When I got to know Bill Berkson, my life as a writer was completely changed.
Frank O’Hara
“The Supreme Gift … Is Scale”: Robert Motherwell’s Monumental Paintings
The first exhibition devoted exclusively to the Abstract Expressionist’s vast, mural-sized works is on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York.
Reader’s Diary: Frank Lima’s ‘Incidents of Travel in Poetry’
“There are several Puerto / Ricans on the avenue today, which / makes it beautiful and warm,” wrote Frank O’Hara in “A Step Away from Them.” It was 1956, the day after Jackson Pollock’s funeral.
Battle for the Nation: John Yau Questions Jerry Saltz’s America
In the newly released edition of the Brooklyn Rail, editor John Yau takes on New York Magazine’s art critic Jerry Saltz and his characterization of America as “big, bright, shiny, colorful, crowd-pleasing, heat-seeking, impeccably produced, polished, popular, expensive, and extroverted—while also being abrasive, creepily sexualized, fussy, twisted, and, let’s face it, ditzy.” Yau asks, “Is this ‘our America?’ Or is this Jerry Saltz shilling for Jeff Koons?”