cries of children cries of women cries of birds in paint

Guernica, 1937

In April 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil war, a terrible disaster befell the ancient city  of Guernica. As reported by George Steer, the London Times journalist, three quarters of the city was razed to the ground as a result of the bombing by allied German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and the Italian Fascist “Aviazione Legionaria”.

At that moment Picasso was working on a mural for the Paris International Exhibition to be held in the summer of 1937, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government. Or rather not working, since he could not find his creative inspiration, hardly overwhelmed by any patriotic feeling; however learning of Guernica massacre, on 1 May 1937 the artist  set off working fiercely. In 3 months he presented his Guernica to the world, a painting that would become iconic symbol of the war and its destructive power on innocent lives, as well as one of Picasso's most prominent works.  

Some Material Art in Very Material World

Contemporary art is often blamed for being too easy on the eye and easy on the mind, in a sense that what if often does to the audience is that it SHOCKS. Shock being an instrument to reach the viewer  and transfer the artist's message to his astonished public.

Quite often contemporary art  entertains the public,  better than the Paris Disneyland does. In Disney it is the eery "Hollywood Tower Hotel"  that brings adrenaline all the way down to your toes;  nowadays an art gallery  can encourage the synthesis  of the  stress hormone  with an equal success. 

Jake or Dinos Chapman, White Cube, July 2011http://www.independent.co.uk

Surprise, amusement and even disgust  - these are  the kind of feelings quite often evoked by l'art contemporain.  Shock is a fast and effective way to penetrate the brain of a viewer - not always kind, and almost never elegant.

Jake or Dinos Chapman,
 White Cube, July2011
http://www.eastnews.pl/

YBA, in general, and a new Chapman Brothers' show in the White Cube, in particular,  is clearly a vivid illustration  of a thought  above.In the latter Jay Jopling  reveals  unhesitantly why contemporary art exhibition is called a show: "Jake or Dinos Chapman"  is a SHOW  where the first thing I encountered on entering the gallery  was an indignant looking 35-year old woman who was dragging out her daughter and telling her with  outrage, nearly bursting into tears: "Honey, don't look, it is horrible!!!"

(see  Jake Chapman in  Hoxton if you are not that sensitive).

Piano Art Performace

If one considers relative incomes of Steve Wynn and mine, i can claim that I acquired my first Picasso. Which is simply a ticket to Paris bought 12 hours before the flight + a ticket  to a concert which I saw the same day I arrived.  A 26.06 3PM concert was by  my new musical discovery, and the most precious discovery, a German experimental pianist Hauschka. 

Chiharu Shioto In Silence, 2009, at 3rd Moscow Biennale
http://www.chiharu-shiota.com/work09h.html

It is highly intimate to write about art, because while describing your feeling about an art piece, you are simply giving your audience a chance for them to put you on the psychoanalyst's couch.  There is actually a double psychoanalytic séance: first when you react to art (while listening to music or standing in front of the painting), second time when  you share your reaction with the others. In the latter case the audience acts as a psychoanalyst, as I already wrote, but in the former case it's the artist himself standing as Doctor F. At Hauschka's concert I did feel pressed in the sofa of this not infamous doctor.  Feeling, smiling,  crying,  reflecting,  laughing, writing.

And while Hauschka was getting out new and new instruments that he uses  to alter the sound (tennis balls, vibrators and tape to list a few), it seemed that these were put not inside of the piano, but  inside of me  to alter my inner voice. 

http://www.hauschka-net.de/fotodownload.htm

Sotheby's saleroom online

Stanley Spencer Sunflower and Dog Worship 4800000

Useful connections

The connections  between the artists as revealed to me  during the last lecture:
Picasso's "Portrait of Olga" (Musée Picasso, Paris) inspired by Ingres "Portrait of Madame Moitissier" (National Gallery, London):

and, more excitingly, explored myself:

The one on the left - "Madonna" by Munch (lithograph that was sold or at least offered for sale by David Tunick on TEFAF, 2011). 
Let's suppose you have not not noticed the first painting being signed, who do you think it is by?
And now after you saw a signature... Isn't it amazing??

Stanley Spencer. Chapter 1. The failed free love advocate.

The last week i've been restless trying to answer a simple, yet,  rhetorical question: Is Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) a great artist? or rather: Does Stanley Spencer matter?   The questions of this sort appear very challenging whenever you are trying to find an answer yourself, rather than to google the rating 'of the most important British Artists of the 20th century'.
The need of the definite answer  is augmented by the fact that  on June 15-17   the Evill/Frost Collection is on sale at Sotheby's London - simply 'the Greatest Collection of 20th-Century British Art Ever to Come to the Market'.   Along with Spencer's paintings,  this private collection comprises works by Lucian Freud, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, and al.

Workmen in the House, 1935

In the vacuum art market  the importance of the artist is positively correlated with the prices of his artworks. What implications can be derived from  the  £1.5-2.5 million estimate set by Sotheby's for  1935 "Workmen in the House"? Is Spencer undervalued?  With Francis Bacon, traditionally  referred to as a great British artist, reaching occasionally 44 million. So far, the highest price ever payed for Spencer was £1.3 million by  a London dealer Ivor Braka,  back in 1998. As Braka states himself,  no one has outbidded him since then.  So is Spencer unfairly cheap? Or do the  prices fetched reflect correctly the number of pages devoted to him in the 'history of art' volume?  Vicious circle, indeed. The connections between value and price have never been straightforward. 

For those who don't 'like' Tate's page on FB

Ai Weiwei, A Conversation