Year of the Rooster

[ergo sum]

Eakins Masterwork Is to Be Sold to Museums
By CAROL VOGEL
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/11/arts/design/11pain.html?hp&ex=1163307600&en=b3b576f51453d9...

[ergo sum]

At one level, the work of Cage and Rauschenberg represented an attack on the hierarchies of cold war art and cold war artistic process. While emblematic artists of cold war American culture such as such as the abstract expressionists worked to demonstrate a mastery of the canvas and to create a product that could then be sold as evidence of that mastery, Cage and Rauschenberg offered up a view of artistic practice as a leveled collaboration among artist, audience, and materials. At another level, though, their work echoed and ultimately celebrated a migration toward the decentralized, systems-oriented forms of thought then occurring at the center of the scientific establishment. Writing in the Hudson Review at about the time that Stewart Brand was making his weekend forays into Manhattan, for example, art critic and professor Leonard B. Meyer described this movement and its effects on American art in this period. His view was that American artists had begun to work from the premise that "man is no longer . . . the center of the universe" and that the universe itself, as revealed by quantum physics, was an indeterminate system. In the work of Cage and Rauschenberg, he was right: for them, the making of art had become the building of systems of pattern and randomness, and thus, in Claude Shannon's sense, of information.

For Stewart Brand, such insights echoed Paul Ehrlich's systems view of the natural world. They also offered new models for living. Starting in the early 1950s, Cage and his friends began to build artistic systems that would play out in real time. In 1952, for instance, at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Cage created an event called Theatre Piece No. 1 in which audience members found themselves surrounded by Robert Rauschenberg's "White Paintings" and, among them, Merce Cunningham performing improvised dances, M. C. Richards reading poetry on a ladder, David Tudor playing piano, and Cage himself delivering a lecture. In 1958 Allan Kaprow christened these sorts of events "happenings." Kaprow had studied with Cage at the New School for Social Research. At the turn of the decade, he and artists such as Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and Red Grooms blended Cage's systems orientation to artistic production with the abstract expressionist painters" focus on action. They developed a form of art in which artists, audience, and materials worked together to blur the boundary between art and life. Using materials gathered out of everyday life, they built theatrical environments inhabited by performers, objects, and bits of text, and invited audience members to wander through. On any given evening, art fans in jackets and ties might find themselves walking through a room hung with sheets of paper, a man on a swing swaying back and forth over their heads. They might watch artists roll around in chicken guts on the floor. Or they might visit a "shrine" made out of junkyard metal and paper trash. Like Cage's music or Rauschenberg's paintings,Kaprow and company's happenings brought to life a world of chance experience built out of everyday materials. Within that world traditional artistic hierarchies were leveled. The artist, the audience, the experience of theater, the experience of daily life—all were equivalent elements in a single complex system of exchange.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/turner06/turner06_index.html

[ergo sum]

Very Cagey that.

[Hoople]

Fantastic. Reading that moved me.

So, ergo... have you ever attempted to define life. I mean, as opposed to non-life. Not what life does, like regenerate and heal itself, but tree vs. rock kind of thing - what is the breath of life. Some of these eternal questions never cease to amuse and move me. First cause, nothing - what is nothing. No way to answer them but to ponder them, truly ponder them in silence is humbling.

[ergo sum]

With the resignation of the head of the CIA today one has to wonder how bad the relations of the White House and the CIA actually are. All the right wing is convinced of course that the CIA is out to get the President. McGovern won't even put a chink in that iron. At least he got Rummie to admit he made some mistakes. If only we actually had a free press in this country more people would ask questions like this. And more people would have to answer them.

[Hoople]

I was watching CNN last night and found this segment to be amazing. Today I am hearing only of the confrontation by McGovern but nothing about what he said to Cooper on CNN, which I found most interesting. I can't believe liberals aren't all over this today. Here's the best excerpt - in which I fixed the spelling of something. Plus, this paragraph was erroneously attributed to Cooper but it was most certainly McGovern speaking:

MCGOVERN: We have the minutes of his discussions with Tony Blair, the British prime minister. On the 31st of January, 2003, where the president says, there really, really aren't any weapons of mass destruction to be found, but we need some way to make this war. Maybe, yes, that's a good idea, maybe we'll paint one of our U-2s with U.N. colors and hope that it gets shot down. Or maybe we'll get a defector out that will attest to the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Or there's an outside chance we can just assassinate Saddam Hussein. That's on the record. The British will vouch for that.

We also have the Downing Street memos where the head of British intelligence came back from consultations with George Tenet in July 2002 and said, the intelligence and the facts are being fixed around the policy.

The evidence on ties between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, OK, that's what we're really talking about, 69 percent of the American people believed that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 when we went to war with Iraq. That was exactly what the administration wanted.

HERE'S THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT

COOPER: Today Donald Rumsfeld was asked, point blank, why he lied about Iraq. The defense secretary said he didn't lie. But the questions continued. Asking them was a civilian, a man named Ray McGovern. He's a former CIA analyst. He's also an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, who was attending Mr. Rumsfeld's speech in Atlanta.

I spoke with Mr. McGovern earlier about what Secretary Rumsfeld now thinks about the case for war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Do you think he still believes that there were WMD?

MCGOVERN: I think still is the wrong word there.

COOPER: You don't think he ever believed it?

MCGOVERN: No. It's very clear that this was a very cynical attempt to do what they wanted to do, namely make war on Iraq, and that they decided to do that shortly after 9/11.

And my former colleague Paul Pillar, who is the most senior national intelligence officer for the Middle East and for counterterrorism, when he says, as he did just yesterday, that there was an organized campaign of manipulation of the intelligence to prove a tie between Iraq and al Qaeda; the objective, of course, to make the American people think that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

When Pillar comes out with that information, then I think we need to make sure the American people know that we knew at that time that there was no such tie.

COOPER: He didn't answer or respond to the bulletproof question at first. You asked basically, you reiterated the bulletproof and said that he indicated there was bulletproof evidence of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government. He then came back to it, though, and said well, it's a fact that Zarqawi was in Iraq. And you pointed out that -- well, what did he say then?

MCGOVERN: Well, you know, I was so glad that he disingenuously offered that, because Zarqawi was not under any al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein control. He was in the northern part of Iraq where no one held sway, not Saddam Hussein, certainly not al Qaeda. And so to adduce Zarqawi as a link with al Qaeda was disingenuous.

COOPER: He did then go on to say, well, he was also in Baghdad. And you pointed out, yes, when he went to the hospital.

MCGOVERN: Yes, right. Baghdad was where the best hospital was when he needed treatment. See, Rumsfeld is above the fray. And he believes that the audience and most of the audience there today, of course, fits this mold. They won't question him on these things. Who knows these details? Well, we know them. Why? Because it was our profession to follow such details. And we used to be able to apply our techniques and our trade craft to foreign leaders. And it's ironic in the extreme that we need to do media analysis and leadership studies on our own leaders to find out whether they're telling the truth, or they're telling lies.

COOPER: How can you prove, though, a lie? I mean, you're alleging an intent to mislead, a belief that they knew there were no WMD, that they knew Saddam wasn't really an imminent threat, and they chose to go to war anyway. And they faked, they manipulated, they handpicked intelligence.

Others will argue, you know, they -- maybe they, you know, they believed they had it and so they looked for the intelligence that matched their belief, but that they actually did believe it.

MCGOVERN: We have the minutes of his discussions with Tony Blair, the British prime minister. On the 31st of January, 2003, where the president says, there really, really aren't any weapons of mass destruction to be found, but we need some way to make this war. Maybe, yes, that's a good idea, maybe we'll paint one of our you toos (ph) with U.N. colors and hope that it gets shot down. Or maybe we'll get a defector out that will attest to the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Or there's an outside chance we can just assassinate Saddam Hussein. That's on the record. The British will vouch for that.

We also have the Downing Street memos where the head of British intelligence came back from consultations with George Tenet in July 2002 and said, the intelligence and the facts are being fixed around the policy.

The evidence on ties between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, OK, that's what we're really talking about, 69 percent of the American people believed that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 when we went to war with Iraq. That was exactly what the administration wanted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And that was Ray McGovern, the man who confronted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today.

[ergo sum]

HALBERSTADT, Germany, May 4 — If you miss Friday's musical happening at St. Burchardi Church in this eastern German town, no worries. There is always 2008. And the next year. And the one after that.

Like the imperceptible movement of a glacier, a chord change was planned for Friday. Two pipes were to be removed from the rudimentary organ (which is being built as the piece goes on, with pipes added and subtracted as needed), eliminating a pair of E's. Cage devotees, musicians and the curious have trickled in to Halberstadt, a town about two and a half hours southwest of Berlin by train known as the birthplace of canned hot dogs and home to a collection of 18,000 stuffed birds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/arts/music/05cage.html?hp&ex=1146888000&en=9b1fa6165ce0e91....

[ergo sum]

That is a photograph from an article on Architecture in Beijing in the NYT. The guy in the picture is an architect, designer, artist type. Has a father who made a fortune. Those things are helpful. The stuff is his collection of art.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/garden/20china.html

[Hoople]

I assume this is an installation. Where's Alice?

Went to a club on the roof of a hotel in NY last year, maybe the year before. Everything was out of scale. Wonderful feeling, like you are tiny. Anyway, who is this? Hard to tell if that tremendous chandelier is from a huge building or built for the installation. I have the feeling I'm missing the point.

[ergo sum]

.

[mick]

I WANT TO WISH ALL FRIENDS,READERS A VERY HAPPY EASTER TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES.

[ergo sum]

Let's quibble. It is messy not sticky. Sticky rends to stick to you.

[Hoople]

Another sticky wicket. It should somehow be preserved. Hang a tapestry over it if but it should be preserved.

[Hoople]

Interesting that the tasty part is subjective and the not good for you isn't.

That expressing the human condition thing is sticky, isn't it. Not simple, not simple at all.

[ergo sum]

Boise, Idaho - For 66 years, two murals depicting the lynching of an American Indian have hung in a now-abandoned county courthouse in Idaho's capital - reminders of the bloodshed that accompanied America's westward expansion.

Starting in 2008, the Idaho Legislature plans to meet in the old Ada County courthouse while the state Capitol building is renovated. And lawmakers, historians and Indian leaders disagree over whether the murals should be preserved as history or removed or covered up as disturbing and offensive.

"They should be painted over," said Claudeo Broncho

of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, whose traditional territory included Ada County.

Others want them to remain as reminders of injustices committed against Indians.

"The shame is not on those who painted the picture, but on those who refuse to acknowledge our history for what it is," said


Preservationists said they will fight attempts to remove the murals, among 26 in the building that are products of the Works Progress Administration Artists Project, a Depression-era program that put artists to work.

People entering the courthouse will have to walk past the murals as they climb steps to where the House and Senate will meet.

Race relations in Idaho, home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations group up until 2004, have been a sore spot for years.

[ergo sum]

Well you have this kind of problem where you can't express the human condition without expressing the human condition. Republicans can be anti gay and anti big government and anti special interests and still, Cheney can have a gay daughter who gets a job in the federal government because her father is Vice President. Nothing is ever simple.

The thing about Bacon is that it isn't really good for you but it is kind of tasty.

[Hoople]

What I was saying in the first line is that I know how well read you are so I knew you knew why Matisse came to mind when you saw the early Kirchner. Matisse was more interested in pure aesthetics, though, as the French so are. Kirschner, on the other hand, was being typically teutonic. The Germans added a self-absorbed, psychological element to expressionism.

Regarding playfulness and seriousness, I'm somewhere in the middle. I always point to Goya's Los Capricos or his completely over the top Disparates as examples of really, REALLY dark but very playfully inventive stuff I love. You would probably think it's too dark, because it is. But it was so incredibly inventive. I hate inventive for its own sake, well, in most cases. There's a delicate balance that makes something enjoyable for me. Lately, I'm liking lighter stuff but can't get Goya's aquatints out of my psyche. He set the bar very high for me very early when I came upon them and was blown away by their sheer genius. The way in which they are dark, politically, is not disturbing to me for some reason. Now Bacon... he gives me the creeps, though I love his sense of color. Ha, I love his sense of color. He was a sadomasochist and that stuff creeps me out so incredibly much that it influenced my feelings regarding V for Vendetta when I found out that one of the brothers who made it is a sadomasochist. I was like, eewwwwww, gross.

[ergo sum]

I could sorta understand that. I have always been a big fan of 'playfulness' as opposed to say 'seriousness' or maybe 'profundity' in painting. Though I have always loved Caravaggio I would rather Botticelli, something like that.

[Hoople]

You know why that is.

There's a subtle but profound distinction between French and German Expressionism that is culture specific. I find the origins of cultural difference, preoccupations and certain verifiable stereotypes to be fascinating.

Clemente is so far removed but the influence is apparent, I guess that's why I noted it.

[Hoople]

I was just reading our exchange from last night. I meant consummate, of course. Was characteristically exhausted but uncharacteristically soupy headed yesterday. I gave up caffeine a few days ago because of stress and now I can't think at all.

[ergo sum]

That reminds me of Matisse.

[Hoople]

To be continued. I am falling off of my chair and don't want to hurt myself.

Hope to continue this conversation. Had fun. Night Ergo.

[Hoople]

That so reminds me of Kirchner for some reason. The way he paints his own face in Self-Portrait with model. I love his early stuff. This one:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/kirchner/kirchner_self.jpg.html

[ergo sum]

Did he ever work for the CIA?

[ergo sum]

I can't wait all night.

[Hoople]

symbiosis is my guess

[Hoople]

Fat chance, buster!

[ergo sum]

Did he create the art scene or did it create him?

[ergo sum]

Okay soupy. There is another contemporary Italian painter whose name starts with a t. Who is it?

[Hoople]

You know what was triping my brain? I kept thinking "Greenberg" and wondering why. Ha!!! Clement Greenberg.

[Hoople]

You would pick the night that I was telling raz my brain feels like soup to ask me such a thing. That should have come to me instantly. And if you ask me one more question like that you will get a non-sequitur.

[ergo sum]

Clifton NJ actually.

[ergo sum]

That sounds right. You work better under pressure. I will look it up.

[occams_razor]

You mean Clinton, NJ, not Clinton MA, right?

[Hoople]

:)~

Clemente

[ergo sum]

We are on the same page. That is the guy I mean.

I haven't got all night!

[ergo sum]

Funny. You know when I was a kid I had to take these vitamins from Hoffman Laroche. They had a plant out on route 46 in Clifton not far from where I lived. Whenever we drove passed the plant I could smell the vitamins. Was that healthy?

[Hoople]

This'll drive me crazy. Saw his work in New York a long time ago, know his work well. It comes almost within reach and fades. Short name, starts with a C, hated the show I saw but love those delicate watercolor things he was doing when he was influenced by Persian miniatures.

His work has changed a lot since those lovely images, though.

Ugh, it almost came to me again.

[occams_razor]

My mother already knew that.

[Hoople]

Starts with a C. Hold on, it will come to me.

[ergo sum]

Hey! You know the name of the Italian Painter who incorporated India(n) images into his work?

[Hoople]

A bit of curious serendipity, there.

[ergo sum]

Depends on my mood I guess. It is amazing how much of the debate is based on polemics and how little of it is based on the actual underlying information. Mlsoft is interesting because he just bases the whole argument on 'scripture'. Others are interesting because they read only the MSCP. I probably wouldn't even realize that POV without them.
Did you know that one of the proofs that Saddamn had WMD was the fact that there are caster beans grown in Iraq? You can make Ricin from them. Tell that to your mother.
http://www.chemsoc.org/ExemplarChem/entries/2002/hook/ricin.htm

[occams_razor]

well, the Church had half of the property of England. And paid no taxes. So Henry made a move that made England into a superpower. Accidently.

[Hoople]

Hello brother.

[Hoople]

I have heard all but the surrounding of Rome minor detail. I would say Henry showed incredible resourcefulness in solving his problem but the rub lie in forces beyond his control. Poor Henry.

If contracting Syphilis were a viable possibility, well, that might take a bit of the zing out of consecration - FOR ME.

[occams_razor]

Well, yes, I have a stalkermark on you. You take it easy on that crowd.

[ergo sum]

Oh you know it is just a little something my distracted brain gets distracted with. Besides it is Sunday.

[occams_razor]

ok, Henry wanted to have a son. Catherine wasn't getting preggo. So he asked Pope for an annulment. Would have been a piece of cake, but Catherine's brother surrounded rome with his army and said don't even think about it. So Pope said no.

So Henry founded the Church of England, got half of England back from church, went through 6 more wives, killed 2 of them, and never had son. Syphillis led to infertility.

[occams_razor]

I knew this would be right up your alley. I saw the zeev people posting about the coptics, and thought, they do not know who they are dealing with.