Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Seven Deadly Sins So much has changed in the texture of our cultural consciousness over the last six months. The underbelly of our collective thinking has gone ventral, exposing itself rather nakedly to all the world. In just my last 24 hour random walk through the “elite” media (you gotta […]
Wood and Water
Ganesha, festooned with the dried flowers of a Hawaiian lei, in my studio Holland Cotter wrote a piece over the weekend in the New York Times on the state of the art world, The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! This article was not unlike about 20 others on the same topic that I’ve […]
Fairey: The Conversation Continues…
I have received quite a few emails about my earlier posting on Shepard Fairey. Seems to me that Fairey has come to embody the complexities of a whole slew of third rail issues—image appropriation, intellectual property rights, public arts by decree or default, the acceptable limits of “going commercial”, artist as deviant and miscreant, institutional […]
Ruth Stone: Black High Flung Patterns of Flocking Birds
Always on the Train Writing poems about writing poems is like rolling bales of hay in Texas. Nothing but the horizon to stop you. But consider the railroad’s edge of metal trash; bird perches, miles of telephone wires. What is so innocent as grazing cattle? If you think about it, it turns into words. Trash […]
Picasso and the Ocular Rape
Pablo Picasso in his Cannes studio, 1965. Photograph: Arnold Newman/Getty Images Like many other artists (and many of them female), I take a detached and ironic stance with Picasso. There’s no arguing his impact on the trajectory of contemporary art. But thanks to the compelling book, Old Masters and Young Genuises by David W. Galenson, […]
Context is King
Last week I ran into two separate articles, more scientific than philosophical, that open up much larger questions for consideration. Below are some salient extracts from each. The first is an article from Newsweek by Sharon Begley: Alas, poor Darwin. By all rights, 2009 should be his year, as books, museums and scholarly conclaves celebrate […]
Shameless Promotion Department
Please indulge me as I shamelessly shill for my friend Eliza Dushku’s new show on Fox. Dollhouse is a collaboration with Buffy czar Joss Whedon and premieres tomorrow, Friday the 13th (you go, goblins!) at 9pm. Here’s a funny promo piece with Eliza and Whedon. And the “official” show site: Dollhouse Kick ass, Eliza! Eliza […]
Update on the Closing of the Rose Art Museum
This, from the New York Times: Three prominent museum-world figures who are Brandeis University graduates spoke out vigorously on Tuesday against the school’s plans to close its Rose Art Museum and sell off artworks to raise money. In an open letter posted at the Rose’s Web site, Adam D. Weinberg, director of the Whitney Museum […]
Moving the Meat
Some things we only figure out after the fact. I wish this weren’t the case, but the evidence in my life is too strong to argue otherwise. It’s more than the wisdom of hindsight or Monday morning quarterbacking. It is the state of mind that cannot be recognized and named until its absence gives it […]
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Not the Pipeline, Just the Mule
I find it humbling that my opinion-generating, perpetual judging machine of a mind gets called out over and over again. My assumptions become hardened into fact more rapidly than is healthy for someone who professes to have the “open mind” approach to life. I’m guilty as charged. But the one nice thing about being guilty […]