Friday, February 18, 2011

The Carrot Revolution

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution - Paul Cezanne


The man in the moon drinks claret,
But he is a dull Jack-a-dandy;
Would he know a sheep's head from a Carrot
He should learn to drink cider and brandy.

Song of Mad Tom in Midsummer Night's Dream


Willem Frederik van Royen, The Carrot, 1599

 René Magritte, The Explication, 1952

You ask “What is life?” That is the same as asking “What is a carrot?” A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more.  (Anton Chekhov, Letter to his wife, Olga Knipper Chekhov, April 20, 1904)

 This undated photo shows Lydia Guevara. The granddaughter of Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto 'Che' Guevara is the face of a new campaign touting 'the vegetarian revolution'. It is the first vegetarianism campaign in South America 

 Bunny Project at Örebro Open Art, Sweden 2009

 Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), The Greengrocer

Willem van Mieris, The Greengrocer, 1731

 Peter Blume, Vegetable Dinner, 1927

 François Boucher, Boy Holding a Carrot, 1738 

When a boy gets weak and ill and don't relish his meals, we give him a change of diet--turn him out, for an hour or so every day, into a neighbour's turnip field, or sometimes, if it's a delicate case, a turnip field and a piece of carrots alternately, and let him eat as many as he likes. (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens)

 Diego Rivera, Las tentaciones de San Antonio, 1947


Queen Anne's Lace
by William Carlos Williams


Her body is not so white as
anemony petals nor so smooth -- nor
so remote a thing. It is a field
of the wild carrot taking
the field by force; the grass
does not raise above it.     

 Unknown Master

 Henri Rousseau

James Gillray, Carrot Sandwich, 1796 
The scene represented here is said to have been one of the usual amusements of Lord Sandwich. A guinea was the usual mark of his attention to the lucky flower-girl, or itinerant barrow-woman, who attracted his glance.




In Frank Capra’s 1934 Oscar-winning comedy, It Happened One Night, Clark Gable nervously munches on carrots.

A man here and there was gnawing a frozen carrot, with a kind of animal satisfaction expressed in his face; and thunderous snores came from generals who lay muffled up in ragged cloaks. (The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac)
 

In the 1960's television series episode of "Lost in Space" Dr. Smith is attacked by a giant carrot. Millions of American children feared carrots after this episode was broadcast.

 Poster for 'Le Roi Carotte', an operetta by Jacques Offenbach at the Theatre de la Gaité, 1872

 Romeo Salta, Una carota al Parlamento, c. 1900

So now my lord and lady duke and duchess, here is your governor Sancho Panza, who in the bare ten days he has held the government has come by the knowledge that he would not give anything to be governor, not to say of an island, but of the whole world; and that point being settled, kissing your worships' feet, and imitating the game of the boys when they say, 'leap thou, and give me one,' I take a leap out of the government and pass into the service of my master Don Quixote; for after all, though in it I eat my bread in fear and trembling, at any rate I take my fill; and for my part, so long as I'm full, it's all alike to me whether it's with carrots or with partridges.  (Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes)

 George Condo, Portrait of a Queen, 2006

 Jean Dubuffet, Carrot Nose, 1961

ESTRAGON:
(violently). I'm hungry!
VLADIMIR:
Do you want a carrot?
ESTRAGON:
Is that all there is? 

(Beckett, Waiting for Godot)


 Viktor Pivovarov, Party, 2008

Had she expected to see the fascinating stranger so soon again? I think she had. Her big eyes said as much, as, furtively looking up at Mr. Walker’s face, they caught his looks; and then bouncing down again towards her plate, pretended to be very busy in looking at the boiled beef and carrots there displayed. She blushed far redder than those carrots, but her shining ringlets hid her confusion together with her lovely face. (William Makepeace Thackeray, Men's Wives, ch. III)

"Only in dreams are carrots as big as bears." (Old Yiddish saying)

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Sun is Red

 Shen Han Wun, The Sun is Red, c. 2000

"In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine." (Mao Tse-tung, "Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 86)

 Shen Han Wun, Untitled, c. 2000

 Ling Jian, The East is Red, 2000s

 Hu Ming, Tranparent Military, 2007

Great realism, therefore, does not portray an immediately obvious aspect of reality but one which is permanent and objectively more significant, namely man in the whole range of his relations to the real world, above all those that outlast mere fashion. Over and above that, it captures tendencies of development that only exist incipiently and so have not yet had the opportunity to unfold their entire human and social potential. (Georg Lukács, "Realism in the Balance", 1938) 

© Andy Green - Thanks to Fantomatic

Zhong Biao, Midday Sun, 2006

 He Sen, Cigarettes and Alcohol, 2006

There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the light to the heavy, shoving the heavy loads on to others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of themselves before others. When they make some small contribution, they swell with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no warmth towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and apathetic. In fact such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as true Communists. (Mao Tse-Tung, "In Memory of Norman Bethune" (December 21, 1939), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 337-38)

 Erró – Point to the East, Point to the West, 2000s

 Manga

 Houston, we have a problem

 Wei Dong

 Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline, 2005

 Zhang Xiaogang, My Dream: Little General, 2005

 PLA air force pilots salute during a training session for China's 60th anniversary military parade at a military base in Beijing, China.

 Yue Minjun, Armed Forces (aus der Serie „Hat“), 2005

 Yue Minjun, Execution, 2000s

Yue Minjun, born 1962, is  based in Beijing. He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. His piece “Execution” became the most expensive work ever by a Chinese contemporary artist, when sold in 2007 for £2.9 million pounds (US $5.9 million) at London's Sotheby's. 

Yan Pei-Ming, Exécution, après Goya, 2008



Hi Panda, © Ji Ji, 2006 detail, 2007

 Li Zhanyang, Rent – Rent Collection Yard, 2007, Detail of installation at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, History Observed: Joseph Beuys, Mao Zedong

 Shi Xinning, Duchamp Retrospective Exhibition, 2000–2001

 Max Scheler, Cleaning Mao Zedong, Bejing 1967

 Li Shan, Mao, 2005

 Fang Lijun, Series 2, No. 2, "Howl" (1991 - 1992)

Fang Lijun is a leading figure of the Cynical Realist school, which was a reaction against the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989. The figure of a baldheaded youth has been his trademark, alternately interpreted as mocking, disillusioned, or displaced.  

Fang Lijun, 2001.1.15, 2001

 Wang Niandong, Urban Desire, 2000s

 Wang Du, Untitled, 2000s

 He Sen, Space and Air, 2008

 Jiang Guo Fang, Dream of a Lotus Flower, 2008

 Wang Xingwei, untitled (air hostess), 2005

 Wang Xingwei, Comrade Xiao He N. 2, 2008

 Zeng Fanzhi, Dog Series, 2000s

 Zeng Fanzhi, Hospital Series, 1994

Zhong Biao, Untitled, 2000s 

 Zhang Huan, To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997 (Performance)

 Fang Lijun, B.1963, 1998

 Hu Ming, Transparent Military, 2007

 Xiaoze Xie, February 6, 2003. L.T. (The Pretext), 2008
Colin L. Powell addressing the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, holding up a bottle of fake yellowcake uranium. 

 Tang Zhigang, Children in a Meeting, 2002

 Zhou Tiehai, Cattellan - Mini Me, 2006