Friday, January 16, 2009

Planes, Trains, and Inaugurations

As surreal as it was to see images yesterday of an airbus bobbing in the Hudson, it was equally surreal to realize it was bobbing right past the gallery building (not my photo at right...off the web). Our horror at the initial news was eventually replaced with relief when we heard everyone aboard was rescued, but the desire to get constant information and learn more brought me back to that day in 2001. It's amazing how information is now strength. This morning all of us tip our hat to clearly one of the coolest men in the country, pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger. Well done indeed!

Tomorrow, after the gallery closes (and don't miss the artists' talk in our space at 1 if you're in the area and do stop by for our opening tonight!), Bambino and I are training it down to DC to celebrate the inauguration of one of the other coolest men in the US, soon to be President Barack Hussein Obama!!! Funny how smart and nerdy is cool now. Guess that's what you get after brush-clearing cowboys you'd wanna have a beer with demonstrate that a drawl and a smirk alone don't make for competent governance.

Blogging will be light at best next week as we gallivant around DC (in parkas not tuxes) and reconnect with dear friends from London and Seattle and Northern Virginia. We'll also finally get to check out the new digs of our friends at Conner Contemporary. I'll see if I can talk Bambino into posting a DC version of SEE and Be SEEN. Michelle, if you're reading (and why wouldn't the future First Lady of the United States who's moving into a new home, preparing for a dozen balls, starting her daughters off in a new school, and adjusting to an entirely new level of constant attention not be reading the mindless ramblings of an art dealer/blogger?), Bambino would love, love, love to get a photo with you!! Just meet us at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:00 PM on Sunday.

Labels: break

16 Comments:

Blogger George said...

Off topic but Andrew Wyeth died.

1/16/2009 10:25:00 AM  
Blogger Mark Creegan said...

oh yes, what a wonderful metaphor that event handed us! Lets hope Barack lands our country as safely and competently as Mr. Sullenberger did that plane!

A good omen perhaps?

1/16/2009 10:32:00 AM  
Anonymous mr. pants said...

i think the (absurd) hope we are projecting onto mr. obama is an inverse repression of the last 40 years of our industrial decline...(korea, vietnam, iraq, iraq, etc.)........the crashing plane serving as a metaphor...the plane crashes but we all survive to become painters and sculptors, transformed by our near death experience.....now that's hope!

1/18/2009 11:47:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nerdy is not cool now. where do you get that idea? obama is no nerd.

1/19/2009 02:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Cedric C said...

Edward must have wet his tears to the ground because Obama mentioned "unbelivers" in his inauguration speech. A first for an american president?

Cedric

1/21/2009 07:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Joseph Goebbels said...

The institution of a White House arts adviser could - and should - have just that impact.

1/21/2009 10:15:00 AM  
Blogger Iris said...

And now to work:

Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to
appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had
Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never
created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs
the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important
petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

1/21/2009 12:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee, life as one long party, how typical of contemp artistes. And Obama is no nerd, that idiot from black eyed peas is, so dumb college kids can think they are cool as he is as absurd as they are.

And he and three adults from Agape stole the kids choir so they could stand in front and get attention, talk about juvenile wannabes. They were of the adult choir, and had nothing to do with the kids, just an opportunistic moment. Like most "spiritual" centers its all about them, bet you all like that Secret garbage.

Obama is a man. He is responsible, protects and cares for his family, works hard and after taking care of his personal responsibilities, does all he can for others, thinking about US, not me. Something young black men, and all of America, especialy the artiste world, need to realized and come to terms with.

The Age of Excess is over, the Meism of the last decades has resulted in an economic catastrophe that has just begun. Art must do its role, find its purpose, and that is revealing the fabric of life. Not just the tiny inbred art world, but of all, from Delhi to Damascus, from Delaware to Dakar. If it has no meaning for people from all walks of life andall cutlures it is not art. It is entertainment. Art is Universal, or it is nothing.

Art defines Humanity, explores Nature, and searches for God. The intertwining of these three things creates an energy, a life force, that makes the piece alive, and vital, not insipid and insular. This is what Obama has called for, that which inspires, not fragments. It is time for Adults.

1/22/2009 05:50:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That last sounds suspiciously like the collegium estupidum guy.

1/22/2009 09:14:00 PM  
Anonymous mr pants said...

anon 1/22/09....
'art searches for god and appeals to all people'....those two things are not possible together...not everyone is searching for A god, never mind YOUR god. who are you to tell me, or anyone, what to make art about? typical of a self righteous believer to deem us children and then end your statement telling us its time to be adults! get over yourself.

1/24/2009 01:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

More than one person shares this viewpoint, and outside of Gotham, it is rapidly regaining ground. Art is the search for Truth, neverending, but in this case, the journey is the purpose, being better. Not quitting.

1/24/2009 01:57:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The fear of any concept of god on the left, outside of "spiritual" centers where they cultivate that YOU are god itself, typical left wing self absorbtion which Obama wants to get rid of, has left the concept to be taken and twisted by teh right. Where it is used to fracture society, where they can believe they are the righteous ones, the left does it in different ways, isolated in their arrogance.

No, the concept of god is in constant evolution, and about US, not I. What are you so afraid of? What have you done, or not done in your selfishness, that leaves you vulnerable to judgment?

This fixation on an Abrahamic god is absurd, and your issue, not humanities. There are many definitions, and the closest ones are always open ended, for to claim to know the mind of god, wahtever the hell that is, is the ultimate blasphemy. And major religions do this all the time.

No, it is your fear and greed that is the issue, and how we got into this economic mess. True spirituality, as taught by all great originators that survive through centuries, is about inner peace. That is always the fundamental. Ballance. Losing oneself into the oneness of Nature, Man, and God. We are not god, but part of all creation. That is what both should keep us humble, yet inspire for more, to contribute to the all.

Your fixation on an easily denied forms of religion lets you off the hook, so you dont have to care about humanity, contribute to it, have purpose, meaning, life. That you want to be insignificant in your grandiose dreams is your problem, but you have taken yourself out of the all by doing so, and so useless to Humanity.

Art IS Purpose. The visualization of life, where Science, the study of the Natural world, Philosphy, the study of Mankind, and Theology, the desire to understand Life and Meaning, all come together. To deny this, is to be playing games in a limited world, trapped in your mind, and where art now stands.

Art has always been about More, about what we are a part of, how we build on what was so we may become what is to be. Both in our own tiny way, and to contribute to life and mankind. By reaching for god. Stop running scared and living a false academicly constructed falsehood. Life is OUT there, not inside, which is where peace of mind adn ballance leads to being at one with the world.

1/24/2009 03:26:00 PM  
Blogger Edward_ said...

No, the concept of god is in constant evolution, and about US, not I. What are you so afraid of?

That's so funny, because I assume it's fear that makes people believe in God without any proof. I consider it infinitely braver to stand up to those who demand some mindless token of your "faith" just so US feel all warm and fuzzy around each other.

1/24/2009 03:38:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In other words, you feel much better being and living only for yourself? And you wonder why the economy, culture and art are so adrift and meaningless now? Because of the Meism of the last few decades. It is not bravery, it is vanity. Brave is doing what is right, selflessness, even at the cost to yourself. You are saying the direct opposite, that it IS all bout YOU and your "feelings" and desires. And so art has come to meaninglessness.

You obviously havent heard a word Obama has said, haven't understood a single ideal, that it Is about Us, the individual is temporary nd one is irreplacable. We are not ants, yet we are One. And no, YOU are not the One, jeese, can we all start getting over ourselves now?

1/24/2009 04:17:00 PM  
Blogger Edward_ said...

In other words, you feel much better being and living only for yourself?

Er, that's your calculus, not anything universal or true to my mind.

The equation of atheism or agnosticism with Meism is a construct entirely of your own making.

There's nothing at all incompatible with working to help other people, support other people, raise up other people and recognize our interrelationships with doubting whether any of that only exists because of a Superior Being.

It's a false choice you're offering there.

1/24/2009 06:20:00 PM  
Anonymous mr pants said...

anon 1/24/09 3:26 pm
the fear of any concept of god...
when someone doesn't believe in god it is out of reason, not fear. people who believe do so out of fear from judgement/satan (your made up things). i don't think you have any idea what art does. fun stuff....why ed?

1/28/2009 05:58:00 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home