Everyone has a scene these days. The bar scene, the concert scene, the club scene. I do not claim membership with any of these scenes. Over the summer, I bought a strange little lapel pin at a garage sale that simply says "library." I wear it on my corduroy jacket, and at some point someone decided it was representative of the library scene. I belong in the library scene. The enclave of people who enjoy quiet, meditative activities and good conversations.
Today, I went to the Art Institute in Chicago. They had an exhibit I'd been meaning to see...various works of art that had passed through the hands of the famous Avant Garde art dealer Ambroise Vollard: Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Degas, Picasso, and many others. It was a great exhibit. I loved the way it was structured...rather than seeing a trillion oil paintings of haystacks and water lilies, each gallery had a new artist, a new theme. And it centered around Vollard, who was the common thread. It was a post-impressionistic community of artists who knew each other, liked each other, just wanted to live their art and sell it if they could. It doesn't really work like that anymore, does it?
One of my favorite things to do is just look and ponder. I love museums and libraries, because I can just wander, stare and think, and not only is it not unusual, it's what you are supposed to do. If you run around screaming, drinking and being a jackass in a museum, you are escorted out. They might even call the police. Anywhere else, if I stay quiet and just observe, I am either strange, anti-social, boring or a snob. In a museum, everyone is quiet. Everyone is observing. If you aren't, you are the one missing out.
I had a few main thoughts while at the exhibit: 1. Cezanne is/was highly underrated, 2. Matisse did more than mono-chromatic nudes (who knew?) and 3. Sometimes I think this world has almost entirely lost its sense of community, and - as much as other people can be a drag - I don't know if that's a good thing. We couldn't have dealers like Vollard anymore. Everything is a competition. We are all freelance, independent, armies of one.
Of course, I am library. I am extremely independent. But don't you think sometimes it would be nice to be independent with others?
I do.
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1. study of the English language 2. a solid Web-based alternative to adult entertainment 3. questionably sane ramblings involving many words inspired by one word
1. study of the English language 2. a solid Web-based alternative to adult entertainment 3. questionably sane ramblings involving many words inspired by one word
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My name is Julie.
This blog has rules. I don't write every day, but there is a word every day, and on days I choose to write I write an entry somehow relevant to the word of the day. Sometimes I don't like the word, and rather than force myself to think of something clever to say about it, I turn my nose up at it and wait for the next word. So to sum up, there is a word every day, but I don't write every day, because to write about something other than the word of the day (no matter how insipid the word) would be to break the rules, and this blog has rules.
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1 comments:
I liked the show too ! (and I'm glad the new museum policy gives members unlimited free access)
But I do disagree with main thoughts #1 and #3.
#1 -- because was collected by some of the leading artists of his time -- and currently is as canonical as an artist can get (as "the father of modern painting")
#3 -- because I don't see how Vollard is that much different from modern dealers. Some artists he befriends -- some he just sells -- and like any businessman, mostly he seems to have been looking to make a buck.
Don't forget -- he quickly dumped his Van Gogh's because he thought they'd never sell for much.
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