brutalities inflicted by US roops
rom promptly bringing the occupa
gton Past his published on articl
nt of Haditha Last week images or
sein were beamed around the word
ly in June 1867, then a political
ferent circumstances: he idealist
exico, who hid seen installed thr
ention, farce a firing squad of
news, Edouard Manet made som
intings. In January 1862 - exactl
he day was that over 10,000 Briti
s were disembarking at the port
claim of forcing Mexico to pay it
he came clear that France had som
nge. Britain and Spain had the men
hat was burning into an ugly impe
II's part, in search of mineral we
ome. The news, then, of what hops
utterly unexpected: the mist ren
liated by the ferocious resistance
ut this, of course, was only thee
visit the National Gallery in Lond
from my native Yorkshire. An ar
interest in military things, I w
opped painting by Manet that I e
ldier holding a gun - a sergeant
work was said to be a fragment o
execution in 1867 of the empero
mad ever heard of this incident
being largely about countries th
ce I had just the one soldier to
had taken place. Perhaps that wa
have spent a lot of time looking
read London painting that now co
s, and in the other works that M
een 1867 and 1869. Since Novem
nging together an exhibition at
New York that I organised, lean
is about the art, in the process.
itors to the exhibition, I leaned
win up with a sketchy knowledge
hough Juárez had bent his family
ice, finally victorious, persuaded
but naive archduke of Austria, to
one I spoke to said: the exhibitio
ot an anarchist university in the
hes Marxism; we were note trying
onnor, a Tent University professo
its birth to write a book on punk
d on anarchist principles" - cone
ralized organizing and a non-hier
meetings, according to the school
The balloon was attached to a we
he balloon with magic marker; no
e argued strongly that he should
ge and refunded the postal fees,
uld actually be lighter as a resul
seasoning merely received a laugh
fused; reasons given: transportati
r classes have a fair amount of st
s. This bends to give a higher qua
es the facilitator to seriously con
ching, it gives people at an Anarc
view and mark suggestions, and
so to know what they are going to
turn is the dismantling of the trad
her and student. There's less of
art and other people are there to
with the boundless knowledge of
probable Research report on po
JAR experimented by sending all
her packages through the US mail
objects were delivered, and in wh
s, human teeth in clear plastic bo
at of her! a hammer, a skit, a fe
and many others. The USPS score
sometimes they added snappy t
ooth: Please be advised that hum
ported through the nail, but we
value, and made an exception in
ary is not only the obvious paral
e baleful consequences of a milit
change, exacerbated by ignorance
untry. Rust as contemporary is wh
nce, learned of the progress of t
ave known for certain hat, by tin
1864, Napoleon III was trying to
ready become a risky business. N
n that Napoleon told two lies to
y 1866, when he said that France
ian was strong enough to stand a
rom journalistic reports and, lat
nto France - of the consequences
he collapse of Maximilian's remain
uerétaro, just north of Mexico Ci
n execution there, by firing squad
ejía, on June 19 1867. The elegy
ve came early this year - on Dec
of Patti Smith's traditional Chris
ry Ballroom. The first hour of the
performance of Smith's 1988 al
chord she ever mode with her late
who co-wrote and co-produced fall
her guitars. Dream of Life is best
him, "People Have the Power," whic
of every Patti Smith show I've see
in 1995. But the entire album -
f fighting spirit, grieving memori
discovery, and this show was an e
der of Dream of Life's obscured g
not know for certain what, precis
As the reports filtered in from ab
y, unreliable, censored - as they
or Napoleon's government. We must
er a succession of newspaper stov
hoping for clarification and defin
ether not finding it or disbelievi
imagine him piercing together fra
ey did not realistically or complet
need, but offered, rather, the meat
very to create truly political art.
to es political art as rally polem
rcing a belief, nor often a blame.
does not reduce human affairs to
simplifies. Indeed, any of them
en performed live before, and Sm
ack pains earlier in the week, she
premiere. But she recovered quic
she blanked on a lyric, and her
,representing his father on guita
album's original seen. It as stir
wer," which opened the record, at
f Life, made during Smith's full-t
with her daughter Jesse during th
nty of rock to go around, and then
or every pause to reflect on loss
Cross," the title song, "Going Und
end-off of "Up There Down There
Warhol died), the prescient firefi
s references to Lebanon, Iran and
e of Looking for You. In his fires
collection of the Museum of Fire
ignoring mist of the early, contr
ent. He did not trouble himself o
been three firing squads for the t
or whether or not there had been
tead, he borrowed freely from Go
nting of 1814 that depicts the ex
invading French soldiers under t
apoleon I. Manet was imagining a
most the opposite: Mexican natio
tive of a French invasion. He dres
pants and sombreros, which con
at ordinary Mexican soldiers look
suggests that he was beginning
aying the album's final lullabye,
utumnal outtake "Wild Leaves" -
e Power" - Smith continued to s
mportant to the record and passe
(for Fred) and "Beneath the South
(for friend and photographer Rob
o made sober note of the news th
cution, warning that this was not
aceable Kingdom" from Trampin'
m, peace and dignity for an Iraq
ondon painting, Manet made this
port in Le Figaro that soldiers
h uniform, and he had probably s
tion squad and the bullet-riddle
. He brought into his studio a sq
or the picture, and - in sheer pro
ted the facial features of the ser
at they resembled those of Napol
anet could, then, have received p
ndeed, a photography dealer had
possession of some of the photo
when in clandestine circulation. T
dio and the artist eventually bega
ing, now in the collection of the
hortly after Manet's own death, th
ran into the painter Edgar Degas
wheeling one of Manet's painting
ith a gun. "It's an outrage!" Degas
one's daring to cut up a picture li
family did it. All I can say, nev
gment, but the rest of it was gon
eces are. In fact, Degas also fou
gments and glued the four in the
and that was how the National G
ale of Degas's collection in 1918.
rds the pieces that Degas had as
separated, and not until 1992 ca
n a single support, in the first ex
ogether at the National Gallery. N
exhibition, the painting will be b
his last work, Manet again looked
ullfight scenes - to make the spac
ce devoted to the ritual killing of
e of the object that had been the
illing, namely the raised sword th
hich can be seen in the backgrou
know from x-rays that, originally
esented in the Mannheim work. P
xecution without a cause, implac
spectators looking on, as we look
med for the killing. While, standin
ned, the sergeant at the right is s
Then, as if she'd finally had enoug
tic U-turn into a closing Bo Diddl
g the departed Godfather with a
of "Living in America") and returni
ing Stones' "Gimme Shelter" -- a
h Smith's Dream of Life finally ca
ning in the Mannheim work? At fire
the instant of execution. Yet only
hot, seems to have been hit; acros
uskets is compacted in an ugly,
bullets. Maximilian himself still l
to be fading into another realm, w
remains alert and curious. Beside
in time, transparent in places to t
poral as well as spatial relationsh
nstantaneous moment, but also to
w motion. And we - the viewers -
er we look. In the London paintin
is calm, distanced, waiting for th
ontemporary viewers knew had a
ce charged for his indifference, fo
gical interiority. However, the lon
more I am convinced that he has
First, he is the medium through w
, officially sanctioned cruelty tha
And, second, the manner of his pa
dy does, an attachment to reality
destroy it. For these seasons, Ma
of a very ordinary soldier continu
class. There were very few contemp
was prohibited from exhibiting thi
who did see it must have felt horr
e terrible ineptness of the executi
it, what had happened after the
sergeant is readying his gun is
e coup de grâce if the squad had
emned men. They hadn't. We noti
alls into the Mannheim painting a
h him as he waits, apart in his ha
e squad fires silently. But we are
d later, starting at the deafening
d been killed instantly, but Mejía
g, until a shot in the ear delivere
nished him. Maximilian, however,
viously not dead. So the sergeant
the shot, hitting Maximilian in th
to kill him, but also, according t
musket ignited Maximilian's ves
ater on him to extinguish them. C
he ground, and all was in confusi
s tried in turn to end his sufferin
ne after the other. The sergeant
ed the cleaning rod of his muske
en, he shot at point-blank range.
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