Art has a unique way of informing the values and beliefs of culture. Exploring that idea, a group of friends and I visited the Timken Museum in San Diego recently. We spent time pursuing their small but impressive collection, then focused on their amazing Russian Iconography collection. We then had a conversation about some of what we saw, and how it relates both to the culture of the past and the present.
41. JR has become, over the past 5 years, one of the most
exciting and intriguing conceptual artists of his
generation. Unfairly, the Parisian photographer has been
pigeon-holed in the increasingly flexible and liberal
category of contemporary “street art,” but this label
short-hands JR. Sure the work was seen in the streets of
villages, cities, and towns across the world, some of his
best work being in the places not found in your typical
travel guide. His art is about engagement, not just with
the physical surroundings but the social engagement of
the people that live in the neighborhoods he presents his
work. JR lives in the towns, interacts with the residents,
develops relationships and creates a body of work that is
unique and appropriate to what really happens in these
areas. This is full-on interactive, political, and
