Daily Ramble 35 - MILTON GLASER

April 24, 2020

MILTON GLASER

Today I am taking a break once again from the titanic task of introducing a new religion. For reinvigoration I turned to a work of art by my landlord, Milton Glaser, which is hanging on the wall near me as I write. He did it for the 2015 Fete du Graphisme festival in Paris which asked artists for posters on the theme of "Celebrer La Terre" ["Celebrate the Earth].

When I first saw it hanging in his studio I was tremendously impressed. It conflates an earthly landscape with the stars of the Milky Way, with our planet occupying its tiny place in the corner, to which we are directed by a red arrow. The blending of the local perspective with the cosmic perspective is nothing less than a stroke of genius.

Putting aside the sheer visual beauty of the work, one is delighted and stimulated by the paradoxical linking of the sylvan terrain and the cosmos. To my way of thinking, it is a beautiful way of "putting humanity in its place." An artistic encouragement to modesty - in the witty guise of a "celebration." It is a challenge to see the universe in a grain of sand, so to speak.

One moves from the human perspective to the scientific or "godlike" perspective, trying to grasp the totality with a mix of puzzlement and pleasure. I think Glaser accomplishes this multiple perspective with much more success than, for example, Braque and Picasso in their Cubist experiments. And he does it on a much grander philosophical scale.

Soon after I saw this work, I asked how I could acquire a copy. Glaser had only one. The original printing was done in a very large size on low quality paper for display in enclosed display units on the Champs Elysee in Paris. I asked if I might arrange to have one printed for myself, in a smaller size on high-quality paper. To my delight, he consented and later signed the finished print.

This work reminded me of another poster of his which also led me to make a request of him. In that instance, I asked him to pose in front of his poster entitled "The Secret of Art." With what I took to be a humorous theatricality, he assumed the pose of a con-man selling snake oil. It is actually more like a classic Zen "pointing." The poster contains a deep truth. I read it as saying "It always has another layer to unfold." Or, if you like,  it is "the stone rejected by the builders" - the thing that is discarded and overlooked. As always, the deepest truths are paradoxical.

Glaser's works have qualities of depth of meaning and beauty of expression which insure they will always yield insight and pleasure, no matter how many times one looks at them.

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