My Favorite Photo From This Summer

Once in a while I take a photo that I love, not necessarily because it is an excellent photo in terms of the usual criteria. This photo has few megapixels and a conventional composition. It is just a snapshot.

To me, it represents two people coming together. It happened spontaneously. They only met seconds before I took the photo. They don't fit the usual stereotypes. The man is not represented as black men often are- as a criminal, as poor. The girl is not represented in any stereotypically feminine or objectified manner. They are different in age, in gender, in race, in height, all of those indicators of the usual boundaries we put between in each other. One is nicely dressed, one has no shoes. And they are in a moment and place defined by art. They are about to dance and the location is a museum and garden that has come into existence through one man, Calouste Gulbenkian, who decided to use his fortune to buy art and leave it for future generations.

Balthus

I come to Paris to be reminded that art and love are one and the same. Both are driven by a desire for wholeness, creativity, truth, surprise. At the Centre Pompidou, I saw a Balthus that was just donated to the museum. I haven't seen a reproduction of it anywhere and, standing there, I felt that coming all the way to Paris was worth it just to see this one painting. A new Balthus at the Pompidou, Paris Art, like love, sometimes involves transgression. Balthus said, " I want to proclaim in broad daylight, with sincerity and feeling, all the throbbing tragedy of a drama of the flesh, proclaim vociferously, the deep-rooted laws of instinct." I learned to love Balthus as a student in Wayne Thiebaud's painting class in college. From the perspective of the painter looking at a Balthus, one quickly sees past the erotic elements and is struck by his masterful technique, a method based on years spent on one painting, using paints hand mixed each morning by his wife,...

George Washington High School and Art Education

“If an offense come out of the truth , better is it that the offense come than that the truth be concealed .” Thomas Hardy George Washington High School in San Francisco is unique amongst other institutions bearing Washington's name. It is a treasure trove of New Deal WPA art that includes architecture, bas-reliefs, "buon fresco" murals and freestanding sculptures. These extend from the football field to the library. The school features an "Olympics" frieze by African American sculptor Sargent Johnson, and its architect was the pre-eminent Timothy L. Pflueger. This school, its name and even the site correlate conceptually. It was designed to showcase outstanding art and provoke reflection. The Sargent Johnson frieze In thousands of American high schools, AP Art History students learn about George Washington by studying a sculpture by Houdon. It is described in most textbooks with only a paragraph. On the back of this sculpture is a ...

Farewell to a Teacher

I can easily say that Wayne Thiebaud transformed my understanding of painting. After finishing high school, I took an art history class at my community college. The instructor declared that if any of us aspired to become artists, we should go to UC Davis because some of the best artists in the country, people like Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson, taught there. Arneson's bust of the slain George Moscone had recently propelled him to international fame. I knew nothing about these people but I read about the art department and decided to apply. Its graduate program was ranked #1 in the country. As the first person in my family to attend college, even to finish high school, this was a scary but exciting step. Going to Davis meant I was serious about studying art, and would no longer be burdened by familial expectations of shepherding. I took at least three classes with Wayne- drawing and painting, and a class on "Theory and Criticism" of painting. This last class was perha...

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