Big Joe Turner at the deYoung Museum

I'm not sure when Turner made this painting.

Whether it was before Shake Rattle and Roll or after Flip-Flop and Fly.

In any case it's a powerful piece of art.

When I first saw it at the deYoung today I wondered, 'how long does the average person stand in front of a painting in a museum?'

One minute? Two minutes?

I'm sure the museum keeps such statistics as faithfully as the record companies kept track of the hit songs of their artists in the 1950's, and the money they owed them.

Everything's so speeded up these days that the time one spends in front of a great painting might be much less than I first wondered it might be.

Everything was so speeded up in the mid-to- late 19th century--people were actually afraid of the speed of trains--that Abstraction was the only way forward. There just wasn't time left to paint like one used to paint.

As for the great blues singer and rock and roller Big Joe Turner, singer of legendary two-and-a-half-minute songs, the record companies were quick to collect every cent owed them, leaving Big Joe practically nothing.