Tuesday, October 14, 2008

kandinsky



Seeing like Kandinsky

How to—discuss
Talk about—something
Anything—“non-linear”
Like—Simultaneity?

Multiple—POV’s?
Les Demoiselles—d’Avignon?
African masks—classic nudes?
Cubist—Barcelona boyfriends?

Kandinsky’s—paintings?
Mysterious—Composition #7?
All the—improvisations?
Leading up—to it?

Parataxis—parallel views?
Instead of—perspectives?
Narrative—without closure?
Cleavage—three ways?

http://www.snarke.com/2008/10/man-with-x-ray-eyes.html






Monday, October 13, 2008









The fog creeps
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg







The Fog Creeps
---while Loneliness breaks down the door
with bludgeons in both hands
powers a two-fisted punch to the gut
Loneliness locks himself inside
leaves his junkyard dog
to man the door
no fog of love here
only an empty rage
at those who would enter quietly
slinking about with a soft touch.

Sandberg waits at the docks
embracing the wet gray
weeping as she dissipates
creeping silent and away
---on little cat feet.


(Photo: Stranger in Fog, Daniel Seguin, 2005)




PANIC








Autumn---kerfuffle
birds---in the yard
scuffle---over desiccated corn.


(Photo, October 1929, New York Stock Exchange)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Kandinsky-Gris Paris 1906

The previous post led me to spend quite an enjoyable day exploring the works of Kandinsky and Gris. There is a natural progression that leads from the works of Monet up through Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso.

Kandinsky knew Picasso. He was in Paris in 1906-1907 and later was instrumental in arranging an exhibit of Picasso's work in Munich. Gris moved to Paris in 1906. I don't find that they knew each other, but back when we were reading Stein, it seemed to me that the circle was fairly small. It seems they must have met.



Kandinsky's art tells a lot about his journey. The early works are reminiscent of Russian folk art. In works beginning around 1909, after Paris, there is a shift in Kandinsky's use of color. (View with Railway and Castle, 1909) At this time, he begins to use color independent of subject. His palette seems to be influenced by the ideas of the Fauvists...which brings us back to Gris and Picasso.








The next three images are interesting for me from a compare and speculate point of view.

First, Kandinsky's 1909 Grunggasse in Murnau.







Next is his Improvisation 10, 1910, which seems to revisit the Grungasse, at least in regards to the blue house motif.

























And now for the speculation. Here is Gris' Landscape at Ceret, 1913.





















kandinsky



kandinsky

overhead—yours
underhead—mine
in-between—ours

I was reading a poem in
Books r us and looking
At Hoffman’s Kandinsky*
painting when all of a
sudden the flat surface
of the painting went 3-D
on me and it turned into
a “room” with lots of
action going on—blurring
motions, squiggling little
nervous movements of
color, all sorts of things
going on—it was like
Juan Gris’ cubist Table
except it was a huge
cubist room full of stuff
that just wouldn’t quit!!!

*Wassily Kandinsky:
Komposition VII

www.snarke.com



Saturday, October 11, 2008



HEROES AREN'T BORN---


Looking for a hero--
Man of Iron
with a steel-plated heart
More-Than-Man
Messiah
Calmer of all fears
Wiper of all tears
Leader of sheep.
Alpha man
Omega man
Maker of planets
Mover of Stars.



Looking for a Hero
Man of Iron
Forged in fire
Refined and built on Tragedy
Looking for a Hero
with an indestructible heart--
Humanity evidenced only
in the conflicting shards of
hope and despair
doing battle
in the corners of his
steel blue eyes.

THEY'RE BUILT.


("Heroes aren't born, they're built"..tagline "Ironman" 2008)

Saturday, September 27, 2008



black panther

the black—panther
sleeps—beneath
the black—jungle sky
blackness—everywhere
except for—his dark green
eyes—eyes
opening—closing


A cleave from Pound’s Personae (1925)

http://cleavepoetry.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/submission-dennis-kelly/