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Editor’s Letter

Editor’s Letter: May, 2017

 

“History never really says goodbye. History says, ‘See you later.’” 
                    ~Eduardo Galeano

Left: Frank Duveneck, study for, Guard at the Harem (1888). Collection Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Art Preserves the Historical Record: Muslim Slaves in 19th Century America

First, a little background…

Slavery is as old as civilization. The capture, sale and exploitation of slave labor had been a burgeoning business for the nations of Europe and Africa—then the center of the known world—and beyond, throughout recorded history.

So when slavery arrived on the shores of the American colonies, it was merely a natural progression of a widely recognized and accepted practice. It is important to note, at this point, a detail about exploration and settlement of the North American continent in the 400 years since its “discovery”, up until the Civil War. After the vast landfall’s presence was known for certain, this “New World” was invaded by three principle groups—each with its own agenda.More

Editor’s Letter: January, 2017

paul-delaroche-two_heads_camaldolese_monks-1844

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Left: Paul Delaroche, Two Heads, Camaldolese Monks (1844).

Sweeping up the Heart

Every singer, every actor, every dancer considers themselves artists. The world of expression and those who give form to our emotions through lyrics and movement, is poorer in these fresh days of a New Year, a result of the loss of several talented performers in recent weeks. While my head was still spinning with each new, sad announcement, I received an email from cherished, long-time friend and contributing editor to ARTES, Ed Rubin. Eddy is a New Yorker, through-and-through, and as a result, has ‘theater’ coursing through his veins. The performing arts come alive for those, like Ed, who can casually encounter a star or a cultural icon on the streets of the City, at a restaurant or party. You quickly learn that celebrities are just people, as their vulnerability and untimely deaths so often painfully demonstrate.More

Editor’s Letter: December, 2016

 

bartolomeo_veneto_woman_playing_a_lute

“To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.”

~E. B. White

Right: Bartelomeo Veneto, Lady Playing a Lute (c. 1520). Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan, Italy)

 

Rebirth and Resilience

Dear Reader- In May of this year, the ebb and flow of ARTES articles and opinion—so much a part of my life and that of our writers and online visitors since launching in 2009—came crashing down. The diagnosis: the accumulated content of 27 Gb of words and images, supported by WordPress code that in some cases dated to our inception, caused it to collapse under its own virtual weight. As explained, it was an aging sand castle foundation, eroded by a relentless tide of new material being heaped on top. Our repeated and best efforts to keep the site ‘live’ were to no avail. In thecaspar_david_friedrich_-_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog-1818 weeks that followed, shock, sadness and a genuine sense of loss permeated my emotions.

Right: Casper David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818).

My dismay was only reinforced by conversations with tech experts who offered little hope for an easy fix; or a complex rehabilitation effort at great expense, with no guarantees at the other end. Weeks turned to months as I contemplated life without ARTES as a daily project. I taught more classes, began writing a long-planned book, and roamed the many book stores and libraries in my area looking for solace. It was an emotional summer for me as various strategies for restoring ARTES churned in the back of my mind. Events were further complicated by added responsibilities related to my aging mother at one end of life’s spectrum, and the imminent arrival of a grandchild at the other.More

Editor’s Letter, December, 2015

www.artesmagazine.com

“The highest condition of art is artlessness.” ~Henry David Thoreau

 

Left: Giovanni Baldoni, Giuseppe Verdi (1886)

Flight Lines

 

 

“Angels are very important, because they provide people with an articulation of the conviction that God is intimately involved in human life.”

Heaven is up. And it is that spectre of ethereal blackness lying far beyond the stars of a night-time sky that sparks our imagination. For the ancients, their gods lived here among us, performing magical acts, competing with each other and settling old scores. Mountain tops, roiling seas, wooded glens and drifting clouds were their domiciles; their kind only occasionally traversing the skies. But they were mostly earth-bound, much like their less-than-sempiternal counterparts. It took the monotheistic sensibilities of a handful of Christian zealots—diarists and letter writers mostly—hovering around a central sacrificial visage to move Western culture toward a theological new world order. xxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: June, 2015

Alfred kappes Tattered-and-Torn_smith colleg art“A voyage of discovery is not   new landscapes, but new eyes.” ~Marcel Proust

Left: Alfred Kappes, ‘Tattered and Torn’ (1886). Collection: Smith College Museum of Art.

 ‘Uncle B’: A Remembrance

“The Blues are a simple music and I’m a simple man. But the Blues aren’t a science, the Blues can’t be broken down like mathematics. The Blues are a mystery, and mysteries are never as simple as they look!” ~ BB King Music, color and deepest emotional expression converge in the African-American musical form known as the Blues. Derived from the color blue, the blues, in the plural form, express a wide range of emotions musically. Just as the color blue has wide variety of shades, so do the blues in terms of their intensity. xxxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: April, 2015

033“A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.” ~Robert Henri

 

Left: Henri Matisse, ‘Seated Woman’ (1935), Private collection

Venus Rising

The planet Venus hangs low in early spring air, gently pulsating in a jewel-toned, cobalt evening sky. A narrow band of deep orange and crimson still grips the horizon behind the distant tree line, reluctant to forfeit another day’s warming trend—harbinger of more sultry days to come. Almost too brilliant to be taken for a celestial form, this spherical object tricks the eye into believing it is an aircraft’s light, suspended in a holding pattern awaiting further instructions. Each night, Venus is joined on a near-collision course by the waxing or waning moon. Yet, the Old Man passes harmlessly and without fail on its course to the other side of the world. All this, in spite of the dim red glow of nearby planet Mars, a playful traffic light in the vastness of galactic space, appearing to signal “Stop!” This spectacle is not only beautiful, but awe-inspiring. One can easily imagine the ancients observing similar events high overhead, as they imparted meaning and message to these mystical planetary migrations. xxxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: March, 2015

 

DSCN9078“Accuracy Is Not Truth” ~ Eugène Delacroix

 

Left: Samuel J. Miller, Frederick Douglass (c. 1852). Private collection. 

Why Black Art Matters

 

The tumultuous universe of the visual arts coheres around a dual organizing principle: what have you got to say and how do you say it? This narrative underpinning has been true for as long as we have allowed art to occupy more than a mere decorative place in our experiential universe. Some would argue that prehistoric cave paintings and early Renaissance religious works mattered equally to their respective communities for their devotional and mystical properties; that is, their power to transport the viewer to a higher, spiritual plane. xxxxxx More

Cover of ‘Charlie Hebdo,’ French Satirical Newspaper

IN MEMORIAM: For the innocent victims of the recent Paris attack on the satirical publication, Charlie Hebdo. And, in support of all who make art, editorial content and literature as political and cultural commentary, we run the cover of their magazine, appearing just a week after twelve cartoonists and five others were gunned down by extremists in places where they worked, lived and shopped. Now, in the name of free expression, we are all ‘Charlie!’

Fullscreen capture 1182015 84834 AM

Recently, in another part of the world, artists and activists gathered in a public square in Havana, Cuba. They assembled on the day President Obama announced new U.S. political and cultural relations with the Castro regime. In spite of the spirit of openness that supposedly accompanied this diplomatic initiative, several artists at that celebratory event were detained, questioned and held for two days by police . One such detainee was Tania Bruguera, whose work was reviewed by ARTES Magazine in 2010. Read more about her political art here:

http://www.artesmagazine.com/2010/03/neuberger-museum-features-installation-art-by-cuban-artist/

 

 

Editor’s Letter: January, 2015

www.artesmagazine.com“The art one chooses to collect becomes a self-portrait.” ~Dennis Heckler, Artist

 

Left: Emile Nolde, “Portrait of the Artist and His Wife” (ca. 1932), watercolor. Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

Out of the Blue

“Nothing is as tedious as the limping days [of winter],” decried Baudelaire. Our world is once again draped in a veil of blue. Summer’s yellow-orange glow has, of late, been rudely displaced by a cold, indifferent blast of winter chill. Landscapes, once verdant, appear as medieval tapestries, their muted tones of purple-gray, deep maroons, rich ochre and black now enshrouding us. Slanting early afternoon light extends trailing sapphire shadows of bare tree branches, like innumerable swaying, gnarled fingers, across vast expanses of snowy fields. While many welcome the season, others, like Sinclair Lewis, were not so inclined. “Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation,”he protested. xxxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: December, 2014

DSCN7609“To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.” ~August Rodin

 

Left: Abbott Handerson Thayer, Winged Figure on a Rock (1903/16), oil on canvas. Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C.

 

Comet Sense

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him” (Matt. 2:1-2, NASB).

Somewhere in every picture of the Biblical Christmas scene—eliciting warm and happy emotions—is a star. The star dominates the nighttime sky with its size and brightness and its long tail pointing to the earth.

Wait a minute…TAIL? xxxxxxMore

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