Loteria!!!

Detail of Death by Tupperware (2005) by Daniela Edburg

Although I love going to the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, sometimes their way of presenting the permanent collection baffles me. The curation seems a bit arbitrary or disconnected to the actual premise of the artwork on view. Since their collection is really impressive, this seems to be a lost opportunity to educate museum visitors as to the actual context or intent of the works displayed.

For instance, their current exhibition is LOTERIA: An Interpretation of MOLAA's Permanent Collection, in which various artworks have been selected to represent certain cards from the game, Loteria, a Mexican game of chance, like Bingo. This is an interesting approach; after all, if one can build a show around landscapes, still life, portraiture, or era, then why not organize based on game iconography? The problem is that the works have no inherent connection to gaming or game symbolism.

Nevertheless, the art in this exhibit is really good. Yeah, the curatorial approach seems scattershot, but the end result is enjoyable. Although organized as representing Loteria cards, this conceptual framework doesn't detract from appreciation of the pieces themselves. And, to be honest, this arrangement is no more arbitrary than setting them up on the wall in accordance with date of production or the letter of the artist's last name.

Detail of Citzij (2006) by Veronica Riedel

So, if there's no harm, then there's no foul. It doesn't really matter if a work is arranged as representative of The Crown or The Drunk or The Moon. As long as the art is accessible, then the curation has done its job.

The Second Hand Unwinds

Mickey Mouse Lorus alarm clock


Yikes!!! Where does all my time go?

Well, I was thinking of celebrating Mick Jagger's birthday. He was born on July 26, 1943. However, I don't really have enough free time today to do a decent job of expressing what I like about his music, how it influenced subsequent generations of Rock 'n' Roll artists, or which pieces are my favorites.

Moreover, this type of post is deceptively time intensive. I spend way too much time wading through videos looking for the ones that are both engaging and capable of being embedded. Both of these elements are obnoxiously complicated because of YouTube's intellectual property concerns. While I have some empathy the situation, ultimately it is just an irritation.

Veronica Lodge watch: "Lots of Bucks"


Oh well, that's about all the time that I have for now. ;-)

Umbrellas and Brooms

Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice is featured in a scene of Fantasia (1940)

We've got a few Disney-related events to celebrate today.

The French composer, Paul Dukas, was born on this date in 1865. His most famous work was the Sorcerer's Apprentice, which has become inextricably connected with the Disney interpretation in the 1940 cinematic feature Fantasia. I have a special love for the Sorcerer's Apprentice because of how it serves as an example against the modern Disney-influenced concept of intellectual property.

Let me explain. The history of the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" story spans over 2000 years. In ancient Egypt, there was a believe that magical funerary figures, ushabti, could be enchanted so as to perform one's work in the afterlife. Playing off of this belief, the ancient Greek satirist, Lucian of Samosata, created the basic narrative as we now know it in his work, the Philopseudes, written c.150 AD. Centuries later, the German writer, Goethe, does a "remake" of the story in his poem Der Zauberlehrling. This poem inspired Dukas to create his tone poem. And Disney uses the music as the basis for the wonderful scene in Fantasia.

It's really cool to see how different minds shaped the underlying source material over the centuries. It's too bad that modern "property" restrictions make creating works of derived influence a risky legal endeavor. Fortunately, contemporary "mash up" projects in music and literature are bringing the Disney "property" paradigm into question.

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins


And we're also celebrating the birthday of Julie Andrews. Happy 76th Birthday!!!