The Michigan Daily - Friday, June 20, 1986 - Page 9
'Traditions': Tribute to broken barriers

By Elizabeth Block
baring Traditions, an exhibition
M five nineteenth century black
American artists, runs through July
27th at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
These artists shifted between survival
in a white world and their pursuit of
pure art.
Throughout our history, blacks
remained non-American in much of
America's mind. Not only did they gra-
pple with their color but also their
identity as Americans. For the
longest time, as black scholar W.E.B.
DuBois saw it, "One ever feels his
two-ness as American, a Negro; two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
strivings, two warring ideals in one
dark body, whose dogged strength

alone keeps it from being torn asun- The next two artists, Robert Scott bines human anatomy with textures the piece he uses many shades of blue,
der." They felt an identity crisis while Duncanson and Edward Mitchell and history in several pieces. Perhaps common to much of his religious
struggling with the need to create and Bannister, were landscape artists. the piece that truly symbolizes the works. In "Portrait of the Artist's
communicte their ideas, which made Duncanson focused on the vast spaces black quest for freedom is "Hagar" Mother" he reflects Eakins' style.
for continual war. of the American frontier, while Ban- (Abraham's maidservant cast out in Here his mother sits in a corner on a
The Civil War-era artists of nister painted intimate areas, em- the desert for bearing his children). chair, overwhelmed by the empty,
"Sharing Traditions" not only sur- phasizing brush strokes in an im- Lewis' Indian pride is obvious, brown room.
passed the reality of the racial pressionistic style. Unlike other however, in "The Old Arrow Maker," Because of these five pioneers,
barrier, but they gave us a gift of American contemporaries, such as an Indian and his daughter making black artists are now more widely
aesthetics and the potent black voice, Joseph Turner and Thomas Cole, arrows and moccasins. recognized. Of course, to them, pain-
essential to nineteenth century their perspectives lack precision. The most renown of the exhibit ting was not political - although the
America. Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis, an or- Henry Ossawa Tanner, became the viewer and art historian often seek
The self-taught Joshua Johnson was phaned child to the Chippewa Indian Dean of early twentieth century ar- political relevance. These artists
a portrait painter. His work depicts tribe, is the only woman and sculptor tists in Paris. He studied at the Pen- remind us, however, that art in itself
white wealth with an emphasis on in the exhibition. Untrained as a mar- nsylvania Academy of Fine Arts un- is the main issue. While we as passive
facial gestures and refined details ble carver, her primitive perspective der Thomas Eakins, yet moved to viewers may later engage in political
such as jewelry. However, his naive is masked through her innate ability Paris where his art finally circulated. inquiry, and critics continually seek
perspective is evident. The heads only to perceive. Without any training, she Tanner is most famous for his to superimpose a political order to
begin to illustrate volume, while the constructs figures almost religious paintings, such as "Salome" art, they merely sought to see the
bodies portray dummy-like statues anatomically perfect, and'still poses a in which he emphasizes her body with world and present us with their per-
dressed in elegant garb. threat to the likes of Rodin. She com- only faint references to her face. In ceptions.

Records

Books


The Residents -
Live in Japan (Ralph)
"Stars & Stripes
Forever"/
"Kaw-Liga" (Ralph)
The album: An aural document of
the past year's 13th Anniversary
Tour. Tough, nasty, even demonic
sounding (the things these retina-
heads do to "Jailhouse Rock" would
put plaque on your teeth). Too scary
to listen to more than once in a
lifetime, 'specially if this band
doesn't make your heart murmur.
Moral of the story: if you were there,
then this is for you. If notmove your
eyes further down the page. For
diehards (the kind who know that
Snakefinger is not a bizarre South-
western Texas skin malady), not
beginners.
The single: A horse of a different
saddle size. A preview of the next
wacko Americar Composer Series of-
fering from the cornea creeps (last
year's mutilations were George
Gershwin and James Brown). The
John Philip Sousa march sounds like
the tune Woody Allen's Virgil
Starkwell might well have been
playing in Take the Money and
Run's marching band sequence had
he been holding a synthesizer and
not a cello. The military bandleader
must be doing aerobics in his grave.
The flip, "Kaw Liga" (Hank
Williams' ode to a wooden Indian),
has had its original Native
American wigwam thump of a beat
replaced by a direct cop from
Michael Jackson's "Beat It." One
can almost see the cigar-store statue
balancing on his polished pine toes.
Yippee-yi-yay! If there were any
justice in this world, this song would
be played by Casey Kasem and all
the other "hot-hits" windbags til it
eclipsed all other tunes (even
"Thriller") and went quadruple-
platinum (zinc?). But there isn't, so
buy it yourself. For one and all.
-Mike Rubin
Roky Erickson -
Don't Slander Me
(Pink Dust)
Roky's been around for a long time.

He was the big wheel in the 13th Floor
Elevators when most of us were potty
training, and worked with the Aliens
before embarking on a bizarre solo
career that somehow just can't be
lumped in with everything else.
Don't Slander Me features the
reedy-voiced relic performing songs
that sheet-music wise would be con-
sidered varied and different. Roky
and band, however, approach them
all similarly, sounding like Zeppelin
crossed with . I don't know . .. the
Outfield, maybe, which gives the
album a disconcerting sameness
which really shouldn't exist. But
Rocky manages to be compelling on
several cuts. "Burn the Flames" is a
thriller-chiller, dramatic as all get
out, dancing just this side of silliness.
"The Damn Thing" crawls into one's
heart, despite the weird string sound,
or maybe because of it, and the title
track is a nifty rave-up.
-John Logie
Joe Pop-O-Pie -
Joe's Third-Record
(Subterranean Records)
You can't judge a record by its
cover. This one looks like it houses fun
vinyl-there's a cute happy-face and
crossbones logo in one corner, and the
rest is designed to look like a Coke
can. The back cover features song
titles like "Bummed Out Guy," and
"World of Morons," and says that the
album was recorded in a fourteen
hour period by an artist (Joe) who
among other things, "ate a lot of
avocadoes."
But slap this record on the turntab-
le, and very little that could
reasonably be called "fun" issues for-
th. Joe seems locked into a moan-and-
drone mode which may well be art,
but it sure isn't much fun to listen to.
The cover of "I Am the Walrus" star-
ts promisingly, but peters out, as does
most everything else on this record;
not that there aren't momentary
flashes of cleverness: Joe is excep-
tionally clever when it comes to
reverse taping. The backwards stuff
of Joe's Third is among the
best-maybe next time, Joe will put
out the first all-backwards record.
That would be fun, maybe.
-John Logie

The Good Mother
By Sue Miller
310 pp. New York:
Harper & Row. $17.95.
In The Good Mother Sue Miller has
written a very fine, incisive first
novel. The prose is precise and lucid,
and she writes with the toughness of
one who has suffered and who also
has the rare ability to empathize
with the suffering of others. There is
no sentimentality in this novel;
rather it is a hard and truthful look
at the struggle of living in a less than
perfect situation.
Anna Dunlap, the novel's central
character, divorces her husband and
retains custody of their three year
old daughter, Molly. Afterwards,
Anna's life becomes solitary,
"frigid," and safe. Then she meets
Leo Cutter, a painter who sne
describes as a passionate person -
the kind of person she'd like to
become. Their sexual relationship is
open and honest to Molly, exposing

her to the nature of sexuality. As
Anna's ex-husband learns that Molly
has become aware of sexual anat-
tomy, a knowledge he considers
"unnatural" for her age, he
questions Anna's competence as a
mother and files for custody of the
child.
The bold honesty of Anna's first
person narration carries this novel,
and gives her battle to love both Leo
and Molly, simultaneously, a
poignancy that is tragic and
genuine. Her attempted recon-
ciliation of sexual and maternal
feelings is complex, and accordingly
Anna's voice constantly calls atten-
tion to her capriciousness, her
vacillation between feelings of love
and hate for Leo and Molly. This
honesty, this acceptance that she is
not a passionate person (in her own
definition of the word), and that she
is imperfect is overwhelming; it is
the true power of this novel.
Miller's treatment of sexuality is
also frank and refreshing. Each
character ultimately confronts his

or her own sexuality. Much of what
Anna feels is a squeamishness
(though Miller's portrayal remains
unflinching and accurate) about her
own body, her need of fulfillment
and her fear. Thinking of herself as
frigid, Anna is attracted to beauty
and the physicality of love, needing
to touch and be touched. Miller's
treatment of sexuality is so honest,
so thoughtful, that it obliges us to
confront our own feelings as.clearly
and couragiously as does Anna.
The story of The Good Mother is
one of self-discovery. What Anna
emerges with is a courageous op-
timism that pulls all the small
dislocated pieces of her life.
together, though not completely. She
loses her battle, yet the ending of
this novel does not profess either
happiness, achievement, or success;
it doesn't need to. More importantly,
The Good Mother has caught hold of
what it means to fail, and then
honestly reveals what can be done
about failure.
-Collin Hutchison

,
#'eru re
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
1432 Washtenaw Ave., 662-4466
(between S. University and Hill)
Sunday 9:30and 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Hour -10:30 Social Hall
Adult Education Classes during both
services.
Campus Group: Coordinator -
Jamie Schultz.
Meets for Bible Study 7 p.m.,
Wednesdays.
Dr. William Hillegonds - Sr. Minister.
CONSIDERING AN ABORTION?
Complete Confidential Information
Pregnancy Counseling Center
529 N. Hewitt, Ypsilanti
Call: 434-3088 (any time)


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