Art is the world’s most universal teacher. Given time ~it reveals all truth.
Sometimes it’s lesson is carved into stone,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Other times it’s message whispers in a collage .
Gloria Vanderbilt: self portrait with her Nanny Dodo.Screen grab: “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson” HBO documentary
It can be read like a newspaper, filled with wild headlines and the deeds of caped crusaders.
Museum of Fine Arts : Boston
Ashley Longshore “Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Screen grab from the book :” I Do Not Cook, I Do Not Clean, I Do Not Fly Commercial” published by Rizzoli
Often, with cartoon colors, art stands for honest and irreverent challenges to establishment sensibilities.
Artist Row, Salem, Ma
Paul Rahilly :”The Violinist” 1980 Private Collection
Julia von Metzsch Ramos : Private Collection
Immersion into the history of art eliminates the risk of seeing society as a monograph. It chronicles humanity’s greatest accomplishments, most glaring mistakes and opens dialogue.
Because men were typically the designated teller’s of truth the triumphs and trials of women are, in large part, filtered in historical context. Some forward thinking museums, like the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, are telling the ‘coulda, shoulda,woulda’ stories of life from a female perspective.
Museum of Fine Arts exhibit: Women Take the Floor / Sept 2019 -Nov. 28, 2021
She the People News is on a campaign to celebrate the arts in totality. The good, the bad, and the very ugly can be transformative litmus tests of cultural reality. Sanitizing history subjectively, by removing objectionable art forms deprives society of a full awarenesses of the human experience. The integration of art in public places traces our heartbeats and heartbreaks.
Massachusetts State House rememberers Mary Dyer,hanged on Boston Common in 1650 for pursuing her religious freedom.
With out judgment we treasure the world’s most primitive creations,,
Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC
We wonder about the idealized lives encrypted onto Egyptian sarcophagus .
Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC
And, we hold sacred the origins of all religion as a centerpiece of thought.
The non-denominational chapel at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston is open 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
So it’s troubling to see the artistic lessons of modern human evolution being cloistered, devalued, defaced and destroyed. What message do we send to future generations when they look for the art of America and find monumental gaps in the stories of our times? American writer, Mark Twain is credited with saying ” History doesn’t repeat it’s self, but it often rhymes.” Harvard professor turned philosopher, George Santayana paraphrased the humorist when he said, “Those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
Devalued statue in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, Washington D.C
We owe it to our children to leave them with the broadest historical context of life. The universal lessons of art transcend time, cultural barriers and are in totality a life lesson.
Ancient, Classic or Contemporary; art is a translation of aspiration, inspiration and confrontation. Given time, it reveals all truth.
Tiepolo” Time Unveiling Truth” 1745-1750 Museum of Fine Arts Boston
*Featured image is a self portrait of Ashley Longshore, Social Influencer, and Contemporary Satirist