Wall art / New Delhi, India

 Wall art found on a wall inside a house in New Delhi, India. Analog picture taken with a Diana Mini toy camera on Fuji C-200 film, scanned from negative and subjected to some cropping.

Edward Dorn on the need for poetry

I have no illusions whatsoever about people at large being in need of poets or their work.

Edward Dorn in Statement for the Paterson Society (Edward Dorn, Views, Four Seasons Foundation, San Francisco, 1980)

Note
Not having read much lately - due to lack of time and motivation -, I picked a book from the shelf next to me yesterday, which happened to be the one shown above, opened it and came across this devastating* statement on the need for poets and their work. Actually, I must admit to have been thinking along the same lines. According to Marx, man's basic needs (such as food, clothing, etc.) must be fulfilled before there can be any artistic impulse. Not sure it's as simple as that. I am surrounded by thousands of people - and that's just the area I live in - whose basic needs are definitely covered or more than covered, but whose artistic impulse continues to remain remarkably underdeveloped. It's hard to picture them enjoying anything but pizza, soccer, car races, their cell phones and occasional sex. In fact, they appear to be perfect implementations of Marx's materialist view of man.

*Devastating for poets and their self-esteem.

An abstract haiku

Lines, circles, lines, black
and blue, Kandinsky objects,
peaceful, with a smile.

- Leonbard Blumfeld (c 2016)

Notes
Felt an urge to take haiku to another dimension. Had nothing specific to say, so abstract was a natural choice. Caught myself typo-signing as "Leonbard" ... ok, the new bard has spoken.

Blogger is acting up today - I'm editing an entry, updating it ... and blogger creates another one. So you have the same haiku twice, with a little color variant.

An abstract haiku

Lines, circles, lines, black
and blue, Kandinsky objects,
peaceful, with a smile.

- Leonbard Blumfeld (c 2016)

Notes
Felt an urge to take haiku to another dimension. Had nothing specific to say, so abstract was a natural choice. Caught myself typo-signing as "Leonbard" ... ok, the new bard has spoken.

The Francis Bacon face haiku

Looks like TV on
a windy day disturbing
the satellite dish.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Note
This poem was inspired by true events – we have a big eucalyptus outside whose branches and leaves interfere with satellite reception and cause such Bacon-like distorted faces. (Alludes to the 20th century artist (1909-1992), not the Elizabethan philosopher.)

Throwing sand into the wind

She went to the sandy beach to throw sand into the wind.
She threw sand.
She threw more sand.
She kept throwing sand.
Into the wind, which was sometimes stronger
and sometimes milder
and sometimes blew the sand into her face.

"Why are you doing this?" a voice said.
"It's a statement."
"What kind of a statement?"
"It's a concept."
"What kind of a concept?"
"It's art."
"But there's no-one around to watch it."
"That's part of the concept."
"I see."
"Plus there's always the universe and eternity."

– Leonard Blumfeld ((c) 2015)

The infinite loop installation haiku

(An exercise in straining the imagination)

In the middle the
fallen lupodopteryx
right in the middle

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Notes
How much of a haiku is allowed to be outside the haiku?
There is a lot that’s outside this one.
First of all the inspiration, which was a photo of some big animal that had died in an art installation (well, admittedly I’m sure it had died before if it had ever lived).
So I placed an equally huge animal in the middle of the haiku and made extra sure that it could be identified as the centerpiece by repeating the middle part.
But now comes the other thing that’s outside the haiku: the building this installation is in. The lupodopteryx is in the center of a central room, which is blocked off for visitors by ropes strung up between the columns supporting the structure. This room is surrounded by a ring-like hallway, from which the lupodopteryx can be seen through the spaces between the columns.
Any gallery or museum dying to house this installation is most welcome to contact me.

The art series production haiku

And – finally! – the
precise hammer aiming to
smash the cover glass.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Note
This one was inspired by a picture of an exhibition of black and white photos, with the special feature being that the glass of each and every frame had been smashed to give it ... well ... that extra evanescent touch.

The jury was announced haiku

It is composed of
members with a proven track
record of bad taste.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Inevitable note
One's good taste is the next one's bad taste.
And the notion of good taste changes with time, that's for sure.
For example, in the second half of the 19th century it was considered good taste to paint stuff derived from biblical and other mythical sources, all loaded with heavy symbolism and executed in a realistic manner. This also gave painters an excuse to paint busty nudes in an otherwise puritanical environment.
Most of the resulting art is considered bad taste nowadays.
Just to elaborate on the fickleness of taste.
On the other hand, it could be said that the state of current taste is that everything goes.
But beware: not just anywhere.
It's like an American highschool with its cliques: the expensive ones, the trashy ones, the weird ones, the geeky ones, the minimal ones, etc. You must to remember in which corner to sit and which lines not to cross.

The abstract haiku

Shake and melt and shade
do not I repeat do not
(mis)represent me.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Note
The battle between abstract and representational rages mostly in the art field, but here it is extended to poetry and, in particular, the haiku.

The Anish Kapoor haiku

A gigantic fat
blue donut rolled into my
art field of vision.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

Note
Very much razor-edge-of-time reporting of an actual virtual (because computer screen-limited) visual event.

The art gallery haiku

Squeaky clean wooden
floors that squeak when trodden on
as rapt viewers walk.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

The imitation Picasso haiku

Some eyes like targets
somewhere, some nippled boobs,
a hoof, Mae West lips.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

Note
Inspired by a painting from a Berlin art show photo. Would love to reproduce it here for better understanding, but fairness forbids.

The Mark Rothko haiku

Two bed sheets, one black,
the other vaguely blue, strung
together to dry.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

Note
You might have guessed it: Mark Rothko is not among my favorite painters. Even though the entire art world seems to be all gaga about his big two- or three-colored bed sheets.

The Modigliani haiku

Squinty little eyes
and narrow face? Good chance it’s
an Amedeo.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

Note
The above painting is Gypsy woman with baby (1919) by Amedeo Modigliani.

The John Singer Sargent haiku

John Singer Sargent, White Dresses (1911)

Two women slain in
battle? No – white dresses in
peace on parched grass...

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2014)

Note
When I first glimpsed this painting, my initial flash was that it represented an after-battle scene – bodies strewn on the ground, limbs sticking up.
The first real haiku I've written in a while ... with that sudden flash of recognition in the second half.

The lifetime achievement haiku

Pointed hats, pointed
people in undershirts and
different attire.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2013)

First haiku in the artists haiku series.

Mera Cy Twombly

Talked to my daughter today, who told me she went to the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, where she saw paintings by Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly, to name the two that came to her mind first.

I proceeded to look at some of Twombly's art on the Internet and immediately started my own Twombly. My daughter told me that he worked with layers a lot, so I put down the first layer, in a mixture of Indian yellow and chrome yellow.

The plan for the next layer is still a bit fuzzy, but it could be something in a rusty red, perhaps some scribble-like structure.

Or some writing: मेरा साईं त्वोम्ब्ली 

Last weekend I drew a card that said 'purpose' and got the message. There has not been a lot of that in my life, and it's sorely needed.

One outcome of my purpose-finding mission is that I decided to write a novel, loosely based on Der im Irr-Garten der Liebe herum taumelnde Cavalier (1738) by Johann Gottfried Schnabel*, except that I would be staggering through the labyrinth of the later 20th and early 21st centuries instead of Schnabel's 18th.

Wish me good luck with Twombly and the maze novel.

Yours,

Leonard Cy Gottfried Blumfeld

*Schnabel is best known for his utopian robinsonade Die Insel Felsenburg of 1731.

New Sacré Coeur Environment

Recently visited Sacré Coeur in Paris transplanted to a new environment.

Posted for 'Black and White' at Theme Thursday and
'Black' at Photo Hunt.

Not your average collection of clocks

 

Clock sculpture at Gare St. Lazare, Paris, France.

Posted for Photo Hunt and Average.