The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection

[Chambers]

art displays a curious thing, a mixed bag of style, skill and interpretation versus intended meaning what drew the man suit and booted in a fine grey waistcoat with horn buttons to this was the range each piece itself serving as a point of comparison as he worked to practice divining meaning from mins not his own and honestly wit ha few of these pieces he was struggling.

[Fedup]

A female student
http://nwod.org/forum/attachment.php...7&d=1749380099
Intelligence 3, Presence 3, academics 2

The Social Studies student was lingering a few feet from the buttoned-up man , arms folded just below her bosom, as she studied a piece in front of her. It was a warped oil rendering that looked to her half-unfinished and half-overthought. She tilted her head, then glanced sideways with a quick smile.
" Is it me, or does this one look like the artist gave up halfway and called it ‘deliberate ambiguity’?"
Her tone was amused, not mocking, nor trying to belittle the piece or the effort. She glanced again at the man half-expecting a disagreement or maybe agreement. After all, suited art-goers weren’t common, and this one didn’t look bored or dragged here by a date. He looked like he was thinking.

[Chambers]

Brought from his quiet contemplation, the musing attempts to decipher true meaning from what often seemed senseless endeavours by the young lady speaking up. "I couldn't rightly tell you what it is meant to be." And the problem there is art being a symbolic medium. "It doesn't make use of its symbols very well which in turn hurts the story it should be trying to convey." Because trying was the kindest word he can give it. "What about this one?" Gesturing to another in black and white.

[Fedup]

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-06-08 09:27:42	Kray rolls 8 to Machete weaponry 1 str 4 equip +2 + 1 might of brute (10 Again)	2, 8, 7, 7, 2, 7, 2, 5	1 success

She paused a bit to think. "I know this one, well, a few things about this one." She said with a small smile. " Nudeltisch, which means 'Spaghetti painting', depicts four pinups at a table, swallowing - some say regurgitating- spaghetti that resemble dripping paint strokes. They make reference to both an Italian archetype and a post-perestroika painting of the East-German artist Sighard Gille. "

From here

"Now, that's what I know. What I think though... I think Giulia, whose work is occasionally critical of gender roles, was making a reference or drawing inspiration from the hoops women who want to conform to beauty or housewife standards have to jump through, while appearing happy."
She turned her gaze to the slightly unsettling painting as she nodded, mostly to herself.
"It makes me think of how 'femininity' is both constructed and consumed. In this case, quite literally, with the spaghetti acting almost like paint, but also symbolically as these women 'perform' their expected roles. The mid-century aesthetic is deliberate, I think. It refers to a time when women were more-or-less expected to maintain elegance while hiding effort, discomfort, or rebellion. You know, smile a lot, make your husband feel the lord of the house etc. If you see, their poses feel slightly off, not quite natural, and I think that is deliberate. I believe the painting raises the question of whether domesticity was ever really... 'appetizing', or just another social dish served cold with a smile."

[Chambers]

You are aware that roll is to attack with a machete right?

Now that was all well and good but a competing way to view was in order. "Could the spaghetti look like paint, because it is painted?" Given the painting in question was also fairly modern in terms of its creation. "If you are right then the artist is expressing a personal view rather then one she has could have experienced not being born at or relatively close to the time." Which made the value of the message honestly far less potent. "If she wished to express such an idea from a post modern setting there are far more relatable icons or memes she could have drawn on." Meme meaning in its academic use not the internet kind.

[Fedup]

Woops. I meant THAT roll:

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-06-08 13:41:17	Shard - L rolls 4 to Int + Acad -1 (art is difficult) (10 Again)	5, 7, 7, 9	1 success

I mis-copied.

Her smile remained and even deepened for a moment - she was enjoying the challenge the man-in-suit presented. It was not like a lecture but it was engaging, having her to think in order to defend her stance - or even adjust it if needed.
"About the spaghetti looking like paint because it was painted, I don't think so. I think it was a deliberate choice. Here," she waves a hand close to the painting, over the hair of the pin-up models struggling with the Spaghetti but smiling. "Look how she did the hair. For the spaghetti, she could’ve used more definition. And she chose not to. "
Then, she moved to the other issue the stranger presented: the choice of era and she became more thoughtful.
"Yes, I see what you mean. Giulia could have gone for a stressed mom influencer with a baby in one hand, a bunch of products in the other and a fixed, perfect smile with eyes that show fatigue and even despair. Or an anorexic young businesswoman in pink, crying over an oat-milk latte. But I do believe this," she points to the painting and the 50s pin-ups "still works. Again, I think it was a choice because many women still struggle with the same things, just under different guise. There are still expectations on femininity, on house-keeping or career, and the pressure to smile pleasantly as we do so. Yes, the times changed, the dresses changed, the hairdo changed. But not as much as one would think. And I believe the choice of the era is just a 'shorthand', because for many of us contemporary women, this," again she waves her head towards the painting "this is how we think of that era, what it represents for us. I think the choice was made to remind us that for all the progress, there is still a lot way to go. Or so I think, at least." she adds, not wanting to sound as if giving a lecture to a clearly sophisticated man.

[Chambers]

The retort was not unexpected and had a due counter. "Which could of course have been a deliberate choice to distinguish is from the hair to add a formlessness or blandness to the subject of consumption." And as the stereotypes roll out he shakes his head. "Not what I meant." Perhaps a point of comparison. "The idea of consumption is not new are you familiar with the Goya's version of Saturn eating his own son? Of the various portrayals it is claimed as the most effective." And rightly so in his mind. "Would you care to guess why?" And it was that stark element that was missing here.

The talk of feminist portrayals of struggle could wait until the foundation of the idea was grasped.

[Fedup]

Lyz raised a brow, with a half-smile, turning to face Chambers . "Ah, shifting from pasta to cannibalism. Bold move." She tilted her hair to the side, turning to Guilia's painting clearly intrigued. "Yes, I do know Goya’s ' Saturn devouring his son' if the body is indeed a son. We assume it is from the myth, it is not possible, as far as I know, to know from the painting itself. But yes, that one stays with you, doesn't it? In fact, that you can't tell the sex of the body, the anonymity of it, makes it more... raw. A loss of identity of the victim that makes the act more brutal somehow - like it could be anyone." she pauses for a moment, the smile gone. "Or everyone. For me, it is more effective than Guilia's painting exactly because it is so raw. Unfiltered dread, open gore without pretense, elegance or explanation. "
Turning back to the man in the suit, she goes "If I had to guess why it would be more, or the most, effective depiction of consumption for you ... " she ponders a bit, "I'd say because there’s no pretense. It’s all there - madness, fear, hunger, inevitability. Saturn’s not weighing options. He’s lost in something primal. This one" she nods again toward Nudeltisch, "this one's more dressed up. There’s commentary but it’s veiled in smiles and vintage hairdos. Goya tears the veil off. But I would like to hear your opinion on why Goya's Saturn works better. "
She looks her interlocutor with an expecting smile.

[Chambers]

An incline of his head and folded of arms behind his back indicates that yes it was a bold move but none the less relevant to the discussion. "And yet both pasta and cannibalism cover the same focus." If the topic was portrayal of consumption in tis negative attribute well then the subject should not be sanitised or comfortable. "You more or less nailed it the sheer madness of the act the unhinged look of Saturn as he performs what we accept as needed essential to live, that is consumption. Now we could look to political commentary the great eat the small, the reversal of a father eating his son as per the myth but all of that pails in comparison to the brutality of the action displayed, stripped of reason or motive." And that as she rightly said the image sticks with you. "As Tillich would say the painting manages to at some level participate in its meaning rather then as Randall would understand it merely point to." The philosophy might not have been the best choice but he understood what he meant now to see if the student did.

Returning to the original work. "Now this if it was meant to display the consumption of femininity as a product or by society, how much more effective would it be to have nebulous figures or machines eating female subjects?" A slight chuckle. "Or the pasta be replaced by hair in once instance, fabric in another, a make up brush in another and so on." No he had no care for the stereotypes of the modern woman either to convey a message you needed to make use of symbol. "As it is, a commentary more on the blandness of consumption would be more appropriate." Pasta after all was on its own a bland and flavourless dish. "That they all do it something close to the message of society is bland and sheep like, all doing the same boring thing one after another day after day." Eating was after all a daily routine for most.

[Fedup]

She gave a small nod, folding her arms again. "Alright, you’ve sold me—on Saturn. I’ll give you that. The painting bleeds its meaning. And yes, I see what you mean about consumption stripped of civility or context - just raw, mad and unrelenting."
She turned her gaze back to Nudeltisch, thoughtful.
" As for Giulia’s piece-look, I don’t think it’s trying to go full Goya. It’s a different tone, a different message. More curated, more socially coded. Maybe even safer. Sure, it’s not Saturn-level nightmare fuel, but few things are. There is a reason Goya's piece stayed with you and so many others and no, Nudeltisch is not at the same level, nor I think it tries to be. However, that doesn’t mean it fails. Commentary on blandness, on the sameness of our daily rituals, on what’s expected of women... it’s still there. "
She looks around. "Any other piece that draws your fancy, Mr... ? " she asks the stranger with the keen insight.