The Arts... Damage Assessment

Art In An Age Of Trump and Techbros

Interesting article in Variety the other day, “John Lithgow Says Donald Trump’s Second Term Is ‘Pure Disaster’ for Arts: ‘First There Was Coronavirus, Now There’s This’” by Alex Ritman. In it, Mr. Ritman reports on Lithgow’s response to Trump and his enablers virtual shutdown of art in this country–as evidenced most recently by the White House’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

It is a fascinating article, and you have to agree with Mr. Lithgow. But you also have to understand the mindset of the current White House and the people who run it. For the businessmen, tech bros, engineers, and “poorly educated” MAGAheds, the demise of the arts is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, it is praiseworthy. For them, Art was something that college-educated, decadent, effete coastal dwellers did. It wasn’t something that Real Americans did. It didn’t increase shareholder value. It didn’t fix trucks and hammer nails. It didn’t code billion dollar applications. It was…suspect.

And so, in The New World Order, we may expect more of this. There will be less public art…or any sort of art…and more crudity. We will have a society built to reflect the aesthetic values of boors and billionaires.

Which is to say, none at all…

More Bill Rabbit

Hello, Everyone,

You’ll recall that I’ve been posting about a small collection of art that I inherited from my late parents, and which Judith Estrada Garcia was kind to place in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

I promised I would post images of the works as they became available. Here’s the second piece by the late Bill Rabbit, who was rather a big name in Southwestern art. You can see his Wikipedia entry here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

This piece is When Shadows Fall and will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Oh, and please check out Bill Rabbit’s daughter’s work as well. Traci Rabbit has a webpage here:  https://billandtracirabbit.com/

Bill Rabbit's Art

So you’ll recall that I posted recently about art that I had inherited from my parents (when they retired, they ran a gallery in Albuquerque, NM). We were originally keeping it all in storage, but then Judith Estrada Garcia was so kind as to place the pieces in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

But, anyway, I thought I’d start posting examples of the art my parents collected. As you'd expect, they were very much into Southwestern themes and subjects.

Here, for example, is the late Bill Rabbit’s “Cave Of The White Shaman.” You can see more about Mr. Rabbit on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

His equally talented daughter, Traci Rabbit, maintains a family web page here: https://billandtracirabbit.com/

This piece, Cave, will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Judith Estrada Garcia's gallery (and my parents' collection)

My parents ran a little gallery after they retired. When they passed on, some of art came to me. I briefly thought about trying to sell them myself, but then, happily enough,  Judith Estrada Garcia kindly stepped in and offered to host the pieces at her gallery in Taylor, Texas. (Thanks so much Judith!)

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures of the pieces on and off as they became available. Here’s one from William McGee. Judith did some research on him, and this is what she told me, “William McGee was a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina (BMC)during the summer session of 1952. He studied painting with Jack Tworkov and Franz Kline, and was friendly with Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly who were also students at the college. Other people he mentions in his personal account titled "Some Memorable Personalities," which is included in the book Black Mountain College Sprouted Seeds edited by Mervin Lane, are the poet Charles Olson and the composer Stefan Wolpe.”

So do give Judith’s gallery a visit if you’re out Taylor-way. And, of course, you can see it on line here: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

My latest video...this one a little postmodern in that it talks about art and artist in an age of intelligent creations ...