Ted Rall and Steve Brodner
Dear Ted:
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StumbleUponYour trip sounds wonderfully dangerous. Looks like you got your story. So are you going to do it up for someone? Could even be a book (you might know I'm a fan of art journalism and don't pass up a chance to promote the idea). The Taliban is terribly important. A Taliban with nukes is even more so. Let us pray. And have a smart foreign policy. We here in the United States don't think much about the rest of the world. As yet we don't have much reason to think about them, except when we want to start bombing people after they rise up against the awful regimes we support (saw the film Three Kings last weekend. It makes that point beautifully).
Speaking of Taliban-type folk, that's what we're seeing in Mr. Giuliani here. How great for him to not only find another victim to bully but also figure out how to get all the Catholics to jump around wanting to burn something. I think it's all right for museums to have awful art. If Rudy's reading this, please Rudy, open up the Times "Art and Leisure" section on Sunday and look at all the cultural stuff going on that you never hear about or go to. It's amazing, isn't it? This, like it or not, Rudy, is a vibrant, alive, happening culture where all kinds of garbage is allowed. And bless it. We need the crap. It's good fertilizer. Because a small percentage of anything any culture at any time winds up qualifying as good. But you need the bad stuff to keep the pipes clear. In this vast Times listing, how much contains sexuality, blasphemy, pornographic violence, vacuous, gratuitous abuse of one kind or another? A good amount. If we want museums and theaters and libraries, we have to fund them. If we want to fund them based on a vote of how much we like and don't, then we have some work to do. Let's start with the New York Public Library. You know there's plenty of blasphemy there. Let's have Cardinal O'Connor go through the books and pick out the stuff he doesn't like and doesn't want us to see. Perhaps we can use that percentage to cut the funding for that institution. By the way, implied in all this is, I think, the acceptance that the picture is of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I'm shocked to see Catholics all in agreement on that point. What if I took a photo of a '56 Buick and called that the Blessed Virgin Mary? Can we conclude that this is, to the non-museumgoing public, all about a caption?
More soon,
Steve
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The Fraymaster adds:
Some reactions from readers:
Steve asks if the whole hoo-ha over at the Brooklyn museum is about captions... And the answer is, of course it is.
I have yet to see anyone substantially refute Tom Wolfe's theory, back in The Painted Word, that today's art has devolved into being illustrations for the catalog. Take away the catalog, and there's no there there. One or the other of the fellows cited Serrano's Piss Christ--it's the perfect example. I doubt many people have seen it in person--it's a huge 6-foot-by-4-foot (or so) chibachrome--and more than anything else comes across as a modern chiaroscuro photo-mural. It's reverent. Right up until you read the title, and figure out just how Serrano got those gorgeous tawny reds and burnt umbers. But it's only the title--or the catalog--that fills you in.
The whole Virgin Mary thing is much the same--I doubt there's any way to tell just how the image was made, elephant dung or not, except through the catalog. To be sure, I haven't actually seen it (this summer I've been seeing the Van Gogh, Sargent, Ingres, and Diego Rivera exhibitions as I travel), but that's my bet... Though I'll cheerfully defer to a real live witness.
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Dear Ted,
I agree wholeheartedly with you in regards to the death of the comic strip, and glad to see someone else who views the Peanuts as melancholy. As a former illustrator (I know--do not call me bitter just yet) I think that the entire world of illustration is a rotting cadaver. Working now as a web designer I can't help but feel sympathy for my friends who valiantly try to establish careers in this former occupation. Many believe photography has killed the illustrator, and to some extent I agree, but I think the true blame falls upon the state of art education within our country.
Art schools have become a haven for the untalented and unimaginative, upper-middle-class would-be rebels more concerned with looking the part than being. Instructors, often failed artists themselves, so afraid of offending these cash cows offer no realistic criticism or advice. Since "all art is good art," students who would have been laughed out of my 2nd grade arts and crafts class are encouraged to pursue their "style." After graduating art school, it took me 2 years to enjoy drawing again....and I am not alone. Keep up the good work my brother!
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People always feel that to say things like, "theater is dead," or, now, "the comic strip is dead" raises them to the level of philosopher. So, when someone has some silly stuff to say to seemingly back up such an impossible phrase, they get excited and say it all over the place and as loud as they can.
The comic strip isn't dead. New and great cartoonist will come in great forms no one can predict and, therefore, it's amazingly arrogant to predict the death of an art form. The Internet provides all sorts of new room for artists (this includes cartoonists) to work and spread around their wares.
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Hey Ted Rall,
Yeah, your comic strips are great, but you made a big mistake in your blanket dismissal of all the comics in the comics page (save Peanuts). Your glaring omission: Mutts by Patrick McDonnell. This guy can DRAW! His comics are funny, sweet, and compassionate without being treacly--no mean feat. What's more, he takes a strong and unapologetic stand on animal rights, which takes guts in a nation of necrophages.
McDonnell's a genius. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pray with Johnny Hart.
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What do you guys think of Tom Toles? His cartoons single-handedly got me through the Reagan/Bush years.
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I think it's a bit too early to say the comic strip is dead. I think Robotman, Non Sequetor, and Mutts are some of the great comics in the papers, but for the rest I don't bother. It seems true that, in newspapers at least, comics are resorting to simple puns.
However, on the Internet the art of the comic strip is still alive. Some of the best, in my opinion anyway, are Ozy and Millie and Freefall, which are genuinely funny and entertaining. While the newspaper comics may be reverting to single unfunny puns, the Internet may be a place where the art of the comic strip is still living.
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--Michael Brus (10/14)