When I was an art history student, we were taught that you have to judge the art on its own and not try to create a facile explanation based on what you know about the artist’s life – or your own.
So I was amused by the serious question asked, around minute 2:21, in this interview with Robyn Hitchcock and John Edington, who just made a performance movie with Robyn, Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains in New York. The young woman who asks the question was trying to read a lot into Hitchcock’s lyrics for So you think you’re in love – he sings:
But the silent majority is the crime of the century.
The woman said she’d been thinking about the words a lot, in light of the current health care debate in the U.S. (the interview’s from early March) – and asked Robyn what he’d been thinking about when he wrote the line. He replied, “I thought it was a slick way of welding two cliches together”. And in fact, “Crime of the Century” referred to the Super Tramp album of the same name.
But that’s the point, right? As an artist, you are inspired and create. As an art appreciator, the art moves you in some way, but you can’t assume it’s the same way the artist went.
So anyways, on the same walk to work when I was thinking about this, Friday morning, I also started thinking about doing a series of artists’ birthday dinners, or meals. Liberal interpretations of artists’ styles & personas into food. Like maybe food pie for Robyn Hitchcock. Or I discovered that Christo and the late Jeanne-Claude’s birthday is June 13 – I have a brunch scheduled that day – maybe everything could be wrapped. Breakfast enchiladas, jelly roll, trout in parchment – who knows? Wayne Thiebaud – cakes & pies & diner food on November 15. I haven’t found much of anyone with the same b-day as me – August 11 – but Warhol is close, August 6 – and that means I could make all manner of Pittsburgh food – Pierogis, Primanti Bros. sandwiches – lotsa possibilites.
