The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 10, 2001, Page 7, Image 7
THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, October 10, 2001
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EXHIBIT
«
Museum of Art will show
Louis Comfort Tiffany’s
work through January
COLUMBIA MUSEUM OF ART
Corner of Main and Hampton streets.
Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sun. 1-5 p.m.
Students $2, Adults $5
345-2215
BY JENNIFER LEE
THE GAMECOCK
Oscar Wilde once sai
“We are all in the gutter, bi
some of us are looking at tl
and Co. founder Charles
Lewis, decided early in life to
pursue an art career.
Beginning as a painter, he
specialized in romantic East
ern themes influenced by his
travels through that region in
the late 1860s. By 1880, he had
become interested in interior
design. It is in this area that
he has achieved lasting fame
as the creator of the most rec
ognizable decorative arts
from the Gilded Age of Amer
ica.
During the time that the
Vanderbilts ruled the rail
ways, Frederick Law Olmst
ed designed world-famous
parks and John Singer Sar
gent painted them, Tiffany be
gan producing items that had
a practical purpose — dishes,
vases, trays — but he made
them “most appropriate for
collectors and lovers of art.”
The exhibit at the Columbia
I, Museum of Art is proof of the
it veracity of such a statement,
ie Taking inspiration from
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him, Tiffany translates the '
botanical into the ethereal
with his organic treatment of ’
glass in the shapes of jacks-in- 1
the-pulpit, calyx-flowers, and i
lily pads. The vases seem to !
shame any real flora placed in ]
them, and often instead of be- 1
ing just a container, they i
stand alone as larger-than-life i
flowers. 1
If not taking its actual
shape from nature, pieces like
the Favrile (a Tiffany-patent
ed term for the iridescent type
of glass) Vase are adorned
with loose representations of -
the natural world — leaves
and vines.
An ice plate has taken the
idealized quality of ice itself
— a frigid blue with cracks in
the surface decoration.
A red vase stands like a
succulent crimson fruit.
Gold goblets gleam like
Arthurian tableware, appro
priate for America’s Aristoc
racy.
Chalices glimmer like Holy
Grails designed for the Kings
of Capitalism.
As visiting Biltmore Es
tate, the mind boggles at the
thought of people using such
objets d’art as normal drink
ing glasses.
Today, Tiffany is probably
most famous for his stained
glass lamps. Knockoffs
can be seen in most
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rGI Friday’s.
For his lamps, *
'iffany found inspira
ion in the English arts ; - -
md crafts movement. V,
Structuring the shades
nore like windows and !
ess like lamps, he was ;
ible to create pieces that ■
ieemed to belong more to 1
he world of Titania and t
Oberon and less to the world
of Thomas Edison.
Using different textures
and thicknesses of glass,
Tiffany was able to produce
an effect that looks like the
dappled light of a forest or the
warm glow of a cozy hearth’s
fire coming through in the col
ors of his poinsettia petals.
Living until the age of 84,
Tiffany faced the decrease of
the popularity of his works.
It was not until the 1950s
that interest was renewed and
has since then
continued
to grow.
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One of these star-gazers was
Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose
works from the Jack and
Elaine Folline collection can be
seen at the Columbia Museum
of Art through Jan. 20.
As Wilde, Tiffany was an
advocate of the “art for art’s
sake” aesthetic movement in
America. Louis Comfort, the
son of (“Breakfast at”) Tiffany
PROFESSOR
PICKS
STEVE
JACKSON
Adjunct for
Honors
College and
the College of
Journalism.
Professor of
Journalism
4 BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ
The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
The Academic Tribes
Hazard Adams
Understanding Physics
Issac Asimov
The Mismeasure of Man
Stephen Jay Gould
4 FAVORITE BOOKS
The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Uplift War
David Brin
Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert Heinlien,
They Walked Like Men
Clifford D^Simak
CD REVIEW
Media hype worthy of Strokes
IS THIS IT?
The Strokes
BY TUG BAKER
THE GAMECOCK
It’s been quite a while since a
band has received as much
media hype as New York City
rockers The Strokes have. Only
two years after starting to play
together, the band is grappling
with seemingly instant success.
Famous musicians such as
Radiohead are attending their
cpncerts. Some people even paid
more than sixty dollars to see
its shows before it had released
a full-length album. And now
that it’s here, Is This It? looks
destined to increase the band’s
fame.
Lead singer Julian
Casablancas and guitarist Nick
Valensi had been dabbling in
music since Casablancas was 15
and Valensi was 13. Bassist
Nikolai Fraiture and drummer
Fab Moretti later trickled in,
but it wasn’t until Los Angles
native Albert Hammond Jr.
moved to New York with his
family in 1999 and began
playing lead guitar for the band
that The Strokes found their
musical identity.
In early January, Rough
Trade Records honcho Geoff
Travis got hold of a Strokes
demo of The Modern Age and,
according to myth, offered the
band a record contract when he
was only halfway through
listening to it. From there,
everything took off for the band.
The three-track Modern Age EP
was released shortly after and
found a home on British radio
and U.S. college radio stations.
The College Music Journal did a
cover story on the Strokes based
on this EP alone.
And so began the hype. But
does the album live up to the
expectations the buildup set?
Yes, and then some.
Is This It? is probably the
best album of2001. The pure
rock bliss its listeners
experience is unparalleled. As
Casablancas’ voice comes
through the electronic buzz
sounding like Lou Reed in his
solo work,the band thrashes
through imitations of the proto
punk-rock of bands such as
Television and the Velvet
Underground. But it doesn’t
stop there. In the sheer rock
perfection of the songs on Is
This It?, listeners can hear bits
of everything from Buddy Holly
to John Lennon.
The album is short (just more
than thirty minutes), but the
length makes sense; the album’s
songs are focused and frantic.
♦ STROKES, SEE PAGE 8
Lecture discusses the
‘natural law’ of humans
BY ERIC SUTTON
THE GAMECOCK
“Can We Be Good Without
God?,” a lecture by Dr. Jay
Budziszewski, was held Monday
night at the Russell House and
attracted more than 120 stu
dents, faculty and visitors.
Dr. Budziszewki, a professor
of government and philosophy
at the University of Texas,
spoke for an hour and then an
swered questions.
His lecture focused on natural
law and referred to it as the
truth everyone knows. He of
fered words from St. Paul’s let
ter to the Romans, and said God
has written on the hearts of
every human being. He gave ex
amples of natural law including,
“there isn’t a human being alive
who doesn’t know love is good
and murder is evil.”
Dr. Buziszewski suggested
that we might be able to be good
without God, but mostly we can’t.
An atheist “may save a child
from being struck by a car” and
may at times tell tile truth. But
by denying God, we eschew all
morals because all people know
God exists intrinsically he said.
He also said there is no such
thing as an atheist. These people
only think there is no God as he
did when in his twenties, he said.
If people innately understand
natural law why do they still do
bad things? According to him, they
have a vested interest in doing
something despite knowing it’s
wrong. Wanting to know the truth
is a desire like every other that is
competing within ourselves.
He was careful when dealing
with the specifics of religion.
When discussing Christianity he
would say, ‘my faith.’ He didn’t
hold natural law as the answer
to all theological or scientific
questions. He said natural law
doesn’t answer the question of
how to be forgiven, only that we
do know God to know the differ
ence between right and wrong.
Responses to the lecture were
mixed. Mary Catherine Shankle,
a second-year studio art student
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♦ SPEAKER, SEE PAGE 9