Monthly Archive for December, 2009

He came here the same way the coin did

Published on 29. 12. 2009 in commentary and criticism and film, tv, video. Closed

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A short note on the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. It seems to me that this incisive fable about one man’s search for answers is the equivalent of the filmmakers handing us the keys to their art. Only now, after 25 years of making movies, have they created an overtly Jewish film. Characters such as John Turturro’s shifty bookie, Bernie Bernbaum, in Miller’s Crossing (1990) and John Goodman’s unforgettable, devout convert Walter Sopchak in The Big Lebowski (1998) now appear as discrete signposts in the oeuvre, wild cards tipping the winning hand the Coens have been playing all along. Continue reading ‘He came here the same way the coin did’

Merry Christmas!

Published on 23. 12. 2009 in commentary and criticism and pictorial arts. Closed

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Things remain busy here — still working on that diss. Have just finished the introduction, so I’m getting there. But now it’s Christmas, with all that entails, so the blogging here will remain rather perfunctory, but I wanted to at least get something up here and since I was just in Paris for a day and a half, here are some thoughts on the big Venetian show currently at the Louvre.

It’s basically a much expanded reconfiguration of the Titian Tintoretto Veronese exhibition displayed at the MFA in Boston over the summer. That show was a focused if somewhat academic effort with an impressively high-quality selection of paintings. The Paris version includes most of those works, with a few notable exceptions, adds loads more and expands the scope to cover Jacopo Bassano and other artists of the late 16th century. So, lots of great paintings and well worth a visit, but is it a better show? Not really. Continue reading ‘Merry Christmas!’

Dansk Tegneserieråds Mission Statement

Published on 22. 12. 2009 in comics and cartooning and hype & linkage. Closed

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Ovre på Dansk Tegneserieråds hjemmeside ligger der nu en tekst forfattet af Thorhauge og jeg selv, hvor vi lægger nogle af tankerne bag rådets dannelse og ambitionerne med samme for dagen i letlæselig, agitatorisk form. Check det ud.

Women in Comics Recordings now available

Published on 22. 12. 2009 in comics and cartooning and hype & linkage. Closed

A couple of months ago I wrote here of the Women in Comics conference in Cambridge and mentioned that sound files of the papers would at some point be put online. Well, it has now happened, apparently with more to come. I recommend jumping straight to Dominique Goblet’s talk, which was both intense and compelling.

Copenhagen Fail

Published on 19. 12. 2009 in current affairs and journal. 1 Comment

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As expected, the politicians have failed us.

Photo: Reuters.

Check the Pedigree

Published on 15. 12. 2009 in commentary and criticism, journal and pictorial arts. 2 Comments

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While I remember, there’s this little curiosity. At the Christie’s preview I went to the week before last, there was this astonishing intarsiaed Louis XIV tortoise shell/pietra dura cabinet, which went on to sell for a good £4.5 million.

Anyway, what leaped out at me immediately, being mired fatally in Titian’s prints at the moment, was a little dog design inlaid on one of the drawers. This dog actually has a pretty distinguished pedigree, probably originating in a very damaged, early 1530s drawing by Titian in the Louvre, which was reproduced in several engravings in the later 16th Century, and it also migrated into the master’s very large and famous — and famously perplexing — mythology, also in the Louvre, called the ‘Pardo Venus’.

This painting is usually thought to have been initiated in the 1510s and finished in the 1550s and sent to King Philip II of Spain, but for complicated reasons I won’t go into here, the documentation advanced in support of this is highly unlikely to refer to the Louvre canvas, which rather looks like a painting of the early 1530s. The dog, then, seems initially to have been devised to accompany the shepherd in the drawing, before it was transferred wholesale into the collage-like painting.

The Italian craftsmen behind the cabinet, who cannot have seen the painting, must have known the dog from one of the prints after the Louvre design. Another example of the enduring popularity and wide dissemination of Titian’s printed designs. Wonder whether some of the other animal designs have similar sources…

Er, OK, this is really obscure, but I’m off to Paris and the Louvre now, so maybe that’s why I thought of it.

Our World at COP15

Published on 13. 12. 2009 in comics and cartooning, current affairs and journal. Closed

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Yes, the big event of the week for many is of course the Climate Conference in Copenhagen and the Bunker’s there in the form of Thomas Thorhauge, who is working with the grassroots visual communications group Biggerpicture to convey the aspirations of the World Wildlife Fund at the conference. He is part of a handful of illustrators cartooning live in one of the cafes in the main aisle of the Bella Centre, as well as publishing the pamphlet Draw the Line every other day. Check in with them if you’re there and here’s Thomas’ own report if you read Danish.

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Picture’s from Biggerpicture’s Flickr page showing Erik Petri, Thorhauge and Ole Qvist-Sørensen, as well as an issue of Drawing the Line.

What recession?

Published on 09. 12. 2009 in commentary and criticism and pictorial arts. Closed

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Jeez, that Raphael drawing I posted about a couple weeks ago sold for over £29 million! That’s a whopping £13 million above the highest official estimate! And the Rembrandt offered at the same sale went for £20.2 million. Paul Raison of Christie’s notes the obvious: the recession certainly hasn’t affected interest in, and the prices of, old masters at auction. I guess they’re a safe investment.

I saw both, as well as many other interesting works on display, at Christie’s last Friday, and I must say the Raphael was amazing. As I noted earlier, it’s not a particularly innovative drawing in his oeuvre, but it is awe-inspiring to realise up close how confidently the forms were laid down, following only perfunctorily the pounce marks transferred to the paper from an earlier sketch. The Muse walks through the room. Continue reading ‘What recession?’

Hype: Over Floden udstiller!

Published on 08. 12. 2009 in comics and cartooning and hype & linkage. Closed

Så er der udstilling! Det foregår i CMYKkælderen, Jægersborggade 51, kld., 2200 Kbh N, hvor der på torsdag d. 10 bliver blændet op for værker bedrevet af tegnestuen Over Flodens faste og løse medlemmer. Fernisering samme dag kl. 17.00 med live-musik – Thulebasen! – samt øl og vin. Alle, der har tid og lyst er velkomne!

Tegningen ovenfor er udført af Mårdøn Smet, i et sært følsomt øjeblik…

The new Comics Journal launches!

Published on 02. 12. 2009 in comics and cartooning, hype & linkage and journal. Closed

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The new, web-based iteration of the best magazine of comics criticism has now been launched in a beta version and is already seeing steady updates from its cohort of bloggers and other writers. Please go look at what will surely become a staple of the comics internet.

I should add that I will be appearing there too, albeit it not immediately. Teaching and work on my PhD dissertation is taking up all my time, resulting in other commitments backlogging, giving me a nice load of diverse work to look forward to once I submit my dissertation.