Sunday, January 16, 2011

Art and Politics Watch

We took in the post-impressionist show at the de Young in San Francisco today.  Lots of world-class stuff, no doubt about it, although it was pretty crowded -on a scale where "King Tut" is ten, maybe a 6.5 or a seven.  No surprise in that this was the next to the last day (the audio commentary, FWIW, was perfunctory at best).

In long queues to see the superstars I found myself idling: we have neo, proto and crypto fascists, but when it comes to impressionists, we only have neos. Well: I suppose we do have protos although they are more often called "precursors."  Cryptos are, I suppose, something you can have in politics but just can't have in art: if one wanted to represent a particular movement but to conceal his representation, just how would he do it (for "crypto-impressionist," Google gives me one hit, which is the Google equivalent of zero--I did not linger to figure out just what the writer could be talking about).

Footnote: these last two days have been, weatherwise, about the mot pleasant  I have ever spent in this often-pleasant city.  I came home tonight to read about the prospects of a 45-day rainstorm.  Am I feeling like they felt in August, 1914?

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