You’ll be pleased to know the Tate continues its brave crusade against imaginary bad things in the past. At the Cezanne exhibition I was treated to this:
I wonder what this landscape would have looked like to us without colonisation? Would we care about Cezanne or his work? Better yet, would there even be a 'Cezanne' without colonisation? Would it matter that he broke up the picture plane? Would the idea of the picture plane even be an issue? How would we register the light between the branches? ... Could Cezanne have surveyed the land, creating a disintegrating picture plane, if he was unaware of the disintegration happening on his and his countrymen's behalf in the likes of Algeria, the Congo, Vietnam, and the rest of France's colonies? I don't know if Cezanne had put two and two together. But how do you just see the formal properties of a painting or the scholarship or the invention his work evokes without foregrounding that history?
Rodney McMillian
Rodney McMillian (b.1969) is an artist living and working in the US.
Ha! I remember when we at lads’ mags were some of the first to be on the receiving end of their puritan fire. These anti-fun swots are determined to have their revenge against us for nicking their dinner money.
A belated note to thank you for quoting my comment on fertility rates. Your point about it being a victor's baby boom is really interesting. I followed up on that and noticed that defeated Germany never really had a boom; in the Federal Republic, fertility was basically at or below replacement (between 2 and 2.2) in the West until 1956, and even in the prosperous and generally fecund mid-1960s, peaked at just above 2.5. East German fertility rose above replacement sooner (reaching 2.35 in 1950) but even the 1960s peak was below 2.5.
Austria too was below replacement between 1949 and 1953, though it did have a sustained late boom, with fertility between 2.5 and 2.8 every year from 1957 and 1969. Perhaps the Austrians had managed to convince themselves by then that they were Hitler's victim rather than his accomplice? On which note, I hesitate to comment on the Austrian "Anschluss boom". Fertility had been below replacement from 1934 to 1938, during which period deaths actually exceeded births; it leapt to 2.86 in 1939!
Japan is interesting; early postwar fertility was high (above 4 from 1947 to 1949), but this doesn't really qualify as a baby boom since it had been comparably and consistently high (never less than 3.8) before the war. Japan's fertility fell below 3 in 1952 and below replacement as early as 1957, after which it stayed there pretty consistently, rising above 2.1 (and then only slightly) for a sustained period only in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Notably, abortion was legalised in Japan as early as 1948.
Worth noting that, among the victors, Russia didn't have a postwar baby boom, since even the 1949 peak of 3.21 was considerably lower than the prewar norm of 4+. Of course, state policy in the Soviet Union and, again, the legal status of abortion (banned in 1936; legal again from 1955) probably had a decisive impact on the statistics.
Whereabouts in America are you headed? I'll be in Ohio (the center of the universe), Chicago and Las Vegas (which has really gone downhill since the pandemic) at various points over the coming year.
"Some like cities being a bit edgy." Indeed. I remember an Austrian colleague once telling me that she hadn't liked living in Munich (which I thought the loveliest big city in Germany) because it was "too nice". Maybe that was just a bit of bourgeois-bohemian posturing that a spell in Jackson would have cured, but it was nonetheless her view ...
You’ll be pleased to know the Tate continues its brave crusade against imaginary bad things in the past. At the Cezanne exhibition I was treated to this:
I wonder what this landscape would have looked like to us without colonisation? Would we care about Cezanne or his work? Better yet, would there even be a 'Cezanne' without colonisation? Would it matter that he broke up the picture plane? Would the idea of the picture plane even be an issue? How would we register the light between the branches? ... Could Cezanne have surveyed the land, creating a disintegrating picture plane, if he was unaware of the disintegration happening on his and his countrymen's behalf in the likes of Algeria, the Congo, Vietnam, and the rest of France's colonies? I don't know if Cezanne had put two and two together. But how do you just see the formal properties of a painting or the scholarship or the invention his work evokes without foregrounding that history?
Rodney McMillian
Rodney McMillian (b.1969) is an artist living and working in the US.
Think about it, yeah?
I start to feel like Kingsley Amis who said that all books should have the birth year of the author on the front
Ha! I remember when we at lads’ mags were some of the first to be on the receiving end of their puritan fire. These anti-fun swots are determined to have their revenge against us for nicking their dinner money.
'Most people who behave overtly subversive towards yesterday’s taboos are cringingly subservient towards today’s'.
Superb, Ed. So true.
Thank you
Take a drive up the Natchez Trace while you're here. I'll be waiting at the Catfish Cabin in Sheffield
A belated note to thank you for quoting my comment on fertility rates. Your point about it being a victor's baby boom is really interesting. I followed up on that and noticed that defeated Germany never really had a boom; in the Federal Republic, fertility was basically at or below replacement (between 2 and 2.2) in the West until 1956, and even in the prosperous and generally fecund mid-1960s, peaked at just above 2.5. East German fertility rose above replacement sooner (reaching 2.35 in 1950) but even the 1960s peak was below 2.5.
Austria too was below replacement between 1949 and 1953, though it did have a sustained late boom, with fertility between 2.5 and 2.8 every year from 1957 and 1969. Perhaps the Austrians had managed to convince themselves by then that they were Hitler's victim rather than his accomplice? On which note, I hesitate to comment on the Austrian "Anschluss boom". Fertility had been below replacement from 1934 to 1938, during which period deaths actually exceeded births; it leapt to 2.86 in 1939!
Japan is interesting; early postwar fertility was high (above 4 from 1947 to 1949), but this doesn't really qualify as a baby boom since it had been comparably and consistently high (never less than 3.8) before the war. Japan's fertility fell below 3 in 1952 and below replacement as early as 1957, after which it stayed there pretty consistently, rising above 2.1 (and then only slightly) for a sustained period only in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Notably, abortion was legalised in Japan as early as 1948.
Worth noting that, among the victors, Russia didn't have a postwar baby boom, since even the 1949 peak of 3.21 was considerably lower than the prewar norm of 4+. Of course, state policy in the Soviet Union and, again, the legal status of abortion (banned in 1936; legal again from 1955) probably had a decisive impact on the statistics.
Whereabouts in America are you headed? I'll be in Ohio (the center of the universe), Chicago and Las Vegas (which has really gone downhill since the pandemic) at various points over the coming year.
You’re coming to America? Anywhere near Southern California?
I don’t know yet. I think the first trip will focus on the east coast but I haven’t finalised anything.
You have a friend here in Austin if you want to come visit
Thank you!
"Some like cities being a bit edgy." Indeed. I remember an Austrian colleague once telling me that she hadn't liked living in Munich (which I thought the loveliest big city in Germany) because it was "too nice". Maybe that was just a bit of bourgeois-bohemian posturing that a spell in Jackson would have cured, but it was nonetheless her view ...
Come to Florida--you'll love it!
Thank you. That’s very kind
Yes off to a 1950s Colorado dance to feel some moral outrage about their wickedness.