Mystical Things

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

A few years ago I wrote about two artists who played with the question of whether what they are depicting is anything more or less than words on a page or paint on a surface. Both the poet George Herbert and the painter Arcimboldo make art of the question, What is art? Is it what it depicts, an idea about what it depicts, both at the same time (which makes it a third option), or something less than? Is art, by definition, always a misfire, in that a depiction of a thing is not the thing and never can be?

Arcimboldo painted portraits of character types rather than individuals; for instance, a librarian composed entirely of books or a gardener made of vegetables in a bowl. That latter painting depends on the viewer to decide to see the bowl filled with veggies or a human “face.”
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Today in History: Dec. 11

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The Mona Lisa (above) was found on this date 103 years ago. The painting, already one of the most famous in the world, had been stolen two years earlier from its spot on a wall in the Musée du Louvre in Paris by an Italian worker, Vincenzo Peruggia, who later claimed that he stole it to return one of Italy’s most famous works to its home country.

The real story was less patriotic than that and more banal: the Mona Lisa was the only painting that Peruggia could fit under his arm, as he was only 5’3″. Further, he did not know that Leonardo da Vinci himself had given the painting to his French patron, the King of France, Francis I, so it belonged in the Louvre and nowhere else. And, of course, he stole it for money: Peruggia tried to sell the painting, and he even called the Mona Lisa his “lottery ticket” in a letter home.
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Speak Out for Ashraf Fayadh

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In February 2016, a court in Abha, Saudi Arabia, announced that it had retracted its November 2015 death sentence for the poet Ashraf Fayadh and exchanged it for a sentence of eight years in prison and 800 lashes with a cane. He must also make a public statement of repentance.

This new sentence switched his conviction from one of apostasy, or renouncing his religion, to one of blasphemy, insulting that religion and its leaders.

Today, December 10, International Human Rights Day, a date celebrated by the United Nations and human rights organizations for decades. Artists and activists around the world are speaking out on behalf of Ashraf Fayadh by creating art, writing essays, joining a Tweetstorm, recording podcasts, and many other ways of showing support. The website “Arabic Literature (in English)” published a list of ten suggestions in a July post: “Make Noise & Beauty on July 28, a Day of Creativity for Ashraf Fayadh.” If you participate, please use the hashtag #FreeAshraf. Everything that follows below is my small contribution.
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