Eric Ravilious, Interior at Furlongs, 1939
This week's art reads:
1. A long but fascinating read from Dana Gioia on the nature and purpose of poetry. This is an important article, really getting into some of the contemporary frictions between the practice and amateur reading of poetry and the study of poetry.
"But the amateur who reads poetry from love or curiosity does
have at least one advantage over the trained specialist who reads it from
professional obligation. Amateurs have not learned to shut off parts of their
consciousness to focus on only the appropriate elements of a literary text.
They respond to poems in the sloppy fullness of their humanity. Their emotions
and memories emerge entangled with half-formed thoughts and physical
sensations."
http://www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com/danagioiapoetrya.html
2. I did not know the work of Eric Ravilious, but was happy to get a brief introduction here. I often don't consider the global reach of social realism outside of Germany, the U.S., and Russia, and I especially don't think of Britain. There is much to think about with Ravilious. Does one detect a bit of Hockney here? I'd say yes in a big way.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/jul/16/modern-english-strange-eric-ravilious/
3: The illustrative work of Aubrey Beardsley never gets old. I am so pleased to run across this reminder in the Paris Review:
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/08/21/beardsleys-poe/
4. James Wood is one of my favorite critics in any field and he is also an indication of where culture stands at the moment. It used to be hard for me to believe that Woods' style, which mixes a kind of art appreciation approach with deeper diving, could be one of the voices of our moment (that basic art appreciation was necessary or that people had to be convinced!), but now I know it is true. Now it seems necessary, more than ever, to constantly reiterate and remind ourselves why art is important (complete with offering fresh and of the moment arguments) even while we remain scholars intent on excavating further and further into the things we love.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/06/the-nearest-thing-to-life-james-wood-review-memoir-literary-criticism
Video of the Week:
5. 5:50 of this video gets me every time. No matter how much you read about art, this line never ceases to be true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAT9V2wHx3M
Poem for the Week:
6. Jorges Luis Borges loved two animals more than all others, the tiger and the wolf. He spent many hours gazing at illustrated plates of tigers when he was a boy, waiting for them to come alive in his imagination and lurk into the corners of his declining vision. The tiger and wolf are always present in his work, as though the dæmon of the Porteño gangster that Borges knew growing up, the primitive violent man of the street whose knife fights (at least in a certain tradition) are said to have been the basis for the Tango. Yesterday was the birthday of Borges. So for this week's poem: enter the wolf:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/161/1#!/20603338