Music, Food and Art

Music - Food - Art #1

Jazz, Pasta, Rauschenberg

by Cork Marcheschi

The Art

Robert Rauschenberg's Erased de Kooning Drawing 1953.

If you are not familiar with this piece, Google it. I think it is very important. Robert Rauschenberg as a young and somewhat frustrated artist asked Willem de Kooning for a small drawing and he then erased it.

The thing to know about this moment in New York art history is that Abstract Expressionism had succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It so dominated the art scene that figurative art was relegated to the back rooms of galleries and many galleries didn't bother with figuration at all. Like trying to find a Tickle Me Elmo Doll at Xmas in 1995. Abstract art was the rage.

The gesture of a young artist attempting to escape the Abstract Expressionistic stranglehold of the New York art world at that moment is a very powerful statement. Also the marks left on the paper are creation from deconstruction. If you are scoffing at gesture as art, think about the power that gestures have had in your life. Being ignored is very powerful, just as being singled out is. The act of random kindness or random stupidity all carry great power. This piece of art also has a sense of humor. Take your experiences in life and let them help you understand the guts of art. This piece of art is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

I like this piece a lot: I like the idea; I like the audacity; I like thinking of Rauschenberg at a time when he had power; I like the simplicity of the time.

OK. So I set the table and put the un-drawing on the wall facing me.

I like it for its youthful gesture, it is the kind of thing that excited me as a young artist. The piece also has visual kinship with Robert Ryman but more soul, and Agnes Martin but less formal. It is a subtle visual statement that packs a huge wallop and humor.

This piece also says it was made at a time when art was just art – and football was just football. Football players would retire and open restaurants or become car salesmen. The country still had a relationship to its history. The idea that ball players would earn millions of dollars would have been science fiction and the idea that sporting events needed additional entertainment beyond the game, would have also fallen into the land of fiction.

The Food

What would be an ideal dish to go with this piece of art? Where does this piece live in me?

Pasta Aglio Olio: This is a very Italian dish usually not found in restaurants. It is a rustic dish that transcends the concept of peasant food. This dish is good whether you are rich or poor and it is eaten as choice not necessity. (Rauschenberg was living in a cold water flat when he did the de Kooning piece.)

The dish is also visually like the drawing. The tonality is in the whites, off-whites and warm ochre. The dish consists of angel hair noodles, olive oil, fresh garlic and Parmesan cheese, (Italian parsley, chili flakes and sweet red peppers can also be added but in small quantities). The dish is simple, elegant and powerful. Visually this dish has the mottled tonality of the oxidized newsprint drawing.

Instructions for one pound:

Put some good extra virgin olive oil in a good-sized frying pan ("good" means cold, first press with a green tint). Cover the bottom of the pan with oil – don’t be a wimp about this, really cover the bottom of the pan, much more than a smear that you need to wash back and forth to cover. Heat it up over medium high heat and let it get hot.

Now with a razor blade, slice two to three good-sized cloves of garlic paper thin – absurdly thin. Then grate at least a cup and a half of fresh (quality) parm. Drop the pasta in boiling water – 3 minutes for angel hair. And angel hair is great for this dish. Into the heated pan toss the sliced garlic – stir constantly looking for a toasty brown on the garlic (if you want to add the chili flakes and sweet peppers, do it now). With the oil still on the burner, remove the pasta from the water, let it drain and put it in the frying pan. Then toss vigorously. Next, remove from the heat and put in a large handful of the fresh grated cheese (Parmegiano Reggiano) and you are ready to go.

This is a statement! It isn't a convoluted jumble that never gets to the point – this says YES!!! You can taste every ingredient. This is a confident dish, served with conviction. This dish does not hide behind complicated preparations or ingredients. It is a hug that last longer than three seconds. It is a hug that is a firm embrace, definitely not a series of pats that feign sincerity but communicate timidness.

So the drawing is on the wall facing you over your plate of Pasta Aglio Olio. Now for the tune.

Music

Again if I was looking at Agnes Martin or Robert Ryman I might think about Terry Riley In C or Eno's Music for Airports.

But not for this piece, it is not minimal or patterned – you miss the point if you only try to match the surface qualities.

So I think Shorty Rogers and his Giants of Jazz Martians Go Home from 1955 The Swinging Mr. Rogers album on Atlantic. Shorty was not a fan of "COOL JAZZ." He did Martians Go Home as a tongue in cheek gesture to make fun of the COOL JAZZERS and send them back home. BUT his attempt to make fun of this airy and spacey jazz style backfired. Martians Go Home strolls along like an afternoon walk in autumn: easy, just glad to be out, you stop, look around and stroll on some more. EASY! There is a drum solo that is smart and conversant. I can imagine the band members cracking up and falling out of their chairs laughing at what they were doing but they fooled themselves. These were great players and they really couldn’t make poor music even if they tried. The song has space so you can hear the sound framed. It has a sense of humor but not at the expense of the music. Without trying, Rogers created a light-hearted gift of the coolest of the cool and the humor is the fairy dust that makes it magic. (Do not listen to the YouTube version of this song. They picked up the speed and left the cool in the dust.)

The above story reminds me of an experience I had when I was an undergrad at California State College at Hayward, California. I was working as the graveyard shift guard in the art building. My job was to sit at a desk in front of the main doors to the building. I had a portable radio. It was 1966 and progressive radio was great. I did some homework, drew, ate and just killed time, making $5 an hour from 10 pm to 6 am.

About midnight, a few guys I knew were waving at me through the glass. I walked over and we talked through the door. These were guys from my English class and earlier that day they had seen the new installation in the art gallery. It kind of pissed them off. It really wasn't much of an avant-garde statement but it put these guys off. They wanted to come in and make their own little sculpture to make fun of this high falutin' piece of crap that was being passed off for ART. I told them I would get fired if I let them in BUT at the north end of the building there usually was a door open into the basement. I also mentioned that the keys to the gallery were in the top left drawer of the desk and that I break at 12:30. I came back from my break and got back to radio, food and reading. At 6 am when I was about to leave, the four guys came downstairs and handed me the keys! "What were you doing for close to six hours?" I asked. "We just couldn't quite get it right," said one of the bleary-eyed jokesters. I went up and took a look at what they had done. Their joke had turned out to be a pretty nice mobile. They had been captured by the process, and the innate desire to create something took over. Like Shorty Rogers they found a true experience in their attempted joke. The piece they worked on was left to hang for the remainder of the show.

So it's me, Rauschenberg, Pasta Aglio Olio and Martians go Home.

A piece of fine art made by a young struggling artist with an understanding that in order to truly appreciate his gesture you had to be able to laugh at it.

The song is attempting to make a joke at others' expense but backfires and creates a wonderful example of what it attempted to mock.

So gather your friends and cook food, talk about why you are moved by the words or the sound of a song, share the moment you first discovered a painting or sculpture that stopped you in the tracks of your life. Let's be radical and let's have some fun! Let's let art in! Let's eat, laugh, and share with friends! Let's think out loud about things that are important to us. Let's choose to work so we can see past the media window that is presented as the only view. AND through joy, conscious hedonism, unabashed dilettantism (a good thing) and letting go, we may start to change our world one song, one meal and one sculpture at a time.

Finally, a food that grew out of poverty and demanded to do more than simply feed someone. This dish demands flavor and taste without the benefit of a budget or variety of ingredients. It is the essence of a desire to do more than simply exist, and celebrates creativity over abundance.

I know all of these and they all feel good.

Now you give it a try.

-Cork M

Read MFA #2: Tom Waits, Sachertorte, Kienholz

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