{"id":817,"date":"2009-07-17T11:28:18","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T18:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/07\/night_of_the_hunter_love_and_h\/"},"modified":"2009-07-17T11:28:18","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T18:28:18","slug":"night_of_the_hunter_love_and_h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/07\/night_of_the_hunter_love_and_h.html","title":{"rendered":"Night of the Hunter: love and hate (good and evil) warring together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Mitchum’s Harry Powell is a murderous evangelical who stalks through Night of the Hunter<\/i><\/a> muttering about love and hate, which are tattooed on his knuckles.<\/p>\n

\"nightofthehunter.jpg\"<\/span>Powell:<\/p>\n

Lord, I am tired<\/i>.
\nSometimes I wonder if you really understand. Not that You mind the killin’s.
\nYore Book is full<\/i> of killin’s. But there are things you do<\/i> hate
\nLord: perfume-smellin’ things, lacy things, things with curly hair.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Currin<\/a>:
\"johncurrincurly<\/span>Currin is our Fragonard<\/a>. For rougher trade, go to Grant Barnhart<\/a> and scroll till you get to Midnight Special<\/i>, 100 percent not safe for work.<\/p>\n

Marcus Martenson<\/a> contemplates the problem of good and evil by looking at his feet (Good and bad clog<\/i>).<\/p>\n


\n
\"marcusmartensonclog.jpg\"<\/span>
Robert Fros<\/a>t wanted to dispense with thinking in elementary binaries:<\/p>\n

It was by having been contrasted
\nThat good and bad so long had lasted.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nBut he couldn’t help doing it:<\/p>\n

When I was young my teachers were the old.
\nI gave up fire for form till I was cold.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeats<\/a>, mired in Irish politics, was sick of right and wrong: <\/p>\n

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Currin is sick of them too, but from the catbird’s seat of aesthetics. Life is short, he
\nsays, why not have fun? From Glenn O’Brien’s interview, via Two Coats of Paint<\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n

CURRIN:
\nAnother big realization for me was: Just don’t do things that depress
\nyou. I realized if it depresses me, then I just don’t want to get close
\nto it. If it brings me down, I just really can’t get into it. I think a
\nbig problem with art school is that it makes people feel like they have
\nto be interested in everything that’s of high quality.<\/p>\n

O’BRIEN: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CURRIN: Donald Judd’s work is high quality, but it depresses
\nme. And so immediately I could just say, “I don’t have to worry about
\nDonald Judd now.” [laughs] It’s great. And I think a lot of people take
\na more scholarly approach where they feel like you’re supposed to study
\nthings that depress you.<\/p>\n

O’BRIEN: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CURRIN: But I think there’s not enough time to be interested in
\nthose things. And there’s so much that doesn’t depress me. There are
\naspects of repetition that also depress me. Seriality depresses me.
\nPerformance depresses me. Lack of narrative depresses me. All those
\nkinds of cool things bring me down. So that was an important
\ndevelopment for me, just realizing that you need to follow your
\npleasure, at least as a painter. I think any kind of artist needs to,
\nno matter what you’re doing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Currin’s a dandy with
\nbrains, more Oscar Wilde than Wilde himself. Americans are good at
\nwishing away what we don’t want to see. Iraq? Are we still in Iraq?<\/p>\n

Essential video from the present here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More force and grace from Seattle includes:<\/p>\n

Michael Spafford<\/a>, from his Cronus Series<\/i>, eating his children, after Goya:<\/p>\n

\"michaelspaffordcronus.jpg\"<\/span>Anne Mathern<\/a>, West<\/i> (St. John in the wilderness)<\/p>\n

\"annemathernwest.jpg\"<\/span>Grant Barnhart<\/a> again, Two Road Agents Meet At An Impasse<\/i><\/p>\n

\"grantbarnhartgun.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Claire Cowie<\/a>, Homunculus Sketch, Bears with Roots<\/i>. She paints the doomed. Despite their freakishness, her figures, like Currin’s, savor their moment.<\/p>\n

\"clairecowietreeweb.jpg\"<\/span>Then there’s Alice Wheeler<\/a>. Can a bad brother get a break? (She’s in the front gallery at Greg Kucera<\/a> till Aug. 15.)<\/p>\n

\"alicewheelerdevil.jpg\"<\/span>
<\/em><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Mitchum’s Harry Powell is a murderous evangelical who stalks through Night of the Hunter muttering about love and hate, which are tattooed on his knuckles. Powell: Lord, I am tired. Sometimes I wonder if you really understand. Not that You mind the killin’s. Yore Book is full of killin’s. But there are things you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}