BWW Blog: The Best Of Mankind

The Best of Mankind
By Barry Kostrinsky

Today it is too easy to get down on our frail featherless friends. We are birds of a unique ability to fly. It is easy to dis, but deserves much more that's not to missed from our fellow monkeys who have elevated our canopy to reach closer to our internal gods above and inside. I will celebrate the best of humankind and try to write a pictorial story with no direction in sight. It will be an image game.

The Gates of Hell, by Auguste Rodin, 1880-1917. Though it may seem perplexing to start here, it actually may be what makes us great. It is in our ability to fail and excel, to fall down and pick up ourselves up as a boy batman is told in the movies that may give us wings to the gods. Most don't realize the thinker and other great works were part of this monumental piece that yes, was a door. We are at the gates of greatness and the gates of hell, we choose which door we pass through. To even be in the same species as Rodin honors every one of us.

The work of a 20 year old Leonardo is hard to imagine coming from a kid's hand. Words can discuss this work but in this piece and in other mid Renaissance works of the early 1500's and other early Renaissance works of the late 1400's like Botticelli's Primavera that hopefully means more to you than a pasta dish, there is more than hands can pen. In both works there is something hard to put into words and somethings that brakes in the language when we try and transfer to letters.
This is art and humankind at it's best, beyond words, expressing love,beauty, symbolism, skill, poetry in form and so much more.

If an alien came to earth and asked what have you done to compel me not to cattle you like the cows and pigs you have mistreated, What would you say? I would say here, have a look at what my brother did, not Cain but an able Albrecht, Albrecht Durer: The German Leonardo to many but it may be that Leonardo was the Italy Durer.

I seem to be stuck in the Renaissance and must confess on every visit to the great Philidelphia Museum I have never seen their modern collection. I get lost in the Renaissance wing and never make it out. To get out of the past I went to two aces in my hand.

Both Pablo and Vincent saw deeply and where able to capture in oil a sublime expression of melancholy, humanity and softness in a graceful and strong way not unlike Botticelli. Another 100 million might be pardon from being live stocked by these two works alone from pissed aliens. Pablo's piece holds special meaning to me, as I learned everything about drawing and art when I copied the girl and her bowl as a NRHS student.

African power figures-minkisi, from the Congo or elsewhere on the continent may be the highest expression in the history of art. The process of creating these pieces, the entonement with a spirit, the social relevance and psychological importance and cultural meaning to the community is the best of what art has to offer as a beacon to the youth, to the community and as an expression of creative freedom and power.

Kandinsky's early work is brilliant and his work from the 'improvisation' series and most of his paintings from around 1910 (left) along with Derain's work from 1905 (right) says something about the era. Somehow an incredible amount of brilliance was shined on canvas by Matisse and the Fauves, Pablo, Wassily, Andre and many more in this era. Yes, Vincent opened the doors. Many would never achieve this level of greatness in their careers that followed. What was in the water in that era? I want a gallon to drink. Today's absence is wormless. Wassily's "Concerning the Spiritual in art" is a masterpiece of writing, quite an accomplishment for a painter.

Giacommeti going deep inside to reach a universal feeling. Aliens will understand this work well though many men do not. We are up to the 1940's now.

George Widener's (l) and Henry Darger's (r) work, with it's energy, minutia, confidence and disregard for fear ranks them high as one of the strongest expressers in the history of the visual arts. They are outsiders we all should welcome inside. Often we look at our inhumanity to aspire to our highest human.

Yanagi, Leach and Hamada on the left. Hamada's position, grace and balance say it all. A potter bring his soul to his clay, if he is balanced and honest, the work will be true and a sort of platonic good will be achieved in the form. On the right is a Kasatsuji bowl showing the artists ability to work with his skill and to be open to natures hand in his work. Leach and Hamada spread the ancient Japanese traditions and aesthetics to England and the west from the east and opened many eyes to a different way of seeing and creating in the 1950's.

There are many more that could have filled these pages with pictures beyond words that would give us a reprieve from angered members of the multi-verse. Indeed, maybe that is our work, our goal, our reasoned brand of humanity, our raison d'etre and our raisin breakfast that my dad ate which we must digest for more than it's fiber and less of its fluff to be human. To be more than the monkeys, to swing from a higher tree, to soar with the spirits buried somewhere deep inside us, we only need to breathe and be still. It is there inside you, waiting for you to visit her. Then pick up your brush, your pen, your hand of friendship to your neighbor, to your Brothers and Sisters.