PICASSO, A SUIT OF JADE AND KANSAS CITY BBQ
March 18, 2018
THANKS TO THE BIRTHDAY GIFT THAT LILOU OFFERED ME we found ourselves on a Delta flight to Kansas City (KC) to visit the Nelson Atkins Museum’s exhibitions of Through the Eyes of Picasso and A Jade Suit for Eternity, this time without the presence of our good friend, the Museum’s Director, Julián Zugazagoitia, away on a family Spring Break skiing trip. After our return to Los Angeles it began to dawn on me that this was not a random series of events that we had attended but that, in the words of our dearest favorite cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, this was indeed a singularity. Not “a point at which a function takes an infinite value, especially in space-time, when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole”, which nobody but him, and a few others, understood, but rather, as I saw it, “a moment when a small change can cause a large effect.” “What is it about these three events that we experienced in Kansas City – I asked myself - that makes them related to each other?” “Why do I have a feeling in my gut that this experience was different from others?” “How, I pondered, are these cultural activities intimately interconnected?” “How do they affect me?”
I HAD A DIFFICULT TIME ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS because the answer apparently was not simple. At first glance these events were not interconnected: Two of them are art exhibitions (Picasso, Jade) but one of them (BBQ) is food. Two of them deal with basic feelings (BBQ, Picasso’s love of African Art) but one (Chinese Burials) does not. I felt the need to explore these ideas further and to try to uncover where the emotional experience had intertwined with the intellectual one smack in the middle of the United States and what lesson could be culled from this.
PERHAPS KANSAS CITY’S HISTORY HAD SOMETHING to do with this? As befits someone who studied at a Lycée, I discovered that a Frenchman, Etienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, deserted, at the beginning of the 18th century, his French expeditionary post in the area, took up keeping house with a native American wife, and wrote a treatise describing the area as the junction of the "Grande Rivière des Cansez" (note the French archaic spelling of Kansas) and the Missouri River. Little did Etienne know that he had given a name to a locality that was going to become the starting point of three very important trails - the Santa Fe, the California and the Oregon - crucial to the westward expansion of the United States, where all the Westward Ho! settlers started their long 
trek to the Pacific Ocean and the Lands of Promise. Then, there was the Missouri Pacific railroad, which was (importantly for my tale) built mainly by Chinese laborers, that were brought from China to the US, almost as slaves, and reached Kansas City; the first bridge railroad over the Missouri River was built here; and it was also here that the railroad tracks from the East and the West finally connected, abolished, once and for all, the legendary Pony Express, and created a US transcontinental railroad link, along with the second biggest train center and the second largest stockyard in the United States, both after Chicago; and that, of course, brought the abundance on cattle (also important for my tale).
But Kansas City is not famous only because of its 19th century hubs. Important events happened here, such as Walt Disney creating his first ever cartoon (a dancing mouse) at the Laugh-O-Gram store, after attending the Kansas Art Institute, since his family was from nearby; Charles Lindbergh created TWA and made KC its world headquarters; the Kansas City Chiefs participated in the first ever Super Bowl in 1967 (losing to the Green Bay Packers, as I recall.) Oh, and President Truman was from Missouri; President Eisenhower, who followed him, was from Kansas. And not far away Winston Churchill gave a speech where he used the words “an Iron Curtain” for the first time. There is a lot of history to be told about KC. And then, there is, of course, KC BBQ.
A LOT OF HISTORY CAN ALSO BE TOLD ABOUT THE HAN DYNASTY and the treasures being exhibited at the Museum. When the word Han is used, it is almost synonymous with Chinese, since its long history, according to legend, goes back almost five thousand years; but archaeologically it has been dated to around the second century before our current era (BCE). The Han is in present day Shaanxi, province in China, well known to us because its, capital Xian, is close to where the tombs with thousands of clay soldiers were discovered; and because it is a very large Chinese Muslim center. The kingdom of Chu was a vassal state of the Han Empire and their burial construction techniques were astounding. One mausoleum, that of Liu Zhu, has a 56 meters long corridor with a change in elevation less that one half centimeter, and a deviation of only 1/16000 from a straight path, as measured by contemporary lasers. Two parallel corridors only deviate 5 mm from their central axis. Let’s not forget that these craftsmen were working over 20 centuries ago, in an extremely confined space, with only hammers and chisels. Archaeologist have found many objects in those Han tombs, although 9 out of 10 are empty because they were robbed in antiquity. Yet, extraordinary objects have been found including a burial suit made of jade.
THE CHINESE CONSIDERED JADE A MOST PRECIOUS MATERIAL, even more precious than gold; its quality cannot be judged today except by the most knowledgeable experts. Jade suits were the highest level of burial clothing worn by members of the Han dynasty ruling class and curators believe that many fine objects of luxury, used in the palace for other purposes, were transformed into pieces of jade for the suits. Many suits were produced during those times and several have been found. Because there were so many grave robberies in antiquity, the Emperor ruled that the burials should become extraordinarily simple since the purpose of the objects - to help the deceased in the afterlife – disappeared when the graves were robbed. Therefore, although several suits exist, only a few are exceptional. The one in the exhibition is considered the summit of all suits
The Liu Zhu jade suit - 1m76 long - was dragged out by grave robbers once its gold thread was pulled out. It is composed of 4,248 pieces of jade attached with gold thread and uses over 1.5 kilos of gold. The largest pieces of jade are nine square centimeters or about 3 x 3 centimeters. The pieces are very thin, some about one millimeter thick; they vary in shape (square, rectangular, half-moon, triangular) and are polished almost to a mirror gloss with small holes for the gold thread. This jade suit is the earliest to have been found with the largest quantity of jade plates, the best quality of jade and the most refined craftsmanship. The work of the curators and conservators is almost as astounding as the work of the craftsmen or women who created it. Although, originally, the plates had numbers inscribed in the back, time and humidity erased many of the numbers, so the suit had to be painstakingly reconstructed from all the pieces until they fitted perfectly, as we saw it in the Museum. The color of the jade is consistent throughout the suit.
ALTHOUGH EVERYONE SPEAKS OF PICASSO AS A SPANISH PAINTER the fact is that when he was 19 he travelled to see his painting The Last Moments being exhibited at the 1900 Paris World Fair and promptly moved to Montmartre. He did go back to Catalonia from time to time in the next few years but for practical purposes he settled in Paris in 1904 where he spent his early life and then moved to southern France for the rest of his life. It was in Paris that he went for the first time to the Trocadero Museum in 1907, 
which at the time housed a collection of so-called “Primitive Art.” The Europeans, in their terribly misguided Eurocentric view, considered European Art as the most refined manifestation of art in the world and anything that did not attempt to reach that image was considered by most as below grade and therefore “primitive:”. But there were some illuminated spirits, such as Derain and Matisse who were already buying African art. Picasso had seen an exhibition of Iberian archaeology but it was his visit to the collections of Africa, Middle America, Oceania and New Zealand that had an overwhelming influence.
A poster in the exhibition quotes him,” …I understood why I was a painter. All alone in this dreadful museum, with masks, redskin dolls, dusty manikins. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon may well have happened that day…” This is a momentous statement. The experience so transformed his life that he became a life-long collector of this art and the influence in his work became all encompassing. And not only him but others. The dealer Paul Guillaume, at the Barnes Foundation in 1926, said that “primitive African Negro sculpture was the inspiration for the best that contemporary art was producing and included Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani and Soutine among the artists influenced by this art.”
I REMEMBER MY FIRST INCURSION INTO MEXICAN PRE-HISPANIC art with foreign visitors to Mexico, where I was profoundly insulted and shocked to discover that these individuals had nothing better to comment than to say how horrible, or how frightening or how deformed were the statues and the bas reliefs. And even in the past few years, as I have shown Maya, Zapotec or Aztec objects to individuals that I respected, some had the same reactions but hid them well because of PC modified behavior. And this is 100 years later after Picasso and his contemporaries were going to the Trocadero and buying art from these countries and from friends and dealers.
The objects created by anonymous artists in these regions of the world aspired to represent not the reality as an almost photographic image of reality but the reality of the soul and of the spirit, a celebration of the gifts that the world bestowed on the individuals and families and the stories and legends of life in parallel dimensions, a concept that our friend Stephen Hawking would understand perfectly.
Looking at the exhibition brought to the forefront an understanding of Picasso as an explorer of new possibilities, as a breaker of rules and as a true free spirit that knew no boundaries. He understood the essence of the meaning of these primal figures, their struggles, their aspirations, their messages, their all-encompassing presence. And most of all he understood the freedom that the artists had in approaching their creations since they were not shackled to the art critics, the dealers or the “petit monde” that had, for such a long time, crushed creativity and discovery in the western culture. We can feel this spirit in Picasso. We can feel the communion that he has with his fellow-artists from Africa and Oceania. We can experience how he is celebrating that freedom to explode in every direction and to try and try again until he gets the soul of what he is attempting to tell the world.
I AM THE POOREST COMPETITION JUDGE OF BBQ, FROM KC or any other place. I have seen many programs that show the championships of Barbecue Masters in different parts of the United States and I know, intellectually, that there are different styles, from Memphis to Carolina, to Texas, to Kansas and, I am sure, other fine places in the country. But, as to saying that this Brisket is better than that one, or this Pulled Pork is better crusted than this other one, or these Ribs are St Louis style, which are better that the Baby Back Ribs of Charlotte, I declare myself here, publicly, incompetent to judge which one is the best. But I know what tastes good. And this puts me in the company of millions of fellow eaters who love BBQ in its many forms. 
So, it was with great anticipation that Lilou and I went to Jack Stack, allegedly the number one place for Ribs in KC, a ranking contested by as many lists as there are critics who write about this stuff. But there we were finally. Without a reservation. Not a problem since we were given the marvelous technological solution to waiting: a personal electronic bell that would ring when our table was ready, which it was, about 30 minutes after we arrived. We ordered ribs (baby back and beef) pulled pork, burnt ends. The gigantic plates arrived heaped with French fries and white bread plus a side of cole slaw. Lilou ordered additional BBQ sauce. And we went at it with our best intentions and determination. After much struggle, we managed to dent about a fifth of the order, if that. But what an incredible treat: the meat was truly so lightly sticking to the bone that it made gnawing better that baby teething; the pulled pork was unctuous and juicy and savory and comforting; the burnt ends were redolent of smoke and dry rub; the sauce was vinegary; the cole slaw had a touch of celery. And the place was packed to the rafters on a Thursday. As were all the other BBQ places in KC. Maybe it is the best BBQ in KC but, for us, it was the best we had ever had.
BBQ CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE SIMILAR TO THE OLYMPICS in that Higher, Faster, Stronger applies to the quality of the meats presented to the judges. The teams, usually made up of four or five competitors, usually mixed, come from around the country, and even some from abroad. They have different events over two or three days. They bring their own equipment (smokers, grills, refrigerators, stoves, prep tables) and their own meats (pork, beef, chicken, lamb). They all have their dry rubs and sauces and methods and protocols and secrets. Since the smoking process usually takes many hours, many of them do not sleep at all, to keep an eye on the process. They measure the time it takes to go from their stand to the judges’ venue because with, sometimes, over 300 competitors, the distances can be as long as a football field, where sometimes the competitions are held. And the bragging rights (and, for sure, the economic repercussions for their restaurants) can be enormous. Faster (to get from the stand to the judges so that the meat is still as hot as the competitors want); Stronger (to make certain that the quality of the BBQ powerfully overwhelms that of the other competitors); Higher (so that a First Place in Ribs is above a First Place in Chicken) are the same mottos that apply to the Olympic competitors. And, just like the Olympics, as soon as they participate in one competition, they start preparing for the next one.
SO, AT THE END OF ALL THIS, WHAT IS THE SINGULARITY? What is “a moment when a small change can cause a large effect.”? How are these three events in one day related? In the realm of my life, a museum exhibition or two is not unusual and maybe could be considered a part of my “regular” life. A meal at a restaurant is something nice but not necessarily life changing. So, what happened on this day in KC? What is it that made that day one where a small change can cause a large effect. I don’t know for certain, but I have my suspicions.
EPIPHANY IS SOMETHNG THAT HAPPENS TO YOU AS A REVELATION, a sudden insight or discovery. That day, my revelation was that human endeavor comes about not by being disciplined, or thoughtful or orderly or respectful. All these attributes certainly contribute to a civil society, one where norms are followed and a certain amount of established order permeates the behavior of individuals and of groups of individuals. We have set up a world where we believe that the behavior of an individual affects how other individual behave and that provides a framework where you know what to expect and what is expected of you. That framework is important to us and we fight for it. I grew up in that belief.
BUT WHAT ABOUT CHANGE? IS CHANGE ACHIEVED because everyone respects the rules? Or is there something that individuals do, that allow them to see a different way of doing things, a different way of thinking, a different way of shaping the world order. The Wilbur Brothers did not respect the rule that a Human Being Cannot Fly. Dr. Roentgen did not respect the rule that you Cannot See Through the Body. Creation has come about because there have been individuals that did not respect the rules. Certainly, the craftsmen of Han did not respect the rules: they believed that you could create a tight-fitting suit made with a very large number of small pieces of precious jade, fit them closely with gold thread and create an object so unique, so special, so unexpected that 20 centuries later we are still in admiration of their creation. 
Picasso did not respect the rules. He learned from the people of Africa and Oceania that you could represent more than physicality or the psychology of individuals; you could, in fact, represent the unconscious psychic energy that originates in the life instinct and the death drive. He ventured into the abyss where these forces throb and resonate with the instinct of the essence of life. The BBQ masters did not respect the rules of traditional cooking and decided to create the essence of the highest form of food preparation with the simplest ingredients. Otherwise there would be no competitions where thousands of participants are scrutinized by millions of followers that discuss the minutiae of dry rubs and wet mops and smoker temperatures and types of woods and varieties of sugar and vinegar and salts. These masters are breaking all the rules to achieve that ineffable level of perfection that will reach into the spiritual and sensorial essence of a human being to be transformed by the experience. Their ambition is as aspirational as that of the ancient Chinese craftsman or the inventor of Modern painting.
Each one of these creators strived to create a large effect with a small change, whether it was depicting an individual from several points of view simultaneously or refining a piece of jade so that it was a perfect fit or adjusting the amount of wood chips in a smoker for the absolute flavor, these individuals wanted something different, something better, something unique.
The aspirations of these three sets of individuals, manifested in a variety of different ways, and forms and methods, have given us a better understanding of what the role of humankind truly is and is not. It’s not to do as others and keep out of the public eye. It’s not to bow your head and accept defeat. It’s not to think that you cannot do something different or unique. Rather it is to constantly ask yourself Why? and try to understand the reasons. And to ask yourself Why not? and try to do what seems not possible.
We are constantly striving to provide new opportunities for ourselves or for our dear ones; we are struggling to vanquish a turn of fortune; we are fighting to right a wrong; we are determined to reach our goals; we are caring when others are not; we are protecting those less fortunate; we are fighting for our freedom to express ourselves; we are demanding respect because we give respect; we recognize inequalities and fight to abolish them; we are seeking to avoid conflict; we are aspiring to ever higher goals. All these, and more, are constant opportunities for us to change.
We do not have to make one momentous change in our life. It is enough to make a small change that can cause an unexpected effect for the better.
We can all achieve this. That is our moment of singularity.
It seems to me that what we need, like Picasso, the Chinese craftsman and the BBQ Master have discovered, three things: Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives; Mastery – the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters; and Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. And certainly, this is within our realm of possibilities. As I thought about the three experiences in KC, I finally understood, with clarity, the moment of singularity.
And that is what I learned from Picasso, a Suit of Jade and Kansas City Barbeque.
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