Five Favourite Paintings

After reading Roberta Smith, Karen Rosenberg, and Ken Johnson's list of favourite paintings in New York City in this past Sunday's New York Times, I thought I would attempt to discuss my five favourite works that I have seen, anywhere in the world, throughout my brief life time. As I sat down to contemplate which works of art have had the most impact, or inspired me the most, many images came rushing to the forefront.

1) Gustave Courbet, The Studio of the Painter: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My Artistic Life, 1854, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

I will preface my discussion of this painting with the fact that I wrote my senior thesis on Gustave Courbet, so I am slightly biased here. Nonetheless, this enormous painting (11 by 20 feet) is truly powerful -- not only in size, but in ambition as well. It is easy for lovers of Modern and Contemporary Art to forget of a time in which an artist was intimately, both personally and professionally, involved with the political and social movements of his time. Courbet had an acute sense of his role in the French Revolution -- he was a man from the rural city of Ornans that sought to ambush Paris (and Napoleon III) with his powerful, and one could even say crude brushstroke. Courbet was not bashful. A kind of Gonzo-journalist of his time, he believed that the only source of artistic inspiration could come from one's own experiences. This concept stood in stark contrast to the grandiose, historical allusions of the Neoclassicists that preceded him. In other words, Courbet truly embodied the avant-garde spirit.

As one meanders through the beautiful ground floor of the Musee d'Orsay, Courbet's large canvas is quietly tucked back to the far left. It is as if the curator wants the viewer to be startled and overpowered by Courbet's painting. True to his hubristic character, Courbet asserts himself as the most prominent figure in the middle of the canvas and surrounds himself with a young boy and a nude women (the classic oedipal complex). To the right he depicts his bohemian friends and to the left he shows "the people, misery, poverty, wealth, the exploited and exploiters, the people who live off death." This division of the canvas reveals what truly blew me away when I first saw this painting. Courbet places himself in the middle of these two groups in order to show, in his view, the curios role of the artist in the mid-19th century.

As if freed from the desires of the 16th and 17th century aristocrats, the 19th century artist was no longer bound by commission, but was free to express himself artistically as he pleased. Painting ceased to be a duty, but rather a visual articulation of the artist's passions. Courbet firmly believed that the role off the artist was to explore his social and cultural position in the world in which he lived and to distance his work from those that created art for the sake of a buck. Courbet places himself squarely between these dichotomous groups to visualize his artistic creed -- denounce any claims of the creation of art for art's sake. Throughout Courbet's life he used his art as a powerful political, and social tool in order to express the desires and passions of the peasant communities throughout rural France. Courbet was not concerned how much money this painting would garner. Rather, he meant to give a voice to those who had none in Paris in the mid 19th century -- the peasants.

As a side note to this painting. Any Williamsburg (Brooklyn) goer or any party goer for that matter loves a good 'pop-up' party.' It is that combination of spontaneity and thrill of what might happen that defines the beauty of a 'pop-up' party. In Courbet's Studio of the Painter we have, perhaps, one of the first recorded 'pop-up' parties. After the Salon denied the admission of Studio of the Painter (most likely due to its strong political undertones and depiction of Courbet's radical friends who opposed the status quo -- Proudhon and Baudelaire -- among others) Courbet decided to erect a "Pavilion of Realism" in the form of the 19th century version of a Brooklyn warehouse party -- a circus tent. Not only that, Courbet set up his personal exhibition directly across the street from the Salon. Courbet did not lack bravado.

If there is one characteristic that I believe attracts the modern viewer so strongly to Courbet, it is Courbet's steadfast belief in his ability to make a social difference in the time in which he lived.

Painting #2 to come next...

Thoughts on paying college basketball players

The current debate on whether or not college athletes should get paid is off-base. The bottom line is that college athletes already get paid--the problem is that most college athletes don't realize this.

Student-athletes are either given a scholarship (which for the most part means their entire college EDUCATION is free) or entry into a university largely based on their athletic talents. However, many of these student-athletes do not take advantage of the educational opportunities their school presents for them. This is evident in the numbers. According to the most recent Academic BCS (an academic specific ranking system of BCS eligible colleges) only 54% of student-athletes from the top 25 teams in the current BCS standings GRADUATE from college.

One of the most powerful tools any person can be armed with is an education and this is evident in annual earning power. High school graduates earn approximately $7,000 more annually than high school drop outs and college graduates earn approximately $26,000 more annually than high school drop outs (according to data from the 2000 Census). Furthermore, a college diploma is worth approximately $1 million more in lifetime earnings than a high school diploma. Clearly, a college diploma is crucial to monetary success. Moreover, an education can raise one's self esteem, and global and social consciousness.

I would argue that most of the blame should not be put on the student-athletes. I believe that this problem starts much earlier than college. It is the pervasive "pro-sports or bust" mentality at the youth sports level that is detrimental to a student-athlete's holistic development. It is the responsibility of adults and mentors, whether it be at home or in school, that must emphasize the importance of an education. The harsh reality is that most collegeiate student-athletes will not make the pros. For the elite few that do, it is truly an amazing accomplishment. But, for those that don't, they must be prepared for life after sports. This preparation begins at the youth sports level where parents, coaches and teachers must make apparent the importance of a college education.

How do college student-athletes get paid? The payment for collegiate student-athletes is twofold, 1) Free or reduced college tuition (yes, it is not ALL free...books, off-campus housing and what not cost money) and 2) a college level education/diploma.

Don't underestimate the power or the VALUE, both monetarily and holistically, of an education. College student-athletes DO get paid, they just need to start cashing in on it in the classroom.

Sources:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf

http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2010/fourth_annual_academic_bowl_championship_series_rankings-41517

Office Politics

Office Politics:

It has recently dawned upon me that a great deal of my mental capacity at the office on a daily basis is directed towards inter-office politics. Now please keep in mind that I work in a small, but quite endearing, two-room office (the open office floor and a “board room” if you will, which is essentially a white board and table) in New York City with six other affable, mid-twenty to thirty something individuals. While my status at the office is currently under the title of “intern,” I like to casually rationalize my job status in conversation as, “oh, I just graduated from college”[1] or, “I’m really just an awesome guy, I feel like doing some pro-bono work for a while!” In other words, as Matt Damon would say, “Vince, it’s for the kids.”

But I digress. Over the next several days I will write a series of entries about my ponderings on inter-office politics.

Entry 1: The politics of the Office-Poo.

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[1] I graduated over a year ago in June 2009.

A Perverted Narrative

Guy Montag. The hero of Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, at one time a dystopia -- a world unfathomable for most -- is quickly becoming a reality in 2010. Whatever boundaries separated Montag’s world and ours are rapidly vanishing. As I sit down to write this entry, my mind staggers to coherently record my thoughts. It is as if I cannot understand how to feel because I am so unaccustomed to feeling. My day sees me to go from one screen to the next, whether it be my Mac or my Blackberry, my neck is in a perpetual state of perpendicular angles…constantly looking down and never up.

Just as Montag feels so peculiar and uncomfortable when Clarisse touches the dandelion to his face, as if to say that it is okay to lose yourself for a moment in the natural world, so do I feel as if I have been displaced into a perverted, narrative when I look up into the foreign sky. My body has become so accustomed to such unnatural states of being, that when I uncurl my fingers from the locked position they so often take while hovering over my computer, it hurts. My back creaks in agony when it is finally able to uncoil from the serpentine forms it takes while I devour my Subway sandwich at my desk.

We seem to have a created a world in which it is painful to return our bodies to their natural state. We have sacrificed the natural wonders of this great planet, and moreover, our own bodies for efficiency and heightened states of productivity in the work place.

Is our world so different from Montag’s world? I will let you uncoil your back from your computer and contemplate this for a moment.

Besides the Taliban, Lots of Minerals are ALSO Hiding in Afghanistan!!

In a discovery that could be either a really really good thing or a REALLY REALLY bad thing, US Pentagon officials and American geologists have confirmed reports that massive veins of previously unknown mineral deposits have been discovered all over Afghanistan.

(photo source: http://www.gems-afghan.com/8-symposium/images/fig2.jpg - Also, I'm not sure the date on this map, so it could be outdated by the latest findings. . .)

The deposits aren't just your run of the mill, weekend-miner's finds - they're large enough to have the ability to transform the country into one of the most important mining centers in the world. The largest quantities of specific minerals found were iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and critical industrial metals like lithium. (Lithium is used in tons of the electronic devices we gobble up over here - like blackberries and computer batteries.) There's so much lithium that a Pentagon memo stated Afghanistan could possible become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium."

(For everyone who hasn't been so lucky to see what raw lithium looks like, here it is. It's useful AND pretty oooooooooh!)

Afghanistan has most recently had to rely on opium production and narcotic trafficking, so the discovery of the minerals in the area carries with it the possibility of a safer, less politically harmful means of securing economic livelihood for the Afghan citizens.

(Picture source: http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Business/images-2/poppy-field.jpg - Opium poppy field in Afghanistan.) It's sorta beautiful. Too bad it's completely lethal :(

On the other hand, minerals, while not inherently harmful like narcotics, can be regulated and sold in ways that are just as harmful as drug production and trafficking: e.g. blood diamonds.

The dangerous thing about the discovery is Afghanistan's lack of strong central government to help regulate and protect the veins from fostering provincial skirmishes. China has also shown plenty of interest in previously known-of copper mines in the region near the Logar Province. Afghan officials have already been accused of accepting bribes from China for rights to the development of the area.

It could take years for a fledgling mining industry to develop in Afghanistan. In all probability, it will take years. Another concern is sustaining environmentally safe mining practices where no environmental regulations exist. The story has yet to unfold, but with the world's dependence on raw minerals, it will most certainly quickly begin to do so. Hopefully, in a country rife with civil unrest, the industry can develop without causing further damage to national and international relations. Hopefully, the minerals can do for Afghanistan what oil could have done for Iran.

-K

(A much more complete article is at the other end of this link ---> NYTimes.com - Check it out if you want more than just the summary. . .)

Enough with the "Fear-Mongering" politics!

For a rather rational look at the current state of partisan politics in this country, please consistently read Paul Krugman's op-ed pieces in the Times.

Hey, Boys. Pull your heads out of your asses and your hands away from your XBOX controllers. . . . you're falling to the wayside.