Tag Archives: Henri Matisse

picasso: life as phases

Picasso was always, like a playwright, constantly “in dialogue” with his audience, ever needing the audience, sensing it and feeling it out like a lover pursuing the object of his affections. He was, in many ways, a metteur en scene, … Continue reading

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periods and public

The Picasso industry. From 1895 to 1944 alone there were a total of 6,751 works of which half were drawings.By the early 1960’s when he was still churning out pieces, there was an additional three to four thousand plus over … Continue reading

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distortion: good from far but far from good

Distortion and fragmentation are the cliches, now almost generic that has come to dominate understanding of the modern figure at a mass level. Maybe it conveys the “creative destruction” of capitalism in its natural habitat? But, do any technical explanations … Continue reading

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the all-american girl

So, you have all the attributes of conspicuous consumption and idealized femininity that is degrading to women. Barbie dolls essentially peddled on the identical marketing template as McDonald’s – I’m Loving it- and Coca Cola- Within an arm’s reach of … Continue reading

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the collector: “our Hermann”

Or so he was called by the die-hards. Hermann Goering functioned as a leading symbol of all the perversity modernity could bring to bear and a living 3-D demonstration of the power of instrumental reason over our lives. The Nuremberg … Continue reading

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new vision of visions: the inner need

What is meant by spiritual experience? Not evident in the era of post-modernism, Chris Hitchens, and the dubious pursuit of art as a spiritual experience. Still, there is a necessity to avoid standardization and leave an artistic scar so to … Continue reading

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getting no satisfaction: a hollow world going wrong

Desire and Disillusion. That technical progress with its transformational capacity could finish by alienating the individual giving rise to consumerism fueled by invidious comparison and a spirit of competition which would appropriate Darwininian contexts to establish political, social and hegemonic … Continue reading

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in the pink

When Henri Matisse painted the Pink Blouse in 1924, he was a successfully established artist living in comfort in Nice. Some twenty years earlier, at another Mediterranean seaport, he had to struggle to shape his own distinctive style. It was … Continue reading

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surreal values: spiritually adrift in the value traps

In spite of recounting at length her zealotry for “trash” and “kitsch,” which she famously claimed to prefer over serious minded films, Seligman never calls Kael to task for disingenuously backing away from her clarion call of the 1960s. “When … Continue reading

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on the back of: use and abuse?

Lucian Freud’s art could be termed anti-romantic and confrontational.And just plain creepy.  He tended to represent people as he saw them, and between what he perceived and came out on canvas we will never really understand all the processes involved. … Continue reading

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