Tag Archives: painting

‘Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961): Poetry Is Everything’

Posted on January 21, 2024 by JMN

This piece clipped back in August 2023 reminded me of my youthful infatuation with the School of Paris, which included the Delaunays, Sonia and Robert, as well as Fernand Léger. The article’s appeal lies as well in the matchup of … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Robert Andrew Parker (1927-2023): ‘Susceptibility to Happiness’

Posted on January 13, 2024 by JMN

What’s not to like about an artist-illustrator who partnered with poets and loved jazz? Parker played drums in a band called Jive by Five and is survived by five sons, all of whom play drums professionally. (One is an artist.) … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Love the Beasts

Posted on November 17, 2023 by JMN

“Fauve painting is not everything,… but it is the foundation of everything.” (Matisse) I have an affinity for the stripe of painting perpetrated by the Fauves. Their manic attack with brush and pigment gestures offhandedly toward trees, water and sky. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 6 Comments

The Saucy Song a Painter Sang

Posted on October 31, 2023 by JMN

I’ve pondered how much to grudgingly admire the towering raspberry Tadaaki Kuwayama gave rhetorically to the practice of art. His expressed approach oozes iconoclastic gore in the spirit of outré versecraft from the pages of Poetry. … He wanted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Paint the Buttons!

Posted on August 26, 2023 by JMN

“How do you expect me to paint a portrait of Stalin?” he asked, irritated. “First of all, I’ve never seen him, and I don’t remember what he looks like, other than the fact that he wears a uniform with lots … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Etel Adnan: ‘Words Are Social’

Posted on July 26, 2023 by JMN

Lebanese-American painter-poet-novelist Etel Adnan (1925-2021) was interviewed by Gabriel Coxhead for the June 2018 issue of Apollo. In the 1970s, having returned to Beirut to work as a journalist, she was forced to flee to Paris when the civil war … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Everything Floats’

Posted on June 30, 2023 by JMN

As for Fuji… it’s nothing but three quick strokes: a swoop to the top, a bobble for the summit, a long glide back to the ground. […] What Hokusai and his successors affirm over and over is that there’s no … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Peanut Gallery

Posted on April 26, 2023 by JMN

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Suffer the little children to… have a future. (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

More Galleries | Tagged , | 10 Comments

‘I Am on the Side of Tears’

Posted on March 31, 2023 by JMN

“All we can do now is pray.” Famous last words. Prayer is the recourse of the desperate when there’s no recourse. It’s the last croak from the isthmus of the fauces before humanity lies facedown in the mud. When you … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘La Ronde Enfantine’

Posted on March 29, 2023 by JMN

I savor the deep dark greeniness and people-dwarfing scale of the forest in this painting by Courbet. The syrupy light on the tree trunks is eyeball lickable. (Julia Jacobs, “He Lost a Courbet Fleeing the Nazis. His Heirs Are Getting … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 7 Comments