Art Institue of Chicago – Modern Art

Today my topic is works of modern art from the Art Institute of Chicago which I last visited in April 2013. I have taken all the photographs.

The following posts are relevant to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Head of a Woman

Woman in a Tub

Jackson Pollock, The Key, 1946. Oil on linen.
Robert Rauschenberg, Short Circuit, 1955, Oil, fabric, notebook paper, postcard, printed reproductions, concert program, and autograph on canvas, wood supports, and cabinets with paintings by Susan Weil and Elaine Sturtevant. View 1
Robert Rauschenberg, Short Circuit – View 2
Robert Rauschenberg, Short Circuit – View 3
Robert Rauschenberg, Short Circuit – View 4
Robert Rauschenberg, Short Circuit – View 5
Jean Dubuffet, Genuflection of the Bishop, 1963. Oil on canvas
Jean Dubuffet, Two nude women, 1942. Gouache, possibly casein, on panel
Davod Hockney, American Collectors, 1968. Acrylic on canvas

Gerhard Richter, Mouth, 1963. Oil on canvas
Alex Katz, Vincent and Tony, 1969. Oil on Canvas
Andy Warhol, Mao, 1972. Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and pencil on linen
Willem de Kooning, Head 3, 1973. Bronze. View 1
Willem de Kooning, Head 3, 1973. Bronze. View 2
Willem de Kooning, Head 3, 1973. Bronze. View 3
Willem de Kooning, Untitled IX, 1975. Oil on linen
Rachel Harrison, Pablo Escobar, 2010. Wood, polystyrene, cement, acrylic, and ceramic peppers
Rachel Harrison, Pablo Escobar, 2010. Wood, polystyrene, cement, acrylic, and ceramic peppers – Detail
John Chamberlain, Toy, 1961. Steel, paint and plastic – View 1
John Chamberlain, Toy, 1961. Steel, paint and plastic – View 2
John Chamberlain, Toy, 1961. Steel, paint and plastic – View 3
Jeff Koons, Woman in a Tub, 1988. Porcelain – View 1
Jeff Koons, Woman in a Tub, 1988. Porcelain – View 2
Jeff Koons, Woman in a Tub, 1988. Porcelain – View 3

RIP George Floyd – My Minneapolis 1980 -1982

When I first read the news about the murder by Minneapolis Policemen of George Floyd, an African American, I could not believe it. The city I knew was peaceful, democratic, sensitive to the needs of citizens. What follows are reminiscences from my student years in Minneapolis.

I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Campus, and spent there two years, from 1980 to 1982.

My flat was on University Avenue SE, number 717.

Every morning I would walk to the campus, crossing the 10th Avenue Bridge, where taking into account the windchill factor, I have experienced temperatures well below 0 degress Fahrenheit.

During the two years of my stay in Minneapolis, I have never experienced any violent incident. The worst experience of almost violence was wen I was stopped at 10 in the middle of the night on the 10th Avenue Bridge, while driving my car, and was told that I was 2 miles over the limit of 40 miles per hour.

The policeman treated me as if I was some sort of a Mafia man.

Other than that, when it comes to friends’ experiences, the worst incident was the rape of the girlfriend of a colleague. They had a flat near the American Indian neighborhood, which had a very high rate of unemployment.

Both my colleague and his girlfriend, in spite of this awful incident, remained calm and did not press any charges.

The University of Minnesota is a state university and as such it had at the time policies regarding admission of Vietnam veterans.

To make a living, I was working as a Teaching Assistant (TA). One Semester I was helping Professor Lindgren in Statistics 101. One of the students enrolled in the course was a veteran and he had absolutely no clue about statistics. I felt it was my duty to give him extra help, and so I spent a lot of time tutoring him. It all ended well, and he eventually passed the course. When the course was over, summer had come, and my student invited me to go fishing with his friends in one of the lakes.

Minnesota is called the “10,000 lakes state” and this is for a good reason. There are lakes everywhere you turn. So I went fishing in a very hot and humid day, drank a lot of beer, and was the proud witness of my student fishing many walleyes,the most common local lake fish. Not in my taste though, it tasted like mud!

In another semester, I was the Teaching Assistant (TA) to Professor Ted Hoffmann, who was teaching the MBA Operations Management course.

The students in this course were mostly managers in the local industrial firms, like 3M and Honeywell. What an experience! I enjoyed it immensely, and will always remember Professor Hoffmann, who was incredibly supportive and an excellent teacher. One of the key lessons I learned being the TA in the MBA Course was that more than half of the effort to solve a problem should be spent trying to define it. The MBA students were good managers, but still they had to train themselves to properly define a problem prior to jumping in, with all guns blazing, trying to solve it.

One of my “students” in the MB Acourse was Virginia, who I knew from another friend, Theresa. Virginia is an accountant who became a top level executive in the famous Mayo Clinic. Theresa became a Professor in Child Psychology somewhere in the West Coast.  We have lost touch, but in Minneapolis we were very close. As a matter of fact, I think that Thereza was the person who most appreciated my sense of humor. I confess I was very attracted to her, but at the time I was in a relationship with another woman, and somehow tied to the old school of monogamy.

This whole edifice came tumbling down one afternoon, when my girlfriend X came back home (we were living together) and told me that she had made love with a friend of hers. Thats life, I guess.

At least I did not have to suffer the experience of socializing with the new lover of X, something that happened to another friend who for a time was socializing with the lover of his wife, in spite of the fact that it was public knowledge that there was a new boy in the block.

I remember the Carlton School of Management faculty like a family, especially Roger Schroeder, who was the head of Operations Management at the time.

Life had its wildcards as well.

One of my Greek friends, who at the time was getting a PhD. in  Engineering came to me one day and said that there was a Research Assistant opening in a project that was studying the way that experts solve physics problems. The project was headed by Professor Paul Johnson in Medical Scool and funded by the National Science Foundation. So I went for an interview and the next day I was on the team.  Great fun, and a most welcome additional source of income.

My girlfriend X had a couple of Catholic friends of Irish descent. Tim and Susan. Tim was a student in Medical School. We were very close, and spent the summer of 1981 touring the Peloponnese. I hope they are well.

When I faced some serious money problems, I looked around campus and got a job in the University Archives Department. I was thrown in a room with stacks of files on the floor and was asked to archive them by name.

I visited Minneapolis again in April 1986, but it was a quick business trip and did not get to enjoy it very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Culture of Hatred and President Trump

On Saturday 27th October 2018, Mr. Robert Bowers, a Pittsburgh Pennsylvania resident, walked into a synagogue in his hometown and killed 11 people. Six people were injured. Mr. Bowers was subsequently arrested at the scene.

This is not only a crime against the Jews. It is also a crime of Hatred, and in essence a crime against our humanity. Our belief that people can live together and coexist peacefully, regardless of race, religion, and gender.

hackers-nazi-printer-daily-stormer-weev-hacking-printers
Neo-Nazi flyers were discovered in Internet-connected printers in colleges across the U.S [1]
What is horrifying me is that an incident like this may happen again.

It may happen again because of the aggressive doctrine of American white superiority promulgated by President Trump. For example, white Americans deserve the best, and some people have taken away their jobs. These people may be Mexicans emigrating to the USA for a better future, workes in a factory in a foreign country producing goods cheaper than their American competitors are, and so on. All the talk about the “free markets” goes out of the window and doctrine becomes protectionist.

SF_cartoon
A racist “political cartoon” poster by George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company refers to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act while promoting its “George Dee Magic Washer,” which its manufacturers clearly hoped would displace Chinese laundry operators. [2]
 

But the story does not end there. If you open the door to the winds of “difference”, there is no way you can stop them. In the everyday world of a white American, the imposition of import tariffs and other measures that implement protectionism are meaningless abstractions. But the Mexican neighbor is concrete and specific enough. And once you get started, if you do not have a Mexican neighbor, you may do with a Jewish one, they are also different, they are both ‘enemies’.

Thus the everyday world of the white American becomes infected by hatred and the desire of ‘revenge’ for all things lost, regardless of what will happen in the future. To balance the books, they will do whatever it takes. There are no limits, no restrictions.

poster_queens
White supremacist, anti-immigrant posters pop up in Queens [3]
This is the heart of the problem. That there are no rules in the war that President Trump has declared on the “different” people. The USA has become a country where hatred reins. And where people have guns to kill as they please. Combine the two and you have a nightmare scenario unfolding.

[1] HACKER HIJACKS THOUSANDS OF PRINTERS TO DISSEMINATE NAZI PROPAGANDA. Newsweek.

[2] When SF led nation in anti-immigrant hateWhen SF led nation in anti-immigrant hate. SF Gate.

[3] White supremacist, anti-immigrant posters pop up in Queens (Thinkprogress). Politically Brewed.

 

 

 

 

 

An out of date military dogma urgently needs change

The military dogma of the USA that Turkey is a strategic ally must change. It has outgrown its utility and is now becoming a liability.
The only reason that might preserve the dogma is military expenditure. But this is not a good enough reason in today’s world.
With Putin strongly in charge of a Russia that is never going to settle for less than equal when it comes to world power, the USA must now admit that their foreign and military policies have grown out of date.
Turkey can never play the role of a buffer between Russia and the Middle East. It has become the opposite. Russia is the main factor of instability as they fuel the conflict in the Middle East and use it to increase their sphere of influence.
This is the strategic game that the USA lost so far.
Putin embraced the Syrian regime and gave them the assurance they needed in order to survive ISIS and the other rebel forces.
Now Putin is there to stay and create more problems for the rather rigid and unsuspecting USA.
It is not an accident that Turkey is becoming best friends with Iran and that rumours of the development of Turkey’s nuclear capability are in the air.
Wake up USA before it is too late for you and the rest of the western world!

President Obama’s Greek Visit – 15 and 16 November 2016

What is President Obama doing in Greece? The question on what he will do in Germany is also pertinent.

The only thing that might make sense is that President Obama wishes to reassure the Greeks and the Germans and the Europeans that American Foreign Policy  will continue as it were, on all fronts, including NATO.

In the case of Greece, President Obama included in his agenda the expression of his support of the IMF position on the restructuring of the Greek loans. The IMF says that the Greek loans must be restructured, provided that the reforms program goes ahead as planned.

But this does not make sense coming from a President whose term is over. This is something for the President elect to say.

Coming from President Obama today, any assurance regarding the continuity of American Foreign Policy lacks credibility. Something similar can be said about his views on the restructuring of the Greek loans. A reiteration of the IMF position does not bring anything new on the table.

So, why did President Obama visit Greece?

I can only offer one explanation.

The most likely explanation is that when the visit was planned the President and his team were certain of a Clinton win. Therefore, it would make eminent sense for President Obama to visit Greece and Germany to offer reassurances of policy continuity.

Clinton lost to Trump, but the visit was already planned and it would look rather bad to cancel it. So the visit went ahead even though it makes no sense.

 

 

 

 

 

Nutcracker: by Jennifer Rubell

2200-gf12540_nocetto_nutcracker

nutcracker: a device for cracking nuts (Oxford Dictionaries).

Jeniffer Rubell: Portrait of the artist
Jennifer Rubell: Portrait of the artist

New York based artist Jennifer Rubell has created her own nutcrackers.

In doing so, she objectified a metaphor of the female body.

Dal Shabet Merilis Foto Teaser “Look At My Legs”
Dal Shabet Merilis Foto Teaser “Look At My Legs”

A 2007 review of studies examining depictions of women in the media including commercials  prime-time television programs, movies, music lyrics and videos, magazines advertising, sports media, video games, and Internet sites revealed that women more often than men are depicted in sexualizing and objectified mannerrs (e.g., wearing revealing and provocative clothing, portrayed in ways that emphasize their body parts and sexual readiness, serving as decorative objects). (Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research)

Rubell builds dramatically on the SO metaphor, and turns the female body into a nutcracker.

The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011
The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011

In the artist’s website, we read the following introduction to her “nutcracker” project:

“In the Dallas Contemporary’s largest gallery space, Nutcrackers consists of 18 life-size interactive sculptures of women surrounding a pedestal holding one ton of Texas pecans. Each prefabricated female mannequin is mounted on her side in an odalisque position and has been retooled to function as a nutcracker. Visitors interact with each sculpture by placing a pecan in the mannequin’s inner thigh, then pushing down the upper leg to crack open the nut so they may eat it in the gallery. Inspired by nutcrackers depicting female figures – especially one of Hillary Clinton – these interactive sculptures embody the two polar stereotypes of female power: the idealized, sexualized nude female form; and the too-powerful, nut-busting überwoman.”

jennifer-rubell
“Lea L” Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell. New York Frieze Art Fair 2012

One cannot resist but consider the artful play with words.

phoca_thumb_l_LYSA-II_JenniferRubell_2012_photobyAdamReich-4
Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell

A nut-busting woman is a stereotype in a man’s world.

phoca_thumb_l_NUTCRACKERS_JenniferRubell_2011_photobyAndrewShephard_websiteimage_fullres-7

Rubell is explicit. The nut is broken high up, between the thighs.

phoca_thumb_l_LYSA-II_JenniferRubell_2012_photobyAdamReich-5
Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell

What can be the source of life (Courbet) can also break one or more nuts.

phoca_thumb_l_NUTCRACKERS_JenniferRubell_2011_photobyAndrewShephard_websiteimage_fullres-5
The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011

I must confess that the close ups reminded me of Jeff Koons. Although totally irrelevant, Rubell’s parents are art collectors and their collection includes some of Koon’s works.

Having seen pictures from Dallas and New York, I prefer the “factory-like” arrangement of Dallas to the solitary and rather depressing “solo” of New York.

The “contingent” of the factory gives a totally different meaning tot he work.

1470361660_76df5c5365_z615

I think I will return to the work of Jennifer Rubell.

P.S. What is the relationship between sexual objectification and heartbeats?

P.S. 2 Here is the answer.

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: “I scare myself” and a little more – in the context of perplexed personal situations

Sylvia Plath in Yorkshire, 1957
Sylvia Plath in Yorkshire, 1957

It was sometime in the early 1980’s.

I was in my late 20s and doing postgraduate work in the United States of America.

As luck has it, I was cohabitating with a woman. I do not want to comment on the merits of cohabitation before marriage here. Suffices to say that it was one of the wisest things I have ever done. And I will explain why later.

My good cousin “J” one day introduced me to the genius of Dan Hicks.

“I scare myself” became an obsession for me.

Dan Hicks
Dan Hicks

Before I continue, I must warn the reader (if there is any) of this that the text and the images and the songs and everything about it may appear to be totally incoherent and structureless.

This is one of the conditions of life that cannot be changed. So I take it for granted, as a given inevitability and continue. (You have been warned!)

But who is Dan Hicks?

In order to answer this question in a respectable way I will borrow from Wikipedia.

Hicks at the Santa Fe Brewing Co. June 28, 2009
Hicks at the Santa Fe Brewing Co. June 28, 2009

Daniel Ivan Hicks (born December 9, 1941, in Little Rock, Arkansas), is an American singer-songwriter.

Hicks’ father, Ivan L. Hicks (married to the former Evelyn Kehl), was a career military man. At age five, an only child, Hicks moved with his family to California, eventually settling north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, where he was a drummer in grade school and played the snare drum in his school marching band.

At 14, he was performing with area dance bands. While in high school, he had a rotating spot on Time Out for Teens, a daily 15-minute local radio program, and he went on to study broadcasting at San Francisco State College during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Taking up the guitar in 1959, he became part of the San Francisco folk music scene, performing at local coffeehouses.”

Charlatans in 1966 or1967. Dan Hicks is the first from the right.
The Charlatans in 1966 or1967. Dan Hicks is the first from the right.

And now I switch to another source, “Triviana Magazine”.

‘After earning his bit of fame and fortune in his early 20s, as a folkie in Bay Area  coffee houses, singing and finger-picking in 1963, he joined the Charlatans as a drummer in 1965 — the Charlatans being the blues-rock band that a lot of people are now calling the beginning of what became the San Francisco rock scene.

But Hicks wasn’t content to sit behind the traps, so started his own band, doing an acoustic swing-folk kind of thing with just him on guitar, a bass player  and two female singers. That eventually became Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and from 1968 through about 1973,  they were, indeed, hot.

Dan Hicks has said about the song: “I was in love when I wrote this song…either that, or I’d just eaten a huge hash brownie.”‘

Dan Hicks
Dan Hicks

As I have already mentioned, I gor to know Dan Hicks because of the song “I scare myself”.

‘I Scare Myself’ and ‘It’s Not My Time to Go’… I think they’re two of the best songs ever written”Elvis Costello

If Elvis Costello says so, we better listen!

The thing is though, I loved the song long before I Read what Elvis Costello said about it.

With hindsight, I can say that I loved the song because I was scared when I heard it.

I did not know what the hell I was going to do with the cohabitant.

I was receiving mixed signals and was perplexed.

Was she true love, or was she just a passer by?

She already had a failed marriage in her bag, I was a marriage free person at the time.

Life always twists things and gives the answers to the unsuspecting humans.

This is exactly what happened with my situation.

One day my cohabitant fell out of our love nest, then she came back in tears asking for re-admission.

But is there a jailed person who sees an open door in the jail complex and shies away from it?

I beg to say there is not!

And so my cohabitation ended in glory, but my love of the song remains to date.

And I continue ot be scared. Mostly for other reasons now.

striking it rich

The song was released with the album “Striking it Rich” (1972).

I scare myself

I scare myself
just thinking about you
I scare myself
when I’m without you
I scare myself
the moments that you’re gone
I scare myself
when I let my thoughts run

and when they’re runnin’
I keep thinking of you
and when they’re runnin’
what can I do?

I scare myself
and I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
it can get frightenin’
I scare myself
to think what I could do
I scare myself
it’s some kinda voodoo

and with that voodoo
I keep thinking of you
and with that voodoo
what can I do?

but it’s oh so, so, so different
when we’re together
and I’m oh so so much calmer, I feel better
for the stars have crossed our paths forever
and the sooner that you realize it, the better

then I’ll be with you
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll know what to do
and I won’t scare myself
and then I’ll think of you
and I won’t scare myself
and then my thoughts’ll run
and I won’t scare myself

then I’ll be with you
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll know what to do
and I won’t scare myself
and I’ll think of you
and I won’t scare myself
and my thoughts will run
and I won’t scare myself…

Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks live at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, Sunday, December 9th, 2007, Dan’s Birthday!

Original Recordings

Pendle Witches: Mist II Paula Rego 1996
Pendle Witches: Mist II Paula Rego 1996

Dan Hicks is a wise man.

He knows that love can hurt.

And so he sings that he does not want love, if love ….

This is a treatise on gastrolinguistics. In case you wonder what gastrolinguistics is, do not worry, you are not the only one.

Instead of giving an answer to the difficult question, I cope out and invite you to read what Dan Hicks says.

I don’t want love

“Hey, that’s pretty cool

Why don’tcha turn that up?”

Some folks say when you fall in love

You lose your appetite
If love makes you feel that way

Listen to what I say, dear

If love makes you give up steak and potatoes

(That’s what you eat?)

Rice, corn, chitlins, and tomatoes

If love makes you give up all those things

I don’t want love

If love makes you give up ham and greens

Chicken pot pie and lima beans

If love makes you give up all them things

(Don’t want it)

(Don’t want it)

I don’t want love

Ooo…

Well, I am here to say to you that

I love my bread and my meat

Take a look at me and it’s plain to see

That I’m a man

That loves to eat

So, if love makes you give up steak and tomatoes

Eggs over easy and hashbrown potatoes

If love makes you give up stuff like that

(Oh no)

Heh, I don’t want love

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

If love makes you give up corn-dogs and mustard

Cracker Jacks, tootie fruity custard

If love makes you give up onion rings

I don’t want love

(Don’t want it)

If love makes you give up pizza night

Garlic mashed potatoes, then it’s outta sight

If love makes you give up all those things

No no, not me

Well, my baby’s awful skinny

And she don’t like meat

And she can’t stand breakfast in bed

And as for me, well, where’s my seat?

‘Cause it’s time that I was fed

So if love makes you give up saute and pate

And foie gras

And stuff you have to flambé

If love makes you give up buffalo wings

I don’t want love

No, no

Not me

No sir

No siree

I, I, I, I, I don’t want love

Pass the sausage!

“I don’t want Love”

After this wonderful declaration lets watch an original 1970’s video for old times’ sake.

Dan Hicks and his hot licks in 1972

In closing, two more songs, one by Dan Hicks and another by Tom Waits.

Both wonderful.

Thank you Dan!

…and please,

“Pass the sausage!”

Dan Hicks & His Sidekicks – Canned Music

The Piano has been drinking – a Tom Waits Song

Sources

1. Triviana Magazine “Gettin’ in His Licks!”

2. Wikipedia

3. Al Gravitar Rodando

Woman in a tub: a journey from Manet to … to Koons

I saw Edgar Degas’ “The Tub” and Jeff Koons’ “Woman in a Tub”at the Art Institute of Chicago back in April and was inspired to write about paintings and sculptures depicting a woman having a bath.

The following post is relevant to the Art Institute of Chicago

Modern Art

This is a personal view (most views are). I selected the paintings and sculptures I like and/or find interesting. 

One of the most important feature of the paintings and sculptures is – of course – the way the artist has depicted the female body.

Another is the degree of privacy and intimacy of the instance depicted.

Ingres, The bather of Valpincon, 1808, Louvre, Paris
Ingres, The bather of Valpincon, 1808, Louvre, Paris

I would like to start the journey with Ingres. The painting “The Bather of Valpincon” (my thanks for the photo to “The Art Appreciation Blog“) that hangs today in the Louvre in Paris marks in my book the beginning of a new era in the depiction of the nude female. The setting is domestic, the subject is alone. And the body is not perfect. The depicted woman is a real woman. There is no story in the picture. It is a “boring” mundane scene in the domestic life of a woman.

Although there is not tub in Ingres’ picture, in my view he creates the context for the topic of my overview.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) Woman in a tub 1878 Paris, Musée d'Orsay Pastel on canvas
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Woman in a tub
1878 Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Pastel on canvas

The first painting strictly within the context of this article is Manet’s “Woman in a Tub”. Manet painted his picture in 1873.

My adoration of Manet started with “Olympia” (1863) and “The Luncheon on the Grass” (1862-1863), both exhibited in Paris’ Musee d’ Orsay.

I quote from Musee d’ Orsay’s web site:

“This pastel is one of the artist’s most beautiful portrayals of a woman bathing. All the characteristics of Manet’s style are there: a special blend of spontaneity, freshness combined with precise composition, and a taste for light, curving lines against a background of horizontals. The background is in fact divided up into subtly coloured bands, formed by the mirror, the dressing table and the floral cretonne cloth.

A large metal tub, always used by Degas in these scenes, occupies the lower part of the pastel. But whereas Degas’ models usually appear to be unaware of the viewer, here the model is unconcerned at being observed by the painter. She knows that her nudity, even though imperfect, will attract a friendly or even tender glance.

After Manet’s death, Degas produced his stunning series of women bathing, where he used plunging perspectives and more sophisticated poses. But it was Degas who, after 1877, first started to produce less innocent scenes of women washing, painted in brothels. It is difficult to determine from that point, which of the two artists had the greater influence on the other. Degas’ sarcasm is absent from Manet’s work; it is Bonnard’s gentle scenes of women at their toilette that are the real precursors of this Woman in a Tub.”

The palette of the picture is light. Only the tub turns to heavy grey.

Edouard Manet La blonde aux seins nus vers 1878 huile sur toile,  musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Edouard Manet
La blonde aux seins nus
vers 1878
huile sur toile,
musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Contrast the bathing woman to the bare breasted blonde of the same year. The air of “neutral” intimacy of the bathing woman is gone, and replaced by the naked aggression of the breasts. Totally different.

Woman in a Tub Femme au tub
Edgar Degas, Woman in a Tub, Femme au tub, 1883, Pastel on paper, Tate Gallery, London

I continue with another master, Edgar Degas.

Degas’ picture “Woman standing in her bathtub”, painted in 1883, adorns the exhibition halls of Tate Gallery in London.

It was in London’s National Gallery in 1996 that I saw the exhibition “Degas beyond impressionism”. This exhibition marked the beginning of my admiration for Degas’ work.

The woman seems to be drying herself, and is totally absorbed in what she is doing.

The picture is full of contrasting lights and shadows, of bright and dark colors.

Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885 Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) Charcoal and pastel on paper, Metropolitan Museum, New York
Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885
Edgar Degas 
Charcoal and pastel on paper, Metropolitan Museum, New York

Another nude in a tub by Degas is the picture he painted in 1885, which you can see today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

When Degas exhibited his “suite of nudes,” which included this pastel, at the eighth—and final—Impressionist exhibition, in 1886, critics viciously attacked the ungainly poses of his bathers. After the exhibition, Degas gave the picture to Mary Cassatt in exchange for her Girl Arranging Her Hair (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).

Edgar Degas French, 1834–1917 The Tub, modeled 1889 (cast 1919/21)
Edgar Degas
The Tub, modeled 1889 (cast 1919/21)

And now the tub I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I quote the Art Institute of Chicago’s text:
“This charming work, cast in bronze after Degas’s death, is a particularly appealing, even playful, variation on that subject. In a round basin partially filled with water, a young woman relaxes and absently plays with the toes of her left foot…The Tub is innovative in another, more subtle way. The female nude is of course a central subject in the history of Western art, associated with many conventions and traditions. However, unlike so many of his predecessors and more conservative contemporaries, Degas did not depict his adolescent bather in the guise of a nymph or goddess, nor did he imbue her features and gestures with eroticism. Instead, she is self-absorbed, modest, and engaged in a mundane activity.”

Edgar Degas, The Tub, c.1896-1901, Pastel on wowe paper, Glasgow Museums
Edgar Degas, The Tub, c.1896-1901, Pastel on wowe paper, Glasgow Museums

Degas also painted this stunning minimalist depiction in a period spanning 5 years, and just crossing into the 20th century. It is almost as if Francis Bacon came to Earth early to paint this picture and disappear until his birth in 1909.

Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901
Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901

I cannot help assuming that the great Picasso was influenced by the aura of Degas’ paintings when he painted the blue room in 1901.

Pierre Bonnard, Woman in a tub, 1912
Pierre Bonnard, Woman in a tub, 1912

The next painting in line was made by Pierre Bonnard.
I encountered Bonnard for the first time in a comprehensive way when I visited the exhibition of his works in London’s Tate Gallery in early 1998. It was a wonderful surprise.

 The Bath Baignoire (Le Bain) Date1925  Oil paint on canvas, Tate Gallery, London

The Bath – Baignoire (Le Bain) 1925
Oil paint on canvas, Tate Gallery, London

“Like Degas, Bonnard painted a lot of nudes in the bath. Sometimes he even photographed them.  So the bathtub appears as a kind of original place, Plato’s chora in which forms materialize, or space, the matrix of Derrida.”

“This is one of a series of paintings that Bonnard made of his wife Marthe in the bath. Though she was in her mid-fifties, the artist depicts her as a young woman. Marthe spent many hours in the bathroom: she may have had tuberculosis, for which water therapy was a popular treatment, or she may have had an obsessive neurosis. The bath, cut off at both ends, and the structure of the wall create a rigorously geometric composition. The effect is strangely lifeless, and almost tomb-like; as if the painting were a silent expression of sorrow for Marthe’s plight.”

Matisse, Large reclining nude (The Pink Nude)

Pierre Bonnard La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939 The Large Bathtub (Nude) Oil on canvas, 94 × 144 cm Private collection
Pierre Bonnard
La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939
The Large Bathtub (Nude)
Oil on canvas, 94 × 144 cm
Private collection

Pierre Bonnard: La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939
The Large Bathtub (Nude)

There is a formula, which fits painting perfectly,” wrote Bonnard, “many little lies to create a great truth.”

Nude in the Bath and Small Dog. 1941-46. Oil on canvas. 48 x 59 1/2" (121.9 x 151.1 cm). Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Nude in the Bath and Small Dog. 1941-46.
Oil on canvas. 48 x 59 1/2″ (121.9 x 151.1 cm). Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Bonnard 1941-1946: Nude in the Bath and Small Dog (with thanks to Sheila Thornton)

The efflorescent explosion of colors in “Nude in the Bath and Small Dog” (1941-46) almost bars us from making any sense of the painting were it not for a few key recognizable objects–notably the dog and the bathtub, within which the details of the immersed figure of Marthe slowly appears. Bonnard places the figure frankly in the center of this fantastic scene. We witness the inanimate becoming animate as the bathtub mutates to adhere to Marthe’s form: bulging to accommodate the bend of her right knee and expanding with the curve of her head. The walls seem to gently breathe like a living organism, warping in dazzling, undulating waves along with the ripples of the tub water.

Ostensibly the scene is serenity itself, yet Bonnard allows us no rest in front of it. Not only does the bathroom sway in our vision, the whole of it will not come into focus at once from any one position. We must move from side to side and back and forth. By thus “performing” the painting we are made all the more conscious of our movement in contrast to the stillness of Marthe’s body. Marthe died in 1942, at age 72, before Bonnard had finished the painting.
Nude in Bathtub, the last of Bonnard’s treatments of this subject, is one of the great nudes of the twentieth century. The audacity of color that characterizes the artist’s mature work is evident in this painting’s dazzling mosaic of oranges, yellows, pinks, blues, violets, and greens. The originality of Bonnard’s chromatic daring is nearly equaled in this painting by a pictorial construct in which perspective and volume are denied and forms are piled up to hover over the flat plane of the canvas.

Bonnard transformed this domestic environment, with its comfortably curled-up family dachshund, into an exotic setting in which a young woman floats in a pearly tub, her flesh reflecting the opalescent colors that surround her. Marthe appears as the youthful woman of Bonnard’s memories. The result is a sensual, dreamlike, and private evocation.

Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago
Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago

Landing from Bonnard to Koons is a shock.

It is like landing on another planet.

In the website of the Art Institute of Chicago, we read:

Woman in Tub, based on a postcard, depicts a female nude acting out a crude sexual joke in the bathtub. Jeff Koons explained: “There’s a snorkel and somebody is doing something to her under the water because she’s grabbing her breasts for protection. But the viewer also wants to victimize her.” The cartoonlike rendering of the form belies the exquisite hard-paste porcelain finish, typical of 18th-century Rococo figurines. Part of his Banality series, which is characterized by oddly eroticized, comic, and kitsch images, this work demonstrates Duchampian and Pop Art strategies of appropriation and, combining imagery from multiple sources, makes the primary subject taste itself.” (1)

Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago
Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago

An article in Art Tattler International informs us: Koons has a strong connection to Chicago where he came in the 1970s to study at the School of the Art Institute under artists Ed Paschke and Jim Nutt and briefly worked at the MCA as a preparator. For Koons, this was a critical time in his development — what he calls a period of transcendence. In practical terms, working for and befriending the artist Ed Paschke taught him that he could be a professional artist. Koons began to see his ideas in dialogue with Dada, Surrealism, and the Chicago Imagists, all genres that communicate with personal icons: from Salvador Dali’s mustache to Paschke’s tattoo parlors. Through Paschke and others, he looked to the external world to find his personal iconography, which he used to explore his subjectivity, transcend his limits, and fulfill his potential as an artist. 

It is time to recap.

What a journey!

Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet

Manet’s picture is effecting a dialogue between the woman/model and the observer/painter.

There is no idealization of the female body.

Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas

Degas is painting with passion, but the woman looks like an object enclosed in a solitary space.

We can see her, but she cannot. She is alone.

No idealization of the female body here.

Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard

Bonnard moves us to a different world.

The interplay between the flesh and th water, the function of the tub as the defining space, the luminosity of the tiles, they all contribute to create a world of ever changing illusion.

Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons

Koons is ending the journey as a hurricane, There is violence, panic, and sensuality. And a very peculiar sense of humour.

Relevant posts: 

Painting the human body, October 2011

Three female nudes, October 2010

From Geneva to Chicago and back by train: my Photos (1) and George Santayana’s (2) Philosophy of Travel

What is life but a form of motion and a journey through a foreign world?

Compared with the emigrant the explorer is the greater traveler; his ventures are less momentous but more dashing and more prolonged.

Train arriving at the Geneva Station
Train arriving at the Geneva Station

The idea of migration is often latent in his mind too: if he is so curious to discover new lands, and to describe them, it is partly because he might not be sorry to appropriate them.

On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back
On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

But the potential conqueror in him is often subdued into a disinterested adventurer and a scientific observer. He may turn into a wanderer.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

He may turn into a wanderer. Your true explorer or naturalist sallies forth in the domestic interest; his heart is never uprooted; he goes foraging like a soldier, out in self-defense, or for loot, or for elbow room.

On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back
On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

The inveterate wanderer is a deluded person, trying like the Flying Dutchman to escape from himself: his instinct is to curl up in a safe nook unobserved, and start prowling again in the morning, without purpose and without profit. He is a voluntary outcast, a tramp.

On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back
On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

The latest type of traveler, and the most notorious, is the tourist. Having often been one myself, I will throw no stones at him; for facts or for beauty, all tourists are dear to Hermes, the god of travel, who is patron also of amiable curiosity and freedom of mind.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

There is wisdom in turning often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor. I do not think that frivolity and dissipation of mind and aversion from one’s own birthplace, or the aping of foreign manners and arts are serious diseases: they kill, but they do not kill anybody worth saving.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

Ulysses remembered Ithaca. With a light heart and clear mind he would have admitted that Troy was unrivalled in grandeur, Phaecia in charm, and Calypso in enchantment: that could not make the sound of the waves breaking on his own shores less pleasant to his ears; it could only render more enlightened, more unhesitating, his choice of what was naturally his.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

The human heart is local and finite, it has roots: and if the intellect radiates from it, according to its strength, to greater and greater distances, the reports, if they are to be gathered up at all, must be gathered up at that center.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

A man who knows the world cannot covet the world; and if he were not content with his lot in it (which after all has included that saving knowledge) he would be showing little respect for all those alien perfections which he professes to admire.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

They were all local, all finite, all cut off from being anything but what they happened to be; and if such limitation and such arbitrariness were beautiful there, he has but to dig down to the principle of his own life, and clear it of all confusion and indecision, in order to bring it too to perfect expression after its kind: and then wise travelers will come also to his city, and praise its name.

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On the train from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back

Notes:

1. All the photos I have taken in the train journey from Geneva Illinois to Chicago and back.

2. The Philosophy of Travel by George Santayana

A meat lover’s paradise in Illinois, USA: Ream’s Elburn Market

Chicago, a poem by Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967)
Chicago, a poem by Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967)

I have written in the past about “Antica Macelleria Cecchini” in Panzano, Tuscany, where my good friend Dario Cecchini transforms butchering into the poetry of every living.

I like meat markets, I like butcher shops.

It is not only the products but the atmosphere.

Going west to Elburn
Driving west to Elburn

Today I want to share a totally different experience in a meat lover’s paradise in Illinois, USA: Ream’s Elburn Market.

Elburn is a small town, some 60 miles west of Chicago, in the middle of Illinois fields.

Ream’s Elburn Market is a family meat market that attracts meatlovers from the Chicago and suburbs area, also known as Chicagoland.

Randy Ream, (right) owner of Ream’s Meat Market, with his son, Joel (Elburn Herald, 2011)
Randy Ream, (right) owner of Ream’s Meat Market, with his son, Joel (Elburn Herald, 2011)

Lynn Meredith, of the Elburn Tribune, wrote in her April 2011 article:

“Ream’s Meat Market keeps on bringing home the bacon when it comes to making Elburn a destination for Chicagoland carnivores in search of the best in meats and sausages. Ream’s recently made the list of “Best Chicagoland Places to Eat,” by the LTH Forum, a Chicago-based culinary chat site whose 9,000 members make it their business to identify small, out-of-the-way eateries and resources for all things food.”

Ream's Elburn Market (Photo Credit: Bruce's 08 Daily Photo Blog)
Ream’s Elburn Market (Photo Credit: Bruce’s 08 Daily Photo Blog)

As you enter the store you are impressed by the awards on the walls, and some cans of lard from older days.

The meats, sausages, jerkies, smoked meats, fresh meats, and other products inside the store are more than a blog article can cover.

lard_awards

A lot more!

“I like to call it the shotgun approach,” Ream explains. “When you walk in the door, you are overwhelmed by so many meat selections that you don’t know where to go first.” (Source: Upbeat in Elburn, by Steve Krut)

By necessity, I will confine myself to some representative selections, starting with sausages.

I could not resist to start with the tailgater brats with bacon and blue cheese.

Tailgate parties are a staple of US food culture and fun.

Bacon and Blue Cheese Tailgater Brats
Bacon and Blue Cheese Tailgater Brats

In addition to the US style sausages, there are a lot of European origin, like the Hungarian style sausage.

Hungarian Sausage
Hungarian Sausage

No sausage tray would be complete without a white sausage from Bavaria.

True to their calling, the Ream family produce one of the best weisswursts outside Bavaria.

We prepared them with sauerkraut and they were delicious!

Munich White Sausage
Munich White Sausage

Italy has very strong presence in the US culinary scene. Here are some Mild Italian Sausages.

Mild Italian Sausage
Mild Italian Sausage

I conclude the sausage section with another American sausage: Jalapeno and cheese.

I wish I could have tasted them all on the spot, but I couldn’t!

Jalapeno and cheese stix
Jalapeno and cheese stix

Moving on to the smoked products, I would like to start with the salmon.

I bought some and was handsomly rewarded. It was juicy, moist and with a subtle smoky flavor.

Smoked Salmon
Smoked Salmon

Bacon is next.

Dry cured bacon
Dry cured bacon

Dry cured bacon and Hungarian style.

Hungarian dry cured bacon
Hungarian dry cured bacon

The bacon was so good, I cooked it for breakfast in a “Bacon and eggplant omelette”.

Bacon and eggplant omelette
Bacon and eggplant omelette

Jerkies are one of the reasons why Ream’s Elburn Market is so famous.

Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word “jerky” is derived from the Spanish word charqui which is from the Quechua word ch’arki. which means to burn (meat). All that is needed to produce basic “jerky” is a low-temperature drying method, and salt to inhibit bacterial growth.”   (Source: Wikipedia).

Buffalo Jerky
Buffalo Jerky

In principle, jerky is similar to the Turkish and Middle-Eastern pastirma, although pastirma is not sliced in advance, but only before it is consumed.

California heat beef  jerky.

California heat beef jerky
California heat beef jerky

And – of course – Elburner beef jerky.

“In the competitive meats arena, Ream hasn’t excelled…he’s exceeded. He has directed Elburn Market products to grand championship awards in 15 separate product classes at the American Cured Meat Championships (ACMC), something never done by any processor. His small shop has garnered an incredible 235 awards in cured meat competition!”  ((Source: Upbeat in Elburn, by Steve Krut)

Elburner beef jerky
Elburner beef jerky

I now want to refer specifically to the cooked ham, which we bought and enjoyed on multiple occasions.

Cooked Ham
Cooked Ham

In the US the prime part of leg of pork, the ham, is sold also cooked. You do need to add anything to it, just warm it gently, slice and serve. In case of a high quality product, like the one we bought at Ream’s, you do want to taste the meat, rather than all the spices, sauses, and so on.

Sliced ham
Sliced ham

This top quality ham is moist, sweet, tender, it melts in your mouth and leaves a very subtle aftertaste.

It is time to have a look at the fresh meats on offer.

I start with my all time favourite, the T-bone steak. Look at the marbling of the meat!

T-bone beef steak
T-bone beef steak

More steaks are on offer. The rib eye comes next.

Rib eye beef steak
Rib eye beef steak

And a bone-in rib eye, thick and marbled to perfection. I perfect the bone-in because of the added flavor and the thickness of the cut.

Gourmet rib eye
Gourmet bone in rib eye

I get hungry only by looking at the beautiful display.

Boneless pot roast (beef)
Boneless pot roast (beef)

There are also some prepared “composite” meat dishes, to cook and serve.

I start with a beautiful beef roulade, or pinwheel in American English.

“The word roulade originates from the French word “rouler” meaning “to roll”  Typically, a roulade is a European dish consisting of a slice of meat rolled around a filling, such as cheese, vegetables, or other meats. A roulade, like a braised dish, is often browned then covered with wine or stock and cooked. Such a roulade is commonly secured with a toothpick, metal skewer or a piece of string. The roulade is then sliced into rounds and served.”  (Source: Wikipedia).

Popeye Pinwheel
Popeye Pinwheel

The popeye pinwheel has – of course spinach.

The classic bacon wrapped pork filet is another temptation.

Bacon wrapped pork filet
Bacon wrapped pork filet

And another pinwheel, less colorful.

Beef flank steak pinwheel
Beef flank steak pinwheel

The emperor of meat cuts. the beef tenderloin concludes this representative sample of goods in Ream’s Elburn Market.

Beef tenderloin
Beef tenderloin

But may be not. As I was approaching the cash register, I saw the absolute delicacy, smoked porks ears. But they were not meant for human consumption. the sign clearly said: “For Dogs”. May be next time I will have my dog with me.

Pig's ears for dogs
Pig’s ears for dogs