Portrait of Signora Vighi, 1930 by Cagnaccio di San Pietro (1897 – 1946)
Category: Art
Selene Thrown Down by Argus — Ferdinand Keller
Selene Thrown Down by Argus, 1886 by Ferdinand Keller (1842–1922)
Keller’s painting depicts the following scene in Georg Ebers’ 1880 novel The Emperor (English translation by Clara Bell):
In order to reach this fountain, Selene had to go along the corridor where lay the rooms occupied by the Emperor and his followers. She only knew that an architect from Rome had taken up his quarters at Lochias, for, some time after midnight, she had been to get out meat and salt for him, but in what rooms the strangers had been lodged no one had told her. But this morning as she followed the path she was accustomed to tread day by day at the same hour, she felt an anxious shiver. She felt as if everything were not quite the same as usual, and just as she had set her foot on the cop step of the flight leading to the corridor, she raised her lamp to discover whence came the sound she thought she could hear, she perceived in the gloom a fearful something which as she approached it resembled a dog, and which was larger—much larger—than a dog should be.
Her blood ran cold with terror; for a few moments she stood as if spellbound, and was only conscious that the growling and snarling that she heard meant mischief and threatening to herself. At last she found strength to turn to fly, but at the same instant a loud and furious bark echoed behind her and she heard the monster’s quick leaps as he flew after her along the stone pavement.
She felt a violent shock, the pitcher flew out of her hand and was shattered into a thousand fragments, and she sank to the ground under the weight of a warm, rough, heavy mass. Her loud cries of alarm resounded from the hard bare walls, and roused the sleepers and brought them to her side.
Three Girls in a Wood — Kehinde Wiley
Three Girls in a Wood, 2018 by Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977)
The Burning of Troy with the Flight of Aeneas — François de Nomé
The Burning of Troy with the Flight of Aeneas, by François de Nomé (1593 – after 1620)
Untitled — Jia Aili
Untitled, 2012 by Jia Aili (b. 1979)
Levelled Leisure — Hayv Kahran
Untitled (Gallery) — Kerry James Marshall
Untitled (Gallery), 2016 by Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955)
February — Michael Sowa
February by Michael Sowa (b. 1945)
Repose on the Flight into Egypt — Glyn Warren Philpot
Repose on the Flight into Egypt, 1922 by Glyn Warren Philpot (1884 – 1937)
Trash and Trashcan — Neil Jenney
Trash and Trashcan, 1970 by Neil Jenney (b. 1945)
The Children — Tsuguharu Foujita
The Children, 1924 by Tsuguharu Foujita (1886–1968)
Art abides (William Gaddis)
Otherwise I scarcely know what to say to your request for help on ‘more background’ first, I think, and I am not being facetious when I plead not that it’s so long since I wrote it but that [following a strikeover] (I’ve been typing all day and getting a little bleary) so long since I read it. If I named a single influence it would certainly be TS Eliot who still takes my breath away as he did then (and as a fair number of his lines sprinkled through the book might attest). Regarding any ‘message’, perhaps that art abides and the artist is its tool and victim but despite that it is the only enterprise worth embracing in the attempt to justify life; that art executed without love is bad (false) art but such love is not easy to come by. There was a corollary there too with God (perfection, gold) and the driving impossibility of grasping it because of our finite condition but that attempt being all we have to justify this finite condition (page 689 at the top I suppose is the key to the book if there is such). And in taking it down just now to look for this reference I read a few pages at random and must confess found them quite entertaining. I suppose if there has been one immense frustration with the book’s often grudging acceptance it has been how few people seemed able to permit themselves, despite its so-called ‘erudition’, to simply enjoy it.
From Letters of William Gaddis, edited by Steven Moore. Excerpted from a 1972 reply to Jeanne G. Howes, a student at Case Western Reserve University who wrote a thesis on The Recognitions.
Waiting for a Chance — Tetsuya Ishida
Waiting for a Chance, 1999 — Tetsuya Ishida (1973-2005)
Lotte — Christian Schad
Lotte, 1927 by Christian Schad (1894-1982)
Escaping the Candy Jail with My Good Eye Closed 2 — Drew Simpson
Escaping the Candy Jail with My Good Eye Closed 2, 2016 by Drew Simpson
The Neverending Story — John Currin
The Neverending Story, 1994 by John Currin (b. 1962)
Super Saian George with Trojan Horse — Mu Pan
Super Saian George With Trojan Horse, 2018 by Mu Pan (b. 1976)
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