Fastest American You Don't Know

 Tommie Smith won a Gold medal for sprinting in the 1968 Olympics.  But what he is famous for is raising his fist on the Medal Podium in Mexico City.  The gesture was meant to show solidarity with  the Civil Rights Struggle as well as to protest human rights abuses around the world.  

But the press painted him as a radical black panther ungrateful to his country.  There was no Wheaties Box portrait for Tommie Smith.  There was no career as a commentator on Wide World of Sports.  

Almost 50 years later when artist Glenn Kaino met him, he felt that Tommie was stuck in that bubble of controversy from 1968.  Kaino spent several years collaborating with him on art projects: photographs were altered, sculpture was cast, prints were made.  

The resulting work is this exhibit at the High Museum With Drawn Arms.  The Healing power of art on display.

  

Ode to Ellsworth Kelly

I reflected on Ellsworth Kelly on his recent passing at age 92.  I had never liked him, I found him incredibly boring.  "Why do museums devote so much space to someone so boring?" I'd gripe aloud.

 A giant bronze sculpture of his work in the National Gallery's sculpture garden particularly incensed me.  "I don't get why you would reproduce a shaped color painting in bronze.  What is the point? There is no color and the shape is not that interesting."

I'd gripe away, not that anyone cared or bothered to listen to me. But it was my opinion, and I was entitled to it.

Then one day I read an article about him in the New York Times. I don't know why I read it, I probably flipped past it first.  But it was interesting and made me appreciate him as a man and as an artist.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/arts/design/ellsworth-kelly-explorer-of-shape-line-and-color.html

For starters, he doesn't use assistants for his painting. He has a strong clear vision that he has persisted in following; keeping notes and sketches that he revisits for inspiration, but never repeating himself.  He has ridden popularity up and down, plugging away in his upstate New York studio. He has had a successful life doing what he loves.

I softened on him.  Oh Ellsworth Kelly, I have been so harsh and judgmental.  You can keep that wall space, far worse art crimes have been committed.

And then in December, on possibly the day that he died, I was walking through the High museum in Atlanta.  Short on time. I peered into a room that held four or five Kelly's.
"F***k that, I'm not going in there." I thought as I passed by.

Sorry Ellsworth.

Is it art or is it fashion?

On a visit to the High museum of Art in Atlanta we pondered several questions. Approaching the museum there were pieces of sod patching in circular shapes.

We puzzled, was it an art installation or just repairs to the grass?

We moved on to the first exhibit, the work of Iris Van Herpen. She is an avant garde designer who works with traditional and non-traditional materials.

We were amazed and impressed with her work. Is it art? Yes. She shows vision, persistence and massive creativity. Is it fashion? That's a harder question. While she makes objects to wear, they are limited to customers who don't need to sit or use there arms. Who, besides Bjork, would wear these items?

We moved on to another exhibit about the Habsburgs, fashion and style from earlier centuries.

It made me wonder why we questioned the outrageous style of Iris Van Herpen.