Chop Suey and The Pool With Two Figures by Tosh Berman

 

Chop Suey and The Pool With Two Figures by Tosh Berman

A Short Story by Tosh Berman

I buy art like others buy blankets to keep them warm in a freezing night.  I figured if it gets too cold I can burn the painting for warmth.  Excellent investment for one's mental and physical health.  I went to a poster shop in Westwood where they sell 20th-century prints of famous paintings. It was here where I purchased a print of Caravaggio's "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, originally painted sometime between 1601-1602, but the reprint made in 2004.  

The owner of the shop there at the time, Mr. Gagosian, had a wide selection of prints to buy, or even rent if one is on a budget.   I was taught at an early age never to rent or borrow and to purchase is the best policy.  Mr. Gagosian asked me what I was looking for. I told him that I wanted something that expressed the angst and worries of this sad century, but also something colorful to match the interiors of my living room.   He asked me what my budget is, and I told him that not to be concerned about budgeting and that I'm going to the boundaries of $50 to $100. 

He showed me a print of a painting by Edward Hopper, called "Chop Suey."   It's a very nice figurative painting of two women having a meal or chatting over a table, and there is a man and woman in conversation on the side of the painting.  The one thing that I found troublesome about the painting is the title.  "Chop Suey."  I didn't think the interior of the restaurant looks oriental.   And the other thing that bugs me is that one can see the signage outside the building saying 'Suey." Or to be exact, we can see the letters "U" and "E" clearly but we have to presume that the half of the "S" Is actually an "S."  And the "Y' could be easily a "V" in this painting.   I don't know why I'm focusing on the lettering of the side of the building, or perhaps what is a neon light - or even if the painting takes place in the evening.  The more I look at this painting I found it disturbing.  I asked Mr. Gagosian for a discount, due to the upsetting composition of the work.   It's initially $100, but I got it knocked down to $90.  

The other painting that caught my eye is a work by David Hockney.  "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)."  I prefer if the painting is called "Pool with Two Figures."   I don't think we need the word artist in the title. Since it's a painting by an artist, why put a focus on artist again.  It's a colorful painting of a young man, who's dressed nicely looking at another young man in a swimming pool.    At first, I thought the man in the pool drowned, and we're just looking at a floating body.  But I think the artist would have called the painting  "Pool with a Dead figure and Young Man" or something of that order.  Still, I love the mountain range in the picture, and the composition is excellent. Plainly worth the $100, but then Mr. Gagosian told me that this print would be $150.  To my surprise, he wouldn't go down from that price.  I then immediately walked out of the store, thinking he would stop me.  I turned around the corner and again, to my surprise, he didn't run after me. I then walked back into his shop, and he knew I would pay the full price of $150.   

Nevertheless, for a total of $240 (plus sales tax), I can bring two decent paintings back to my home.   I learned that one should never fret over art prices, and to do so will make you look or sound cheap.  The worth of art is something beyond currency.  Although the money of a Monopoly game does look good. 

- Tosh Berman

"Modernists & Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney & The London Painters" by Martin Gayford (Thames & Hudson)

Martin Gayford, the author of "Modernists and Mavericks," is a terrific writer on the arts, and this book is the obvious and organic meeting of author and its subject - The London artists of the post-war years.   For one, Gayford knows David Hockney and Lucian Freud, and he also interviewed all the living artists that are in this book.  It's not a book of gossip, but a survey approach to artists who worked in London from the end of World War II to the early 1970s. 

I became familiar with some of these artists through the art collection of the late David Bowie.  When the family auction off his works, I did go see paintings by Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, and others of that world.  What's interesting is that these artists worked in London, a city that was on the surface, destroyed by the ravages of bombings and the war, yet, it became a visual playground for the great post-war painters.  Freud always worked with a model in front of him, in his studio, Auerbach worked in the same format using the same model painting after painting, and Bacon's world was basically Soho London and its citizens.  So, the world of the London painter was a small one, but a very intense series of moments, months, and years working on their art.  As well as having sex, drinking and socializing within their world. 

Gayford captures the London painters in a moment where they did talk about their fields of interest, which was painting, but also I didn't realize that there was a sizable female presence in the painting world as well, regarding Paula  Rego, Bridget Riley, and others.   Gayford brings up a lot of painters working in that era, who are not as famous as Hockney and company.   I have been pretty much drawn to the medium of paint, due to its placement within a frame, and the texture of various colors and brushes. I like the communication between the artist's hand and what appears on their canvas.   The importance is not that these artists all lived and worked in London, but their ability to transform their space, time, and presence in such a location that was limited at the time.   Across the pond was New York City, and beyond that, for Hockney Los Angeles, still the majority of the London Painters stayed at home and reflected on their world with high intensity and feeling.  "Modernists and Mavericks" is a very solid art history book, with some excellent paintings within its pages.  I enjoyed Gayford's book immensely.  

Duncan Hannah Artist 20th Century Boy on Tosh Talks

http://tamtambooks-tosh.blogspot.com/2018/04/20th-century-boy-notebooks-of-seventies.html to read the review.

July 9, 2014

July 9, 2014

So much ugliness in this world, and one sees death being played out as pretty much as entertainment for the spectacle.  When I was a child, I remembered watching my cat trapping a mouse in the corner of the room.  He would drag the mouse in the house by clutching the scared rodent between his teeth.  He let it drop and then chase after the mouse.  What he would do is put its paw on the mouse’s tail and bat it around, not enough to kill the poor little beast, but just to play with it.  The mouse would try to fight back, but it is almost fruitless to do so.   Eventually either the mouse will be let go, due to the cat’s boredom, or killed. In most cases, killed.  This is pretty much what I see on a regular basis in the world.

There are two artists that I like very much.  One is David Hockney who conveys a perfect world for me, and then there is the cartoonist Basil Wolverton, that represents the horror that is out there, and somehow makes it… funny.   The truth is I’m having a difficult time laughing, or even crying. I’m just feeling numb to the world.  My only defense is to purchase art books by Hockney that gives me a sense of relief in a world that is relentless and consistently cruel.   At times, I think maybe I should contribute a stance against the cruelty but in the end, one would be laughed at, or ridiculed in a manner that is very close to bullying.  No, I think I rather lay on my couch and look at Hockney’s landscapes - both the paintings and the collage photographs.  I will put on a CD that I bought in Japan some years ago, “Omni Sight Seeing” by Haruomi Hosono and drift into a blissful state.

I do this realizing that I’m entering a world that is not real. Artifice should be a country and if there is such a country, I would be the most proud patriot of that state.   Then again, artifice can serve many purposes in various ways.  Donald Rumsfeld seems to be a good citizen of this ‘country. ' Responsible for legalizing aspartame, which is better known as NutraSweet, and was the property of Monsanto, but that’s another tale.  What makes him interesting is that he believes in power for the sake of power, because he can do it.  It is almost zen like!   My problem is that I’m full of doubt, and clearly even though I can escape for a moment, a day, perhaps a life-time, I will always feel the strains of my conscience, as it never stops working and moving.  Although I want to live in the world of Hockney, I think my true nature is with Basil.

I need to confront the insanity to make it somehow sane, but alas, it is hard to think about these things as missiles and dead bodies are added up by the hour.  By the time I end this ‘Journal’ entry, more death will happen.  In the end of the day, I don’t think it will be a big difference either way.  I’ll stay on the couch and look at landscape paintings.

Dandies in Revolt