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Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 16 January 2021; Hits: 1838

‘Chairman Leo’- Academic and Activist: A Brilliantly Kind Man and an Intellectual Giant for the Common Good

A Man Who Projected Light and Hope on to the World

Leo Panitch (1945-2020), Professor Emeritus at York University in Toronto.

Photo: courtesy of Socialist Register/ Via Canadian Dimension

Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Leo Panitch

‘We are devastated by the passing of Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Leo Panitch and send our most heartfelt condolences to his family. Leo was the quintessential public intellectual. Informed by Marxist thought, he was a stalwart of social justice who helped us grasp the causes of oppression while offering a socialist vision of a different kind of world, one where people come before profit. Even in these difficult times, Leo saw “the hopeful side.”* Leo was also our colleague, the person with whom we shared the sixth floor of the South Ross Building at York University. He holds a special place in the hearts and minds of those of us who studied and worked closely with him. And we know that we will honour Leo's memory by continuing the struggle for justice in our backyards, neighbourhoods, cities, countries, and indeed globally. In Leo, we recognize that what we do as scholars matters. It matters when scholarly research is aimed at confronting injustices and pursuing a vision for a better world. It matters when the university and social justice communities collaborate and come together. It matters when the academy harnesses its resources for the many, not the few, for those oppressed, not the privileged...Rest in power, Leo. You will be deeply missed and never forgotten.’

Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 14 January 2021; Hits: 1241

This is dedicated to all my American friends, who I love dearly

Today, given what Trump and his enablers have done against humanity, decency, democracy and the common good, many around the world, look at America through the lenses of horror and disbelief. They see a land of ugliness, fear, hopelessness, arrogance, conflict, guns, selfishness, bigotry, racism and xenophobia.

But, this is not the America that I wish to remember. This is not the America that my many American GCGI friends and supporters represent.

America is also a land of beauty, hope, kindness, humility, respect for others, hopefulness, immersed in a special love for nature, friendship, hospitality and the common good.

To impress this point further, I would very much like to share a very special and beautiful film with you, which depicts also my own love for nature, as well as the real values of America which I very much appreciate.

A film like this, gives me hope that Trump’s America is an aberration of what America is, and thus, my hope that, once again, America will become a beacon of light and hope.

Kamran Mofid

The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism

‘The Artist’s Garden tells the intertwining stories of American Impressionism and The Garden Movement which flourished between 1887-1920. Both movements responded to rapid social change brought about by America’s industrialization.

With increasing urbanization prompting the emerging middle-class to seek refuge in the suburbs, they began to spend their free time and wealth cultivating impressive private gardens.

When French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel brought a selection of impressionist paintings to New York in 1886, he changed the course of art in America. Many American artists, inspired by what they saw, made the pilgrimage to study in Monet’s Giverny and were keen to employ their experience to capture America’s own unique landscapes.

Audiences of the film will be transported to Appledore Island, where pre-eminent impressionist Childe Hassam produced three hundred works over three decades. The film also reveals how the poet Celia Thaxter and other American women saw the garden not only as a beautiful oasis but as an important political space for women.

As gardening’s popularity rose, women began to take on new professionalized roles, from garden design to horticultural writing and lead activist movements to protect native species.

Directed by Phil Grabsky (Seventh Art Productions) the film The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism offers a unique opportunity to get up close to the greatest examples of American Impressionism and to understand the unique cultural movement in which they were produced.’

The film is part of the pioneering series EXHIBITION ON SCREEN, and was released on 21st March 2017.

THE ARTIST’S GARDEN : AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM- Watch the trailer HERE

Watch the entire film HERE

In the UK the film is also available on Sky Arts

The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement Hardcover

Purchase The Artist’s Garden HERE

And finally, in conclusion, to all those in pain, fear, anxiety, frustration, hopelessness and anger: Let Hafez, the Persian Sage and Philosopher of Love to be your Light out of Darkness:

How to defeat hatred and fear: Don't Despair Walk On

In this troubled world the path of hope will save us

'An outpouring of hope': Today the Angel of Democracy and Hope Fired the Evil of Inhumanity and Despair

Photo: NBC News

Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 13 January 2021; Hits: 1477

Friday, January 20, 2017- Wednesday, January 6, 2021:

When America Lost Reason and Humanity to Ignorance, Religious Fundamentalism and Bigotry

'Monsters are the result of the sleep of reason.'— Francisco Goya

Goya portrait painted by Vicente López y Portaña (1772–1850) on display at the Prado National Museum, Spain.

Two centuries ago, Spain was a mess. Struggling to escape the Inquisition. Invaded by Napoleon’s France. Wracked by war, confusion, random cruelty. In the midst of all that, the great Spanish master Francisco Goya painted, made prints, of kings and aristocrats. And then of chaos. The Sleep of Reason. The Disasters of War. Execution. Torture... In our time of attacks on democracy, atrocity and dismay, hopelessness and despair, anger and frustration and the rise of monsters, Goya is showing us the perils of forgetfulness and turning our backs on reason.

‘Want to understand the Capitol rioters? Look at the inflamed hate-drunk mobs painted by Goya...

because no artist better captured collective delusion and mass fanaticism.’- Jonathan Jones

‘It could be Trump on the banner … detail from The Burial of the Sardine, 1808-12’.

Photo: DEA/G Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images/Via The Guardian

Goya's Lesson on the Fall of Reason and Humanity in the US under Trump

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Goya, Plate 43, "Los Caprichos": The sleep of reason produces monsters, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin.

(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In this ominous image, we see the dark vision of humanity. A man sleeps, apparently peacefully, even as bats and owls threaten from all sides and a lynx lays quiet, but wide-eyed and alert. Another creature sits at the center of the composition, staring not at the sleeping figure, but at us. Goya forces the viewer to become an active participant in the image––the monsters of his dreams even threaten us. We forget this at our own peril.

Friday, January 20, 2017- Wednesday, January 6, 2021:

When America Lost Reason and Humanity to Ignorance, Religious Fundamentalism and Bigotry

‘Goya even gave a name to our current plight, in a print of a man resting his head on a desk as if giving up on trying to understand the world. All around his despairing form, strange monsters of the night materialise with the shining cold eyes of owls and cats. On the side of his desk is an inscription that translates as: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,” wherein Goya criticized the rampant political, social, and religious abuses of the time period.’

'Follow the flag … pro-Trump supporters breach the US Capitol building on 6 January.'

Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Rex/Shutterstock/Via The Guardian

...‘The great neoclassical monuments of Washington DC were begun in Goya’s lifetime and continued through the 1800s. Their harmonious design sang the beauty of reason at the very moment the artist witnessed it fail in Spain. The Capitol building was started in 1793 as part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s grand plan for a spacious, calm, yet sublime monumental Washington whose classical geometries express an unshakable belief in rational republican optimism. Goya returned to Madrid that same year after losing his hearing and hope for humanity.

L’Enfant’s confidence and optimism now seem to have vanished. Goya’s dark pessimism has far more pertinence to the last days of Trump’s tenure. The invasion of the Capitol brought the Spaniard’s horrific vision to Washington, as the logical architecture of the Capitol clashed with the chaos that filled it. Neoclassicism meets Goya, reason is overrun by madness, and lawlessness threatens to swallow the republic.’- Jonathan Jones, ‘Want to understand the Capitol rioters? Look at the inflamed hate-drunk mobs painted by Goya’, The Guardian, 12 January 2021

......

This is When Reason Loses and Ignorance Wins

'Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself'

'A pandemic unabated, an economy in meltdown, cities in chaos over police killings.

All our supposed leader does is tweet.'- Robert Reich