"The banality of evil" (Hannah Arendt)

.
by Ekaterina Levina


I’ve been reading a book “The Rape of Europa” by Lynn H. Nicholas for a while, on and off, about the fate of Europe’s art treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. It’s not the easiest book to read despite the fast-paced dramatic story. Even without actual descriptions of the horrors of the war, they are always behind the scene.

I came across of an interesting fact about Hermann Goering.

Goering considered himself “the last Renaissance man” and was a greedy art collector. He amassed a great deal of paintings, jewels and objects d’art. Very few of them were of unquestioned attribution.

In his collection of Old Masters Goering had a favorite Vermeer “Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery”. This painting was a part of “a little nest egg in case of emergency” in a personal baggage of Frau Goering, his wife, when Goering decided to send his family and his collection away fearing the Red Army in January 1945. It took two of Goering’s special trains with additional eleven extra boxcars to move only the most valuable things from his collection.

Unknown to Goering, his prized “Vermeer” was a fake. Despite having all the great art treasures around him, Goering loved the most a fake painting with a moralistic subject.

Here he was, Hermann Goering, the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich, Hitler's chosen successor, an incredibly powerful man of his time, so rich and so… banal.

Goering’s favorite Vermeer “Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery”, a fake.

“Japanesque: The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism” at the Legion of Honor.

by Ekaterina Levina

The exhibit is very informative about the development of the Japanese print over two centuries (1700-1900) and its influence on Western art with its three sections: Evolution, Essence and Influence. A special education gallery within the exhibition shows a video about how prints are made - from making paper to printing. The “artist studio” includes three stations of an artist, a carver and a printer with woodblocks, tools, and preparatory drawings. A display of progressive color prints over wood plates demonstrates the process of designing, carving and printing color woodcuts. As usual I like the most a picture in the middle of the process and not the finished one. I prefer to have something left to the imagination.

The exhibit does a lot to evoke a sense of wonder and appreciation about this old art technique and precise craftsmanship. I was surprised to discover that it takes three people – one artist and two craftsmen - to produce a print. I wouldn’t mind to be that artist… Prints are done in brilliant colors with sophisticated compositions and in variety of subjects.

One print struck me with its straightforward image. A couple is making love. Both are partially nude but not because of modesty or shame but rather to be warm in a chilly bedroom. Nothing is hidden, obscure, and subtle or has a double meaning. The scene is clear and detailed but at the same time it’s sensual, passionate, intimate and poetic.

I told my girlfriend from Indonesia about this print and my impressions of it. She wasn’t amazed as I was and she said “In the East love it celebrated”. It definitely shows. I haven’t seen anything like this in the Western art. It’s an inspiring and beautiful art piece to keep in a bedroom.

“A Couple Making Love”, detail, by Katsushika Hokusai, ca. 1814

It's always around...... this time of year.

La carreta de la muerte (Chariot of Death Carrying the Angel of Death), ca 1900

by Unidentified artist, New Mexico.

“Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” at Cantor Arts Center.

Mami Wata, 1999. Moyo Ogundipe, Nigeria

Lasiren, circa 1997. Gabriel Bien-Amie, Haiti

Dona Fish, circa 1950s-1960s. Artist unknown, Angola

Enchanting… Visiting this exhibit is like going to a fairy tale world existing at least 500 years.

This magical world shows connections between culture, art, religion and sex, how ideas move from one country to another and jump to other continents. Looking at art objects you can see how a presentation of a water spirit transforms from an African goddess Mami Wata and European mythological mermaids to a catholic saint Santa Marta la Dorminadora and then find out the origin of a sex symbol Dominatrix.

It’s all connected in human history. One symbol could be viewed like a blessing in one culture and a curse in another. It’s fascinating to see different sides of the water goddess at the same time – she can do good and evil. Some people worship her while others warn about her ability to steal a human soul. Nothing disappears… Myths and religion ideas get recycled in art.

The range of art works is also astonishing – from carved wood sculptures from Angola to a sequin and bead mannequin from NYC and a video installation by a Californian artist. The water goddess image is also presented in traditional style paintings and celebrated in quite nontraditional altars.

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the signing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes, 1921

(a poem is from a book “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” by H.J. Drewal)

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas,” through January 2, 2011.
Information: 650-723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.

Marilyn of XVIII century.

“The Empire of Flora”, ca.1743 by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

“The Empire of Flora” (detail)

by Ekaterina Levina


I was looking at an artist drawing a quick sketch from a painting “The Empire of Flora” at the Legion of Honor Museum and noticed that a female figure, the artist’s pick, looked very modern and somehow familiar when she was alone on a sketchbook page.

Without all the mystical symbols around I was looking at a pretty woman full of joie de vivre wearing a beautiful coral silk dress which was billowing around her thighs. The young woman on the painting definitely knows how to present herself in the best light possible. Her hair is elaborately styled with flowers, her skin is almost transparent and she is proud to show off her perfectly shaped breast and a curvy body. The heavy gold necklace, the gorgeous silk dress, the elegant sandals demonstrate that she is well taken care for. She is charming, happy and attractive. She is dancing and she is ready to entertain and have fun.

Suddenly I realized that I was looking at Marilyn Monroe of 18 century!

This joyful and very feminine type has always been one of the artists’ favorite subjects. I guess that some characters haven’t changed over the centuries and every time has its own Marilyn.

"Shanghai" at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

"Vestiges of a Process: Shanghai Garden", 2010

by Zhang Jian-Jun

"Shadow in the Water", 2002-2008
by Liu Jianhua

by Ekaterina Levina

The exhibit gives a feeling of a cosmopolitan city with a unique blend of different cultures. Shanghai is an Asian melting pot for arts and styles mixed with political influences of different regimes. Shanghai style is a proof that art accepts everything and everybody.

I liked the variety of representations of Chinese women - from classical beauties to sexualized advertisements, from domestic scenes to communist propaganda posters.

I left the exhibit with some kind of understanding why Shanghai is a sister city of San Francisco. I can’t really pinpoint it, but if it’s possible to judge a city by its arts, then Shanghai is the city where artists could live and work. It’s the same in San Francisco.

Shanghai appreciates art.

Jewelry with a name

by Ekaterina Levina


For those who are interested in contemporary jewelry design the exhibit “Designers on Jewelry: Twelve Years of Jewelry Production Chi ha paura…?” (Translation: Who’s afraid of…contemporary jewelry?) at The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design is a must.

I call this type of jewelry “jewelry with a name” because every piece has a title, a story and a name of the artist next to it.
Sure, the design is very modern, but the subjects of adornments are almost eternal. Artists express their opinion on love, attachment, friendship, rituals, sense of wonder, humor and sex. Some combine a few things at once.

Two delicate rings “Hello” by Peter Skubic made of gold and blackened silver in a shape of penises look rather a bit sad and funny than arrogant.
If you ever wondered about a way to personalize your beloved computer, you can find a few ideas. For example, “Gold Key $4” by Marti Guixe sure would brighten any keyboard, unless it reminds you a gold crown between plastic teeth of your computer.

My favorite is a brooch “Rose” by Esther Knobel - a silver stem with a thorn with a holder for a real dried rosebud. I love this piece. It’s sentimental and romantic but without too much sweetness.

An original take on wedding jewelry is “Wedding Ring Pendant” by Ted Noten. It’s a gold ring cast in a square crystal-clear perspex body. It has a clean and minimalist feel.

A bit more challenging but definitely worth trying are “Wedding Pills” by Ted Noten. A couple is supposed to take gold pills with a drink and then recover them after their way through the body. The ritual could be repeated in a case of a new family crisis. Well, if a couple can do a ritual like this together, they are indestructible!

The exhibit shows the possibility of jewelry to be not only a piece of personal adornment but also a powerful mean of a self expression. These art objects play a bigger role than being “conversation pieces”. They can show different attitudes, emotions, express wishes and a sense of humor.

I found a sketchbook on a table with catalogs in the museum and looked through it. It definitely belonged to a jewelry design student. I liked one sketch of a flower on a grid and I wrote next to it: “I can see a magnolia here… Nice!”

A young Asian girl came later to get her sketchbook. She didn’t open while I was there.

Rings and bracelets on display.

Look for gold pills in a glass.