Happpy Birthday to Henri Matisse

 

Born: December 31, 1869 - Le Cateau-Cambresis, Picardy, France 

Died: November 3, 1954 - Nice, France

“You higher men, the worst about you is that all of you have not learned to dance as one must dance,” Zarathustra proclaims in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “dancing away over yourselves! ... learn to laugh away over yourselves! Lift up your hearts, you good dancers, high, higher!”

Think of the maenads, the followers of Dionysus who danced themselves into a frenzy as they became, literally, god-intoxicated. Some of the ancient vase paintings depict the maenads dancing around in circles just like the circle .

Henri Matisse is widely regarded as the greatest colorist of the 20th century and as a rival to Pablo Picasso in the importance of his innovations. He emerged as a Post-Impressionist, and first achieved prominence as the leader of the French movement Fauvism. Although interested in Cubism, he rejected it, and instead sought to use color as the foundation for expressive, decorative, and often monumental paintings.

There exists filmed footage of an aging Matisse making cut-outs with his big pair of scissors. It is instructive to watch the video because you see a Matisse who is fully absorbed in the process of making. His hands move instinctively and with grace. He knows what he is doing, though he does not seem to be thinking about it. Here, the cut-outs are at their most powerful. In the act of wielding his scissors the relentless barrage of thoughts could be held at bay. There, in the relative silence of his making, Matisse created colorful testimonies to another way of being. In this way of being, we don’t deliberate, we don’t hesitate in the dead spaces between self and world. We act. And then we are carried along by that action. Something beautiful emerges. Fragile emissaries from the thinking wars.

Matisse, vulnerable, suffering, dying from cancer was attempting to ward off his own fears of gloom and despondency; he was reminding us through his genius that there is nothing quite as serious as knowing how to hope.

A day on Telegraph Hill

Alas my friend Julie no longer lives in San Francisco, but I will always remember this day. Wet, windy, and absolutely perfect. 

Julie and I had been trying for ages to have a walk though/photo shoot in North Beach so I was delighted when she e-mailed me with the date. It was a drizzly day when I met up with Julie at City Lights But being true daughters of San Francisco, we did not let a little wind and rain deter us.  

 

 It was too early for lunch so I suggested that we take the bus up the hill to Coit Tower and walk down the hill, exploring the side alleys and looking for whatever old houses are left. Fortunately, the 39 Coit Tower came around right away so we didn’t have to toil up that hill. I have a friend who lived on Greenwich and I knew from personal experience how difficult it is to trudge endlessly up  one steep hill after another. Who needs to climb Mt Everest when you have the hills of North Beach? 

 

We got on the bus going in the wrong direction but felt like we were having our own personal tour. Our bus driver was a delightful and protective Asian gentleman who made us get off and wait until he finished his break because we might not be safe inside the bus. He made me smile so I teased him that we were certainly the types who would hijack the bus and drive it to Reno. 

 

When we got off at the top of Telegraph hill, I was a bit disoriented. I hadn’t been there in ages and I still had powerful memories of the way it was back in the early 70’s. My ex-husband’s aunt had lived in one of the tiny, wooden cottages on the bay side of the hill. 

 

I remember walking down endless steps, wading into the bushes along the side of the hill, picking the wild anise for her to make into candy. Most of the small cottages then were modest, inhabited by long-time residents of the hill. There were poets, musicians, some beatniks, and fishermen; G’s aunt worked at a local factory and wrote poetry in her spare time. I knew a lot of the poets and musicians and made sure to attend any times they recited or performed in the the numerous cafes in North Beach. 

 

The wooden steps are no longer there and you really have to look hard to find any of the modest homes. 

 

But all are not new and soulless condominiums. Julie pointed out to me an incredible piece of Art Deco architecture, complete with silver bas-relief and a cutout of Humphrey Bogart in the window. Apparently it had been used in the 1947 movie, Dark Passage and hasn’t changed much since then. 

 

By now, we were walking up and down the slippery wet stairs and side alleys, trying to find the source of parrot screeching. After a few false starts, Julie had the good sense to walk up a tiny, obscure alley where we found a flock of them devouring the red berries of a Pyracantha tree and conducting a whole opera in parrot.   

 

You may know the saying “it's not over until the fat lady sings.” I don’t care for the sexism in that remark but apparently parrots have taken that to heart and were making sure that the final aria lasted for hours, if not days. They are beautiful, but I wouldn’t care to have them live next to my apartment.  

 

Later we walked back down Lombard Street to Columbus Ave.  I don’t remember ever being up the street as it began at the foot of the hill and the older houses were beautiful old Victorians. The sun came out and we exclaimed at all, the city sparkling below us like it was friosted with white icing, the architectural detail and the general ambience of the area. You can still fell what it must have been in the 40’s and 50’s. 

 

We stopped for lunch at my favorite café in North Beach – the Original US Café. It’s was then at the corner of Columbus and Stockton. The front of the restaurant was shapped like the prow of a ship with windowns in all directions, always full and always fun with the vigorous Sicilian waitresses hollering orders from one end of the space to the cook at the other.  

 

Julie sprang for the Pappardelle Boscaiola, which is homemade wide ribbon pasta with bacon, onion, and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce, and the Spaghetti Bolognese (tomato meat sauce). She gave me a bit of her pasta which was perfectly cooked. I had lamb chops, gnocchi and a Caesar salad, one of my favorite meals. We drank a whole carafe of the rough Italian red wine, but the carbs we had eaten kept us from falling over. We finished lunch with a strong cup of coffee We needed the caffeine because I wanted to take her to another North Beach iconic place. 

 

Julie took a menu and vowed to eat her way through it, a vow that I completely agreed with. To hell with the weight. We didn’t have desert here because I wanted to introduce her to Stella’s, the best Italian pastry shop in North Beach.  It’s another homey, nondescript store that’s been around for ages and for a reason. The pastry is fresh, with clean flavors from good ingredients. You won’t get soggy or stale pastries here. We split a cannelloni and danced out of the store on a pasta and sugar high. 

 

 

Afterwards, we walked down Montgomery Street toward Market, sharing views on art, dance, history, politics and more things than I can remember. We ignored our damp hair and soggy wet socks as Julie stopped to photograph an old advertising piece on a ancient brick wall, probably pre-1906. The building was in the process of being demolished, prior to City College building its Chinatown Campus on that location . 

 

The perfect day ended with a ride on the F Line down Market St to the Castro Theater where Julie was going to see a movie staring Bud Cort, and I went home to take a nap! 

A list of the year's most crazy moments (from Hyperallergic)

Rogue Tourists

• Can your five-year-old do this? A prominent 18th-century sculpture of a water nymph by British artist John Bacon was found scribbled over in (fortunately washable) blue crayon. 
• In Rome, a tourist was filmed unbelievably etching his name and that of his beloved onto the wall of the 2,000-year-old Colosseum. The visitor who caught the whole thing on camera can be heard in the background, asking: “Are you f–ing serious, man?”
• Also in Rome, a woman was caught trespassing on the famous Trevi Fountain to refill her water bottle. Record-breaking heat in the region this summer may be partly to blame, but still — that’s one thirsty tourist.
• A woman got a little too close to Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid sculpture, not only climbing the work but also posing for a photo pretending to kiss the iconic sea dweller as flabbergasted crowds looked on and booed in disbelief. 
• Just a few weeks earlier, a German man was detained in Florence for ascending a 16th-century marble statue of Neptune for a selfie in Florence. Travelers to the region have gotten so audacious that Italy’s culture ministry threatened to impose five-figure fines for infractions.

A fresco of fertility god Priapus weighing his penis was found in Pompeii. (© Silvia Vacca; courtesy Archaeological Park of Pompeii)

Extraordinary Findings

• The ancient archeological site of Pompeii really is the gift that keeps on giving, and this year, it endowed us with an, um, sizable discovery: A fresco of a god seemingly weighing his frankly massive penis on a scale. A few weeks later, researchers revealed what may be the first-known Ancient Roman dildo, a tapered wooden object previously thought to have been used as a knitting tool. You can’t fool me, grandma.
• Speaking of big, archeologists in Rome pulled a life-sized Hercules sculpture out of the ground while working on a routine sewer repair. 
• Egypt may have uncovered its “oldest and most complete” mummy — er, mummified person — along with Old Kingdom-era stoneware and amulets near the Pyramid of Djoser. 
• Meanwhile, in Peru, a man was discovered to be carrying a mummified bodyin a food delivery backpack. He reportedly referred to the centuries-old remains as “Juanita,” his “spiritual girlfriend.” 😳
• Not all discoveries were thousands of years old, and they weren’t always dug out of the earth. Sometimes they were hiding in plain sight, like this tiny demon concealed under layers of varnish in an 18th-century Joshua Reynolds painting. Kudos to England’s National Trust for identifying the terrifying fanged creature during cleaning and conservation of the work to mark the artist’s 300th birthday.

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Shameless, Simply Shameless

• After New York art consultant Lisa Schiff was accused of “running a Ponzi scheme” in May and slammed with two costly lawsuits for alleged embezzlement and fraud, the Manhattan advisor filed for bankruptcy less than a week later and began liquidating her company Schiff Fine Arts in order to repay her debts, which amount to at least $3 million. In August, a document filed by her bankruptcy lawyer revealed that Schiff actually owed money to dozens of collectors, galleries, and businesses — and independent investigators claimed that 108 artworks totaling over $1 million that were in her company’s possession could not be located.
• A former payroll manager at the Art Institute of Chicago was indicted for depositing over $2 million in museum funds to his personal bank account. Charged with two counts of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud, 56-year-old Michael Maurello hid the misappropriated funds by stealthily altering information in the museum’s payroll system in an illicit scheme that went on for 13 years.
• For more than a decade, Washington artists Jerry Chris Van Dyke and Lewis Anthony Rath sold Native artwork under the false pretense that it was authentic by misrepresenting themselves as Indigenous tribal members. After pleading guilty to violating the “truth-in-advertising” Indian Arts and Crafts Act, Van Dyke received an 18-month federal probation sentence in May while Rath was sentenced to 24 months probation and 200 hours of community service in September.
• The British Museum launched an independent investigation into approximately 2,000 missing or damaged items in its collection, mainly gems and jewelry in the Department of Greece and Rome largely believed to have been stolen by an as-yet-unnamed staff member dismissed in August of this year. (British outlets reported that the employee in question was Peter Higgs, senior curator of Greek art, though Higgs’s representatives have so far denied his involvement.)

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Thousands signed a petition to support Dan Rossi, a hot-dog seller stationed outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo courtesy Elizabeth Rossi)

Feel-Good Moments

• When New Yorkers learned “Hot Dog King” Dan Rossi had been sleeping in his iconic cart outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the past 11 years, they showed him an outpouring of support. Over 56,000 people signed a petition urging the city to help Rossi, who thinks the city’s poor oversight of vending permits (officially distributed to disabled veterans only) has subjected him to unfair levels of competition.
• A Dutch chef made an acute observation while visiting Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum: The “onions” in the artist’s “Red Cabbages and Onions” (1887) looked a lot like garlic. Ernst de Witte convinced the museum to retitle the painting, and he now serves a red cabbage and garlic dish at his Utrecht restaurant in its honor.
• Using x-ray fluorescence, researchers discovered a floppy-eared pup wearing a bowtie in a 123-year-old Picasso painting depicting a Bohemian scene of a Paris cabaret. While the artist had intentionally covered up the tiny dog, it turns out he was a canine lover in his lifetime; a friend once described the artist’s relationship with his Dachshund as a “love affair.” Picasso remains all sorts of problematic, but who doesn’t love puppies?
• A Barcelona museum partnered with a nudist club to host special tours of an exhibition featuring photographs of Ancient Greek sculptures. Notably, both the artworks’ subjects and the museumgoers were naked. As one docent mused, “We wanted people who came to see it to feel exactly the same as the work they were looking at.”

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Artworks That Caused Controversy

• A Florida principal was forced to resign for showing sixth-grade students an image of Michelangelo’s “David” (1501–1504) after parents complained that the Italian Renaissance sculpture was “pornographic.” Just as weird, or maybe weirder, given that nothing surprises us anymore in Ron DeSantis’s dystopian Florida, is the fact that an early episode of the Simpsons from 1990 appeared to predict the incident.
• A rather curvaceous likeness of a mermaid caused a stir in the small fishing town of Monopoli in Puglia, Italy. Honoring eminent Italian scientist and Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini, the sculpture was described as a “tribute to the great majority of women, who are curvy,” but some found the voluptuous figure “provocative.”
• Odd-angle photographs of Hank Willis Thomas’s public artwork “The Embrace,” unveiled this January, elicited a nearly immediate outpouring of hilarious posts and memes as users perceived depictions of various sexual acts in the bronze’s intertwining limbs. The memorial to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King stands in the Boston Common’s 1965 Freedom Plaza, and some locals who were able to see it in person told Hyperallergic they admired the piece.
• A Hamline University professor in Minnesota was let go after she displayed Medieval Islamic depictions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad during an art history lesson. Erika López Prater issued a content warning before showing the images, the prohibition of which varies across Islam traditions. 

 This is so you don't have to wade through their political posts.  Very pro Hamas and antisemitic. Also you have to sub to their newsletter so Im doing it for you. 

Io Saturnalia

 

December 17th - the first day of the Romans' week of Saturnalia festivities. " Let there be equal esteem for both slave and free, for both rich and poor. Let it be permitted to no one to rage, be vexed, or issue threats" (Lucian)

The 17th of December marked the start of this Roman festival which ran to the 23rd. There was drinking, merry making and gift giving in honour of the god Saturn. This festival has influenced how we mark Christmas today.

Who was Saturn?

Saturn was one of the Titans. His parents were Caelus and Terra, his siblings were Janus and Ops, Ops was also his wife and their children were Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. He was conflated with the Greek Cronus and Ops with Rhea.

Saturn was god of agriculture, periodic renewal, plenty, wealth, liberation, dissolution, generation, and later of time

Saturn was god of agriculture, periodic renewal, plenty, wealth, liberation, dissolution, generation, and later of time

The sickle/scythe he holds is an agricultural implement. His aged appearance represents the waning of the old year and the upcoming birth of the new.

The planet Saturn and Saturday are named after him. god of plenty and later the god of time.

In Rome, the annual celebrations of Saturnalia began with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturnus. A lectisternium (meal offered to gods) was held by placing the statue of Saturnus on a sumptuous couch as if the god was participating in the festivities.

During the Saturnalia festival, the Romans decorated their houses with foliage, pine leaves, candles and images of the god Saturnus. Garlands and wreaths of ivy and holly were hung over doorways and windows.

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia