This week’s installment of Required Reading American architect Frank Lloyd Wright talks about the corner window [above], which he says is “an idea conceived early in my work that the box is a fascist symbol,” the mess that Mark Rothko’s suicide created, the first signs of street art about the UK riots, discovering work from the master of correspondence art, even the treat of death won’t deter copyright infringement, Doris Salcedo on memory in art, more detailed plans for Apple’s new HQ and a geographically accurate map of the London tube.
Renowned 20th C. American painter Mark Rothko committed suicide in 1970 and recently, in Triple Canopy, David Levine tells the detailed and complicated story of what happened to the artist’s estate. There are many curious insights that give a fuller picture of a man who was personally flawed, for instance, “by all accounts, [Rothko was] a terrible parent, who alienated his teenage daughter to such an extent that she told him she hated his paintings.”
I’ve been wondering aloud why there hasn’t been any street art in Britain that responds to the recent riots but there are finaly signs of some work emerging.
Design guru Steven Heller is cleaning out his files and comes across a trove of correspondence from mail art great Ray Johnson. He writes:
One day out of the blue, he started sending me his art. At first, I didn’t know what he wanted me to do with the Xeroxed scraps and pieces. Did he want to make art for the Times? Did he want me to commission him to do illustrations? In time I realized it was just a gift.
Some people believe there should be more harsh penalties for copyright, well, if we look back at history we discover that even with the threat of torture and death people have continued to violate copyright.
Artist Doris Salcedo on the importance of memory in her work. She says that “art does not solve problems.”
Apple has released more detailed plans and schematics for its ring-shaped headquarters in Cupertino, California.
A geographically accurate subway map for London … we really need one for New York.
Required Reading is published every Sunday morning, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links (10 or less) to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.
