Of Lockdowns and Lilies

I thought Yves Rocher's Lily of the Valley eau de toilette was discontinued. But the bright Yves Rocher store in the Square One (Mississauga) mall produced two bottlesof the eau de toilette. These couple of months of closure must have got the staff cleaning out their inventory, and fortunately they found these bottles.

I bought one of the bottles at its reduced price, and it should keep me scented through the summer (and fall?).

I am sorry the perfume is discontinued. I will now embark on a search for a light, fresh eau de toilette, which should be an adventure.

This lockdown has certainly given us a second chance at some things.

Here are two sites which sing the praises of the eau de toilette:

An established on-line perfume reviewer, Basenotes (as in the base notes of a perfume) has this to say about these notes:

Green notes, Lily of the valley, Pink pepper, Bergamot, Lemon

And The Perfume Girl adds more:

Lily of the valley, bergamot, lemon, rose hips

The pink pepper is meant to ground the perfume a little, from being too intoxicatingly floral, and the lemon adds that extra freshness.

The bottle is a straightforward clear glass, in a rectangular shape, but with a lovely plant-like detail, which is actually Yves Rocher's logo, with the initials YR forming a plant within a circle. The liquid is a fresh, pale green viewed through clear glass.



Here are photos I took of the Faberge Lily of the Valley exhibition in 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which was part of a rotating selection of items from The Met collections. This specific collection is the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts' Metalworks collections.




[Photos By: KPA]

Details of the work:
Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket
House of Carl Fabergé
August Wilhelm Holmström (1829–1903)

Holmström, August Wilhelm (1829-1903) a Finnish workmaster, born in Helsinki, Finland.
Was appointed chief jeweler by Gustav Fabergé in 1857. His mark is 'AH'.

A Fabergé workmaster is a craftsman who owned his own workshop and produced jewelry, silver or objets d'art for the House of Fabergé.[Source]

Russian, St. Petersburg
Yellow and green gold, silver, nephrite, pearl, rose-cut diamond; 1896.
Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation

For He is Risen

For He is risen
Matthew 28:6

A Happy Easter.

Steven Heinemann and Scorched Earth

Steven Heinemann
Ceramics
Terra Ruba, 2004
Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam
69cmX42X34

For a potter working with pots, Steven Heinemann seems obsessed with closing them off. No flower will adorn his creations, nor will water pour from his jugs. Heinemann is not interested in function, but

prioritizes process, material, and the non-functionalobject to create autonomous sculpture

writes Rachel Gotlieb in Steven Heinemann: Culture and Nature, an exhibition he held in 2017 at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. And a footnote to this phrase, Gotlieb directs us:

For discussions on the autonomy of the art object within the realm of craft see Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. and ed. Robert Hullot-Kentor (London: Athlone Press, 1997); Glenn Adamson, Thinking Through Craft (Oxford: Berg, 2007); and Bruce Metcalf, “Replacing the Myth of Modernism,” First published in American Craft, February/
March 1993, 53, no. 1, accessed March 1, 2017, http://lib.znate.ru/docs/ index-53911.html.

I discuss Adolf Loos, the anti-ornament modernist here in Throwing Out Ornament, asking (rhetorically) if

architecture hadn't regressed. "Think about the medieval cathedrals, or the renaissance palaces. All we do now is glass boxes. Lego for grown ups. We're back to simple squares and circle, just a little above the line in the sand drawn with a piece of stick."

I could add for pottery: simple curved shapes.

And simple curved shapes is what Heinemann produces, however asymmetrical, and therefore (falsely) complex shapes they may be. Although asymmetry is a more natural, inartistic, tendency, and a circle far harder to reproduce. Heinemann thus desires to work with asymmetry, imperfection, and ultimately, the non-aesthetic.

And this leads to my final point. Heinemann's vessels. An article on Heinemann at the Canadian Encyclopedia describes one of Heinemann's techniques as:

"controlled crazing" (fine cracks on the surface of a glaze layer) during firing as his primary method to investigate issues of containment, volume and decoration.

Thermal stress weathering, in nature,

...results from the expansion and contraction of rock, caused by temperature changes. For example, heating of rocks by sunlight or fires can cause expansion of their constituent minerals. As some minerals expand more than others, temperature changes set up differential stresses that eventually cause the rock to crack apart.

This is the impression I got when viewing his ceramic objects, with their cracked interiors, and which clearly will not be vessels for water. The first word that came to mind was "scorched." And indeed they are scorched, resembling the barren, empty, and lifeless desert regions which bear this description.

For an art form which has functionality as its primary goal, these objects close themselves off to any form of human use, and instead become aesthetic objects. And they don't succeed even in that goal, their aesthetics having been compromised by Heinemann's relentless pursuit of the anti-aesthetic.

Heinemann's intent all along is to give us a dystopian scorched earth, where we will live in the extremes of "Climate Change" as we are destined to according to our postmodern spiritual guides - our scientists, activists, and artists - as we struggle with pots that wont even carry the droplets of water we may find.

Heinemaan, who lives in this current world, and who needs to pay his bills (ask Van Gogh how living for "art" alone worked out for him), sells his pieces ranging from $7,000 to the $11,000. And people are ready to buy dystopia and hang it in their living rooms. Wealthy art collectors, that is. And his works are available in museum collections across the globe, who purchase his scorched clay, and as no acts of charity.

Art and dytopia generate money!

Heinemann is the husband of textile designer, Chung-Im Kim, about whom I wrote here:

Here are her fungal-like growths which she designs with felt, and which she sells for over $6,000 each. She categorizes them on her website as: Living Geometry.

Crawling fungi might be the only vegetation that grows on scorched earth.

Palm Sunday

Title: Palmesel
Date: 15th century
Geography: Made in Franconia, Germany
Medium: Limewood with paint
Dimensions:O verall (w/ base): 61 1/2 x 23 3/4 x 54 1/2 in., 182lb.
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Location: The Cloisters Collection, New York

[Photo By: KPA]

Killing Off God

It is one thing to go through other people's garbage to fish out junk for "art," although that's the perfect metaphor for the "art" of the contemporary artist, but the "split screen art" requires a little background.

Split Screen is the title of Annie MacDonell's photography piece posted at her website and also exhibited (posted) at the online at site Either/And on August 25, 2013.

From Annie MacDonell's program notes for Split Screen:

The images in...[Split Screen] are scans of found 35mm slides. I came across a box of them next to the trash a few months ago. They were unlabeled, undated, and unsourced. I’ve put together a selection of 15, which now form a slideshow you can click through on your computer monitor. Maybe you will recognize some of the images. Others you may not recognize specifically, but you will certainly be familiar with their sources – art monographs, fashion magazines, notebooks and textbooks, technical manuals.

The gallery's website describes MacDonell thus:

Annie MacDonell is a Toronto-based visual artist working with photography, film, sculpture, installation. Her recent work draws attention to how still and moving images are staged in the spaces of gallery and cinema, creating multi-layered, uncanny and formally elegant meditations on the act of looking. Annie MacDonell received a BFA from Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts in 2000, followed by graduate studies at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in Tourcoing, France. Recent solo shows include the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Mercer Union Gallery, in Toronto. She has participated in group exhibitions at The Power Plant, Toronto, Mulherin & Pollard, New York, Le Grand Palais, Paris and the 2012 Daegu Photo Biennale, in South Korea. In 2012 she was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award and short-listed for the Grange Prize. She teaches in the photography department at Ryerson University and her work is represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art.

***Disclosure: MacDonell was a classmate of mine while I was studying Film, Photography and New Media (New Media is now re-named Integrated Digital) at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts. I remember her as perennially perplexed, and even angry. Her projects were labours of, well labour, of precisely this "appropriated" art of which she is now an expert. She would at one time follow my progress with avid, and strange, curiosity, and for reason: I finished my two-year "term" with multiple exhibitions: Film, video and photography pieces. All my work was later exhibited at external venues.***

Don't be fooled by the sophisticated art language MacDonell uses to describe her Split Screen project. Artists are at such want for "topics" that they cling on to any subject which might give them a potential project.

The underlying theme of MacDonell's work, if MacDonell is even aware of it, is simply: destruction.

"...the spine’s interruption of the image reminds us of where they came from in the first place..." writes MacDonell.

And she continues:

The visibility of the spine is what attracts me to them. It marks one of the many transformations these images have undergone since they were produced by the original artist.

[...]

Each one contains an interruption of the image by the spine of the book in which it originally appeared

There are a variety of images in Split Screen, all with "naturally" occurring splits: a hospital operation table, a messy room perhaps in a house about to be vacated, a magazine shot of crotches (male? female?), an orgy of legs, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and the sculptured head of Christ from Michelangelo's Pieta.

Cleverly, MacDonell gives us no background on any of the images. She has a bigger purpose than juxtaposing interesting photographic shots.

The sculptured head seems the least aggressive of her choices. There is a serenity around this head, and the sculptural work is of high quality. And here, MacDonell treads very carefully. She has removed the head from its context and its significance, and it appears to be simply the head of a man sleeping.

MacDonell's "head" is all the more disconcerting because it is at a different angle from which we would be accustomed to seeing it. The photograph was taken from the top rather than the side, thus exposing to us Christ's full face. And it is also flipped to its mirror image.


Untitled piece from Annie MacDonell's Split Screen series presented at Either/And


The Pieta by Michelangelo in St. Peter’s Basilica as it would be visible to visitors


The Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica

What was a deeply religious work, the head of the dead Christ on his mother's knees after he was taken down from the crucifix, becomes the head of a man.

But why the split screen?

MacDonell is subtly and carefully "dismantling" Jesus. Removing, first his Godliness by presenting him as a mere man, then his intellect, his personality by splitting him, his head, apart. A form of decapitation, worse perhaps than the crucifix. At least after the crucifix, Jesus' body was left intact. But with MacDonell's rendition even Jesus' mind, his Godly intellect, is removed.

Despite its apparent tranquility, this is the most aggressive of the works played on Split Screen, where MacDonell attempts to kill off God permanently: body, mind and spirit.

Art and Its Enemies

Hana Balaban-Pommier
Dinner for Poseidon
Exhibition at the
Living Arts Gallery
Mississauga
Sanguine
September 11 – October 28, 2018

1. Here is a recent email I sent and the resulting correspondence:

On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 6:29 AM reclaimbeauty@gmail.com wrote:

Dear Potters,

It is a real pleasure to view your work, which I have done at several exhibitions. Most recently, I went several times to your current Sanguine Exhibit at the Living Arts Centre.

But last weekend, October 20 and 21, I couldn't enter the gallery space because there were school programs under the the Living Arts Centre's children Art Lab program which filled the gallery with young children (perhaps as young as 5 years old and as old as 7) who were brought in by their art instructors to view your work, and also to sketch your pieces.

I was shocked to see such a large number of young children fill that small, long and narrow gallery space. And although they were supervised, there were one or two who were running around unobserved, and some even touching the works.

The damage they could have caused to the delicate clay pieces is unimaginable, especially as some were perched on blocks and were easy to knock over.

I made this observation officially to the gallery receptionist, but she is not at fault since she had to follow what these LAC staff members had decided to do. And she is simply an volunteer, and not a professional art gallery personnel.

Besides the damage that could have occurred, these children also came during gallery hours and prevented the public (people like me) from entering and viewing the works. Firstly, there was no room to do so, and secondly if there had been room, they were so loud as to prevent a quiet viewing that these pieces merit.

I have since returned to the gallery twice (on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week) and bought your lovely catalogue as a memento and also as a contribution towards your artists who have put up this show free of charge. I also hope to visit your studio in the near future to start collecting my Christmas gifts.

I am an artist myself working with textile design, and understand the how delicate, and even fragile, most artworks can be.

All the best, and looking forward to your future exhibitions,

Kidist Paulos Asrat
Artist/Writer/Designer

------

On Saturday, October 27, 2018, 9:43:21 AM EDT, Andrea Poorter wrote:

Hello Kidist,

Thank you so much for visiting the Exhibition.
We're very excited about it an proud of our work.

Thank you also for bringing forward your concerns. I'm sure it's difficult for the LAC to find a balance for kids programs and gallery works. It's great that children are brought into the gallery to look and see what's going on but understanding the fragility of ceramics (or any artwork) also requires some education.

We are having our Fall Sale November 17 and 18 right beside our studio. It would be great to see you there. Please introduce yourself if you can make it. www.mississaugapotters.com/sales
It would be great to meet you.

Best,

Andrea

--
Andrea Poorter
President
Mississauga Potters' Guild

www.mississaugapotters.com

--------

On Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 2:07 PM reclaimbeauty@gmail.com wrote:

Dear Andrea,

I hope I gave some useful insights.

The problem was threefold:

1. The very narrow and long setup of the LAC gallery makes it very difficult for such a large number of people to be present at the same time in the gallery, and especially if it children (there were at least twenty present when I was there).

2. The natural inability for children (and especially boys) to remain still for a long period of time makes it difficult to control their behaviour and to keep an eye all all of them all of the time, and especially in such a large group.

And this in turn made me nervous that I would witness a breakage or some harm done to the works. I couldn't enjoy my visit, and even later when returned to a quiet gallery, I was worried that there might be many other sessions in the gallery with such young children present.

3. And finally I had to reschedule my visit twice, and finally caught on that I should come during the week (and not the weekend) in order to view the show.

I am saying this because I have taught young children arts and crafts. There are many pedagogical tools to teach young children "live" art, which includes using prints of works by famous artists, or for a 3-D assignments, to bring in a pot from a garden shed or the kitchen cupboard. Again prints of ceramics and pottery can be viewed to compare and learn from famous artists.

If visiting a gallery is a the teacher's strong desire, then the visit should be very carefully planned. For example: only 5 children at at time at a place like LAC gallery, with the children that are waiting to do assignments in the much more child-friendly hallway.

For some reason, the teachers at the Art Lab couldn't use these pedagogical tools such as these (at least in this case), and they felt that bringing a large group of children into the gallery was not a problem.

Thanks for your reply. I wish you and your group all the best.

Kidist Paulos Asrat
Textile Artist/Cultural Writer

Activism In The Name of Our God

Ephesians 6:10-17

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

---

From: reclaimbeauty@gmail.com
To: nando.iannicca@mississauga.ca, mayor@mississauga.ca, carolyn.parrish@mississauga.ca, 12div.communitystation@peelpolice.ca, john.kovac@mississauga.ca, stan.zigelstein@StanzLaw.ca
May 13 at 6:30 AM

--------------------------------------

To the parties concerned:

This email is concerning my article:
Covert Satanic Imagery in the New Art Gallery of Mississauga Exhibit at the website Reclaiming Beauty.

I recently emailed you (please see below my email) about the difficulties I had in entering the Art Gallery of Mississauga and in viewing their exhibitions in recent months. As I explained in the email, I was perceived a "threat" to the gallery simply for being critical towards some of the gallery's exhibits and artists.

As an artist myself, I have been following contemporary art culture for over a decade, I have written my observations both on my blog and in national and international journals. And I have presented my ideas in prestigious international conferences and groups.

I don't mince words, as I believe direct truth is the best approach. And for this reason, I was given a warning by the Art Gallery of Mississauga's director Mandy Salter that my observations on Reclaiming Beauty are a "threat" to the gallery and to its staff, and that I was no longer to attend its exhibitions and functions. If I do enter the gallery, I would be removed from its premises by the Peel police.

I wasn't concerned by this antagonistic communication since thanks to modern media, I am able to view close to 100% of the AGM's exhibits and other activities online.

And similarly, I am able to make my observations and reach a far wider audience through my own online forum rather than attending the infrequent AGM panels.

It is for this reason that I have posted an article on the approach that the AGM is taking in its current exhibition (and recent exhibitions - dating back about a year and a half).

I find that the AGM has been covertly soliciting and exhibiting material related to Satanic and witchcraft aligned artists, and that perhaps some of its staff are indeed members of such nefarious groups.

The Canadian culture, despite multiculturalism, is based on the Western Christian cultural and societal heritage. Part of the AGM's agenda is to subvert this Judeo Christian heritage and introduce other gods and belief systems into our society.

Art is one of the first platforms where new ideas and subversive belief systems are introduced.

Please pay attention to the AGM's future actives. If they (and you) insist on multiculturalism, then our Christian God and heritage should have equal presence in the AGM's activities.

So far we have none.

Thank you. And God bless you.

Kidist Paulos Asrat
Artist, Activist, and Writer
Reclaiming Beauty

---

On Thursday, May 10, 2018, 4:59:42 AM EDT, reclaimbeauty@gmail.com wrote:


Dear concerned parties,

Please view the email correspondence I had with the Art Gallery of Mississauga after I visited their recent exhibition. have forwarded the emails at the end of this letter.

On Tuesday May 8th around 11am, I went to the Art Gallery of Mississauga to view the exhibition seeping upwards, rupturing the surface by Daniele Dennis, as well as the XIT-RM installation Jahez | Dowery by Mariam Magsi.

I followed all the gallery's basic protocol, and spent about 40 minutes studying the exhibition while taking notes on my notepad. At the end of my tour, I had a couple of questions to ask the staff and I approached the reception desk. Both my questions were on the musical scores which accompanied Daniele Dennis' and Lotte Meret Effinger's videos.

An assistant came over and said she didn't know, and would ask Mandy Salter, the gallery's director and curator. Ms. Salter came through and, after some pleasant greetings, she accompanied me to the back of the gallery to Effinger's video and pointed out to me the music composer (Florian Meyer). She said that she wasn't involved in the curation of Dennis' piece and gave me the email for Kendra Ainsworth, who is the curator for contemporary.

I thanked her, made a brief final tour, and left the gallery, thanking the receptionist on my way out. I went next door to the C-Cafe for a short while before resuming my other activities.

Once home late that afternoon I composed a careful email to Ms. Ainsworth so that my technical question was clearly worded, and I was expectantly waiting her reply. I also left a Facebook message to Daniele Dennis since her website has no way to contact her.

As an artist, I am curious and interested about many aspects of art exhibitions: their subject matter, the methods used, the technical details of the pieces, and the artists' backgrounds and training.

Artists approach and depict difficult topics, such as Dennis covering her face with pink cotton candy, and Meyer videotaping various aspects of bodily fluids. And they often provide little explanation. I understand this, since I prefer that audiences come out their own explanations and thoughts. But I always welcome questions and even opinions, ready to tackle the difficult, technical queries as well as the unpleasant negative feedback. That is par for the course for artists. We come many times critiquing society through our art, but society also has that same right to critique our work (and even us!) especially if we exhibited in public, and in publicly funded organizations like the AGM.

Ms. Salter remarks about "the nature" of my reviews of some (of course not all) of the works exhibited at the AGM are simply a way of silencing what she determines to be unfavourable criticism of the AGM's programs. Any posts I have printed on individual members of her staff are related to the work they present, and the manner in which they present the gallery's work, and are not personal.

She has defamed me without trial or jury, as promoting "hate propaganda," which she has determined to be a criminal act. And with this, arbitrary, judgment, she has criminalized my person, and tainted my citizenship in Mississauga, for simply making educated and expert (I am an artist!) observations about the gallery.

There is some irony in that!

But that is the least of my worries. What concerns me is that artistic progress cannot occur if open discussion and observation, presented boldly and honestly, and in person, before all the parties involved is curtailed. If artists cannot critique each other within their own communities, and those who are critiqued cannot accept these critiques at face value, then all we will have is a group of people who assemble because they agree with each other, and those who do not agree wth that pervasive (or pre-determined) viewpoint are criminalized and silenced as "haters."

The only place where this was acceptable was Soviet Russia.

My task as an artist is to do exactly what Ms. Salter "allows" me to do on my blog but not in the real world, where such actions are much more useful for everyone concerned: the critics, the ones being critiqued, and the administrative and managing bodies of art institutions, and the institutions themselves.

I have been doing so for about fifteen years now, providing some lucid and insightful contributions to the art world through my blogs, my longer published articles, and my presentations to large academic audiences. And I will continue to do so.

Sincerely,
Kidist Paulos Asrat

- Reclaiming Beauty
- Society for the Reclamation of Western Beauty
- Reclaiming Beauty Designs
- Reclaiming Beauty Photographs
- Reclaiming Beauty Articles


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mandy Salter
Date: Wed, May 9, 2018 at 12:00 PM
Subject: Kidist Asrat - no longer permitted entry to the AGM premises or events
To: Kidist Paulos Asrat
Cc: Ryerson Maybee , Susan Legge , Sadaf Zuberi


Hello Ms. Asrat,

I had emailed you some months back expressing the AGM’s concern with the nature of your reviews and commentary for the AGM’s programmes, staff, artists and community. I had clearly articulated at the time that if the hateful and insulting tone of many of your blog posts, in regards to AGM content, staff and or community did not cease, you would be no longer welcome at the AGM. While you certainly have the right to freedom of speech, the AGM also has the right to not be defamed and or the recipient of hate propaganda.

As you have continued to criticize, defame and generally create an unsafe space for many at the AGM, you will no longer be permitted to enter the AGM premises under the Trespass to Property Act, RSO 1990, c. T.21 - Ontario.ca

If you are to enter the AGM premises at any time in the future, you will be escorted off the property immediately by City Security.

Mandy Salter

Mandy Salter MA ISA

Director/Curator


T. (905) 896 5507

E. mandy.salter@mississauga.ca

______________________________ ______________________________ ____


From: Kidist Paulos Asrat [mailto:eighthpictures@gmail. com]

Sent: 2018/05/09 3:53 AM
To: Kendra Ainsworth
Cc: Mandy Salter
Subject: Daniele Dennis



Hi Kendra,



I was at the AGM yesterday afternoon and saw Daniele Dennis' video. I asked the staff a couple of questions and they said that you might have the answers.

- I understand that the video was about 10 minutes long and that it was looped (set to replay).

The accompanying music was a Verdi piece according to Mandy:
- What was the actual piece, and the movement

- Were the images set to the music, i.e. the music ended as the images ended and was re-looped accordingly

- Or was the music simply following the images and it re-looped before they ended.

The main question is: what is the technical (editing) relationship between the video's images and sound (music).

Thanks,

Kidist

Palm Sunday

Palmesel: German for Palm Donkey
Depicting Christ's entry into Jerusalem

Date: 15th century
Geography: Made in Franconia, Germany
Culture: German
Medium: Limewood with paint
Dimensions: Overall (w/ base): 61 1/2 x 23 3/4 x 54 1/2 in., 182lb. (156.2 x 60.3 x 138.4 cm, 82554.7g)
Classification: Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1955

[Photo By: KPA
The Cloisters, New York
March 2016]

Matthew 21: 1-17

1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,
16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
17 And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc Statue On Riverside Drive
Taking on New York City!
[Photo By: KPA
March 2017]

Mary's Robe

Mary's Robe
[Photo By: KPA
Cloister's New York
November 2017]

The image is of: Standing Virgin and Child
Attributed to Nikolaus Gerhaert van Leiden
North Netherlandish, active in Strasbourg, 1460–1473
Date: ca. 1470
Medium: Boxwood, tinted lips and eyes
Dimensions: 13 1/4 x 5 1/8 x 3 9/16 in


[Photo By: KPA
August, 2013]

Fortitude Holding Fort

Fortitude
New York Public Library
Photo By: KPA, November 2017

Minimalist Art and the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial: Reclaming Our Monuments

Minimalist Art and the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
Elaboration on the unpublished article
Article posted on Reclaiming Beauty Articles: June 7. 2011

War memorials are an integral part of civilizations and their histories. One just has to look at the resplendent and grandiose Arc de Triomphe standing tall, at the center of a star-shaped street structure in Paris, to see how it affects the city and the people around it. The more dignified Trafalgar Square holds its distinction with lions, fountains and Nelson on the pedestal, and its vast public esplanade.

War memorials have always been about honoring their dead. And it isn’t false honor, since the mere dedication of a sculpture or a square is indicative of some outstanding effort that was made, whether it be winning a battle, holding a front, or just staying the course for so long.

This is why the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is such a disappointment. History is slowly exposing the real costs and gains behind that war, including the ultimate winners and losers. And the balance lies more on the American side. Yet, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is all about expiation and loss.

on a college project for a funerary design when she submitted her winning entry,

There was fierce opposition to the memorial from the start, where statesmen, veterans and the general public demanded that a more heroic symbol be built. One of the most poignant outrages was that nowhere on the monument is the word Vietnam carved, as though the place never existed, and the soldiers fought a non-existent war.

This controversy precipitated the erection of another monument. Sculptor Frederick Hart, whose base-reliefs adorn the great Washington National Cathedral, constructed a three-man composition which he called The Three Soldiers, clearly Vietnam soldiers standing in their combat gear and rifles. Lin was displeased by this new addition, and demanded that it be placed as far away from her contribution as possible. And no flag to render her area like a golf course, she declared. A flagpole was nonetheless placed near the The Three Soldiers with the fitting inscription: “This flag represents the services rendered to our country by the veterans of the Vietnam War.”



What eventually happened was that the memorial garnered popularity as a focus for grief. Even Lin acknowledges her subtle coercion when she says: “I actually feel like I controlled it a little too much… I knew that one's first immediate reaction… could very well be that you were going to cry.” Her design was to create a repository for unappeasable mourning, and in the end, that is what became of the granite wall.

Lin continues in the art world with sporadic contributions as an abstract, minimalist sculptor, and architect of a few lackluster buildings. She was one of the jury for the 911 memorial competition, and a strong promoter for the design that won. Once again, the winning design was a commemoration to insatiable grief as symbolized by two 30-feet deep holes at the spots where the towers stood. The contending design was more serene and spiritual, evoking enveloping clouds and sparkling lights. It is still hard for Lin to leave the black wall of death. Her original idea describing the wall: “I had a general idea that I wanted to describe a journey...a journey that would make you experience death…” holds to this day.


Maya Lin's collaboration with fashion designer Phillip Lim, in 2016.
The event took place in a pier warehouse-e where Lin's mounds of dirt fit well with Lim's postmodern androgyny

“I needed a raw, large venue to create this work...the Pier was the first place we saw, and the scale and rawness of the space was perfect,” Ms. Lin told the Observer.

But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, or the wall, as the case may be. More recent memorials are giving credence to their lost heroes. The Korean War Veterans Memorial, unveiled in 1995, is a triangular field of 19 stone soldiers with a clear dedication to the veterans. And the National World War II Memorial, which opened in 2004, also includes a wall with symbolic stars representing the fallen soldiers.

Frederick Hart, on meeting Lin, confidently told her, “My statue is going to improve your memorial.“ Time has already proven him correct. The collection of photographs at the veteran-ran The Wall USA website emphasizes the Three Soldiers statue more than the wall, and uses the granite wall many times as a backdrop to reflect this.

The original memorial celebrated its 25th anniversary this November, and it already looks quite different from its initial granite wall concept. Lin’s minimalist abstraction, which only succeeded in making the wall an empty repository for grief, is slowly being improved by more concrete and tangible elements. A Women’s Memorial was added, and a new plaque commemorating the veterans who died after the war lies near the Three Soldiers. There is not much to be proud about war, but there is pride and honor due to the soldiers who fight in them.


Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington Virgina

Bust of the Christ Child

[Photo by KPA]

Antonio Rossellino
(Italian, 1427–1478)
Bust of the Christ Child, ca. 1460–70
(On wooden base over column. The halo on His head is modern.)

Marble, with nineteenth-century metal halo
With base, 18 7/8 inches x 11 inches x 15 3/8 inches
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1906

More information here

Mosaic of Mary: St. Michael's Hospital Chapel in Toronto

[Photo by: KPA]

Infused With Beauty

The last time went to the Fraunces Tavern Museum website (only about a week ago), I didn't notice this new acquisition:

Fraunces Tavern Museum is proud to announce the most recent acquisition, a terra cotta bust of George Washington. This bust is a 19th century draped a l ‘antique unsigned copy of the original bust made by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1785.

I've written about this bust here and here. And, Larry Auster, whose admiration of the bust I shared, wrote about the bust, and made a post here on my commentary on the sculpture.

I wrote in the commentary Auster/Asrat: Interaction on Beauty:

Although Larry Auster didn't directly write about beauty, his work is infused with the desire to bring beauty back into our world.

One of the most memorable posts he did on art (and beauty) was his reaction to a bust of George Washington. The image of the bust he has posted is huge and takes up the whole screen, so that we, like him, can have as close a look at it as possible. [the rest of my post is here]

So, it is a nice surprise that a museum is bringing this piece into its collections.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Hurried Views

I had another whirlwind of a trip to Philadelphia (and New York) last week. I finally arrived at my destination in Philadelphia after a couple of incidents. This seems to be a regular occurence on my trips. The last time involved a Greyhound bus which took me to the wrong destination (see here, where I ended up in Cleveland on my way to Steubenville Ohio). And this time it was a Canada goose.

We got stuck in Mount Cobb, Pennsylvania after a north-migrating (returning to Canada, actually) Canada goose smashed into the windshield on the driver's side. We were ceremoniously escorted to the nearest Burger King, and about three hours later, a replacement bus took us to our final destination of Port Authority.

But the trip was a wonderful respite, and I wasn't going to let a couple of incidents spoil it. I managed to pack in, with the help of my friends, quite a schedule.

We visited Larry's grave in the beautiful St. Peter and St. Paul Cemetery in Springfield Pennsylvania, to commemorate the second year of his death. The statue behind me is St. Paul's. And I am standing under the oak tree, which I write about here.



Below, I've posted the various photographs I took over these five days.

On the Road through Ontario, New York State and Pennsylvania (and New Jersey for a bit)








At Buffalo














That is a small lake in the background, I tried to find out its name, but it was too small to find on my google map.





I finally could see the New York skyline in New Jersey. It was dark, and I would reach the city's bus terminal about an hour later. I would travel to Philadelphia the next morning.

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Pennsylvania

Longwood Conservatory, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania


Glory-of-the-snow flowers blooming in a field at Longwood Gardens



Glory-of-the-snow are "one of the first harbingers of spring," according to this site. We were just about to leave the cold (and long, this year) winter and the snow as I got to Philadelphia, and this field of flowers showed us that spring is ahead.


Star Magnolia tree in bloom


Pierre Dupont Conservatory

DuPont built his home above the conservatory, and could see the plants from his bedroom window!

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Homes near the area where I stayed, a couple of hours from Phildelphia









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New York for a day


Marble floor at the New York Public Library


Portrait of James Lenox, founder of the Lenox Library of the NYPL

I should have got just a close-up of the portrait, but here is one in black and white of I think the same one.


View from the main entrance at the New York Public Library, with 41st Street


Plaque with Yeats Poem in the Library Way, on 41st Street between 5th and Park


Atlas at the Rockefeller

The reflection in the glass in the background is of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It seems an apt metaphor for the seizure of the pagan, Roman god of by Christians.

I was so busy trying to get the Atlas image, that I didn't even notice the reflection.

As some kind of penance - inadverantly - I went to Saint Patrick's and lit a candle.


Lions at the Rockefeller Plaza" "Arms of England"
Frieze by Lee Lawrie

The 50th entrance to the British Empire building features three walking lions looking out towards the viewer from the building. Below is a row of red Tudor roses. [From this site]

Saint Francis of Assisi with birds at the Rockefeller Plaza
Frieze by Lee Lawrie

More on Lew Lawrie here.

All the Rockefeller friezes are here.


Manhattan Building

I took this somewhere mid-town (between 47th and 59th streets) on Madison or Fifth. I should have written down the street.


Plaza Hotel entrance


Pomona Statue and fountain by the Grand Army Plaza, next to the Plaza Hotel and by Central Park

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Saint Patrick's Cathedral Stained Glass, with Mary

I asked a docent in the cathedral if he could show me any stained glass with Mary, since I didn't have much time.

I lit a candle under the stained glass as I left. The stained glass is near the door (it is the second one in at the right entry), and there are candles right underneath it.

Here is another where in my rush I neglected to take one of the full glass, and instead, I took the bottom half, where the intricate lace-like design caught my attention.


Saint Patrick's Stained Glass

Here is a photo of the full stained glass.

Several sites write that Henry Ely made the stained glass, which they title "Three Baptisms." But they don't reference that information. It is strangely hard to find information on the stained glass online, but here is something in Google Books, under the title: New York City: Vol 1, New York City Guide (page 345):

Forty-five of the seventy stained glass windows are from the studios of Nicholas Lorin at Chartres, and Henry Ely at Nantes. Rich in tone, some dark some of pastel lightness - and combined with elaborate tracery, they glow in the sunshine, but unfortunately, much of the detail in them is too delicate to be legible at a distance. They become simply patterns of red, yellow, green, blue and purple against the framework of the stone walls which, in the dusky night, takes on a tone of deepest gray.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat