[AGL] who is Waldo Lydecker

[Wayne Johnson]

Connie.

My absolute favorite Waldo Lydecker quote: "In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention. "

for more - try:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037008/quotes

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Work titles are always, I think, subject to whatever is intellectually fashionable at any given moment.  With the Dada group whose entire essence is based on the juxtaposition of images and the desire to turn everyday experiences inside out, titles could be anything from Construction No. One to some Mallarme or Classical reference.  Whimsy was encouraged.  Nothing was out of "order" and nothing was sacred.  Much energy was directly derived from both psychoanalysis and subsequent (as an art movement) Surrealism.  Most of the major artists of the time, for example Duchamp, were Intellectuals of the best Cafe/Salon type.  They were extremely literate and very agile mentally.  Too bad Shattuck got his nose whumped.  (Actually, I always found him that way too....too impressed with himself, although himself was very impressive.  His work provided his reputation and he didn't need to belabor the point. One man's opinion.  Tres smart, tres chic.)

Good to know Houston art scene is providing flexible venues for creative people.  Lots of energy in photography these days.  I think the Digital Revolution is going to add enormously to the world of art.  But it does not and cannot totally supplant the visual experience of say...walking up to a fourteen foot tall Morris Louis or Clyfford Still painting.  I am still basically a "printmaker" who loves working in a technique which actually reached its zenith in the days of Altdorfer, Durer and Rembrandt.  But the effort is so rewarding.  Besides, with a "real" print you can get something that is impossible to achieve with ANY inkjet print....embosure.  (Which takes a bit of explaining but essentially means one gets small "specular reflections" from the (embossed) paper which gives it a "sparkle" that can only be emulated but never replicated in inkjet or similar process.  Nor any photographic technique. )

Yes. Civil engineers should HAVE to spend time actually DOING the dirty work of engineering.  Anyone providing professional services, as a Service Industry to some kind of Construction Work, MUST understand what it means to measure, assemble and/or create in the "field."

Would you want a surgeon to perform open heart surgery on you if ALL his/jher prior experience had been with computer simulations?    

'nuff said.

thanks.

wayne

did you do the SWXSW thing?


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Connie Clark 
  To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
  Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 9:58 AM
  Subject: [AGL] who is Waldo Lydecker


  WJ
  The basics of drawing and seeing goes to a similar idea that I had regarding civil engineering, in that all engineering students should not only take surveying classes (some don't these days), but perhaps spend a semester as a rod man on a survey crew.  It would be similar don't you think.

  Pretty much all of the major exhibitors here in Houston this Spring are worth the effort to see - and it does take time and energy to get over to the dozen or so exhibit spaces scattered around town.  There are a lot of adjunct galleries showing photos also, but they turn out to be a little on the wall calendar quality photos - pretty but....

  Techniques are all over the place.  Two artists I've seen are doing the photos of photos, laying organic materials over photo 1 with a mixture of b/w photo and color beans or twigs, a collage effect.

  Another thing I noticed are the work titles.  I often wonder about this, and in fact at a Man Ray show at the Houston Museum a few years back, I asked the guy who wrote the Banquet Years?  he was lecturing the opening - anyway, I had noticed that Man Ray tends to give very strange titles to his works, some artists just call their pieces #1 in a series, etc., so there must be something the artist is trying to convey when they compose a wierd indecipherable title.  oh yeah, it was Roger Shattuck, and he gave me a snobby answer, like I shouldn't expect the titles to mean anything.  What do you think?

  I didn't catch the WL reference, so will have to google it and see what I missed from you oh clever and reverent one.

  Oh, btw, you may be glad to hear that photographic art is selling big these days - with prices getting closer to paintings.

  Connie




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