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There’s more evidence of the sometimes unusual confrontation between Chinese and Western cultures. (This was the subject of the January 29, 2007, item “You Say You Want a (Cultural) Revolution” in Winter Street Review.)
It seems that the World Wide Web shakes things up in unexpected ways across the globe. As for China, the title of a new article posted at MSNBC.com says it all: “China treats Internet ‘addicts’ sternly: Leaders see ‘a grave social problem’; treatment includes electric shocks.” Read the article here.
Jules Olitski, a prolific artist associated with the color-field movement in American painting, passed away recently at the age of 84. Olitski was one of the most prominent painters in that movement, which, from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, captured much attention in the art world centered in New York.
Although Olitski never gave up representation completely, his most well known and emblematic works consist of large canvases filled with atmospheres of subtle color, often with a streaking blaze of a more intense color (or colors) along the edge.
Color field painting is usually known for its devotion to the flattening of pictorial space, but the space in Olitski’s work is often subtle and complex. Some other art from that era aimed to produce the intended visual results with a “quick read.” Viewers of Olitski’s work, on the other hand, are rewarded for spending time to take in the expanse of modulating (sometimes only faintly) color.
Looking quickly, it doesn’t seem like a lot is going on in many of the paintings, but approached more slowly and reflectively, there is much to see in the relationship between the large expanses of color, which were often sprayed onto the canvas, and the usually bolder and more painterly strokes of color near the edge. Reproductions (in books, magazines and the web) of Olitski’s work usually do not capture anything close to the full experience that the paintings offer.
Like other color field painting, Olitski’s work is best understood and appreciated as a product of its time and context. Olitski’s aims are simple and refeshingly unpretentious, however. Although he was at one time one of the controversial art critic Clement Greenberg’s favorites, Olitski was his own person. His work, rich and evocative, succeeds on its own.
Olitski’s work is included in the permanent collections of many American and international museums. He was the subject of many books and articles. An older book, written by Kenworth Moffett and simply titled Jules Olitski (Harry Abrams Publishers, 1981) is probably the most sympathetic and complete look at Olitski’s career at its peak. (Find the book in a library near you, courtesy WorldCat.org, by clicking here.)
Read an article on Olitski’s passing that appeared in Boston.com by clicking here.
© 2007 Winter Street Review
The Gallery at Montserrat College of Art heads into new territory with another fascinating exhibition. The new show is called It’s Alive: A Laboratory of Biotech Art.
From a tomato that rots as mechanized needles repeatedly plunge into it at viewers’ discretion, to butterflies whose wing patterns appear to have morphed into the backgrounds of the average American family’s living room decor, all of the artwork on display is, was, or appears to be, alive.
The exhibit transforms the gallery into a laboratory of sorts, with a range of “experiments” in progress. The show addresses some of the controversies that are prompted by emerging research in biotechnology. A drawing that consists of living, bio-luminescent bacteria by geneticist and artist, Dr. Hunter O’Reilly, will be on display in a small darkroom; Jennifer Willet and Shawn Bailey will have prototypes of unusual cancerous cysts, or teratoma, which are being studied as examples of spontaneous cloning; Kevin Jones’ Pseudo Tree, a synthetic robotic tree, will examine current discussions in biotechnology centered on cloning, mutations and genetic engineering.
Curator Leonie Bradbury hopes to open a dialog between artists and has organized a panel discussion including two scientists from New England Biolabs and Cell Signaling Technology, Inc., and three artists who are participating in the exhibit. The panel moderator is Dr. Hunter O’Reilly, who is both a geneticist and an artist.
Participating in the show are artists Adam Brandejs (Toronto), Shawn Bailey (Montreal), Brian Burkhardt (Boston), Jennifer Hall (Boston), Blyth Hazen (Boston), Steve Hollinger (Boston), Kevin Jones (New Orleans), Brian Knep (Boston), Hunter O’Reilly (Chicago), Tanit Sakakini (Boston), Jennifer Willet (Montreal).
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Image (above right): JHunter O’Reilly, Plant Embryo, 2005, bio-luminescent photo (20″ x 14″). Copyrighted photo used by permission.
Text: Adapted from Montserrat College of Art announcement. Click here to read the full press release.
Although I have no idea about the president’s taste in music, no song seems to describe the White House worldview more that the old Sinatra hit “My Way.” Famously eschewing polls and what he perceives as passing public opinion, Mr. Bush carries on with the business of carrying on as well as any president in recent memory.
Of course, all that means there’s a lot to balance when it comes budget time. This year, in order to afford the whopping Defense increases he seeks, the president has submitted a budget proposal that looks to offset that with cuts in other areas, staying clear, of course, from any tampering with the tax cuts passed during his first term.
A big casualty in the budget proposal is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which means the Public Broadcasting Service’s budget would be slashed. PBS and its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, have long been targets for unhappy conservatives. According to a column by Ira Teinowitz of TV Week.com, the new budget proposal would eliminate a quarter of the CPB’s $460 million budget for next year.
PBS continues to suffer from something of an identity crisis in the new television landscape. It is home to many programs of note in categories such as children’s programming, the arts, and public affairs. To many conservative viewers, some of this programming veers too far to the left for comfort. Less conservative viewers don’t see it that way, of course. They recall, among other things, that William F. Buckley’s provocative “Firing Line” program was carried by the network for more than 30 years.
A problem for the network is that is has tried to maintain a competitive presence in many different programming arenas. For an average viewer, the competition for PBS is not FOX News or some conservative media outlet, but rather cable and satellite networks such as the History Channel, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, Disney, and so on and so on.
PBS has come a long way in a media world that is vastly different from its early days. It has its faults, but it has provided a tremendous public service over the years. For viewers of a certain age, it’s like an old friend. We hope it will survive the latest financial challenges relatively intact.
Conspiracy Theory in Film, Television, and Politics, new from Praeger Publishers. 
