ArtiFact #24: Kurt Vonnegut’s “Bluebeard” | Ethan Pinch, Alex Sheremet

Although considered one of Kurt Vonnegut’s minor works, 1987’s BLUEBEARD is an interesting novel that covers some fresh territory for the author. It follows the life and work of Rabo Karabekian, the son of Armenian immigrants who flee to California after the Armenian genocide. Starting as a highly realistic, technically proficient painter, Karabekian shifts his aesthetics to Abstract Expressionism, and, after “failing” as an artist, becomes a collector with one magnum opus left inside of him, which is tucked away under padlock in his barn. This is a work of modern Expressionism which a pseudonymous writer, Circe Berman, tries to wriggle out of him, a work which touches upon Kurt Vonnegut’s own experiences at war.

BLUEBEARD tackles the questions of art and meaning, aesthetic preference, and masculine / feminine conceptions of history in ways both similar and not to Kurt Vonnegut’s more well-known works.

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ArtiFact #24: Kurt Vonnegut’s “Bluebeard” | Ethan Pinch, Alex Sheremet

Timestamps:

0:18 – introduction; where does Bluebeard fit among Kurt Vonnegut’s other novels; its writerly vs. painterly qualities; why Ethan thinks it’s the best novel ‘about’ painting that he’s ever read, as well as one of Vonnegut’s best; Alex on his own ‘writerly’ narrative biases when he approaches the visual arts; the pitfalls of ekphrastic poetry; cultural criticism masquerading as art criticism

14:00 – why Bluebeard is a “conflicted” work, and has complex things to say about Abstract Expressionism; the self-destructive streak in AbEx painters; Kurt Vonnegut’s empathetic treatment of their work vs. the existentialism within AbEx

21:32 – Alex’s love/hate relationship with Abstract Expressionism; conspiracy theories around AbEx going back a century; why non-narrative art or claims to non/anti-narrative are not logically tenable; Ethan’s skepticism of (and grudging respect for) Clement Greenberg

34:20 – Kurt Vonnegut’s introductory note to Bluebeard; can it be read as both praise and critique of Abstract Expressionism?; would Kurt Vonnegut say something similar about his own work, or literature that he respects?; AbEx machismo & Kurt Vonnegut’s response to it

45:18 – Ad Reinhardt’s cartoons on the history of visual art; abstraction vs. ‘the tangible’ in elements such as brush-strokes; a story about a poor Winslow Homer reproduction; Rabo Karabekian’s strange comment about the deaths of his AbEx friends – is he offering an implicit critique of their lack of purpose?; art and art-adjacent financials

01:03:00 – setting Bluebeard in its diegetic & historical contexts; photorealism-adjacent commentary in Bluebeard; the importance of Dan Gregory’s ‘forgery’ of a ruble; why Dan Gregory, not Rabo Karabekian, is the true Bluebeard of Kurt Vonnegut’s title

01:18:20 – Alex’s criticism (and praise) of Bluebeard’s writing; how Kurt Vonnegut recapitulates his views on art by way of his own structural and aesthetic decisions within the book; comparing these decisions to earlier texts; Dan Gregory, Circe Berman, and the “Jesus” metric; Circe Berman’s own character arc; what can we make of her “kitsch” aesthetic, as well as her deeper artistic critiques of Abstract Expressionism & beyond?

01:52:12 – on the nature of storytelling; Alex doubts that Ad Reinhardt offer a valid response to critiques of AbEx; on the nature of meaning

02:14:45 – Alex and Ethan debate the use of Rabo Karabekian in Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions; how Kurt Vonnegut critiques Abstract Expressionism by crafting pro-narrative, technical prose; assessing Karabekian’s version of The Temptation of St. Anthony; how abstract values pervade life; on “oblique” criticism, and why James Baldwin did it so well in The Devil Finds Work; a story of Clement Greenberg’s aesthetic strategies in real life; art and the ego; Kurt Vonnegut as realist

2:50:20 – the ending to Bluebeard; the ‘feminine history’ in the text, as reflected in Rabo Karabekian’s final painting, “Now It’s The Women’s Turn”; the idea of women re-creating the world into something better; what of Circe Berman’s own strategy for survival, and how it complicates Kurt Vonnegut’s other observations?; Sateen Dura-Luxe & other tropes

3:05:12 – how cultural & historical context generates artistic currents: hyper-competition in the arts in ancient Greece; spiritual undertones of Giotto’s “perfect circle”; commercialization via Dan Gregory’s need to replicate the ruble; why Ethan is skeptical of both capitalism as well as material / anticapitalist analyses of both life and art

Video thumbnail © Joel Parrish: https://poeticimport.com

Ethan Pinch’s YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnthropomorphicHorse

Read the latest from the automachination universe: https://www.automachination.com

Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Tags: #KurtVonnegut, #Bluebeard, #AbstractExpressionism