Kinshasa & Couture

South African photographer Guy Tillim composed a set of documentary images in the Congo city of Kinshasa during a 2006 election. An earlier appearance by this photographer – panoramic studies of colonial architecture in decay – occurred some years ago here.

In 1883 Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II imported the "Electric Light" ball gown from Paris. It was conceived and executed by the foremost dressmaker of the day, Jean-Philippe Worth (1856-1926).  Today this densely embroidered artifact of Victorian futurism is displayed at the Museum of the City of New York.  

Mrs. Vanderbilt wearing the Electric Light ballgown (with Mr. Vanderbilt)

Bonfires

Woman suffrage bonfire on sidewalk in front of the White House – in rain. Later demonstrators with similar bonfire also unfurled a banner demanding voting rights for women from President Wilson. The year was 1918.

The Suffragist in the final photograph appears to be smiling with success at getting arrested directly in front of the White House.

Woman suffrage was enacted nationally two years later in 1920.

– Harris & Ewing collection at the Library of Congress.

Facsimile Tribute

Kunsthalle Bern, 1969

In 1969 the Kunsthalle Bern hosted the new art of the day (conceptual art, arte povera, earth art, serial art, minimal, postminimal and otherwise) in a group show called Live in Your Head : When Attitudes Become Form.

In 2013 the Fondazione Prada is sponsoring a reconstruction of this show at Ca’ Corner della Regina in Venice – When Attitudes Become Form : Bern 1969/Venice 2013.  

Original roster of participants in the 1969 show: Alain Jacquet, Alan Saret, Aldo Walker, Alighiero Boetti, Allen Ruppersberg, Barry Flanagan, Bill Bollinger, Bruce Nauman, Carl Andre, Claes Oldenburg, Daniel Buren, Dennis Oppenheim, Edward Kienholz and Jean Tinguely, Emilio Prini, Europe, Eva Hesse, Fondazione Prada, Frank Lincoln Viner,Franz Erhard Walther, Frederick Lane Sandback, Gary B. Kuehn, Ger van Elk, Germano Celant, Gilberto Zorio, Giovanni Anselmo, Group Show, Hanne Darboven, Hans Haacke, Institution, Italy, Jan Dibbets,Jannis Kounellis, Joseph Beuys, Joseph Kosuth, Keith Sonnier, Lawrence Weiner, Marinus Boezem, Mario Merz, Markus Raetz, Mel Bochner, Michael Buthe, Michael Snow, Neil Jenney, Paolo Icaro, Paul Cotton (Adam II), Philip Glass, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Pino Pascali, Rafael Ferrer, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Artschwager, Richard Long, Richard Serra, Richard Tuttle, Robert Barry, Robert Morris, Robert Ryman, Robert Smithson, Roelof Louw, Sarkis, Sol Lewitt, Stephen Kaltenbach, Steve Reich, Thomas Bang, Thomas Demand, Venice, Walter De Maria, William T. Wiley

Joseph Beuys, 1969

Joseph Beuys, 1969

Joseph Beuys, 2013

Richard Serra, 1969

Richard Serra, 2013

Alighiero Boetti, 1969

Alighiero Boetti, 2013

Below, additional exhibition views of public and artists in 1969 -

Immediately above, the young Lawrence Weiner creating a 36" x 36" Removal to the Lathing or Support Wall of Plaster or Wallboard from a Wall.   

20th Century Progress

I truly thought I had taken enough quotation liberties with Maggie Nelson's 2007 book Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions but then I got to the end-notes –

"I would also here point out the startling statistic that prior to WWII, women and children traditionally constituted about 5 percent of wartime casualties; now they constitute 95 percent."  

I could not leave that fact unrepeated. 

Photo of Maggie Nelson at far right with poet Eileen Myles at a 2008 reading (Nelson – also on left side of montage – standing at podium, far left). The event took place in Los Angeles to celebrate the publication of the book that has occupied my mind with such persuasive power this past week. On my desk at the library right now are stacked solid collected editions of Barbara Guest, James Schuyler and Alice Notley, three among the poets Nelson's book has persuaded me I have unfairly & foolishly neglected. 

Images here. 

Candido Portinari

Brazilian painter Candido Portinari (1903-1962) was born to Italian immigrant parents in the coffee-growing region of São Paulo state.

Unlike most European transplants, Portinari identified with workers and the poor. His political activities as a Communist caused him persecution and even exile for a time. Many present-day Brazilians are proud of his work – a personal combination of socialist realism with historical fantasy, in a multitude of styles.

Steven Arnold

In Search of Benvenuto Cellini

Mechanical Theatre

I only just discovered unfamous, long-gone California artist Steven Arnold (1943-1994), "one of the most prolific unsung forefathers of the burgeoning high art subculture of the '60s, '70s, and '80s." He was (until his early death) remarkably active in a dozen different genres, styles, modes. From what I have seen so far, the extensive series of black-and-white tableaux vivants sampled here represent the strand of Arnold's work that interests me the most.

The Sovereign Right of Self-Discovery

The Card Reading

Prayer for the Cure

Inseminating the Marvelous

Connecting to the Infinite

Apogee of the Idea

Wreaking with Inclinations

"Sometimes I’m not sure I like being nailed to the word tableaux, even though it’s the one I myself use most often in referring to these pieces.  I also think of them as magical Rorschach tonkas.  The word tonka implies a certain usefulness as an object for meditation.  I like that.  What the hell.  Call them tablonkas!  Or tongleaux!  Whatever they are, I’ve found a great happiness in this form.  It uses every part of me.” 

Images and quotes -- Steven Arnold Archive