At Week's End; 626; AWE #626 Perlingieri/Angussola

You You You Kill bars I'm told

really sleep stand by the low camp down now stand by a little sleep and let's do the music. Joining me now is a distinguished art historian from San Diego State University. Ilya Sandra Perlingeri is the author most recently of Sophie Nospa, Anguisola, the first great woman artist of the Renaissance. Professor Perlingeri have things changed that much in the more than 400 years since this great woman artist painted her masterpieces. Well I think on some levels yes women have an opportunity that they didn't have perhaps in the 16th century but on other levels we have a long way to go to see that balance where women have the

same opportunities that men have today and minorities as well. You rescued your subject as it were from from the basement or maybe even a graveyard of history obscured rather deliberately wasn't she by the males in her era. I'm not sure if it was deliberate but certainly she was an illustrious painter in her own lifetime she had an international reputation a student of Michelangelo's a court painter that came Philip II was no minor painter by any means but between her own lifetime when she was louded by Versari the first art historian in his works and the 20th century there has been minor note of her at the very very best and for that I would I'm glad that I have persevered through a lot of difficulties to bring her back to life. Are we literally missing half of the the history of humankind women not only have lived it and acted it out but they've also recorded it as in the case

of this artist they've written about it and yet much of that is obscured to us isn't it? Well I feel certainly that we have half of our history and that's not only in art history it's in every single area that we know all about the great men in any particular area the first and second third and fourth rate men but rarely about the first rate women and it's only in the last 20 years that I see a significant change but we still have a long way to go to bring a balance to what we know about our collective history and humankind. What's the nature of discrimination at this level you know I think we can all understand it at a somewhat lower level at less enlightened levels of society but we're dealing here in the world of art and the world of literature with with the cream of the crop supposedly with the world of creativity fundamentally based on freedom and yet obviously this world also excludes this world also in a sense in slaves on the basis of gender. Well I think your word freedom

it's very interesting one can play the games within the world who have one's work out there whether it's an art or composition but we're still dealing with the reality of a lot of unconscious people and that's not only the men it's the women as well who have bought into a system where we perpetuate this problem of getting half of our story and it's still difficult even today to get the information out when I was in graduate school I was constantly discouraged don't work on Sofini Spong we saw that we don't know anything about her you're not going to find anything in the archives and even when I was in the archives the archivists who were there for years and years would say there's nothing there only to find you know an hour later letters in your own hand and when I was in graduate school again don't work on these people because it's not important well it is we're at a critical point on the globe now we have decimated our environment on every single level

and I see that bigger picture that if we have a concern about healing things we have to have the other side of the story as well we have to have the other half of the population who has been forgotten and as I said it's not just women it's minorities as well when we can look at the bigger picture when people are encouraged to do the work that we need to to bring incredible women and men to our collective consciousness in humankind our history and herstory as well then we will see things heal on the largest in the largest scope of things and it's not only a matter of justice is it it's also a matter of of hobbling ourselves of crippling ourselves this woman was was enormously gifted she gave something terribly important to the to the world of art there are those gifts to be given obviously in science and a number of other fields so we're we're short -changing ourselves aren't we well I think so and when we look at the larger picture of creativity it's the best of what we have in a

society any society it is our heart and soul it's our internal expression of the most wonderful things that we are able to create as well as sometimes most difficult things because art is an expression and I mean the broader scope of art literature music poetry it's it can be the pain of going through transitions as Catecholvitz did with her work during the war and we need to have as I said this this larger vision how do we liberate this world of creativity it's it's often rather arrogant it often tells us it we have nothing more to teach it so if a nispo is the beneficiary after all of some important men in her life her father to begin with who allowed her to become a painter an unusual a feat for the time patronized by Philip of Spain recognized by Michelangelo how can we can we bring men into the modern world by enabling them to to be more liberating themselves well I think it goes back to the

individual that we need to explore individually our own conflicts and be willing to be open we use so little of our brains 10 % is the the latest to figure and creativity expands that in such an enormously wonderful way if we have the opportunity to re -evaluate our input that what we learned in high school what you and I learned in high school about Columbus or about whatever great man it's being re -evaluated today and we if we are willing to take that risk have a little bit of courage persevere I certainly have persevered over 17 and a half years when everybody said don't and have that vision that singular vision that there is something really important that we want to do with our lives and be open I think we have an opportunity to change things when it comes down to the individual base are we dealing here with fear as well as ignorance men are largely

ignorant of the potential that you're describing but aren't they also fearful of an encroachment as it were on their world the art world was so male dominated but that's true in politics it's true in science it's true in bureaucracy throughout the country in the corporate world certainly well I think fear is the base of that one can work from a base of fear or one can work from a base of love and courage and there was an interesting article actually this month in the September or October issue of psychology day showing that when we work from these bases of insecurity that the patterns don't go through the brain for creativity that they are hampered and so there is actually a physiological approach that we need to overcome which is possible to do I mean certainly in graduate school if you don't do this you're not going to get your master's degree or we won't approve your dissertation it means well I've got to work in a way that I can still express what I want and deal in a courageous way

with people who aren't always conscious how can we encourage that that enlightenment how can we nurture that creativity especially in the in the lower levels of education in grade school or even for that matter in in preschool education because doesn't this begin very rarely patterns of discrimination absolutely when I was growing up in New York I was very fortunate to have a very broad base in my own education but I see that education is in a severe crisis it has been for the last 25 years my art professor at NYU used to say we're in our Roman decline just take the names of what's going on today and substitute what was happening the last 200 years in Rome I think we need to reevaluate what's been going on so the children are not go from one grade to another are pushed ahead when they cannot read when they cannot write by the time they get to high school what does then high school diploma mean it has no significance when I was going to school in New York we had regents exams we had demanding

school schedules and we did the work or we didn't pass our exams and that has changed so significantly that my college students today cannot compete with their European peers and I hope that we will now in our last decade of the 20th century reevaluate and see this is our future our future in the world and it's the most important if we don't educate our children properly how are they going to that it's not only competing in the world but dealing in the world how can art help us make that kind of transformation New Mexico is a place that builds itself is the state of the arts it's very proud of its of its Native American heritage it's Hispanic heritage and it has it as you know a tradition as well in this century of Anglo artists who come in from other parts of the world it's quite a big business what can it do to affect this

this fundamental human progress that you're talking about well I think there has to be what I consider an interdisciplinary approach to art history art history truly has been very insular when you study in graduate school it's comparing one painting to another as if art is created in a vacuum and that just doesn't work art is the expression of each individual's sign of the times what happens sociologically politically economically religiously it's all incorporated and I think we need to look at an interdisciplinary approach to art to any area actually of study so that we can look at it not in this insular way but rather in a broad base because certainly here in New Mexico and elsewhere in the United States there are wonderfully creative people who are working from the base of a marvelous heritage but we don't see it in that interdisciplinary way in that

interconnectedness and again it's that global vision that I see need to work with in our consciousness but isn't part of this educational deficit you describe a kind of aesthetic blindness blind blind to what art can do blind to what art means how how do you respond to someone who says I think that's all well and good but it's it's the icing on the cake it's a luxury activity it's only for the few it's not a bread and butter issue it's not jobs after all or health care or or being number one in the world as our politicians tell us well I go back to this very interesting article in psychology today of course which shows that physiologically if we as infants if we as small children are exposed to a broader base of creativity we have the capacity then as adults because the brain waves are going the neurons are working through the synapses in our brain to expand what we are capable of doing physiologically and intellectually and that means that we have a

broader base to work from as adults and interestingly enough even into our old age where we have less likelihood of atrophying and worrying about problems such as Alzheimer's disease I don't see it at all it's it's it's such a vital part of expanding how we function in the world in a positive way and creativity is all that it really is a matter of language isn't it a matter of communication you're describing we we just unseated the president who talked about a kindler kinder gentler America it wasn't either but it wasn't either and and yet you're you're saying that art in a sense promises that kind of that kind of America that kind of world if we can infuse it if we can overcome our fear I think that's the bottom line on it and I think we have tremendous capabilities as human beings and this is the best of what we have in art but we're living in

a society that does not encourage that as much and I think we have opportunities now with the change of administration to say look we have some wonderful things that we can accomplish deal with education deal with the economy deal with the things that with with which we have not dealt over the last decade but back to these gender issues for a moment there is enormous discrimination even inside the art world isn't there in the world where the with this sensibility does obtain where we have this recognition you've still got a male establishment to fight well I'm I'm out there to try and change things and it's really wonderful to see that there are people who men and women who are willing to re -evaluate the way they are thinking about things and really her work speaks for itself when you compare a gorgeous court portrait of hers and Titians and yesterday when I gave a lecture in Santa Fe everybody was to look at this beautiful work that's the

re -evaluation you just need to show people and that's what education is all about to give these opportunities to our students so that they have a new vision of what education and what learning is are there others sofa nispas out there in the in the 19th and 20th century lots lots of undiscovered genius there I'm working on a book on 19th century art now and it is amazing to me the tremendous gift that has been totally overlooked by the establishment in 19th century art usually we have the token women Beth Maurizzo and Mary Cassade Rosabone are no blacks at all a magnificent male artist Henry Asawa Tanner who was the grandson of a slave the equal of Whistler or John Singer Sargent who has just this year been given his first major show at the DeYoung in San Francisco who is magnificent and a black woman by the name of Edmonia Lewis who

studied in Europe in Rome as a sculptor did marvelous marvels bring this hidden history into the mainstream how do we say to people this makes a difference in your life today and in at the end of the 20th century this is not an academic nicety not a footnote but something quite real for you well I think it means perseverance I think it means for those who people who are interested in digging in the archives and putting the material out there it needs to be incorporated and really the bottom line as I said is perseverance fighting the establishment and keeping your own vision one's own vision is so important to all of this because if I look at 17 years of being discouraged and now having great reviews in the New York Times and the LA Times in the Atlantic Monthly I feel I've done something really important to bring a little bit of a balance to

what we know of art history and that's the key is a balance let me bring up an awkward subject which Sophonese I had to deal with after all at one point in another money money power resources the key to much in in modern America and certainly the key isn't it to the survival and flourishing of the arts we've we've starved them relatively for the last few years do you see a change in that do you see a kind of Renaissance of public support well I would hope so I would hope that those historians those people who are changing what we know about our past are willing to speak out as I am doing today to say look this is absolutely vital to our survival as a nation any great civilization has as its base ethical values integrity and the arts if we look at Rome if we look at Egypt if we look at the beautiful cultures in mezzo America if we look at even European civilization the greatest aspects of those civilization the integral

part of that is art the creative spirit the creative genius which is does not have a gender so in a very fundamental sense the the gender issue here and the issue of art and its rightful place in society really indivisible aren't they absolutely we're not talking about simply the liberation of women or the liberation of art but a liberating spirit on the whole well I want as I said earlier I want to bring a balance we have half of the story and it's not just as I said men and if we're going to look at global issues we need to know the other half of our history and we need to re -evaluate our language which has tremendous biases in it as well but I think we have opportunities we always have opportunities to reevaluate things and and we are more aware where we are more sensitive I think than we were five or 50 or a hundred years ago we're working on it but we still have a long way to go Professor Perl and Jerry thank

you very much my pleasure it's been a delightful discussion I'm glad to be here thank you for having me thank you so Finispa Anguisola the first great woman artist of the Renaissance was born in 1532 in the city of Cremona in what is today named Italy she began lessons in painting and the mixing of pigments with Bernadino compi whom she depicted here painting a portrait of Anguisola two years later she painted another self -portrait in 1552 probably to commemorate her 20th birthday this painting hangs today in the Ufizi Gallery in Florence her hair is parted down the center and braided wrapped around her head like a tiara like Holgrin and Leonardo Da Vinci she was a left -handed artist sometime about 1554 Anguisola left for Rome and upon her return to Cremona

did several commissioned portraits of the clergy mainly half -length poses she soon challenged herself to more than single portraits depicting her three sisters and her maid set against a pastoral background this painting was followed by another family portrait of her father sister and brother at the age of 27 unmarried and technically still in her father's care so Finispa Anguisola was invited to the court of Spain then the most powerful royal house in the world she embarked on a series of brilliant court portraits starting with Queen Isabel de Valois

trying to reproduce and convey the splendor through tiny details to bring across both the sombreness and the magnificence of the Spanish court here she depicted the morose but ardent Christian King as best as she could mixing flashing gleaming details while simultaneously conveying a pervading sense of austerity around 1560 she painted the king's son Don Carlos he wore a black velvet cape lined with links fur that contrasted and complemented the rest color of its tiny horizontal gold stripes about 10 years later she produced the portrait of King Philip's fourth wife Queen Anne of Austria with pearl and gold buttons down the center of her bodice soon thereafter in a double portrait of two infantas so Finispa once more tried to incorporate emotional subtleties while strictly adhering to the rules of Spanish court portraiture that insisted on reserve austerity and sobriety

just before leaving Spain in 1578 with the King's permission she painted her favorite in Fanta Isabella Clada Eugenia ten years later she returned to Italy and her work once again reflected biblical themes with warm reds reminiscent of the Venice School she continued to take commissions while slowly settling into old age as the new century began Anguisola turned 68 in 1624 Anthony Van Dyke then only 25 painted the old master the following year at the unheard age of 93 so Finispa Anguisola passed away if true art consists of ideated sensations and heightened pleasure then surely so Finispa Anguisola as seen here in her self portrait this great and rather neglected woman painter deserves her pride of place in the Renaissance pantheon of fame recent information reveals that New Mexico is getting the most

bang for its buck the Bureau of Business and Economic Research says that relative to other states New Mexico pays the least in federal taxes yet gets the most in federal funding for every one dollar paid to the federal government New Mexico gets approximately two dollars back but some economists warned that too much dependence on federal money can prove harmful cuts and defense spending could hurt the state's national laboratories it's estimated the labs could lose as many as 500 to 800 jobs next year still unknown as whether or not new jobs will be created at the labs that focus on environmental and peacetime pursuits the labs are hoping for these changes to make up for the potential losses and New Mexico's Senate Republicans are requesting a one -day special session of the legislature to talk about taxes their main objective is to repeal the six -cent gasoline tax which is to go into effect July 1st the tax on gas would go up from 15 cents per gallon

to 21 cents per gallon it's estimated the tax would raise up to forty seven million dollars for the state most of that money would go into education and a strange illness has hit areas on or near the Navajo reservation claiming nine lives so far the symptoms of the illness resemble those of the flu later developing into serious respiratory problems which can prove fatal medical officials are investigating the illness and believe it is infectious victims are being treated with antibiotics move over Mickey is what a new production company coming to New Mexico says 2020 productions incorporated a film company specializing in animated feature films says their animation will rival Disney quality they say they want to offer children new kinds of heroes and heroines through non -violent animation their goal is to inspire children with hope for the future the creative team behind these new films uses the advice of experts in non -violence and ordinary citizens who have handled conflict in extraordinary ways those are some of this week's top stories

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