PostcarDC 1.11: Seek, no hide at the Portrait Gallery

Amazing how open Rockwell made Nixon look. So warm, unlike the reserved, cautious image we normally perceive him as.

Several images collide in my head as I waited for the plane back home:

1. Two men, youngish, one with a hockey stick, near Florida Avenue. As they walked down the empty street, my first reaction was “oh, no, he isn’t going to attack him with that hockey stick?!” Instead they stop, and one grabbed the other for a very long kiss as we watched at the light.

2. My niece’s fiance, comes home to tell her he saw a naked guy, dead and chopped up.

3. In the Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture show, there is a poignant image of a young man, now deceased, his sunken eyes still open, sitting in his deathbed. It is blown up big and grainy. My first reaction after the initial viewing was, did the deceased really want this final image of himself left for posterity? My second thought was how complacent we have become about AIDS. And for this reason one should see the show.

As I am confused over whether the image I saw, might have not been pulled, and only a copy since the artist Bronson asked the work to be pulled, please see more about AA Bronson’s “Felix, June 5, 1994” at:

http://hyperallergic.com/14915/aa-bronson-smithsonian-hide-seek/

While the above work says it all. I had read the review of Hide/Seek in ArtNews, I am still left somewhat unmoved by most images of the show. I was sorry to hear part of it, a video, was censored due to religious right wing pressure. And it was not long ago that the Corcoran did the same with Maplethorpe. Since when do we buckle to marginal religious group–like always, if they are Judeo-Christian.

But the show remained somewhat obscure and obtuse, as the two teenagers in briefs which begin the show. The opening reference to the red/pink Warhol self-portrait, again spectacle, but not special. Perhaps, I have gotten too old for young minds.

Hide/Seek was back to back with Elvis at 21. Both shows were no photos. Too bad for Elvis. Seeing it reminded you how celebrity and age drain even the most unpretentious. Nice photos, but one wonders if the shots were less memorial, and more for monetary reasons.

There was a touching tribute to Charles Schulz.

There was also two interesting presidential portraits. One was a Chuck Close version of Bill Clinton (left). The other was a “life” mask of Lincoln (right). One wonders by the pulled mouth and eye, if Lincoln might have had a Bell’s Palsy stroke.

There was the King in a full show, but only one shot of Dr. King that I can remember. This was over the King Memorial Day weekend. However, there was a small show of civil rights, near the Presidents Show. There is a lot of other work, a lot of it real nice, which has nothing to do with portraits!

My favorite being three William Johnson works. Johnson is always a pleasure to see, and these three are wonderful. The center one is actually used for a cover on a book on the Harlem Renaissance. It is funny that Jacob Lawrence teacher was actually Augusta Savage (a Florida native!), I always believed his real link was to Johnson.

Not every day you get to see three William Johnson’s in a row, so this becomes more biography than not.

Joh;nson’s Café in particular shows Johnson’s love of comics, as well as his knowledge of Matisse by changes in plane and use of pattern.

I have thought often, are some of these images “racist,” but after an age of Gollywogs, these are not exactly stereotypical. Johnson’s use of the red gloved hands and the wild white stockinged feet on the woman give kids plenty to talk about when likening work to cartoon, which was a very modern notion in his day. In my classroom I keep a copy of Three Girls, which sit under the Mona Lisa print.

There is something very Greek about Jo Davidson’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. Much different then the enigmatic version done, I think, by Lipschitz.

There is a lot to see in this museum. You should go, it is a little off the Mall, but always worth it. See my other post for this museum. As the Beatles would say, “a splendid time is guaranteed for all.”

http://thinkvisual.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/i-%E2%99%A5-dc-no-chit/

PostcarDC 1.11: Le chic très chic along M Street

It was 29 degrees on Friday night as two blondes walked along M St. with their beaus, nothing exceptional except both girls were bareshouldered, walking with their well insulated guys. “Oh,” said Jen on Sunday at Brunch at Murphy’s in Old Town, “they must have been two of my students.”

Wow! Almost missed them as they moved off into the night.

“Georgetown historically had a large African-American population, including both slaves and free blacks. Slave labor was widely used in construction of new buildings in Washington, in addition to provide labor on tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia. Slave trading in Georgetown dates back as early as 1760, when John Beattie established his business on O Street and conducted business at other locations around Wisconsin Avenue. Slave trading continued until the mid-19th century, when it was banned. Other slave markets (“pens”) were located in Georgetown, including one at McCandless’ Tavern near M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Congress abolished slavery in Washington and Georgetown on April 16, 1862. Many African Americans moved to Georgetown following the Civil War, establishing a thriving community. . .

Georgetown is now one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Washington and home to many of the city’s politicians and lobbyists.”

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_%28Washington,_D.C.%29

In the vicinity of Wisconsin.  The beautiful old Riggs bank (covered by the banner and PNC) has had certain notoriety (above, left).

 

While I love the museum scene in DC, a night out on pretentious M Street NW gives you a laugh. Janene and I ate at Harmony Cafe, which is a nice place, with good service. So coming out, I wanted to peek at what was going on.

In New York, they just have angst, but in DC, even the mannequins are communicating (below).

The Levis (below) should be hawked by Obama as “green” jeans.

 

 

What could be more “green” than green plastic?

 

This was my happiest shot. The lady was so much fun and full of purpose along M Street. She treated me as a typical idiot, instead of a tourist one.

 

A New Year: Après moi, le deluge. Wtf?

To add to the pure fun of this year, I am getting an intern.

Thanks goodness for wonderful students, and parents who really are nice, or back there, at worst!

The saddest part is nothing on Dr. King this year. Black history month faded completely two years ago, and this year nothing about Dr. King. Our school has about 40% African American population, including Principal, one Assistant Principal and many teachers and staff. I was quite surprised and hope people don’t regard it as a day off for shopping. I was curious that even in Washington DC, it was almost not even mentioned as I perceived it.

My kids are doing great with projects, I only wish I had more time for them. We are doing color scales, value scales, value painting, just finished playdough making and clay for Kindergarten. Began the Magic Fish project with my wonderful first graders.  Next week grading.

Henri Matisse La Négresse, 1952, paper collage

Saw the Matisse collages at the National Gallery. Perfect timing to post work done by third grade that I have held!

A New Year: –d’y'think?

“And when the sun goes down
It gets brighter in my heart somehow“

- Morrison, Shoniwa and Smith

 

“Dear Vevo: Let me start by saying get your fat corporate s-es off youtube! Ever since these big companies started paying off youtube so they could post their   videos  we  can’t post ours. We are flagged for infringement every time we include  a song we like in our videos. This is YOUtube, the place where  we can post OUR videos. If we wanted to listen to music from you we’d go to your website. For people who want greedy, corporates gone, thumbs up and copy this on Vevo vids”

“On the 10th of Jaunary 2011 a worldwide boycott of youtube will take place. Which means for one whole day no-one will visit youtube. We want VEVO (and other companies) and their f*cking ads OUT. Do your part sharing this comment on as many videos as possible and give this one a thumbs up”

And you never saw such a comments on youtube these days! Above this photo are two comments posted on youtube, which will prove to be a contentious fight between corporate ventures like VEVO* and the young who want a free internet over this decade. It is a fight over copyright and commerce.

Thirty years ago, in the awful Reagan years, came something quite wonderful. We had lost independent radio stations which really gave way to independent bands and a movement away from white male oriented album music. But here was this thing called Mtv. It was visually interesting and new. Aside from being videoized music, it was fun and in that same vein that independent radio was. In its original format, it did not last the decade, but became a commercial BS thing. Although the long term effects of Mtv gave way to young people today on the internet.

The world is changing and the property laws developed from English Law and the American 19th century MUST be re-evaluated. The world has changed, and Corporate Amerika (which is really global) needs to get a little more hip. They may have the American market, but there is a whole world of young, hip kids who aren’t going to put up with their “stuff” anymore. By the way, for those flagwavers, complexity of property laws in the United States got a big impetus because of concern of property rights over human beings (i.e.-slavery).

The first blog I ever wrote here, Review, was this subject:

http://thinkvisual.wordpress.com/category/copyright-infringement/

* “Vevo, stylized as VEVO, is a music video website. It is a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media^“

–quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vevo

Quoting Nelly, “oh why do i live this way, must be the money.”

zzzzzzz

And on the home front, a great week in school! The kids came back as plugged in, as I was and ready for work. Just productive and wonderful! There was one short crappy meeting. We have more kids coming, which makes our numbers higher, and class sizes going over the legal limit! We have two new teachers, but no one knows who their classes are! Only two sour notes:

1. I got blackballed into taking an intern, something which just adds general BS to this year. I have to take a class to “supervise” ?!! [for crissakes, do I need more schooling? I have an Ed.D!)

2. Another art teacher told me, that he has about 4 kids sitting in his room sometimes. They are using Special Area (Art, Music and PE) to remediate kids for FCAT. I think this is illegal. It also is unethical. But this is the end result of stuff like Race to the Top.

(Another note on the photo above: when I go by the South of the Border ads, I think of Dr. Martha Lue Stewart. I wonder how we would categorize these ads? Are they stereotypical or just plain dumb?)

 

Postcards along 1-95: Museum-at-large

Some people approach their world as a series of films, or one streaming film. Another approach life may be as a series of postcards: some intriguing, some trite. Certain museums might hang and frame some of these postcards. PS1 and the Hirshhorn might make C-prints out of them (left). The National Gallery DC and the MoMA would make them b/w prints (right).

llllll

Four days on the road, and passing from state to state, is always a trip. Crossing the border, each one in these four states has a different kind of greeting (immediately four below). Florida used to be a big sign, now is almost nonexistent, as is North Carolina. Georgia is big and bold with its peach. The funniest state is South Carolina for passing over the I-95 border is memorable for  South of the Border, which is a motel in existence for about 50 years, and eats up all of the town it is in. The state sign for South Carolina as you pass from North Carolina, I don’t recall. Yet leaving the state into Georgia, has the charming marker “Thank You for Visiting South Carolina (below).” –Unlike the usual, “thank you for visiting, now get out!”

Some places remind me of Sheeler or Sisley (right, left above). These postcards become commonplace and forgettable. Many things along I-95 have have that goofiness so common to our country. I love road signs in Florence, SC especially TV Road and Honda Way which reflect the Romantici$m of the 20th century. Particularly goofy are billboards which become more memorable postcards.

Fifty years ago Lady Bird Johnson set out on a campaign to beautify America by doing away with landscapes overpowered with billboards, etc. JR’s, South of the Border and dozens of “adult” hangouts would have none of that liberal drivel. I wonder what Lady Bird would have thought of the aesthetic feel of South of the Border?