Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Culture Shock 1913

I'm a news junkie and if I'm not listening to music while I work, I am listening to WNYC. I laugh, get angry, roll my eyes and sometimes scold the presenters or their guests in the solitude of my studio in Queens. But mostly, I need the station and it's terrific presenters and programs. One such program that I heartily recommend is Culture Shock 1913 presented by Sara Fishko. It's an hour long show about the Modernist movement interweaving art, design, psychoanalysis, music and poetry.


A painting featured in the program is Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 painted in 1912. I love this painting but I cannot really explain why. Maybe it's something to do with the movement so beautifully captured on canvas. So mysterious, abstract and yet very definitely figurative. It's hard to believe that such a painting was scandalous when it was presented at the Armory Show in 1913.



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