A Cave With A View ('Life is easy and comfortable here")

Someare basic, others beautiful, with high ceilings and nice yards. 'Life is easyand comfortable here,' one cave dweller says.

ByBarbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
March18, 2012
Reportingfrom Yanan, China— 



Like many peasants fromthe outskirts of Yanan, China, Ren Shouhuawas born in a cave and lived there until he got a job in the city and movedinto a concrete-block house.

   His progression made sense as he strove to improve his life. Butthere's a twist: The 46-year-old Ren plans to move back to a cave when heretires.
  "It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's quiet andsafe," said Ren, a ruddy-faced man with salt-and-pepper hair who moved tothe Shaanxi provincial capital, Xian, in his 20s. "When I get old, I'dlike to go back to my roots."

Cave dwelling entrance




More than 30 million Chinese people live in caves, many of themin Shaanxi province where the Loess plateau, with its distinctive cliffs ofyellow, porous soil, makes digging easy and cave dwelling a reasonable option.

   Each of the province's caves, yaodong, in Chinese,typically has a long vaulted room dug into the side of a mountain with asemicircular entrance covered with rice paper or colorful quilts. People hangdecorations on the walls, often a portrait of Mao Tse-tung or a photograph of amovie star torn out of a glossy magazine.

Ma Liangshui, 76, haslived in caves around Yanan his entire life. (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times/ February 1, 2012)




The better caves protrude from the mountain and are reinforcedwith brick masonry. Some are connected laterally so a family can have severalchambers. Electricity and even running water can be brought in.

    "Most aren't so fancy, but I've seen some really beautiful caves:high ceilings and spacious with a nice yard out front where you can exerciseand sit in the sun," said Ren, who works as a driver and is the son of awheat and millet farmer.

    The caves have an important role in modern Chinese history. TheLong March, the famous retreat of the Communist Partyin the 1930s, ended near Yanan, where Mao took refuge in caves. In "RedStar Over China," writer Edgar Snow described a Red Army university that"was probably the world's only seat of 'higher learning' whose classroomswere bombproof caves, with chairs and desks of stone and brick, and blackboardsand walls of limestone and clay."

 
Cave school



Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who isexpected to succeed Hu Jintao next year aspresident, lived for seven years in a cave when he was exiled to Shaanxiprovince during the Cultural Revolution.

    "The cave topology is one of the earliest human architecturalforms; there are caves in France, in Spain, people still living in caves inIndia," said David Wang, an architecture professor at Washington StateUniversity in Spokane who has written widely on the subject. "What isunique to China is the ongoing history it has had over two millenniums."

Sometimes called thebiggest maze of China, Guyaju is an ancient cave house located about 92kilometers (57 miles) from Beijing. No precise record of it has ever beenfound, so no one knows its exact origins. The house was hewn from the craggycliffs overlooking Zhangshanying Town. The intriguing house complex has morethan 110 stone rooms, and is the largest cave dwelling ever discovered inChina.




In recent years,architects have been reappraising the cave in environmental terms, and theylike what they see.

    "It is energy efficient. The farmers can save their arable landfor planting if they build their houses in the slope. It doesn't take muchmoney or skill to build," said Liu Jiaping, director of the GreenArchitecture Research Center in Xian and perhaps the leading expert on caveliving. "Then again, it doesn't suit modern complicated lifestyles verywell. People want to have a fridge, washing machine, television."

       Liu helped design and develop a modernized version of traditionalcave dwellings that in 2006 was a finalist for a World Habitat Award, sponsoredby a British foundation dedicated to sustainable housing. The updated cavedwellings are built against the cliff in two levels, with openings over thearchways for light and ventilation. Each family has four chambers, two on eachlevel.

Cave dwelling interior




"It's like living in avilla. Caves in our villages are as comfortable as posh apartments in thecity," said Cheng Wei, 43, a Communist Party official who lives in one ofthe cave houses in Zaoyuan village on the outskirts of Yanan. "A lot ofpeople come here looking to rent our caves, but nobody wants to move out."

    The thriving market around Yanan means a cave with three roomsand a bathroom (a total of 750 square feet) can be advertised for sale at$46,000. A simple one-room cave without plumbing rents for $30 a month, withsome people relying on outhouses or potties that they empty outside.

  Manycaves, however, are not for sale or rent because they are handed down from onegeneration to another, though for just how many generations, people often can'tsay.



 

Cave decorated for awedding, Hubei province 



Ma Liangshui, 76, livesin a one-room cave on a main road south of Yanan. It is nothing fancy, butthere is electricity — a bare bulb dangling from the ceiling. He sleeps on a kang,a traditional bed that is basically an earthen ledge, with a fire underneaththat is also used for cooking. His daughter-in-law has tacked up photographs ofFan Bingbing, a popular actress.

    The cave faces west, which makes it easy to bask in the lateafternoon sun by pulling aside the blue-and-white patchwork quilt that hangsnext to drying red peppers in the arched entrance.

    Ma said his son and daughter-in-law have moved to the city, buthe doesn't want to leave.

    "Life is easy and comfortable here. I don't need to climb stairs.I have everything I need," he said. "I've lived all my life in caves,and I can't imagine anything different."

Fan Bingbing




NOTE: 


Having just reviewed Jane’s “A RoomWith A View” essay with this  fascinatingLA Times article fresh in my mind, Ithink I might be happy and content in a “cave with a view.”  

We used to stay at a hotel (our favorite place in the world)called Twin Dolphin in LosCabos where the accommodations were verypleasantly cave-like.  The walls of the varioushotel buildings were even festooned with  replicas of ancientindigenous Baja Sur paintings, nicely driving the chthonic feeling home.  


Although it was eventually overtaken in the LosCabos fashionability  stakes by less distinctive, but grandly luxurious competitor hotels (there are people who like to say they love Mexico, but they really do not), duringthe years we visited there, spelunking in and around Twin Dolphin was The Answer To Everything.  




The Answer ToEverything: Del Shannon (wr: Hilliard - Bachrach, 1961)(link)

Hey Ray (Johnson) -- Bob Box Exhibition In Berkeley -- Proto-Blogging

 

Ray Johnson: Untitledcorrespondence from Bob Box Archive, 1988–95; mixed media; dimensions variable.From Esopus 16 (Spring 2011).


 
BERKELEY,CA.-

        The University of California, BerkeleyArt Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive/ MATRIX 241, an exhibition exploring the seven-year exchange of correspondence between legendaryartistRay Johnson (1927–95) and collagist RobertWarner.The presentation features the contents of thirteen cardboard boxes given toWarner by Johnson in 1990.

        Warner, an opticianworking in New York City, first encountered Johnson’s work on a postcard sentby a mutual friend in 1988. Intrigued by the possibilitiesof corresponding with an artist, Warner initiated what evolved into an intense exchange between the two that continued untilJohnson’s death of an apparent suicide in 1995. Over the course of theirfriendship Warner received hundreds of pieces ofmail artfrom Johnson, ranging from collages to a piece of driftwood that washand-delivered. On one occasion, Johnson Xeroxed a copy of Declaration ofIndependence and requested that Warner have it signed by John Cage—which hedid. While they spoke on the phone nearly every day, Johnson and Warner met inperson only seven times. At one of their rare in-person meetings, Johnson gaveWarner thirteen cardboard boxes tied with twine, labeled “Bob Box 1,”“Bob Box 2,” and so on. Although never stated, the understanding was thatWarner would preserve the boxes.

Ray Johnson(1927-1995)   


    
         In June of this year, fifteen years after Johnson’s death, Warner unpacked the boxes one at a time and cataloged theircontentsin public view through the course of an exhibition at Esopus Space in New YorkCity. The opened “Bob Boxes” reveal an array of found objects,drawings, photocopies, and correspondence. Warner has described the contents as“a window into the world of Ray Johnson in the ‘70s and ‘80s:everything from signed-and-dated empty toilet paper tubes to a box thatcontained nothing but hundreds of envelopes that were addressedbut never mailed.

Table of Content catalog



        Tables of Content displays all thirteen boxes and their contentsfor the first time on the West Coast. Warner has selected and arranged the letters,drawings, photocopies, and found objects like t-shirts, tennis balls, andrandom beach trash—the material ofJohnson’s art—on an assembly of thirteen tables and surrounding gallerywalls. Johnson annotated many of these things with personalcodes,puns, and dark, irreverent jokes. Johnson’s work—collages, correspondence art,and performance events—remains mysterious and a bit hard topin down.But his influences are obvious and surface repeatedly, among them Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Rauschenberg, and Elvis Presley. His collage approachwas diaristic, a stream-of-consciousness flow through the matter and memory ofeveryday life, shifting from one topic to another, acrossall variety of things. Johnson once remarked, “My work is like driving acar. I’m always shifting gears.”

Ray Johnson in JosefAlbers' class at Black Mountain College 1945-48 , Photo by Hazel Larsen Archer.


NOTE:


Fascinating to come across this Ray Johnson announcement in asemi-dream state sometime earlier or later this semi-night-morning. 

And as clever/strained exhibition titles go, Table of Content isn’tbad.  (Long experience devising titlesfor presentations, as well as subtly – I like to think -- effective subjectlines for business letters, makes me sympathetic to titlers.)

The first thing I thought of – this must have been said before –is how strongly the mysterious Ray Johnson seems like a proto-blogger in hishermetic-in-plain-sight, serial, dreamy, collagist, diaristic work.

I have vivid Ray Johnson memories dating from my earliest days touringManhattan art galleries.  My first personalencounter must have been when I  workedat the Richard Feigen Gallery on Greene Street in the spring/summer of 1971,although I’m sure I saw him several years earlier at the Leo Castelli galleryand heard someone mention his name. Of course he was a regular presence throughpublished appearances (today we’d say postings) in the Village Voice.  Later at the Whitney, a colleague of mine (astrange lonely woman) turned out to be a Johnson correspondent, would-be accompliceand acolyte.


Johnson and his art were both quietly insinuating, disconcertingpresences, impossible either to comfortably embrace or ignore.  SO much art material, sheer volume, and yet teetering on the knife- edge of, almost defining, ephemera.   You ask yourself: Modest proposal or a new sort of Grandachievement?


Now, to my surprise, I seem myself  to inhabit a portion of that same dreamyworld.

The John Cale song, Hey Ray, linkedbelow isn’t very good, although it’s always nice to see a Caleperformance.  It’s as though Cale hasn’t worked RayJohnson out yet either, or he thinks he hasand gave up too soon, before saying anything incisive. So I’ve also included a recent Cale rendition of the Modern Lovers’ Pablo Picasso, which is much, much better.


Link:John Cale -- Hey Ray (2011)

Link: John Cale -- Pablo Picasso (2010)



        By the way, I love the final Ray Johnson quote in the pressrelease about "driving a car" and “shifting gears.”  Johnsonwas from Detroit and I guess auto similes were in his blood, the way they seemto be for many Detroiters.

Ray Johnson

Ray Johnson, Nothing, 1993

Ray Johnson, How ToDraw A Bunny, ca. 1955

Undry Eyes -- Richard Hamilton Passes Away

 

 

 

 

Richard Hamilton, "Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?"

 

By Reid Singer (ArtInfo)

Published: September 13, 2011

          Richard Hamilton, the painter and collagist whose work became afulcrum of the British Pop art canon, passed away at the age of 89 thismorning. The artist's death was announced by the Gagosian Gallery,which represents his work. No cause was released. 

        Hamilton began studying painting in night courses at St. Martin's School of Art while holding down work as a draftsman and industrial designer. He soon entered the Royal Academy schools and taught at St. Martin's following the Second World War. As a member of the British Independent Group, Hamilton was a leader in the early Pop movement, pioneering the re-appropriation of images from magazines and other forms of print advertising in painting and sculpture.

          Known for his powerful and inventive work that commented on the state ofBritish postwar consumer culture, Hamilton was probably most famous for"Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?",a 1956 collage installation of a bodybuilder and model planted in a middle-class living room. Predating Andy Warhol's experiments with Pop themes by nearly a decade, the work was featured in the "This is Tomorrow" show at the Whitechapel Gallery and made Hamilton aninternational star. A teaching post at the Royal College of Art followed, where his mentees included David Hockney and Peter Blake.

         Hamilton was outspoken politically, and frequently incorporated social activism into his artistic practice. In 1964, he painted a portrait thatsatirized then Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell for rejecting apolicy of nuclear disarmament, and between 1981 and 1983 he created a trilogy of paintings based on the treatment of political prisoners by the Irish Republican Army.

     Before his death on Tuesday, Hamilton was actively working on a retrospective that was expected to travel to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, London, and Madrid from 2013 to 2014. In its statement, Gagosian Galleryhighlighted Hamilton's "sense of humor, energy, sparkle and modesty that was his innate character." Larry Gagosian is quoted saying, "This is a very sad day for all of us and our thoughts are with Richard's family, particularly his wife Rita and his son Rod." 

 

Richard Hamilton's remarkable, painstaking reconstruction of Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (1915-23), 1965-66, Tate Gallery, London

NOTE:  FOR THE CURIOUS AND/OR ENTHUSIASTIC, EACH IMAGE HERE ENLARGES BEAUTIFULLY WHEN CLICKED. I THINK THE RICHARD HAMILTON PORTRAIT IS VERY BEAUTIFUL.

Celebrate National Ice Cream Day on Sunday, July 17

To: FOOD AND NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Peggy Armstrong, +1-202-220-3508, parmstrong@idfa.org

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Ice Cream Association encourages consumers to celebrate National Ice Cream Day on Sunday, July 17, by enjoying one of America's favorite treats. July is National Ice Cream Month. 

        In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90 percent of the nation's population. In the proclamation, President Reagan called for all people of the United States to observe these events with "appropriate ceremonies and activities." 

        "Ronald Reagan lived and led with a spirit of optimism and good humor. As we celebrate the Centennial of his birth, National Ice Cream Day, designated by President Reagan, is a great time to honor his life and legacy and enjoy this wonderfully American treat," said Stewart McLaurin, executive director of the Reagan Centennial for the Reagan Foundation. "Here at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, we have a large cooler of ice cream treats, and I always think of Ronald Reagan and National Ice Cream Month when I enjoy one." 

        Approximately 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream, including both hard- and soft-serve, are produced each year. The U.S. ice cream industry generates billions in annual sales and provides jobs for thousands of citizens. About 9 percent of all the milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is used to produce ice cream, contributing significantly to the economic well-being of the nation's dairy industry.

        Founded in 1900, IICA is the trade association for manufacturers and distributors of ice cream and other frozen dessert products. The association's activities range from legislative and regulatory advocacy to market research, education and training. Its 80 member companies manufacture and distribute an estimated 85 percent of the ice cream and frozen dessert products consumed in the United States. IICA is a constituent organization of the International Dairy Foods Association.

 

        The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $110-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. 

Visit  www.idfa.org.

SOURCE:  International Dairy Foods Association

All ice cream art by:  Andy Warhol, 1956-9

Post-Script:  For those who like "back-stories", I posted this in a moment of unexpected joy just before leaving for a trip to Maine to see Jane today.  Everything had been going pretty well when it looked like we would be facing a major veterinary emergency, which would have necessitated canceling the trip.  I'll leave out the details of why, ultimately, we weren't  ("Nature is only another chimera" -- J. Torma), but when the virtual "all-clear" sounded, I unexpectedly came upon the National Ice Cream Day press release, wondered why such a wonder wasn't universally known (I mean, it has a higher order of quality and relevance than the new Harry Potter movies) and felt like amplifying the news.  I also tasted the Basssett's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream in the freezer, which was astonishing.  Once the world was put right, it fell apart again.  On our way to the Newark Airport Sheraton, we received an auto-call on the cell telling us that our flight to Portland tomorrow morning, i.e., 16 hours hence, was canceled because of weather (you figure that one out) and I spent the next 3.5 hours on the mobile irradiating my brain and slowly rearranging our flights (we're  headed to Manchester, NH now) and car rentals.  What was it that Pigpen sang -- "Death Don't Have No Mercy"?  Well, compared to Continental Airlines and Avis, I may need to revise my reading of The Inferno.  Last summer, it was figurative.  This summer, it all seems so literal.  But . . . .it's National Ice Cream Day.   Someone needs to  REMIND the English-speaking pitchfork crowds out on both sides of the Big Pond of this Truth -- especially the fellow whose Facebook posting I read yesterday that unkindly (to say the least) and depressingly described someone else's (someone I can guarantee you this person doesn't know, hasn't met, and never will)  "incalculable number of sins".  I mean, really. I hope that Democrats and anti-Reaganites will ignore the Reagan historical references in the press release, which are obviously included as a matter of historical description, and simply drink in (if that's the right expression) the loveliness and optimism of the existence of National Ice Cream Day.  I'm sure Andy Warhol would have.  My mother, who had a lot on her mind and not always happy thoughts, enjoyed ice cream every day of her life. (She was rail-thin, by the way, a state I currently aspire to and will achieve in due course, i.e., within the next several months if certain people start calling and others stop.)

Sotheby's Auction -- Warhol, Koons (From May 11 ArtDaily.org) -- Two Notes Below

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, was very pleased with the sale total of $128,104,500. Photo: Sotheby's.

NEW YORK, NY.- “We are very pleased with our sale total of $128,104,500,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art. “The results came within our pre-sale estimate of $120.8/171.4 million, and we had a strong sell-through rate of 84.5% by lot, with 58 lots offered and 47 lots sold. These results follow the impressive total of $54.8 million achieved last night for works from the Collection of Allan Stone, bringing our overall two-day total to $182,910,000, securely within our overall estimate of $153.6/218.2 million.”

“It was a good night for Andy Warhol,” [1] said Alex Rotter, Director of Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Art department. “We sold six out of the seven Warhol works on offer tonight, together bringing over $31 million. The sale was led by Sixteen Jackies, which sold for $20,242,500. There was extremely competitive bidding for Shadow (Red), which was vied for by four bidders and sold for $4.8 million, more than five times the high estimate. We saw solid prices for Statue of Liberty – $3,442,500 – and Round Jackie from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans – $3,722,500.”

Jeff Koons’ Pink Panther, one of the most important works by the artist ever to have appeared at auction, sold for $16,882,500 [2]. The price is many multiples of the $1.8 million the work fetched when it last appeared at auction in 1999. The porcelain sculpture is the artist’s proof from an edition of three, with the other examples in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and a prominent private American collection.

The sale saw a number of strong prices for art from the last 30 years, including Eroica I by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Painted in 1988 – the final year of the artist’s life – the work sold for $5,906,500 (est. $3.5/4.5 million). Shades by Mark Tansey, which depicts an allegory from Plato’s Republic, fetched $3,442,500 (est. $3/4 million). Leading a group of photographs in the sale was Rhein I, one of Andreas Gursky’s most famous images, which sold for $2,098,500, comfortably in excess of the high estimate (est. $1/1.5 million). Two sculptures by Anish Kapoor were sought after tonight, with Turning the World Upside Down #4 fetching $2,434,500, in excess of the high estimate (est. $1.5/2 million), and Untitled from 2009, which also exceeded the high estimate to sell for $962,500 (est. $550/750,000).

Leading the mid-20th century section was one of the largest and most important works from Lucio Fontana’s iconic body of work ever to appear at auction: Concetto Spaziale from 1965 sold for $6,242,500 (est. $6/8 million). David Smith’s Voltri-Bolton II, a steel sculpture from 1962 was purchased by the Colby College Museum of Art for $2,994,500, nearly reaching the high estimate of $3 million. The work had been tucked away in a private collection since 1979. In addition to Round Jackie, works from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans included three significant paintings by Jean Dubuffet from 1945-54; they were led by the Portrait de Édith Boissonnas that sold for $1,142,500, well over the high estimate (est. $600/800,000).

Works by Alexander Calder were also in demand this evening: The Tree, a large standing mobile exceeded the high estimate to sell $3,386,500 (est. $2/3 million) while Constellation with Bottles from 1943 fetched $3,106,500 (est. $3/4 million).

* Pre-sale estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Reader Notes:

[1]  Although I believe that Andy Warhol would be very pleased with the renown and increased respect his work has achieved since his passing, I also think that the high auction prices would have been a double-edged sword and something of an irritant for him, as they would be for any artist precluded from sharing directly in this future revenue stream.  Obviously, high auction sales enhance both reputation and initial artwork selling prices, but human nature is human nature.  That being said, I think Warhol would have regarded it as an even better night if he could have been there -- or anywhere -- in person.  He died tragically and much too young.

[2]  I reproduced the Jeff Koons' reference in mice-type in order to simulate the size of his talent and achievement.  Like the New York Times' art critic Michael Kimmelman, among others, I believe that Koons represents "one last, pathetic gasp of the sort of self-promoting hype and sensationalism that characterized the worst of the 1980s" and that Koons's work is  "artificial," "cheap" and "unabashedly cynical.".  They say that you shouldn't say anything if you can't say anything nice, but Koons has always burned me up and consideration of his Pink Panther as anything other than worthless junk annoys me.

Goethe: The Metamorphosis of Plants

           

Andre Masson, Goethe and the Metamorphosis of Plants, 1940, Israel Museum, Jerusalem 

          Above all, Goethe learned that the treasures of nature are not discovered by one who is not in sympathy with nature.  He realized that the normal techniques of botany could not get near to the living being of a plant as an organism in a cycle of growth.  Some other form of looking was needed which could unite itself with the life of the plant.  To obtain a clearer picture of a plant, Goethe would tranquilize himself at night before going to sleep by visualizing the entire cycle of a plant’s development through its various stages from seed to seed.  In the splendid ducal gardens at Weimar, in the Gartenhaus quarters given to him by the Duke, Goethe developed an acute interest in living plants, an interest which was sharpened by his friendship with the sole local apothecary, Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Buchholz, who kept a garden of medicinal herbs and plants of special interest and with whom Goethe built up a private botanical garden.

Andy Warhol, Goethe, 1982

          In the grander botanical gardens of Padua, where Paracelcus has preceded him, Goethe was most impressed by a high, broad wall of fiery red bells, Bigonia radicans, that glowed enchantingly.  He was also attracted by a palm because he was able to discern in its fanlike quality a complete development from the simple lance-shaped leaves near the ground, through successive separations, up to a spatulate sheaf where a branchlet of blossoms emerged, strangely unrelated to the preceeding growth.  From the observation of this complex series of transitional forms Goethe obtained the inspiration for what was to become his doctrine of the metamorphosis of plants.  In a flash he realized what had been accumulating in his mind through long years of association with plants:  the fan palm showed clear, living proof that all the outgrowths of the plant that were simply variations of a single structure: the leaf.  

Bigonia Radicans 

Padua Botanical Gardens (Orto botanico di Padova), 1545.  (Founded in 1545, it is the world's oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location.  The garden, affiliated with the University of Padua, currently covers roughly 22,000 square meters, and is known for its special collections and historical design.)

Goethe Palm, Padua Botanical Gardens

From:  Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird,  The Secret Life Of Plants.  New York, Harper & Row, 1973.