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This version was saved 17 years, 2 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by jim leftwich
on January 8, 2007 at 9:00:09 pm
 

 

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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