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Saturday, February 23,2008
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Modern Eye
Art Review
When Marcel
Duchamp signed a urinal and submitted it to an exhibit in 1917, it was
more than just a brazen gesture. It sounded the knell of art as it was
previously known. After bringing it down to the lowest common
denominator, what else remained? It’s a question that continues to
plague artists today, and was especially pressing immediately after
World War I, when the avant-garde sought an art form fitted to the
brave and savage new world emerging around them. The urgency was even
greater following the calculated cruelty of World War II. A new
exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, “Foto: Modernity in Central
Europe, 1918-1945,” allows you to gauge the frenetic activity,
individualism and energy of the interwar period through the eyes of
photographers from all over Central Europe.
It’s a beautiful but overwhelming exhibit, scarcely offering a moment’s pause between one piece and the next. It seeks to provide an overview of the output of Central European photography rather than honing in on regional variations, partly to its detriment. It would be interesting to focus in more detail on how photographers in Russia were embracing the fledgling Communist regime, or how Czechoslovakians were celebrating their newfound independence. Yet in some ways the arrangement is fitting, allowing you to discern universal values that occupied photographers at this time.
Even the visual overload is somehow appropriate, comparable to the discordant melee of images characterizing avant-garde films like Ballet Mcanique. Rampant industrialization, sexual and social emancipation: Each is met in turn with ecstatic approval or reticence. Compare Paul Citroen’s Metropolis with Kazimierz Podsadecki’s City the Mill of Life.
While the former betrays excitement for the teeming metropolis, the latter shows it as a trap. American capitalism often bore the brunt of this antipathy. See Mieczyslaw Choynowski’s America, where a pair of shackled hands rises up in supplication to a remote idol of liberty. Images of Charlie Chaplin balancing on beams, or rendered into a spooky and mocking mask, are especially significant. In many ways he came to be regarded in Europe as the archetypal sellout, chewed up and spat out by the American public.
An area that isn’t covered sufficiently in the exhibit is the confluence between modern photography and architecture. Both disciplines were in search of a universal language that turned its back on historicism, and it might be worth looking at how photographers in these years rendered the stark architecture of the International Style; whether they embraced its unifying principles and its machine-aesthetic or expressed dissatisfaction in its lack of national identity.
Surrealism also seems to be somewhat marginalized here, presented as largely introspective with little relation to the public sphere. There’s little here to represent the curiosity of the flaneur who seeks adventure in the bustling human traffic of the teeming metropolis. Yet it’s an image from the surrealist repertoire that captures the essence of the exhibit: In Miroslav Hak’s End of the Line in Dejvice, the open door of a train compartment reveals a town reduced to rubble—a fitting depiction of the ruins of Europe seen through the unblinking aperture of modernity.
It’s a beautiful but overwhelming exhibit, scarcely offering a moment’s pause between one piece and the next. It seeks to provide an overview of the output of Central European photography rather than honing in on regional variations, partly to its detriment. It would be interesting to focus in more detail on how photographers in Russia were embracing the fledgling Communist regime, or how Czechoslovakians were celebrating their newfound independence. Yet in some ways the arrangement is fitting, allowing you to discern universal values that occupied photographers at this time.
Even the visual overload is somehow appropriate, comparable to the discordant melee of images characterizing avant-garde films like Ballet Mcanique. Rampant industrialization, sexual and social emancipation: Each is met in turn with ecstatic approval or reticence. Compare Paul Citroen’s Metropolis with Kazimierz Podsadecki’s City the Mill of Life.
While the former betrays excitement for the teeming metropolis, the latter shows it as a trap. American capitalism often bore the brunt of this antipathy. See Mieczyslaw Choynowski’s America, where a pair of shackled hands rises up in supplication to a remote idol of liberty. Images of Charlie Chaplin balancing on beams, or rendered into a spooky and mocking mask, are especially significant. In many ways he came to be regarded in Europe as the archetypal sellout, chewed up and spat out by the American public.
An area that isn’t covered sufficiently in the exhibit is the confluence between modern photography and architecture. Both disciplines were in search of a universal language that turned its back on historicism, and it might be worth looking at how photographers in these years rendered the stark architecture of the International Style; whether they embraced its unifying principles and its machine-aesthetic or expressed dissatisfaction in its lack of national identity.
Surrealism also seems to be somewhat marginalized here, presented as largely introspective with little relation to the public sphere. There’s little here to represent the curiosity of the flaneur who seeks adventure in the bustling human traffic of the teeming metropolis. Yet it’s an image from the surrealist repertoire that captures the essence of the exhibit: In Miroslav Hak’s End of the Line in Dejvice, the open door of a train compartment reveals a town reduced to rubble—a fitting depiction of the ruins of Europe seen through the unblinking aperture of modernity.
Also in Art:
Elections 2008
Obama seeks greater rein on financial institutions
(AP)
AP - President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to pass legislation giving the government greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like American International Group.
Sources: Pentagon to stop forced tour extension
(AP)
AP - The Army will substantially reduce use of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates and will pay $500 to those still forced to stay in the service, defense and congressional officials said Wednesday.
AIG head shares US anger of bonuses but backs them
(AP)
AP - The chief executive officer of failed insurance conglomerate AIG acknowledged Wednesday that the company's multimillion-dollar bonuses were "distasteful" to many and had provoked a firestorm of wrath. "I share that anger," Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of the American International Group Inc., said in testimony prepared for Congress.
Analysis: White House, Dems backpedaling on AIG
(AP)
AP - For the first time since last fall's election, Democrats and the Obama administration are backpedaling furiously on an issue easily understood by financially strapped taxpayers: $165 million in bonuses paid out at bailed-out AIG.
Pence: Return AIG donations
(Politico)
Politico - House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence is urging politicians from both parties to strongly consider returning campaign contributions from AIG.
..Search Shepherd Express
Top Stories
AIG head shares US anger of bonuses but backs them
(AP)
AP - The chief executive officer of failed insurance conglomerate AIG acknowledged Wednesday that the company's multimillion-dollar bonuses were "distasteful" to many and had provoked a firestorm of wrath. "I share that anger," Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of the American International Group Inc., said in testimony prepared for Congress.
Obama seeks greater rein on financial institutions
(AP)
AP - President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to pass legislation giving the government greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like American International Group.
Consumer prices rise by largest amount in 7 months
(AP)
AP - Consumer prices rose in February by the largest amount in seven months as gasoline prices surged again and clothing costs jumped the most in nearly two decades.
Crude
