Things That Moved Me, From Art to Talking About the Weather
Egypt Saved by Joseph, by Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol, 1827, oil on canvas, ceiling of a room in the Louvre Palace, Paris
Written by Elena Chen
This week I’ve had the fortunate luck of hearing about, through a myriad of means (mostly my hodgepodge of subscribed newsletters and substacks that tend to deliver solid arts and culture food for thought), a couple of tidbits that really moved me in some way.
First, in an Impressionism class I take at the university I’m studying French at, I learned that Impressionism is not really an art movement characterized by a specific subject of study or even painting style but rather by a group of artists who were simply contrarian to the dominating painting traditions of the time in Europe. The predominant tendency during the first half of the 19th century in Europe was to paint in an Academic style where extreme painstaking detail was paid to create almost photorealistic renditions of often moments of History that were considered to be the most worthwhile subjects to portray.
Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down), by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872, oil on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
This style and tendency was heavily influenced by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts which is still viewed as one of the best art academies in Europe today. There was a hierarchical evaluation of painted subject matter in such that they should be painted in the Academic style but where Still Lifes and Landscapes were seen as the least demanding of artistic talent to paint. Frustrated with the hegemonic artistic style of the time, the Impressionists were a group of artists who painted using colors and lines much more freely, often outdoors and not in ateliers. They portrayed landscapes and quotidian life. A critic Louis Leroy in a scathing review against an independent exhibition hosted by several painters including Monet, called the group The Impressionists as "The Exhibition of the Impressionists" as a jab on Monet’s painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise).
Monet - Impression, Sunrise (1873)
The Impressionists, a name taken into favor by the public, was also then used by the group of artists themselves. What a power move. To imagine, this small, radical, anti-convention, band of poor and young people who gathered and tried to do something about the status quo AND that the public would be open to this change. The Salon, a grand art showing where paintings were selected by a jury composed of professors from the French Academie des Beaux-Arts to be exposed and bought, dictated and delineated what was worthy and valuable in painting at the time but was in fact undermined by this very group. Their idyllic and free-spirited painting translated to an attitude in their very lives.
Secondly, I was introduced to an extract of an article written by Ana Karina Zatarain talking about ugly shoes - how someone can make something ugly so interesting with just a paragraph absolutely took me. I received my weekly dose of Ridiculous Little Thing’s Substack and inside it was an interview with Zatarain that featured this paragraph:
This is the interview in its entirety.
I don’t really have much more to say other than to admire the sorcery of the written word and how it entrances us in the most beguiling and unexpected ways. Her insight on the ugly shoe that tries to be viral is a reminder to us that the ugly, of bad taste, kitsch and other nuances in subverting the mainstream aesthetic is actually meant to be meaningful after all. By engaging in the politics of fashion in this antagonistic manner we are able to reveal its true nature: it’s just dress up. We dress up to demonstrate an identity, don an image, or denounce a certain characteristic. Being viral is about seeking attention and making money, two things that people who love getting dressed for the sake of expression give very little about.
And now for the 3.5. Steve McCurry, photographer who took the National Geographic cover “The Afghan Girl” runs a photo blog where he will collate and curate the collection of images he has amassed over the years. I happened across a recent post about a seemingly mundane and rather uninteresting topic: the weather. I invite you, however, to look it over as I did, to see what it is about this thrilling conversation starter could be so interesting.
The photographs are obviously powerful. But the accompanying text, selected quotes from an article by Frank Trippett written for Time Magazine, really stood out to me. I snooped around and easily found the essay. It’s well worth the read. It's rare to find someone who has paid so much attention to something we may have all grown unaware of and see the profound influence it has had on human culture and history. The read was quite an anthropological experience and harkened back to my time reading about the most plain and unpronounced phenomena as worthy subjects of investigation. The ways in which our perspectives are shaped around that which attracts our attention and that which is worthy of our attention is fascinating.
Here’s to another week of inspiring anecdotes and thought-provoking weather.
Make it stand out
MARC JACOBS
