Amanda Katz’s interview in the Boston Globe with personal favorite Neko Case produced this fabulous passage: Annie Dillard is my favorite because she doesn’t write like a woman or a man. You know how hunters spray that stuff on them so deer can’t smell them? It’s almost like she can become invisible, as far as […]
Author: Deborah Barlow
A Season Inside
Death and the Powers uses new performance techniques and an animated set, including a musical chandelier with dozens of Teflon strings that can be played by the performers. (Jill Steinberg) What is it about live theater that is so compelling? Don’t answer that question, just indulge me while I ask it over and over again. […]
Mind-In-Making
Monologue of Ice, 24 Hours, by Atta Kim This is a follow on to my earlier post about Grain of Emptiness at the Rubin Museum, a show that features works by artists who have been influenced and inspired by Buddhism. From the catalog introduction by Mary Jane Jacob: To make the most of experience and […]
Art and Longing
Anselm Kiefer’s ‘I Hold All the Indias in My Hand’ (Photo: Charles Duprat) Anselm Kiefer is mounting a show at the White Cube gallery in London titled Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (The Waves of Sea and Love). With a nod to a 19th century Austrian writer, the theme of the show references the […]
Zumthor: Essentialist of the Sensual
The Therme Vals, by Peter Zumthor (Photo: ArchNow!) Michael Kimmelman’s New York Times piece about the architect Peter Zumthor is full of nuggets worth keeping on hand, easily accessible. I first began paying attention to Zumthor after visiting his Kolumba museum in Cologne. It was such an unexpected blend of old and new (Zumthor incorporated […]
Being Awake
Nee Nej 2, from a new series of paintings I worked on this winter I’ve posted this poem here already, several years ago. It resurfaced in me this morning and it feels like a perfect fit for the mood of my mind and spirit, heavy with the events of the last week. But that undeniable […]
Emptiness is What Can’t Be Emptied Any More
Wolgang Laib and Milkstone The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art is like the pocket-sized Shinto shrines that can be found all over Tokyo—an oasis of calm in a complicated and complexifying urban landscape. I have been a member since it opened in 2004 and spend time there on almost every trip to New York. The […]
A New York Minute
George Wingate, friend and artist, soaks in the Pat Steirs at Cheim & Read After several recent trips to Chelsea’s ghetto of galleries that have felt empty and unsatisfying, my visit this past weekend offered up some moments worth remembering. People were everywhere, enjoying a Saturday without rain, snow or blistering cold. The High Line […]
Slow Down and Let it Talk
Linda Durham (Photo: New Mexican) On a sad note: Linda Durham Gallery in Santa Fe will be closing this month after 33 years. I have admired Linda’s bravado and devotion to her artists and her gallery. I’m sorry to see her move on. In an interview with Linda that appeared in the Santa Fe Reporter, […]
The Best is Next
Grand master for a lifetime: Henri Matisse, photographed by Man Ray The nature of art making over the lifetime has been a recurring theme for me these last few months. Spurred in many ways by the publication of Lastingness: The Art of Old Age, by Nicholas Delbanco (which wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped), […]