Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Samhain Moon<\/p>\n
Caught up with docent friend Allison Thiel today. \u00a0We had lunch at Gather, bison burger for me, fish taco for her, discussed MOOCs, Gertrude Stein, our boys. \u00a0Her LA son has a new bar underway, part of the craft brewing scene and it will have brewery on site soon. Her Chicago son has his MLS (master of library science) in sight.<\/p>\n
After lunch we toured Claus Oldenburg, the early years. \u00a0He used what he called “anti-art materials”, the stuff of everyday: cardboard, burlap, soft plastic to portray the stuff of everyday. \u00a0He collected right angle objects, too, which he called Ray Guns. \u00a0A tiny museum in the show showcases his collection.<\/p>\n
There is a soft droopy toilet, a human sized fan in black shiny droopy material, a cardboard wall switch the size of a door. \u00a0Another museum within the show featured small objects, everyday objects again, clothespins and bottle openers, for example displayed in a curving layout. \u00a0This was a large collection, larger than the ray guns.<\/p>\n
The roots of pop art are squarely in the domain of modernism. \u00a0Anything can be the subject matter of art: \u00a0urinals, wall switches, fans, food models. \u00a0Make it new meant stepping outside the old artistic traditions to shape words or paint or plastic in a new way, or to use new material altogether like cardboard, burlap, found objects. \u00a0Focus on the fragment rather than the whole: \u00a0a toilet out of a bathroom, a light switch too big for a wall, a mouse, but just the head made out of metal and twisted. \u00a0Oldenburg’s project made a good deal more sense to me as a result of the two MOOCs I’m taking right now.<\/p>\n
This is an interesting show, an intellectually fascinating show and an aesthetically bold show, but I found it, as I do much modern and contemporary art, strangely bloodless. \u00a0The emotional impact fades into irony and satire, making me go, huh? rather than wow or oh.<\/p>\n
As I wrote this, I thought of the Nature Theater of Oklahoma and how moving it was. Probably I’m not seeing enough. \u00a0Need to look and experience more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fall \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Samhain Moon Caught up with docent friend Allison Thiel today. \u00a0We had lunch at Gather, bison burger … Continue reading Modern<\/span>