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Wednesday, June 18, 2014

1B: William Carlos Williams & Pieter Brueghel


A man examines Pieter Brueghel the Elder's The Wedding Dance at the Detroit Institute of Arts


The Wedding Dance in the Open Air


by William Carlos Williams

Disciplined by the artist
to go round
& round
in holiday gear
a riotously gay rabble of
peasants and their
ample-bottomed doxies
fills
the market square
featured by the women in
their starched
white headgear
they prance or go openly
toward the wood's
edges
round and around in
rough shoes and
farm breeches
mouths agape
Oya !
kicking up their heels


*the poet: William Carlos Williams (American physician of New Jersey; 1883-1963)
*artist: in this case,
    Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish; 1525-1569)
*doxie: mistress; prostitute



Will the  Detroit Institute of Arts sell Brueghel's The Wedding Dance
 
or other masterpieces in its collection today?  How much are they worth to Detroit today?
  How much would they be worth to Detroit in 10, or even 100 years from now?
The Detroit Institute of Arts and the city of Detroit are having a hard time paying their bills.  Should the museum sell masterpieces from its collection in order to balance the museum's and city's finances? For more of the story, see  "Masterpiece theater: Will Detroit have to sell its art to pay its bills? Art's true value frames debate as Detroit ponders selling museum masterpieces" by Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2013.

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