Way back in April, 2007, I did a post called Legal Loan Sharking. To get a good understanding of the complexities of the subprime mortgage mess, and why it is still very much a crisis, you must listen to last week’s This American Life.
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Two WWII vets
My father George, on the left, and his brother John, 1945.
OHHH… ALRIGHT… $42 million, and that’s my final offer
Yesterday, Christie’s auctioned a Roy Lichtenstein painting for $42,642,500. The painting is “OHHH… ALRIGHT…”, from 1964. I had to smile (maybe it was more of a smirk) when I read this in the catalog listing.
The seamless surface of Ohhh…Alright… may look as if it was rolled off a printing press in a matter of seconds, but it is actually the product of a long, painstaking procedure. Lichtenstein chose the original illustration from the DC comic book Secret Hearts, which Lichtenstein has made his own by subtly manipulating its content.
Attributing the source material that Lichtenstein used is undoubtedly thanks to the diligent research of David Barsalou, whose Deconstructing Lichtenstein project reveals what’s really behind Roy’s “monumental iconography.”
“Barsalou is boring to us,” comments Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation. He contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a mere copyist: “Roy’s work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. Barsalou’s thesis notwithstanding, the panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy.”
Nonsense. I don’t deny that Lichtenstein had his own style, but “OH… ALRIGHT…” was copied from a panel in a DC romance comic-book that was drawn by Bernard Sachs, and Barsalou is the only reason why Christie’s acknowledges that. If Art is supposed to be about Truth, Deconstructing Lichtenstein is an essential resource.
The best, and most evocative, use of Lichtenstein’s work I have seen in another medium is by our own Miss Lia Pamina, featuring Margo Guryan’s sublime “Love Songs”.
The Beeb on Sparky
It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since the controversial biography Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis. You have until next Tuesday to listen to a BBC Radio 4 feature on Charles M. Schulz.
I’m a bit surprised to hear Jeannie say, “David did a marvelous job…” Russell T. Davies, who brought Doctor Who back from hiatus, chimes in with the factoid that long before the Tardis, Snoopy’s doghouse was much bigger inside than it appeared outside.
Michael J.
Mike Fox’s stage name is Michael J. Fox. Mike is a great guy. I make a point of featuring Mike every so often because I have a personal connection to him, for a reason that some of you know. Tonight, Michael J. is the guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies…
… and tonight he’s also appearing on the CBS series The Good Wife.
Back in September, Fox talked about his life with Parkinson’s Disease with Sanjay Gupta on CNN.
Pratt extracts bat
Over four years ago I put up a bat house in our back yard…
… but did any bats move in? Nope. I thought it might be due to the disease that’s decimating the bat population around here, but then, while cleaning out the gutters, I found a bat.
A dead one. Not due to the disease, but trapped as it tried to escape from behind a bedroom window shutter. I loosened the shutter, pulled out the unfortunate winged mammal, and tossed it into the woods.