The 1915 newspaper that I quoted yesterday was reporting one of the first
exhibits of abstract painting in America - coming 2 years after the Armory
shows in New York and Chicago.
It may have been first ever group show of American abstract paintings - and it
was certainly the first such exhibit in Chicago -- and if you read a little
more carefully, you'll see that the journalist is not
being negative about his subject.
(I also think Gene Morgan was a pretty good writer -- and would like to know
more about his interests and background. He seems quite enthusiastic about
modern, urban life)
He thinks the show was a hoot -- but that's also how the artists were
presenting it. "Michigan Avenue between Adams Street and 5 O'Clock" is
actually a title of one of the pieces.
The artists (from the Palette and Chisel Club) were having fun -- but no less
so than with their other activities: the tableaux vivants, the outdoor nudes,
parodies of operas, Salons de Refuses etc.-- to all of the which the
journalism community was eagerly invited. (and indeed -- many members worked
for the newspapers as illustrators)
They were clowning around - but they were also quite serious about their work
and careers, and many of them are currently included in histories of Chicago
art and Chicago Modernism.
William has suggested that "the aesthetic rush one gets from "abstraction" is
the relation between unique formal presentation and its looking like other
things or evoking unique ways to re-imagine other things." --- and that's
exactly what this journalist was writing about.
In 1915, abstract painting was seen as fun and exciting -- and this exhibit
received as much (or even more) positive attention in the newspapers as had
Arthur Dove's Chicago exhbit 3 years earlier.
The culture war fought by Tribune columnist Eleanor Jewett and Mrs. Logan
("Sanity in Art") would come a decade later -- and the issue then
would not be abstraction versus illusion. (but rather, paintings were
attacked for lacking beauty or the proper ideals)
But still -- when considering the "satisfactions of symmetry and abstract art"
-- the relation between "its unique formal presentation and and its looking
like other things" is not that relevant -- to me.
(and yes, though Derek may be dismayed , I am obsessed with aesthetic
satisfaction above all else)
If something looks really good -- I begin to consider its relationships to
other things. But if it doesn't look good -- I just don't care whether it
looks like something else or not.
(which is exactly the same way I respond to more illusionistic work)
*************************
Here's the quote again -- and perhaps it's this writer's disinterest in any
serious purpose that really bugging William:
"Imagine a picture which looks like nothing, yet everything, and which is
entitled "Michigan Avenue between Adams Street and 5 O'clock" At first glance
you might think it was a soup can in a heavy blizzard. A second glance would
almost convince you that it was J.P.McEvoy's new car embracing a barber's pole
with its front wheels.
You see, you can never tell what a futurist painting represents. Thats where
the fun comes in.
Generally, it represents its title like a congressman represents his
constits.
A futurist painting presents not ideas, but thought harmonies, soul tones and
notes sounded by the vibrant emotions (It isn't every day you read stuff like
that)
The harmonies conveyed by these paintings are various. Each painting is an
orchestra in itself.
One picture may be entitled "Golf Lynx calling its mate" You look at the
picture and then you think you're hearing a fife and drum corps passing a
sawmill.
Another painting is named "The Furniture Mover's Lament". You don't see any
furniture, but you think you hear a piano being assaulted by a cabaret artist
who has just been fed meat. Still another masterpiece in a gold frame is
entitled "Silent prayer" It looks like a big squidge of yellow paint, but it
listens like a circus band leading the second
division of the parade, with the steam calliope whistling for coal around the
corner."
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