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Zarko is a major Serbian writer, with a dozen novels, joint works, and a long list of translations. Laguna Press, Serbia’s premiere literary publisher, has published some of these, including our recent book We: On Friendship. Thoughtful reviews continue to … Continue reading
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Review of our We: On Friendship, published this month in Zagreb Radaković is one of the authors who, in addition to the basic flow of his work, also turns to other forms of writing, and his books in four hands … Continue reading
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Re-reading Peter Handke Germans. Always preceded by “blond,” “dreamy”—but how efficient their army! Hugo, Victor. Made a sad mistake, really, when he entered politics. Impiety. Thunder against. Voltaire. Famous for his frightful grin or rictus. His learning superficial. Handke, Peter. Genocide … Continue reading
The recently opened exhibition of work by Maynard Dixon, I told Sam as we walked in, offers food for the soul. On loan from the Smithsonian, for instance, one painting explores the dimensions of fear.
Among the treasures, another painting drew my attention from across the room:
The clouds! The light! That dark horizon!
In the first art museum I ever entered, the Walraff Richartz Museum in Cologne, Germany, a painting drew me from across room in a similar way:
I had never heard of the artist, I knew nothing about late-19th century European art. But the painting inspired feelings I hadn’t felt before. Dixon’s “The Plains” reassured me that even at my advanced age I was still susceptible to inspiration.
In 1937, Dixon sold most of his work done in the early 1930s to Brigham Young University. Harold Clark, dean of the BYU School of Business, acquired 85 works for $2700, the equivalent of approximately $56,000 today. Several of the paintings on display in this show were done during and soon after the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen’s Strike. The strike drew violent, even lethal responses from the police, some incidents of which Dixon and his wife Dorothea Lange witnessed from their San Francisco studio. The strike lasted for 83 days and resulted in the unionization of all of the west-coast ports of the US.
As a founding officer of the BYU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors and then of the UVU Chapter of the AAUP/AFT, I have long identified with people oppressed by institutions. See my recent Dwelling in the Promised Land as a Stranger: Personal Encounters with Mormon Institutions for a collection of essays growing out that inclination.
Dixon’s paintings from the maritime strike and the Great Depression in general worked powerfully in me in yesterday for two reasons: one related to our UVU AAUP/AFT chapter’s recent struggle with our administration over due process in tenure and promotion decisions; the other because of how BYU’s professors have been put at risk by administrators acting as corporate managers.
Dixon’s “Free Speech” raises questions about rights exerted by labor organizers under threat by the police who support the oppressive employers.
Depression-era despair.
While the rich and powerful defend their corporations with the help of the police, the strikers are forced to “Keep Moving”:
Imagine these paintings in a museum owned by a Church/Corporation that generated a piece in today’s in The Salt Lake Tribune reporting that the Ecclesiastical Clearance Office fired “employees”/professors at BYU-Idaho for failure to demonstrate loyalty to teachings (including those on marriage, family, and gender), practices, and leadership of the LDS Church. The ECO employee contacted by one of the fired professors explained that firing without giving reasons is common practice: “I can tell you that any other corporation . . . might say reasons for firing are confidential. This is a common practice at corporations.”
Corporations, as Mitt Romney once explained, are people too.
No they aren’t. My friend Bonner Ritchie, professor emeritus of Organization Behavior at BYU, says it best: “All organizations are evil.” Not all people are evil.
ADDENDUM
Around the corner from the Maynard Dixon exhibition, an exhibition on Monumental Art, features….no!…a monumental work by Anselm Kiefer!
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Aleksa Đukanović, PROSE IN TWO VOICES, interview with writer Žarko Radaković, November 5, 2022. Co-writing, is it really possible? “Four-handed writing” is an inadequate term. Because writing is always confinement in a cell and acting alone… It started a long … Continue reading
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The final line of Wim Wenders’ magnificent Der Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire serves as the opening line of our announcement: Zarko’s and my book is here. You can buy the book on Amazon’s site and, when Elik … Continue reading
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Zarko just emailed this good news. His book with David Albahari, another remarkable Serbian writer and life-long friend, has just been awarded the prize for best non-fiction book of the year in Serbia. From the jury’s explanation [google translate version]: … Continue reading
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A week ago I spent a long weekend with my friend Doug Moeller in Farmington. His wife of 52 years, Tyra, had succumbed to cancer after a long illness, the family had gone to their homes after the funeral, and … Continue reading
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August 1, and the report on my sabbatical is due. My thanks to the Department Chair, Dean, Provost, and University President who authorized what policy requires in any case, even though following policy is not their strong suit. A formal … Continue reading
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I have been suffering from writer’s block for most of a month now, two months maybe. Part of the problem is that I’m working on four different projects: a book on the standing metaphor (almost impossibly broad and perhaps beyond … Continue reading
THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY 