Category Archive: ART
Russian Futurism
(by Vladimir Markov) (1969) Markov quotes Nikolai Lossky: “Ideas are not thoughts, they are a special kind of reality.” Isms we can sneer at, at least as soon as their individual shells are rent and the flesh within wastes. Futurism was an avant-garde conceit borne from impressionism, via the blind alley of ‘Ego-Futurism,’ and turned to something even vaguer by Marinetti, who came like a royal progress to Moscow and made something of a fool of himself. The ‘manifesto’ was nothing of the sort, really – a hatred of all things old, a desire for all things new, it represented stunning narrow-mindedness…
Continue Reading →On the Birthday Omnibus
Photo by Harry Whittier Frees
September 5 Many happy birthdays to a range of historical and cultural notables!! 1638: Louis XIV The great empire-builder applied his zeal to the foundations laid by Cardinal Richelieu. In the end, zeal undid much of his work but he still left a mighty legacy – he could little foresee on his 1715 deathbed that his great regal empire would last well under a century. Louis to the Duc d’Orléans on his deathbed: “‘You are about to see one King in his tomb and another in his cradle. Always cherish the memory of the first and the interests of the…
Continue Reading →Random Gallery Pieces
Canberra, August 2017 We have used our pleasant stay in Canberra, in visits to the National and National Portrait Galleries, to fulminate about the decline of portraiture and the absurdity of abstract expressionism. But while The Varnished Culture sauntered between the rooms, talking of Michelangelo, we did pipe a bunch of interesting stuff, familiar and new. Some good old and new: A nice moony Streeton …in fine silver, gold and steel. Some fine Filippino figurines (above) and the well-known Magritte… A beautiful piece of blown glass, “Cobalt Blue Venetian No. 9” by Dale Chihuly (1989), the same artist who…
Continue Reading →Abstract Expressionism Made Easy
"Blue Poles" by 'Jack the Dripper' (Jackson Pollock)
National Gallery, Canberra, August 2017 Abstract Expressionism is easy, and fun! A child could do it, although it generally wouldn’t. It takes an adult with life-tempered chutzpah to attempt it and then whack a frame around it. Here’s a d-i-y trip down Memory Lane: Now, The Varnished Culture can reveal how the high-profile practitioners make good, as evidenced in the world-class display seen recently at Canberra’s National Gallery. Take Frank Stella and his pantheon of floating, by-the-numbers pastiches of violent colour….
Continue Reading →Can Liberalism Fight Back?
Liberalism is a slippery label, misused ever since the God of the New Testament set the sheep to the right and the goats to the left. Liberals traditionally have been put along the political spectrum at the ‘sensible centre,’ or perhaps the ‘mushy’ centre-left: at its most worthy, however, it has transcended the spectrum and concerned itself mostly with the freedom and protection of the individual. From the right, liberals were sneered at as ‘wet,’ from the left, socialism was held to be the logical next phase (and replacement) of liberalism. This pincer movement of the two extremes is what killed…
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