HOW AN ARTIST/CRITIC THINKS

By Paul Henrickson, Ph.D.

tm. © 2009
 Personalities mentioned here are (alphabetically by first

name) :Albert Einstein, Alfred Morang, Alfred Steiglitz, Bradford Smith, Carlo
Coccioli, Carlo Ponti, Damien Hirst, Danilo Donati, Dorothy Burke, Edward
Burne-Jones, Eli Levin, Elizabeth Harris, Federico Fellini, Francis Bacon,
Francisco Goya, Franz Kline, Georgia O’Keeffe, Glynn Gomez, Henri
Matisse, Jeff Koons, Jesus of Nazareth, Judas Thomas, Karl Marx, Marcel
Duchamp, Michael Naranjo, Mohammed, (The Prophet), Odd Nerdrum, Paul
Cadmus, Paul Henrickson, Paul Shapiro, Petter Vennerud, Pierre Bonnard,
Raoul Julia, Raphael Labro, Rembrandt van Rijn, Rolf Koppel, Salvador
Dali, Shelby Boggio, Socrates, Sophia Loren, Thomas Eakins, Victor
Lowenfeld, Zara Kreigstein.

REEVALUATIONS OF HISTORY
After four years short of eight decades I have finally and, I think, definitely come to
the conclusion that what we call history is indeed a very delicate fabric something
like lawn embroidered and pierced into delicate patterns.

More recently, I came to this conclusion once again and I am not exactly sure why
but it was in connection with an unscheduled visit on the part of a Maltese/English
couple Jehovah’s Witnesses touring the neighborhood and distributing booklets. I
was intrigued when for reasons not at all readily apparent the English lady eagerly
pronounced how satisfying the eight-year-old marriage was.

I immediately had an inexpressible image projected upon my mind’s screen and, in

order to alter its basic outlines I uttered the following oddly related phrase to the
effect that “the kingdom of Heaven is within you.” This brought on a corrective
verbal explanation that the “within” should be read “among” meaning that Jesus
was, then, the embodiment of Heaven on earth at that time and that, as a
consequence, my understanding that the realization of heaven on earth was some
kind of inner translation of the material into spiritual matter was in error .

I was not in the mood to discuss the offering, most especially since the statements
of Judas Thomas; “the twin” more convincingly describes man’s function in regard to
his spiritual strivings. There are times when discussions on religious meanings
confuse me as much as a clutch of newly hatched quail in a hay field.

I am also disinclined to discuss the vagaries of language or to review the agenda

some authoritative sources may have, or have had, in proclaiming what they
proclaim and I can understand why some are tempted to piggy-back on the world-
wide, civilization-building reputations of others such as Jesus of Nazareth,
Muhammad, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein all of whom seem to fall within the top
ten of lists of the world’s most famous …and all of these are Semitic. My guess
would be that were this list of four names submitted to “men on the street” that the
claim of their being the world’s most famous would fracture.

Yet another image rushed into mind with this proclamation of marital contentment
which rather spiced the matter up. A one-time tenant of mine was being visited by
her sons and their wives. I was invited to join them in a feast of crab and as we were
seated in the small patio of the summer kitchen [6’ to the left and 6’ down is the dirt road
that many pilgrims to El Sanctuario de Chimayo take on their Easter week-end trek, some carrying
larger crosses, and others inevitably trying to make out with some attractive stranger]
 nestled
in the garden with a view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains one of the wives, for a
reason I cannot remember, began praising her husband’s abilities to pleasure and
satisfy her. One needn’t mention how satisfying all this praise was to the husband
who absolutely beamed while the mother commented in low tones to me while the
other wife and the brother sat tight-lipped, silent and intensely sullen while the
mother explained in ever lowering tones that the silent brother had recently gone
through a double orchiectomy. On the assumption that that had been known to the
happy wife doing all the praising I was at a loss to understand the cruelty. She might
have kept her sexual pleasure to herself.

But, as Judas Thomas and his doctrine tell us the body and the spirit are at war and
that man’s most exalted aim is to shed the influence of the flesh which interferes
with spiritual growth and to strive to return to his origins which Thomas tells us was
with God. I perceive those outlines only vaguely but, in general, I sympathize with
the description of spiritual progress being made through effort…and generally, it is,
in my experience, an effort made “in the dark”.

With all the above as a backdrop, plus a great deal more, I may begin to dissect the
elements of perception required to create a “work of art” and the quite nearly
elevated position required to comprehend one. Nothing, it seems, comprising my
understanding of all this has ever proceeded in a logical or linear fashion but might
be better compared to the nature of interlocking threads characteristic of knitting,
or, perhaps, better still, a series of dead-ends characteristic of lace making or the
design of garden mazes which may have originally been intended to make a game
out of a frightening experience…or a frightening experience out of a game.
It occurs to me that the term “the mass-mind” may be somewhat misleading. While
that term does seem to describe an amoeba-like group possessed of a vast array of
conflicting characteristics some elements of which appear to exceed their own
definitions, appear to venture out into curiosity and maybe, as well, even
experimentation depending upon the balance of inhale/exhale,
impression/expression and may even conquer new and differing aspects of
territory…mental territory I am largely referring to.

In my first four years of public schooling I experienced what appeared to be, in

retrospect, unacceptable abuse. Some of this, mostly physical, inflicted upon me by
my fellows, but also by some teachers, abuse which was certainly psychological and
was distinctly injurious to my self-image. In the second grade I was accused by the
teacher of stealing a penny. The penny had been given me by my god-mother who
showed me how to make money by gently rubbing a lead pencil over the surface so
as to gain an impression. In the third grade a very clever fellow student by the
name of Dorothy Burke who, at seven years already knew her mathematical tables
by heart, but, when nervous could not control her bladder and so, frequently
enough, she would be sitting in a puddle of urine. Elementary school can be very
anxiety producing.

After such an incident and the urine wiped up and the art class began I went over
to her seat (much against the rules, of course), sat with her and showed her how
whatever it was might be done. The class and the teacher were immobile as I think I
must have given them a glance warning them not to interfere….they didn’t. They
watched.

I had early on rejected the greatly motivated general goal of how well, how often
and how amusingly one might trick one’s fellows into doing what the ridiculous, the
silly, the useless and the dangerous. My resistance to this often got me into trouble
and when I was ten years old and in the fifth grade I found myself encouraged to
fight someone I liked. I tried resisting, but the mass-mind characterized by naughty-
boy noises urged us both on. Later on after a draw was declared one fellow asked
me why I didn’t try Iharder and said to me. “I was hoping for you.” “You were?” I
asked “What for ?”

I had seen absolutely no sense in the activity of a fight.

Without understanding why I had rejected this suburban rough-necking that was, in
the mass0mind, considered extra-curricular instruction in becoming “a man”.

God knows how I might have survived had I lived in Dorchester, Quincy , or South
Boston. It wasn’t until I got to Harvard Square, Newbury Street or Beacon Hill that I
felt secure in more congenial environments free of individually restricting
entanglements. The best of what is meant by the phrase “creative and mental
growth” was, at that time in Boston, most likely to be found in those areas.
It may be this sort of experience which provided a value for me in Viktor

Lowenfeld’s explorations into the requirements for and characteristics

of creative and mental growth. I was particularly struck by his having joined both
the creative and mental growth, as It were, in one package and was particularly
interested in his reference to the haptic experience and how someone blind is able
to express an understanding of how the body works since the blind are not able to
show us very well how it looks but when it works he shows us how it feels when it
works as in this petroglyphs near Santa Fe, New Mexico which were executed,
presumably, by artists who were not blind or the impressive contemporary work of
Michael Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico who was blinded as a sighted
combatant in Vietnam. sighted combatant in Vietnam.

Michael Naranjo, Indian Figure Michael Naranjo

Early Middle Ages capital figure
Petroglyph: showing haptic drawing of hand and penis Armenian Christian grave stone where the deceased is
indicating a hearty “’hello”.

While all these artists were, at one time or another, sighted, the indications of a
record of haptic experiences are there. That understanding, that is the
understanding that the distortions of the visual in favor of explaining the sensations
of the muscular are a necessary event in order to clarify the meaning of the
experience as a “felt” experience. Consequently, we may have justifications to
conclude that the recording of a visual experience is not the only, nor necessarily,
the most important function of what we call the plastic arts.

So what came out of all of this with the Naranjo experience and the creative
determination of Henri Matisse when he became victim to arthritis

was that the final art product shows evidence of the its genesis
including the assets and limitations of the tools available. Therefore, what the critic
should be looking for the evidences behind those results of the controlling mind.

This, in turn, suggests that comments applied as descriptive evidence of an object

and conclusions drawn from them require of the critic a substantial psychological
awareness of what might be the probable causes, and meanings, of any visual
distortions that might be present. To a great extent it might be claimed that the
history of western art is a history of distortions as those distortions give meaning to
the work. Nevertheless, verisimilitude remains if not a goal at all times, at least, an
important reference point. Sometimes, it appears we are unable to navigate
intellectually without it.

Now, what this “haptic” discovery did for me was to open up an entirely new view of
man within his environment…it became clear that man’s environment provided a
sensual ambiance. I rather felt that I had discovered I had tentacles…in short I had
learned I had senses I hadn’t used, perhaps, because I had earlier been taught one
shouldn’t, or that, through neglect they were not there.

As a sociologically oriented example of “intellectual navigation”, that is, navigation

using what are recognized as known facts Michael Naranjo had no eyes whatever,
so there were no doubts as to his blindness. He had several pair of glass eyes,
however, and the ones he used when I responded to his call for an interview --as
critic to artist—were a bright blue. Michael is a pueblo Indian, with normally black
hair and deeply brown eyes.

On some level I understood that he had chosen a blue pair because he knew I was
coming. I have blue eyes. I, therefore, somehow understood, that if I failed to
comment on this subtle juxtaposition of the unusual, that is, a blue-eyed Indian, I
would have failed my host to the extent I was a non-participant in the event. So I
commented. “You eyes are very blue.” I said, as noncomitantly as possible and he
smiled and immediately told me he had another pair showing the American flag
which he wore when he felt particularly patriotic. This comment was a classic
example of the gentleness of Indian humor .

Speaking of history again, it seems to me that after one becomes an historian, after
being an historian one must then become a competently wise psychiatrist, or, at
the very least, a highly perceptive psychologist if he expects to join meaning to
historically factual events… in this case, the art work being the fact. One of the
benefits of this approach, it would seem to me, would be that society generally
might learn how to appreciate the talented insights of the social outcast who sees
things differently from the majority.

Speaking of social outcasts and the “mass-mind” treatment of them I have often wondered why
Socrates , whom history pictures as being normally a most reasonable fellow, was willing to take
the hemlock when with his intellect and flexible analytical powers he could easily have taught
the authorities something and saved his life. I suspect there may be something absent from the
body of understanding we have of that incident.
In his unpremeditated defense, so far from seeking to conciliate his judges, Socrates defied them. He was
found guilty by 280 votes, it is supposed, against 220. Meletus having called for capital punishment, it
now rested with the accused to make a counter-proposition; and there can be little doubt that had
Socrates without further remark suggested some smaller but yet substantial penalty, the proposal would
have been accepted. But to the amazement of the judges and the distress of his friends, Socrates proudly
declared that for the services which he had rendered to the city he deserved, not punishment, but the
reward of a public benefactor - maintenance in the Prytaneum at the cost of the state; and although at the
close of his speech he professed himself willing to pay a fine of one mina, and upon the urgent entreaties
of his friends raised the amount of his offer to thirty minas, he made no attempt to disguise his
indifference to the result. His attitude exasperated the judges, and the penalty of death was decreed by
an increased majority.
Then in a short address Socrates declared his contentment with his own conduct and with the sentence.
Whether death was a dreamless sleep, or a new life in Hades, where he would have opportunities of
testing the wisdom of the heroes and the sages of antiquity, in either case he esteemed it again to die. In
the same spirit he refused to take advantage of a scheme arranged by his friend Crito for an escape from
prison.
The above account came from an unidentified source on the internet

A bronze portrait I did of Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven from memory after I had
been exiled from New Mexico. Because Concha’s husband had been Norwegian as I
am, she’d rather thought I might have been her son. She mentioned this once when
we met by accident in the hospital visiting Glynn Gomez her nephew. Concha had
been politically influential throughout her life and I found her without question the
most stylishly presented woman, Hispanic or Anglo, throughout New Mexico.

Glynn Gomez with an exhibition advert.

Her efforts to arrive at a tolerant balance between the two major contending social
groups, the Sephardic Hispanic and the Anglo, were admirable, but, sadly,
unsuccessful.
I donot know whether the, at times, extraordinary behavior of Hispanic males,
young, viril Hispanic males has histotic significance or not, but during the summer
they will wear a shirt, or “T” shirt, or something loke that, but comes October and

the autumn chill and they are our with a tank top or bare chest. Richard
Marques is a fellow who showed me some of the mental pathways of the Northern
New Mexico Hispanic. We were good to each other and as a result a mystery to both
Hispanic and Anglo was formed.

As a group, the Hispannics in New Mexico are highly resentful of the Anglo and they
simply despise the Mexican [Those Mexicans who consider themselves “pure Spanish”. who are not the
illegal ones crossing the border,keep aloof from any with Indian blood, yet, in my experience, only the Indian is
and they don’t like Jews, although they are beginning to recognize that
trustworthy.]
historically they are Jews…ethnically.

Danilo Donati, (little gift of givers)(see photo) performed as Art Director for this film.
When I first met Danilo he was a store keeper showing ceramic figures he had
made.

Danilo Donati
Carlo Coccioli
 to sell to the public. Carlo Coccioli

had brought me to the shop which was absolutely laden ,

stacked up, hanging down and scattered about with figures of many types one of
which he gave me, of a winged angel with a sword, which I had kept safely since
then, 1950, until 2001 when the shelf I had placed it on fell from the stone wall in
my house in Xaghra. Later I learned that that was the year Danilo had died.

I am tempted, but hesitantto suggest there might be a cause and effect…or a

message. The Aborigines tell of messages beings sent by people close to them
emotionally, or by blood, that get received by them in their bodies by means,
perhaps, of a twitch in the muscle. I am unable to understand how our brief
meeting could have produced that response, however. Nevertheless, when after
more than thirty years of no communication whatever I asked Shelby Boggio, an
Italian friend of mine in Santa Fe, to act as telephone communicator with Danilo for
me it turned out that at the mere mention of my name Danilo recalled and
communicated to Shelby events of that meeting I had long forgotten. I am not at all
sure that I am capable of taking this thought any further at this time.
I have wondered why in my searching for understanding as to the why and the how
of creative activity that geographical areas or social communities at times appear to
develop “styles” or “habits of perception” that are remarkably different from each
other. For example, I would say, in trying to differentiate the differencesin character
of the creative life in Santa Fe from that of the creative life in Florence, Italy as I
became aware of it a half century ago, would be that in Santa Fe collective social
experiences were not fully brewed. The fact that at that time, and even today,
Santa Fe is very conscious of its being made up of three cultures, the Indian, the
Hispanic and the Anglo…and there is a tri partite effort to maintain the differences,
even at cost ofsocial discord. When, for example, the Hispanic wanted to celebrate
the Conquistador Diego Vargas, the Indians came in a peaceful assembly and
limped across the plaza as a reminder that de Vargas had cut off the feet of
disobedient Indians.

The Hispanics now claim the Sanctuario de Chimayo as their own when, it is an
historical fact it was an Anglo woman from Boston who had, through her urge to
exhibit social consciousness, fought to save it from possible destruction when the
property was up for sale and the then dilapidated chapel might not be wanted by
the new owners. The cultural history of the area indicates very definitely that it is
mainly Anglo women from Boston, Chicago, or elsewhere who strive, perhaps out of
some romantic notion of the past, or of their role as exemplars of “mother culture”
(no matter whose culture) strive to preserve what has been achieved.

The discrete references to the

Penitentes in connection with the discovery of the “miracle crucifix found in, 1810,

by a member of the brotherhood It is often

fatal for an outsider to be present at Penitente religious exercises such as a realistic
reenactment of the crucifixion and recording equipment isforbidden. I do not know
how this photograph was taken, but it is alleged to be authentic. The film, starring
RaoulJulia, entitled “The Penitentes”, a film, I have heard he did not like, I found
very daring and in so far as I am able to judge, very accurate.

This cultural division of interests persists, still rather noticeably, and more recent
efforts on the part of the Northern new Mexico Hispanic to have the land grants
returned to them, [some of them sold many times over], as their cultural property, a bill
introduced and sponsored by both U.S. Senators from New Mexico, Domenici and
Bingaman to investigate the claim that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had been
breached and the sales, therefore, illegal, seems nonfunctioning at the moment. It
should also be noted that the Indian Pueblos are sovereign political entities and are
not, therefore, a part of the United States, so the cultural amalgamation that
appears to characterize the Italy of today does not exist in New Mexico.

From that observation it is then possible to conclude that Italy’s cultural expression
is more sophisticated than that of New Mexico, not in the sense of its being more
complex, for that of New Mexico is complex, but certainly in its being more refined,
for the existing complexities have been more finely ground. I am considering to
what extent and in what ways the nature of the environment may influence the
individual’s artist’s production….in both quantity and character.

One might speculate that after a period of time the combined perceptions of the
native Indian, the converso Sephardic Hispanic, and the enterprising , explorative
Anglo may develop an enriched expressive culture. I think it inevitable that this
takes place, but its final outlines are a mystery to me.

Somehow, this sort of human evolvement might explain why Sophia Loren and her

husband, Carlo Ponti, chose the work of

Francis Bacon for the decoration, or the exploration, for their private, domestic bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPbYzw-sTeI ….Perhaps, after all, it is not so coincidental

that the Minotaur in this clip looks like a double of Shelby Boggio.

[the labyrinth scene in Fellini’s ”Satyricon”. Danilo Donati, (little gift of giving) performed as Art
Director]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAMuppW4mH8 This exhibits a rich mix of

needs and satisfactions which, I suspect, may be possible in that area as a result of its varied
history of which the creative artists are making a rewarding resource.
for this film.

Scenes from Fellini’s “Satyricon”

REAL EVIDENCES OF CREATIVITY

If it is true that an artist’s departure from what we generally call “objective reality”
are the real evidences of his creativity then, it might also follow that an artist is
aware of the war between the flesh and the spirit, as Judas Thomas points out, and
that what the artist records by way of actions in his work are both, and at the same
time, symbolic as well as practical, therapeutic actions and that the behavior we call
“creative” is merely and entirely the route the artist has taken to identify, describe
and rearrange the characteristics of his lack of ease…his dis-ease. And the larger
public’s awareness of the artist’s dis-ease often finds expression in the artist being
called “mad”.
In this connection the work of the self-proclaimed socially disobedient, social-
boundary pusher and race conscious, ego-satisfying self-promoter, Zara Kriegstein,
originally from Berlin, now from Santa Fe. New Mexico where she, with sufficient
talent for the job, has recognized and filled the niche of the community’s lack of
self-understanding by creating painted collages of local functionaries where their
head-line type local reputations readily identify them, somewhat on the order of
cartoon characters These behaviors are referenced and detailed for public viewing.
They are, in this regard, not unlike Paul Cadmus [see below]and from out of the past

Jan Brueghel. However, I believe that while Breughel’s

painting may have reached his contemporary audience in somewhat the same way
that Kriegstein and Levin reach the contemporary Santa Fe audiences this work, at
least, seems less cynical about human interests and more descriptive of mundane

occupations. Even in Breughel’s “Peasant Dance” where

the man dancing to the left has a prominent erection, formally echoed by the white
curved triangle of his exposed shirt these subtleties are somewhat abandoned in
the work of Kriegstein and Levin, or, perhaps, these observed differences are merely
a function of the time laps of the centuries…perhaps even the psychology or the
accumulated experiences of the of the observer. In any event they are more
sociological than aesthetic in their nature. What is aesthetic in Breuhgel is the play
of rhythmic movement one detects in the scattering of white, red, and yellow
shapes over the major part of the canvas. Whereas, it sometimes appears, that
there is a significant portion of Kriegstein visual commentary narrating the kriestein-
alleged role of woman-kind and, somehow, an expression of “well, if one
can’t change what one is, take up the baton and, at least, conduct the
symphony”.
(the subject matter of this work, however, is not Santa Fe, but elsewhere.)

On the same order of social commentary we have the work of Paul Cadmus and the
Santa Fean, Eli Levin.
 Paul Cadmus, “The
Fleet’s In”

Eli Levin is one of the most modest and seemingly self-possessed persons in the
Santa Fe art scene and while I think his work is parochially anecdotal, formally
deficient and, quite possibly possessing more romantic attachment to the history of
Santa Fe’s art community than to the challenges of creation he does verbally
describe people in his book on the Santa Fe Bohemian community with admirable
accuracy, his descriptions of several of the characters are “right on”.

“Flair” is a term used, I think, to describe the sort of facility a person pretending to
be a person well-known to the general public. These people with a talent for
identifying , modulating and presenting descriptive movements, styles, ways of
speech and the like of famous people have what I would call “a flair”. Paul Cadmus
has a “flair’ for describing the characteristic poses of the publically sexually
demonstrative. He also draws very well and it is this ability which lifts his works well
above the average . Regretably, Levin does not draw well, neither did Alfred
Morang, and Paul Shapiro seems not even to try but to content himself with a flair
for re-presenting the developed styles of others. Shapiro is not a searcher. Perhaps
searching in the presentation of plastic works of art is after all not a virtue…
although I had always thought it was.
Eli Levin “Bar Scene”

Eli Levin. Pierre Bonnard

In this work, a nude girl by a kiva fire, Levin has executed it very much in the
manner of much earlier turn of the century artists in Santa Fe indicates, I believe,
two things, 1) Levin is a traditionalist in subject matter, aesthetic treatment and, it
would seem, some absence of anatomical sophistication. Compared to the “Bar
Scene” above this standing nude is on safer traditionalist ground in its very limited
use of color. While the color of the “Bar Scene” does , somehow, parallel the nature
of many of the bar scenes in Santa Fe it would hardly relates at all to a painter such
as Bonnard.
Paul Shapiro is a fairly effective aesthetic impersonator, not unlike a chameleon,
sequentially taking on the appearance of Marsden Hartley, Barbaro, the Orientals,
Pablo Picasso. But where, one must ask is Paul Shapiro?

ON STAGE AESTHETIC DIVERTISEMENT. …or, “where are the clowns?”

Damien Hirst is, I think,

another clown on the art scene, together with Raphael

Labro and his patroness Dame Francoise Tempra.

And in his day, Salvador Dali all

 of whom, rightly or wrongly, assumed the role of Til Eulenspiegel
which was to euphemize their understanding of the ridiculous, presumably to point

up the “nonsense” in what they could not understand. Of

those three, only Labro lacks technical expertise, but one should not suppose from
this that such expertise is the primary aesthetic value in a work of art, sometimes it
is a deterrent.

On a more serious level Marcel Duchamp did what I consider to be an excellent job
when he painted “Nude Descending a Staircase”, intended to mock, I suspect, the
skewed insights of yet another clown, Pablo Picasso.

And one must not forget that handsome Jeff Koonswho is ready, along with Rolf
Koppel to exhibit just about anything that might capture attention. As for Koons I
have detected no saving characteristics except his good looks.
Koppel , on the other hand, does have a measureable amount of aesthetic
sensibility and in other areas has proved himself intelligent and while this “Self-
portrait with Genitalia” speaks of one side of his interests the image to the right
reaches further in the direction of a Donati/Fellini manner into the realm of para-
reality.

Rolf Koppel, “Self Portrait with ..?..” and “untitled” are two of what seems to be
extreme approaches to the human figure. The one grotesque, threatening and
“evil”, the other, still concerned with the irresolvable mystery of the human body,
but removed from confrontation, bearing the message, perhaps, of a remote
association flavored, maybe, with the erotic…maybe not. The universe wears a
crown of sweet maple in her hair.

As for Marcel Duchamp, who is said to have given up producing art in favor of
playing chess,the following illustrations should make the point, I hope, that out of
the intent to ridicule came an unexpected, unprophesied benefit.

Marcel Duchamp Edward Burn-Jones Thomas Eakins

My suspicion in regard to Duchamp’s response to the art experiments of his time was that while he may
have been disturbed by them, he may have felt there to be meaning, but was unable to identify it, so he
ridiculed it, or tried to do so, in several paintings not, perhaps, even recognizing in his own work the
formal values which elevate it, perhaps, over the Burne-Jones and elaborates on the studiously academic
stance of Eakins. If this analysis has merit it may lie in the fact that it seems to indicate a point of view, a
mind-set, that aesthetic consciousness may simply be a matter of having, or not having, brought order to
chaos. If this is true then it seems no judgment is final.

In the social climate of free speech, with the plastic arts being considered a
mode of speech, it could be logically expected that someone somewhere
would need to call attention to his sexual equipment. Such immodesty has
not been unknown. After all the female has been used as a cult object for
centuries, and, in some periods, the male as well, so why should our
contemporary time be any different. However, in the three examples
presented here, that of Koppel. Koons and Nerdrum (“nerd”, by the way in the
language of the gutter in Norwegian refers to the penis so whether Nerdrum is an
accidental nomen omen, I do not know…but it seems to fit.)

Whether this facet of sexual exhibitionism shares the same source as other public
displays may be a matter for discussion.
Odd Nerdum: Self portrait

Paul Shapiro once was heard stating that he intended to be Santa Fe’s most famous
painter. One wonders whether he meant that his work as a painter was going to
make him famous or that some other performance might do it.

It seems to me a highly questionable endeavor in any event as, normally, artists

are not in competition with each other as much as they are in trying to overcome
the drag of conventionality that inhibits the development of aesthetic insights.
Ford Ruthling has indicated that he does not consider himself to be an artist. Under
the circumstances that is a safe and uncontroversial position. He has, however,
quite elegantly rendered a series on Indian Pueblo pottery that was successfully
employed as Unites States postage stamps…and quite handsome they were.

However, In Ruthling, who is locally very famous, there is a high percentage of

fatuousness…which. Like jello is difficult to grasp.
Alfred Morang was, in the late fifties a notable artist-figure-critic in the area. He and
his wife, Dorothy, had, for some reason split up. It is not difficult for me to
imagine why, for Alfred was living a rather dissolute life. He did write art
criticism for The New Mexican, a daily newspaper. I had been able, at that
time, to have an alcove show in a section of the museum, a subdivision of a
larger room measuring perhaps twenty feet square. The larger room that had
five or six such alcoves.

I also visited him, by invitation, at his house which he shared with a rather
unconventional woman whose name I no longer remember. I think however
she may have been the subject of this painting since the dates (1951) seem
to match up and what is important now, in 2009, is that the structure that
holds this work together..barely..may be the same structure , perhaps, that
allowed Alfred to minimally negotiate, rather uncertainly, the everyday
transactions. It seemed then, as it seems now, that Alfred was trying to live
 the life of an artist as a grade “B” Hollywood movie might have scripted it. It
was disturbing to me then and, now, retrospectively, it promotes a generic
frustrating depression.

However, to the extent that this work reveals this characteristic so do the marks
that any artist makes at any particular time in his career and these are the
evidences a critic should use to determine the nature of the work and of the
man.

In addition to the marks an artist makes, for whatever reason he makes them , or
under whatever conditions they are made, they do tell a story about the
genesis of the work, there are also the manifest desires of the creative artist
to point up potential visions he sees in the subject matter, and probably in
himself.

As for, example, one extreme of that continuum (personal response indulged vs

personal response ideal -ized)one might detect in this series of photographs
of a male nude that they are more than portraits of the model. In fact, they
are hardly portraits of anything or anybody at all, they are, in point of fact, in
a transitionally morphing stage between being the model and being a
composition in light and shade…and somewhat closer to being the second
than the first.

Henrickson: Studies of a model

Something of the same happens with the following selection of Rembrandt drawings
brought together to illustrate this loosening dependence of the artist on the
appearance of the subject and the increasing independence of the marks
themselves to exist on their own as they seem to do in the work of Franz Kline.

Rembrandt: various drawings

Franz Kline: brush work

In the case of Georgia O’Keeffe one might see in Alfred Stieglitz’s photograph of
Georgia’s hands an echoe of the sort of vision Georgia saw in the world about her
whether that was characterized by flowers or by the hills of Abique.
Above are three related images, the first of a lily, the second of the hands of
Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Steiglitz that look rather like a lily, and the third of a
flower by Georgia O’Keeffe that might be a lily and the forth a note of Georgia O’
Keeffe’s that describes what characteristics of the subject matter attracted her
which might also be said to be lily-like…and so much for the imagination of the
critic.

I cannot resist yielding to the temptation to a fate which is divinely

governed inorder to try to see some connecting meaning in the existence of the
HAMMER OF THOR AWARD (see drawing, the original was of cast iron and sterling silver) which
had been given the Norwegian film directors, Petter Vennerud and Sven Wam of
MEFISTOFILM as a prise for their film “Life and Death” which had been presented
along with several other films at the Santa Fe Scandinavian Film Festival in 1984.

I had asked Bradford Smith to design such an award and left its conception and final
apperance entirely up to him for I had no reason to believe he could not fullfill the
commission. He more than fulfilled it for when I openedthe shoe box that contained
the three component parts and assembled them my response was as visceral as
that when I first heard Stravinski’s “ Le Sacre de Printemp”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNt0mvjoS08 Maurice
Bejart at work. This dance interpretation of Stravinsky’s work closely approaches my perceptions of the event.
Additionally, Brad Smith was, without doubt until he moved the Chicago Santa Fe’s
most productively creative sculptor and, perhaps, we might say “artist” in order to
indclude the graphic arts as well, as one might detect in the following examples:

Bradford Smith

A bracelet Brad designed using souvenir remains, shark;s teeth, bear claws, sapphire ring,
tortise shell, Victorian amethyst bracelet, etc.
Petter Vennerud Svend Wam,
Mefistofilm, Oslo, Norway

It is hoped that this essay has served to offer the reader a view of some of the
dimensions of aesthetic behavior and how involvment in the production of and the
critical analysis of aesthetic products can be a valuable humanizing experience.

THE CREATIVITY PACKET WWW.TCP.COM.MT

GOZO