I was listening to a podcast on where pornography and art intersect, following an interesting conversation with Nick (neé Saint) and several paintings were mentioned. The first of these which I will review is this glorious piece by Dorothea Tanning. Quite divisive, and not without good reason. It speaks of pubescence and angst and is really very peculiar. I shall try to dissect is as best I can.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is one of the best known of Dorothea Tanning’s early paintings. It shows what appears to be a hotel corridor with numbered doors, the farthest of which is open just enough to offer a glimpse of incandescent light. A giant sunflower and pieces of its torn stem lie on the landing. Two fallen petals lie further down the stairs and a third is held by a doll propped against one of the doorways. The doll is remarkably life-like and wears similar clothing to the girl standing nearby. Her status as a toy is only revealed by her hairline and the regularly moulded contours of her torso. Tate
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1943 Dorothea Tanning
Tanning spent her adolescence, trapped among Lutherans in Galesburg, Illinois. This painting rather baffles me. The farther child seems to be dreaming of something, with her blouse open appearing to have the body of an older woman. The closer one is transfixed with her hair straight up transfixed by an enormous sunflower she seems to have conjured. I read a Guardian article (shock, horror) arguing that the nearer girl’s hair is stood up in a way to give charge and energy to the painting overall. A door in the corner is ajar seeming to open up into either a desert or an inferno. Both girls seem to be on the cusp of womanhood and this picture seems to be an allegory of the seismic change which comes with puberty. The ramifications of going through puberty seem to be quite dire. I suppose in a way it also highlights the power of dreaming, especially in young women.
[Two] young girls in the corridor of a hotel. One leans against a doorframe, eyes closed and blouse undone, while the other contemplates a gigantic sunflower lying on the floor. Have the girls somehow conjured or engorged this monstrous bloom? The hair of the second girl, which rises upright into the air, suggests some power transmitted between them, a surge of fertile electricity, while the yellow light coming from an open door at the end of the corridor (the motif of the open window or light at the end of the tunnel recurs in her early work) is here at once hopeful and trepidatious. Apollo Magazine
I want to highlight her 1944 Self Portrait. Tanning painted this piece in a large rectangular space where the temperature reached levels which made her want to cry. This shows us that she felt she was on the cusp of something. What, one cannot possibly stipulate. I think this piece is introspective and honest. It shows her small in a vast landscape, looking to a distant citadel or rock formation. This is wonderful for me, a bit simple on the details perhaps but certainly impressive in its scope.
Overall Tanning has posed me rather a challenge in this post. I am not sure what to make of her surrealist masterpiece. I have proposed some of my conclusions but must admit I am not entirely sure of their accuracy. Some consider this work derivative and second rate. I am not immediately inclined to agree, I think there is a lot of merit to it and I am delighted that reviewing it has opened me up to Tanning’s world and her works, including Lee Miller’s photography of her and Max Ernst, with whom she lived in the Sedona Arizona desert. I hope this has at least been marginally interesting for you all.
Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity
On account of this wretched pandemic, Bonehead Chicken only allows you to order their divine food through Uber Eats. One is not yet allowed inside the fine establishment so please forgive my photographs for not being of the usual quality one might expect on this blog. I have had to pinch photographs from blogs which visited in person in the Before Time.
I would like to first draw your attention to the exquisite waffle fries which were a gift from Heaven. Their consistency was delightful, just turgid enough. Their size was just enough for a mouthful. The level of seasoning was superb. They were also cooked to perfection.
The Buffalo Soldier –
Fried Chicken Thigh, Buffalo Hot Pepper Sauce, Blue Cheese Sauce, Shredded Lettuce & Pickle.
This photograph was pinched from Independent Birmingham, a superb app/ website which promotes local independent restaurants, bars and pubs in the city. I urge you to look into it and sign up. It has made my life immeasurably better. The Buffalo Soldier was a hellishly good burger. What amazed me the most about both burgers was that they held together wonderfully.
I won’t include a picture of the Bonehead Burger because it does not look nearly as delicious as the one above, however I can confirm it was some of the most beautifully cooked chicken I have had in months. The seasoning was not all together present in the latter and the former was greatly enhanced for its blue cheese sauce.
Overall I found this to be a most excellent venue and I hope to return soon after my next pay day. I am most impressed by its location, delivery time and robust burgers. But equally deserving of praise are its wonderful waffle fries, which I shall be devouring more of as soon as possible.
van Gogh (1853-1890) was a master of oil painting who changed the post-impressionism movement, as well as painting holistically, forever. He was largely self taught but was inspired by Gauguin, Pissarro, Monet, and Bernard, living with Gauguin in Paris for a time. To say van Gogh was troubled would be an understatement especially with our cutting edge understanding of mental illness. He dedicated himself to his art and developed a vivid instantly recognisable style which influenced Expressionism, Fauvism and early abstraction and much more besides.
Working at an often furious pace van Gogh produced more than 2,000 works of art, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches in his 10-year career. However, he sold only one painting during his lifetime and did not become successful until after his death. Artable
I was struck by this piece which was mentioned as an aside in one of the excellent National Gallery videos which explored van Gogh’s devastating sunflowers. What stole my attention first was the vivid nature of the combatting colours in this piece. The blue swirling sky as contrasted with the cloud and the leaning Cypresses. That against the rolling plains, bushes and block represented grass creates a vortex of emotion which pulled me right in. It is no small wonder he painted this at the Saint-Paul psychiatric institution in Saint-Remy, when admitted there for a year in 1889. What must he have been feeling at this time?
The second aspect which stole my attention was the masterfully depicted motion in the painting. This is supported in part by the third aspect which impressed me, that is to say the trademark use of as few and obvious brush strokes as possible. The impressionists tried largely to hide as many brush strokes as possible to give the impression of realism, but quite the opposite can be said of van Gogh.
Van Gogh regarded the present work as one of his “best” summer landscapes and was prompted that September to make two studio renditions: one on the same scale (National Gallery, London) and the other a smaller replica, intended as a gift for his mother and sister (private collection). Met Museum
Van Gogh also produced a study of the Wheat Field with Cypresses in reed pen drawing, which he sent to his brother. This must have been the preliminary study for the final painting and perhaps in part the reason he was able to produce the latter with such speed. Observe the magnificent motion he creates without needing to use elaborate brush strokes or colour. This is truly the work of a master, whose (essentially) sketches evoke almost as much emotion as the final piece.
On 8 May 1889, after months of hospital treatment in Arles, Vincent allowed himself to be committed to the Saint-Paul de Mausole psychiatric institution in Saint-Rémy de Provence. He was treated by Dr Théophile Peyron. In between attacks, Vincent made numerous paintings and drawings, first in the asylum and its gardens and later beyond, among the olive gardens and cypresses, in the Alpilles mountains and in the village. Saint-Rémy served as the setting for many of his most famous works. Van Gogh Route
In the end, Wheat Field with Cypresses is a wonderfully emotive piece in which one can see van Gogh’s fragile emotional state and reflect on what must have been his personal experience during a troubled time in the Saint-Paul institution. But also, in the end, art is to be enjoyed for its own sake as well as within its own context. This is a hopelessly beautiful piece, even when all context is stripped away.
The more textured piece I have reviewed is the Wheat Field with Cypresses which was painted in July 1889, and can be found at the Met Museum in New York.
The below, less defined but no less beautiful, was painted in September 1889 and can be found in the National Gallery in London.
Self deprecation is a go-to for comics, this much goes without saying. In her first Netflix special, Nanette, Gadsby blew up the form of comedy and took self deprecation to its logical conclusion. Comedians will often address humorously crippling anxieties and life struggles in order to satirise them but Gadsby went further, using her platform to address directly the mechanisms in place which allowed for her suffering to occur in the first place. This is something which is seldom done in comedy for the purest reason that it is seldom funny. But it isn’t meant to be. Gadsby realised this and repeated the formula of her last show in this one, Douglas, where she once again taught all of us who appreciate comedy a stern lesson.
[It’s] a more approachable set than its predecessor. Gadsby is obviously having fun – which isn’t something you could say about Nanette – but it’s in no way a climbdown. The show (her 1oth – but also her “difficult second album”, she admits) is perfectly judged, a 75-minute set that proves self-deprecation is a thing of the past for Gadsby, that blazes with well-earned confidence, and that hitches her crusading, patriarchy-bashing humour to great jokes, meticulous set-building – and a new cause. The Guardian
I will applaud Gadsby for in the first instance, doing something which I have never seen in comedy – she told us exactly how her set was going to go. The initial 12 or so minutes of the set were an instruction guide on what was to come, and one joke in particular which we were all to look out for (the one about Louis CK). This is a big ‘stuff you’ to the form and exemplifies why Gadsby is a cut above the rest.
Another highlight for me was her announcing she was diagnosed with Autism in 2015. This, she tells us, was to be an excellent joke coming up in the show! This deferential blasé style of comedic writing is so excellently delivered by Gadsby throughout that she is a real pleasure to watch.
But overall Gadsby manages to provide us with her difficult second album which I am sure will be a hit. Her style, delivery and breadth of subject mater are unique and vast. She is a law unto herself and weaves art history into her sets seamlessly, with a disparaging twist which is so fun to watch. Please go to Netflix as soon as you can and watch this masterful artist at work. You shan’t regret it.
The remarkable thing about this bakery is that it is hidden right in the middle of town, on New Street no less. While I have not yet had time to sample all of the deliciousness on offer, I have tried a fair bit and cannot but recommend this wonderful eatery and art gallery to you.
Medicine was born out of a discovery of abandoned space, of new possibilities and an inquisitive quality for creating something vital and diverse. An artisan bakery and kitchen, café and gallery, which is rooted in its heritage in both Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Medicine represents a new format of social space. It finds its niche through a carefully curated menu of ethical products, whilst offering a daily fix of cultural inspiration in an environment which promotes a debate about art and culture. Medicine
I must apologise, I have yet to take a photograph of the panoply of treats available all together. However, I have managed to capture selected goodies, for example this magnificent rosemary focaccia, made on the day. I bought three portions of this to make sandwiches which turned out quite spectacular. But one can also buy sandwiches from this bread made in store.
We feasted on these one Sunday lunch. The lower one was vegetarian, it had carrots, mushroom, salad and pesto which made for quite the sumptuous and healthy feast. Fibrous is indeed the word I would use to describe this wonderful sandwich.
Mine, however, was the meatball marinara. Biting into it was like taking a mouthful of beef ragú sauce. Just exactly correct. The sauce was so plentiful that it made the bread moist. There was just the right amount of fennel so as to not make the whole thing taste like wet dog. the red cabbage and Monteray Jack cheese was astonishing, though I would have preferred parmesan for consistency.
Take a look below at a photograph snatched from the Medicine website for an example of the fine sweet offerings at the bakery, which I shall come onto now.
As I say I have not managed to sample everything yet, but I have had one of their vegan donuts (a tad hard for me, raspberry jam filling mind-blowing), maple and pecan Chelsea Bun (amazing), Pizzant (pizza dough made of croissant with pesto, tomato and parsley topping – there are no words) and their speciality, the mighty Cruffin.
The idea of the Cruffin is that they have made a muffin out of croissant batter. Then Medicine have topped it with chocolate icing and filled it with a hazelnut ganache, not too dissimilar to a Fererro Rocher. This was a lesson in dessert. The flavour – astounding, subtle balanced. The texture – perhaps a bit dry but wonderfully croissant like. The look – ten out of ten. This was a stunning dessert which left me speechless.
I so look forward to sampling everything else Medicine has to offer. I may well do a second review in the coming weeks. Who is to say?
