Three beautiful stallions, America’s best and
brightest on a battleship at WWII! Can one even guess
that these gentle gracious forms were the great Knox
Martin brothers in their youth?
Little wonder the Imperial Fleet were so scared that they had
decided to do stupid and suicide- bombed themselves on
Pearl Harbor! American morale was so vividly reflected on
these youthful faces!
On a totally unrelated event today Kinji Akagawa, a
Japanese Minnesotan, was awarded “Most
Distinguished Artist” by the McKnight Foundation.
I like Kinji–he is a nice guy. Humble to the point of
deference! A few years back at MCAD, a professor
walked by my show and he was asked to comment on the work. It
was Kinji Akagawa!
He stayed for 2 seconds and moved on, all the way
commenting, good, good, good,…
Two long seconds by this remarkable man were all that was needed to cover
an entire show!
My dream of greatness went up in smoke!
But they are doing him great injustice there at the McKnight Foundation!
Nicety and boredom do not necessarily go hand in hand,
just as criminality and inhospitality don’t, but here in
Minnesota, curiously they are twins and twins! If they want to
crown the King of Fools–why our sweet Kinji?
Ben Lau