Tag Archives: Edouard Manet

Cuddly Critters

Its almost unpardonable in its sentimentality. Almost a crime to get sucked into the trite, obvious and even vulgar. But then painting is merchandise. There was a long period where hack, formula art was considered a patriotic defense of the … Continue reading

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mean memes

Not crazy about Stephen Harper. Plodding, industrial age mentality that will pay the piper if the commodities rally, if and when collapses. Though to be fair, conservatism in Canada is equivalent to Obama; the same budget busting and expansive approach … Continue reading

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hold your nose: flushing into a non-existant past

Excerpts from a brilliant article exposing the underside of what Adorno called the “cultural industries” and what Kuspit refers to as art as part of the industrial entertainment complex so drowned and subsumed by money values there is strictly form … Continue reading

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full louvre fever

While the cruelties of the French Revolution were taking place, and the young Republic was fighting for survival, the National Convention did not forget its museum. On August 10, 1793, the Grand Galerie was opened, and not only were masterpieces … Continue reading

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being one of the boys

and so it is The Demise of the Guys is one of Philip Zimbardo’s latest crusades, another repainting of his early 1970′s masterpiece  at  Stanford known as the Prison Experiment which had to be halted when “ordinary” male behavior went … Continue reading

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a little piece of heaven?

Prostrate anxiety? the thingamagig complex. Objectifying the human body as part of splitting off the corporeal from the spiritual and convicting poor Eros of demon status, branding her forever with the unfavorable P.R. she has had to endure. The short … Continue reading

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visiting the ladies

What seems real is in fact an illusion created by one’s own desire. It was a perceptive insight, one that would go onto helping define the modern age, the mediation of our lives by images, our relationship with consumerism and … Continue reading

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madame x : plantation to paris

The French were considered to have less scruples relating to eroticism than the English. Manet’s Olympia broke the mold, but, in an exhibition where paintings of nudes were common, that of Madame Gautreau in black evening dress was considered more … Continue reading

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double up indemnity

On the book accounting or off-book? The story of the German insurance company orgy for top salesmen has been around since May, but continues to generate interest, if only because the practice, in more subtle form, appears fairly widespread. Also, … Continue reading

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those furry little fellas

As we conclude 2011, the story of the lemmings can serve as a cautionary tale… Fit for a cliff. Are you a lemming? Blindly, intoxicated with the herd mentality of following the lead of the crowd over the cliff. An … Continue reading

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