Starbucks and Pseudoindividualization

Photos by Jenny Lee

False Consciousness: In Marxist theory, the process by which the real economic imbalances of the dominant social system get hidden and ordinary citizens come to believe in the perfection of the system that oppresses them. The biblical phrase “the meek shall inherit the earth” would be considered by Marxism to be an example of false consciousness, since it tells the downtrodden not to rebel against the system but await later reward. Twentieth-century developments in Marxism see the concept of false consciousness as itself potentially oppressive, since it defines the masses as unaware dupes of the system. In contrast, concepts such as hegemony emphasize the active struggle of people over meanings rather than their passive acceptance of ideological systems.

Pseudoindividualization: A term used in Marxist theory to describe the way that mass culture creates a false sense of individuality in cultural consumers. Pseudoindividualization refers to the effect of popular culture and advertising that addresses the viewer/consumer specifically as an individual, as in the case of advertising actually claiming that a product will enhance one’s individuality, while it is speaking to many people at once. It is “pseudo” individuality if one attains it through mass culture, “pseudo” because the message is predicated on many people receiving a message of individuality at the same time, hence not on individuality but on homogenity.

- Glossary, “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture” by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwirhgt (Call #: HM500.S78 2001 in Ryerson library)

The more I read about the Marxist ideas on advertising and capitalism from “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture”, the more I can relate the idea of pseudoindividualization to a specific corporation — Starbucks Coffee. Starbucks epitomizes the false consciousness that by purchasing and drinking its coffee, we are unique beings, when really, Starbucks is now a household name and is part of literally millions of North Americans’ daily routine.

I analyzed the many ways in which Starbucks interpellates consumers as cosmopolitan, socially aware, highly cultural, hip and successful “yuppies” when I wrote an article on the Starbucks phenomenon. I wrote it last semester for a course called Info and Visual Resources (JRN 100), a mandatory course for all first-years at the Ryerson School of Journalism. In this article, I interviewed a marketing professor from Queen’s University, an owner of an independent coffee bar on Queen Street East, various Starbucks baristas and consumers.

The following is the article. The highlighted portions have to do with the concepts of False Consciousness and Pseudoindividuality. I really enjoyed writing this article and hearing expert opinions on how Starbucks not only “democratizes the espresso drink,” but also feeds the concept of pseudoindividualization in order to succeed.

*************************************************

ARTICLE BY JENNY LEE

JRN 100

It’s Sunday evening. The Starbucks at the corner of Yonge and Charles streets is filled to the brim with customers like a cup of sloshing coffee. Pink-cheeked from the November air and bundled up in cashmere and wool, they mill inside in search of warmth and caffeine.

Inside, elegant yellow lights glow behind tan lampshades, jazzy drums play at the right volume, and polished mahogany tables shine. People chat while drinking their vanilla lattes from red holiday edition cups, complete with green cup sleeves and the Starbucks logo. The cushy armchairs swallow people whole, people with laptops, with books, with shopping bags from Banana Republic. The sweet aroma of espresso is heavy in the air.

This kind of Starbucks Coffee scene is becoming more and more common in Toronto. In 2002, there were 25 Starbucks locations in just the Central East region of downtown Toronto. Today, there are 83 locations in the area, up from 74 last year. In fact, since going public in 1992, Starbucks has grown yearly revenues to more than $6.5 billion, achieved a stock price increase of more than 6,500 per cent and opened over 11,000 locations worldwide.

“Without question, Starbucks Coffee is one of the greatest business success stories,” writes John Moore, who spent eight years designing marketing programs for the company, in his book Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture. Starbucks offers notably more higher prices compared to other coffee chains such as Second Cup and Timothy’s World Coffee, so why is it so popular?

Emily Raben, a former Starbucks barista, says that she was first attracted to the company because of its apparent popularity. “It’s so Hollywood, everyone liked it because all the celebrities drank it. Coffee from Starbucks felt cooler than a cup from Tim Horton’s,” she says.

Jay Handelman, associate professor at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ont., says there’s more to the success Starbucks than a cup of good coffee. “In the consumer’s point of view, coffee is a just tangible product, but we’re not just economic people; people don’t want just a cup of coffee,” the marketing professor says. “Starbucks taps into that cultural market and is able to allow the consumer to act out a role of an urban, chic, international, professional individual.”

Alex Tran, 25, long-time barista currently working at a café called Mercury Organic Bar, says Starbucks made the espresso-based coffee, such as latte and macchiato, mainstream and a household name. Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, would agree, and with good reason: in his 1997 book Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, Schultz explains, step-by-step, how he reinvented the North American idea of coffee by having a clear vision of romantic, Italian-style cafés everywhere. That vision stuck since 1987, and Schultz’s underdog business eventually grew to a corporation worth $14 billion.

Handelman, whose research focuses on emotional, social, and cultural dimensions of product marketing strategies, compares the typical Starbucks retailer to a stage, on which stylish, matching furniture are props and coffee-knowledgeable employees are actors. “The consumer fits right into this role when they sip on a coffee and is able to pontificate. It’s very esoteric and intangible,” he explains. Whether this comparison is fair, or whether these emotion-swaying marketing strategies are acceptable are up for debate. The fact is that Starbucks provides more than a physical tangible product that other coffee chains offer.

“It’s just to do with the recognizable symbol on the road,” says Matthew Taylor, owner of Mercury Organic Bar, an independent Toronto café on Queen Street East. “Mainly, people going to (Starbucks) like the idea of being involved in a coffee culture without actually being in one.”

Esther Mackenzie, 18, says Starbucks succeeds because of its familiarity. “It tries to be kind of like a living room,” the long-time Starbucks fan says. “I’ve just always gone to Starbucks, it’s a tradition. Every Starbucks looks the same.”

Starbucks not only offers familiarity, but also a sense of luxury, according to many. It has to do not with only the price, says Wesley Sze, 18, a Starbucks barista for a little over a year. The upscale atmosphere, well-designed store interior and courteous baristas make the Starbucks experience worth the extra dimes. “There’s a certain class about it. People like holding a Starbucks cup with a logo’ed sleeve,” says Sze. “Holding Starbucks gives out the message that you’re a successful individual.”

He’s not far off. Mackenzie, an arts student at University of Toronto, recalls a story her Filipino classmate, Clarissa Mae de Leon, once told her. According to de Leon, in the Philippines, holding a Starbucks cup is such a status symbol, that some people purchase a drink once, keep the Starbucks cup, wash it out, and the next time they go out, pour in their own drinks and carry it around.

Such a situation may be rare in Toronto, but plenty of people are buying into the Starbucks lifestyle, says Mackenzie. “We all secretly want to be that late 20s, early 30s sophisticated professional who listens to jazz music.”

The Frappuccino, a blended coffee drink and 1994 Starbucks invention, is also a status symbol among teens and the younger crowd, says Sze. Frappuccinos come in many sweet flavours such as caramel, mocha, java chip and vanilla. “Strawberry and Crème Frappuccinos are definitely not what coffee is about,” he says. Plus, adds Sze, the seasonal drinks such as eggnog lattes aren’t really coffee drinks – but as the company claims, Starbucks doesn’t fill bellies; it fills souls.

Starbucks is also known for its own lingo and notoriously long names for drinks. It’s not a size small, medium, or large drink – rather, it’s tall, grande or venti. “People like having as many modifications on their drinks as they can. It makes them feel special,” says Sze. “They like to hear the barista call it back, too, things like 2½ pumps syrup this, 110 degrees that. They like to show it off, saying ‘I am one of those customers,’ or ‘I bet that’s the most complicated drink you’ve made!’ You can tell they’re proud of having their own drink.”

Starbucks initially draws a customer in through its projected image, but ultimately, it keeps the customer because there is a tangible product and good service at the end, says Raben, 18. Both Raben and Sze credit the strict training for the quality of customer service. Raben, who worked at a Kitchener, Ont. location for four months in 2006, recalls that during training her manager even weighed her drink to check for correct amount of steamed milk and foam. “People grade you on your smile, eye contact, tone of voice,” she says.

Also, baristas are given a 200-page handbook that teaches them about coffee, not to mention thorough lessons complete with coffee-tasting, aroma-sniffing and video-watching. “They drill into the employees that Starbucks is the best coffee,” says Raben. After such intensive training, she says she now can taste the subtle differences between coffee blends.

Taylor sees the strict training as a negative. “(Starbucks baristas) are like automatons or robots. They’re a falsity in what you’re getting,” he says, pointing out that Starbucks baristas are gold to greet customers in certain ways. Tran, who has worked with Taylor for years, says working at Mercury feels like “hanging out.” The baristas know all the regulars by name, and have hundreds of personal relationships with them, he says. At Mercury, regulars constantly run into each other and make friendly conversation even when they’re not on first-name terms. One can hear “nice to meet you,” between strangers lining up for coffee, and it’s a bewildering scene to witness after the “go through a revolving door, press a button” (Tran’s words) method of Starbucks.

+++++

Despite its popularity, it’s clear that Starbucks is not everyone’s cup of tea – or rather, coffee. Starbucks is a global company that uses the local stage to appeal to the local consumer who wants to be worldly, says Handelman. The term he uses is glocalization: a mix of globalization and localization. There is a resistance movement against the company, which is being accused of homogenizing culture. Independent cafés and coffeehouses are making a statement against Starbucks, says Handelman. In fact, he says, those independent cafés may be doing better than ever by “providing a key point of segmentation.”

“Independent cafés draw a different, local crowd that’s fiercely loyal,” says Handelman. Some aren’t swayed by Starbucks’s polished image. For one thing, the coffee itself isn’t top quality, according toTaylor.

“Starbucks coffee is low quality, assembly line stuff,” says Taylor without hesitation. “It’s tacky, cheesy, it’s the McDonald’s of coffee.”

Sze may not go as far as call it “tacky”, but admits that “true coffee drinkers” don’t go to Starbucks. To make things cost-effective, Starbucks started using Verismo espresso machines a few years ago. Baristas can produce a shot of espresso by just pressing a button, rather than by pulling a shot by hand and cleaning out the grounds from the filter each time. This mechanical process makes for less quality espresso, but frankly, most customers don’t care, says Sze. Starbucks is less about coffee, and more about the experience, he says.

Tran, who has worked previously at Starbucks, Second Cup, Balzac’s Coffee (of the Distillery District in Toronto), says the Starbucks drink masks the taste of espresso with thick syrups, sugar, cream, and the like. “There’s a natural sweetness in milk without having to add all sorts of muck. We accentuate bitter taste of the espresso,” the self-claimed coffee geek says.

Does this make independent cafés elitist? It depends on how you approach it, says Taylor. “You educate your customers gradually,” he explains. “We’re not forcing (our coffee) on anybody. This is good coffee, it’s no different than wine.”

Tran also credits the fresh ingredients for the coffee quality at Mercury. The small business uses freshly roasted beans from Intelligensia Coffee Inc. roastery (which buys coffee directly from farmers at fair trade prices), compared to Starbucks, which uses huge batches of beans roasted months ahead of time and kept in warehouses. Taylor also buys as much organic beans as he can and uses only organic milk. Working in a business smaller than Starbucks makes it possible to set standards higher, says Tran. He says independent cafés have a 90 per cent success rate, just based on coffee. “All I can say is, take your chances with independent,” says Taylor. If a customer still prefers sugary drinks, however, “There’s a Starbucks is down the corner.” It’s true: just eight or ninths months after Mercury Organic Bar was established in March, 2006, a Starbucks location was set up on the same block on Queen Street East, according to Tran.

One Mercury regular says, “(Mercury) has the best espresso.” She then adds that it has
a nice vibe. “It’s a rock and roll coffee shop.” Like some other regulars here, she is averse to Starbucks and corporate, commercial coffee. “They’re the big guy weeding out the small guys,” she says.

+++++

Starbucks retailers have been selling and promoting CDs since 1994. In Pour Your Heart Into It, Howard Schultz writes, “Selling music CDs wasn’t just a marketing ploy imposed from on high… it was a perfect demonstration of the character of Starbucks, one that was maturing in harmony with its customers.”

“You wouldn’t find rap music there,” says Handelman, of the music sold at Starbucks. Indeed, the kinds of music Starbucks promotes, such as Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan, are part of their image and are meant to exude classiness, says Sze. Starbucks added movies, books and even games onto the merchandise section ever since the company acquired Hear Music in 1999.

The 2006 “arthouse film” Akeelah and the Bee, and Cranium, a game billed as “The Game For Your Whole Brain,” have all been heavily promoted by Starbucks. While the merchandise are “consistent with the whole stage,” as Handelman notes, he isn’t sure if it’s a good thing.

“On a business approach, yes, this is appealing to the consumers,” he says. The problem comes in, when on a large scale, “We’re not just seeking products, we’re seeking a whole story. When I’m sitting in that arm chair, I feel like I’m, ironically, the only sophisticated person there. I’m an expert, a connoisseur. I know what I’m talking about.”

Sze disagrees with the excessive sale of products other than coffee. “They’re not flying off the shelves,” he says. “Music can be justified, but movies, books, and DVDs are way too off.”

Taylor, too, isn’t too fond of the merchandise. “Music and coffee together is really important, but Starbucks lost its focus. The DVDs and games have absolutely nothing to do with coffee. It’s like a mini department store: there’s a CD room, a place for mugs and freaking stuffed teddy bears,” he says.

Sze says that Starbucks has done a good job on building a respected, prestigious brand, but agrees that the company needs to pay attention to its roots. In fact, Starbucks CEO Schultz himself gave out a similar message out in a blunt Feb. 14 memo, warning executives that the chain may be commoditizing its brand and making itself more vulnerable to competition from other coffee shops and fast-food chains.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the nearly 800-word memo questioned whether Starbucks’ automatic espresso machines, new store designs and elimination of some in-store coffee grinding may have compromised the “romance and theatre” of a visit. Schultz is questioning whether Starbucks’ drive for growth and efficiency has diluted that experience, says the article.

The success of Starbucks reflects the nature of consumer-driven culture, especially in North America, says Handelman. “We’re being defined by brands to the point where I can only express myself in brands. And Starbucks brands a very unique cultural story,” says Handelman. “It wins the emotional share. They’re going through the heart, not the head. Not getting you to think but feel, that’s culture-based branding.”

And it’s not just Starbucks. “You can’t pin this down on one company,” says Handelman. However, he sees that he is starting to see the end of cycle with the increase of environmental awareness and focus on corporate responsibility. “Increasingly, people ask are asking where products come from, and the whole brand story breaks down. It’s the Achilles Heel, this physical tangible question of where the product comes from,” he says. Corporate responsibility may pacify the consumer, but even this is being challenged. “Companies can’t hide behind veils anymore,” says Handelman.

Mercury Organic Bar knows this. “People are willing to pay more for ethical products,” Taylor says. “We try not to exploit famers and give money to the community where the coffee came from. That money can go towards clean water systems, school, reforestration in places like Brazil, El Salvador and Ethiopia. Taylor, who buys direct trade coffee, says farmers with Intelligentsia get paid $1.50 and up to $1.80 per pound of coffee, while non-fair trade farmers get paid $1 per pound or even less.

Mercury also uses Green Shift cups, which are made from 100 per cent renewable resources and is completely biodegradable, turning into compost in 30 to 50 days. “It’s more expensive, but it’s more an incentive than what the customer wants,” explains Tran. The café tries to minimize wastes, and people appreciate that, he says. In Mercury, there are three garbage containers, each labelled compost, recyclables, and others. There’s a sink by the counter, and customers leave their empty mugs there as they leave.

+++++

Behind the counter, Tran grinds the coffee beans and packs the ground into the espresso filter. He pulls a shot of aromatic espresso straight into a small china mug. He pours in equal part steamed milk, tilting the mug while he pours to create a marbled swirl of white foam and dark espresso. He grabs a matching saucer, a tiny silver teaspoon. Here’s a real cappuccino, free of vanilla pumps or sugar, he says. One sip reveals the strong and bitter taste of nutty espresso. It tastes wild and alive. This coffee may not be a status symbol, but it tastes pretty damn good.

*****************END OF ARTICLE*****************

 

Manga and Anime

At the first lecture of ENG 705 early this semester, I learned that vision is learned and cultivated, rather than naturally-occuring or equally inate in all humans. All the stuff we see during our lives influence our perception over time. For example, someone who is not used to seeing cinema, or the motion picture, is not able to comprehend the flickering images on a screen.

Recently, I was reminded of all the Japanese and Korean manga (manhwa in Korean) that I used to read and Anime that I used to watch when I was still a kid in Seoul. I think that manga and anime are examples that support the idea that vision is learned and cultivated. Despite the fairly recent success of Anime and Manga in North America, many people still do not “see” the two visual mediums and often have trouble comprehending it, and understandably so.

Japanese manga is considerably different from North American comic books. It’s read from right to left, and the pages run backwards. The direction of reading is completely opposite.

Someone who is not used to manga and anime would find the bodily features of characters strange. Often, the heads are much too large for the body, the eyes too large for the face, and so on. The improper proportion is not the only strange thing — characters are often given unnaturally shaped and coloured hair, unusual eye colours, unusual skin colours, and extraordinary body features, such as emblems and symbols in places such as the forehead.

Although many Japanese manga and anime artists have different styles to their art, “anime style” is often synonymous with features such as jewel-like large eyes and spiky hair. In the following picture, we can see that while more modern manga, featured in the right, may not feature the traditional “anime style” large eyes, there are still remnants of the traditional style in the unrealistic colour and shape of hair. In the left column, we can see highly stylized features prominent in anime, such as purple hair, skin, and eyes, full hair, pointy ears, and extraordinary bodily proportions.

here, in a picture of the popular anime Sailor Moon, we can see that the main character has a cresent moon symbol on her forehead. This cresent moon, like many other symbols found in the anime characters and manga, are birthmarks that mark the character of a power or importance.

in the following picture of typical Japanese anime, we can see disproportionate bodies, overlarge eyes, unusual hair colour, and the like. Another feature that a manga/anime non-viewer would not be able to comprehend is the reddish lines etched across the cheeks of the three girls below. These are blush marks that mark the girls as either shy, innocent, embarrassed, or sometimes, in love.

compared to the disproportionate bodies often found in manga and anime, North American cartoon classics, such as Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman, hold a more realistic representation of the body, despite their often muscularity.

Even Archie, Betty, and Veronica look much more realistic than manga and anime characters:

In this manga depiction of the Sailor soldiers (of Sailor Moon series), we can see especially exaggerated body features, such as the unrealistically long flowing hair:

even more so exaggerated is the manga depiction of Chibi Chibi, who is no more than two or three years old. Here, not only is her head bigger than her body, but she appears to have a body of a much older girl and wears high heels:

Readers unfamiliar to manga and anime also would not “see” the sweat-drop that manga artists often use. As strange it may sound, the sweat-drop appears on a character’s head when he is in embarrassment, exasperation, confusion, and shock, not all of which are necessarily considered to be sweat-inducing under normal conditions. It is frequently used in reaction to another character’s bad pun or joke, or when a character’s friend does something stupid or silly that makes them look bad.

Here, in a still from a typical anime we can see that the sweat-drop. The familiar manga reader will know right away that the main character, who appears to be sweating, is in a moment of confusion or embarrassment.

The familiar manga and anime viewer also comes to instantly recognize “face faults”, or generic faces and body actions that indicate emotions. These “face faults” are rarely understandable to an unfamiliar viewer. For example, rivers of tears underneath the eyes indicate comedic anguish or discontent, while pulsating crossed forehead veins indicate anger, rage or irritation.

Generic facial expressions and the corresponding emotions

Comedic discontent shown by rivers of tears

Anger shown by pulsating forehead “veins” visible through thick hair

Characters fall over, often with jaunty angles of the limb and beady eyes, and sometimes with a loud thud or crash, after hearing another character saying something anticlimactic, unexpected, or stupid:

Finally, the hand at the mouth (often coupled with blushing cheeks) show that the character is shy, embarrassed, nervous, and the like:

There are many, many other examples of such face faults in Japanese manga and anime. I’ve drawn up many of them to support the claim that vision is learned and cultivated, rather than innate and natural in all humans. Someone who is not used to reading manga or watching anime would not be able to catch the meaning of many features in manga/anime. I propose that all visual mediums are cultural and artificial. The notion of “one must be used to seeing in order to see” seems undoubtedly clear.

 

Helvetica

i went to see a faculty of communication and design (fcad) dean’s lecture by the creator of p22 font foundry, for the ryerson school of graphic communications management. it was followed by a viewing of Helvetica, a documentary on the ubiquitous typeface. the doc was utterly FASCINATING. it was probably one of the best documentaries i’ve ever seen, and about something that is so widely used, yet little talked about.

many of the uber-nerdy interviewees talked about the Helvetica font (which was designed in switzerland by max meidinger in 1957) on highly abstract and philosophical terms. some of the modernists, such as massimo vignelli, described Helvetica as a cutting-edge messiah-like symbol that delivered the post-war society from goofy fonts and corny advertisements and led way for much more modern, clean-cut and simple advertisements and signs. a ton of footage of signs in Helvetica all around north america and europe sprinkled the documentary: little artsy bits in the tiny corners of cities and the like. for example, the metropolitan transportation authority (MTA) of new york uses Helvetica only for all its signs:

here are pre-helvetica advertisements. note the number of various typefaces used in just one ad alone, often in (what the modernists call ridiculous) italics, curlicues, and the like.

post-helvetica advertisements. note the simplicity of the typeface and the power that comes with the simplicity. the AmericanAirlines wordmark, for example, employs nothing but the company name in Helvetica, as one word, using two primary colours.

American Airlines wordmark enlarged:

as massimo vignelli said in the film: “there are people that thinks that type should be expressive. they have a different point of view from mine”. it had never occured to me before this film that typography shouldn’t express a certain mood, a certain personality. in fact, i thought that typeface designers would be the first to say that typefaces should evoke a certain mood.

but when i heard the modernists, most of whom worship the ubiquitous font, say that a good typeface should be like a “crystal goblet” — absolutely clear, with no visible distraction to take the viewer away from the actual MEANING of what is written — i was convinced that they were right. after all, what matters is what is INSIDE the crystal goblet, and the goblet’s job should be to show what it contains for what it is, not to add elaborations or ornaments to what is inside. here is a quote that contains the phrase “crystal goblet”:

Tobias Frere-Jones: The sort of classical modernist line on how aware a reader should be of a typeface is that they shouldn’t be aware of it at all. It should be this crystal goblet there to just hold and display and organize the information. But I don’t think it’s really quite as simple as that. I think even if they’re not consciously aware of the typeface they’re reading, they’ll certainly be affected by it, the same way that an actor that’s miscast in a role will affect someone’s experience of a movie or play that they’re watching. They’ll still follow the plot, but, you know, be convinced or affected. I think typography is similar to that, where a designer choosing typefaces is essentially a casting director.

some other memorable quotes from the film:

Lars Müller: And I think I’m right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. It is just something we don’t notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn’t be there.

Wim Crouwel: The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much.

the documentary also explored the sense of globalism and capitalism that is now associated with the font, as many giant corporations, such as American Airlines, American Apparel, and Lufthansa, use the font as part of their logo and typeface. the documentary interviewed many post-modernists who were sick of the conformity of Helvetica, too. the post-modernist typeface designers thought that typefaces SHOULD evoke a certain personality, and seem to be averse to the uniform, “corporate” Helvetica.

it just blew my mind to hear graphic designers and type designers talk about the font. i am definitely in love with the font, and i am watching the film again sometime, as soon as i can find the dvd.

i write this in the eng 705 reading log because as much as we talked about advertising in class, we never mentioned the power of typefaces as part of the visual advertising, i.e. in signs, billboards, and magazines. it is amazing how much authority a certain typeface can hold: American Apparel, for example, employs nothing but their simple photographs of their unique models and the one typeface — Helvetica. i’d say that the simple cut of the typeface works better than any of the combinations of the messy typefaces used in the 1950s ads. it’s truly amazing how much effect the typeface has alone.

on a side note, i looked for Helvetica on Microsoft Word 2003 and it wasn’t there. i’m told that Apple computers and products (such as ipods) have the font. drat! i am almost tempted to purchase the font off linotype.com. Microsoft has Helvetica lookalikes, such as Arial and Calibri, but the subtle differences actually seem to make a difference, and i am not satisfied with the two lookalike fonts.

 

Picasso as both Spanish and French

During the somewhat difficult reading of “Gertrude Stein on Picasso”, I realized that Stein often says that Picasso switches back and forth between his Spanish and French self, often without giving reasons for her statements. I find it much too fascinating that Gertrude Stein adamantly believes that whenever Picasso changes his phases, or periods, that he is going back and forth between his Spanish and his French self. According to my research on Picasso’s various periods (right up to his painting of Guernica, anyway — the book “Gertrude Stein on Picasso” is written up to the year 1937, though the book was published in 1970), Picasso switches from his Spanish self and his French self, and vice versa, several times in his life:

• in 1902, at the beginning of his “blue” period; his spanish self is at work here
• in 1904, he “empties himself of the blue period” and starts on his “rose” or “harlequin” period after his is once again “seduced by french gaiety”
• in 1908, picasso returns to spain, produces some “truly cubist landscapes” and is “baptized spanish once more”
• in 1909, he is seduced by france once more, his life was gay again; in 1912, picasso experienced his “ma jolie” period of colourful still lifes
• in 1917, his spanish character surfaces again when he goes through a second, more adult “rose” period

The final periods/years are more hazy and less clearly-defined as Picasso stops working in intervals, and his works become less grouped in clearly-defined groups. The clockwork-like pattern of switching from his Spanish/French self was also more frequent in his earlier years: we can see that it only took 2 years for the first change from his first return to his spanish self to his rose period french self; then it takes 4 years, then a quick 1 year, but then it takes 8 years for the next switch to happen, until the pattern fades altogether near the end of Picasso’s painting career.

Nonetheless, the pattern exists, and rather obviously too. I am totally convinced that Stein is dead right-on when she brings this pattern to surface. I’ve picked out several pictures from each of his distinct periods, and I see the pattern.

The first time Picasso moves back to Spain and rediscovers his Spanish self during the “blue” period, his works become more desolate, glum, and for the lack of a better word — serious. The tones he uses becomes darker, with more gravity, and the colours are sadder, colder, and more depressing. The subject matter seems much more philosophical and reflective — a painting titled “La Vie” can only be considered in grave terms. The “blue” period paintings seem to convey a pain and suffering in the human condition, rather than appreciating trivial moments of bliss, as he does when he is French-influenced.

Much later, when he finds his more adult “rose” period, his paintings of pierrots and harlequins are more realistic, and though colourful, has much grimness and heaviness in the clowns’ pose and expression. The paintings of the second “rose” period are less jumpy than the paintings of his first “rose” period, which was French-influenced. It is interesting to note that while Picasso still prominently uses the peach/rose colour in his second “rose” period, there is a discrepancy in the overall weight and seriousness of the two “rose” periods.

In 1937, when Picasso most obviously returns to his Spanish self in his depicting the bombings of Guernica in a huge mural-like monochrome painting, Picasso once again becomes much more sombre, much more sober, and less whimsical, despite the rather abstract lines and curves.

During his periods in which he was at his French self, however, his paintings, both in colours and subject matter, seem to be warmer, more delightful, more contented, more lighthearted. At least, during his French-influenced periods, Picasso is less solemn, less weighed down, less morose. Stein seems to take this as obvious, and implies that France is full of gaiety, while Spain is full of sadness.

Based on this, I wonder why Spain is associated with such sadness, why Stein claims that Spain “is not colorful, all the colors in Spain are white black silver or gold; there is no red or green, not at all. Spain in this sense is not at all southern, it is oriental, women there wear black more often than colors, the earth is dry and gold in color, the sky is blue almost black, the star-light nights are black too or a very dark blue and the air is very light, so that every one and everything is black”. Obviously Guernica was triggered by the violent events during the Spanish Civil War, but even prior to that, what makes Spain a much more heavy-hearted country, compared to France?

I suppose that Spain has known an oriental, or eastern influence that France has not known. Spain has been home to Berber Muslims since the 8th century, and there has been tension between the Berber Muslims, who originated from North Africa, and the Arabs, who originated from the Middle East. The social tension created by the dichotomy of the Muslim and Christian (i.e. Catholic) Spain continued to exist throughout Spanish history. Even during the time when Spain was the first ever world power, it was plagued with possible eminent threats from the Islamic world. The Napoleonic invasion in Spain left her disastrous, and by the Spanish-American War Spain already seemed to be in decline. In the 20th century, the bitterly fought civil war, often called the “first stage of the First World War” showed the victory of the fascist party under Franco.

I wonder if many artists besides Picasso experience a switch between two cultural selves. I’d never thought about it before, but after reading Stein’s book, it makes the most sense that artists should find different inspirations and even completely opposite styles (i.e. blue vs. rose) under different cultures. I feel like I could relate from personal experience the different mode of thinking that comes with different cultures. Born in South Korea, I read lots of children’s fiction, in Korean donghwa. It would be much too difficult to compare and contrast every aspect of donghwa verses Western children’s fiction, but the bottom line is that the two cultures have very different tones in children’s literature alone. Donghwa, often influenced by the Korean War of 1950-1953 and the Japanese occupation in early 20th century, is marked naive sadness and tearful melancholy. South Korea, and before that, plain Korea, has always been on the defensive historically from neighbouring countries. While the Western world has the World Wars, and the US the Vietnam War on top of that, they were deliberately and actively participated in, as part of an offensive. I can’t help but feel that the national history has to do with the tone in the nation’s art. It was only natural that Picasso produced different art while he spent his time in Spain than in France.

I wish I knew more about the histories of Spain and France to write a much more detailed report on why Picasso produced such art during periods in the two European nations.

 

Atom Egoyan’s “Calendar” and Technologically Mediated Relationships

At first, I thought Atom Egoyan’s “Calendar” was all things typical of an avant-garde film, all silent and confusing while being visually wonderful (kind of like a less commercial Wes Anderson, who directed “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Life Aquatic”). It was sort of sleep-inducing at first, due to the minutes of footage of the same green hill in silence… but after a while I saw the point that Egoyan is trying to make, and understood why the prof called it a “perfect essay film”. The attitude of the exaggerated character that Egoyan plays (I say “exaggerated” because I can’t honestly see anyone hiring escorts to remember his own wife) epitomizes the technologically mediated culture that we live in today, at least in the developed Western world.

I remember doing a silly online quiz once on Facebook (one of those “pass it on and get to know your friends better” quizzes). One in particular I remember because it had the question “How does one know if you are very close to somebody?”, which I answered, absent-mindedly, “I’m probably very close to you if I always leave you a bunch of pointless Facebook wall posts”. I had been thinking about my high school friend Dara, who lives in Vancouver, and how I write on her wall on Facebook whenever something interesting happened.

Some time after I wrote that survey and posted it, I scanned over my own answers and read what I’d said about Facebook wall posts. I couldn’t believe I wrote it but there it was. For a second I thought, “wow, that’s really sad how my relationships are mediated purely through technology”… and remembered the Egoyan film! The point that he makes about mediated relationships struck me. All other things I do in life are highly mediated. For example, I take obsessive amount of pictures “photo-documenting” what I do on a weekly basis. I’ll take pictures of what I eat at restaurants and things I buy. I keep a blog rather than writing a diary by hand, and instead of scrapbooking or keeping photo albums, I save the pictures in a digital album online on Flickr to share with my family, who live in Vancouver. Though I occasionally print out digital photos (I feel the need to, somehow) for a more tangible proof of experience, I now often remember things because I took a picture of it, rather than because I found it a memorable experience.

I wrote a personal column on my obsession with photo-documentation for my Intro to Reporting (JRN 121) class for the school of Journalism:

*************************

PERSONAL COLUMN by JENNY LEE

JRN 121

I have an obsession with documenting my life.

I’ve always loved taking pictures. I love capturing the moment on film and keeping the glossy photographs in leatherbound family albums. As a kid, opening a fresh batch of pictures that my mom picked up from Costco was one of the most exciting feelings in the world. It still is.

Since my first purchase of a digital camera about three years ago, the sheer quantity of pictures I’ve taken has ballooned uncontrollably. Today, I have four cameras, both digital and film, including a chunky digital SLR that cost $1,700. I currently have 3,701 photos divided into 68 different albums on Facebook alone. On Flickr, a photo-hosting Web site, I have 7,806 photos, including 1,515 from a trip to Italy and Switzerland last year. In all, I have more than 20 gigabytes of digital photos dating back to 2005. On top of that, I have at least five shoeboxes of regular 4-by-6 film prints, and a binder full of black-and-white negatives from two and a half years of darkroom photography.

Despite my training in photography, I don’t claim these everyday shots to be art photography, save for the handful for a high school photography course. I’m simply interested in distilling what I see, experience and love onto a slick piece of paper.

I like to think that I inherited my interest in photo-documentation from my mom, who diligently kept baby albums for my sister and me. Inspired by this, when I was 12 years old, I once spent a solid week during the summer going through a colossal stack of uncategorized family photos that we had accumulated over the years. I created complicated methods of sorting out the photos, which only I understood. Thousands of small stacks littered the living room, each stack classified by event, date, place, and the like. I even had a few photos under the label “masterpieces.” One snapshot under this category was a picture of my younger sister, Michelle, and me, then six and 10 years old, by Lake Louise in Banff, Alta., taken by my mom on a family trip to the Rocky Mountains. Michelle and I wore matching denim overalls and wholesome white tees from the Gap. We stood smiling in front of a brilliant aquamarine lake and white-peaked glaciers. I thought this was the greatest photo in existence. Apparently, to the 12-year-old me, this photo represented the best of that family vacation.

Earlier this school year, I moved from home in Vancouver to a residence room in Toronto to attend Ryerson University. I discovered Toronto downtown for the first time, and took my chunky, cumbersome SLR everywhere with me. The more I explored the Distillery District, Queen Street West and Dundas Square, the faster my laptop hard drive diminished. I documented the Toronto International Film Festival, a trip to MTV, Nuit Blanche, a Regina Spektor concert, and the October 6 Protest for Burma. I took pictures of everything I ate at every fancy restaurant I went to and every quirky poster and postcard on sale at Canzine Festival, Canada’s largest fair for zine culture and independent arts. In the first two months of university alone, I took a whopping 2,500 pictures.

The rate of my photo-taking has slowed since those initial few months, but I still take quite a bit of pictures. A few months ago I started sticking these photos in neat rows onto the ugly speckled wall with blue sticky tack. The wall is a glance at my life since university started, though there are a few snapshots here and there from the end of Grade 12. I plan to cover the entire wall. I’m already half-way finished.

This photo wall may be a mere collection of bright snapshots, but to me, it’s something much more. A close-up shot shows three wooden crates of green apples sitting on the concrete. I took this at a trip to Kensington Market with my friend Adam Vrankulj, a fellow photo nut who owns a Polaroid camera. Another shot shows my high school friend Lara Heppenstall leaning against a wondrously whimsical mural on the alley next to Sam the Record Man. I took that on a sunny September day when she visited me from Hamilton, Ont. A blurry shot of a table with various half-full liquor bottles reminds me of the time when I got drunk with another high school friend, Roxanne Koczwarski, and her new friends at UBC. A fourth shot shows nothing but a saturated rainbow of colourful spheres. I took this close-up of a Dubble Bubble gumball dispenser at a convenience store near my home in Vancouver. It reminds me of summer days when my sister and I would walk to the store to waste quarters on a smattering of sugary goodies.

Maybe I feel this need to document and review my life because it goes by so quickly now that I am in university. I feel the need to dwell on my memories. The week whizzes by quickly, and the month is gone without much notice. Even with my digital photos, I feel the need to print them out at a Shoppers Drug Mart for a ridiculous 29 cents a print. I need to be able to hold it in my hand and observe it close without a LCD screen barrier in between my carefully viewing eyes and the photos. In this age of digital detachedness and endless trivial distractions, I need to feel closer to my fading memories more than ever.

*************************************

Although I explain that I feel the need to dwell on my memories, I can no longer do this purely from remembering alone… I need the help of pictures, and these days (frighteningly) I remember things better if I took a picture of it, and I remember people better if I have them on Facebook. It’s really, really strange how this is. I find myself more often than not saying “damn, I wish I had my camera here” or “oh, that picture will look good on my Facebook profile”. It’s ridiculous when I realize that bits of Egoyan’s character are in me too, despite the fact that I criticize the technologically mediated relationships that people have today.

 

John Berger – Ways of Seeing

After reading John Berger’s essay on the Male Gaze and how it is prominent in paintings throughout art history, I was hooked on his direct prose and (what I think are) brilliant ideas. I signed out “The Ways Of Seeing” from the library and read the whole thing in a couple of hours. The book is made up of seven numbered essays, including four essays with words and images, and three purely pictorial essays.

In essay #7, which I found the most interesting, Berger makes a point about how advertising borrows from art, especially the traditional oil painting, in order to present authority. Berger says, “A work of art suggests a cultural authority, a form of dignity, even of wisdom, which is superior to any vulgar material interest; an oil painting belongs to the cultural heritage; it is a reminder of what it means to be a cultivated European” (135). I found this the most fascinating of all.

This point was followed by many, many examples wherein art is echoed in advertising. There is, for example, an ad for tanning oil or something otherwise beach-related. It echoes the Japanese Edo Period artists Kokusai’s woodblock print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”: With the wild beach waves in the background, a woman in a bikini lies on the sand and seems to be enjoying the sun, completely relaxed.

Whatever the ad is advertising, this blurring of low culture and high culture seems ridiculous in such an blatantly obvious ad. It almost makes me angry that advertisers and corporations today would “dare” to taint classical works of art… the pastiche seems undeserved. Art of public domain is turned into a much more aggressive visual medium of public domain, which is the advertisement. While the original work of art uses persuasion to OPEN UP different perspectives and make the audience see the world through different eyes, the pastiched ad coerces people to look at only ONE perspective: to buy this product. To mount such a narrow view of the world is pretty close to propaganda. It only has one agenda. It goads us, it forces us, and it abuses our desires by twisting it, and turns public space into something purely economical.

Today, anti-semite propaganda or sexist propaganda would not be allowed anywhere. Though the moral connection is not as extreme, advertisements STEAL our free public domain and reduces our “space” to the few cubic centimeters in our heads only. The excessive advertisements never give us a rest from them, no matter which city or fairly populated town we visit.

Adbusters magazine once called this phenomenon a “culture of death”, as quoted by Pope Benedict XVI, who said: “There is an anti-culture demonstrated by the flight to drugs, by the flight from reality, by illusions, by false happiness. In our times, we need to say ‘no’ to the largely dominant culture of death.”

Although I’m not sure I would go as far to call it a “culture of death”, Adbusters (obviously a magazine with partisan agendas) is being fair to some extent when they list all the things wrong with advertisements today. It’s as if we’re in a world like the new London of Nineteen Eighty-Four, oppressed under one dominant ideology: except the capitalist/advertising ideology is creepier in some ways, because it actually succeeds in making us believe that we are FREE when we are not. We are constantly forced to buy.

 

Mark Ryden – Postmodernist Painter

Some time after learning about the differences and discrepancies between realist, modernist, and postmodernist art and painting, I remembered one of the most memorable painters I’ve ever come across. His name is Mark Ryden. His paintings have gone on sale (or auction, I’m not sure which) for as much as $800,000 USD. His works are bizarre, and really creepy too. His paintings of perfect-looking children with creepy doe-eyes, fluffy animals, and tea parties includes lots of the abject, such as blood, raw meat, and skulls.

Mark Ryden, photograph from his website

His works are marked by surrealist influences that blur what is real and what is surreal (or dreamed), as well as appearing hyperreal at first glance. We can see surrealism in these paintings:

“The Apology” from the exhibition “The Tree Show”

“Inside Sue”

However, his works are clearly postmodern (despite Surrealism a modernist movement), in the sense that he offers many, many intertexting allusions, in a pastiche of symbols, pop culture references, and religious references. According to his bio, “Ryden transcends the initial Surrealists’ strategies by consciously choosing subject matter loaded with cultural connotation. His dewy vixens, cuddly plush pets, alchemical symbols, religious emblems, primordial landscapes and slabs of meat challenge his audience not necessarily with their own oddity but with the introduction of their soothing cultural familiarity into unsettling circumstances.”

We can see symbols pop up in much of his paintings:

“The Ecstasy of Cecelia” features alchemical/planetary symbols on the white jack-in-the-box critter

“The Debutante” features not only a portrait of Jesus, but also strangely, Abraham Lincoln and Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken; like in “The Ecstasy of Cecelia” there is a single unblinking eye on the hem of the young debutante’s skirt

“The Meat Magi” once again features the eye, Abe Lincoln, and the BEE that was present in “The Debutante”, as well as a symbol/letter on the boy’s shirt. This symbol appears frequently in Ryden’s paintings

“The Meat Train” features the Russian/Cyrillic alphabet and Chinese characters

One could analyze all the symbols and allusions until the cows come home and still not come to a conclusion to what Ryden means by the combination of all of this. His fetishism for raw meat, blood, sweat make me think that he is suggesting that we go back to the days wherein children play in tea parties and wear girly dresses and play with fluffy animals. The raw meat, blood, and sweat all refer to the primitive, when things weren’t nicely packaged in the postmodern world, when children saw blood every day as they watched dinner being hunted down, and when children used their wild imagination to tell stories of trees with eyes and Mr. Abe Lincoln joining them for a trip to the circus.

A painting like “Rosie’s Tea Party” seems is beyond creepy to me:

in this painting, the “Be Good” frame that hangs overhead seems ironic, as the girl (Rosie, presumably) is cutting up hunks of meat with a giant saw bigger than her arm and feeding it to a white cat and mice (as well as serving it to a red-eyed bunny, a baby, a tiny Abe Lincoln and a blond Barbie, no less). I think Ryden is trying to tell us that despite the strict upbringing these retro-period girls had (say, girls from the Victorian period), these kids had more attitude and were more bad-ass than children of the postmodernist period, who succumb to video games, TV, the internet, and ipods.

While Rosie digs her hands into something REAL (and something that used to be ALIVE) and gets her hands dirty, today’s kids would do nothing of the sort, preferring to lend themselves passively to virtual things. I can’t think of one activity that kids do today that requires their imagination. Some very little children may still play with dolls, but even that seems highly antiquated. I think what Ryden is trying to get at is that hese acts of serving meat to imaginary guests at tea parties in a pink ‘n’ white room would be unthinkable to the modern child, who is squeamish, free of imagination, and out of touch with what is real. Therefore, the modern child is essentially a wimp who are locked up behind invisible, technologically-aided bars compared to the depicted Rosie, despite the generally “freer” society in which the modern child lives in today.

I found only a couple interviews with Mark Ryden (though many “artist statements”), and this made me think that Ryden values imagination highly:

Just try walking past a road-killed frog on the sidewalk in the company of a 3-year-old. Ryden has that same childlike fascination with the icky. We’re just meat, Ryden’s canvases insist, but meat that can also read philosophy.

- From the Seattle Weekly, article by Andrew Engelson in 2004 [source]

I think Ryden is making a good point if indeed what I’ve analyzed is (at least partially) what he’s trying to say. Though there are so many symbols and allusions that it would make it difficult to come to one conclusive decision in what he’s trying to say.

 

Gertrude Stein on Picasso – Research

After learning about Cubism and its influence on Gertrude Stein’s writing style, I read the first section of “Gertrude Stein on Picasso”, written in 1938. In the book, Gertrude Stein, a close friend of Picasso, outlines Picasso’s life as a painter, especially emphasizing the different phases or “periods” that he went through.

Here is some research done. I’ve made the effort to take Stein’s often nonlinear writing and actively divide Picasso’s works into periods, with some guidances from various web sites. I’ll leave Stein’s words in quotes because her words are often ambiguous and mysterious and best left not translated.

1900 - Picasso in Paris, influenced by his friends for a short period: “His friends in Paris were writers rather than painters… he knew intimately Max Jacob and at once afterwards Guillaume Apollinaire and Andre Salmon, and later he knew me and much later Jean Cocteau and still later the Surrealistes… His intimates amongs the painters… were Braque and Derain, they both had their literary side and it was this literary side” (page 5)

1902 – Picasso returns to Barcelona, Spain (his hometown): BLUE Period: “After this definite French influence, he became once more completely Spanish. Very soon the Spanish temperament was again very real inside in him. He went back again to Spain in 1902 and the painting known as his blue period was the result of that return. // The sadness of Spain and the monotony of the Spanish coloring, after the time spent in Paris, struck him forcibly upon his return there. Because one must never forget that Spain is not like other southern countries, it is not colorful, all the colors in Spain are white black silver or gold; there is no red or green, not at all. Spain in this sense is not at all southern, it is oriental, women there wear black more often than colors, the earth is dry and gold in color, the sky is blue almost black, the star-light nights are black too or a very dark blue and the air is very light, so that every one and everything is black… Everything that was Spanish impressed itself upon Picasso when he returned there after his second absence… The French influence which had made his first or Toulouse Lautrec one was over and he had returned to his real character, his Spanish character.” (pages 11-12)

“La Vie” (1903)

“The Old Guitarist” (1903)

1904 – Picasso returns to Montmartre (close to Paris): ROSE or HARLEQUIN Period: “Once more back in paris he commenced again to be a little French, that is he was again seduced by France… and this once again relieved his Spanish solemnity and so once more, needing to completely empty himself of everything he had, he emptied himself of the blue period, of the renewal of the Spanish spirit and that over he commenced painting what is now called the rose or harlequin period. Painters have always liked the circus… At this time they met at least once a week at the Cirque Medrano and there they felt very flattered because they could be intimate with clowns, the jugglers, the horses and their riders… The first picture we had of his is, if you like, rose or harlequin, it is The Young Girl with a Basket of Flowers; it was painted at the great moment of the harlequin period, full of grace and delicacy and charm. After that little by little his drawing hardened, his line became firmer, his color more vigorous, naturally he was no longer a boy he was a man, and then in 1905 he painted my portrait.” (pages 12-13) “in 1906… he commenced to paint figures in colors that were almost monotone, still a little rose but mostly an earth color, the lines of the bodies harde, with a great deal of force there was the beginning of his own vision. It was like the blue period, but much more felt and less colored and less sentimental. His art commenced to be much purer.” (page 30, transformation from rose period to cubism.)

“Harlequin With A Glass” (1905)

“Two Brothers” (1905)

“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907)

“Portrait of Gertrude Stein” (1906)

“Head of a Man” (1907)

1908 - Back to Spain, Picasso works on some landscapes that mark the beginning of Cubism: “He brought back with him some landscapes which were, certainly were, the beginnings of cubism. These three landscapes were extraordinarily realistic and all the same the beginnings of cubism. Picasso had by chance taken some photographs of the villages that he had painted and it always amused me when every one protested against the fantasy of the pictures to make them look at the photographs which made them see that the pictures were almost exactly like the photographs. Oscar Wilde used to say that nature did nothing but copy art and really there is some truth in this and certainly the Spanish villages were as cubistic as these paintings. So Picasso was once more baptised Spanish.” (page 14)

“Three Women” (1908)

“Two Naked Figures” (1908)

“Friendship” (1908)

“Portrait of Ambroise Vollard” (1910)

1909 - returns to Paris, keeps in contact with the cubists: “In 1907 and in 1908, in 1909 and in 1910, he made contacts with the cubists, one after the other, French and Spanish and he devoted himself to their interests. The life of the cubists became very gay, the gaiety of France once again seduced Picasso, every one was gay.” (page 38)

1911 – leaves rue Ravignan to the boulevard de Clichy (in Montmartre)

1912 – leaves Montmartre to Montparnasse, first the boulevard Raspail, then the rue Schoelcher and finally Montrouge : “after that not one of them was ever so gay again. Their gaiety then was a real gaiety.” – Period of the MA JOLIE pictures – “it was the period of all those still life, the tables with their grey color, with their infinite variety of greys, they amused themselves in all sorts of ways, they collected African sculpture but its influence was not any longer very marked, they collected musical instruments, objects, pipes, tables with fringes, glasses, nails, and at this time Picasso commenced to amuse himself with making pictures out of zinc, tin, pasted paper.” (page 41) – Picasso has some kind of financial success and “Picasso for the first time used the Russian alphabet in his pictures. It is found in a few pictures of this period, of course this was long before his contact with the Russian ballet.. His pictures became more and more brilliant in color, more and more carefully worked and perfected and then there was the war, it was 1914.” (page 42); “At this period his pictures were very brilliant in color… but the cubic forms were continually being replaced by surfaces and lines, the lines were more important than anything else, they lived by and in themselves.” (page 43) “Last period of pure cubism. ” (page 51) “During all this last period of pure cubism, 1914-1917, he tried to recommence his work, at the same time he became complete master of his metier… His mastery of his technique became so complete that it reached perfection, there was no longer any hesitation… he could no longer have the distraction of learning, his instrument was perfected.” (page 52)

“Fruit Vase and Bunch of Grapes” (1914)

1917 – Picasso leaves for Italy with his friend Cocteau – Parade “Picasso returned from Italy and freed by Parade, which he had just created, he became a realistic painter, he even made many portraits from models, portraits which were purely realistic. It is evident that really nothing changes, but at the same time everything changes, and Italy and Parade and the termination of war gave to Picasso in a kind of a way another harlequin period, a realistic period, not sad, less young, if you like, but a period of calm, he was satisfied to see things as everybody saw them, not completely as everybody does but completely enough. Period of 1917 to 1920… During this period he painted some very beautiful portraits, some paintings and some drawings of harlequins and many other pictures. This adult rose period lasted almost three years.” (page 47) “There certainly have been two rose periods in the life of Picasso. During the second rose period there was almost no real cubism but there was painting which was writing which had to do with the Spanish character, that is to say the Saracen character and this commenced to develop very much.” (page 48)

“Pierrot” (1918)

“The Seated Harlequin” (1923)

1923 – The second rose period changed to the period of large women, around 1923, at the same time that calligraphy was in full activity; – “now a great struggle commenced again… a second rose period, a completely realistic period which lasted from 1919 to 1927. This was a rose period… painting enormous and very robust women. There was still a little the memory of Italy in its forms… this lated until 1923 when he finished the large classical pictures.” (page 59) “It was also during the calligraphic period, 1923, and later that this opposition of drawing and of color was the most interesting.” (page 67)

“The Sleeping Peasants” (1919)

“Women Running On The Beach” (1922)

1927 – “during this last period, from 1927 to 1935, the souls of people commenced to dominate him and his vision… for the first time, the interpretations destroyed his own vision so that he made forms not seen but conceived. All this is difficult into words but the distinction is plain and clear, it is why he stopped working.” (page 68)

“Girl Before A Mirror” (1932)

“Dora Maar” (1937)

“Marie-Therese Walter” (1937)

1937 – “finally war broken out in Spain. First the revolution and then war… he had lost Spain and here was Spain not lost, she existed, the existence of Spain awakened Picasso, he too existed, everything that had been imposed upon him no longer existed… Picasso commenced to work, he commenced to speak as he has spoken all his life… so in 1937 he commenced to be himself again. He painted a large picture about Spain and it was written in a calligraphy continuously developed and which was the continuation of the great advancement made by him in 1922, now he was in complete effervescence, and at the same time he found his color. The color of the pictures he paints now in 1937 are bright colors, light colors but which have the qualities of the colors which until now only existed in his greys… certainly PIcasso has now found his color, his real color in 1937. ” (page 69, 72)

“Guernica” (1937)

 

The Beginning of a Reading Log!

Welcome to my reading log for ENG 705 Reading Visual Cultures.

Reading log: to be handed in periodically, and submitted in entirety at the end of the course (worth 20%)

Students will maintain a log (or blog) of responses to their readings and lectures. I will on occasion give you actual topics to explore in the logs. The rest of the time, your log may take the form of any or any combination of notes, questions — with some attempt to find answers — further secondary research, or even a creative engagement or reworking of principles and ideas plus a commentary on that creative praxis. They should not be merely a diary of likes and dislikes.

You should aim to produce about 250 words per week. Your reading log will be evaluated on the quality of the intellectual engagement displayed therein. I want to see you grappling with the material, not remaining passive and disengaged.