tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post9184864923892611725..comments2024-02-17T07:59:18.705-08:00Comments on Grad Student Madness: Canadiana: The Group of SevenRufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-1975211916632220722008-01-14T22:55:00.000-08:002008-01-14T22:55:00.000-08:00Valpy (I think?, the journalist? in the upstairs w...Valpy (I think?, the journalist? in the upstairs windowbox) seemed to be saying that because the Canadian landscape is damaged goods now, Canadians should (retroactively) stop liking those paintings, because they are now a symbol that Canadians don't care about what they've damaged, and never have, even when the pictures were painted. Also, his authority to say so was something about how he's a journalist, and therefore entitled to tell all of Canada which of her origin myths are true? <BR/><BR/>The whole thing was bizarre, and I found myself wondering why the moderator wasn't just screaming at the techs to unplug the crazy man's feed. Of course it could be the case that repeatedly asking him what, exactly, is wrong with looking at the pictures and feeling good about being Canadian is the Canadian version of that.<BR/><BR/>I guess, though, if I found Christmas cards depicting the Spanish Inquisition, I'd probably buy at least one. You know... just to have it.Hollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10593117152792976823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-40543586540898757522008-01-14T14:37:00.000-08:002008-01-14T14:37:00.000-08:00Yeah, it was a strange conversation, and about as ...Yeah, it was a strange conversation, and about as heated as non-hockey debates get up here. What confused me was that the one guy was saying that, sure, that's what Canada looked like back then, but it doesn't look like that now, as if this is the painters' fault.Rufushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-7407318517552167092008-01-14T03:25:00.000-08:002008-01-14T03:25:00.000-08:00The debate was sort of awkward, in that they seeme...The debate was sort of awkward, in that they seemed more to be debating about whether Canadians are capable of environment engagement, than about the role paintings themselves in the Canadian sense of selfhood. Although surely the Canadian landscape has been morphed through the persistent ministrations of civilized Euro-settlement, that doesn't affect whether those paintings were "true" for the folks who painted them in 1930. It's normal to nostalgify a time/place combination like that. That's part of what makes German Expressionist painting so freakin' interesting--the Romantics already had a go at monumentality of natural landscape, and they were completely plowed under by gritty cubist-sur-realism.... also "true" for the painter/place/time.<BR/><BR/>And, let's be blunt, if you look at a Group of Seven painting, and DON'T feel at least a little guilty about the state of the environment, your soul is dead. I'm not sure it matters if you're Canadian or not.Hollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10593117152792976823noreply@blogger.com