Buddha Contemplates --- Day 10/88

Walk: No, Done in by Pickleball Camp

Distance: n/a, no yoga, no anything

Nam June Paik – TV Buddha, 1974/2002, Statue of Buddha, TV monitor, closed-circuit camera,

Maybe because she is of a certain age (ie, the age that slowly types on its iphone with one finger), Ciwt isn't a fan of video art.  But she is a fan of poetry, humor, brilliant insight, stillness, quiet and such so she Loved TV Buddha by the "Father of Video Art" Nam June Paik (1932-2006).

To stay au current for CIWT readers (thank you!) and art tour clients, she went reluctantly to SFMOMA's huge retrospective* of the Korean born, musically trained, internationally active artist's works.  Her assumption was that the entire show would be alien and incomprehensible to her.  

But luckily TV Buddha was the very first work in the very first room, and she was pulled right in to Paik's timeless orbit.  The yogini in her immediately thought of the present day 'popness' of the ancient discipline of yoga. But that was just one - of many - associations the work conjured for her.

Surveilence, selfies, the complex presence of technology in human society, religion, history, future.  All those associations and more seem to be present in the work - on public display but so personal in its reception by each viewer past, present and beyond.

*Nam June Paik, SFMOMA, May 8 - October 3, 2021

SF 'Remodels' --- Days 10/86 & 87

Walk: 1. Novato Engage Pickleball Camp  2. Ditto

Distance:  1. 5 hours Baking Hot Pickleball drills and Play  2. Ditto

1.

2.

3.

And Ciwt's pickleball game got a two day 'remodel.'

Tan Returns --- Day 10/85

Walk: No

Distance: n/a

Ciwt thought so!  The cold era of grey everything

  blue kitchens ,

and black houses  would likely come to an end.  

Judging from store windows around here, it looks like it is on its way out.  And tan is on its way in.  Right now they are taking it gradually with nice tweedy mixtures of gray and tan and white.  

Can't happen soon enough for Ciwt. Too stark, cold, gloomy (and pretentious) for her.

The Agile Cat Artist --- Days 10/83 & 84

 Walk:  1. Day of Reading, Rest, Laundry,  2. T.. Joe's, then more of the same with cats

Distance: 1. n/a,  2. 3.6 miles

Famous Cats:

Ignoring You Cats:

Looking at You (sort of) Cats:

Being Nice to You for Food Cats:

Sleeping Cats (of course):

Kittens:

And so many more cats in a wide range of mediums

by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss, 1859-1923).  Known as "The Man Who Loved Cats," the classically trained Steinlen also loved his daughter (a frequent subject with cats as above), Montmartre where he moved from Lausanne, artist friends like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the French cabaret scene, and politics which he depicted under a pseudonym.  You can find his headstone in the cemetery at Montmartre and visit his art in many prestigious museums around the world including the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Musee d'Orsay in Paris, MoMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington. D.C.*

But none of Steinlen's cats are lap cats!  Not a one of his hundreds if not thousands.  Too sophisticated perhaps.  Luckily that can't be said of Ciwt's sister cats who are happily keeping her warm during this particularly cold and windy San Francisco summer.

* We even have some in our SFFAM collection  https://art.famsf.org/th%C3%A9ophile-alexandre-steinlen but -don't tell her cats - Ciwt has yet to see any on display.

Still in Doubt, More Cats --- Days 10/79, 80, 81, 82

Walk: 1. GG Park Pickleball  2. Various Hoods and Errands 3. GG Park Pickleball 4. Presidio Wall Pickle

Distance: 1. 1.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle 2. 3.5 miles  3. 2 miles  4. 5.5 miles   (Always some yoga)

Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss active in France, 1829-1923), A la Bodiniaire, 1894

He didn't just create the iconic black poster cat.  Stay tuned....

When in Doubt...Cats --- Day 10/78

Walk: Presidio Pickleball

Distance:  2 miles, 90 minutes pickle

 Bart van der Leck, The Cat, 1914, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.

Weekend!! --- Day 10/76 & 77

Walk: 1. T. Joe's 2. No, Sunday Home Stuff

Distance: 1. 2.5 miles 2. .5 miles, Yoga

Ciwt's Marvelous Summer Weekend in SF.  (Really; she's a homebody)

Straight Down the Winding Road --- Day 10/75

Walk: Presidio Pickleball, Vogue Theater (Roadrunner)

Distance: 4.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle

 

An incredibly straight forward presentation of one man's life.  Yes, it and he was extraordinary, but there's no effort to put him on a pedestal or sentimentalize or 'solve' his death.  You really feel like, yes, this is who he was - as much as that can be known.