Thursday, January 25, 2007

Jose Marti: OMOM Essay 33


In "About the Sculpture" I return to the matter of selectivity, in this case the artist's choice of what moment to show in a portrait sculpture. This segues in "About the Subject" to why Marti is shown as he's dying - i.e., why his death in 1895 helped him become a hero to Cuba's multitude of political factions.

The caliber of Marti's writing was a pleasant surprise. His description of the Blizzard of 1888 in New York is extremely evocative. On the other hand, the philosophy behind his political writings is confusing, to say the least.

On the Forgotten Delights site you can see my favorite photo of Marti, which again was not high enough resolution to use in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan. Why didn't I simply retake that photo at a higher resolution? Not so easy with an outdoor sculpture. The time of day and the angle of view I can replicate; the time of the year and the cloud cover I cannot.

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