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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2008 > June > 20
Friday, June 20, 2008
Art Ball art, DAI and other thoughts
A few stray thoughts today:
— One of my favorite paintings at the Dayton Art Institute was the featured artwork at the 51st Art Ball, which was held at the museum last weekend. About 700 elegantly dressed folks got to have a closer look at “Tightrope Walker,” by the American painter Everitt Shinn. It’s a haunting picture — a stark, dramatically composed image of the acrobat, dressed in ghostly white, balancing over the heads of a hushed, darkened theater crowd. Shinn, a member of the so-called “Ashcan” group of realist painters from the early 20th century, started off as a newspaper illustrator who had a fondness for vaudeville — a passion that he drew upon in many works that explored the tension between audience and performer. “Tightrope Walker” is one of his greatest pieces, and a true gem of the DAI’s collection. Go have a look.
— Speaking of the DAI, while you’re there checking out Shinn stop down to see the wonderful exhibition by Ken Butler, “Hybrid Visions.” Butler combines his gifts for music and scuplture with passions for recycling and for transforming things into something different and new. The result: A violin made out of a cowboy boot, a cello from a sled, a piano made of packaging foam — all of which make sound. The show is a masterpiece of reconceptualization, if you can imagine such a thing.
— Speaking of masterful reconceptualization, while writing this I’m listening to the new Coldplay disc, “Viva La Vida.” The cover borrows another of my favorite paintings, “Liberty Leading the People,” by Eugene Delacroix. It’s the one of French Liberty charging across the barricades during the July Revolution of 1830. Coldplay turns it from an image of violence into an image of life; nicely done. Can’t wait to get through the album.
— Other fun stuff I’ve been listening to today: The new My Morning Jacket, which is just as weird, echoey and off-kilter as the Louisville band’s past works. Not sure I love it, but it’s at least a fun first listen.
— Oooh: This is a good disc: “Rockferry” by Duffy, a new British neosoul singer. She’s tough. More on her next week.
