Tue. 9-16 Squerl ponders Spanish Bodegon painting and it's relevency to Installation art.

Check out the Bodegon painters of the 1600's and you will find the roots of Da-Da, Surrealisim, and modern installation art. Fra Juan Sanchez and Velasquez are two who really broke with the Acadamie and developed their own unique style which may have been partially influenced by Catholic Missonaries to China during the fall of the Ming dynasty. Consider the symbolic nature of the fruits and vegetables and their occupation within the space, some are suspended on wires etc. within box like forms- totally installation. The Chinese influence is there and these paintings directly influenced painters like Max Ernst, de Chirico and Salvadore Dali as well as many other artists working today. I was thinking about these paintings because many of my ancestors died in the name of this genre and I feel that homage is due, Bodegon has had a derogatory reputation as middle class decorative art, but maybe there is more to it than that it could be much more expressive and pointed than that. Remember this is a time when they could pull out your fingernails and put you on the rack for doing anything heretical. When you think about the shape of space- think about Bodegon and it's relevency to Installation art. Maybe I should work on still life arrangements with freshly trapped humans, surrounded by the trash they create...hummm....... Maybe not. Squerl