This portrait comes from a short series with the same model in the same classic attire in the same classic chair, and is possibly not one's own favourite from that cycle. But what it has in common with many works of the last few years, is its recollection and adaptation of classic seating designs of the previous century, ranging from Hicks' use of Breuer's Wassily chair with the model "TJ" at menmagazine dot com, to widespread use of Le Corbusier's chaise longue (Kristofer Ryan, anyone?) and Mies van der Rohe's sleek couch from the Barcelona Pavilion (Reese, eat your heart out).
With this cycle I think Goudon hit a mark the others have not reached (and possibly didn't strive for), of truly "nailing" a structural feature of a chair with a structural element of the model. Here, beyond any doubt, is one of the great "legs" celebrations in circulation today, whose delineation owes everything to the resiliency of the muscle groups under suspension from the furniture, in one of the most inevitable enjoyments of its comfort. By no means, I admit, is this the extent of this image's charm and manifold moral satisfactions. It is, however, thrilling, as a fulfillment of the architecture of this classic chair, and it is a masterpiece on how endlessly gifted the male body is in achieving repose with electrifying gorgeousness.
Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself. - Jean Dubuffet
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. . . Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama . . .
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The Slabber
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If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.
~ Mother Theresa
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. A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run. -- Elbert Hubbard .
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.My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others' interests alongside our own.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. . . Some people spend their entire lives reading but never get beyond reading the words on the page, they don't understand that the words are merely stepping stones placed across a fast-flowing river, and the reason they're there is so that we can reach the farther shore, it's the other side that matters. -- José de Sousa Saramago
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Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. -- William Shakespeare
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Fighting Against Neglect
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Our problems, both those we experience externally such as wars, crime and violence and those we experience internally as emotional and psychological suffering will not be solved until we address this underlying neglect of our inner dimension. That is why the great movements of the last hundred years and more--democracy, liberalism, socialism, and Communism--have all failed to deliver the universal benefits they were supposed to provide, despite many wonderful ideas. A revolution is called for, certainly, but not a political, an economic, or a technical revolution. We have had enough experience of these during the past century to know that a purely external approach will not suffice. What I propose is a spiritual revolution.
In a dying civilization, political prestige is the reward not of the shrewdest diagnostician but of the man with the best bedside manner. It is the decoration conferred on mediocrity by ignorance.
This portrait comes from a short series with the same model in the same classic attire in the same classic chair, and is possibly not one's own favourite from that cycle. But what it has in common with many works of the last few years, is its recollection and adaptation of classic seating designs of the previous century, ranging from Hicks' use of Breuer's Wassily chair with the model "TJ" at menmagazine dot com, to widespread use of Le Corbusier's chaise longue (Kristofer Ryan, anyone?) and Mies van der Rohe's sleek couch from the Barcelona Pavilion (Reese, eat your heart out).
ReplyDeleteWith this cycle I think Goudon hit a mark the others have not reached (and possibly didn't strive for), of truly "nailing" a structural feature of a chair with a structural element of the model. Here, beyond any doubt, is one of the great "legs" celebrations in circulation today, whose delineation owes everything to the resiliency of the muscle groups under suspension from the furniture, in one of the most inevitable enjoyments of its comfort. By no means, I admit, is this the extent of this image's charm and manifold moral satisfactions. It is, however, thrilling, as a fulfillment of the architecture of this classic chair, and it is a masterpiece on how endlessly gifted the male body is in achieving repose with electrifying gorgeousness.