Craft Notes
“‘You should only read what is truly good or what is frankly bad.’ – Gertrude Stein” — Hemingway
Georg Scholz, "Female Nude with Plaster Bust" (1927)
Writing is a matter of taste, criticism a manner of penetration.
Rodin, "The Sinner" (1885)
Criticism forces you to see outside the frame. It forces. You. To look.
Roy Blumenthal, "Photo of Marlene Dumas's Work -- 16022008(016)" (2008)
And yet it’s in the writing. It’s in the frame. Behind it, in fact: “Between the lines.” Like so many dots making up a picture.
Many have said art is a beautiful lie. Kees van Dongen. Claude Debussy. Jared Leto. A critic for life, Godard famously said, “Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.” Infamously he said, “Every edit is a lie.”
But Rodin, who did not think much of photography nor of criticism, said, “It is the artist who is truthful and it is photography which lies, for in reality time does not stop, and if the artist succeeds in producing the impression of a movement which takes several moments for accomplishment, his work is certainly much less conventional than the scientific image, where time is abruptly suspended.”
Marlene Dumas in front of "The Sleep of Reason" (2009)
Goya, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" (1799)
Tags: criticism, in post-postmodernism, what could it be
[The dictionary entries are useful here. I was questioning “frankly bad” – how can something “bad” be ‘frank’ about being “bad”? – until I saw that new-to-me medical usage of “frank”, which Stein probably knew well. She’s pretty competent that way, among others.]
Dear Francisco,
“Monsters” are also “produce[d]” by the unhappily wakeful deployment of “reason”.
Your insomniac-when-not-napping pal,
Criticism a manner of penetration? Reynard, will you criticize me?
do you also have a problem with “hopefully”
no
but I see you have a problem with “also”
i like how the dumas piece is referred to by its photographer, made me approach the image differently. stein looks like she needs the giacometti diet
gaze variant of penetration
sleep variant of penetration