We’re coming at you one last time with our final #Hamildrop and it’s one for the books. Listen to “One Last Time (44 Remix)” featuring Christopher Jackson, Bebe Winans, and Barack Obama.
Invention and Design: Early Italian Drawings at the Morgan
February 15 through May 19, 2019
From the Morgan Library and Museum Website:
"The Morgan’s impressive collection of Italian Drawings documents the development of Renaissance drawing practice from its beginnings in the fourteenth century and over the following two centuries. Drawings from the earlier part of the Renaissance—by artists born before 1500—are a particular strength of the collection, but this exhibition will be the first to focus on this material, featuring works by artists such as Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Filippino Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Fra Bartolomeo, and Andrea del Sarto. The exhibition also explores the development of different and overlapping regional traditions in Tuscany, Umbria, Lombardy and Emilia, and Venice.
From the influence of medieval manuscript and painting workshops to the new practice of sketching, artists gradually moved away from imitation of standard models and to the invention of novel ways of thinking on the page and representing traditional subjects. Following shifts in artistic theory, workshop practice also began to embrace the practice of life study. As artists came to be recognized more as intellectuals than as craftsmen, a new class of collectors and connoisseurs created a market for autonomous drawings of classical subjects and other compositions. During the fifteenth century, portrait drawing also emerged as an independent genre, and artists invented new ways approaches to landscape drawing. Invention and Design: Early Italian Drawings at the Morgan explores all these developments and celebrates more than a century of innovation in drawing.
Invention and Design: Early Italian Drawings from the Morgan is made possible with generous support from the Scholz Family Charitable Trust, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, the Alex Gordon Fund for Exhibitions, and the Andrew W. Mellon Research and Publications Fund."
Giovanni Agostino da Lodi (active ca. 1467–ca. 1524), Head of a Bearded Man in Profile to the Right, ca. 1500, red chalk on paper. The Morgan Library & Museum, 1973.35:1, Gift of János Scholz. Photography by Janny Chiu, 2018.
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 685-0008
Music Break! Watch as H.E.R. (@hermusicx) stuns in her second appearance at the #TinyDesk, showcasing not only her vocal mastery but also her skills as a multi-instrumentalist. https://n.pr/2PxweQX
Cohen addresses Trump’s tweets: “Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” Michael Cohen sentenced to 36 months in prison. @realDonaldTrump 's self-described "fixer" going to the big house.
Cohen addresses Trump’s tweets: “Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” https://t.co/CME1KYaj2d
The president is now implicated in two separate criminal conspiracies. Both his lawyer, who coordinated the work on his behalf, and the third party who made payments in one of the two cases admit that the work was done to influence the election.
No jump shots. No ferns. No memes. Not this time. I’m going to give it to you straight: If you need health insurance for 2019, the deadline to get covered is December 15. Go to https://t.co/ob1Ynoesod today and pass this on — you just might save a life. pic.twitter.com/8mHMsXGY0g
If you need health insurance for 2019, the deadline to get covered is December 15. Go to http://HealthCare.gov today and pass this on — you just might save a life.
by Gregg Chadwick "The single difference between films for children and films for adults is that in films for children, there is always the option to start again, to create a new beginning. In films for adults, there are no ways to change things." -Hayao Miyazaki*
Gkids is bringing a new documentary on Hayao Miyazaki to theaters in the United States this month and I have been thinking about how inspirational Miyazaki has been to artists all over the world. Pixar animator Enrico Casarosa said, "Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little kids again." Miyazaki is careful to steer his work towards child-like wonder and away from childishness. Instead, Miyazaki's films have three main themes: 1. A distaste for heedless violence and warmongering. 2. Concern for the environment and a depiction of natural beauty as a counterweight to our increasingly industrialized world. 3. Strong, brave, and resourceful main female characters.
On the occasion of Miyazaki's film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005, AO Scott wrote that after viewing Miyazaki's films "you may find your perception of your own world refreshed, as it might be by a similarly intensive immersion in the oeuvre of Ansel Adams, J. M. W. Turner or Monet. After a while, certain vistas - a rolling meadow dappled with flowers and shadowed by high cumulus clouds, a range of rocky foothills rising toward snow-capped peaks, the fading light at the edge of a forest - deserve to be called Miyazakian."
Hayao Miyazaki at 22
(Courtesy NTV)
Hayao Miyazaki's tenacious spirit, imagination, and work-ethic allowed him to rise from entry-level animator to the co-founder of his own company. Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki in theaters Dec. 13 & 18, 2018 Tickets: http://GKIDS.com/NeverEndingMan
Hayao Miyazaki
Sketch for My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
pencil and watercolor on paper 1988
(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)
In December 2010, I was fortunate to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan where I learned much about Miyazaki and his art. Filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded their animation studio in 1985 and named it after an Italian airplane first produced before World War II: the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli. The word ghibli in Italian refers to the hot dry winds that blow across the Sahara desert.
Caproni Ca.309 "Ghibli" In North Africa during WWII
Hayao Miyazaki
Sketches for Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta)
pencil and watercolor on paper 1992
(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)
Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941 just months before Pearl Harbor and the brutal battles in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. As a small child growing up in greater Tokyo, Miyazaki drew scenes of aircraft and aviation most likely inspired by his father's family business which built airplane parts for Japanese Zero fighter planes and also in the later years of the war, by his remembrances of the waves of Allied bombers which firebombed much of Tokyo into smoldering ruins.
Still from Grave of the Fireflies ((Hotaru no Haka)) 1988
Created by Studio Ghibli. Directed by Isao Takahata.
Hayao Miyazaki
Sketch for Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta)
pencil and watercolor on paper 1992
(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)
Hayao Miyazaki
Sketch for Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)
pencil and watercolor on paper 2001
(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)
Celluloid Dreams at the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan
photo by Gregg Chadwick
*(late December 2001, from a ceremony at "Spirited Away's" first European screening during the animation festival Nouvelles images du Japon where the French government bestowed on Miyazaki the title of 'Officier des Arts et des Lettres')
In IndieWire David Ehrlich writes: "Springsteen isn’t singing about himself. He never was. On Broadway, he’s venerating his legend by dismantling his myth; he’s revealing how he became an icon in order to make us believe in myths of our own. In the grace of our hard work, and in the beauty of high school parking lots. To recognize the value of our dreams, and to appreciate the poetry of their aftertaste. At one point — without naming any names — Springsteen rails against the leaders of today, and reiterates that America is a place where tomorrow is always going to be worth fighting for. His songs might be sung in a nostalgic key, but now it’s easy to hear how the best of them point forward. Some magic tricks are even more impressive when you know how they’re done, and on Netflix you can watch this one over and over until you figure it out."
I think I'm goin' back To the things I learned so well in my youth I think I'm returning to those days When I was young enough to know the truth Now there are no games to only pass the time No more electric trains, no more trees to climb Thinking young and growing older is no sin And I can play the game of life to win
I can recall a time When I wasn't ashamed to reach out to a friend Now I think I've got a lot more than just my toys to lend Now there's more to do Than watch my sailboat glide And every day can be My magic carpet ride
A little bit of courage is all we lack So catch me if you can, I'm goin' back
� 1966 Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc. (BMI), Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc. (BMI)
Love the animated holiday cards that the Met Museum has sent out the past few years. Museums are such an important part of my life. In that spirit, I hope you will visit your local museum many times in the new year. In yesterday's Washington Post, Sebastian Smee wrote,"Here’s a holiday gift idea: Take someone you love to an art museum."
Mirka, you pose an important question. While an undergrad at UCLA, I had classes with the noted art historians Albert Boime and David Kunzel. Boime's "Social History of Modern Art" and Kunzel's study of the history of fashion have prompted me to consider the social structures that exist around an artwork. Pulling a painting out of its time and pinning it alone in a case like a rare butterfly often leads to a limited understanding of an artwork. Degas' moral failings are problematic and are important to consider in the broader understanding of the man and the artist.
The comparison between Degas and Emile Zola concerning the anti-Semitic campaign against Captain Dreyfus is revealing. Zola's powerful "J'accuse" shows that the case against Dreyfus had no merit. Many of Zola's artistic friends backed his stand with Dreyfus including Monet, Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, and Signac. But Degas, Renoir and Cézanne stood with the anti- Dreyfus crowd. Zola drew a line and severed his life long friendship with Cézanne. As Alan Chase writes in a letter to the New York Times,"Cézanne's anti-Dreyfus position did not diminish Zola's admiration for his painting. It did, however, diminish Cézanne's stature as a man and a onetime friend."
I can still appreciate the art that Degas created but I am troubled by his prejudice. Thomas Micchelli on Hyperallergic writes on Degas that,"As we belatedly come to recognize that social progress is halting at best, and it becomes harder to flatter ourselves on our own enlightenment, it also becomes harder to relegate Degas’ inhumanity to an artifact of a time when racism and bigotry were more acceptable."
Alfred Dreyfus in his room on Devil's Island in 1898, stereograph by F. Hamel collection Fritz Lachmund
The anti-Semitism in Zola and Degas' time was horrid and based on the dangerous thought that Jewish French citizens were somehow un-French. Zola helped free Dreyfus from prison but the anti-Semitism in French society remained, and as Donald Morrison notes, contributed to the discharge of more than 75,000 French citizens and refugees to Nazi death camps during WWII.
In our current Trumpian age when anti-Semitism is on the rise, the Dreyfus Affair is more than a cautionary tale from the past. Instead, it is a dire warning that the demonization of others can lead to brutal crimes against humanity.
I'll let Donald Morrison have the final word. In the Financial Times he wrote, "Therein lies the Dreyfus Affair’s true lesson. Too often these days, panicked governments are undermining citizens’ rights and freedoms in the name of battling crime or terrorism. But reading these accounts of France in a similarly anxious age reminds us that a nation once twisted itself in knots over the fate of an obscure Jewish captain – and ultimately chose justice. Thus Dreyfus, the unlikely hero, and France, the faltering beacon, have shown what is possible when people remain true to their values."
On #TransDayOfRemembrance, we look back on the underreported role transwomen played in the #Stonewall riots of 1969, predated by a little-known uprising at a San Francisco cafeteria. #TDOR
For the first time in two years, I had a deeply restful sleep last night. After watching anti-union and anti-education Scott Walker fall to Tony Evers in Wisconsin and viewing Harley Rouda's lead over Russian stooge Dana Rohrabacher in CA 48, I felt hopeful. My painting The Future Is Woke no longer felt aspirational - we did it! Retaking the House with a Blue Wave is the first step in restoring sanity in our nation. After last night's powerful rebuke to the blowhard in the White House, it is clear as Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey write in the Washington Post that Democrats found "a new voice, with a new generation of leaders emerging and a new playbook for winning." As Barack Obama put it: "Congratulations to everybody who showed up and participated in our democracy in record numbers yesterday. The change we need won’t come from one election alone – but it is a start. Last night, voters across the country started it."
Voters elected the U.S.'s first Muslim congresswomen, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota (left) Jared Polis in Colorado defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Walker Stapleton to become the first openly gay man elected governor in the U.S.(center) Sharice Davids of Kansas and Debra Haaland of New Mexico, both Democrats, are the first Native American women elected to Congress. (right) (photos by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images, Whitney Curtis AFP via NPR)
NPR reports that "record numbers of Native Americans, Muslim Americans and women, including many women of color, ran for office in 2018. A "rainbow wave" of LGBTQ candidates also sought office. And after the ballots were cast, all those groups notched notable firsts." As the father of a trans daughter, I am heartened that Massachusetts passed a transgender protection law that should inspire other states to do the same. And in Florida, Amendment 4 passed easily, restoring voting rights to 1.4 million ex-felons.
Beto O'Rourke ran a hard fought campaign and was amazingly positive in defeat. Dare I say presidential? - "We just want to say thank you to everyone who made this possible. Everyone who made us feel hopeful, everyone who inspired us. Everyone who became the most amazing campaign we could have ever hoped to belong to. Grateful that we got to do this with you. We love you. Goodnight!"
All political races are important, including local school boards and state legislatures. Yesterday, Democrats flipped "seven state legislative chambers and 333 seats, adding 6 more trifectas (gov+both chambers), per DLCC." As Alex Seitz Wald noted on twitter: "Few ever pay attention to these races, but they’re important for redistributing and waves can be leveraged for major gains."
Adding to the good news, with the Democratic take over of the House, Eddie Bernice Johnson, a congresswoman with a STEM background as a nurse is poised to wrest the House Science committee from climate change deniers. She promises to "Restore the credibility of the Science Committee as a place where science is respected and recognized."
Last night, at least 10 candidates with backgrounds in science won seats, bolstering the House’s new ranks of science advocates.
There's something special about a country that can welcome and allow a Somali refugee to reach Congress without having to shed her identity. https://t.co/3BBcfau5Vu
This is a wave. This is an historic wave. It's a wave that was built methodically by people who stood up their communities for 2 years to build it drop by drop. And I'm fucking proud of that, and I am more hopeful and excited for 2019 than I was for 2017.
