Art Encounter #3-White Angel Breadline by Lange

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.~ Dorothea Lange ~

 

White Angel Breadline

 Artist: Dorothea Lange

Title: White Angel Breadline

Medium:  Photography (Gelatin silver print)

Date: 1933

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an American photographer who took some of the most iconic images of the impact of the Great Depression on American society. She was best know for her Depression-era work for the FSA (Farm Security Administration) who sent a group of photographers out to document conditions nationwide to build public support for government improvement programs.  She profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography.

   


 This particular photo is one of her most celebrated ones.  Desperate to make extra money under the oppressive weight of the Depression she took down her camera, went into the streets of San Francisco and started to humanize the tragedy she saw through the lens of her camera.  She went from operating her own portrait studio to document human tragedy in a way that had not been done before pulled by both ethical and economic reasons.  This photo is her very first.  The photograph shows a man waiting in line for food at a soup kitchen in San Francisco run by a widow called "White Angel".

The photo itself has a powerful impact.  Any person who has had to rely off the charity of others in order to eat can immediately relate to this man.  This situation is painful and cruel, all these men are without work and food.  Yet this one solitary man with his hands clasped together almost in prayer around his empty cup seems to represent all the men as a whole.  You wonder what his inner thoughts must be?  Is he worried, anxious, hungry, tired, terrified?  Does he place his future in thoughts of God or is he silently angry in his waiting?  He looks dignified in his strife.  This photo humanizes this hardworking man who must now beg for food, it makes you think how easily  it could be you standing in that line.  The way that she took the photograph from up above it is almost the view that God would see.  I wonder if he answered that man's prayers for food that day?  This photo was taken with great compassion and sympathy for her fellow man, at least that is how I feel when I see it.

Alternate view

Not only did Lange photograph people affected by the Depression, she also took several other series of pictures of great notoriety,  share-croppers, migrant workers, farm families, Japanese Americans interned after Pearl Harbor, the displaced farmers of the Dust Bowl,  and many more throughout her lifetime.  She was the first woman to be awarded the Guggenheim fellowship for her photography.

The Great Depression in 1929 impacted many country's especially the United States.  We saw an unheard of plummet in personal income, profits and international trade while unemployment soared.  Most of our country found themselves penniless, homeless and starving.  It was not until the advent of WWII in 1941 that America finally shook the devastating effects of the Great Depression.  Lange was instrumental in documenting the people of this era.  She helped usher in a new method of photography.  Documentary photography is used to chronicle significant and historical events.  The photographer captures the subject in a way that is truthful, objective, and candid.  She captured this time in our history with a raw honesty and sincere compassion for mankind.  

 

 

Concept Blog #3-Nihilism is still the new black-

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this?- Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche

 

 

 

 

Nihilism was one of the most controversial concepts to arise out of the era of Modernism and it still is today!  Modernism is difficult to define.  It was a revolt against the previous thought of Realism and Enlightenment periods.  A call to push aside art, architecture, religion, literature, social organization, and concepts that were "traditional" and to make them new!

This push against old world religion paved the way for Nietzsche and his philosophy of nothingness.  He appointed himself the official whistle blower on the death of God.  God was of those traditional concepts that needed to be transformed and Nietzsche was the prophet.  He believed in the enhancement of the individual in the present.  He coined the philosophy of "life-affirmation" which involves honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's vast energies.  High on that list of life draining doctrines was Christianity however socially prevalent it was at the time.  Without God anything was possible, man could shape his life at his will with no concern of how his present actions will affect his afterlife because there was nothing after this mortal existence.  Life is without meaning, value, and purpose.  God is just a construct to stop us from happiness.  We have outgrown Christianity.  He wanted us to make decisions based on the concept that life is the only thing that is inherent and for us to "make" ourselves.

funny!

 Nihilism, atheism, anarchism, Zionism, fascism or existentialism, call it what you will but these concepts have a basis in the ideas shared by Nietzsche.  We are still questioning human existence and reasoning.  We still struggle with concepts such as religion and morality.  His ideas have touched many different schools of thought.  His work is quoted often.  His work is complex and open to interpretation.  It has been over a hundred years since his death but his philosophy is still very much alive today!  

 

Art Encounter #2 -Lady Lilith by Rosetti

Lady Lilith

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Title: Lady Lilith
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1868
Accompanied by:"Body's Beauty" a sonnet from The House of Life poem (inscribed on frame)

         Body's Beauty

• Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
• (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
• That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
• And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
• And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
• And, subtly of herself contemplative,
• Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
• Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

• The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
• Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent 10
• And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
• Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
• Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
• And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

Dante Rossetti was a painter and a poet.  He was the founder of a group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; a group of writers and artists who wanted to return to abundant detail, intense color, and classical composition (medieval revivalism).  He was an imaginative and sensuous man whose many Muse's beauty passionately inspired his work and consumed his romantic life.

Dante Rossetti

This duet is part of a set which also includes another painting
entitled Sibylla Palmifera accompanied by the sonnet "Soul's Beauty".  These two pieces are representative of ideal beauty one that is grounded in the physical (Lilith) and also spiritual
(Sibylla).  A interpretation of woman as the Virgin/Whore Dichotomy or the Femme Fatal image.  This work is also supposed to be based on Lilith, the biblical Adam's first wife, this basis further exemplifies the dichotomy.

At my first glance this painting is lush and sensuous.  The rich dark colors in the background contrast with the lady in white with the blazing hair.  It is a beautiful painting.  Paired with the sonnet and I think that this is much more than a beautiful woman in repose.

She seems to be seated in her bedroom but the many flowers and the reflection in the mirror echo an outdoor space.  Maybe this is a parallel of the wild nature of woman such as Lilith, Adam's first wife and her rebellious nature or inability to be tamed?  The white roses are said to be symbols of sterile passion and the poppies traditionally represent death.  Lilith in her Femme Fatal imagery is both seductive to men and their ultimate demise.  She arouses them visually yet is emotionally detached.  The expression on her face is almost haughty.  She knows that she is beautiful and like the sonnet says, "Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave till heart and body and life are in its hold".  Rosetti was obsessed with his many women muses, maybe their physical appearances held this deadly love for him?

Lilith's red hair is a focal point of the painting.  It is long, lustrous and unbound.  This is quite contrary to the hair styles of the day which focused on women's hair being hidden and bound.  Hair like this was sexually aggressive, a display of wantonness.  The sonnet ends with "round his heart one strangling golden hair" to signify the power of her hair, her womanliness.  Her dress is also provocative.  She is not corseted and covered like contemporary fashion of the time would have.  She is dressed to be undressed, another indication of her open sexuality.  She is a lethal beauty.

I am torn between two scenarios that Rosetti might have been trying to convey.  He paints woman as a sexual seductress that will destroy man.  Or he paints woman with strength in beauty/sex, the other side of her not just the housewife.  Either scenario he gives woman power which is more than we have been allowed before this point in time.

Concept Blog #2- The Most Scintillating Conversation in the World-

"Reading from Moliere" Jean Francois de Troy, 1728

The Age of Enlightenment brought about many radical ideas, one of them being the right to free thought and the exchange of those ideas.  But what good are new ideas if there is no place to talk about them with your peers?  So now at this time enters an important new concept, the Salon.  The Salon was a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess for entertainment, conversation, and the perpetuation of the exchange of free thought.  Salon's started as small social gatherings at someones home and by the Eighteenth century had become an institution in France as well as one of the major modes of communication among the intellectual community.



The Salon was a place where women could also discuss ideas and receive an informal "education" that prior to that time was denied to them.  Women were placed  into the position of the salonnierre, she was in charge of selecting the guests, topic of discussion, and mediation of the direction of the discussion.  In a male dominant world a woman could become a powerful influence within the Salon and help to further the Enlightenment without fear of persecution.

"A Reading in the salon of Mme. Geoffrin", 1755

One if the most well-known salonnierres was Madame de Tencin.  Madame de Tencin had a scandalous past that fascinated many.  To gain an invitation to her salon was highly sought after.  She was formerly a nun and was reputed to have been the mistress of several powerful men such as King Louis XV's best friend, the Maréchal de Richelieu, and also the  Cardinal Dubois, the prime minister of France.  She established the first literary salon on Paris.  She shrewdly allowed the first foreign visitors to her salon, distinguished men from England.

Madame de Tencin

 
Another famous salonnierre was Madame Geofrrin, she was the infamous patroness of a Parisian salon.  She was trained for her role in the salon by Madame de Tencin.  She was said to have played hostess to the most important Philosophes and Encyclopedistes of the Enlightenment.  Not only did her salon cater to the intellectual men of the time she also was a patron of the arts.  Her place in the furthering of the Enlightenment is paramount for she is one of only a handful of women to participate in its momentum.

Madame Geoffrin

Sadly, I know that the French salon no longer exists.  Throughout history there is an occurrence of resurgences of the salon in metropolitan areas but it is never the same as 18th century France.  I believe that the salon is still alive in the twenty-first century as the Internet!  It is basically the same concept a place where there is free thought (sometimes too free, but you can't give it to one and not all!) and the exchange of ideas.  You can find many people who share the same ideas and that will also listen to yours.  The variety of information and opinion is endless.  The only thing missing is the educated and beautiful salonnierre.   

Art Encounter #1-Pluto and Persephone by Bernini

Gian Lorenz Bernini

The sculpture I wish to explore is Pluto and Persephone by Gian Lorenz Bernini executed between 1621-1622.  Bernini's principal patron Scipione Borghese funded it but then gave it to Cardinal Ludovisi in 1622, who took it to his villa, it remained there until 1908.  The Italian state purchased it and returned it to the Galleria Borghese where it now stands.  The white marble sculpture is placed in contrapposto pose.  Contrapposto is an Italian term used to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.  This pose makes the sculpture appear more dynamic, as if in motion. Contrapposto was an extremely important sculptural development for it is the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition.  The position of the human body could convey a human experience.

Front view

This sculpture is three views in one.  You can see the triumphant return of Pluto (Hades) to the underworld with his prize Persephone (Prosperina) from the front of the sculpture.  This pose demonstrates his strength and pride.

Left View

 The view from the left is the abduction of Persephone.  You can see her twisting away and fighting his strong grip.  His fingers seem to actually grip her flesh in the detail from the right view.

Detail from right view

The whole right view is interpreted as Persephone's prayer to her mother, Ceres(Demeter), to return to the world.  Her hair is blowing in the wind, at close look she actually is shedding tears of terror, her mouth open with unheard screams.  Next to her, Cerberus, the three-headed dog is howling.

Right view

Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades to prevent people from escaping.  His presence is a clear indication of the fate that awaits Persephone as Queen of the Underworld.

This sculpture depicts the mythological moment when Pluto carries his unwilling bride Persephone across the threshold of Hell.  The story of her abduction is traditionally referred to as the Rape of Persephone.  Persephone was a normal half immortal (daughter of Zeus and Demeter) woman until Hades abducted her. She was innocently picking flowers in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through the earth. The place where Persephone was said to have been carried off is different in the various local traditions. The Sicilians believed that Pluto found her in the meadows near Enna. The Eleusinians mentioned the Nysaean plane in Boeotia and said that Persephone had descended with Pluto into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape near Attica. The Cretans thought that their own island was the scene of the rape.  The devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened.  Zeus eventually forced Hades to return Persephone to the earth but for only three seasons of the year.  When she returns it is Spring and when she must yet again retire to the underworld the earth is cold and barren, Winter.  This story is often used as an origin story to explain the seasons.  I found this really great video of a live viewing/commentary of the sculpture. 

Baroque, the artistic style of the 1600s, targeted the senses using virtuosity and realism, reaching the mind through emotion rather than reason. The term Baroque was coined in the 1700s from the Portuguese word for an irregular pearl, barroco.   Baroque art has qualities of theatricality, movement, and exuberance. Artists like others of the time who were interested in studying, and recording the world applied their genius of avid observation to render details of the physical world and of human psychology into a new style of art.

Bernini revolutionized sculpture, busts, fountains, and the tomb in the 17th century.  When you discuss Baroque sculpture every other artist pales in comparison to him.  His extensive development of realism is extraordinary.  His sculpture is lifelike and dynamic, qualities not seen before him.  He worked for seven different Roman pontiffs during his vast career.  The altar canopy, the baldachin (1624-1633) over the St. Peter's altar is said to be masterful feat of engineering, architecture and sculpture and the first of many serious undertakings for St. Peter's.  He was also the first to use light in a sculptural setting, exemplified in his famous masterpiece The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1645-1652).

The Bust of the Savior

I believe that this sculpture must leave you breathless when viewed in person.  Since, I cannot view it but through pictures or video my two dimensional appraisal will have to suffice.  The detail and proportion of their bodies is so life-like, if they weren't carved of marble you would think them flesh.  The movement that is implied through the way it was carved is powerful.  The story of Pluto and Persephone is intriguing and romantic.  Someday I wish to see it in person.

Works

Concept Blog #1-Twinkle, twinkle little star

How would you feel if you found out that everything you knew about the world you lived in was nothing like you had thought?  Would you be curious to know what your reality was?  Would you be able to publicly display your findings despite being completely ridiculed and ostracized by your peers and even your God?  This is the story of Nicolaus Copernicus.  He was a Renaissance man for certain.  His ideas revolutionized the worldview and religious thought of his time.  His ideas are also a solid base for today's Astronomy and its reach to the future.

Prior to the Renaissance, the model of the cosmos that was accepted came from the Greek philosopher Ptolemy in 140 AD.  Simply put; the Earth was the center of the Universe and the moon, sun, planet, and all the stars orbited around it in a circular pattern.  This was the way it was and everyone knew.  Copernicus started to question this theory, it in fact became his life's work.  As an avid astronomer and star gazer he knew that there was planetary motion that could not be explained by Ptolemy's unchallenged 1300 year old theory.

Copernicus theorized a startling different world.  The reason that the stars appeared to orbit the Earth was an illusion because the Earth itself rotated on its on axis every 24 hours, hence night and day.  He dared to go further suggesting that the strange planetary motion that no one could explain was solved with the deduction that the stars orbited the Sun and not the Earth.  This of course leads to the theory that the Earth and all heavenly bodies orbit the Sun: Copernican Theory.

Copernicus was a devout Catholic and he risked heresy proposing such ideas.  He wasn't just challenging Science but also God.  The Vatican viewed the earth as unmovable and the center of the world.  Any beliefs otherwise were contrary to Holy Scripture.  He kept his ideas to himself for thirty years because of his fear of the imminent censure from the church.  Only as he was nearing death did he decide to publish his findings in 1543, in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.  Legend has it that he saw it in print on his deathbed and it was immediately put on the papal index of forbidden books.

His ideas remained  forgotten for nearly 80 years till a man named Galileo started to question planetary motion.  Galileo proved Copernicus right with his brilliant mind and telescope.  These ideas caused such a sir that the church put Galileo on house arrest till his death.  These ideas were built upon by Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton...etc.  A brilliant mind builds upon the ideas of another brilliant mind.  This is how we will pave the path to the future.

IN THE BEGINNING...

Well here it is-my very first blog.  I wish I could tell you that I am an interesting, acclaimed or even published great writer of our time...but I am not.  I am just a student by morning and a housewife by afternoon.  Maybe, just maybe this blog will change all that.