The Pyramids in Egypt are tombs that slaves climbed up and died on. The rendering of epidemics as pyramids that depicted victims climbing as increased severity of disease, reminds me of the pyramid representing Auschwitz at the end of this video:
If US annual attempted killings were measured by Auschwitz's, there is one Auschwitz of attempted suicides in US high schools every year. There is another Auschwitz for all adults aged 18 and over annually.
Scientists found prevention should include children learning that humans are defective. It turns out if you warn kids where the potholes are, they don't trip on them. Our egos prevent us from admitting our flaws so the killing continues.
Spot on all that you said -- except this: The pyramids were NOT built by slaves. This is an incorrect assumption made by many. But not true.
But YES to all else, and thank you for making those points. Especially striking and horrifying is your numbers comparison of attempted killings and suicides equaling the Auschwitz stats. Wow. That is a painful realization.
You are correct that the workers building the pyramids were paid employees. Thanks for catching that. And that it doesn’t detract from the devasting comparison of lost lives.
If I can expand this to favorite work of art at Chicago Institute of Arts, what I love most when I’ve been there is Marc Chagall’s Stained glass work called “America”.
Here is an attempt at a URL about it. Kind of made me cry a little, considering the state of America today….
There’s a relatively small painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio of an old man and a young child reaching up to the old man. The love passing between them is palpable. What makes this painting so touching is that the old man’s nose is terribly distorted with what look like warts but that doesn’t deter the beautiful young child. It’s that kind of unqualified love that this world so desperately needs right now.
My favorite painting is one no one outside of my family has ever seen. When my mother was in college, she painted a picture of a sheep, standing in front of a stone wall of the kind that was most common in the Brandywine river valley, where she and I both grew up. Her mother displayed it in the dining room for the rest of her time in that home. It was in the background of every family occasion throughout my childhood and adolescence - a roil of Italian-American family with this one note of serenity harmonizing in the back.
My gramma had a painting of a casual pile of cut pink peonies (I think) in her living room that I always loved. And now it is hanging in my bedroom as a constant reminder of her spirit and elegance. Signed "R O Briggs -15-"
In a time of seeming hopelessness, these artists are inspiring. I have had enough of fighting in the US and everywhere else. It’s time for normal people to take back our democracy.
The very first painting I was drawn to was “Guardian of the Gate” by Walfrido. I had not seen the original oil painting but one of the serials on display up in the front of the studio. Then I got to see the original. Bought it immediately and moving that 52” round in its square frame half a dozen times over the last 25 years? Still love it, even when I couldn’t properly display it.
The Prado in Madrid was my first viewing of actual oil paintings wayyy back in 1978. Could have spent every day there.
Great question, Steven! I have always gone for the Dutch, Flemish, and German old masters, specifically Jan van Eyck (the Arnolfini portrait), Albrecht Durer ("St. Jerome in His Study"), and Hieronymus Bosch ("The Garden of Earthly Delights," etc.) I also love Caravaggio because of his dramatic lighting, and the brothers Hildebrandt, who created those wonderful Tolkien paintings. As you can see, I tend to like hyper-realism, which is not to say that I don't appreciate other styles, but these works really get to me. Go figure.
The most appropriate painting for this period of time is “THE SCREAM” (Edvard Munch);
— capturing the existential dread many feel today. 😱
🕊️ “Another massive work that enables you to enter its timeless world …” — also appropriate for today, we need BALANCE in our lives vs succumbing to The Donald’s ongoing trolling.
* Dan Rather does this each Sunday also with a selected song.
The Scream by Munch, yes, but allow me to add two Norwegian companions with different moods. Also by Munch, the lesser known "Anxiety" has a similar motif but different vibe, a crowd of glum, expressionless people who appear helplessly resigned to a third term of Trump or whatever continued MAGA rule terrifies you the most. Then with a positive vibe we have by Munch's contemporary artist Christian Krohg's "The Totalists' Sunday Outing" showing a Prohibition parade in a small Norwegian town -- I like it not for its political view (I oppose Prohibition) but the depiction of people enjoying their free speech while following a marching band's rousing performance.
Now we have a rounded response -- despair and anxiety of Munch followed by the optimism of a free people.
Floofie, I've learned, is an alternate slangy way of saying fluffy. AND it's attached to certain animals as funny slang names -- e.g., a "dangerfloof" is a grizzly bear. There's one for a hedgehog, too, but I forget what it is at this exact moment...
Thank you for this respite from reality replacing it with beauty.
Fun to see you in the street scene. Nice touch.
Over the decades I’ve been increasingly aware of the power of art and music. Speaking to me.
You asked for a favorite work? I have many.
Van Gogh is my favorite artist because his works are often deeply emotional. His colors vibrant. His often impasto brushstrokes are often emotional and as my eyes slowly follow the strokes, emotions in me are prompted.
So glad you were in Chicago and went to the art institute, one of my favor ire places to visit. My favorite exhibit is a Mayan painted vase, the creation vase. Had been going to the Art Institute for years before I learned about the Maya creation myth and that there was a Vegas depicting it. Then to my astonishment I found myself standing in front of that very artifact!
When I was 5ish, my mom started taking me to the Art Institute on a regular basis. Ivan Albright’s work confused me and terrified me. I still love his work! He never got the fame he deserved. (The scariest part was I think he lived in Winnetka, not far from where we lived!)
No Exit (Huis clos) is a 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre where three deceased people—Joseph Garcin, Inez Serrano, and Estelle Rigault—are locked in a single room in Hell for eternity, finding that their punishment is not physical torture but the psychological torment of being judged by each other, leading to the famous conclusion, "Hell is other people". The play explores themes of freedom, bad faith, and how human relationships define and trap individuals, as the characters are forced to confront their past sins through the "gaze" of the others, with no escape from their shared, inescapable reality.
The play explores themes of freedom, bad faith, and how human relationships define and trap individuals, as the characters are forced to confront their past sins through the "gaze" of the others, with no escape from their shared, inescapable reality.
What a way to while away the hours...The shear size of Le Grande Jatte is what caught my breath the first time I saw it, as a process nerd I was in wonder and awe of the painstaking painted points which coalesce into the scene. I imagined how long he'd work in one color, to change to another, and move away to check the proportions of each figure. I understand he mocked up many drafts of the painting before dedicating himself to the final piece. His short life can only give rise to the thought of what could have been had he lived long enough to usher in the next art movement, instead he left a unique and colorful legacy.
As far as being moved by paintings, it's difficult for me to separate the maker from the art, so perhaps Madonna of Loreto by Caravaggio because I appreciated his defiant nature and the humanity he brought to this grouping, even though the turmoil in his own life belied that. I love Toulouse Lautrec for his economy of line, influenced by Japanese sumi-e paintings, he was able to convey so much in his interpretation of the lives and characters who inhabited the dance halls and brothels of Montmartre, Paris, with a few colors, broad strokes, profiles and skewed perspectives, he painted an entire world.
You’ve left off one of the Art Institute’s greatest hits - Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. There’s several novels and essays in that one painting.
True! Always a necessary visit!
The Pyramids
The Pyramids in Egypt are tombs that slaves climbed up and died on. The rendering of epidemics as pyramids that depicted victims climbing as increased severity of disease, reminds me of the pyramid representing Auschwitz at the end of this video:
https://youtu.be/Cqn6UYx4SCY?si=5I6isQNy6J6B5QTX
If US annual attempted killings were measured by Auschwitz's, there is one Auschwitz of attempted suicides in US high schools every year. There is another Auschwitz for all adults aged 18 and over annually.
Scientists found prevention should include children learning that humans are defective. It turns out if you warn kids where the potholes are, they don't trip on them. Our egos prevent us from admitting our flaws so the killing continues.
Spot on all that you said -- except this: The pyramids were NOT built by slaves. This is an incorrect assumption made by many. But not true.
But YES to all else, and thank you for making those points. Especially striking and horrifying is your numbers comparison of attempted killings and suicides equaling the Auschwitz stats. Wow. That is a painful realization.
You are correct that the workers building the pyramids were paid employees. Thanks for catching that. And that it doesn’t detract from the devasting comparison of lost lives.
My favorite artist outside Leonardo.
Wish I could post a pic! Nearly anything by Hopper or Van Gogh. Starry Night probably first among many.
If I can expand this to favorite work of art at Chicago Institute of Arts, what I love most when I’ve been there is Marc Chagall’s Stained glass work called “America”.
Here is an attempt at a URL about it. Kind of made me cry a little, considering the state of America today….
https://www.artic.edu/videos/25/marc-chagalls-america-windows-art-institute-essentials-tour
A welcome addition. Thx!
Hi B. Warren
I’m grateful you included this work by Chagall. I have not seen it in person.
I watched the soothing video you attached and love that Chagall said this,
as quoted in
“My American Windows - Belt Magazine”
“Marc Chagall expressed deep admiration for the United States, calling it …’
a place of "greatness"
and "freedom" that provided him refuge during World War II.’
He was impressed by its energy, the appreciation for art, and viewed it as ‘a land of opportunity’”
That quote caused me to deeply inhale with yearning to return to his vision of us.
Thank you
That’s what made sad. Yearning and grieving is a good description of how I felt.
Yes
It’s a difficult difficult time.
I do still deeply embrace hope…
As Steven has said, “There are more of us than there are of them”
Beautiful! I love that place!
There’s a relatively small painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio of an old man and a young child reaching up to the old man. The love passing between them is palpable. What makes this painting so touching is that the old man’s nose is terribly distorted with what look like warts but that doesn’t deter the beautiful young child. It’s that kind of unqualified love that this world so desperately needs right now.
A beautiful example. Thx.
My favorite painting is one no one outside of my family has ever seen. When my mother was in college, she painted a picture of a sheep, standing in front of a stone wall of the kind that was most common in the Brandywine river valley, where she and I both grew up. Her mother displayed it in the dining room for the rest of her time in that home. It was in the background of every family occasion throughout my childhood and adolescence - a roil of Italian-American family with this one note of serenity harmonizing in the back.
Sounds wonderful. Wish you could post a jpg of it. We all could use some of that lovely serenity right now.
My gramma had a painting of a casual pile of cut pink peonies (I think) in her living room that I always loved. And now it is hanging in my bedroom as a constant reminder of her spirit and elegance. Signed "R O Briggs -15-"
In a time of seeming hopelessness, these artists are inspiring. I have had enough of fighting in the US and everywhere else. It’s time for normal people to take back our democracy.
The very first painting I was drawn to was “Guardian of the Gate” by Walfrido. I had not seen the original oil painting but one of the serials on display up in the front of the studio. Then I got to see the original. Bought it immediately and moving that 52” round in its square frame half a dozen times over the last 25 years? Still love it, even when I couldn’t properly display it.
The Prado in Madrid was my first viewing of actual oil paintings wayyy back in 1978. Could have spent every day there.
Great question, Steven! I have always gone for the Dutch, Flemish, and German old masters, specifically Jan van Eyck (the Arnolfini portrait), Albrecht Durer ("St. Jerome in His Study"), and Hieronymus Bosch ("The Garden of Earthly Delights," etc.) I also love Caravaggio because of his dramatic lighting, and the brothers Hildebrandt, who created those wonderful Tolkien paintings. As you can see, I tend to like hyper-realism, which is not to say that I don't appreciate other styles, but these works really get to me. Go figure.
The Banjo Lesson (1893) by Henry Ossawa Tanner https://smarthistory.org/tanner-banjo/
Thanks for sharing! I’d never seen this piece before.
The most appropriate painting for this period of time is “THE SCREAM” (Edvard Munch);
— capturing the existential dread many feel today. 😱
🕊️ “Another massive work that enables you to enter its timeless world …” — also appropriate for today, we need BALANCE in our lives vs succumbing to The Donald’s ongoing trolling.
* Dan Rather does this each Sunday also with a selected song.
"The Scream": True.
The Scream by Munch, yes, but allow me to add two Norwegian companions with different moods. Also by Munch, the lesser known "Anxiety" has a similar motif but different vibe, a crowd of glum, expressionless people who appear helplessly resigned to a third term of Trump or whatever continued MAGA rule terrifies you the most. Then with a positive vibe we have by Munch's contemporary artist Christian Krohg's "The Totalists' Sunday Outing" showing a Prohibition parade in a small Norwegian town -- I like it not for its political view (I oppose Prohibition) but the depiction of people enjoying their free speech while following a marching band's rousing performance.
Now we have a rounded response -- despair and anxiety of Munch followed by the optimism of a free people.
‘The helplessly resigned’ seems the most ghastly state of being. 😒
I still have the energy to be ANGRY at Trump’s brazen thuggishness & GOP lapdogs.
* The prohibitionists are certainly dressed rather dourly … interesting … perhaps in keeping with the lack of merriment inherent in their enterprise.
That may be why my wife hates "Anxiety" so much!
Absolute favorite is Starry Night by Van Gogh, captures the beauty and wonderment of the Universe.
YES!!!
I’ve been looking for a name for a new cat. Floofie is it! Thanks!
That's hilarious! I'm honored!
Floofie, I've learned, is an alternate slangy way of saying fluffy. AND it's attached to certain animals as funny slang names -- e.g., a "dangerfloof" is a grizzly bear. There's one for a hedgehog, too, but I forget what it is at this exact moment...
Steven
Thank you for this respite from reality replacing it with beauty.
Fun to see you in the street scene. Nice touch.
Over the decades I’ve been increasingly aware of the power of art and music. Speaking to me.
You asked for a favorite work? I have many.
Van Gogh is my favorite artist because his works are often deeply emotional. His colors vibrant. His often impasto brushstrokes are often emotional and as my eyes slowly follow the strokes, emotions in me are prompted.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1260920862/vincent-van-gogh-irises-50-x-60-cm-oil
One of my favorites
This article has a healing quality. Much needed.
Can’t wait for the next one
//
So glad you were in Chicago and went to the art institute, one of my favor ire places to visit. My favorite exhibit is a Mayan painted vase, the creation vase. Had been going to the Art Institute for years before I learned about the Maya creation myth and that there was a Vegas depicting it. Then to my astonishment I found myself standing in front of that very artifact!
"Into the World There Came a Soul Called Isa" by Ivan Albrigh - takes my breath away.
When I was 5ish, my mom started taking me to the Art Institute on a regular basis. Ivan Albright’s work confused me and terrified me. I still love his work! He never got the fame he deserved. (The scariest part was I think he lived in Winnetka, not far from where we lived!)
Oh that’s great, I had no idea.
I just looked this up, and wow! Thanks.
I spelled it wrong but corrected it below - I always take visitors to see that one first.
"Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida" by Ivan Albrigh - takes my breath away.
Catherine,
I was unfamiliar with this work so of course looked for it.
It’s striking!
Yes. She looks v like she just read camus. La Nause. Discomfort. Angst. Isolation
JBR
Although I avoided reading Camus And Sartre as much as possible, I respected their work for their powerful talent to provoke introspection.
Thank you for your thoughts
I love discussions like these
And Waiting for Godot. He never arrives.
No Exit (Huis clos) is a 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre where three deceased people—Joseph Garcin, Inez Serrano, and Estelle Rigault—are locked in a single room in Hell for eternity, finding that their punishment is not physical torture but the psychological torment of being judged by each other, leading to the famous conclusion, "Hell is other people". The play explores themes of freedom, bad faith, and how human relationships define and trap individuals, as the characters are forced to confront their past sins through the "gaze" of the others, with no escape from their shared, inescapable reality.
The play explores themes of freedom, bad faith, and how human relationships define and trap individuals, as the characters are forced to confront their past sins through the "gaze" of the others, with no escape from their shared, inescapable reality.
Except for the part about the emptiness and angst of life. Didnt Sartre write no exit?
Ps
For some reason Substack algorithms are adding vacant lines and sometimes numbers to my writing …. Only revealed after I post
( hmmmmm?)
Yes “No Exit” was my first foray in Sartre. I was 17.
Our prof loved to make us think. And he was correct in doing so.
Seeing what you wrote just now elevates a little respect for what Sartre forced us to do.. also think how we are perceived.
Those of us with a soul would of course feel remorse over our failings…
But
Too late! We were already in Hell.
Consequence of Actions!
☺️
The Starry Night, 1889 — Vincent van Gogh.
The song by Don McLean makes me cry every time!
What a way to while away the hours...The shear size of Le Grande Jatte is what caught my breath the first time I saw it, as a process nerd I was in wonder and awe of the painstaking painted points which coalesce into the scene. I imagined how long he'd work in one color, to change to another, and move away to check the proportions of each figure. I understand he mocked up many drafts of the painting before dedicating himself to the final piece. His short life can only give rise to the thought of what could have been had he lived long enough to usher in the next art movement, instead he left a unique and colorful legacy.
As far as being moved by paintings, it's difficult for me to separate the maker from the art, so perhaps Madonna of Loreto by Caravaggio because I appreciated his defiant nature and the humanity he brought to this grouping, even though the turmoil in his own life belied that. I love Toulouse Lautrec for his economy of line, influenced by Japanese sumi-e paintings, he was able to convey so much in his interpretation of the lives and characters who inhabited the dance halls and brothels of Montmartre, Paris, with a few colors, broad strokes, profiles and skewed perspectives, he painted an entire world.
Thanks for your input. The Art Institute exhibited one of Seurat's small oil "sketches" for the massive work. There were more than 20 in all...