Art Speigelman. Maus. A Survivor's Tale. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1986; and Maus II: A Survivor's Tale-And Here My Troubles
Began. New York Pantheon Books, 1991.
Started as a comic strip (in Raw, an experimental Comix magazine,
co-edited by Speigelman and Françoise Monly) on the subject of
the Holocaust, Maus became a book and, on its completion, the
Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated a show to the artist.
Over 1500 interlocking drawings tell the story of Vladek, the
artist's father. The comic book convention was questioned as to
its appropriateness for the tragic theme.
Milli Vanilli, the group that publicly acknowledged that the
album Girl You Know It's True, for which it was awarded the
Grammy for Best New Artist of 1989, was vocally interpreted by
someone else. The prize winners, Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus,
credited for the vocals, were hardly the first to take advantage
of the new means for creating the illusion of interpretation. As
the 'visual entertainment," they became the wrapper on a package
containing the music of less video-reputed singers. Their
producer, Frank Tarian (i.e., Franz Reuther) was on his second
"fake." Ten years earlier, he revealed that the pop group Boney
M. was his own "mouthpiece." Image-driven pop music sells the
fantasy of teen idol to a musically illiterate public. Packaged
music extends to simulations of instruments and orchestras as
well.
Beauty and the Beast is the story of a handsome prince in 18th
century France turned into an eight-foot tall, hideous, hairy
beast. Unless he finds someone to love him before his 21st
birthday, the curse cast upon him by the old woman he tried to
chase away will become permanent. In a nearby village, Maurice, a
lovable eccentric inventor, his daughter Belle, who keeps her
nose in books and her head in the clouds, and Gaston, the macho
of the place, go through the usual "he (Gaston) loves/wants her;
she does not care for/shuns him, etc." As its 30th full-length
animation, this Walt Disney picture is a musical fairy tale that
takes advantage of sophisticated computer animation. Its over one
million drawings (the work of 600 animators, artists, and
technicians) are animated, some in sophisticated 3-dimensional
computer animation. The technological performance, resulting
from an elaborate database, provided attractive numbers, such as
the Be Our Guest sequence (led by the enchanted candelabra,
teapot, and clock characters, entire chorus lines of dancing
plates, goblets, and eating utensils perform a musical act), or
the emotional ballroom sequence. Everything is based on the
accepted challenge: "OK, go ahead and fool us," once upon a time
uttered by some art director to the computer-generated imagery
specialists of the company. The story (by Mme. Leprince de
Beaumont) inspired Jean Cocteau, who wrote the screenplay for
(and also directed) La Belle et La Bête (1946), featuring Jean
Marais, Josette Day, and Marcel André.
Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945). Seduced by the relation to history, he
produces allegories in reference to myth, art, religion, and
culture. His compositions are strongly evocative, not lacking a
certain critical dimension, sometimes focused on art itself,
which repeatedly failed during times of challenge (those of Nazi
Germany included).
Terminator 2 is a movie about two cyborgs who come from the
future, one to destroy, the other to protect, a boy who will
affect the future when he grows up. It is reported to be the most
expensive film made as of 1991 (over 130 characters are killed),
costing 85 to 100 million dollars; cf. Stanley Kauffmann, The New
Republic, August 12, 1991, pp. 28-29.
Kitsch: defined in dictionaries as gaudy, trash, pretentious,
shallow art expression addressing a low, unrefined taste.
Kitsch-like images are used as ironic devices in artworks
critical of the bourgeois taste.
The relation between art and language occasioned a major show
organized by the Société des Expositions du Palais de Beaux-Arts
in Brussels. A catalogue was edited by Jan Debbant and Patricia
Holm (Paris: Galerie de Paris; London: Lisson Gallery; New York:
Marian Goodman Gallery). Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
(1770-1831). Ästhetik (Hrsg. von Friedrich Bassenge). Berlin:
Verlag das Europäische Buch, 1985.
Dadaism: Hans Arp defined Dada as "the nausea caused by the
foolish rational explanation of the world" (1916, Zurich).
Richard Huelsenbeck stated that "Dada cannot be understood, it
must be experienced" (1920). More on this subject can be found
in:
Raoul Hausmann. Am Anfang war Dada. (Hrsg. von Karl Riha &
Gunter Kampf). Steinbach/Giessen: Anabas-Verlag G. Kampf, 1972.
Serge Lemoine. Dada. Paris: Hazan, 1986.
Dawn Ades. Dada and Surrealism Reviewed. London: Arts Council of
Great Britain, 1978.
Hans Bollinger, et al. Dada in Zurich. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zurich,
1985.
Walter Benjamin. Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction is
a translation of Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen
Reproduzierbarkeit: drei studien zur Kunstsoziologie.
Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1963.
Walter de Maria's Lightning Field project was carried out with
the support of the Dia Art Foundation, which bought the land and
maintains and allows for limited public access to the work. As
the prototypical example of land-art, this lattice of lightning
rods covers an area of one mile by one kilometer. Filled with
400 rods placed equidistantly, the lightning field is the
interplay between precision and randomness. During the storm
season in New Mexico, the work is brought to life by many bolts
of lightning. The artist explained that "Light is as important
as lightening." Indeed, during its 24-hour cycle, the field goes
through a continuous metamorphosis. Nature and art interact in
fascinating ways.
Christo's latest work was entitled Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin,
July 1995. Regarding Christo's many ambitious projects, some
references are:
Erich Himmel, Editor. Christo. The Pont-Neuf Wrapped, Paris
1975-1985. New York: Abrams, 1990.
Christo: The Umbrellas. Joint project for Japan and the USA, 25
May - 24 June, 1988. London: Annely Juda Fine Art, 1988.
Christo: Surrounded Islands. Köln: DuMont Buch Verlag, 1984.
Christo: Wrapped Walkways, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri,
1977-1978. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1978.
Christo: Valley Curtain, Riffle, Colorado. New York: H.N. Abrams,
1973.
The Bauhaus, a school of arts and crafts, founded in 1919 in
Weimar, by Walter Gropius. Its significance results from the
philosophy of education expressed in the Bauhaus program, to
which distinguished artists contributed, and from the impressive
number of people who, after studying at the Bauhaus, affirmed its
methods and vision in worlds of art, architecture, and new
educational programs. Among the major themes at Bauhaus were the
democratization of artistic creation (one of the last romantic
ideas of our time), the social implication of art, and the
involvement of technology. Collaborative, interdisciplinary
efforts were encouraged; the tendency to overcome cultural and
national boundaries was tirelessly pursued; the rationalist
attitude became the hallmark of all who constituted the school.
In 1925, the Bauhaus had to move to Dessau, where it remained
until 1928, before it settled in Berlin. After Gropius, the
architects Hans Mayer (1930-1932) and Mies van der Rohe
(1932-1933) worked on ascertaining the international style
intended to offer visual coherence and integrity. In some ways,
the Bauhaus was continued in the USA, since many of its
personalities and students had to emigrate from Nazi Germany
and found safe haven in the USA.
Leon Battista Alberti (15th century) wrote extensively on
painting and sculpture: De pictura and De Statua were translated
by Cecil Grayson (London: Phaidon, 1972). Alberti's writings on
the art of building, De re aedificatoria, was translated by
Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (10 volumes,
Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1988).
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). Intently against those who were
"intoxicated by turpentine," he pursued a "dry art." From the Nu
descendant un escalier, considered "an explosion in a fireworks
factory" to his celebrated ready-mades, Duchamp pursued the call
to "de-artify" art. Selection became the major operation in
offering objects taken out of context and appropriating them as
aesthetic icons. He argued that "Art is a path to regions where
neither time nor space dominate."
Happening: An artistic movement based on the interaction among
different forms of expression. Allan Kaprow (at Douglas College
in 1958) and the group associated with the Reuben gallery in New
York (Kaprow, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Whitman, Hausen)
brought the movement to the borderline where distinctions
between the artist and the public are erased. Later, the movement
expanded to Europe.
Andy Warhol. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: from A to B and Back
Again. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.
-. Strong Opinions. New York: McGraw Hill, 1973.
Andy Warhol is remembered for saying that in the future,
everyone will be a celebrity for 15 minutes.
Vladimir (Vladimirovich) Nabokov. Lectures on Literature. Edited
by Fredson Bowers, introduction by John Updike. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980-1981.
"A rose is a rose is a rose...," now quite an illustrious (if not
trite) line, originated in Gertrude Stein's poem Sacred Emily.
But "...A rose by any other name/would smell as sweet." from
Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet can be seen as a precursor.
Symbolism is a neo-romantic art movement of the end of the 19th
century, in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and positivist
attitudes permeating art and existence. Writers such as
Beaudelaire, Rimbaud, Maeterlinck, Huysmans, composers (Wagner,
in the first place), painters such as Gauguin, Ensor, Puvis de
Chavannes, Moreau, and Odilon Redon created in the spirit of
symbolism. At the beginning of the 20th century, symbolism
attempted to submit a unified alphabet of images. Jung went so
far as to identify its psychological basis.
James Joyce (1882-1941). Ulysses. A critical and synoptic (though
very controviersial) edition, prepared by Hans Walter Gabler
with Wolfgang Steppe and Claus Melchior. New York: Garland
Publishers, 1984.
Antoine Furetière. Essais d'un Dictionnaire Universel. Geneva:
Slatkine Reprints, 1968 (reprint of the original published in
1687 in Amsterdam under the same title).
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). 2000 Pagine de Gramsci. A cura di
Giansiro Ferrata e Niccolo Gallo. Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1971.
-. Gramsci: Selections from Cultural Writings. (Edited by David
Forgacs and Geoffrey Newell-Smith; translated by William
Boelhower). Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.
-. Le Ceneri di Gramsci. Milano: Garzanti, 1976.
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975). Turc al Friul. Traduzione e
introduzione di Giancarlo Bocotti. Munich: Instituto Italian di
Cultura, 1980. Ken Kesey. The Further Inquiry. Photographs by
Ron Bevirt. New York: Viking Penguin, 1990.
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). Madame Bovary. Paris: Gallimard,
1986.
-. Madame Bovary. Patterns of provincial life. (Translated, with
a new introduction by Francis Steegmuller). New York: Modern
Library, 1982.
Donald Barthelme. Amateurs. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux,
1976.
-. The King. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
-. The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering
Djinn. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1971.
Kurt Vonnegut. Breakfast of Champions or, Goodbye Blue Monday!
New York: Delacorte Press, 1973.
-. Galapagos. A Novel. New York: Delacorte Press, 1985.
-. Fates Worse than Death. An Autobiographical Collage of the
1980's. New York: G.P. Putnam's, 1991.
John Barth. Chimera. New York: Random House, 1972.
-. The Literature of Exhaustion and the Literature of
Replenishment. Northridge CA: Lord John Press, 1982.
-. Sabbatical. A Romance. New York: Putnam, 1982.
William H. Gass. Fiction and the Figures of Life. New York:
Knopf, 1970.
-. Habitations of the Word: Essays. New York: Simon and Schuster,
1985.
-. In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories.
New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
Gary Percesepe. What's Eating William Gass?, in Mississippi
Review, 1995.
Gertrude Stein's writing technique is probably best exemplified
by her own writing. How to Write, initially published in 1931 in
Paris (Plain Editions), states provocatively that "Clarity is of
no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you
mean no matter what you mean nor how clearly you mean what you
mean." In an interview with Robert Haas, 1946) in Afterword,
Gertrude Stein stated that "Any human being putting down words
had to make sense out of them," (p. 101). "I write with my eyes
not with my ears or mouth," (p. 103). Moreover: "My writing is
as clear as mud, but mud settles and clear streams run on and
disappear."
Gertrude Stein. How to Write (with a new preface by Patricia
Meyerowitz). New York: Dover Publications, 1975.
The author shows that "the innovative works of an artist are
explorations" (p.vi).
-. Useful Knowledge. Barrytown NY: Station Hill Press, 1988.
-. What are Masterpieces? New York: Pitman Publishing Corp., 1970
(reprint of 1940 edition).
Edmund Carpenter. They Became What They Beheld. New York:
Outerbridge and Dienstfrey/Ballentine, 1970.
The author maintains that the book became the organizing
principle for all existence, a model for achieving bureaucracy.
It seems that the first comic strip in America was The Yellow
Kid, by Richard F. Outcault, in the New York World, 1896. Among
the early comic strips: George Harriman's Krazy Kat (held as an
example of American Dadaism); Windsor McKay's Little Nemo in
Slumberland; Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirated.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). Il Futurismo was written
in 1908 as the preface to a volume of his poetry and was
published in 1909. Its manifesto was set forth in the words "We
declare that the splendor of the world has been increased by a
new beauty: the beauty of speed." Breaking with the livresque
past, the Italian Futurism took it upon itself to "liberate this
land from the fetid cancer of professors, archaeologists,
guides, and antiquarians." The break with the past was a break
with its values as these were rooted in literate culture.
Dziga Vertov (born Denis Arkadievich Kaufman,1986-1954). Became
known through his innovative montage juxtaposition, about which
he wrote in Kino-Glas (Kino-Eye). The film We (1922) is a fantasy
of movement. Kino-Pravda (1922-1925) were documentaries of
extreme expressionism, with very rich visual associations.
Experiments in simultaneity are also experiments in the
understanding of the need to rethink art as a representation of
dynamic events.
Michail Fyodorovich Larionov (1881-1964). Russian-born French
painter and designer, a pioneer in abstract painting, after many
experiences in figurative art and with a declared obsession with
the aesthetic experience of simultaneity. Founder of the
Rayonist movement-together with his wife, Natalia Goncharova
(1881-1962), painter, stage designer, and sculptor-Larionov went
from a neo-primitive painting style to cubism and futurism in
order to finally synthesize them in a style reflecting the
understanding of the role of light (in particular, as rays). His
Portrait of Tatline (1911) is witness to the synthesis that
Rayonism represented.
Fernand Léger (1881-1955). Machine Aesthetics, 1923.
"La vitesse est la loi de la vie moderne." (Speed is the modern
law of life.)