calls for an articulate active response to the current repressive agenda where anyone who doesn’t agree with current USA administration junta policies is “unpatriotic.” It’s as if people have given over control of their “destiny”--in fact, their “imaginations”--to a hopeless gray area of defeat and despair. When I get an e-mail that “someone is investigating your background” is it just a scam or something really creepy?"

a theater of time -julie nester gallery

gregg chadwick
a theater of time
72"x56" oil on linen 2004

in park city, utah for the opening weekend of the julie nester gallery.
nice group show including "a theater of time" and also the work of kirsten stolle and marshall crossman among others.

Julie Nester Gallery opens in Park City

Park Record

Contemporary art finds a home off Main Street

By Casey R. Basden

Tucked behind Windy Ridge restaurant sits Julie Nester Gallery a former warehouse turned contemporary exhibition space that features the work of emerging Bay Area artists, among others.

The walls are crisp white, the track lighting is modern and the concrete floor is stained to perfection. The floor space is bare, but the walls tell the story of artists such as Gary Denmark, Marshall Crossman, Michael Pauker, Kirsten Stolle and Gregg Chadwick.

What was once a "mess" has turned into Park City's newest gallery off Main Street. Julie Nester, art consultant and owner of Julie Nester Gallery, says. "Before I moved I knew I was going to open a gallery here. I was just looking for the right space."

Nester, her husband and two children moved from San Francisco to Park City in April to be close to family. Once Nester found the right locale for her gallery, several weeks were spent tearing out ceilings, adding walls and installing lights.

The result: an inaugural group exhibition and reception, which took place Friday. Julie Nester Gallery is now officially open for business. Art of all shapes and sizes fills the large space with bright colors, muted colors, warm tones and cool tones. Abstract, wildlife and the human form are central to each piece.

Nester says, "I've got some really good feedback on this space and the art. When I was looking for a space I wanted an open, airy feeling. That is why I chose this warehouse space even though it's kind of out of the way I wanted a big, open space and you can't find that on Main Street. So, I'm trading the street visibility for the space."

A graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Nester studied graphic design, but soon discovered it was not her true calling. Instead, she preferred acting as an art consultant.

As a consultant, Nester works with homeowners and businesses to determine what type of art will reflect well in any given space. She takes several pieces, decides what is appropriate, and then returns with other pieces that reflect the particular style.

In addition to serving as a private art consultant, Nester was employed at both the Dolby Chadwick Gallery and the Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco.

Today, Nester works with designers to drum up additional business for the gallery. Rather than waiting for people to come to her, Nester goes to them. Reflecting on her experience, she says, "I just had more passion in selling. I liked graphic design but I never thought I would have a career with it. I have more passion for other people's art."

One such artist is Thor Archer. Nester walks across the room to a piece by the entry. Hanging is a figurative sketch by Archer made with "found objects." A fan, Nester digs through a folder looking for pictures of his work.

Coming up virtually empty handed, Nester says she would like to have some of the artist's sculptures on display in the future along with various solo shows scheduled for next summer.

"Right now, the majority of artists I know are from the Bay Area," says Nester. "I would love to have some Utah artists. I'm always looking to get new artists as long as it fits in with my theme, contemporary art. I do painting, photography, sculpture."

Realizing Julie Nester Gallery is off the beaten path and quite the jaunt from Main Street, the art consultant admits to being a little scared, but excited at the same time. With few contemporary galleries in Park City, Nester is positive about what the future has in store.

Speaking of her goals, Nester is happy to support the emerging and mid-career artists she has come to know throughout her journey as an art consultant. She is also pleased about bringing more contemporary art to Park City a town known for having a conservative taste in art.

While starting a new business venture is always nerve-racking, Nester appears to have a clear perspective about what she wants to accomplish.

She simply says, "It's a little scary, but really exciting. When I was an art consultant, I would pick up art work from the artists and from the galleries, but now I have it all here, which is nice."

Julie Nester Gallery is located at 1755 B Bonanza Blvd. in Park City. For more information about the gallery, call 649-7855.

black budgets & satellites (update)

"Tucked inside Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending is a highly classified and expensive spy program that drew exceptional criticism from leading Democrats.

In an unusually public rebuke of a secret government project, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the program was ``totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.'' He called the program ``stunningly expensive.''

Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators -- Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon -- refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities."

-from an article by ted bridis and the associated press from the new york times, 9 dec 2004

mystery spy project
and see update:
mystery spy project update


seems that the black budget for reckless military hardware and spy programs continues to grow. a round of applause for these senators with the courage to speak out against america's development of an expensive and seemingly unnecessary new satellite system.
whatever happened to the idea of the peaceful development of space? do we really need a new arms race?

tasting blue

phil cousineau's new collection of poems: "the blue museum" is out. thought i would share his cinematic poem on the burning of the library in sarajevo:

MEMORICIDE

Black snow fell over Sarajevo,
darkening the midday sky with ashes
from the million and a half books burning
in what was once the National library.
The old librarian raced through shell-pocked streets,
his face reddening from the torrid heat pouring
out of the knot of smoking ruins where
he had spent a lifetime rescuing words
from oblivion. Defying the snipers,
he stood on the steps of the smoldering building
wanting to save—something, anything—even
the single sheet of cindered paper that drifted towards him
through the singed air, still holding fire from the inferno.
He caught the paper, which glowed in his hand
like a black and white negative held up
to the red light inside a photographer’s darkroom.
He glared at what was once a page from a holy book,
an illuminated manuscript, and could not smell the skin
of his fingertips burning as he tried to read from what seemed
to be the last page of the last book on earth.
With time on fire, history incinerated,
the page flared, then vanished,
leaving blue and gold and red ash
on his cold, numb hands.
Staring into the fiery ruins, he began to wonder
how long it would be before he could start rebuilding

©Phil Cousineau — All Rights Reserved

from The Blue Museum,
published by Sisyphus Press, ©2004.