I was radicalized by my parents so I can't say there's any one art work that changed my opinion in a political way. But in the fascism mode I'd have to say "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is hard to beat. It focuses on the intellectual Finzi-Contini family, Jewish aristocrats who live on an idyllic estate and are largely insulated from the anti-semitism sweeping the country, until they are not. It combines a lush romanticism with a devastating and creeping reality that sneaks up on them. It feels like that's how it happens. You are looking the other way and suddenly you're in this maelstrom of hate and now it's too late. Timely, right?
While I know that is a book very preoccupied with masculinity, I've always seen it first as an anti-civilization novel. Anarchy. A rejection of the status quo in favor of something new and alive. Maybe that's just what I took from it. Admittedly, it's been years since I read it...but the film made me feel the same way.
CATCH-22 is certainly up there for me. It's certainly why I view everyone with authority over others (or the world) with a high degree of skepticism. What was the news on V? Feels like that's a reboot I could 100% get behind in today's world, but they'll probably wait until after the regime is replaced - when it's safe to do it.
An interesting question, @Cole Haddon . This is probably a longer answer than you might have expected. You prompted me to think back to that time, many years ago. Thanks.
I suppose the main thing about it, was that it was so different to any other ‘portrait’ I had seen up to that time. I was about 13 and was lucky enough to have an art teacher who was an exhibiting artist. I went to an all boy public high school and he used to challenge us on values of art, religion, politics and social justice. It was a very multi-cultural, predominantly working class environment. There were fights all the time, corporal punishment was still in vogue and there was a fair amount of the typical mis-informed teenaged nonsense about sex to be expected from all that testosterone.
We had compulsory religious classes, various religions, but compulsory.
When I first saw this painting and the ironic use of “Adam’s Apple” shall we say, it had a profound effect on me. Just this simple image that said so much. The bowler hat, the odd left arm, all had a tremendous impact on me. Indirectly it is one of the reasons I took up photography as my preferred art form because I was a lousy painter and had made a few vain attempts to create works influenced by Magritte. Of course it led me to a much more intense exploration of surrealism.
Piss Christ by Andre Serrano. The reaction from the religious right crystallized my disgust with the intrusive effect of their ideology on free speech and liberty. And the photo is beautiful and moving.
Shortly after that storm (1987), I viewed an exhibition here, at UPenn in Philadelphia, of a retrospective of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. Extraordinary photographic artist. No controversy here. But then the exhibition moved to a Cincinnati gallery. The gallery owner was arrested, tried and ultimately acquitted. (He happened to be the father of my sister's boyfriend.)
That same year, I was in Chicago for the Worldcon (Science Fiction). My oldest friend is a huge sci-fi fan, and he and his new wife decided to honeymoon at the convention. I was the best man, so he invited to attend. (Fun; met Arthur C. Clarke). The Art Institute of Chicago was displaying a recreation of the 1937 Nazi exhibition "Degenerate Art". The Nazis put on a show displaying all of the contemporary art they considered unacceptable. Shattering experience.
Ever since then, I have been explicitly anti-fascist, whatever manifestation that ideology is costumed in.
I remember PISS CHRIST. Huge nightly news report. I was only 11, but everything about the outrage seemed ridiculous and angered me. It's funny, until you brought it up, I hadn't quite processed how often I think about this piece. First time I understood what art as provocation was, I think. In other news, that Degenerate Art exhibition sounds amazing. Degenerate Art features heavily in my first novel, which is probably why.
Anti- war painting helped me understanding the horrors of the past better than most photographs could have. Goya's "3rd of May" and Picasso's "Guernica" were two of the most visceral ones.
1986 was the year my world had the rug pulled from under it.
I’d already had one significant cultural detour, only reading superhero comics until 1984 when I picked up a copy of Saga of the Swamp Thing no. 28 off the spinner rack and Alan Moore showed me they could be so much more.
But in 1986, my second year of high school, I danced to New Order’s Blue Monday for the first time, stumbled across a random issue of Jaime and Gilbert’s Love and Rockets at an alternative comic shop in Toronto, and then snuck in to Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild.
And just like that, my world opened up to the people and places and things that existed outside the margins.
Listening to The Clash in the 1980s informs my view on international relations, more so, than heart fully trying to do the same through keeping up with current events. Zevon gets an honorable mention. Un Chien Andalou, Luis Brunuel piece gets a nod. I attended a nighttime class with Roger Ebert in Chicago in the late 80s, I was a rising young accountant at the time. Despite an acute eye phobia, I found the jarring work of art affective. Sometimes communication needs to be jarring to get the message across. Let’s hope for messages delivered as strongly as The Clash and Brunuel. Let’s hope for the open-mindedness and attention to absorb them.
Maybe the comics of V For Vendetta, but I don't think I would have relished it as much unless I was already radicalized. Or maybe it was reading The Communist Manifesto or Sinclair's The Jungle.
Regarding V, did you see the film is being re-released this year? Nobody cared about it at the time, too in the Bush years to understand what it was. But today? On the nose.
I sometimes wonder if it was the fact that the film makes you cheer for terrorism. It's such a rejection of the world we live in, though, so maybe it's that, too.
I didn't know it was get a re-release. I'm reading the script right now for research. It came out during Thatcher-Reagan years, so I thought it was spot on then. But considering the jingoism post-9/11 and the overwhelming passage of the Patriot Act, it makes sense why it didn't appeal to enough people. Too many had drank the Kool-Aid.
I’m thinking of three famous artworks: Ernie Barnes’ The Sugar Shack, Jacob Lawrence’s Street to Mbari, and Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas. On some level, each embodies a duality, while being profoundly tied to identity.
Wait, have we talked about THE SUGAR SHACK before? I've had an exchange on Substack about this painting. I don't know Jacob Lawrence's work nearly enough, so off to learn more about them.
My apologies for the delayed response. I believed I had already done so. I’m not certain if we’ve talked about “The Sugar Shack” artwork previously. Though I believe we did. Even now, I remember seeing the famous piece for the first time being able to fully comprehend its subtext. Knowing the poverty my parents endured, my father’s being much worse, led to a deep moment of contemplation. What they were able to overcome and achieved is nothing short of miraculous. My hope is that you’ll discover the same captivating interest and vibrancy in Jacob Lawrence’s art that I do. Two of my favorite Black artists are him and Ed Hamilton. My father is a close friend of Hamilton. They frequently discuss his travels and their common perspective on life.
I am not so knowledgeable that Hamilton's name is immediately familiar to me. So, I looked it up - and it turns out I've often photographed his work in Louisville, especially at the Speed. Wow, he's brilliant!
i took this a little bit differently - but i saw this incredible painting from Romero Britto - Happy Cat & Snob Dog. inherently funny and bright and full of life. it just makes me laugh/smile every time i see it.
The song "They Dance Alone" from Sting's ...Nothing Like the Sun album. This song opened my heart and mind to suffering and injustice in the world. I was 12 and living in a small rural town. We'd only just gotten cable and MTV. I'm not sure why this song stuck to me except that it's haunting and I had been a fairly sheltered child as far as the world was concerned.
I was radicalized by my parents so I can't say there's any one art work that changed my opinion in a political way. But in the fascism mode I'd have to say "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is hard to beat. It focuses on the intellectual Finzi-Contini family, Jewish aristocrats who live on an idyllic estate and are largely insulated from the anti-semitism sweeping the country, until they are not. It combines a lush romanticism with a devastating and creeping reality that sneaks up on them. It feels like that's how it happens. You are looking the other way and suddenly you're in this maelstrom of hate and now it's too late. Timely, right?
Absolutely. Sounds like so many of my friends who live in Los Angeles - "We're okay. It's California."
Fight Club. Is that weird for a girl who's never thrown a punch to say?
While I know that is a book very preoccupied with masculinity, I've always seen it first as an anti-civilization novel. Anarchy. A rejection of the status quo in favor of something new and alive. Maybe that's just what I took from it. Admittedly, it's been years since I read it...but the film made me feel the same way.
Exactly!
Haven't you thrown metaphorical punches? Or envisioned punching someone so hard that it felt like you had?
I'm an Aries. This is a daily occurrence 😀
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), The Invisibles (Grant Morrison and assorted artists), Mother Night (Vonnegut).
I was just asking my reps who controls the rights to V last week. There is a great reference to it in the Aesop Rock song Marble Cake.
CATCH-22 is certainly up there for me. It's certainly why I view everyone with authority over others (or the world) with a high degree of skepticism. What was the news on V? Feels like that's a reboot I could 100% get behind in today's world, but they'll probably wait until after the regime is replaced - when it's safe to do it.
Long ago in art class in high school, René Magritte’s “Son of Man”.
I'd love to hear why. I got to see "Son of Man" in person in 2024...it was...yeah...amazing.
An interesting question, @Cole Haddon . This is probably a longer answer than you might have expected. You prompted me to think back to that time, many years ago. Thanks.
I suppose the main thing about it, was that it was so different to any other ‘portrait’ I had seen up to that time. I was about 13 and was lucky enough to have an art teacher who was an exhibiting artist. I went to an all boy public high school and he used to challenge us on values of art, religion, politics and social justice. It was a very multi-cultural, predominantly working class environment. There were fights all the time, corporal punishment was still in vogue and there was a fair amount of the typical mis-informed teenaged nonsense about sex to be expected from all that testosterone.
We had compulsory religious classes, various religions, but compulsory.
When I first saw this painting and the ironic use of “Adam’s Apple” shall we say, it had a profound effect on me. Just this simple image that said so much. The bowler hat, the odd left arm, all had a tremendous impact on me. Indirectly it is one of the reasons I took up photography as my preferred art form because I was a lousy painter and had made a few vain attempts to create works influenced by Magritte. Of course it led me to a much more intense exploration of surrealism.
Thanks for the glimpse into your relationship with this piece, William!
https://share.google/w14sGtFj1VjrPIang
Piss Christ by Andre Serrano. The reaction from the religious right crystallized my disgust with the intrusive effect of their ideology on free speech and liberty. And the photo is beautiful and moving.
Shortly after that storm (1987), I viewed an exhibition here, at UPenn in Philadelphia, of a retrospective of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. Extraordinary photographic artist. No controversy here. But then the exhibition moved to a Cincinnati gallery. The gallery owner was arrested, tried and ultimately acquitted. (He happened to be the father of my sister's boyfriend.)
That same year, I was in Chicago for the Worldcon (Science Fiction). My oldest friend is a huge sci-fi fan, and he and his new wife decided to honeymoon at the convention. I was the best man, so he invited to attend. (Fun; met Arthur C. Clarke). The Art Institute of Chicago was displaying a recreation of the 1937 Nazi exhibition "Degenerate Art". The Nazis put on a show displaying all of the contemporary art they considered unacceptable. Shattering experience.
Ever since then, I have been explicitly anti-fascist, whatever manifestation that ideology is costumed in.
I remember PISS CHRIST. Huge nightly news report. I was only 11, but everything about the outrage seemed ridiculous and angered me. It's funny, until you brought it up, I hadn't quite processed how often I think about this piece. First time I understood what art as provocation was, I think. In other news, that Degenerate Art exhibition sounds amazing. Degenerate Art features heavily in my first novel, which is probably why.
https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/Art/degenerate%20art.pdf
Here's a copy of the catalogue.
Thanks!
ah, Piss Christ - i remember when it was exhibited here in Melbourne, Australia - the Murdoch papers went batshit
Anti- war painting helped me understanding the horrors of the past better than most photographs could have. Goya's "3rd of May" and Picasso's "Guernica" were two of the most visceral ones.
I saw both of these on my honeymoon...and it was a very rough day.
I saw both of these on my honeymoon...and it was a very rough day.
I saw Guernica recently. The woman and child to the left of the painting really got me.
i was thinking of Guernica when i saw Cole’s question … and then i wondered: why hasn’t some hugely successful artist done something similar re Gaza?
They have! This mural hangs in the Tate Modern in London. Very shattering piece. https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cxgd3urn/production/18397cbf2f1246aec9af292e69f54ab2874fb4a6-2953x1224.jpg?rect=0,1,2953,1223&w=1200&h=497&q=85&fit=crop&auto=format
thanks – now if it were only as famous and revered as "Guernica" ...
1986 was the year my world had the rug pulled from under it.
I’d already had one significant cultural detour, only reading superhero comics until 1984 when I picked up a copy of Saga of the Swamp Thing no. 28 off the spinner rack and Alan Moore showed me they could be so much more.
But in 1986, my second year of high school, I danced to New Order’s Blue Monday for the first time, stumbled across a random issue of Jaime and Gilbert’s Love and Rockets at an alternative comic shop in Toronto, and then snuck in to Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild.
And just like that, my world opened up to the people and places and things that existed outside the margins.
1986 sounds like it was one hell of a year for you then.
Listening to The Clash in the 1980s informs my view on international relations, more so, than heart fully trying to do the same through keeping up with current events. Zevon gets an honorable mention. Un Chien Andalou, Luis Brunuel piece gets a nod. I attended a nighttime class with Roger Ebert in Chicago in the late 80s, I was a rising young accountant at the time. Despite an acute eye phobia, I found the jarring work of art affective. Sometimes communication needs to be jarring to get the message across. Let’s hope for messages delivered as strongly as The Clash and Brunuel. Let’s hope for the open-mindedness and attention to absorb them.
Rather surprised this is the first reference to The Clash I'm reading here!
Maybe the comics of V For Vendetta, but I don't think I would have relished it as much unless I was already radicalized. Or maybe it was reading The Communist Manifesto or Sinclair's The Jungle.
Regarding V, did you see the film is being re-released this year? Nobody cared about it at the time, too in the Bush years to understand what it was. But today? On the nose.
I sometimes wonder if it was the fact that the film makes you cheer for terrorism. It's such a rejection of the world we live in, though, so maybe it's that, too.
I didn't know it was get a re-release. I'm reading the script right now for research. It came out during Thatcher-Reagan years, so I thought it was spot on then. But considering the jingoism post-9/11 and the overwhelming passage of the Patriot Act, it makes sense why it didn't appeal to enough people. Too many had drank the Kool-Aid.
I’m thinking of three famous artworks: Ernie Barnes’ The Sugar Shack, Jacob Lawrence’s Street to Mbari, and Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas. On some level, each embodies a duality, while being profoundly tied to identity.
Wait, have we talked about THE SUGAR SHACK before? I've had an exchange on Substack about this painting. I don't know Jacob Lawrence's work nearly enough, so off to learn more about them.
My apologies for the delayed response. I believed I had already done so. I’m not certain if we’ve talked about “The Sugar Shack” artwork previously. Though I believe we did. Even now, I remember seeing the famous piece for the first time being able to fully comprehend its subtext. Knowing the poverty my parents endured, my father’s being much worse, led to a deep moment of contemplation. What they were able to overcome and achieved is nothing short of miraculous. My hope is that you’ll discover the same captivating interest and vibrancy in Jacob Lawrence’s art that I do. Two of my favorite Black artists are him and Ed Hamilton. My father is a close friend of Hamilton. They frequently discuss his travels and their common perspective on life.
I am not so knowledgeable that Hamilton's name is immediately familiar to me. So, I looked it up - and it turns out I've often photographed his work in Louisville, especially at the Speed. Wow, he's brilliant!
i took this a little bit differently - but i saw this incredible painting from Romero Britto - Happy Cat & Snob Dog. inherently funny and bright and full of life. it just makes me laugh/smile every time i see it.
The song "They Dance Alone" from Sting's ...Nothing Like the Sun album. This song opened my heart and mind to suffering and injustice in the world. I was 12 and living in a small rural town. We'd only just gotten cable and MTV. I'm not sure why this song stuck to me except that it's haunting and I had been a fairly sheltered child as far as the world was concerned.
I love this anecdote. The power of art, the power of art...
I was privileged to volunteer at our daughters grade schools decades ago in the art masterpiece program
In Minneapolis an amazing time for me loved every minute of it