Word: aurelius
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...American reputation bottomed out in 1964 with a show of nine florid paintings called Discourse on Commodus. They were trashed as a fiasco, in print and by word of mouth. Commodus was the degenerate son of Marcus Aurelius; he became Emperor in the 2nd century A.D., went mad and was strangled. Given the New York art world's self-absorption at the time, it seems fitting that Commodus' assassin was an athlete named Narcissus. Perhaps because of the trauma of their reception, the Commodus paintings are not in moma's show. In any case, Twombly was repatriated to America...
...Bois wrote. "Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in glided halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn or condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil...
...humor. There is a streak in the Arkansas character that militates against expecting too much from life (and militates, as well, against political reform). I am not as surprised as I was when Clinton first told me that one of his favorite books is the stoical Meditations of Marcus Aurelius...