Art
Joseph Cornell's Boxes Coax, Captivate, and Channel Juan Gris
Viewing one of Cornell’s boxes is an almost heartbreaking encounter with inner vitality and outer limitation; like cages, they display the self-sufficiency of a circumscribed world.
Vladimir Nabokov
Art
The Other Side of History
One of the fascinating things about The Keeper, organized by Massimiliano Gioni, with Margot Norton, Natalie Bell, and Helga Christoffersen for the New Museum, is the sheer number of distinct collections they managed to include in a space that is not particularly hospitable to art.
Books
Vladimir Nabokov's Scientific Butterfly Illustrations
At the end of Vladimir Nabokov's poem "Pale Fire," he describes how "White butterflies turn lavender as they / Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway / The phantom of my little daughter's swing."