42 GOMB

No art, only artists. Or something like that. In Gombrich’s The Story of Art (1950, 600 pages) there is one female artist, Käthe Kollwitz. They had shared Nazi-era experiences, the work is full of emotion and confident drawing. Perhaps he means that artists are conduits of their time. His artists all show these drawing skills, which is confusing. I wonder what contemporary artists he would choose? Any? None?

Perhaps there are only art historians. Imagine. An envisioned (by themselves) scale of importance in education might be: architecture > art history > music > art > design > illustration > cartoons. This can be argued, and in fact everyone is expressing everything anyway, dilettante or otherwise, and all in context. Individually.

http://arthistorypart1.blogspot.com/2008/01/there-is-no-such-thing-as-art-there-are.html

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/06/the-true-meaning-of-fine-and-not-so-fine-art?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://gombricharchive.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/showdoc68.pdf

A great reinventor, David Hockney, talks of artists being children of time. His life is all mixed up with his art. This is confusing for us to unpick (if we wanted). Similarly with Picasso, Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Hilma af Klint, Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven… and so it goes. Snakes and ladders.

43 Snap

Photography is history

The subject of James Clerk Maxwell's famous first colour photograph, made in Edinburgh in 1861, was a ribbon. Sort of thing one might see at a dog show, or on a giant cucumber. A curious, quotidian choice. It will have been lying about, colourful, unmoving, probably all the necessaries. I made a copy of it. I thought perhaps a bit of magic thinking might give me insight into the history of photography. Perhaps it did, a bit. Haven't worn it yet though. I have always relished any excuse for making things. What can it be??

A phrase from childhood sticks with me… a grown-up in a gallery (I wasn’t in many) being amazed at a painting saying “...a picture like a real hand-painted photograph”. Even I knew that was crazy mixed-up. Still, there may be something of the fondness of mixed up I have kept. It still interests me. I went through a phase of doing my own real hand-painted photographs. This was brought to a sad end in 1995 when YBA Marcus Harvey had some kids paint a portrait of Myra Hindley. He used a technique similar to my own. After that I didn’t want to have anything much to do with it. It was in any case an interesting exploration of colour for me at that time, so all was not lost.

Photography can be so much. I thought it best to limit my exploration a bit. The quarrel between analogue-digital I like. Things far away and up close. Then there is the moving image. The focus blurs. I used to believe anything moving was intrinsically better art than anything still. In fact there is nothing much still. We change our minds constantly. 

The green man of Cong https://youtu.be/ctgZ2LHI61Y

And there’s more…

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/12/bertien-van-manens-beyond-maps-and-atlases-ireland?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/13/masahisa-fukase-photographed-nothing-but-his-wife?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/interactive/2013/may/19/power-photography-time-mortality-memory

44 Portal

We know it is a lame edit decision when we see dictionary entries to explain words in films, but here goes… late Middle English: from Old French, from mediaeval Latin portale, neuter (used as a noun) of portalis ‘like a gate’, from Latin porta ‘door, gate’.

The passageways from one realm to another are the best bits in literature and film. I find most of the rest just packing. Is that only me?

 

We pore over maps in the intros. There are so many from my yout…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weirdstone_of_Brisingamen 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien%27s_maps

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Foul%27s_Bane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Station_(novel)

 

Back-of-the-wardrobe fumblings in Narnia

 

Stargate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ihWxPL5eA

 

The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) https://youtu.be/0JHYAhcdsMk sadly I couldn’t find the subsequent scene that takes Milo through the actual tollbooth, from live-action to animation. Magic.

 

And I have to include a link to a hi-res image of an old map of the Forest of Fontainebleau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_Fontainebleau I printed for my wall.

The forest is itself a special portal in art history, especially at the cusp of classical to impressionist landscape painting. It's not like the old days now though.
𝕊𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕢𝕦𝕖

 

45 Stalker

The best movie ever made. I could say ‘my favourite film’, but that’s not quite the case. You don’t need to read anything about it, although there is plenty, you know it by watching. And amazingly you can see it for free here…

Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky 1979 https://youtu.be/Q3hBLv-HLEc

 

Mosfilm are currently distancing themselves from the Kremlin by offering their back catalogue free to the world.

 

https://www.salon.com/2017/07/29/why-andrei-tarkovskys-interminably-dull-1979-sci-fi-masterpiece-stalker-is-the-movie-we-need-right-now/

 

It may be that you are either in the club or not. Many aren’t. The effect it had on me when I discovered it as a student was strong and lasting. Finding something on your own, endures. I have bored many people about this film since 1979, and now I’m boring you. 

 

You are most welcome.

 

The history of its production is quite an odyssey of paranoia and conspiracy.

Doc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhK7hMBli4s

Book https://geoffdyer.com/books/zona/

 

The sonic landscapes within it are memorable and astounding. Having said that, my wife calls it dentist music. I assume this means it has the timbre of drill on tooth rather than Muzak in the waiting room while you read your Scots Magazine. She doesn’t like Stalker either. 

 

Go on, give it a go! I know you want to shave your head and lie in a puddle.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/06/andrei-tarkovsky-stalker-russia-gulags-chernobyl

 

https://www.openculture.com/2022/04/watch-andrei-tarkovskys-films-free-online-stalker-the-mirror-andrei-rublev.html