“Sketching and itching” – Dilúvio (Deluge) : poster ideas – and the SUN !

Susan Sontag is forever. Who on earth will remember Kakutani, but a few?

The New York Times Literary critic is stepping down after 38 years. Wow. Great. There will be another one on Monday. Will she be remembered? I doubt it. But Susan Sontag will. For ever !

Gerald Thomas

 

“Volúpia e Sensibilidade”(escritos sobre obras de arte): O ótimo livro de Jardel Dias Cavalcanti

Reproduzo aqui um pequeno trecho a meu respeito. Somente a primeira página.

O livro inclui Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Delacroix, Picasso, Duchamp, Genet, Hélio Oiticica e Tristão e Isolda de Wagner via Nietzsche e, entre outras coisas, a Vanguarda e a Ditadura Militar. Maravilha !

Why marriage can be extremely BORING (and, the other way around).

Morgana Muses and partner

Why marriage can become boring and its opposite: Morgana Muses!

Sadomasochism can seem like an aggressive concept, some insist that the BDSM community revolves around care, trust and inclusivity, which were all elements that had been missing from her previous life. “I just fall into this magical space and disappear. Someone asked me recently, have I found my boundaries? I said no, I’m still searching.”, says a porn star of BDSM movies who just turned 52.

Morgana Muses had been trapped in an unhappy marriage, suffering depression and psychotic breaks after both her pregnancies, and “dealing with being a mother while having a mental illness that no one will acknowledge”. Upon getting divorced, she realized society expected her to discreetly fade to black.

A turquoise-haired woman takes the stage at Berlin’s Porn Film Festival in stiletto boots and an evening dress split high up the thigh. The snigger from a couple in the audience is barely audible, but then, the woman is attuned to it. She stiffens for a second, and takes the microphone. “You can laugh if you like,” she says, “but darling, I was a young, gorgeous creature once – and you’re going to be my age one day.”

Wow.

“I see myself as an ordinary woman who has had extraordinary experiences.”, she says. You know? Despite this extraordinary life I’ve lead so far – making it to 63 – I also feel trapped by the boundaries of…. (sometimes) conventions which simply don’t fit me anymore (never have, in fact!). Jealousy, for instance. Just don’t get it ! And having to justify myself all the time.  I mean, I don’t have to ! But still, I follow some old, defunct patterns. Why? I wonder. I really wonder WHY !???!!!!

Morgana Muses: I envy you. Congrats

Gerald Thomas

 

 

A Serious conversation between father and daughter :) Conversa séria entre pai e filha.

Being Donald J Trump !!!!

MANIFESTO # 3 – 2017

MANIFESTO # 3 – 2017

LOW # 4

Just as in times past, I find myself in a low low low. I mean, low. Inexplicable LOW. Yes, it’s beyond depression.

It’s the FULL COMPREHENSION of life. The entire thing: in fact, it’s LIGHT. “The light”.

It’s the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

What am I saying?

I like walking amidst ruins. I mean, Venice. I mean, Jerusalem or Petra. I love dusty old Arab or semi-Arab lands or partially destroyed scenarios. Always liked paintings like (as, for instance) Max Ernst’s “Europe After the Rain” and dilapidated, rusty, dying, skeletons of ships, buildings, cadavers of cities. Anything and everything that would give me an indication that “we’ve been here before”.

BUT NOT FOR LONG !!!

NOT FOR LONG.

We’re expandable, elastic, far too adaptable: perishable, and that’s terrible. “What else is new?” you might say. True. What else is new. But, sometimes, when you’re both Hamm and Nagg, this realization happens to defy the very purpose of living. Yes, not great philosophy, I know. More like Woody Allen’s dilemma, I know.

But I like being exposed to ruins. The Old Greek Theater in Taormina where we performed M.O.R.T.E. (very appropriate) in 1990. And where my then wife – Silvia Pasello – had a miscarriage.

I love this modern age I live in because…..because? Well because ‘things’ are so badly built that they show signs of the fragility of extinction from the outset and their ephemeral state exist as a precondition that “life ain’t going be around much longer”.

Things aren’t going be around much longer.

This is the philosophy of the COLD WAR.

My era: the COLD WAR.

I was fortunate enough not to have witnessed a WORLD WAR.

But I grew up hearing HORROR stories about the HOLOCAUST since I lost a great part of my family in concentration camps. “They’ll come for you tomorrow. They’ll come through the garden, point the finger UP your nose and will turn AGAINST YOU”

I heard that all my life. For the remainder of my life what I’ve witnessed is all COLD WAR stuff and stupid competitiveness from either the right or the left about WHO DETAINS THE TRUTH.

I’m so goddamn tired of all this !

IN the NAME OF GOD.

OMG!!!!

So many atrocities!

I sit here on this July 21^st, 2017 more fearful than ever, more depressed than ever, knowing that I have achieved a “place” in history. What place? Don’t know. It may be small. It may be low.

I’m sure it will never compare to, say, a rock band. My work will never reach the outer bounds of, say, my mentor Samuel Beckett or James  Joyce. I know that. But then, what do I know?

And yet, just as in times past, I find myself in a low low low. I mean, low. Inexplicable LOW. Yes, it’s beyond depression.

It’s the FULL COMPREHENSION of life. The entire thing: in fact, it’s LIGHT. “The light”.

It’s time to GO. Clearly, it’s time to GO ! The daily chores are simply TOO MUCH to take. The daily routine is a horrible thing. A simple headache becomes unbearable. One observes one’s skin age and droop. One ‘anima’ lose to the impact of the world. And the ‘daily news’ ? they become a daily BLOW to what’s left of one’s reasoning.

Yes, one’s reasoning. The little that’s left.

 

Gerald Thomas

 

 

 

Fabiana Gugli in an extraordinary take from my play (2005) “A Circus of Kidneys and Livers” (written for Marco Nanini)

Dignity at its best: Obama wishes John McCain a speedy recovery.

I’m selling all (ALL) of my paintings, drawings, illustrations: Estou vendendo TODAS as minhas pinturas, desenhos, ilustrações.

Mixed media on paper (NYC – 1978)

Coffee on paper (London 2003)

coffee cup over shadow of itself (mixed media on paper) (NYC 1978)

For those interested, please write to me: dryoperacompany@gmail.com

Gerald Thomas

PS: The above painting measures ; 2 meters in width – 1.5 meters in hught

From the General to private: I’m both. Thus, exhausted! Thoroughly exhausted!

Painting by Philip Guston

Portugues and English:

As vezes me percebo exausto. Muito exausto (a ponto de não conseguir dar mais um único passo). E por que ? Porque sou
o general e – também aquele soldado raso (tudo ao mesmo tempo). Não há descanso. Jamais. Enquanto penso na estratégia, sou também aquele que tem que subir de binóculos naquele morrinho pra ver se tem algum inimigo vindo pra avisar pro General, que esta lá embaixo tentando descansar. Ufff! é exaustivo.

Sometimes, most of the time (actually) I’m just beyond exhaustion. I mean….just amazingly exhausted (to the point where I find it almost impossible to go another half a mile or a single step, sometimes). And why? There is no such thing as “resting” for me. No such thing. There’s no relaxing. Never, ever. I’m the general and the private, all at once, all in one, all combined, a single body taking the blow. And, while the general – who spent the day thinking up strategies etc – tries to rest up a little, whether via a quick nap, whether a quick dozing off or… I’m also the GI who goes up the hill with a pair of binoculars to watch out. “WATCH OUT” to see if the enemy is coming. And if that’s the case, ALERT THE GENERAL attempting to rest down below. Yes, what a life. Stiff neck, tense torso, tense all around. Now, in Venice, Italy. Exhausted.

Gerald Thomas

July 10, 2017

Venice, Italy

GUSTON – a bridge – and – Damien.

Philip Guston, my favorite painter EVER at the Accademia in Venice!!

I’m so moved and you were so right ! I did look the other way and found Guston, right across the Canal, right across from Damien Hirst, one tiny rather wide bridge away and decades apart! The most complete exhibit I’ve ever seen ! I was getting too heavily involved and in love with Hirst’s WRECK.

I’m too emotional right now. Still am, a week later.

I’m simply overcome with tears, a sense of suffocation to be reasonable (am I ever?) to sit here at the Rialto Hotel… a day too far as in a bridge too far to try and describe to you what it is like to go through the MAGNIFICENCE of the Damien Hirst exhibit of the WRECK, of the act of rescuing imaginary LIONS and imaginary “Venices” and monsters from Phoenix (Fenice = Venezia), the ever drowning, sinking, moving like a boat, nauseating like a Mickey mouse and grand and grandiose just like a monotheist and and and a Wagnerian opera! ACROSS the wooden bridge from the Palazzo  Grassi,  at the Academia, sits the MOST complete and MOVING exhibit ever of Philip Guston’s work: “Guston and the POETS”

Guston yes. The one who crossed the bridges between the abstract (expressionists) to the figvurativists all the way to the cartoon.

Yes, him: a GOD!

More – I promise, when tears are dry.

Gerald Thomas

Venice, July 9, 2017

Venice: Philip GUSTON (with a small touch of Warhol and Rauschenberg) and….OMG ! it’s all so emotional !!!

Family portraits # 5: mother and daughter (Mileny on your left, Claudia on your right)

Gal Costa (maravilhosa) e a carreira dela (HBO) fala do “Sorriso do Gato de Alice (eu e ela, no final desse documentario)

VENICE, ITALY (2017) part 1 (ANOTHER PERSONAL LETTER TO DAMIEN HIRST, tomorrow – this time after having seen his FANTASTIC EXHIBIT)

Um lindo poema de aniversário por FATIMA VALE

(rindo) Gosto de sentir a minha vida roçar a vida de Gerald Thomas
Gosto de o acompanhar
E quero me dedicar a beber da sua obra
E uma profusão de memórias
Que encurtem dores
E furtem cores como camaleões
Gosto do Gerald no Gerald
Do Thomas no Thomas
E sei que o Gerald está para a prosa
Assim como o amor está para a amizade
E quem há de negar que esta lhe é superior?
(rindo)

brincando com a Língua de Caetano Veloso!

Gerald Thomas 6+3=9 Solta as águas este ano, os Dilúvios e nasce, nasce, nasce de Novo!
Estas são as tuas águas.
Amor incondicional e Alegria sem fim para a tua vida que é o oceano de tantas!
FELIZ ANO NOVO, ADORADO Gerald Thomas !!!!
(da terra de Artur Barrio.)

Fatima Vale

O melhor presente de aniversário que já recebi (foi da Mileny, ontem)