Rivera and Kahol in Detroit

This weekend the Detroit Institute of Arts opens their special exhibit on Diego Rivera and Freda Kahol. The focus is on their time in Detroit between July 1832 and March 1933 when Mexican born Diego Rivera (1886-1957) created his masterpiece mural Detroit Industry. As members of the museum we were able to attend a preview for the show which opens March 15 and runs through July 12, 2015. The exhibit includes cartoons of the murals, videos, and art by both Rivera and Kahol.

Edsel B. Ford, son of Henry Ford and Ford heir, and William Valentiner, director of the DIA, commissioned Rivera for the project. Rivera was paid $25,000.

 Edsel B. Ford, who donated $10,000, and William Valentiner, Director of the DIA, who commissioned the project

Rivera spent months studying the Detroit factories and labs. He then put in 16 hour days painting. He lost 100 pounds. Rivera Court is impressive. How the artist managed to do the work in eight months is unthinkable. (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/09/05/mura-s05.html)

Ford was amazed that Rivera caught all the details and complexity of the Rouge River Plant and assembly lines.

 "Edsel Ford was carried away by the accurate rendering of machinery in motion and by the clearness of the composition, which was not confused by the great number of workmen represented, each occupied with his assigned job. The function of the machinery was so well understood that when engineers looked at the finished murals they found each part accurately designed…"

http://www.diego-rivera-foundation.org/The-Assembly-of-an-Automobile,-1932-large.html

Rivera  arrived in Detroit in the middle of the Depression. He was a Marxist and his work elevates the role of the worker. When Rivera completed the mural in 1933 some were outraged by the murals and wanted them whitewashed. A Detroit News editorial called it coarse, vulgar, and "un-American." It is now a National Historic Landmark.

"I admire Rivera's spirit. I really believe he was trying to express his ideal of the spirit of Detroit." Edsel Ford

10,000 people came to see the murals. People were amazed and proud to see their work captured in art. The common man saved Rivera's work.

Dear Master,Please, give me the permission to express my grateful thanks for the greatness of your feeling and understanding in all your great work, this, your own creation as I stand here and see it with my old eyes that labored for 45 years for others with no other recognition in this corrupt society than just to be called a ‘hand.’Therefore useful workers of the world, for the first time in the history of mankind, shall honor you as the first great artist of understanding, and with your great help the workers of the world will take their place. Wishing you a healthy, joyful life.Respectfully, Louis Gluck. For 45 years a wood carver.( http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/09/05/mura-s05.html)

See details about Rivera Court here.

During this time Freda Kahol was painting, developing a new style, and suffered a miscarriage.

Rivera and Kahol, http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4608&iid=

The exhibit begins with her pencil sketch of that depicts a bus accident that left her badly injured when she was only 18 years old. She was in a full body cast for months. Later in the exhibit we see her painting that depicted her post-miscarriage experience at Henry Ford Hospital. She also had polio as a child and perhaps was born with spina bifida. It was moving to know what she had endured. Rivera changed a portion of the mural from depicting farming to depicting a healthy fetus in the womb.

 Kahol and Rivera had a stormy and complex relationship which is only hinted at.

I enjoyed seeing the artist's paintings not related to their time in Detroit. There is a beautiful painting of Rivera's daughter from his first marriage; she holds a bronze mirror.

We also enjoyed seeing Make A Joyful Noise, Renaissance Art and Music at Florence Cathedral which runs through May 167, 2015. Included were illuminated, over-sized choral books that took six years to create and reliefs from the singing gallery created by Luca della Robbia.

See Rivera's paintings at http://www.diego-rivera-foundation.org/the-complete-works.html

The Given World by Marian Palaia

Show me a body.

How many people have held that question in their hearts, unable to let ghosts rest or hope die? Marian Palaia's first book The Given World traces twenty-five years in the life of Riley, a Montana girl whose adored big brother Mitch leaves college for Vietnam and is lost in the tunnels of Cu Chi.

After her lover is drafted she leaves their newborn baby to find the ocean. Riley disappears into the San Francisco life of the 1970s, with its alcohol, drugs, and life on the street, seeking homes with other broken people. Unable to find peace, she goes to Saigon to see the tunnels of Cu Chi herself.

Riley is broken, she makes self-destructive choices, she flees from wholeness. Not only does 'shit happen,' Riley feels at home there. The story is painful to read, but never did I feel judgmental or repulsed by Riley. I was rooting for her every page.

Palaia's world and characters are palpably real, rooted in a deep knowledge, created with a capable and polished art. I only wish we had followed Riley real time into the tunnels. I wanted to know more about what transformation, or lack of it, occurred there.

Riley's mother consoles her daughter toward the book's end: We were never meant to be perfect. What blessed assurance: to be loved because of our brokenness and pain and accepted for our imperfection.

The review that compelled me to request this book read:

"Not all the American casualties of Vietnam went to war. In stunning, gorgeous prose, in precise, prismatic detail, Palaia begins with that rupture and works her way deep into the aftermath-- its impact on one person, on one family, on one country. Riveting and revelatory." Karen Joy Fowler author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

To learn more about Marian Palaia see an interview at The Quivering Pen
http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-first-time-marian-palaia.html

I received a free ebook through NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review.

The Given World
by Marian Palaia
Simon & Schuster
Publication April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-4767-7793-1 hardbound
ISBN: 9781-4767-7805-1 ebook

R.I.P. Terry Pratchett

It was my son, blogger at Battered, Tattered, Yellowed & Creased, who introduced me to Terry Pratchett. We have been reading books together all his life. I gave him The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird. He gave me Blackhawk Down, Neil Gaiman--and Terry Pratchett who died this week of early onset Alzheimer's disease.

My favorite Pratchett book is Dodger. It is set in Victorian London, a place I know well from my concentration on 19th c English literature. Dodger is a seventeen year old street urchin, accomplished in all the arts necessary to survive, who has innate intelligence and a heart of gold.

"I'm Dodger--that's what they call me, on account I'm never there, if you see what I mean? Everybody in the boroughs knows Dodger." 

Dodger was trying to help a lady in distress when two 'coves' take over. The men turn out to be Charles Dickens and Mathew Mayhew who wrote London Labor and the London Poor and to whom Pratchett's book is dedicated.

"Charlie--he looked the type who would look at a body and see right inside you. Charlie, Dodger considered, might well be a dangerous cove, a gentleman who knew the ins and outs of the world and could see through flannel and soft words to what you were thinking, which was dangerous indeed."

The trio take care of the girl and endeavor to solve the mystery of her identity. We come to know the toshers who draw valuables from the sewers of London. Sir Robert Peel leads his policemen in a hunt of the London sewers.

cleaning the sewers of London

Dodger has a dangerous run-in with Sweeney Todd. But all comes out right in the end, and Dodger's great expectations are fulfilled.

"Money makes people rich; it is a fallacy to think it makes them better, or even that it makes them worse. People are what they do, and what they leave behind."

What Pratchett has left behind is his fantasy DiscWorld series, Good Omens co-written with Neil Gaiman, a lot of good reading, and many sad fans.

Read my son's post In Memoriam--Terry Pratchett at
https://yellowedandcreased.wordpress.com

The Last Flight of Poxl West

Fifteen-year-old Eli idolizes his surrogate 'Uncle' Poxl, both as a war hero who flew bombers over Hamburg--a Nazi-killing Jew--and as an urbane professor who introduced him to the arts and read his manuscript to him. When Poxl's memoir Skylock: Memoir of a Jewish R.A.F. Bomber becomes an 'instant classic' Eli is proud the book is dedicated to him. In the midst of the hoopla over the book, and his subsequent fall from grace, Uncle Poxl disappears from his life leaving Eli with anger and questions.

Poxl's memoir is sandwiched between Eli's story line. Poxl was interesting and complex; he endures great losses during the war. He has been a widower for twenty years. He finds in Eli a surrogate child, but one he abandons. Eli is an appealing voice.

The book deals with a number of interesting issues regarding the fine line between memoir and literature and the ethical and literary implications of manipulating fact and fiction.

Poxl's decision to wordlessly abandon his war time lover can be seen as the self-centered impetus of youth, eager to fight Nazis and avenge his parent's deaths, or his mistrust resulting from accidentally learning of his mother's infidelity.

I did not like the ending; after the war Poxl searches for the woman he abandoned and then pushes himself into her new life. SPOILER ALERT: his desire to make love to Francoise one more time seemed less about love and romance than once putting his selfish needs over another's best interest. But if I look at things another way, perhaps less as a woman and more as a guy, it is his desperate clinging to the last vestige of the life he has lost. After all, the book begins by Poxl telling us that this book was about love, not war.

I received a free ebook through NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review.

The Last Flight of Poxl West by Daniel Torday
St. Martin's Press
ISBN:9781250051684
$25.99
Publication Date: March 17, 2015

French Beaded Flowers

My *new* hometown library has a case with monthly displays. This month is featuredthe ancient craft of  French Beaded Flowers . These were created in the 1970s by Shirley Kopkowski who sold them at craft shows.

Shirley told us that one lady saw her flowers, blanched, and turned and walked away. Later she returned and told her that in her country these flowers were used for memorials at grave sites. She had a sudden rush of memories upon seeing them.

Learn more at http://www.rosemarykurtz.com/  or https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/history-lesson-french-beaded-flowers/ or http://www.deesbeadedflowers.com/index.html

Shirley is in the weekly quilt group I have been attending. This lovely quilt was also in the library.

 

This embroidered and quilted hanging was made by Thayne Neff of Clawson

Magnificent Minds: Contributions in Science and Medicine by Women

"Why has woman passion, intellect, moral activity--these three--and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised?" Florence Nightingale in "Cassandra"

Florence Nightingale conjurers up an image of  a compassionate woman tenderly caring for war wounded men. She is remembered as a nurse--a role consistent with social expectations of women as mothers and nurturers. We may know that she revolutionized hospital care and inspired the founding of the Red Cross, but how many of us know that she loved mathematics and employed statistics in her research and created pie charts for her reports? Or that 'Crimean fever' left her in extreme pain and often bedridden while she continued her crusade? Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing based on evidence and experience--and mathematics.

Nightingale was selfless and devout, like the Victorian model of womanhood. But her brilliant mind and willingness to go into the filth and gore of the battlefield and hospital instead of expected marriage and motherhood set her apart as a 'remarkable woman'.

Pendred Noyce's book Magnificent Minds:16 Remarkable Women in Science & Medicine considers women from across history whose curiosity drove them to achieve important advances in physics, astronomy, chemistry and medicine. 

The book is beautifully presented with  an historical time-line for each woman, a concise biography including both her private life and career, illustrations, and side bar explanations. The achievements of each woman is understandably presented in context of their time and from a historical perspective. 

The women include:

• Louise Bourgeois Boursier, 1563-1626, France, Midwife 
• Maria Cunitz, 1610-1664, Poland and Germany, Astronomer
• Marie Meurdrac, 1610-1680, France, Chemist
• Laura Bassi, 1711-1778, Italy, Physicist
• Augusta Ada Bryon, Countess Lovelace, 1815-1852, England, Computing Science
• Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910, England, Mathematics
• Mary Putman Jacobi, 1842-1906, United States, Medial Science
• Sophie Kovalevskaya,1850-1891, Russia, Mathematics
• Marie Sklodowska Curie, 1867-1934, Poland and France, Physics
• Lise Meitner, 1878-1968, Austria, Physics
• Emmy Noeher, 1882-1935, Germany, Mathematics
• Barbara McClintock, 1902-1992, United States, Medical Sciences
• Grace Murray Hopper, 1906-1992, United States, Computer Science
• Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin,1910-1994, England, Chemistry
• Chien-Shiung Wu, 1912-1997, China and the United States, Physics
• Gertrude B. Elion,1918-1999, United States, Chemistry

Each loved a challenge and desperately wanted to work and contribute to improve society and expand our understanding of the world.

I was kept interested throughout the book and it left me wanting to know more. Happily, the author includes a reading list so one can learn more about each woman. This is a wonderful book for classroom use or to share with young women to encourage their dreams.

I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Magnificent Minds: 16 Remarkable Women in Science & Medicine

by Pendred E. Noyce

JKS Communications, Tumblehome Learning, Inc.

ISBN: 9780989792479

$18.75 hard cover

Publication March 1, 2015

NBC 1964-65 Souvenir Star Guide

1964 marked the height of my television addiction. I sent away for a STAR ALBUM about the new season. 100 pages of colorful, full page photos of NBC's big stars!

It must have been my favorite channel--Channel 4 out of Detroit--because I sure watched a lot of these shows. Like the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. (Only we didn't have a color tv yet...I would not get one until 1985.)

Some of my favorite shows included Bonanza 

 and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Mom watched Dr. Kildare and I always watched what Mom watched

 And my brother and I still enjoyed Mr. Magoo

 We watched Daniel Boone

And Flipper

 And even Hazel

I think Mom watched Mr. Novak

 And Tammy

 Mom stayed up late, but she watched old movies instead of Johnny Carson

 But I remember the  Huntley-Brinkley Report

I remember getting excited for Saturday Night at the Movies

 Then they added Wednesday Night at the Movies.

 Danny Thomas I knew from Make Room for Daddy

The News was big. NBC had 17 correspondents. 

Their programs included the Today show, the Huntley-Brinkley Report, the Morning Report, the Day Report, the Mid-Afternoon Report, the Afternoon Report, Meet the Press and Sunday. Now we have CNN and continual news 24-7.

What was your favorite NBC show this season? If you don't see it let me know and I can upload the photos!