To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape

Through March 1, 2009 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Massachusetts



Aurora Borealis, 1865, Frederic Edwin Church, 56 x 83½ inches, oil on canvas

Capturing the high drama and stark beauty of historic polar expeditions, To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape presents more than 50 works by prominent artist-explorers, from monumental romantic canvases to early modernist works in pastel — all rarely shown in a single exhibition. The exhibition offers a range of artistic responses to the unique landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic — from the documentary to the sublime and existential, by renowned painters such as Frederic Edwin Church, Rockwell Kent and Lawren Harris.

(from the PEM website)


My Wife and I had the opportunity to go to the opening of the new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, entitled “To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape. I’ve posted on things related to exhibits at PEM before, and it is always a joy to go there. This new exhibit is no exception. I believe this is the largest exhibit ever to focus on Polar landscapes in art. The works, covering a century of exploration and styles in painting are really remarkable. For those (like me) who collect exhibition books or catalogues, the companion book is not only complete with all of the exhibited paintings, but is excellently done and inexpensive. (Though those, again like myself, who have an eye for a more permanent personal library, may wish for a hardback version).

The larger works follow the grand scenic painting styles of the nineteenth century. As such, if you are not familiar with early modernist painting, the transition to the twentieth century works can be anticlimactic. I would strongly suggest perusing the numerous books on the topic that the PEM has at the bookstore, and will probably have strewn around the seating areas throughout the exhibit (not there for the opening, but usually feature at past exhibits). Especially look to materials on Rockwell Kent. There was a special film shown on Kent at the opening, which is not listed on the website, but if it is available I highly recommend it. These materials will help the viewer understand the stylistic transitions, and to see the change in the early twentieth century where artists began to represent these regions in their inherent drama and beauty, and not as a backdrop for human adventure. With the big dramatic canvases, it would also be easy to overlook the various notebook sketches and smaller works. Take the time to dwell over these, as they are absolutely marvelous. I was especially drawn to the pastels of David Abbey Paige (1901-1979) in which he recorded many different atmospheric phenomena.

The PEM posts a PDF file for printout with information on the works, a list of references, and brief biographies of the artists and explorers, which would make a handy pre-visit read.

If you are in Eastern Massachusetts between now and 1 March 2009, To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape would make for an excellent excursion.

For additional information, see the Press release.


(links good at time of post) UPDATE: bad link coding fixed (my bad)

This Is Why You Should Curb Your Dog

Memorial

Charles John Andres 1913 - 2008
Student of Harvey Dunn, (himself student of Howard Pyle), artist, illustrator, teacher, and not least to those who loved him most, husband and father.




The converted side barn at the Oakes House, Berwick Academy, where Charles Andres taught his classes.

I had the privilege to attend the memorial service of Charles Andres, my high school art teacher, yesterday afternoon. (See this previous.)

I don't feel that I have been sufficiently close to him to elaborate further, except to say that the impact he had on his family and friends was obvious from the service, and that their love and respect for him was even more so.

His youngest son Mark read the following poem by Rudyard Kipling, and I can do no better than to reprint it here.

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.
And those that were good shall be happy; they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only The Master shall praise us, and only The Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are!



May those who loved and knew him find solace and encouragement in his memory. An era in the world of illustration has passed now from us.

The Right Brush

Painting in acrylic is murder on brushes. An average brush lasts me maybe one year, sometimes two. As a result of this, I had been loath to try more expensive brushes, like Kolinsky Sables, even though I wanted the level of control that such a good brush brings.

Never the less, I broke down and bought a set of Performen Kolinsky brushes by Creative Mark from Jerry's Artarama when they were on sale...

... last summer.

Even though these are not very expensive (especially for Kolinsky Sable, which can retail for between $400.00 and $700.00 per brush for the larger sizes), I was still uptight on using such a brush and automatically condemning it to an early death.


Well, I bit the bullet yesterday, and started using them.

It was amazing! They hold more paint, so that I can do longer strokes and cover more in less time. They have excellent control, allowing me to pull long lines and to accurately pull an edge. And they rinse and wash out better and easier than any brush I've ever owned.


Just goes to show that there is no substitute for quality.

Compare and Contrast

Art in America's June/July '08 issue focuses on Art & Politics. You can guess some of the political leanings going on...

I found the contrast of two articles particularly curious;

In Activist Esthetics, Tom McDonough makes the (in my opinion, highly contestable) claim,

The social history of art, as it fitfully developed over the course of the 20th century, has always been bound up with the troubled history of the workers' movement, and more particularly with its state-socialist variant. There seemed few ways to think through the relation between art and the social outside the parameters provided by the canonic Marxist ontology.


At least he is up front with his agenda. It's such a sweeping statement, it makes me wonder about all the art training I've gotten and all the artist's relationships I have that are distinctly non-Marxist. We must be some sort of aberration.



Later, there is a very interesting interview with Ai Weiwei, described as "China's most outspoken artist..."

Mr. Weiwei's first response to the interviewer is as thus,

I grew up in a Communist society and amid ideological struggles. The system devolved into extreme totalitarianism with no personal rights, no freedom of speech or expression. Justice was replaced by class struggle, which is really just an excuse for the government to maintain its power. From a very early age, I found it almost impossible, in those conditions, for individuals to develop self-consciousness or any real awareness of esthetic values. Instead, there was a severe conflict between individual and state power. These struggles pervaded the environment in which I grew up. And still, after 30 years of so-called "opening and reform," we have a reduced version of the same state. Today, we are still under a one-party system with very limited space for freedom of expression. (emphasis mine)

It's interesting, that a westerner who (I'm assuming) has never grown up under Communism places Marx on a pedestal of heroic proportions, saying in effect that all 20th century art owes it's social impact to Marxism. On the other hand, the first thing said by an artist, who has actually grown up under the thumb of Marx, is how Communism makes the conscious expression of art and esthetics nearly impossible.

It is a wonder, the ignorance shown by those who simply will not learn from history.

Art, or the Colosseum?


UPDATE, thanks to Assistant Village Idiot and Eugene Volokh for the links. If you are here for the first time, please also check out my Art Studio website, Jerub-Baal Studio



Neatoramma posts about German artist Gregor Schneider, who plans to display a person's death as a piece of performance art. A doctor has agreed to help find a volunteer.

Actually, to be fair, Neatorama’s description is not really accurate. The piece would be considered installation art. If I have followed the article trail properly through Google, this interview in the Art Newspaper is where it all started, with a response by the artist to the comments thread here and a further defense by the artist published in the Guardian Further interesting reading on the subject, from a legal angle (US only) can be found at the Volokh Conspiracy (who I might ad, posted an interesting essay on the Aliza Shvarts art-thesis-cum-hoax at Yale, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding Yale’s ending of her project. Read through the comments…. )

I think all of these are good reads before coming to a conclusion about the project.

First or all, Mr. Schneider is taken aback at some of the insults and threats that he has received in response to the publishing of his idea. I can’t say that I blame him. The examples he gives, if they are true (and given the often vituperative nature of on-line commentary, I believe him. He could probably have gone on for several pages… ) Such things are not arguments or discussion, and they do nothing but take away from any rational criticism that could be given to the artist. I sincerely hope for his safety and peace of mind.

That said there are a number of things in the artist’s arguments that appear to me to be flawed. Foremost is his comparison of his art concept with several modern social realities and some art history, as a way of justifying the morality and compassion of his concept.

One of these arguments is that modern entertainment, especially television, regularly portrays death in a degrading way. Well, he will get no argument from me that television is often debasing of its subject matter. However, using this as an argument to validate his motivations or methods as moral and compassionate is highly suspect. This is moral relativism. The unethical, immoral, or distasteful actions of others does not make my actions moral (or immoral, as matter of fact), anymore than Mr. Schneider’s being German makes me an American.

Mr. Schneider’s argument from art history is that, “Michelangelo used to cut up dead people to study their anatomy. Is that not much more shocking than what I am proposing to do?” * Well, obviously, Michelangelo’s subjects were already dead, and were not subject to public scrutiny while he made his studies (that being due more to his fear of the Catholic Church’s authorities than of any moral rectitude on his part). But even in later years, where such dissections were done as a matter of public viewing, it still remains that the subject’s actual passing was not the part on display. The artist's argument would have made more sense had he compared it to public hangings, seen as entertainment by the masses in days gone by. However, I don’t think that comparison would have the effect he hopes.

Mr. Schneider states that, “…I am not proposing that I would bring about someone’s death, or stage it.” ** Or that he would encourage suicide. I believe him. This does leave a scheduling problem. If the point of the exhibit is to show death as a positive experience, then the natural death would have to occur during the operating hours of the museum or gallery, hardly something you could plan out. Would this then mean that the exhibition was a failure, or that the patrons and visitors should get their ticket money back? My understanding of most municipal health code regulations is that leaving a freshly dead and untreated human body lying about in your home or place of business is out of the question. (Heck, I’m not even allowed to bury my cat in the backyard.) This would seem to be a major operational flaw.

Another argument for the moral standing of Md. Schneider’s proposal is that many people die in bleak environments, separated from loved ones and any support. “These days, many die in hospitals, locked away from the public,” and, “Shouldn’t this last journey be the most intimate and personal journey in a person’s life?” *** He is arguing two opposing points here. In one, the public is not allowed to see death (suggesting that the artist believes it should be so allowed), in the other, death should be personal. His proposed art installation would certainly be public. The very act of displaying someone’s death in a gallery environment would remove any vestige of the intimate or personal for the subject. He also complains of the regulations and rules surrounding burial, saying, “In my view, the dying should be able to define the rituals and sites of their funeral themselves.” † But where would this lead? Is the artist then suggesting the possible return of Suttee?

A further justification provided is the support Mr. Schneider has received from a priest. Unfortunately, history shows that the approval of a religious leader is no guarantee of moral strength or purity. (Meaning no disrespect to the gentleman mentioned, who I do not know.)

Finally, I will quote Mr. Schneider one last time. “My feeling is that the church used to provide us with rituals and ceremonies appropriate for death, but in a secular age, don’t we need to create our own?” In a way, this is the whole of the resistance that Mr. Schneider has found himself facing. The lack of a moral framework leaves no standard for decency or any idea of what actually constitutes respect.

This art concept (as a public display) and the arguments underlying it, exemplifies the muddy, self-justifying and often self-centered thinking behind much of the Arts today. In my opinion, such is the result of the amoral atmosphere that exists in the modern Humanities.


Notes

* ”There is nothing perverse about a dying person in an art gallery” Gregor Schneider, The Guardian, Saturday April 26, 2008

** ibid,

*** ibid,

† ibid,

(Editing note, corrected paragraph eight, where I mistyped "we" for "he." The pronoun has been corrected)

Roman Funerary Art at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston

FUNERARY PORTRAIT RELIEFS

During the late Republican and Augustan periods (about 70 B.C.-A.D. 14), funerary reliefs with portraits of the deceased and members of their families were popular. Almost without exception the portraits are of freed slaves (liberti) and their offspring. The portraits are frequently accompanied by inscriptions that indicate the professions and family relationships of the people in the relief. Occasionally, a slave's former owner was also shown. The reliefs were inserted into the tombs that lined the roads leading out of Rome. This use of funerary portrait reliefs saw a resurgence in the second century A.D.
(from the display card for Funerary Relief of the Publius Gessius Family)

The MFA has many wonderful Roman antiquities. Here are some of the Funerary Portraits, Cinerary Urns, and Sarcophagi that they display.

long post, with complete transcribed display information, just keep scrolling





Funerary Relief of a Mother and Son
Roman, Imperial period, about A.D. 110-120
Marble

This panel came from a tomb that, as the inscription records, Petronia Hedone made for herself and her son as well as her fredd slaves and their descendants. The resemblance of Petronia's hair to that of Martiana (died A.D. 112), Emperor Trajan's sister, suggests the relief's date, though the use of drilled holes for the pupils of the eyes rarely occurs before the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138).

Henry Lillie Pierce Fund, 1899 99.348

Inscription
Petronia Hedone fecit sibi/et L(ucio) Petronio Philemoni filio/et libertis libertabusquae/posterisquae eorum

Petronia Hedone made [this] for herself and for Lucius Petronius Philemon, her son, and for [her] freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants





Sarcophagus with Triumph of Dionysus
Marble (from the island of Proconnesus, Turkey)

Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, was the god of wine and drama. He is one of the most frequently depicted gods in ancient art and is often shown in the company of mythological beings like satyrs, silens, and maenads as well as such animals as lions, panthers, and snakes. The inclusion of an elephant-drawn chariot and a giraffe in the procession identify the scene as the god's triumphal return from spreading his cult to India. Dionysiac imagery frequently occurs in Roman funerary art, and may reflect the beliefs of the deceased.

William Francis Warden Fund, 1972 1972.650







Funerary Relief of the Publius Gessius Family
Roman, late Republican period, about 50-20 B.C.
Marble (probably from Carrara, Italy)

The Latin inscription at the base identifies the central figure as Publius Gessius, a Roman citizen in military costume. He is flanked by Fausta Gessia, a slave whom he had freed, and by their son, R. Gessius Primus, also a freed slave. The inscriptions on the sides indicate that Fausta built the tomb that held this relief with money provided in Primus's will, a common practice in antiquity.

Archibald Cary Coolidge Fund, 1937 37.100

Inscriptions
Lower Edge:
Gessia P(ubli) l(iberta) Fausta/P(ublius) Gessius P(ubli) f(ilius) (tribu) Rom(ilia)/P(ublius) Gessius P(ubli) l(ibertus) Primus

Gessia Fausta, freedwoman of Publius/Publius Gessius, son of Publius, of the Romilian tribe/Publius gessius Primus, freedman of Publius

Left:
ex testam[ento]/P(ubli) Gessi P(ubli) l(iberti)/Primi

From the testament of Publius Gessius Primus, freedman of Publius

Right:
Arbi(tratu)/Gessia[e P(ubli) l(ibertae)]/Fausta[e]

Under the direction of Gessia Fausta, freedwoman of Publius




Cinerary Urn with Offering Scene
Roman, Imperial period, about A.D. 150
Marble (from the island of Proconnesus, Turkey)

In this scene of piety, a man pours an offering of wine over an altar while a woman raises her hands in prayer. A flute player provides music, a frequent component of ancient sacrifices. The side panels show the eagle of Jupiter and the peacock of Juno, each holding a victory wreath. Cinerary urns and sacrophagi were usually produced in workshops near quarries and shipped to urban centers of sale. The faces of this couple were prepared for portraits that were never carved, perhaps due to a sudden death and the need to use the urn immediately.

Museum purchase with funds donated in memory of Emily Townsend Vermeule, 2002 2002.25
(from the display card)




Cinerary Urn of L. Cassius Colonus Colonianus
Roman, late imperial period, about A.D. 200
Marble (from the Greek island of Thasos)

This urn held the ashes of Lucius Cassius Colonus Colonianus, a member of the social class known as the equites (roughly "knights"). The urn is densely covered with figures representing the death of Pentheus, king of Thebes, a story known from Euripides's play 'The Bacchae'. Pentheus opposed the presence of Dionysus in his city and spied upon the women celebrating the god's rites. This scene shows the play's climax, when the women of Thebes, driven into the ecstatic state associated with the worship of Dionysus, tear Pentheus apart. Dionysus, standing on the left, witnesses this scene, accompanied by his thiasos (entourage) of satyrs, silens, and maenads.

Benjamin and Lucy Rowland Fund, 1972 1972.356

Inscription
D(is) M(anibus) L(uci) Cassi Coloni Coloniani eq(uitis) R(omani)/vixit ann(is) XXXV
To the spirits of the dead of Lucius Cassius Colonus Colonianus, a Roman eques; he lived thirty-five years.

Website News!

I am happy to note that my studio art website, Jerub-Baal Studio is finally getting a long needed updating, thanks to the tender ministrations of Chris Costello.

Go take a look! More will be coming soon.

Noah



Noah acrylic on canvas, 48 X 72 inches ©2008 MJAndrade all rights reserved

I had previously posted a teaser detail of this project, and now it is finished.

Here is a close-up of the lantern itself, where (hopefully) you can see the figure of 'Noah' and above him, the silhouette of the raven.

Another New Sketch



the Burden of the Prophets, Modern Theology Series
Watercolor on Paper, 8x10 inches © 2008 MJAndrade

Modern Theology, its critique and its results are turning out to be a fertile ground for painting concepts.

More on this as it comes...

Friday Free Ad for Kate

Aerial as performed by Cirque du Soleil

El Greco to Velázquez Art During the Reign of Philip III

at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through July 27, 2008

For any of you who are in striking distance of Boston, I highly recommend this exhibit. It is absolutely wonderful, has several paintings that I am familiar with from years of reading art history, but also many pieces I had never seen in print or otherwise. Much of the work by the two 'headliners,' El Greco and Velázquez, were real revelations in person. Even with modern high-quality reproduction, there is nothing like seeing the original, up close.

For this post, however, I'd like to focus on some of the still life paintings. These didn't seem to get the same attention from the viewers as the bigger and showier religious paintings. Yet these pieces are exquisite, and well worth the time and ticket to see just in themselves.

A few examples:



Felipe Ramírez Still Life with Cardoon, Francolin, Grapes and Irises, 1628
Oil on canvas, 28 X 36 3/16 in. (71 X 92 cm)
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid




Juan Sáchez Cotán Still Life with Fruit and Vegetables, about 1602
Oil on canvas 27 3/8 X 38 in. (69.5 X 96.5 cm)
Varez Fisa Collection, Spain




Juan Sáchez Cotán Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, about 1600
Oil on canvas 27 1/4 X 33 1/2 in. (69.2 X 85.1 cm)
San Diego Museum of Art




Juan Sáchez Cotán Still Life with Game Fowl, about 1600
Oil on canvas 26 11/16 X 34 15/16 in. (67.8 X 88.7 cm)
The Art Institute of Chicago


These pieces and about a dozen other still lifes and domestic paintings by other artists including Alejandro De Loarte, Juan Van Der Hamen Y León, and Velázquez could have held my attention for hours.

Add to that the many portraits, the religions works and mythological works, the previously mention opportunity to see all of these up close, and the exhibit provides an incredible view of art in Spain at the end of the 16th Century on into the 17th.

The show also includes several amazing wooden polychrome sculptures of Saints on loan from Spanish churches, and has a reconstruction of a "treasure room" of glassware, pottery, silver and objects of curiosity (sort of a "Cabinet of Curiosities" of the craftwork of men) originally set up by the Spanish Royalty to impress their visitors.

Again, I can not say enough how highly I recommend seeing this exhibition.


Images from El Greco to Velázquez, Art During the Reign of Philip III by Sarah Schroth and Ronni Baer, with essays by Ronni Baer, Laura R. Bass, Antonio Feros, Rosemarie Mulcahy, and Sarah Schroth MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Published in association with the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. © 2008 ISBN 978-0-87846-726-6 (hardcover) $65.00 (Museum Members get a discount).

I also highly recommend the book, which contains much useful information, and a catalogue of the show, for a total of 162 high quality color illustrations

Milestone!

Yesterday, my one-year-old baby girl held a paintbrush for the first time.

She was totally fascinated with it.



I not sure if that bodes well or not....

'NETFEED/ART: Artistic Suicide Challenge
(visual: Bigger X at Toronto arraignment)
VO: A guerrilla artist known only as No-1 has challenged the better-known forced involvement artist Bigger X to a suicide competition. No-1’s broadside against Bigger X, which calls him a “poseur” because “he only works with other people’s deaths,” suggests a suicide competition between the two artists, to be broadcast live by “artOWNartWONartNOW.” The one with the most artistically interesting suicide would be judged the winner, even though he or she would not be around to collect the prize. Bigger X, who is wanted by the police for questioning in a Philadelphia bombing, has not been available for comment, but ZZZCrax of “artOWNartWONartNOW” called it “an intriguing story.” '

[Fictional news blurb from the beginning of chapter 21 of “Mountain of Black Glass” copyright 1999, by Tad Williams (Volume Three of “Otherland”, a four volume SciFi novel).]

There has been a lot of commentary about the Aliza Shvarts/Yale Shock Art Thesis incident. Roger Kimball has an essay well worth reading, Yale, Abortion, and the Limits of Art. There is another piece at The American Digest. The Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent post on Yale's attempt to close the barn door after the horse left.

One thing in the comments section on that last really struck me. "Dre", responding to an earlier commenter, posted the following;

"I think this Yale thing is terrific. The artist's work has provoked wild-ass reactions all over the place, just as much of our art must do. "

It is only a short distance to this:

Karlheinz Stockhausen on the 9/11 attacks: “What happened there is—they all have to rearrange their brains now—is the greatest work of art ever. . . That characters can bring about in one act what we in music cannot dream of, that people practice madly for 10 years, completely, fanatically, for a concert and then died. That is the greatest work of art for the whole cosmos. . . I could not do that. Against that, we composers are nothing.”
http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~jast/Number14/Minor.htm "

The passage at the top of this post is from a science fiction book written in 1999, but is a follow-up on a passage in an earlier volume of the series (I think volume one, [I'm not sure, I lent it out] City of Golden Shadow released in hardback in 1996) where Bigger X causes a car wreck with fatalities as a type of "forced involvement" performance art. This fiction predates the Stockhausen quote by at least five years.

The nihilistic direction of modern performance art (and the avant guard in general) has been easy to predict for a long time. That knowledge has in fact been a part of the popular culture.

Too bad that the artists haven't noticed it. It tends to put the lie to their "groundbreaking" and "transgressiveness" if everyone can see it coming.

Bombing of London, by Charles Andres

Sad News

I heard today from an old friend, who told me the the illustrator, Charles Andres, who had been my first art teacher in high school, passed away on Friday.

Some of his work can be found here. The interface is a little clunky, but it's worth a look. Choose a 'room' at the top of the image, then you can view the images in that area.

I remember the painting above, Bombing of London from his classroom/studio at Berwick Academy. He used it as an example of how to make contrast and composition work, since it had no color to distract the eye.

He was a man of humor and patience, an excellent teacher whom I did not listen to nearly enough, and from whom I learned more than from any other artist.


image copyright held by the estate of Charles Andres

Bobby Does Not Read



I had previously blogged about the work of Len Cowgill. He is a wonderful artist, and a very generous man.

I am very grateful to be able to say that his work is far more amazing in person than in photos.



Hmmmm.... I guess this makes me a collector as well as an artist.

Tease!





A finished detail of my current painting project.


More later...

The Royal Academy of Arts

Thanks to this post at Mapping the Marvellous I found an article on C.R. Cockerell, R.A. Of course, his rendering of church domes and spires attracted me, as I expect anyone who knows my work would have seen coming...



The article on Cockerell was the May "Artist of the Day" on the website of the Royal Academy. I am no where near finished exploring the site. It is expansive and wonderful, with alphabetized links to the artists represented in the Academy's collection, lectures to which you can listen, and an HTML version of their quarterly magazine which you can literally leaf through on line, stopping and exploring the articles you want, in a layout that looks to be just like the real thing.

This is going to be a great resource. I'll be spending a lot of time there in the near future.

Conversation With a Poor Unprepared Freshman

I got a call this evening from Northeastern University, my old Alma Mater.

This is somewhat paraphrased, as I'm not a steno...

N.U.(Brian) "Hi, my name is Brian, I'm from Northeastern University. We wanted to call and make sure our information is up to date and find out what alumni have been doing. Are you still at (... my address ...)?"

Me "Yep, haven't moved yet, but we're trying."

Brian "I see you studied Theatre, are you still working in that field."

Me "Actually, I'm a fine artist now."

Brian "Cool. Well, I'm glad that's working for you. Now, part of what I'm doing is trying to raise money for Northeastern. Gifting has always been a big part of what keeps the University going..."

Me (trying to interrupt in a polite way) " ... uh, Brian, that's 'Artist', as in 'Starving Artist'."

Brian (pause) "Oh, well, anything at all would help, even twenty dollars..."

Me "Sorry man, but we're strapped, thanks for calling though, and good luck tonight!"

Brian "Well,... thaannnks.... Good night."


Well, I did get a degree in the Arts and Humanities from the place, what did they expect?



At least I don't have a day-job where I have to ask, "Would you like fries with that?"

"... Do not therefore grudge me this little earth that covers my body"*

In the big-media news, what attention given to the government of Iran focuses on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's posturing or on concerns of war. Much of the news seems colored by the media's distaste for our current President.

Many of the really news-worthy things happening inside Iran are barely acknowledged, if not completely ignored. There is the popular hatred of the Modesty Police (or the fact at all, that women are treated this way in Iran... ed.), or the student uprising against an Ahmadinejad appointed chancellor at Shiraz University.

Though I have heard of the following from a neighbor, who moved to the US from Iran many years ago (and is a naturalized citizen), how much have you heard in the news about the Mullah's war on non-muslim Iranian history?.

The Iranian government has tried to bulldoze Persepolis, a World Heritage Site. They were stopped only because brave Iranian citizens stopped the equipment by literally standing in the way. The proposed Sivand Dam would flood 130 known archaeological sites, and could flood both Persepolis and Pasargadae, an ancient capital of the Persian Empire, and site of the tomb of Cyrus the Great. The destruction of the tomb of a great historic figure would not bother the Iranian government in the least. In Kashan, the tomb of Firuzan (Abu-lolo) has been destroyed. Abu-lolo lived in the 7th century. The original date of the tomb is not known, but it is known that it was restored in the 14th century.

The Medo-Persian empires are arguably as important to Western Civilization as the Greeks. Without the Edict of Restoration by Cyrus, there would have been no return of the Hebrews to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple. Cyrus was one of the first rulers to create and enforce policies of religious tolerance. The survival of Jewish culture into Roman times assured the survival of the Mosaic Code, which is one of the cornerstones of the ideals Western law and justice.

Iranian scholars have filed complaints in the International Criminal Court charging the Iranian government with "crimes against humanity" for its treatment of these World Heritage Sites.

Much grist for the news-mills was made over the looting at the National Museum of Iraq, which, though very tragic, was greatly exaggerated by the press (one wonders if this was because it made the military and the Bush Administration look bad, ed.). Authorities, including the FBI, are still investigating, and those responsible will be held to account. It is believed that roughly a third of the objects (around 5000) taken from the Museum have been recovered.

The loss of 15,000 cultural objects (and subsequent return of 5000) is a matter of great importance to the civilized world. How much more so the systematic destruction of history on a scale that amounts to Cultural Genocide?



* the title is a translation of part of the epitaph of Cyrus the Great, as recorded by Plutarch and Strabo