This Week April 18, 1990.

Page M7

MODERN LIVING

Is there a right-way-up in the world of art?

feel so stupid when ever-

yone raves about a

painting while I wonder

“What is it?” It may be
that only a paint-splattered
intellectual with turpentine
in her blood could truly un-
derstand what the artist has
done, but I can’t help wonder-
ing if it isn’t hung upside
down. Maybe, if I moved it
this way, or that way, I too
could see what makes critics
say “Ahh!”

My urge to tilt the painting
isn’t so far fetched. A Georgia
O’Keefe painting displayed in
the University of Minnesota
Art Museum hung vertically
for 30 years, although the
artist intended it to hang hor-
izontally. Despite not being
able to tell the top from the
side, the embarrassed mu-
seum director stated that the
painting, Oriental Poppies,
looked terrific either way.

I thought that artists put
their signatures on the bot-
tom right corner so that such
mistakes couldn’t be made.
Are artists as whimsical in
their signing as they are in
their painting? We may have
a bit of righting to do.

Is Andy Warhol's Campbell
Tomato Soup can supposed to
be upright, or lying on it’s
side? Perhaps the Mona Lisa
ought to be reclining instead of
sitting. Is the Blue Boy stand-

ing on his head? Landscapes

are the only paintings you can

trust to be right side up.
When a talent is developed

out! They pack six syllable
words into 500 word sentenc-
es. If they can’t find a word
long enough, they make one

word have editors to keep us
from becoming great. Many a
reporter who has let a poly-
syllable word slip through her

= Efe's=Eike=Fhat

By JOAN MYLES

beyond competence the ge-
nius is no longer content to be
understood. Fellows who are
marvelous cartoonists push
themselves to excel in water
colors, master still life and
learn all about oils. When
they know everything about
texture, shape and shading
they go over the edge into
fingerpainting with primary
colors.

The same thing happens to
musicians. If they are truly
great, they don’t compose
waltzes or sonatas. They daz-
zle the critics with something
so complicated it sounds as if
the baby is banging on the
piano again.

People who talk for a living
aspire to the same heights. As
salesmen they were taught to
use words of no more that two
syllables so as not to confuse
the customer. When they be-
come communicators, look

Commuter etiquette:

ear Miss Manners

— As a regular user

of public transpor-

tation, I’ve noticed
the recent growth of an old
custom. Passengers place per-
sonal belongings on seats
adjoining their own, forcing
others to request as a favor
the use of seats to which they
are perfectly entitled.

This seems to occur most
often on commuter trains,
where professionals have
been known to spread brief-
cases and papers into a sort of
movable office, acknowledg-
ing the pres-

sense of personal grievance.

She might even speculate
on that hint of pejorative atti-
tude toward workers with
briefcases, and on why you
classify a simple “Excuse me”
as begging a favor.

Returning to etiquette, she
sees no reason why, in a half-
empty train, passengers may
not spread out a little. On an
overnight flight that is only
partially filled, would you ob-
ject to the usual practice of
passengers each bedding
down on three seats? You
would be mighty unpopular if
you did.

ence of others

Of course,

with great

travellers

Surprise.

must always

Sometimes
two full seats
are so com-
mandeered.
I’ve habi-
tually re-
quested seats
being so used,
even when
some empty
ones are
available. I al-

By JUDITH MARTIN

first allow
those getting
on at the
same stop to
find seats.
When re-
quested — at
subsequent
stops, and
even just
when trouble-
makers decide

ways dosopo- ~_
litely, but admit that I harbor
rancorous thoughts.

There seems to me to be a
social paranoia at work here. I
realize that you do not con-
cern yourself with psychologi-
cal matters; even so, would
you care to comment on this
practice?

Gentle Reader — Lucky
for you, Miss Manners doesn’t
concern herself with psycholo-
gical matters. Otherwise she
might be tempted to comment
on the psyche of a person who
unnecessarily disrupts the

pee cOlfort of strangers out of a

they want a
particular seat — they must
pleasantly gather their be-
longings to make room.

Miss Manners thus defends
what you see as your rights,
even if she doesn’t care for
your motivation.

Feeling incorrect? Address
your etiquette questions (in
black or blue-black in on
white writing paper) to Miss
Manners, in care of this news-
paper: The quill shortage pre-
vents Miss Manners from an-
swering questions other than
through this column

up. Instead of “What did he
say?”, we ask “Isn't he marvel-
ous?” and confer honorary de-
grees on him.

We who use the written

word processor has received a
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Even the ones who write
books seldom elude the editor
long enough to write an in-

comprehensible novel and be
hailed as a genius. James
Joyce was one of the lucky
ones.

Every writer wants to get so
good that she can dispense
with capitals and punctua-
tion. It makes the copy hard
to read, but it shows that the
author isn’t a wordsmith,
she’s an artist.

Because I write a column,
limiting myself to words that
are found in a dictionary, set
out in sentence form, you may
not realize how artistic I am.
If there was a word gallery,
my work would hang in it.
Probably upside down.

SG

&

&
x

de QE

eo

2
Be

2
ee

SS

OHS
Se

Sh
bs

<

f

READ THIS OUT LOUD:

“| BELIEVE IN MICHELINS —
| BELIEVE IN MICHELINS |
| BELIEVE IN MICHELINS.

SO AT PRICES LIKE THESE,
WHAT AN | WAITING FOR?!”

oo
ight

Sos
as

ASSEN

Migs

7

XA4:

The positively
durable,
positively
all-season
radial.

P155/80R13

Come to your Michelin Tire Expert today!

SPORT
EP-X:

Superb
performance...
year round!

i

FRANK LEONARD

GOVERNMENT at HERALD ; bio

ASSOCIATE DEALER

OPEN 7:30 a.m.
ck north of Chinatown

VERN LEONARD

382-6184