Last night I went to the Turner Contempt to hear a talk or rather a "conversation" about Alex Katz's work... as it was the day after the successful re-election of Barak Obama one was anticipating something rather zingy - but as two of the main participants Bonnie Greer and Sarah Churchwell had been up all night reporting on it for ITN, their contributions seemed a bit lacking in "joined up thinking" (Churchwell delivered her notes at a breakneck speed, Greer was too tired to contribute much beyond her notes she'd written on the train). However, there were some interesting points made, especially by the artist Merlyn James - who discussed Katz's work.
The points that struck me were that (a) Katz's work is about relationships, he shows people's relationships, and some of the hollowness there - his pictures look incredibly glamorous, a great deal about style and surface - but the underlying relationships don't seem close. He particularly looked at one painting of a man and a woman, he's looking at her, she's looking down and away - behind them is the sea with a little jagged reef of black rocks - the couple divorced shortly afterwards; he mentioned other examples of Katz's uncanny ability to suggest things that had not yet happened.
The idea of the "American Dream" did not come into use until 1930's - i.e. the Depression - it encompassed the idea of a "good education" which came as something of a surprise to me. Churchwell insisted it was possible to get an excellent education (I asked a question about how Americans might be taught better history) in the US if you lived in the right area and paid high property taxes - which is great for someone like her, Bonnie Greer was apparently bussed to the same school... she seems to have unconsciously proved my point - that American education is very good for the elite... She gave a snub about the products of English education...heigh-ho! I guess some people like to "win" rather than discuss. She certainly didn't answer my question about how to get more historical understanding into Americans.
I liked what she said about Gilead - rapidly becoming one of my favourite books... how it traced the history of American radicalism from 1851 when Iowa was the heart of American radicalism, participating in the underground railway which hid runaway slaves etc. to 1956 when it had lost that sense of its past - and how when Eames was gone they would re-build the old church that had seen all this.
Merlyn James made the point that McCarthyism had made it impossible for artists to depict work in any way - that sort of thing stank of "socialist realism" and nobody would sell it. It made me realise that there could be a simple narrative of that time... the Depression may have heightened awareness of a "better world" - expressed cosily in the "American Dream" or in the aspirations of Socialism - McCarthy comes along and squashes all the socialist stuff - and people get left with the hollow, and economically naive idea of the "American Dream". It may have been realistic in the 40's-70's, but once they started exporting the jobs abroad, it has become incredibly naive to think the American Dream will ever be possible again...
There was a comment from Churchwell about the "British Dream" - but we didn't get to develop that one: I was thinking that this is not a feature of European culture - the Germans have been known to have dreams, which got them into a lot of trouble. Henri IV wanted every peasant to be able to afford a poule au pot once a week - and in Britain we had "homes fit for heroes" and "Now build the Peace" - I think in Britain we are too individualistic to have a collective dream - although we came close to it with the NHS - we do have a sense of the common good though which is still hanging on in some places, although we don't really believe it when the Tories try to appeal to it...
I would have liked to hear more from Bonnie Greer - but I was glad of Merlyn James. There was a good deal about The Great Gatsby - which I clearly ought to re-read. I will have to excuse Greer and Churchwell since I don't think either of them were thinking straight. I felt so much more could have been said - but there wasn't time, and it wasn't really a conversation either..
The points that struck me were that (a) Katz's work is about relationships, he shows people's relationships, and some of the hollowness there - his pictures look incredibly glamorous, a great deal about style and surface - but the underlying relationships don't seem close. He particularly looked at one painting of a man and a woman, he's looking at her, she's looking down and away - behind them is the sea with a little jagged reef of black rocks - the couple divorced shortly afterwards; he mentioned other examples of Katz's uncanny ability to suggest things that had not yet happened.
The idea of the "American Dream" did not come into use until 1930's - i.e. the Depression - it encompassed the idea of a "good education" which came as something of a surprise to me. Churchwell insisted it was possible to get an excellent education (I asked a question about how Americans might be taught better history) in the US if you lived in the right area and paid high property taxes - which is great for someone like her, Bonnie Greer was apparently bussed to the same school... she seems to have unconsciously proved my point - that American education is very good for the elite... She gave a snub about the products of English education...heigh-ho! I guess some people like to "win" rather than discuss. She certainly didn't answer my question about how to get more historical understanding into Americans.
I liked what she said about Gilead - rapidly becoming one of my favourite books... how it traced the history of American radicalism from 1851 when Iowa was the heart of American radicalism, participating in the underground railway which hid runaway slaves etc. to 1956 when it had lost that sense of its past - and how when Eames was gone they would re-build the old church that had seen all this.
Merlyn James made the point that McCarthyism had made it impossible for artists to depict work in any way - that sort of thing stank of "socialist realism" and nobody would sell it. It made me realise that there could be a simple narrative of that time... the Depression may have heightened awareness of a "better world" - expressed cosily in the "American Dream" or in the aspirations of Socialism - McCarthy comes along and squashes all the socialist stuff - and people get left with the hollow, and economically naive idea of the "American Dream". It may have been realistic in the 40's-70's, but once they started exporting the jobs abroad, it has become incredibly naive to think the American Dream will ever be possible again...
There was a comment from Churchwell about the "British Dream" - but we didn't get to develop that one: I was thinking that this is not a feature of European culture - the Germans have been known to have dreams, which got them into a lot of trouble. Henri IV wanted every peasant to be able to afford a poule au pot once a week - and in Britain we had "homes fit for heroes" and "Now build the Peace" - I think in Britain we are too individualistic to have a collective dream - although we came close to it with the NHS - we do have a sense of the common good though which is still hanging on in some places, although we don't really believe it when the Tories try to appeal to it...
I would have liked to hear more from Bonnie Greer - but I was glad of Merlyn James. There was a good deal about The Great Gatsby - which I clearly ought to re-read. I will have to excuse Greer and Churchwell since I don't think either of them were thinking straight. I felt so much more could have been said - but there wasn't time, and it wasn't really a conversation either..
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