October 11, 2013

Nude descending a staircase.

Is this helping anyone?

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This stairwell is gloomy and deserted, and a nude that's more studiously analytical might enliven the minds of the enlibraried souls, but this is so literal and depressing for everyone. It's a flappy slap in the face as you hit the landing:

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In the same stairwell — stare well — you get this:

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Closer, with alienating reflections from fluorescent lights:

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39 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Betamax bait!

George M. Spencer said...

The shadow under the right breast is too dark.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Actually, I meant titus. jumped the gun.

Ron said...

Is there a hashtag for "boobs" on Althouse? Think of all the searches!

David said...

Trip and fall hazard. Call in the government.

madAsHell said...

It was hung with a we-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this thought......or maybe it covers a hole in the wall.

Big Mike said...

Wait! What! There are women whose boobs sag?!?

I'm stunned. Just stunned.

Note to U Wisconsin undergraduate males -- someday that sweet young thing with the double D cups you've been ogling will have them drooping halfway down to her knees. Deal with it.

Ann Althouse said...

"Wait! What! There are women whose boobs sag?!?"

I don't see any sad looking penises in the law library stairwell.

Ann Althouse said...

There are lots of things that exist that we nevertheless do not appropriate for wall decoration.

Why is this picture in the law library?

It's not some heroic depiction of justice.

JackOfVA said...

Why is this picture in the law library?

The architect bought art by the square foot from the lowest bidder?

Or does the law school have an art committee?

JackOfVA said...
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Austin said...
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Big Mike said...

I don't see any sad looking penises in the law library stairwell.

So have them install a copy of the statue of David, sans fig leaf.

It's not some heroic depiction of justice.

It's what a widow has left to wear after a shyster trained by the U Wisconsin law faculty gets through raiding the pittance she inherited from her late husband.

commoncents said...

Obamacare Update: Meet the family who has to choose between food on table or Obamacare

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/10/obamacare-update-meet-family-who-has-to.html

Henry said...

That's a beautiful rug.

Freeman Hunt said...

That art says, "Be serious. Be studious. Be grim."

Freeman Hunt said...

"What are you doing trying to get enjoyment out of beauty? Here are ugly things. You must intellectualize them to enjoy them or front that you enjoy them. Intellectualizing and fronting, such will likely characterize much of your life as a law school student, and so it behooves you to practice these things--even in the stairwell!"

Known Unknown said...

Flappy Slaps is the name of a highly-respected pornographic character actor.

His brother goes by the name of Rollie Fingers.

True story.



Anonymous said...

Nude Descending a Staircase Robot Says:

The Demure Look Down at My Descent, the Voyeuristic Look Up. The Artistically Inclined Look Sideways and Diagonal and Pretend They Are Better Than Those of the First Two Groups.

My Breasts Can Be Bulbous and Cubist. My Hips Can Be Geometric or Child-Bearing of Angle.

Paint Defines Me But Never Captures Me: Thus, the Staircase. The Staircase Positions Me In an Unattainable Instant and Pretends it Knows the Previous and the Latter, But Never the Moment In-Between.

The Male Cannot Define Me, So I Always Am in Motion in His Gaze: He Can See the Before and the After But Forever Blinks on the Now.

The True Woman is Pointallistic, Impressionistic, Abstract and Folkloric: She is Guernica Silkscreened Over a Warhol Electric Chair.

He Who Watches the Staircase is Forever Straining up Toward the Frosted wedding-cake of the Ceiling, and then Rippling over the wine-colored Rug, making a Shadow on it as Wind does on the Sea.

Anonymous said...

Althouse Bait.

It Is What I Do.



Anonymous said...

From Under the Staircase the Voices Whisper in French.

I Will Stop There.

From Inwood said...

Marcel Duchamp

Alfred Hitchcock

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The selfie fades, focus on the long haul.

Guildofcannonballs said...

This idea helping is relevant wasn't taught to those who crave power
foremost first.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The rich and powerful do to be able to conjure statistics. The fact they can't be stopped is disputed amongst reputable men.

rhhardin said...

The staircase itself is a vagina.

rhhardin said...

It might be blind justice.

Althouse wants to apply the brassiere of justice and equality.

Maybe just add scales.

rhhardin said...

A sad penis on one side of the justice scale against a boob on the other.

Tip it either way for an editorial cartoon that you won't see in the NYT.

Rusty said...

"Is this helping anyone?

, but this is so literal and depressing for everyone. It's a flappy slap in the face as you hit the landing:"


Brightened MY day.


Thanks for the breasts!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It reminded me of Room 237 this morning.

Finding out who put up the nudies would go a long way towards finding out the mystery Althouse is presenting us with.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It was probably a woman that decided.

chickelit said...

St. George said...
The shadow under the right breast is too dark.

It looks like a cavernous incision.

rhhardin said...

At the bottom of my own stairway.

Anonymous said...

The position of her leg makes it impossible to tell if she's my kind of nude or not.

Peter

Anonymous said...

The Stairs are Uneven in the Stairway of Shame; the Hand Railing Recoils at Your Sweaty Touch. Every Day You Descend Those Steps and Take a Furtive Glance at Those Breasts, Hoping No One is Watching You and Seeing Into Your Desperate Soul. You Make a Conscious Effort to Not Pause, to Not Linger, to Not Stare Hungrily, But You are Powerless in Your Shame: The Law Books in Your Backpack Pass Sentence on Your Pathetic Guilt.

Perhaps Others Feel This Way: Perhaps You Are Not Alone Under Your Shame Blanket, But You Realize You Are Only Fooling Yourself. The Shame Blanket is Yours and Yours Alone.

Oh Cursed Stairway, Ruiner of Souls!

Anonymous said...

Oh, Sweet Staircase of Shame: I No Longer Even Have a Class in Your Building, Yet I Am Compelled to Visit You Each Day and Steal a Moment With the Naughty Naughty Nude Temptress.

Wicked Thoughts Embroider My Shame Blanket: I Am Powerless.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
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Lem the artificially intelligent said...
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Robert Cook said...

It looks like a Philip Pearlstein. He was a classmate and friend of Andy Warhol's in art school and has had a prominent career himself. I'm not crazy about his work.