Grey Tart...

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot. Charles Chaplin.


I mentioned Richard Billingham's 2000 book Ray's A Laugh in one of our occasional Read a Book posts back in the spring.
The title is borrowed (unwittingly I fancy) from Ray's a Laugh (1949–1961) a domestic comedy radio series starring Ted Ray.

Here's what Billingham says:

My father Raymond is a chronic alcoholic.
He doesn't like going outside, my mother Elizabeth hardly drinks,
but she does smoke a lot.
She likes pets and things that are decorative.
They married in 1970 and I was born soon after.
My younger brother Jason was taken into care when he was 11,
but now he is back with Ray and Liz again.
Recently he became a father.
Ray says Jason is unruly. Jason says Ray’s a laugh but doesn’t want to be like him.
Dad was some kind of mechanic, but he's always been an
alcoholic. it has just got worse over the years.
He gets drunk on cheap cider at the off licence.
He drinks a lot at nights now and gets up late.
Originally, our family lived in a terraced house,
but they blew all the redundancy money and, in desperation,
sold the house. then we moved to the council tower block,
where Ray just sits in and drinks.
That's the thing about my dad, there's no subject he's interested
in, except drink.

It's not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise,
be political or whatever, only to make work that is as spiritually
meaningful as I can make it -
in all these photographs I never bothered with things like
the negatives. some of them got marked and scratched.
I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed
at the cheapest place. I was just trying to make order out of chaos.

£270 on Amazon...

Grey Tart…

Egypt has the pyramids, Greece the Acropolis, France the Eiffel tower, Russia St Basil’s, and Brazil has the Statue Of Christ the Redeemer…and yellow jerseys (green trim), blue shorts (white trim), white socks…
Instantly recognisable symbols of a nation, a culture are surprisingly few and far between (I’m prepared for refutations here, so post away…)
In the fateful final, the Maracanazo of July 1950 Brazil wore white. Famously they needed only a draw to secure the world title when, in front of almost 200,000 supporters, they lost two one to their neighbours Uruguay, a defeat which almost 60 years and five world titles later, is etched on the national psyche.
After the defeat it was decided the colours had to change. They weren’t patriotic enough.
In 1951 the Correio da Manhã newspaper held a competition to design a kit incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. From the 301 entries the design of nineteen year old newspaper illustrator Aldyr Garcia Schlee from Pelotas was chosen . The new kit of yellow shirt with green trim and blue shorts echoed the design of the Brazilian flag perfectly. First worn in March 1954 against Chile it has remained largely unchanged ever since.


Aldyr Garcia Schlee

Following his success Aldyr moved to Rio, where he was given lodgings with the national squad, but he hated it. He described the footballers as 'scoundrels, drunks and philanderers'. Aldyr soon returned home, where he became a successful journalist , academic and writer. His short stories (he writes in Spanish rather than Portuguese) have won many accolades.
Following the military coup in 1964 Aldyr was imprisoned three times and expelled from his teaching job for 'philo-communist activities'. He had to abandon plans for a career in the diplomatic service and was banned from leaving the country. In 1965, on the day he was due to hand in his doctoral thesis on 'national self-determination', an army truck was waiting at the university door and all copies were impounded. The work was suppressed until 1977, delaying his doctorate by 12 years.
Aldyr grew up in a town that is on the border with Uruguay. His literary work is primarily concerned with Uruguay and he is now a Uruguay supporter.




Aldyr's original drawing, featured on the cover of Bellos' book.


See Alex Bellos’ marvellous book ‘Futebol’ for more on Aldyr and the impact of football on the culture and national identity of Brazil.

Grey Tart

When art is removed to a zone of safety, it may still remain very good art indeed, and also very popular art, but its effect on our existence will vanish... Edgar Wind
In his classic work Art & Anarchy, Wind goes on to tell us that there would be no artists in Plato's ideal republic, not because he didn’t respect them; on the contrary, Plato argued that the sacred fear inspired by great art could cause too much excitement and passion and ultimately undermine the entire social system.
I'm not going to mention Banksy here- later perhaps, but let's look at another favourite of mine (you might have guessed- after all, he painted my portrait!) Yoshitomo Nara.
Here is a painting by Nara that was on show at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York from 28th February 2009:




And here is a drawing that Nara made on the steps of Union Square Station, New York, on 27th February 2009.

I notice that one of his drawings has a projected price at auction (29.06.09) of £3-5,000 , whereas the charming piece above got him arrested for graffiti and 48 hrs in the cells.

So, what is art in the modern capitalist society? anything at all, as long as you can own it. Aesthetically the 'Cool Here' picture is just as pleasing as anything else that Nara has done, but no one can 'invest' a few thousand dollars in it, take it away and say 'it's mine', so it's not art at all, just graffiti...