Happy 2012!

It has been a prolific year of writing and it is going to be tough to surpass all the writing that I did in 2011, but I'll try. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!

Man Play God and the Result is an Airborne Virus

I came across this piece in the New York Times about this airborne bird flu virus that has been in the news for the last few days. What strikes me the most about this story is to see how money, or better said taxpayer money has been used to improve the performance of a natural entity.
But not to perfect nature in a way that is positive and that it would help humankind and the planet, but quite the opposite, to accelerate its destruction. I believe that once man acquires the capacity to do something he will do it, no matter how bad or wrong that something could be.

Years ago the debate of stem cells extracted from embryos was in vogue. I remember George W. Bush stance on it. He banned funding for stem cell research on embryos. His decision may have had a religious foundation, one in parallel with Christian right beliefs on life at conception and the duty of the state to protect defenseless life. In my opinion, had it not been for Bush position, scientists would have never focused an alternative ways to stem cell extraction other than the ones that require an embryo to be destroyed.

A tough stance was needed to make scientists find alternative routes, and this is my point: Man chose the roads that he wants to travel, because roads are not laid out before of you, roads are built while we walk. And the roads that you build as you walk take you to the destination you have chosen in advance.

If you choose destruction, then you will build the road to destruction destination. That's is what is at stake with scientific investigation that results in airborne viruses and things like that. We are told that within the decade the now secret information detailing the architecture of the newly created virus will reach terrorists or other bad guys. Trust that will happen, because a new value on earth has been created, one that some people will be willing to pay money for and put it to use.

A value that is man created and whose tag price comes from its efficacy and potential for self-destruction.

As the NYTimes article  say " The A(H5N1) bird flu was first recognized in Hong Kong in 1997, when chickens in poultry markets began dying and 18 people fell ill, 6 of them fatally. Hoping to stamp out the virus, the government in Hong Kong destroyed the country’s entire poultry industry — killing more than a million birds — in just a few days. Buddhist monks and nuns in Hong Kong prayed for the souls of the slaughtered chickens, and world health officials praised Hong Kong for averting a potential pandemic.
But the virus persisted in other parts of Asia, and reached Europe and Africa; that worries scientists, because most bird flus emerge briefly and then vanish. Millions of infected birds have died, and many millions more have been slaughtered. Since 1997, about 600 humans have been infected, and more than half died."

I can only hope that ten years from now human beings are not going to be mass slaughtered like sick chickens because of a state funded experiment gone astray. One thing we should do to help decrease the damage: start putting money in the worldwide population of Buddhist monks and nuns: there will not be enough of them to pray for our souls. That whether airborne chicken flu could be weaponized or not.

Which triggers the next set of questions: How many chickens souls one single Buddhist monk can pray for? Or what is the maximum amount of chicken souls a Buddhist monk can pray for in a daily basis? Can a Buddhist monk pray for more than a human soul at a time? If so, how many? Given the possibility that the answer to the last question is positive, how can we reduce costs per Buddhist monk and increase productivity? So out of a total world population of Buddhist monks and sacrificed "human chickens," how much money should be allocated per Buddhist monastery? Obviously this will have to be complemented by a mechanism of checks and balances so that the moneys will be spent accordingly. That way we could rest assured that our souls one day will be in peace.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/science/debate-persists-on-deadly-flu-made-airborne.html?hp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/20stem.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091108/full/news.2009.1070.html?s=news_rss

http://www.stemcellresearch.org/

President George W. Bush Address on Stem Cell Research

Obama Ends Funding Ban for Stem Cell Research

U.S. Judge Rules against Obama's Stem Cell Policy

The Origin of XO

All the crap that you have read on the internet about the origin of the word-expression XO is only that, crap. I will reveal to you how that combination of letters-word was created, because I invented it.

It was in the mid-1990's in Havana. I was already an artist making a living from the sale of my paintings. In the year 1993 the Cuban government legalized the possession of U.S. dollars. That was just right after I came out of art school. The Soviet Union had collapsed and Cuba have entered in one of its major economic crisis in history, prompting a demise of the value of the Cuban currency, the peso, and a huge leap of inflation that made the rate exchange between the peso and the dollar jump to a top 150 Cuban pesos for a 1 American dollar.

In this conditions one dollar represented the salary of a whole month of work for an average Cuban worker. It is understandable then that the ones who got lucky enough to throw their hands on any dollar bill where becoming steadily rich. I was one of them, selling my artwork having finished art school as a fresh young artist.

I was concerned about two things regarding the huge production and sales I was immersed in. First was the effect that excessive commercialization could have had in my work (art historical issues were and and are important, but survival was and is even more) Second, the fear of retaliation by the government to my increasing criticism of the political system. I have had some brushes with the law before (read "Young Communist Make Street Art") and I didn't want theses brushes to be repeated.

Two tactics were put into place in order to avoid skirmishes with repressive forces. One of them involved codification. Codification in this context meant that I could say anything I wanted as long as it was unreadable to the layman and only accessible to the eyes of the expert or the initiated. I remember particularly one work that I made and showed in a public space during the days Pope John Paul II visited Cuba. On the surface of this work on canvas I had written the phrase "I Shit on Fidel" (Me Cago en Fidel y Me Cago en el Papa). But the way it was written, using different colors for each letter against different backgrounds made the phrase unreadable, unless you spent time finding the connection between the words. Look out for this important painting, it is somewhere in Europe and I have lost track of it.

(I also made several paintings making fun of the Commander in Chief, they depict a mad looking guy with a cigar. The title of this series of works is "Cuban Cigar", because the Commander in Chief meant only a Cuban cigar to me. They are also signed XO and they are in the possession of an Italian collector. The painting with the "I s..t on Fidel" words may be in Italy also.)

This piece was shown publicly and the meaning was revealed only to my trusted ones, who in turn passed the word out to their trusted ones resulting in social communication without repression. After I displayed the painting and revealed the meaning to my manager she told me: "Are you crazy, do you want me to go to prison?" Fortunately nobody was hurt or imprisoned; not me, not my manager.

That brazenly direct work was signed with the words XO. The word XO I was already using for this kind of politically overcharged works since months before.

All the works signed XO are now dispersed in private collections in Europe. I must say that despite the political bent, or right because of that, they are some of the most interesting and authentic works I ever made.

So if you happen to get across one of this canvases signed XO in the front or in the back, or both, you know they are actually mine. And their value have increased dramatically.

Years after I left Cuba the word XO have become mainstream. While I was in Cuba I neither was aware nor had access to the copyrighting of my work. So I was never able to copyright it. So much the better, perhaps if around the year 1995 I had put a copyright on XO the expression would have never become so popular and also imbued with so many meanings such as Love, Hug, Kiss. etc. Actually when I created it meant all these things and probably that is the reason it has become so popular.

Now, if you are one of the lucky ones who purchased one of these XO signed paintings during the 1990's, then you know you are a whole lot of a lucky guy.

Propaganda and North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- The body of North Korea's long-time ruler Kim Jong Il was laid out in a glass coffin Tuesday as weeping mourners filled public plazas and state media fed a budding personality cult around his third son, hailing him as "born of heaven." (huffingtonpost.com)

It is not surprising if you know what propaganda can do to people.

Jacques Ellul (1965) says “ideologies emerge when doctrines are degraded and vulgarized and when an element of belief enters into them” (Ellul, Jacques 193-194). In other words when fiction takes over facts in the process of thinking that lead to practical affairs. Ideology is fiction with an intellectual pedigree to which the members of a community attributes validity. Once and ideology takes hold of a group becomes exclusionary and start expanding by way of conquest, assimilation and propaganda. But in modern society, where means are an end in itself, propaganda becomes autonomous and it doesn’t obey ideology. “Propaganda doesn’t have a precise ideological objective, it has nothing to do with an opinion, an idea or doctrine. It proceeds by psychological manipulations, by character modifications, by the creation of feelings or stereotypes. Man must be made to live in a psychological climate” (Ellul 31). Propaganda is a technique based on different branches of sciences and the scientific analysis of sociology and psychology. Ellul studies the psychological effects of group mentality and behavior and sees the fragmentation of the group as a necessary step to make propaganda effective. He makes a distinction between sociological propaganda and direct propaganda; comparing sociological propaganda to plowing and direct propaganda to sowing, they complement each other. “Propaganda of the talk and propaganda of the deed are complementary” (Ellul 15). Ellul also makes a distinction between white propaganda and black propaganda; oral and written propaganda. He says that talk must be corresponded by something visible and that oral or written propaganda, which plays on sentiments, must be reinforced by action. Action “produces new attitudes and thus joins the individual firmly to a certain movement” (Ellul 15). Ellul regards nearly all biases messages in society as propaganda, even when the biases are unconscious. Propaganda is instantaneous and destroys one’s sense of history, disallowing critical reflection. The psychological manipulation techniques of propaganda have similar results whether used in Communism, Fascism or Western democracies.

Regarding the effects on public opinion Ellul describes how a vague, undefined popular opinion is, through a process of crystallization, transformed by propaganda into explicit opinion. There is no progression at all from a state of private opinion to a state of public opinion, but from a sate of public opinion to another state of that same public opinion. Propaganda separates private opinion from public opinion. Public opinion assumes a rigidity and intensity that makes private opinion impossible. Mass media serves public opinion, excluding private opinion. Propaganda uses emotional shock to produce an ideological elaboration that becomes crystallization. Crystallization takes place at certain points, if one can harden opinion on a certain key point, one can control an entire sector of opinion from there. Once opinion has crystallized, even a proved fact cannot do anything against it. Since public opinion cannot exist without simplification, propaganda simplifies complex issues. To that end the creation of stereotypes helps in narrowing the field of thought and angle of vision of the individual. The variety of everyday attitudes in society is reduced to a polarity of positive and negative, propaganda placing anyone with more differentiated opinions into one group or the other (Ellul 207-212).

Propaganda must have a collective influence if it is going to lead an individual to action, to that end must create a strong integration of the group, activating its preoccupations “when the group acquires certain uniformity it will inevitable experience the need for action” (Ellul 210), then the public and its opinion is transformed in an acting crowd. Propaganda makes the individual feel the urgency for some action, then shows him what to do. In order to be effective, propaganda must convince the individual of the success of his action, possible reward or satisfaction. By example, the individual would be lead to action. In a group without a leader, but subjected to propaganda, the psychological and sociological effects are the same as if it were a leader (Ellul 207-212).

Review of the Year: Newsletter

2011 was a very exciting and successful year, not only for the Auction Houses, but for me too.

To begin the year, two of my paintings were purchased by the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation with the assistance of deputy director Rachel Weingeist.  The works purchased by the Rubin Foundation are representative of my early period in Cuba and transitioning to the U.S. 

The DaVinci Series which I began in 2008 continued. I finished work on the 4 states of a portrait, the final state being entered into The National Portrait Gallery Competition for 2012/13.  Additionally, the Portraits of John Kennedy, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, and only one final Marilyn Monroe are complete or near complete; these works are available.  One Marilyn Monroe portrait, the second version, is now in a private collection. Please see my website www.renelio-marin.com and my blog here for images, discussion detailing the 720 squares each work emerges from, and concepts about the work.

The pieces sold and collections into which my work has entered are generally from two categories:  Drawing of a highly personalized manifestation and portraits. They both represent the Cuban school influences and the American school years. This suggest that I'm a bi-cultural artist. More than a dozen pieces left my studio this year to enter into permanent private and institutional collections. In a time of economic uncertainty that is great news.

I am very honored and excited about two or three additional events: Art critic Robert C. Morgan came to my studio and was extraordinarily impressed with what is considered my "difficult" work -these are very strong, often violent, scatological, sexual, political, works. As a result he arranged a meeting within days for me with a director of a significant Museum.  You will be hearing more about this.

Other serious collectors who have seen this body of what is often referred to as "difficult" work have purchased and have made their intentions to sponsor exhibitions known.  Dialogue on particular purchases continues.

I am most inspired by the response I received from the venerable art critic Robert C. Morgan.  This is a significant beginning on the next chapter in my career.

In May I graduated from NYU with a Masters Degree and really just began to paint and work on my career full time in June.  The year was a whirlwind and went by quickly.

I am grateful to my many friends, collectors, and professional colleagues of all sorts.  I invite you to come to my studio now, before I make a formal commitment to a gallery, and I will do what I can to enable you to begin or continue collecting my works. 

I wish you all good healthy, wonderful Holidays, and great collecting! 

Best Wishes,

Renelio Marin
917-597-5670
www.renelio-marin.com

It is the Culture...

It is the culture, not the economy, what has the upper hand in the level of development and quality of life in a country. Social and economic ills such as under-development and inequality are a result of imbalances that respond to systems of cultural beliefs. For example: Conflicts in Africa are a result of tribal separation; Latin America inequality is a legacy of European, catholic complemented, colonialism.

That is pretty clear. but not so when we apply this conceptual apparatus to the U.S. Why America have been steadily losing its grip as first economic power in the world in the last decade or so? While on the other hand we have witnessed an increase in economic and financial gains in places like China, India and Brazil? I believe this responds to an improvement and evolution of cultural mindsets or cultural systems in those countries.

But the opposite is happening in the U.S. We have a black president, but U.S society in general has not become less racist because of that; some sectors have not become less arrogant or thinking to be less entitled to ethnic superiority.

If the U.S. wants to regain its status as the greatest superpower it has to evolve culturally, in accordance with the times. The number one priority in the U.S. is not the economy or the financial system. The number one priority is the culture for as long as racism and xenophobia persists in America the economy will be worst of and the financial inequality will increase.

It is the culture, not the economy, to what we should be paying more attention to in the U.S. Improve the culture and the economy will follow.

The Essence of Man

The Jeff Koons Show

And of course, the Jeff Koons show. As Mary Boone put it, what Andy Warhol is for "Celebrity" Jeff Koons is for "Branding."

Andy Warhol Documentary

The best feature on Andy I've seen up to now.

La Piragua de Guillermo Cubillos

This video tells the story of Jose Benito Barros and the creation of "La Piragua de Guillermo Cubillos" a popular song that my father used to sing to me while I was a child. Sorry that the video is in Spanish but I couldn't find any other one in English. I suppose La Piragua has become a sort of Latin American anthem that illustrates its centuries of abandoned masses, the legacy of slavery, inequality and broken dreams. Let's shout out this one for Latin America, the forgotten continent.

Steve Jobs Portrait (Work in Progress)

Hi. I'm still working in this portrait-obsession and I will be doing it for the next 3-4-5 weeks. I'm unable to write anything at the moment since all I can think of is "the portrait." It has a level of detail previously untried by me. It's coming out pretty good I think the final result would be breathtaking. So let's pray it would come out as good as planned and that I will be working on it with renewed strength and faith.

Good luck,
Renelio

"Steve Jobs" (DaVinci Series, number 12). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60 inches. 2011

Brigitte Bardot Striptease

This is Brigitte Bardot famous striptease scene in Viva Maria! together with Jeanne Moreau



What Wikipedia says: