I was going to write a relatively even-handed assessment of the Federalist Papers, including how the Founding Fathers in many ways would not have approved of the massive expansion of federal power in the 20th Century. But I just don't feel up to it, since I am so sick at heart. I think I'll also have to return the Election DVD unwatched. This really is like Brexit times 10, with all the polling gone completely haywire.
I suppose Canada will be affected by America as it goose-steps towards who knows what (but nothing good). But it will still be better to watch even from only a narrow distance (rather than live under President Trump). I've already decided I will take Canadian citizenship as soon as it is possible. It looks like that is about 18 months from now. That's really all I have to say at the moment.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
The Federalist Papers (and Election)
I just managed to finish reading The Federalist Papers before the U.S. election. I wouldn't say I was inspired by this dispiriting election, but it is something that I had been meaning to read for a long time and finally decided the time was right.* One of the more interesting misconceptions is that Thomas Jefferson had a hand in The Federalist Papers (or indeed in writing the Constitution itself). Some of Jefferson's ideas made their way into the Constitution by way of the Virginia state constitution, which he had a large hand in drafting (and discusses at some length in Notes on the State of Virginia**). However, he was Ambassador to France at the time of the Constitutional Convention, and, without telephones or fax machines, he was out of the loop.† Many consider the actual authors of the Constitution to be James Madison and Gouverneur Morris.
The Federalist Papers themselves were written after the fact by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton (with a few written by John Jay). They were actually a somewhat exhaustive (and exhausting) P.R. campaign to try to convince New York citizens to clamour for their state legislature to sign onto the new Constitution. The Federalist Papers were appearing in 3 of 4 New York newspapers (creating some irritated readers to be sure) and they were produced at a really incredible clip during the period when states were signing onto the Constitution. One of the bigger historical ironies is that The Federalist Papers really didn't convince New York to join (and was apparently less influential than other pamphlets of the day) but the fact that a 9th state had signed on (and Virginia then signed the Constitution the 10th signatory). Thus, the Constitution was considered ratified (and I'll come back to this 9 of 13 issue later). If New York didn't join, it would have been left out in the cold, and thus raw political considerations took over, and it joined very shortly after Virginia. North Carolina and Rhode Island came somewhat later. Presumably without the rules about the Senate giving so much weight to small states, Rhode Island would have held out for a very long time. It would have been something for Rhode Island to be its own fiefdom, sort of like Monaco or Andorra, but it was not to be. At any rate, The Federalist Papers did end up having an outsized influence in terms of interpreting the Constitution, and I'll end up commenting a bit about that.
While there are definitely things I would change about the Constitution, and certainly the emphasis they placed on certain things (like the role of state militias vs. a national army or the idea that the House would be impeaching government officials for treason all the time) reflect the character of their times, the drafters of the Constitution were very serious and learned men. They had done their homework in terms of looking into the forms of government, not only contemporary cases such as the United Kingdom and Germany, but ancient history, particularly Greece and Rome. They were influenced by Montesquieu and his Spirit of the Laws and David Hume's Essays. Presumably they were also influenced by Locke (certainly Jefferson was), but I don't believe they name-checked him in The Federalist Papers. This short essay discusses some of the political thought that went into their work. They also believed in political compromises, and that spirit of compromise is definitely in short supply on both sides of the aisle, though it is also true that Democrats are more generally interested in a functioning government, and thus have been more willing to compromise than the Republicans, certainly since roughly 1994.
I'll either circle back to this post or create a second post tonight while waiting for the election returns. Then I can go into a few of the really notable things I learned from reading The Federalist Papers. For those who want to give it a go, Project Guttenberg has them on-line here.
* On a different note entirely, somewhat incredibly, I've never watched the movie Election, though many people have commented how much Hillary seems to be reflected in the character Tracy Flick. I'll plan on watching this soon, though I just don't think I'll have the stomach to do so if somehow Trump exceeds expectations and wins.
** I think I'll wait a few months before reading Notes on the State of Virginia. It's about half the length of The Federalist Papers and considerably less dense. I'll hold off a couple of years before attempting Democracy in America.
† The first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was successfully laid in 1858.
The Federalist Papers themselves were written after the fact by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton (with a few written by John Jay). They were actually a somewhat exhaustive (and exhausting) P.R. campaign to try to convince New York citizens to clamour for their state legislature to sign onto the new Constitution. The Federalist Papers were appearing in 3 of 4 New York newspapers (creating some irritated readers to be sure) and they were produced at a really incredible clip during the period when states were signing onto the Constitution. One of the bigger historical ironies is that The Federalist Papers really didn't convince New York to join (and was apparently less influential than other pamphlets of the day) but the fact that a 9th state had signed on (and Virginia then signed the Constitution the 10th signatory). Thus, the Constitution was considered ratified (and I'll come back to this 9 of 13 issue later). If New York didn't join, it would have been left out in the cold, and thus raw political considerations took over, and it joined very shortly after Virginia. North Carolina and Rhode Island came somewhat later. Presumably without the rules about the Senate giving so much weight to small states, Rhode Island would have held out for a very long time. It would have been something for Rhode Island to be its own fiefdom, sort of like Monaco or Andorra, but it was not to be. At any rate, The Federalist Papers did end up having an outsized influence in terms of interpreting the Constitution, and I'll end up commenting a bit about that.
While there are definitely things I would change about the Constitution, and certainly the emphasis they placed on certain things (like the role of state militias vs. a national army or the idea that the House would be impeaching government officials for treason all the time) reflect the character of their times, the drafters of the Constitution were very serious and learned men. They had done their homework in terms of looking into the forms of government, not only contemporary cases such as the United Kingdom and Germany, but ancient history, particularly Greece and Rome. They were influenced by Montesquieu and his Spirit of the Laws and David Hume's Essays. Presumably they were also influenced by Locke (certainly Jefferson was), but I don't believe they name-checked him in The Federalist Papers. This short essay discusses some of the political thought that went into their work. They also believed in political compromises, and that spirit of compromise is definitely in short supply on both sides of the aisle, though it is also true that Democrats are more generally interested in a functioning government, and thus have been more willing to compromise than the Republicans, certainly since roughly 1994.
I'll either circle back to this post or create a second post tonight while waiting for the election returns. Then I can go into a few of the really notable things I learned from reading The Federalist Papers. For those who want to give it a go, Project Guttenberg has them on-line here.
* On a different note entirely, somewhat incredibly, I've never watched the movie Election, though many people have commented how much Hillary seems to be reflected in the character Tracy Flick. I'll plan on watching this soon, though I just don't think I'll have the stomach to do so if somehow Trump exceeds expectations and wins.
** I think I'll wait a few months before reading Notes on the State of Virginia. It's about half the length of The Federalist Papers and considerably less dense. I'll hold off a couple of years before attempting Democracy in America.
† The first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was successfully laid in 1858.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
AGO-ROM swap
I'm not sure when the tradition started, but once a year (generally in the fall), the AGO and ROM have a weekend where a member of one museum can go to the other museum. I have to admit, I basically wait up for this weekend, since I don't go to the ROM all that often.
What was a bit strange this year is that both museums had major exhibits (Mystical Landscapes at the AGO and Dale Chihuly at the ROM). The Chihuly has been open a bit longer. We also got to the ROM considerably earlier on Sunday than when we visited the AGO on Saturday. The lines at the AGO were quite long and the exhibit was very crowded. So while we enjoyed it, we went through extremely quickly and will plan on coming back another time in late Nov. or mid. Dec. when the crowds are likely to be more manageable.
In this exhibit, you aren't supposed to take photos, and the guards are being fairly vigilant, but I can still give a flavour of the exhibit. It opens with a bit of a bang -- three Gauguins all together -- one from National Gallery of Scotland and one from the Albright-Knox and then one from a museum in Florida. I'd seen the first two, but never the third, so on the next visit I'll try to make more of a point of studying it. Apparently, this exhibit moves to the Musee d'Orsay, but one of the Gauguins won't make the trip.
Then there is a room with landscapes of war, particularly WWI, though it also includes this Paul Nash painting from the National Gallery of Canada, which I don't recall seeing previously.
There are a fair number of Group of Seven paintings, as well as Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. So in a way it is a good opportunity for these painters to get more exposure in Paris. Probably the most iconic of these is Thomson's West Wind, which is in the AGO's collection.
My son particularly liked the Eugène Jansson landscapes and one of the Whistler nocturnes. I'm pretty sure the Detroit Institute of Art has an impressive Whistler (and we might manage to make it there in the next year or two) as well as the Freer Gallery (part of the Smithsonian). Though I see that the Freer is going to be closed until Oct. 2017(!), which is extremely unfortunate.
The last room is kept considerably darker and is mostly comprised of landscapes at dusk or at night. Naturally the lines to see the van Gogh are quite long, and this is another one we'll spend more time on when the crowds thin out a bit.
Anyway, it is certainly an interesting exhibit. The AGO has really come up with some incredible visiting exhibits over the last few years, and the upcoming Georgia O'Keeffe is likely to be another great show.
At the ROM, the crowds were healthy but nowhere near as overwhelming. The exhibit opens with two boats, one full of oversized glass marbles and the other one with a weird bluish glass thing with multiple appendages apparently trying to get out of the boat.
Then you move into a space with an oversized glass garden.
Then there is what appears to be a representation of the neurons in your brain.
Then you go through a shell of a house covered with his oversize plates.
Finally, there is a small area where the wall text indicates that Chihuly has said many of his works were inspired by Native American baskets and rugs, and then there are some paired works.
So it was definitely an interesting and very colourful exhibit. I came close to buying a magnet, but they were just too expensive. I settled on a 2017 calendar instead, which I should find a bit more useful (at least for a year).
We spent probably another hour going through the other parts of the ROM, especially checking out the dinosaurs, but I've put up enough photos for one post.
What was a bit strange this year is that both museums had major exhibits (Mystical Landscapes at the AGO and Dale Chihuly at the ROM). The Chihuly has been open a bit longer. We also got to the ROM considerably earlier on Sunday than when we visited the AGO on Saturday. The lines at the AGO were quite long and the exhibit was very crowded. So while we enjoyed it, we went through extremely quickly and will plan on coming back another time in late Nov. or mid. Dec. when the crowds are likely to be more manageable.
In this exhibit, you aren't supposed to take photos, and the guards are being fairly vigilant, but I can still give a flavour of the exhibit. It opens with a bit of a bang -- three Gauguins all together -- one from National Gallery of Scotland and one from the Albright-Knox and then one from a museum in Florida. I'd seen the first two, but never the third, so on the next visit I'll try to make more of a point of studying it. Apparently, this exhibit moves to the Musee d'Orsay, but one of the Gauguins won't make the trip.
Then there is a room with landscapes of war, particularly WWI, though it also includes this Paul Nash painting from the National Gallery of Canada, which I don't recall seeing previously.
 |
| Paul Nash, Chestnut Waters, 1923-27 |
There are a fair number of Group of Seven paintings, as well as Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. So in a way it is a good opportunity for these painters to get more exposure in Paris. Probably the most iconic of these is Thomson's West Wind, which is in the AGO's collection.
 |
| Tom Thomson, The West Wind, 1917 |
My son particularly liked the Eugène Jansson landscapes and one of the Whistler nocturnes. I'm pretty sure the Detroit Institute of Art has an impressive Whistler (and we might manage to make it there in the next year or two) as well as the Freer Gallery (part of the Smithsonian). Though I see that the Freer is going to be closed until Oct. 2017(!), which is extremely unfortunate.
The last room is kept considerably darker and is mostly comprised of landscapes at dusk or at night. Naturally the lines to see the van Gogh are quite long, and this is another one we'll spend more time on when the crowds thin out a bit.
 |
| Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone at Arles, 1888 |
Anyway, it is certainly an interesting exhibit. The AGO has really come up with some incredible visiting exhibits over the last few years, and the upcoming Georgia O'Keeffe is likely to be another great show.
At the ROM, the crowds were healthy but nowhere near as overwhelming. The exhibit opens with two boats, one full of oversized glass marbles and the other one with a weird bluish glass thing with multiple appendages apparently trying to get out of the boat.
Then you move into a space with an oversized glass garden.
Then there is what appears to be a representation of the neurons in your brain.
Then you go through a shell of a house covered with his oversize plates.
Finally, there is a small area where the wall text indicates that Chihuly has said many of his works were inspired by Native American baskets and rugs, and then there are some paired works.
So it was definitely an interesting and very colourful exhibit. I came close to buying a magnet, but they were just too expensive. I settled on a 2017 calendar instead, which I should find a bit more useful (at least for a year).
We spent probably another hour going through the other parts of the ROM, especially checking out the dinosaurs, but I've put up enough photos for one post.
Too many events, near and far
This is definitely a recurring theme of this blog, that there is just so much to do, particularly in the late fall and winter, and I do worry that I am not seeing something that I should be seeing. I guess there is an abbreviation for this now (FOMO - fear of missing out), but I suffered from this long before Twitter...
It's sort of interesting that with theatre, you can generally piece together a schedule to see most of the interesting works, whereas with classical musical concerts, most concerts are one-offs, though the TSO will sometimes repeat concerts, though never more than 2 or 3 times.
I've been invited to a couple of performances in the next couple of weeks, and I may be able to make them, but at a certain point it just seems I am running from one thing to another (and maybe not fully enjoying myself as much if I cut back a bit...).
I actually just stumbled across a poster for two concerts at St. Barnabas (not all that far from my house) and the Nov. 13 concert looks particularly interesting. They seem to be putting concert notices here, and I'll try to check back in occasionally.
Then the following week Nov. 18 is a concert celebrating the art songs of Healey Willan, and I probably ought to try to make this concert. Details here.
The next day is where it just gets silly. Nov. 19, the Toronto Concert Orchestra is doing Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and Healey Willan's Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ, as well as Debussy's Rhapsody for Saxophone. This is at St. Paul's Anglican Church on Bloor. The poster for the concert is here.
The same day and same time, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is doing Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony at Roy Thompson Hall. They are also doing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. Information here.
It is a tough call, since the musicianship is going to be at a higher level with the TSO, but the program is more interesting with the TCO and I generally prefer church organs to organs in concert halls. Of course, I might solve the dilemma entirely, by skipping both and seeing Bach's solo cello pieces at the UT music school (as suggested here). It's really just too much for the music lover who is trying to do everything. And I just remembered that I have a neighbourhood potluck to attend, so I guess I will miss all of these concerts after all and can stop fretting about it.
While I doubt I would go to the entire series, there is some performer promoting a whole slew of bassoon concerts (details here). Dec. 19 is the most intriguing, but Dec. 5 also looks worth exploring, though I have a conflict that cannot be resolved, so I won't be in attendance.
Moving back to theatre, I've basically decided to give Hart House's Much Ado About Nothing a pass, though it is getting good reviews. I've seen it twice in the last two years, and I need to take a break from it. It basically runs for another two weeks.
I'm fairly likely to take my son to As You Like It at George Brown instead, since it is an easier play to ease into. What I have to decide (and fairly quickly) is whether I want to see Noel Coward's Cavalcade, since I need to put my ticket order for the season together soon (details here). I'm leaning against it, but I'll try to skim the play before the week is out.
At the end of November and into December, there will be an all-female version of Measure for Measure. I doubt they can fully redeem this problem play, but I'm leaning towards checking it out (without my son, to be sure). This will be at Red Sandcastle.
Wolf Manor had originally been slated to do Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, but they've moved this to January (probably better for me in terms of spacing) and then in March will do Chekhov's Three Sisters, which I'll probably see. And I may see the rest of their season, which is heavy on Shakespeare (Richard II and Julius Caesar). This depends if they actually sell subscriptions or not. Details will be unveiled here.
I believe I already mentioned that I had been thinking of seeing Shakespeare Bash'd's staged reading of Middleton's The Changling next Sunday, but then Stratford decided that they would do a full production, so I will hold off on that. On the other hand, they are doing Twelfth Night the first week of Feb. I wish I could take my son, but it looks like it is more of an adults-only affair.
For some reason, Stratford is a bit behind in putting out their schedule for 2017, so I haven't quite figured out what to do. On the other hand, I am thrilled that the Shaw Festival has finally decided to start running buses from Toronto down to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Details here. Unfortunately, the schedule only works out (for me) to be able to see a Sat. or Sun. 2 pm matinee (or possibly a 1 pm matinee but almost certainly not one of their noontime shows). That seems to rule out An Octoroon, but it dramatically increases the odds that I will check out St. Joan this summer. Again, I would be a total hypocrite if I didn't go at least once to show support for this bus.
I'm kind of getting further and further afield, but as long as I am thinking about long bus rides down to that corner of Ontario, I should mention that there is a fairly interesting exhibit at the Albright-Knox in Buffalo. It's called Picasso: the Artist and His Models (info here). As with last year's Monet show, I suspect it will only be a handful of Picasso's on loan, combined with a large selection of works by Picasso’s contemporaries from their collection. If I am extremely fortunate, they will be including their Beckmann. Anyway, I think I'll make the trip in mid-December or early Jan., and I may take my son as well.
Unfortunately, the timing doesn't quite work out to pair this with a performance of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, which runs for most of March 2017. I haven't entirely decided if I will go a second time to Buffalo just for this, but I'm leaning that way. It just isn't performed all that often, and it is really the last major Miller I have yet to see.
So as always, there is just too much to do, but I am slowly trying to pick my way through all these offerings.
It's sort of interesting that with theatre, you can generally piece together a schedule to see most of the interesting works, whereas with classical musical concerts, most concerts are one-offs, though the TSO will sometimes repeat concerts, though never more than 2 or 3 times.
I've been invited to a couple of performances in the next couple of weeks, and I may be able to make them, but at a certain point it just seems I am running from one thing to another (and maybe not fully enjoying myself as much if I cut back a bit...).
I actually just stumbled across a poster for two concerts at St. Barnabas (not all that far from my house) and the Nov. 13 concert looks particularly interesting. They seem to be putting concert notices here, and I'll try to check back in occasionally.
Then the following week Nov. 18 is a concert celebrating the art songs of Healey Willan, and I probably ought to try to make this concert. Details here.
The next day is where it just gets silly. Nov. 19, the Toronto Concert Orchestra is doing Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and Healey Willan's Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ, as well as Debussy's Rhapsody for Saxophone. This is at St. Paul's Anglican Church on Bloor. The poster for the concert is here.
The same day and same time, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is doing Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony at Roy Thompson Hall. They are also doing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. Information here.
It is a tough call, since the musicianship is going to be at a higher level with the TSO, but the program is more interesting with the TCO and I generally prefer church organs to organs in concert halls. Of course, I might solve the dilemma entirely, by skipping both and seeing Bach's solo cello pieces at the UT music school (as suggested here). It's really just too much for the music lover who is trying to do everything. And I just remembered that I have a neighbourhood potluck to attend, so I guess I will miss all of these concerts after all and can stop fretting about it.
While I doubt I would go to the entire series, there is some performer promoting a whole slew of bassoon concerts (details here). Dec. 19 is the most intriguing, but Dec. 5 also looks worth exploring, though I have a conflict that cannot be resolved, so I won't be in attendance.
Moving back to theatre, I've basically decided to give Hart House's Much Ado About Nothing a pass, though it is getting good reviews. I've seen it twice in the last two years, and I need to take a break from it. It basically runs for another two weeks.
I'm fairly likely to take my son to As You Like It at George Brown instead, since it is an easier play to ease into. What I have to decide (and fairly quickly) is whether I want to see Noel Coward's Cavalcade, since I need to put my ticket order for the season together soon (details here). I'm leaning against it, but I'll try to skim the play before the week is out.
At the end of November and into December, there will be an all-female version of Measure for Measure. I doubt they can fully redeem this problem play, but I'm leaning towards checking it out (without my son, to be sure). This will be at Red Sandcastle.
Wolf Manor had originally been slated to do Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, but they've moved this to January (probably better for me in terms of spacing) and then in March will do Chekhov's Three Sisters, which I'll probably see. And I may see the rest of their season, which is heavy on Shakespeare (Richard II and Julius Caesar). This depends if they actually sell subscriptions or not. Details will be unveiled here.
I believe I already mentioned that I had been thinking of seeing Shakespeare Bash'd's staged reading of Middleton's The Changling next Sunday, but then Stratford decided that they would do a full production, so I will hold off on that. On the other hand, they are doing Twelfth Night the first week of Feb. I wish I could take my son, but it looks like it is more of an adults-only affair.
For some reason, Stratford is a bit behind in putting out their schedule for 2017, so I haven't quite figured out what to do. On the other hand, I am thrilled that the Shaw Festival has finally decided to start running buses from Toronto down to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Details here. Unfortunately, the schedule only works out (for me) to be able to see a Sat. or Sun. 2 pm matinee (or possibly a 1 pm matinee but almost certainly not one of their noontime shows). That seems to rule out An Octoroon, but it dramatically increases the odds that I will check out St. Joan this summer. Again, I would be a total hypocrite if I didn't go at least once to show support for this bus.
I'm kind of getting further and further afield, but as long as I am thinking about long bus rides down to that corner of Ontario, I should mention that there is a fairly interesting exhibit at the Albright-Knox in Buffalo. It's called Picasso: the Artist and His Models (info here). As with last year's Monet show, I suspect it will only be a handful of Picasso's on loan, combined with a large selection of works by Picasso’s contemporaries from their collection. If I am extremely fortunate, they will be including their Beckmann. Anyway, I think I'll make the trip in mid-December or early Jan., and I may take my son as well.
Unfortunately, the timing doesn't quite work out to pair this with a performance of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, which runs for most of March 2017. I haven't entirely decided if I will go a second time to Buffalo just for this, but I'm leaning that way. It just isn't performed all that often, and it is really the last major Miller I have yet to see.
So as always, there is just too much to do, but I am slowly trying to pick my way through all these offerings.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Norman Lewis in Chicago
In many ways, the trip to Chicago was set in motion when I heard about the Norman Lewis exhibit, originally on view in Philadelphia was coming to Chicago this fall. This seems to be the last stop on the tour, and the show closes Jan 8, 2017. It is a nice show, though I probably wouldn't suggest anyone further away than Milwaukee travel to see the show, since it is contained in only three rooms on the top floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, and they didn't actually get the works on paper, so it is a smaller show than was on view in Philadelphia. The catalog is a very good investment, however, particularly if you like abstract art.
Norman Lewis is quite an interesting figure in 20th Century art, since he was one of the few African-American artists to stick with abstract art for the majority of his work. (His earlier works are figurative, but the majority are entirely abstract. In fact, there is a fairly early work in this exhibit where Lewis is basically mimicking a Kandinsky, trying to figure out what makes it tick.) Romare Bearden often worked in an updated Cubist style, but still was largely figurative. That in itself might not justify an exhibit, but Lewis's work is sort of quietly impressive, and when looking at the sweep of his work, he does seem like a neglected figure, worthy of this reassessment. I know that I had started paying attention to his incredibly detailed works, probably starting with the one on view at the Smart Museum in Hyde Park (Chicago). This one is not in the exhibit, but at least it is in the catalog. There is also a nice Lewis painting in the St. Louis Art Museum. It's a little difficult for me to reconstruct exactly which painting triggered my interest in Lewis, but it would have been one very much like the one in Chicago or St. Louis: on the small side and incredibly detailed. Lewis gradually moved to larger canvases, and quite a few of these are in the exhibit.
Of the earlier, figurative pieces, this one grabbed me, probably because of the odd color scheme.
Of the mid-sized paintings, this one was my favorite.
Here is a close-up, just hinting at the detail in so many of these works.
I think this was my favorite of the larger-scale abstract works. For some reason, I have it in my head that this is a tiger mixed with a giraffe, but seen from somewhere in the fourth dimension.
These three photos attempt to provide a sense of what wandering through the exhibit was like, though I have skipped over the earliest paintings to focus on Lewis's abstract work.
It was a well-curated exhibit, and definitely worth checking out if one is in Chicago.
Norman Lewis is quite an interesting figure in 20th Century art, since he was one of the few African-American artists to stick with abstract art for the majority of his work. (His earlier works are figurative, but the majority are entirely abstract. In fact, there is a fairly early work in this exhibit where Lewis is basically mimicking a Kandinsky, trying to figure out what makes it tick.) Romare Bearden often worked in an updated Cubist style, but still was largely figurative. That in itself might not justify an exhibit, but Lewis's work is sort of quietly impressive, and when looking at the sweep of his work, he does seem like a neglected figure, worthy of this reassessment. I know that I had started paying attention to his incredibly detailed works, probably starting with the one on view at the Smart Museum in Hyde Park (Chicago). This one is not in the exhibit, but at least it is in the catalog. There is also a nice Lewis painting in the St. Louis Art Museum. It's a little difficult for me to reconstruct exactly which painting triggered my interest in Lewis, but it would have been one very much like the one in Chicago or St. Louis: on the small side and incredibly detailed. Lewis gradually moved to larger canvases, and quite a few of these are in the exhibit.
Of the earlier, figurative pieces, this one grabbed me, probably because of the odd color scheme.
 |
| Norman Lewis, Title Unknown (Potato Eaters), 1945 |
Of the mid-sized paintings, this one was my favorite.
 |
| Norman Lewis, Title Unknown (Procession), 1949 |
Here is a close-up, just hinting at the detail in so many of these works.
I think this was my favorite of the larger-scale abstract works. For some reason, I have it in my head that this is a tiger mixed with a giraffe, but seen from somewhere in the fourth dimension.
 |
| Norman Lewis, Exodus, 1972 |
It was a well-curated exhibit, and definitely worth checking out if one is in Chicago.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Walker Art Center, late Fall 2016
I have visited the Walker long ago, and, as I mentioned, I think it was under some construction even then, though I believe we were able to get somewhat closer to the sculpture garden (which was completely closed on this visit). It's interesting that both the Walker and the MCA in Chicago skew towards presenting contemporary art and the focus is really on their exhibits rather than displaying their collections (which is the focus of most art museums). The MCA didn't even accept items into its collection for many years, though it has gradually built up a pretty decent collection, which it occasionally dips into and displays. I believe the Walker was always open to building up its collection, but it still doesn't really put the older pieces on display that often, unless it is tied into some themed exhibit. (Obviously, I don't go often, so I may be way off base.) I do feel that in both cases, the architecture of the museums is fairly wasteful of the building footprint in terms of how much space is available for showing art, and perhaps if they had more wall space they would put out more of their permanent collections.
I did make a special effort on this trip to get to the Walker to see their 75th anniversary retrospective. Apparently, this has been running for 2 years(!), but will be closing at the end of Dec. 2016. Then it might be quite a while before some of these pieces are displayed again. I'll start with a few of the pieces I particularly liked, and then discuss some of the pieces I wish had been displayed (based on a quick browsing of their on-line search tool).
This piece is actually not owned by the Walker but is on long-term loan from the US General Services Administration, since it was part of the Fine Arts Program (one of the alphabet soup agencies of the New Deal).
I've had a chance to see this Hopper before in a Hopper show at the Whitney, but it was neat to be able to get a really close view of it. Also, the Walker was nearly empty that day, perhaps due to it being a weekday -- and also all the construction can't be helping attendance.
This nude was paired with the Hopper and was actually quite striking.
The next room was dedicated to more abstract works, and I liked this one.
The Franz Kline and Frank Stella paintings were also nice, though my photos didn't come out quite as well as I hoped.
The last room of the retrospective focused on some larger, more contemporary pieces. They had a decent piece by Lee Bontecou and then this floppy city.
So there were a number of nice pieces, though I have to say that several of the pieces still in storage were just as good, and in several cases better.
I would really have liked to see this Beckmann painting, since I don't believe I've even seen it in any Beckmann monograph. (At the very least there should have been a reference to it in the Exile in Amsterdam catalogue, even if it wasn't part of the show.)
.
Of course, I would also have liked to see the Stuart Davis painting, though it appears this was part of the big Davis show at the Whitney and sort of blended in with the rest (and it might have stood out more if it was the only Davis on the wall, just like the Hopper did). In any case, I certainly can't blame the Walker Art Center for not having it on view on my visit!
I'm a bit more disappointed that their Guston wasn't on view, since I think it would have fit into this retrospective.
It's a bit harder to say about the Jasper Johns print. They have a fairly substantial collection of Johns prints (and an almost complete set of the Seasons), and they probably don't put them out that often.
In many ways, the Hockney is truly the odd painting out. It doesn't fit that well into the narrative of modern art, since Hockney never really left figurative art (unlike Guston who went abstract and then came back). I'm not really sure what exhibition the Walker would put together where the Hockney would fit, whereas I can at least conceive of exhibits where the Beckmann and particularly the Guston would fit.
.
As a modest proposal, I do wonder if the Walker could propose a swap or at least a long-term loan of a few of their paintings (like the Beckmann, Guston and Hockney) to the MIA, perhaps in exchange for their Kiki Smith and a few other more contemporary artists who generally fit the current curatorial approach.
Finally, I don't know that they would have had room for more sculpted pieces, but I wish they had this Segal piece on view. It probably could have been squeezed into a corner somewhere. (I see that they also have an installation by the Kienholzs, but I don't feel as badly about missing out on that.)
I did make a special effort on this trip to get to the Walker to see their 75th anniversary retrospective. Apparently, this has been running for 2 years(!), but will be closing at the end of Dec. 2016. Then it might be quite a while before some of these pieces are displayed again. I'll start with a few of the pieces I particularly liked, and then discuss some of the pieces I wish had been displayed (based on a quick browsing of their on-line search tool).
This piece is actually not owned by the Walker but is on long-term loan from the US General Services Administration, since it was part of the Fine Arts Program (one of the alphabet soup agencies of the New Deal).
 |
| Mac LeSueur, Winter Sand Pit, ca. 1935 |
I've had a chance to see this Hopper before in a Hopper show at the Whitney, but it was neat to be able to get a really close view of it. Also, the Walker was nearly empty that day, perhaps due to it being a weekday -- and also all the construction can't be helping attendance.
 |
| Edward Hopper, Office at Night, 1940 |
This nude was paired with the Hopper and was actually quite striking.
 |
| Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Nude in Grey Chemise, 1929 |
The next room was dedicated to more abstract works, and I liked this one.
 |
| Adolph Gottlieb, Blue at Noon, 1955 |
The Franz Kline and Frank Stella paintings were also nice, though my photos didn't come out quite as well as I hoped.
The last room of the retrospective focused on some larger, more contemporary pieces. They had a decent piece by Lee Bontecou and then this floppy city.
 |
| Claes Oldenburg, Upside Down City, 1962 |
So there were a number of nice pieces, though I have to say that several of the pieces still in storage were just as good, and in several cases better.
I would really have liked to see this Beckmann painting, since I don't believe I've even seen it in any Beckmann monograph. (At the very least there should have been a reference to it in the Exile in Amsterdam catalogue, even if it wasn't part of the show.)
 |
| Max Beckmann, Woman Reading at the Beach, 1939 |
.
Of course, I would also have liked to see the Stuart Davis painting, though it appears this was part of the big Davis show at the Whitney and sort of blended in with the rest (and it might have stood out more if it was the only Davis on the wall, just like the Hopper did). In any case, I certainly can't blame the Walker Art Center for not having it on view on my visit!
 |
| Stuart Davis, Colonial Cubism, 1954 |
I'm a bit more disappointed that their Guston wasn't on view, since I think it would have fit into this retrospective.
 |
| Philip Guston, Bombay, 1976 |
It's a bit harder to say about the Jasper Johns print. They have a fairly substantial collection of Johns prints (and an almost complete set of the Seasons), and they probably don't put them out that often.
 |
| Jasper Johns, Green Angel 2, 1997 |
In many ways, the Hockney is truly the odd painting out. It doesn't fit that well into the narrative of modern art, since Hockney never really left figurative art (unlike Guston who went abstract and then came back). I'm not really sure what exhibition the Walker would put together where the Hockney would fit, whereas I can at least conceive of exhibits where the Beckmann and particularly the Guston would fit.
 |
| David Hockney, Hollywood Hills House, 1981-82 |
.
As a modest proposal, I do wonder if the Walker could propose a swap or at least a long-term loan of a few of their paintings (like the Beckmann, Guston and Hockney) to the MIA, perhaps in exchange for their Kiki Smith and a few other more contemporary artists who generally fit the current curatorial approach.
Finally, I don't know that they would have had room for more sculpted pieces, but I wish they had this Segal piece on view. It probably could have been squeezed into a corner somewhere. (I see that they also have an installation by the Kienholzs, but I don't feel as badly about missing out on that.)
 |
| George Segal, Diner, 1964-66 |
So it was worth visiting the Walker, but I sort of left hungry for more art, whereas I was feeling fairly full after the visit to the MIA.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Fall interlude and updates
Fall has definitely arrived. A few of my recent photos have focused on the changing leaves, and now the change has finally come to the neighbourhood. Here is the view from our back deck -- first the tree in the back yard and then some of the neighbours' trees.
Well, the biggest news is that the Cubs won the World Series. So Back to the Future was only a year off! It is really quite hard to believe, and they came so close to losing, but that just means it was an extremely hard fought game (and Series). I'm not really a baseball fan, but this was pretty epic. My wife is incredibly thrilled. I'm sure she'll have her father bring up some Cubs gear in a few weeks.
The election has been nasty and far too long. I don't quite understand why they can't keep the election cycle to 3-4 months, rather than 14 months or whatever it has stretched to now. That is one area where Canada and the UK have an advantage over the US, though in both cases politicians have tried to stretch the election season. I'm fairly confident Hilary will pull it out in the end, but it should never have gotten this close. I do think a whole bunch of FBI staff are going to end up resigning (perhaps not voluntarily) if she wins. As I already indicated, I do think the U.S. is basically teetering on the edge of being a dysfunctional state, mostly because the population has gotten so polarized and really nothing useful gets done. I am feeling very happy to be watching from the sidelines for now.
Somewhat incredibly this blog has hit 70,000 views, with only a small handful related to me editing posts. Not that many comments though, so feel free to drop me a line from time to time!
I'm back from a quite nice TSO concert where they did Milhaud's Creation of the World, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #3 and Shostakovich's Symphony #1. I'm fairly sure I'd heard the Milhaud, though it is possible I heard it on record. The Prokofiev felt somewhat familiar, but it's unlikely I heard this in concert before. I had heard the Shostakovich live previously. All were somewhat jagged and a bit jazzy in places. I feel I should read some jazz age literature (like Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise) but I also don't want to distort my reading list any further than I already have, so I may just settle for rereading The Waste Land and some other poetry by Eliot and Pound.
Curiously, Hart House Orchestra is doing the reduced score of the Milhaud piece next week. It's hard for me to imagine this really working, but I might go just to find out. There are a few other concerts of interest, though many are all on the same day, which is a bit frustrating. I'll decide later on what I actually want to do, and then I'll try to post a quick update on that.
Halloween was pretty fun, but I'm glad it's over. I took the kids out on our street and half of the next street over. That gave them more than enough candy. We also checked out the Riverdale Halloween Show over on Langley, since we know a few people actually in the show.
I think one of the toughest things about Halloween is that there is so much candy left over, and this is the time when it is so easy to start eating far too much junk food. I've been doing a good job of staying off the soda, and I do think my blood sugar levels are starting to improve. Maybe after another month, I'll try to get more serious about cutting back on sugary foods and snacking in general. It's a long process, but I really do need to make a change. I haven't completely given up on the biking, but there probably won't be too many more days that I consider cycling in until the spring.
That covers the main fall updates. I'll see if I can get through a few more posts tomorrow, maybe focusing on the theatre reviews.
Edit (11/4): Just to add a few more photos of fall. The first one was taken at the bus stop (while a bit difficult to see, the red ivy on the red brick wall was particularly nice) and the other two are taken from the subway crossing the Don River (using the Bloor viaduct). That view is one of the few things that makes taking the TTC somewhat bearable in the morning.*
* I'm probably going to try to bike another week or two, but I'm pretty close to packing it in for the winter and will be on the TTC a lot more -- and generally more grumpy about it (and internet service remains poor which makes me especially grumpy these days).
Well, the biggest news is that the Cubs won the World Series. So Back to the Future was only a year off! It is really quite hard to believe, and they came so close to losing, but that just means it was an extremely hard fought game (and Series). I'm not really a baseball fan, but this was pretty epic. My wife is incredibly thrilled. I'm sure she'll have her father bring up some Cubs gear in a few weeks.
The election has been nasty and far too long. I don't quite understand why they can't keep the election cycle to 3-4 months, rather than 14 months or whatever it has stretched to now. That is one area where Canada and the UK have an advantage over the US, though in both cases politicians have tried to stretch the election season. I'm fairly confident Hilary will pull it out in the end, but it should never have gotten this close. I do think a whole bunch of FBI staff are going to end up resigning (perhaps not voluntarily) if she wins. As I already indicated, I do think the U.S. is basically teetering on the edge of being a dysfunctional state, mostly because the population has gotten so polarized and really nothing useful gets done. I am feeling very happy to be watching from the sidelines for now.
Somewhat incredibly this blog has hit 70,000 views, with only a small handful related to me editing posts. Not that many comments though, so feel free to drop me a line from time to time!
I'm back from a quite nice TSO concert where they did Milhaud's Creation of the World, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #3 and Shostakovich's Symphony #1. I'm fairly sure I'd heard the Milhaud, though it is possible I heard it on record. The Prokofiev felt somewhat familiar, but it's unlikely I heard this in concert before. I had heard the Shostakovich live previously. All were somewhat jagged and a bit jazzy in places. I feel I should read some jazz age literature (like Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise) but I also don't want to distort my reading list any further than I already have, so I may just settle for rereading The Waste Land and some other poetry by Eliot and Pound.
Curiously, Hart House Orchestra is doing the reduced score of the Milhaud piece next week. It's hard for me to imagine this really working, but I might go just to find out. There are a few other concerts of interest, though many are all on the same day, which is a bit frustrating. I'll decide later on what I actually want to do, and then I'll try to post a quick update on that.
Halloween was pretty fun, but I'm glad it's over. I took the kids out on our street and half of the next street over. That gave them more than enough candy. We also checked out the Riverdale Halloween Show over on Langley, since we know a few people actually in the show.
I think one of the toughest things about Halloween is that there is so much candy left over, and this is the time when it is so easy to start eating far too much junk food. I've been doing a good job of staying off the soda, and I do think my blood sugar levels are starting to improve. Maybe after another month, I'll try to get more serious about cutting back on sugary foods and snacking in general. It's a long process, but I really do need to make a change. I haven't completely given up on the biking, but there probably won't be too many more days that I consider cycling in until the spring.
That covers the main fall updates. I'll see if I can get through a few more posts tomorrow, maybe focusing on the theatre reviews.
Edit (11/4): Just to add a few more photos of fall. The first one was taken at the bus stop (while a bit difficult to see, the red ivy on the red brick wall was particularly nice) and the other two are taken from the subway crossing the Don River (using the Bloor viaduct). That view is one of the few things that makes taking the TTC somewhat bearable in the morning.*
* I'm probably going to try to bike another week or two, but I'm pretty close to packing it in for the winter and will be on the TTC a lot more -- and generally more grumpy about it (and internet service remains poor which makes me especially grumpy these days).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)