Superman and the Case of the Wronged Artists

When Man of Steel opened in theaters on June 14, 2013, it pulled in $116.6 million USD that opening weekend alone. Superman remains a box office bonanza in his eighth decade of existence, continuing the billion-dollar tradition sparked originally by Joe Shuster’s eye-catching cover for Action Comics #1 (detail shown above). Despite all that success, Superman’s creators—artist Shuster and author Jerry Siegel—saw precious little of it. Brad Ricca’s Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—The Creators of Superman tells the exciting story of two Jewish Cleveland teens finding one another and then creating one of the most iconic figures of American (and world) popular culture, but makes you feel the soul-crushing aftermath of two young men exploited by the comic publishing industry and then cast aside, ultimately dying in near poverty. Super Boys will thrill every fanboy with juicy details of how Superman became Superman, but it will also sadden and anger with the tragic details of corporations crushing creativity. If it were a comic book story, Siegel and Shuster might have called it “Superman and the Case of the Wronged Artists.” Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Superman and the Case of the Wronged Artists."

Who Is James Turrell and Why Is His Art Suddenly Everywhere?

With strikes in American nerve centers such as New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, and even Las Vegas, one artist this summer is waging a one-man World War Z of retrospective blockbusters. Get ready for “World War T,” led by James Turrell, an artist working in the elusive media of light and space, but who is almost unavoidable this summer by mainstream art audiences after nearly half a century of work. If you don’t know Turrell, you’ll know him by the end of 2013. This multi-venue spotlight on Turrell might finally tune in the spectators Turrell’s so long wanted to see the light. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Who Is James Turrelland Why Is His Art Suddenly Everywhere?"

[Image: James Turrell. Rendering for Aten Reign, 2013. Daylight and LED light. Site-specific installation. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © James Turrell. Rendering: Andreas Tjeldflaat, 2012 © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.]

[Many thanks to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, for the image above and other press materials related to their exhibition, James Turrell, which runs through September 25, 2013.]

[ANNOUNCEMENT: I will be presenting a lecture titled “Art Made Personal: Chris Sanderson and the Wyeth Family” at the Christian C. Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, on Sunday, June 23^rd, from 1 to 3 pm. Please come out to support a great museum with a great collection of art and historical artifacts.]

 

Can a 19th Century British Art Movement Solve the Modern Global Jobs Problem?

“Workers of the world, unite!” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels bellowed in The Communist Manifesto in 1848, largely in response to the Industrial Revolution (and Second Industrial Revolution) threatening not just the livelihoods but the very lives of many workers as profit reigned mercilessly over people. Marx even put the slogan on his tombstone, long before the Soviet Union adopted it as their official mantra. Workers of the world today facing the double whammy of technological revolution and systemic economic collapse wonder what, if anything, they should unite around. Although she doesn’t take the idea as far as I’d like to, Yvonne Roberts in The Guardian offers a possible solution in 19^th century British artist and designer William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris “esteemed craftsmen and women, unlike today when they are seen are second-besters,” Roberts writes, but I think you can extend that “second-best” label to nearly all the “99%” facing underemployment or non-employment around the world. Can a 19^th century British art movement solve the modern global jobs problem? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of  "Can a 19thCentury British Art Movement Solve the Modern Global Jobs Problem?"

[Image: William Morris. The Strawberry Thief, 1883. Textile design for walls or furnishings.]

[ANNOUNCEMENT: I will be presenting a lecture titled “Art Made Personal: Chris Sanderson and the Wyeth Family” at the Christian C. Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, on Sunday, June 23^rd, from 1 to 3 pm. Please come out to support a great museum with a great collection of art and historical artifacts.]