I continue to use paper calendars to store my important dates. For years I used the Famous Foods calendars, given out in early December, though I haven't been going to Famous of late due to its line-ups. This year's 2021 calendar is a Tonka Truck-themed production from the dollar store down the street.
Around five years ago, after reacquainting myself with the Langmann Family, I began to receive their company calendar. These are smaller calendars that I keep by the hook that holds my keys. The Langmann calendar features paintings from their collection; however, their 2021 calendar kicks off with an unattributed and undated (Meiji period) rosewood carving of three rikishi wrestlers.
Up top is the Langmann's June entry: a watercolour by Emil Nolde (1867-1956) called Seascape with Steamer and Sailboat. It too is undated. Nolde, like the Langmanns, was of Danish descent, and is notable historically for being among the first Expressionists. Although an early supporter of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and an anti-Semite, Nolde was nevertheless deemed a "degenerate" artist in 1941 and barred from painting. Over the next four years, until the overthrow of the ruling Nazis, Nolde secretly painted hundreds of watercolours, what he called his "Unpainted Pictures."
I appreciate Nolde's Seascape because the harbour where I live has always been shared by freighters (work) and sailboats (play). As for its colours, although they are not those I associate with Vancouver, I am nevertheless accepting of them, for this is, after all, a work of artistic expression.
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