Opinion
Weekend Words: Quitting
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to pack it in, Weekend Words considers quitting, but not quite yet.
Weekend
Poetry
Somewhere in the Back of the Stars Is the Poet Alfred Starr Hamilton
I bought The Poems of Alfred Starr Hamilton shortly after it came out and had it in my possession for many years. Somewhere in the midst of moving from one apartment to another it got lost. So when the publishers Ben Estes and Alan Felsenthal announced that their press, The Song Cave, was going to p
Art
Rafael Ferrer’s Gift of Two Dried-Up Pineapples
For those who were unable to go to the Lancaster Museum of Art in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and see RAFAEL FERRER, Works on Paper, A Survey 1952–2012 (September 7, 2012–November 11, 2012), Ferrer’s exhibiion, Calor at the Adam Baumgold gallery will have to do.
Art
"I Noticed My Friends": Allen Ginsberg's Photography
In his poem "America" (1956) Allen Ginsberg addresses the nation as if it were a codependent lover, asking, "Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?" followed immediately by the confession, "I'm obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week."
Art
The Hand of the Humanist: Leo Steinberg’s Drawings at New York Studio School
Leo Steinberg (1920–2011) was the rare scholar with the ability to alter the way we think about art, history and culture, and, inferentially, the things we create. “The Eye Is a Part of the Mind” is the title of an essay first published in 1953 in Partisan Review and later in Steinberg’s landmark co
Art
In the Schnabel Chapel, Part 1
Is it possible to look at Julian Schnabel’s “St. Sebastian” (1979) with fresh eyes, as if the past 34 years of Schnabel Sturm und Schnabel Drang never really happened? As if it were a new painting fresh out of an unknown artist’s studio, landing inconspicuously in a storefront gallery on East 10th S
Opinion
Required Reading
This week, Michelangelo goes to jail, the story behind a famous Vietnam War photo, Richard Arschwager dies, the art market is evil, China's art market has shrunk, and more.
Opinion
Weekend Words: Bones
With this week's discovery of the bones of King Richard III, Weekend Words takes a break from its usual format to present some favorite lines from one of Shakespeare's most demonic plays.
Art
Mobility Issues: On John Ashbery's Recent Poetry
If you’re interested in John Ashbery—and why wouldn’t you be?—you probably read the profile on him that was recently published in the New York Observer. The best part, the part that had the most to say about his poetry, came about a third of the way into it, with the writer, Michael H. Miller, descr
Art
Henri Michaux’s Disintegrating Selves
The small selection of paintings and drawings currently at Edward Thorp Gallery serves as an introduction to Henri Michaux (1899 – 1984), one of the most original artists and writers of the 20th century. There are writers who made art — e.e. cummings, D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller come to mind — bu
Interview
Beer with a Painter: Kyle Staver
A couple of years ago, when I was still resisting Facebook, I heard about the debates Kyle Staver was spearheading there on the topic of Renoir’s late paintings. I set up a profile because I had to know more about this independent-minded female painter who likes Renoir’s work as much as I do. Since
Art
Doubling Back: Sarah Plimpton on the Page and the Wall
It was 2005. I had gone to an opening of works by Sarah Plimpton at the June Kelly Gallery [http://junekellygallery.com/] on Mercer Street. Around me on the walls was art I could only address in a frame of mind rare here in the bustle and buzz of NewYork. Around us, on the walls, were great shapes,