original intent: ‘Show us yer arse!’

A few months ago Chris Bertram posted Rodchenko's famous shot of Lili Brik. "Such energetic, dynamic composition in the picture, and such optimism and vigour in the woman depicted."

A commenter added: "Always interesting to see what one reads into an image. “Optimism and vigour”… or maybe she’s yelling ‘Show us yer arse!’ Which is a different kind of optimism and vigour, I’ll grant."

I posted this in 2003:

Here is an image of Picasso's famous "Guernica" from 1937.

Last year I made a similar painting, on a similar theme. I'm reproducing it below. It's called "Dresden."

The intentional fallacy applies to authors and readers, of books or countries. Israel and the Soviet Union were founded as invention, and as intention.
Chris Bertram, Zionists, and Nino Scalia, all see what they want to in themselves, in their relation to the object of their gaze, and in the object itself. They share the fantasy that they have transcended history, or that they will. The authors of the Constitution were not so optimistic and that's why it's lasted, and why it will last longer than the government it was written to define. The Rodchenko photograph will last too.