Friday, December 16, 2011


A Question of Duality...

Today was one of those days when I could find a clear theme running right through the morning, extending into the afternoon, and still discernible in the evening. In the morning at the San Diego Museum of Art I heard a stimulating, very enlightening lecture by Professor Alberto Blanco on Mexican Art, a subject which has interested me for a long time but about which I know very little. His focus was mainly on the work of Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juarez. Many of Tamayo’s paintings are such clear expressions of dualism that it is obvious even to people who have little experience with art. Two of his best works hang in the permanent collection of the San Diego Museum of Art. For the next couple of months Andres Blaisten’s Collection of 20th-century Mexican art will be exhibited at the museum. People who live anywhere near San Diego should not miss it.

Actually, this week, not just today, was full of reminders of the dualistic nature of reality. Early in the week many of us followed the breaking news that two research groups working separately at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research outside Geneva, say they have come close to finding the subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, which exists only in a theory that if proven would move scientists closer to understanding the relationship of space, time and matter, especially in creation. There was a lot of talk, most of which I didn’t really understand, about matter and anti-matter and black holes. Just yesterday I began reading Richard Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality. The sub-title of that book is “How We Know What’s Really True.”

I found my photographs for today on my way from my car to the museum, at the museum itself, and then as I walked back to the car from the lecture.

The first two paintings below are by Tamayo. The third is by Miro.









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