This week, Lorna Simpson’s Rihanna collages, a fascism historian gives us some perspective, unlocking Bitcoins, Lou Stovall, archived Parler videos from the DC insurrection, and more.
Tag: Weekend
Poems in the Language of Death
Paul Celan’s truest homeland, paradoxically, was the German language — the language of the Nazis who imprisoned him in a forced labor camp and murdered his parents.
The Independent Spirit of Herbert Gentry
Gentry was one of a number of Black artists who had to navigate the art world’s demand to emphasize their racial identity in the “right” way.
Rudy Burckhardt’s Innocent Eye
Burckhardt was never surreptitious; he did not hide his camera, and his subjects often knew they were being photographed.
Trump’s Last Act
The most incandescent of invectives now feel like simple statements of fact.
Rachel Eulena Williams’s Threads of Abstraction
The strength of Williams’s new work lies in its transgression of aesthetic and, by extension, social and political lines, which are drawn more sharply in these fraught times.
Required Reading
This week, lessons from Minneapolis, Leonora Carrington’s novel, spoofing US news, banner year for psychics, danish kids’ TV, and more.
Some Thoughts About England’s Obsession With Portraits
With the possible exception of Howard Hodgkin, not a single English abstract artist has attained anything comparable to the status achieved by Lucien Freud or David Hockney.
Did You Know That Robert Hershon Is a Major Poet?
I cannot think of another contemporary poet who is willing to expose his vulnerability, worry, and pettiness through the lens of humor.
Artists Quarantine With Their Art Collections
“It’s a painting about uncertainty with a tinge of optimistic fatalism — perfect to get me through 2020.”
Missives From the War to End All Wars
Elizabeth Gray’s poems seek to discover where we are in the midst of a battle we can never fully see.
Melancholy in Black and Neon
Mary Weatherford’s new paintings confront us with a sense of place, a remembered moment, a hidden story.