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Maverick #579
Chelsea Notes: 2009 New York Gallery Shows Through the Holidays Maverick #578 Irreverent Object Museum Level Survey at Luhring Augustine Maverick #577 Eric Fischl Is Full of Bull at Mary Boone The Eyes Have It for Marc Quinn Uptown Maverick #576 Inigo Manglano-Ovalle Stands Modernism on Its Head Inverts Mies Glass House at Mass MoCA Maverick #575 Lynda Benglis Retrospective at Dublin's Museum of Modern Art New York Show at Cheim & Read |
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A Poem by Astrid Hiemer (Text that follows by Charles Giuliano) Venus I saw the Venus von Willendorf with my own eyes in Wien Oh, she stirred my emotions There she lay in a lit glass-vitrine at a forty-five degree angle Eleven centimeters tall, fat her immense breasts were covering half her torso How Beautiful I walked around and around the glass case, many times and then again. Charles asked, why she touched me so much? I replied that she was more real to me, than any ancient female skeleton unearthed elsewhere on this planet. We calculated that more than a thousand, possibly as much as one thousand five hundred generations of babies had suckled on her breasts, since she was brought to life by her creator. My first encounter with the Venus von Willendorf, some years ago, was riveting. Since then every visit to Vienna has mandated the Museum of Natural History. After an intense week of visiting galleries we set aside the weekend for museums. Of course I had viewed the Venus several times but this was Astrid’s first trip to Vienna. Accordingly, I opted to schedule it in the morning when we were fresh and newly arrived in the magnificent Museum Quarter. Frankly, I had little interest in touring the rest of the Natural History Museum with its displays of dinosaurs. I was anxious to get on to the great fine arts collection that was just across the court yard including a special exhibition of works by Giorgione as well as galleries of Breugel, Titian and the Italian mannerists. But Astrid lingered, transfixed by the tiny Venus sculpture. It was her moment and I understood and respected the reluctance to move on. I had a quite similar experience during my first encounter. As we would start to leave, she would break away for yet another glimpse of her. Eventually we parted company but went on to the shop where she purchased a painted plaster replica that now adorns the mantle piece in her living room. She bought a second, black Venus, also from the remote time frame of some 25,000 years ago when these cult figures were created by various communities throughout Europe. The museum’s display had been changed since my last visit. My original impression of her was in a small vitrine near a window with a play of natural daylight. Now she was recessed into a small enclosed space, tilted back at a 45 degree angle and artificially lit. The treatment is more dramatic and calls attention to her extraordinary value both humanistic and material. An outer part of this special display features a range of precise replicas of other Venus figures from the corresponding era none of which are her equal. Not only is the Venus of Willendorf the oldest and first great masterpiece of Western Art it may arguably be the greatest single treasure of Western Culture. On a par with and perhaps a notch greater than Michelangelo’s David, the Mona Lisa, Las Meninas, the Night Watch, Guernica or any other sublime masterpiece that one might think of. Because she stops you dead in your tracks. Her form is so small and perfect in every detail. You marvel at her enormous breasts, rotund belly, hair covered featureless face, funny little flipper arms and missing feet. Not only is she staggeringly old and rare but it is even debatable to consider her as a work of art. It is significant that she is displayed in the Museum of Natural History and not in Vienna’s Museum of Fine Arts. It is important to note that whoever carved her wonderful and expressive form had no concept of the notion of art. The creator was most definitely not an artist. It was not created as art, in the sense that we understand the term, but for some forgotten intention of magic and ritual. Its creator may well have been a shaman or midwife. The usual interpretation is that she is a fertility idol created by a matriarchal society. It underscores the crucial struggle for survival; the fragile links in the chain of evolution. If global population is pushing 7 billion today, just what was it around 25,000 BCE? We know that Rome in the First Century of the Common Era was around a million, so what was world population some two millennia ago? Because of a lack of physical evidence it is impossible to come up with finite figures for how many humans existed during the time of the Venus von Willendorf, but it is fair to say, damn few. So, if there is debate about whether she may be viewed as a work of art, there is the other nagging idea of calling her Venus or Aphrodite, the Greek and Roman goddess of love? Based on a reading of classical mythology she was a sexy and capricious babe. Sleeping around and playing pranks. These are activities and motives that one would tend not to associate with her more ancient counterpart. If you circumnavigate the piece and view her from the rear you might say that she is indeed bootilicious. Or, from the front, bodacious. Rubensesque. Zaftig. The polite term today is full figured, the less polite, obese or fat. But it makes me think of the entire notion of beauty which we associate with Venus. Our concept of female beauty changes constantly. While the ideal of male beauty, the Apollo, has remained constant, hard bodied, athletic, since first carved in stone by the Greeks in the 5th century BC. While the Venus von Willendorf meets all of our criteria of beauty, running into her contemporary simulacra at the mall is less aesthetically pleasing. Fact is there are zillions of ersatz Willendorfs and industries that have sprung up around them. The beauty business and how to achieve or sustain the paradigm of this year’s Venus represents a great chunk of the GNP. Sex sells. We are a nation and culture obsessed with it. How to get it, have it, and hold it. Nothing better represents this madness than TV’s Extreme Makeover and shows like Nip Tuck. We share the enthusiasm as Plain Jane is transformed into a Beautiful Swan. Oi vey. Our fertility idol just wanted to have her baby safe and sound. We owe her large. Indeed, she is the mother of us all. Venus. ----- 
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