Essay: Finding Freedom in Paintings & The Responsibility Of The Artist to Facilitate Social

Change

     With an intent to discover what true people’s art would look like, Kolmar and Melmaid, a Russian collaborative artist team, created a research survey for their project for the most wanted and most unwanted paintings in fourteen countries. In 1994, they began the process which resulted in America's Most Wanted and America's Least Wanted paintings, which were exhibited in New York at the Alternative Museum under the title "People's Choice." The Most Wanted work is perhaps the most ironic and cliché painting of all. Roughly “dishwasher sized”, the piece features a misty outdoor scene with a mountain, trees, a deer, children and of course George Washington. The Least Wanted, on the other hand, is paperback sized, abstract, geometric, with bold primary colors and no distinguishable figures. As for the thirteen other countries, all but two had a similar aesthetic to that of America’s most and least wanted: An outdoor scene with water and a mountain, non-domestic wildlife (be it a moose in Canada or a Hippo in Kenya), children playing, and some sort of national figure or symbol. Exhibited again in the eleven other countries, the least wanted paintings were geometric, non-figurative abstract works. Once completed the least wanted paintings were deemed the more successful, innovative, and aesthetically pleasing by those surveyed when asked to choose which one they liked best.

(stopping parts of society, if not the whole thing)
[...] of a gigantic circulatory system that couldn’t be arrested without understanding all the forces operating on its totality.

(on fortunate misfortune)
It was obviously one of those millionaire’s sons who has turned out rather badly from the standpoint of his parents, whose life has gone enough lost so that an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to follow anyone of this young man’s days without pain. And since he knew or suspected this, whenever he met others, there was in his lips and eyes an incessant smile at his good luck, so far as he could manage, which seemed to apply not only to the people across from him but also to the entire world

(very fast)
After a half-hour of this pleasure passing away like sleep [...]

(early beautiful capitalism)
No one said hello, helloes had been abolished, everyone attached himself to the steps of the person in front of him, walking ahead and looking at the floor on which he wanted to hurry along, or otherwise glancing at a few words or numbers on the paper which fluttered with his footsteps as he held it in his hand.

(on connections across society)
X and Y should try to get along by his own ability, that the necessary societal connection between them would be manufactured in time by the victory or destruction of one or both of them

Dark emptiness blew against him.

(on hasting to fit clothes in a trunk)
[...] threw them into the trunk with vigor, as if they were wild animals to be tamed

(on morning atmosphere)
[...] walked in the thick, yellow morning fog

(why going farther is sometimes better)
maybe it would be better for him to come to a place where the possibility of return wouldn’t be so easy. He would certainly make better progress there, because there wouldn’t be any useless thoughts to hold him back.

(on coke, 1938)
[...] a dark liquid that burned in the throat

(stubborn, Y, happens also in the 21st century)
“You are stubborn,” [..] “Someone tries to do a good thing for you, wants to be helpful to you and you resist with all your strength.

(on not having an own opinion)
Inside you know I’m right, but on the outside you have to stay with 'Delamarche'.

(on sentimental volatility, or another way told, not giving a scrapping ****as long as one claims that dearly expected fix)
[...] why he should be so happy about being sent away as a criminal. Joy beamed out of eyes, as if it were entirely indifferent to the whether he had done anything or not, whether he had been justly judged or not, so long as he was allowed to slip away, either in shame or with honor. [...] was behaving like she did, who in her own matters was so meticulous, turning over and investigating in her mind any unclear word from the head cook for weeks at a time

(on hangovers)
[...] but from the outrageous hangover he found himself in, since he had scarcely slept in heavy drunkenness when he woke up right away and  to his surprise was being boxed bloody and could no longer find his way in the waking world

(on spotlight)
[...] during his speech all of the automobile lights were directed on him, so that he found himself in the middle of a bright star.

(on police)
[...] the contempt of the police was better than their attention.

(on helping hands)
[...] seeming to smile over his doubts

(on questions from employer)
[...] but it had been too tempting to shout out no, because at his last job he had only had the great wish for some strange employer to walk up to him and ask that question- n.a. Are you happy here?

Rockport Capital’s Peter Ackerman is back in the news, but not for his business pursuits.

The former junk-bond trader at Drexel Burnham has granted Bloomberg a rare interview about his latest venture: a strange US political group called American Elect. As its chairman, Ackerman wants voters to use American Elect to choose a cross-party presidential ticket online, and then have it appear on every state ballot in the 2012 election.

Peter Ackerman is the lead shareholder of Fresh Direct, the largest closely held online grocer in the United States. He is also the Managing Director of Rockport Capital Incorporated, a private investment firm. From 1978 to 1990 he was Director of International Capital Markets at Drexel Burnham Lambert where he structured, financed, and invested in hundreds of recapitalizations including the largest and most complex leveraged acquisitions of that period.

Dr Peter Ackerman, founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, offers his thoughts on some of the top foreign policy issues for the new Trump administration. He spoke in a spoke in brief videotaped interview with the institute on the sidelines of our “Passing the Baton” conference that marked the foreign policy and national security transition from one administration to the next.

This nationally-acclaimed book shows how popular movements used nonviolent action to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders and secure human rights in country after country, over the past century. Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall depict how nonviolent sanctions–such as protests, strikes and boycotts–separate brutal regimes from their means of control. They tell inside stories–how Danes outmaneuvered the Nazis, Solidarity defeated Polish communism, and mass action removed a Chilean dictator–and also how nonviolent power is changing the world today, from Burma to Serbia.

From the duo who delighted readers with The Lonely Phone Booth comes this wonderful new book featuring a diverse family of memorable characters. Pablo Pressman has homework to do, and Pablo will do almost anything to avoid doing his homework. But when his computer breaks down, he is desperate. His mother takes him up to the attic to discover her old typewriter. A “what-writer”? asks Pablo mystified. When his mother shows him how to strike the keys just so, and the words start to appear on paper, Pablo is delighted. And imagine his triumph when he presents his homework at school and amazes his teacher and all his friends with the story of the typewriter who saved the day.

Just as an out-of-date but functional phone booth proved its worth in Ackerman and Dalton’s The Lonely Phone Booth, a typewriter, gathering dust in the attic, comes to the rescue when a family’s computer conks out. Ackerman’s story takes a while to get rolling as he traces the typewriter’s lineage (“Its owner, a young woman named Pearl, used it to type pamphlets for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”) and introduces a boy named Pablo (Pearl’s grandson) and his mixed-race family. Dalton’s illustrations feature simple, flattened shapes that feel in keeping with the old-meets-new vibe, and the story unfolds in typewritten-looking text, appropriately enough. Ages 6–9. (Aug.)

The creators of The Lonely Phone Booth and The Lonely Typewriter are at it again in their new children’s book The Screaming Chef. Witty text and clever illustrations combine to create a silly yet serious picture book for readers of all ages which teaches that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, especially when you’re singing.

Nonviolent action, well planned and implemented, is shown in this lucid, timely, and compelling work to effect dramatic outcomes against opponents utilizing violence. Ackerman and Kruegler recognize that not all nonviolent efforts meet with success, and they are careful to stress that a nonviolent approach involves great risks as well as opportunities. It is the effectiveness of the strategies employed which will determine whether or not those using nonviolent means can prevail against opponents who rely on violence in pursuit of objectives. Twelve strategic principles are established in this book which serve as a conceptual foundation to enhance the prospects of success in nonviolent campaigns. The authors also develop six twentieth-century examples of nonviolent action from the early Russian Revolution of 1904-1906 through the Solidarity movement in 1980-1981. Each campaign narrative constitutes a fascinating reading experience and illustrates common themes, strategies, and important aspects of behavior on the part of major participants in nonviolent encounters.

This nationally-acclaimed book shows how popular movements used nonviolent action to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders and secure human rights in country after country, over the past century. Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall depict how nonviolent sanctions—such as protests, strikes and boycotts—separate brutal regimes from their means of control. They tell inside stories—how Danes outmaneuvered the Nazis, Solidarity defeated Polish communism, and mass action removed a Chilean dictator—and also how nonviolent power is changing the world today, from Burma to Serbia.

Follow Peter Ackerman and explore their bibliography.

https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Ackerman/e/B001HCVZQS