Musings

Cultural Sensitivity Debate

New Question for my Readers:

Hawaii is, of course, one of the prime centers for volcano eruptions, as is apparently happening on Honolulu right now. The volcano Kilauea has been steadily flowing lava since 1983, and over time it has destroyed almost 200 homes in the area. Usually the lava and the people choosing to live on the volcano have an okay relationship, with the lava flowing in directions that don’t threaten the small communities nearby. However, every so often it changes its mind and begins edging in on the towns. (more…)

“New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant Sued over Plan to move Picasso Painting”

This actually could be quite the issue. On the one hand, the question arises as to the circumstances surrounding the Four Season’s acquiring the painting. What was the contractual agreement–that they would maintain the painting, that it would stay in the same spot indefinitely, that it had to always be available to the public. Did they not make any provisions for this type of situation? I’m guessing that the case is going to hinge upon how significant the damage to the wall is, how much more damage would postponing the repair cause, and can they move the painting safely out and back. Maybe they could just cut the wall out with the painting, rebuild behind it, shore it up, then just replacing it in some artsy way? Or carefully slide boards behind it and lay it down to remove it? Either way, it’s important to give the owner his rights, but landowner rights are vital too. Plus, if the wall damage causes harm to someone later, who is liable for the injury? ** DB

“New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant Sued over Plan to move Picasso Painting”

Via FoxNews

“NEW YORK – New York’s storied Four Seasons restaurant has for decades harbored one of the city’s more unusual artworks: the largest Pablo Picasso painting in the United States. But a plan to move it has touched off a spat as sharply drawn as the bullfight crowd the canvas depicts.

Pitting a prominent preservation group against an art-loving real estate magnate, the dispute has unleashed an outcry from culture commentators and a lawsuit featuring dueling squads of art experts.

The building’s owner says Picasso’s “Le Tricorne,” a 19-by-20-foot painted stage curtain, has to be moved from the restaurant to make way for repairs to the wall behind it.

But the Landmarks Conservancy, a nonprofit that owns the curtain, is suing to stop the move. The group says the wall damage isn’t dire and taking down the brittle curtain could destroy it — and, with it, an integral aspect of the Four Seasons’ landmarked interior.

“We’re just trying to do our duty and trying to keep a lovely interior landmark intact,” says Peg Breen, president of the conservancy.

The landlord, RFR Holding Corp., a company co-founded by state Council on the Arts Chairman Aby Rosen, says a structural necessity is being spun into an art crusade.

“This case is not about Picasso,” RFR lawyer Andrew Kratenstein said in court papers. Rather, he wrote, it is about whether an art owner can insist that a private landlord hang a work indefinitely, the building’s needs be damned. “The answer to that question is plainly no.” . . . .”

Musings on Arthur Pinajian

I had never heard of Arthur Pinajian before I read the Telegraph’s article, but I find myself fascinated with his art. Pinajian lived through two world wars and the great depression, born in 1914 during WWI and surviving until 1999, the end of the century. (1) Kurt Vonnegut’s novelic work “Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian,“ actually retells the story of Pinajian’s life, whose real life was really very private. (1) He was one of the great heroes of WWII, but he soon surrendered weapons for more artistic tools, when he began as a comic book artist for Marvel (3). However, Pinajian found himself more readily drawn to the abstractionist style of art and he eventually move to Long Island, fading into obscurity for the remainder of his life. (1) Pinajian another of the many artists more appreciated upon death than during life, and thousands of his paintings remained buried in garages and boxes until as late as the last decade. (2)

: The Artist: Arthur Pinajian

Typically, I am not overly fond of abstract art, in fact I don’t particularly like the painting shown at the top of The Telegraph’s article. However, in several of his works, Pinajian successfully pulls together both abstraction and realism. I appreciate how his works depict landscapes through simple brush strokes and vibrant mixed colors. He utilizes the coloring beautifully to depict contrast and depth, without losing any of the meaning which I feel so much abstract art does. Here are my particular favorites: