tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post6668561288714648450..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: NuxUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82334248662005495152011-11-12T04:54:21.570-08:002011-11-12T04:54:21.570-08:00I'd guessed you might feel that way, Curtis; g...I'd guessed you might feel that way, Curtis; good to hear the guess proved right.<br /><br />And welcome to you, Gareth. Very much appreciate the kind word. We need all the friends we can get.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8418599848297930502011-11-12T02:36:40.367-08:002011-11-12T02:36:40.367-08:00Dear Tom
Just wanted to say that I absolutely lov...Dear Tom <br />Just wanted to say that I absolutely love your blog. Incredibly stimulating and surprising every time. <br />Best wishes, <br /><br />GarethGareth Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09485447920295108870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64117217696398753272011-11-11T15:38:30.128-08:002011-11-11T15:38:30.128-08:00This is really superb. And I can't imagine any...This is really superb. And I can't imagine anyone tiring of looking at these paintings or, for that matter, La Tour's work. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-24524648172979703452011-11-11T14:54:25.931-08:002011-11-11T14:54:25.931-08:00Martha, thank you, that's exactly what this wa...Martha, thank you, that's exactly what this was meant to be, something like a stream of music. Of course it helped a lot that La Tour provided the magnificent Variations on a Theme, such a profound source to work with.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86878727185538477512011-11-11T12:58:16.911-08:002011-11-11T12:58:16.911-08:00You've collected & ordered these variation...You've collected & ordered these variations as a stream of music. Thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-66407077018869283452011-11-11T09:25:55.081-08:002011-11-11T09:25:55.081-08:00Yes, Annie, it does feel close. The pensiveness, c...Yes, Annie, it does feel close. The pensiveness, certainly. The reflection, the pondering. But... the comforting... well, one can always hope.<br /><br />(On the other hand, it is for sure and certain a comfort to be hearing from you.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-37883108655321067072011-11-11T09:13:20.493-08:002011-11-11T09:13:20.493-08:00It is striking that in each of these scenes, death...It is striking that in each of these scenes, death is her intimate, comforting familiar, a kind of touchstone within the pensive moment.Anniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01688157396670142310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64669557313342002562011-11-11T08:38:27.035-08:002011-11-11T08:38:27.035-08:00Gracias, Tom! For the post, of course. And for you...Gracias, Tom! For the post, of course. And for your wise words here aswellJuliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419101761966668410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-19580660718339764312011-11-11T07:47:27.956-08:002011-11-11T07:47:27.956-08:00Thanks everyone, glad I am not the only one who wi...Thanks everyone, glad I am not the only one who will never tire of looking at these great paintings.<br /><br />As you know, Julia, the skull tells us the work falls into that genre of symbolic comment upon the transient nature of human life, and human vanity in particular: Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas.<br /><br />See: <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/walter-benjamin-cult.html" rel="nofollow">Walter Benjamin: Cult</a>.<br /><br />In practise, the "vanity" genre came to outgrow its moralistic message. In Northern Europe, especially, the presence of the skull in a still-life became an excellent pretext for introducing all sorts of interesting objects, some symbolic, some not.<br /><br />About the use of candlelight... of course it's the key to everything, here.<br /><br />With La Tour, the lighting is at once expressive resource, indicator of inwardness and spiritual illumination, and technical device, advancing the art of painting "backward" -- that is, away from the classical Renaissance presentation of a luminous world, where nothing is hidden from view; a world organized according to principles of clear composition, which allow the viewer to grasp the story as economically as possible, and to see the intended harmonies between figures and objects as they unfold across the painting's surface -- and into the murky obscurities of darkness and shadow.<br /><br />Caravaggio had begun this exploration of the chiaroscuro mode. The raking shadows spread across Europe from Italy to Spain and Zurbarán. Whether La Tour, who came from the North, had seen any of that work, remains in question. It's been speculated he encountered the idea of painting "night-pictures" during a visit to Rome, or to the studios of painters in Utrecht. Or he might simply have stayed home in Lorraine and absorbed the influence of the "tenebroso" style from local painters. In any event he became the great master of the mode. In his later work, nocturnes dominate. His development of the candlelight pictures was remarkable and unique. Not just in the concentration and intensity, but in the radical reorganization of the elements of tenebrist picture-making.<br /><br />As to my poem, there's a sort of tenebrous element. It was writ late one rainy night about six weeks after 9/11. "Terror"-- when said by New Yorkers -- kept sounding like "Terra" to me, at that time. <br /><br />And there was the general sense then, of being in the dark.<br /><br />(Also ever since.)<br /><br />Little Prince was a true and veritable god, who too soon after the writing of the poem, sailed off on his barge into the eternal shadows.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-23000838566823386162011-11-11T07:14:23.381-08:002011-11-11T07:14:23.381-08:00Tom,
"On the upriver stream toward morning&q...Tom,<br /><br />"On the upriver stream toward morning"<br /><br />11.10<br /><br />light coming into sky above still black<br />ridge, whiteness of moon next to branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> there, nothing more carried<br /> forward by line which<br /><br /> is this, continuing further<br /> toward here, becoming<br /><br />first orange of sun rising above ridge,<br />white line of jet trail across from itSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61659542998388636232011-11-11T02:54:21.127-08:002011-11-11T02:54:21.127-08:00Very beautiful! As well as the skull has a renown ...Very beautiful! As well as the skull has a renown symbolic meaning, what does the candle intends to mean? I'm sure it's a symbolic object, but I'm not sure what does it means here (the enlightenment of faith?) I'll have to research this. Very interesting.Juliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419101761966668410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1294748087112932002011-11-10T12:08:44.112-08:002011-11-10T12:08:44.112-08:00Lovely lovely lovely and that last line, wow. I wi...Lovely lovely lovely and that last line, wow. I wish I could express this more eloquently, use a big world such as boalicra, but I cannot. I hope it will do.Robbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12312524900784740898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-15795150531635109012011-11-10T10:23:41.172-08:002011-11-10T10:23:41.172-08:00Yes, these are truly amazing!Yes, these are truly amazing!Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-54102957702445006342011-11-10T10:04:31.096-08:002011-11-10T10:04:31.096-08:00Very much agreed. I'd not seen these before, b...Very much agreed. I'd not seen these before, but find this morning I cannot stop looking. I must learn more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-57600123730606110602011-11-10T09:37:52.321-08:002011-11-10T09:37:52.321-08:00Brad, the candlelight scenes, with the mirrors par...Brad, the candlelight scenes, with the mirrors particularly, have a way of casting the inessentials into a penumbra of doubt and shadow, with the extraordinary effects of spiritual transformation bestowed by candlelight upon scenes of everyday life creating, in the same moment, a clarity not commonly associated with darkness and nocturnes. Contemplation finds its way in through the skull to the soul. La Tour's ability to use lighting and the meanings of lighting as the basis of his pictures remains astonishing to me, illuminating these unexpected dimensions...TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1744017130673434832011-11-10T08:59:00.601-08:002011-11-10T08:59:00.601-08:00This is tremendous, Tom. Her gaze, as seemingly ho...This is tremendous, Tom. Her gaze, as seemingly hollow as that of a skull . . . but, maybe, not quite. The gaze into nothing, or at the body, a kind of something borne of and reduced eventually to nothing -- into & at the mirrors all around.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com