Can Do #28: Pics from Milan
Welcome to edition #28 of Can Do, a newsletter where I share my professional journey.
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I am traveling this week. Instead of following the regular newsletter format, I will share a few pictures from Italy.
While in Milan, I got a chance to see Max Ernst’s exhibit, which had over 400 of his works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, photographs, jewelry, and illustrated books from museums, foundations, and private collections in Italy and abroad. Some works and documents had not been exhibited to the public for several decades.
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet who became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. and France. He was a Dadaist, Surrealist, Romantic, pataphysicist, and humanist interested in the Renaissance.
His work spans 70 years of European and American 20th-century history, covering a vast range of themes and topics. I’ve found his lack of conformity to any particular style and the unique voice he displayed through his art immensely inspiring.
The very first painting in the exhibit was Oedipus Rex. What caught my attention immediately was the walnut. I couldn’t believe the coincidence; the company I am building is called Walnut.
As I learned more about this painting, some references became even more astounding.
Oedipus Rex symbolizes Sigmund Freud’s famous Oedipus Complex psychoanalytic theory. The bird-headed man represents the man’s desire to be free from the inhibitions imposed upon him by society.
The walnut represents a female. The cracking of the nut by the hands of a male indicates gender roles in traditional patriarchal cultures. The painting also has intense sexual undercurrents and metaphors about the treatment of women and their place within society.
Here are a couple of other paintings that I enjoyed.
After several months of intense focus working on various projects I’ve mentioned in this newsletter, spending time in Europe has been refreshing and reenergizing. Every time I come here, I can’t help but notice the difference in how people design their lives in Europe versus in the U.S.
I would not say that one approach is better than another, but it does show the difference in societal values when it comes to life and work. That’s probably why in the ideal world, I would spend six months of the year in Europe and six months in the U.S.