I want to begin with a few salient facts and personal observations about the poet and filmmaker Frank Kuenstler. He is part of the same generation as John Ashbery, Robert Bly, Robert Creeley, Philip Lamantia, Denise Levertov, Frank O’Hara, and Adrienne Rich, and, to my mind, belongs in their company. Between 1964 and 1996 he published nine books. If we take his word for it, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t, he began working on LENS in 1952 but waited more than a decade before he began publishing his work. Partly this had to do with the twelve years it took Kuenstler to complete LENS, but I imagine other factors were also involved.
August 2012
Posted inBooks
What Didn’t You Do in the War, Daddy? Chickenhawks and a Few Good Books
Last week Mitt Romney reached deep into the Republican bag of stock postures to attack President Obama as weak in matters of defense and foreign policy. The macho posturing by chickenhawk Republicans (Romney, Rove, Cheney, Bush, Kristol, Gingrich and many others avoided Vietnam if not military service altogether) is an all-too-familiar and, unfortunately, effective right-wing tactic.
Posted inArt
Without Mercy: The Bitter Comix of Anton Kannemeyer
In 1986, South Africa was still eight years away from the end of apartheid, and though opposition to the racist ruling system had been mounting for decades, the government continued to suppress rebels and dissidents. Yet that same year, the exiled Afrikaner writer and artist Breyten Breytenbach, a vocal critic of apartheid, returned to South Africa to accept a literary award. It was his first visit to his homeland after being granted early release from a nine-year sentence there on charges of terrorism.
Posted inOpinion
Overheard in the Art World
This week we wandered through NADA Hudson and a few museums to examine the man’s handy work and to learn that not all the employees know what’s happening upstairs.
Posted inBooks
Sleepwalkers in a Box
Doug Aitken, Princeton Architectural Press and DFA Records have attempted to repackaging the magic of Aitken’s “Sleepwalkers” film in a box.
Posted inArt
Beauty Before Age
In Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s new documentary About Face: Supermodels Then and Now, we follow the stories of a group of aging models discussing the nature of projecting an image, our society’s preoccupation with youth, and how an industry so consumed with beauty can be so ugly.
Posted inArt
Did the Cold War Ever End?
While the Cold War may have ended over two decades ago, at least according to Wikipedia, no one can deny its legacy in the contemporary world. But what does it mean that American “won” the Cold War? A new project seeks to find that out.
Posted inNews
Detroit Institute of Arts Fights for Survival with a Local Tax
This coming Tuesday, August 7, voters in the Metro Detroit area will be deciding not just the outcome of the usual political races, but also the future of the area’s beloved art museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA, which has been struggling financially for years, has proposed a 10-year millage (tax) on homeowners in three counties, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. A recent poll shows that 7 out of 10 voters in the election support the millage, but the fight over it represents an ongoing larger battle in this country about how we fund the arts.
Posted inOpinion
Planning the Culture of Chicago
CHICAGO — The draft of the new Chicago Cultural Plan was officially released a week ago. It’s the penultimate step in a process that began in February, and which will end in the fall of 2012 with the release of the final recommendations.
Posted inArt
The Wildlife of Reykjavik Street Art
While a tourist in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, my mission became to find the most colorful, magical and exotic creatures painted onto the city walls.
Posted inBooks
Stickers: Stuck-Up Piece of Crap
Looking at Stickers: Stuck-Up Piece of Crap: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art, a history of stickers from various subcultures, from graffiti and street art to skating and punk music, two years after its publication, the book remains significant as the first major publication on Do-It-Yourself sticker culture; yet the book has also become outdated, as the sticker scene, at least in New York, has evolved past glossy, printed stickers.
Posted inArt
Who is Regina Rex?
One of the founding members of the often praised Ridgewood/Bushwick space, Regina, Rex, has gone Manhattan with a new gallery on the Lower East Side, Eli Ping.
