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Monuments come and ago as the conflict continues to unfold. It’s the eternal battle of ideas, some aworth the brass they’re made of, some probably not. The equestrian figure of King George III on Bowling Green was downed by a group of New Yorkers following a reading of the newly adopted Declaration of Independence. The monument was later repurpose as ammunition to fight his subjects in uniform. The fact that it was made of lead made it even more convenient. Lead flights faster and further when propelled by the explosion of a charge of blackpowder. Clausewitz was wright, war is a continuation of politics by other means and the opposite is also correct just as monuments are a continuation of war by other means and the opposite is also correct. I’m thinking of Robert E. Lee, but also of Somoza, Franco, Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Perón and yes, Lewis and Clark which just happened to stand in Charlottesville when the craze to melt brass to make other statues was gaining traction among its most progressive minded citizens. Of course I would not be thinking about any of this if it wasn’t because I’m up to my neck on a documentary film project about Daniel Chester French, sculptor. Sculptures have a funny to express themselves in mysterious ways. And no, French has not yet fallen under the guillotine of the illuminati, but the mere fact that he was a man of his time might eventually bring his work into question. It will be absurd, but I would‘t dare to rule out the absurd. If King George was made into bullets, it were canons used during the Civil War that were repurpose to cast The Minuteman, French’s first commission commemorating the centennial of the Revolution. I like the idea of this endless loop, possibly a monument erected with obsolete weaponry is eventually used to fabricate more canons that one day will become monuments to new heroes. We love heroes more that we love monuments. We often know very little about what happens in between but, truth be said, we are at times faced with bits and pieces, circumstantial evidence, reliquaries, ruins that serve to reconstruct the past, a statue that no longer is there, a Roman Forum, a Mayan lost village in the Colombian jungle. Sheley talked about a traveler who found vestiges of a tribute to Ozymandia in the desert And this is what he had to say: “I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” If Ozymandias (aka Ramses II) was preserved for the traveler to find is because it could’n be melt. The poem improbably inspired the opening scene of Planet of the Apes with the what was left of the Statue of Liberty. Perhaps the destruction of Ozymandias was a good thing, unless you were enslaved by the monarch in which case you might want to teach the world a lesson at a time in which lessons, mostly due to the absence of Instagram, were taught using statues strategically placed in public places in spite or before the proverbial Exodus 20:3 gained any traction with its warning about idols, and “other gods before me”. But what do I know, I’m an atheist. Another curious example of the implications of dismembered monuments is clearly suggested in Sibylle Bergemann’ “The Monument”, a graphic documenting several phases of the production and installation of the Marx-Engels-Forum monument in East Berlin. Bergemann’s work is currently being exhibited at the MOMA. His photograph show the sculpture, created by Ludwig Engelhardt, and intended to express the idea that socialism is historically German. However, the pictures resonate with quiet irony: it sometimes appears as though the monument is being dismantled rather than constructed-an allegory for the ultimate fate of the German Democratic Republic. I suspect statues, and monuments in general, have a lot more to say than we give them credit for. It will probably be right to assume that the proxy war of monuments is a continuation of the Civil War by other means, and it that case will be fare to assume that the war didn’t end and that Reconstruction was but an intermission in a mini-series of sorts now on the air with a new season and grand finale. And if all of the above is correct we might be entering a new chapter in the ongoing conflict, one in which deranged rioters stab police officers with flag poles on the steps of the US Capitol. It’s hard to tell, but what seems clear is that public monuments will remain at the center of all possible arguments. They will continue to be erected and repurpose. If I recall correctly, and I’m writing without Goggle at hand, only inspired by the gentle breeze of this winter afternoon in Charlottesville, it was mustached Dali who once said that there is nothing in the world as old as the vanguards.

Water and horses are the recurring theme in Saratoga Springs. However, I did not come all this way to see the racing beasts, but to admire the flowing water from The Spirit of Life, the monument dedicated to the Wall Street financier Spencer Trask (1844–1909). But I didn’t come all the way to Saratoga Springs to learn about the tycoon, I came to see the monument created by the architect Henry Bacon and the sculptor Daniel Chester French from which water flows to a rectangular pool that overflows into a timid spring leading to a quite pond. Such is the The Spirit of Life, although not quite. French's creation, framed by a shallow niche of white marble with a balustraded terrace designed by Bacon, is a winged woman of considerable proportion, hands moving high above her head, representing Hygieia, health provider (hence the notion of hygiene), daughter of Asklepios, god of medicine. The figure was created based on the likeness of Hattie Anderson, the African American model who capture the imagination of French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John La Farge, Anders Zorn and many others. Hygieia has frequently been depicted offering nourishment to a serpent. However, in French's recreation of the myth, she holds a shallow bowl aloft and in the other hand clasps a pine bough, a reference to the towering pines on the grounds of the Trasks' estate. Furthermore, she’s poised lightly on a rock, and a stream of water pours from its cleft. The inscription on the pedestal reads "To do good and serve my fellow man." Not bad for a Wall Street magnate. The Spirit of Life is a fair example of French and Bacon’s fruitful collaboration over the years, a collaboration that ultimately led in 1922, to the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital. And that’s why I came all the way over here to Saratoga Springs, following the lead of Dan Preston, editor of the Daniel Chester French papers. This journey is not about horses, or races, it’s about art, and a documentary film in progress.

The Other Madison included in the Official Selection for the Roxbury International Film Festival 2021. The 23rd Annual Roxbury International Film Festival June 20th. The film will be screened Online and at the Museum of Fine Arts | Boston as part of a presentation of James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen by Anthony Werhun (USA, 2021]. Tickets On Sale The Roxbury International Film Festival is the largest festival in New England that celebrates people of color. RoxFilm was founded in 1998 and holds both an annual film festival and year-round screenings and events in the historic Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. The Other Madisons will be presented Online and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as part of a presentation of James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen by Anthony Werhun. James Hemings is an extraordinary character, America’s culinary founding father and enslaved property of Thomas Jefferson. Its seems all roads lead to Monticello. THE OTHER MADISONS The Other Madisons is a remarkable contribution to American history, documenting the process by which an oral tradition preserves, with exquisite fidelity, an important social record, in spite of, or perhaps in response to, suppression or neglect by exclusion, and racism. ​ In this documentary, Bettye Kearse traces her ancestry to Mandy, her family’s first African ancestor enslaved on American soil and who became the property of President James Madison's estate in Virginia, Montpelier. Kearse's research, her encounters with cultural institutions, and her travels to Ghana, Portugal, Virginia, and Texas provide the contextual background of this genealogical journey. The family mantra: "Always remember—you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president" has now achieved a new level, that of the documentary film experience.

What we know about Gilliat, does not include a portrait or a soundbite. We don’t know what he looked like, or what he sounded like inside the Governor’s house in Williamsburg. However, we do have enough information to contextualize his place in a world fascinated with the exotic elements provided by European expansionism. As a star of singular proportions in the vice-royal court in Virginia, Gilliat was not alone. Sy Gilliat was the property of the British governor, an African prodigy, a fiddler, a living legend. The exotic and fashionable trend of promoting Black musicians was in vogue for decades in Europe. George Bridgetower, Beethoven’s beloved friend and music genius, Joseph Boulogne, also known as the Black Mozart, Ignatius Sancho and Joseph Emidy are just a handful of examples. Western monarchies were falling head over hills with African men fiddling, playing the piano, singing opera, and entertaining perplexed audiences. The colony of Virginia was not going to settle for anything less. Perhaps Sy Gilliat was not as good as any of the European counterparts, but he was “our fiddler”. Gilliat was elegant, owned an extraordinary wardrobe and conducted himself in the flamboyant grace of Versailles, a style associated with the Francophile ruling class about to be defeated during the revolutionary war. The leadership of the young republic had no regard for the decadent symbols of the ancient regime. In the newly created United States, where all men were created equal, Blacks had a major role to play as enslaved field hands, not on stage. The residence of Thomas Jefferson overlooking the town of Charlottesville in Virginia, soon became a beacon of the of the American Enlightenment. In Monticello, Jefferson resided with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings and six children that came from that relationship, two of which, Eston and Madison, became accomplished violinists. However, neither Eston nor Madison, would ever enjoy the admiration once professed for Sy Gilliat or other Afro-descendant musicians in Europe. Freed after the death of Thomas Jefferson, Easton and Madison Hemings moved to the village of Charlottesville where they were occasionally able to join the local music scene under the constant scrutiny and the growing anti-Black sentiment. Ten years after the death of Thomas Jefferson, the now free children of the third president of the United States, will join an exodus of free black families seeking new opportunities in the Northwest Territory.

Martin, Bogan and Armstrong and the revival of String Band Music in America Just a footnote on Black Fiddlers, a last minute tribute to the originals. From the Top of my Head - About a year ago I came before an image of four black members of a string band in the mid-twenties. Second from the right on that photograph was Howard Armstrong holding his fiddle. Mr. Armstrong lived a long life that ended at 94 in 2003. The image came my way through the generosity Marshal Wyatt, music historian from Raleigh, NC who collaborated in the production of Black Fiddlers, currently undergoing final touches of post-production and legal work before its debut on the festival circuit. Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong - “In Performance at Wolf Trap” 1974 “Mr. Armstrong played 22 instruments although he was best known as a fiddle and mandolin player. He performed with a virtuoso's panache, pleasing audiences with fast fingers and a droll stage presence. His repertory included blues, standards, country tunes, rags, work songs, jigs, reels, polkas, spirituals, Hawaiian songs and international songs in the seven languages he spoke.” NYT August 2, 2003. The man was unique, the NYT Obituary revealed much of the essence of Mr Armstrong, but what I was most impressed with, was his ability to maintain a close connection with his band-mates Ted Bogan and Carl Martin which as the Tennessee Chocolate Drops entertained America for decades, from the a time in which it went from being the black and white episodic fiction of the Untouchables (Mr. Armstrong recalled playing for Al Capone), to the Flower Power generation that witnessed the revival of String Band Music in a Woodstock-like festival spirit. More on BLACK FIDDLERS before Christmas.

It was a last-minute invitation from Eve Kahn to visit one of her favorite libraries in New York, or so it seemed giving the enthusiasm with which she introduced us (I was visiting NY with my son William) to this extraordinary site. And to be absolutely fair, it was more than just an invitation it was a guided tour for which Eve was a superb host. The visit left a profound impression on both of us, particularly the current exhibit labeled "Treasures from the Hispanic Society Library." My only regret is not to have had more time to spend amongst the walls of that jewel of a building. Come to thing of it, I wonder if Borges ever stood there where we stood. Perhaps the reader could google that one… I have a strange feeling, perhaps a premonition that not before long I will be back with the answer. Now, from the Grolier’s Clunb site: “Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club is America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts. Named for Jean Grolier (1489/90-1565), the Renaissance collector renowned for sharing his library with friends, the Club’s objective is to promote “the study, collecting, and appreciation of books and works on paper.” Through the concerted efforts of an international network of over eight hundred men and women—book and print collectors, antiquarian book dealers, librarians, designers, fine printers, binders, and other artisans—the Grolier Club pursues this mission through its library, its public exhibitions and lectures, and its long and distinguished series of publications.”

As part of the experience of making a documentary film on Daniel Chester French, came a request to produce an orientation film for Chesterwood, his home-studio in The Berkshires, just a half a mile from the railroad track, or should I say not far from Stockbridge. For some reason I can’t stop thinking of Alice (not Parker, but the restaurant made famous by Arlo Guthrie). The point is that I’m submerged like a yellow submarine into the life and works of this pillar of the golden age of American sculpture: Daniel Chester French, the monument man, and the man behind the marble and the bronze the sculptor of the seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, the Alma Matter at the University of Columbia, the Minutemen in Concord, and George Washington in Paris to name just a few. The latest on French was learning of his taste for Italian opera, and for Caruso in Particular. It makes sense, after all he spent two years in Florence as a pupil of Thomas Ball, learning from the great masters of the Renaissance and digging the latest 78rmp releases of the most admired operatic tenor of the 20th century. Then I went back to the itineraries of French in Florence, collected a few of my favorite sights and added a single secret tear. It’s all there, on the video I shared on YouTube just because. Now it’s your turn to sit back and imagine.

Preliminary notes on a documentary project about Daniel Chester French As I slowly drift into a French state of mind, while still devoted to bringing Black Fiddlers to safe harbor, I begin to read between the lines with the help of the available literature and the friends committed to collaborate in the project. Two films can perfectly coexist as part of the production plan. When we need a break from Black Fiddlers, we start picking into the French book of revelations. One of the first elements that come to mind, are Abraham Lincoln hands. Hands have always played a paramount role in the interpretation of power, powerful men, and women. I once learned that certain native cultures of the Caribbean and Central America who practiced ritual cannibalism, would feed the hands of the enemy’s chief to their own, in hopes that the power of one will add to that of the victorious. However, we know that’s not what French had in mind when he casted his own hands when he needed to come up with a pair for the 16th president of the United States monumental sculpture. French’s reasons were practical, French needed the hands in a certain position to fit with the position where he felt they would rest on the chair. Reality, true facts, are often not as entertaining as myths. However, we are free to interpret, if not the intended purpose, the inadvertent consequences, after all, Lincoln’s hands at the Lincoln Memorial, match the artist, and not his. The name of the artists escapes most visitors to Washington, DC. We know the name of the man sitting in the temple, a temple erected to the man credited with unifying the nation. The name of Daniel Chester French is missing from the site of his creation. In most other nations we know the sculptures by the name of their creators: First the artist, then the subject. We know Las Nereidas as the fountain of Lola Mora, for her sculptor, we know The Thinker was made by Rodin, and David by Michelangelo. Still, French’s Lincoln remains almost anonymous although his hands, the hands of the artist and the hands of the subject are the same. I don’t believe French intended this to be a subject of trivia, but the fact remains it is. He was just trying to get it right and, in the process, he put his hands to work.

Life and Works of Daniel Chester French A Heritage of Beauty, beginning with the unveiling of iconic The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts, explores French’s formative years, his involvement and contributions to public sculptured work which ultimately lead to his collaboration with arq. Henry Bacon in the design and execution of The Lincoln Memorial which is now awaits its rededication to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Chesterwood, the summer home and studio and gardens of Daniel Chester French, is privileged location, a site of creativity telling the story of America’s foremost 20th C. It was here, at Chesterwood, where many of French’s impressive sculptural work, including the Lincoln Memorial, where conceived and often developed. Today, the Lincoln Memorial stands as the single and most significant temple to American Democracy, the focus of the Civil Rights Movement and the People’s chosen site to congregate in times of hope or despair. A Heritage of Beauty goes beyond the eye and political significance in public art such as John Harvard in Harvard University or Alma Mater at Columbia University, or the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial in Central Park and General George Washington equestrian monument honoring the founder in Paris. A Heritage of Beauty explores further Daniel Chester French’s inspiration in the female form revealed in Andromeda, currently exhibited at Chesterwood and Memory, part the permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In A Heritage of Beauty, the public and the private eye meet and evoke the essence of the American pioneering sculptor. “Kanopy is online streaming source of highly sophisticated visual content that inspire us, enrich us, and challenge our perspectives. Kanopy ensures that these films reach viewers around the world.” -Montes-Bradley A Heritage of Beauty is not a mere attempt to conform a tribute to the artist, it is an educational instrument in the toolbox of docents, schoolteachers and academics hoping to reach a worldwide audience. With the help of Kanopy Streaming, Heritage Film Project’s distributor, we will allow us to rediscover one of America’s most prolific sculptors of public monuments: Daniel Chester French. Made possible in collaboration with CHERSTERWOOD Donna HASSLER Michael RICHMAN Daniel PRESTON Margaret CHERIN Rufus COLLINS Dana PILSON Jeffrey PLANK Valerie BALINT

The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) program consists of more than 40 museums that were the homes and studios of American artists. Each site is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the places where art was made. HAHS, headquartered at Chesterwood, is a peer-to-peer coalition of sites that brings these museums together to conserve the legacy of creativity in the visual arts in America. Artists’ workplaces and homes reveal the inner workings of the creative process and insights into artists’ sources of inspiration. In these places, one discovers the specific, demonstrable relationship between the artist, the artwork, and the environment of art-making. With much dedication and hard work, many artists’ homes and studios across the United States have been preserved as museums, offering visitors the opportunity to experience these powerful places and providing scholars with rich primary-source material.