Polke Dots: Remembering Sigmar Polke

When Sigmar Polke’s family crossed over to the freedom of West Berlin from the oppression of East Berlin on the subway in 1953, 12-year-old Sigmar feigned sleep to add to the picture of normalcy for his fugitive family. Polke (pronounced “polka,” like the dance), who passed away last Thursday, feigned many things during his life in his art, but usually to question the idea of normalcy, especially the rushed, forced normalcy of his native Germany after World War II. With a smile on his lips, Polke never slept through an opportunity to poke fun at the establishment—artistic, social, or political—and help people connect the dots, usually closely spaced, between apparent normality and absurd abnormality. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Polke Dots."

[Image: Sigmar Polke's "The Goatwagon" (1992).]

Foreign Report: A New, Italian Take on Edward Hopper

Leave it to an Italian art publisher to do an American artist right. Skira’s Edward Hopper, distributed in the United States by Rizzoli, may be the finest single volume visually and critically on the elusive yet irresistible 20^th century artist. The familiar paintings are all there, but explorations into Hopper’s drawings, his subtle eroticism, his European influences, and even his influence on filmmaking add a whole new dimension, giving us the fullest picture of Hopper possible, all in one of the most beautiful publishing packages imaginable. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Foreign Report."

[Many thanks to Rizzoli USA for providing me with a review copy of Edward Hopper.]

Angel Eyes: Alenn Ginsberg’s Photography at the NGA

The established poet William Carlos Williams wrote in 1956 of newcomer poet (and friend) Allen Ginsberg that he “sees with the eyes of the angels.” Williams most likely referred to the visual aspects of Ginsberg’s poetry, especially the groundbreaking poem Howl, the epic poem that helped define the epoch of the Beat Generation. Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, currently at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, through September 6, 2010, shows how Ginsberg’s photography also demonstrates how his “angel eyes” helped inform the literary movement it as well as document the Beats during their glory days all the way up to the final ones. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Angel Eyes."

[Image: Allen Ginsberg. Jack Kerouac, 1953. Gelatin silver print. Image: 15.2 x 10.2 cm (6 x 4 in.). Sheet: 16.2 x 11.2 cm (6 3/8 x 4 7/16 in.). Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York. © Copyright 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved.]

[Many thanks to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, for providing me with the image above and a review copy of the catalogue to Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, which runs through September 6, 2010.]

Rescue Mission: Saving Vasari’s “Last Supper” 45 Years After a Flood

When the Arno River overflowed in 1966 and flooded Florence, Italy, an art apocalypse nearly took place in that grand Renaissance city. Countless works, including Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Doors of Paradise, Donatello’s Magdalene, and a crucifix by Giovanni Cimabue, sustained serious damage from water and mud. Almost 45 years later, the rescue mission continues as conservation technology advances to a point at which it can finally restore some of these works to their original glory. Thanks to those advances, and to a €300,000 Getty Foundation grant awarded to Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro (OPD), Giorgio Vasari’s 1546 The Last Supper (detail shown) will undergo a 3-year resurrection to roll back the damage those rising floodwaters once caused. Vasari, author of the The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times and the original conservator of art history through his writing, finds his work the subject of one of the great conservation efforts in art history. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Rescue Mission."

Kiss of the Spider Woman: Remembering Louise Bourgeois

“A woman has no peace as an artist until she proves over and over that she won’t be eliminated,” Louise Bourgeois once said. On Monday, this plane of existence eliminated Bourgeois at the still-creative age of 98, but she will continue to exist as an influential artist setting a standard for feminism in art and educating those dark corners of culture that continue to ignore the toll that a male-dominated art world takes on us all. “To convince others, you have to convince yourself,” Bourgeois told a friend in 1939, “and a conciliatory or even an unduly understanding attitude—in that it is inevitably superficial—is not helpful to creativity.” Bourgeois convinced anyone who took the time to look at and think about her art that she was a force of nature to be reckoned with. The “kiss” of this “spider woman” may have been venomous in its uncompromising edginess, but it was also indelibly memorable. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

[Image: Maman (from 1999).]