Dave Hickey (Photo: Nasher Museum Of Art) Most of us have a list of our “personal perennials”—those writers, artists and musicians whose works continue to delight, engage, astound, connect. My loyalty to my list runs deep, and there is nothing you could say to sway me from my devotions. They are my inner circle, my […]
- Aesthetics
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The Beautiful and the Inscrutable
A page from the Voynich Manuscript Who doesn’t love an unsolved mystery? Over the last few weeks a particularly beautiful one has been in the news—The Voynich Manuscript. Found by a Lithuanian bookseller in an Italian monastery in 1912, this book has been fascinating and frustrating scholars ever since. The ornate script remains unidentified, and […]
- Aesthetics
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Hazy Border to the Wonder-World
Blade, 6 x 7″, egg tempera on calfskin parchment by Altoon Sultan Wonder, to preserve itself, withdraws. It withdraws from the mind, from the willing mind, which would make of mystery a category. I remember being told a story about an old culture that believed the center of the forest was holy and could not […]
- Creativity
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Witness Uganda: Expanding the Stage
Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews of Witness Uganda (Photo: Jimmy Ryan of the Boston Globe) Authenticity has become a critical factor in an age when so much isn’t. Who could have guessed 20 years ago that a huge category of television would emerge called “reality TV” that uses “found” participants but is as orchestrated and […]
- Aesthetics
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Self Authority
Installation view from George Wingate’s one day exhibit, Up Stairs In Sight,* a show of unconventional but undeniable brilliance by an artist more people should know Artistic gatekeeping. The role of the critic. The mantle of authority. The new democratization of how any of us can find, read, look and listen. Two years ago Morley […]
- Aesthetics
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Awesomeness is Good for You
Piero della Francesca (Tuscany 1412? – 1492, Tuscany),The Senigallia Madonna and Child with Two Angels Tempera and oil on wood. Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Most of my artist friends can speak about the exhilarating and very personal experience of being deeply moved by a work of […]
- Aesthetics
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Where it Mingles and Blurs
The New York Times named five novels as the best of 2013. Amazingly, two of them—both written by women—are about art and art making: The Flamethrowers*, by Rachel Kushner, and The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. I was enchanted by both. While Kushner’s novel takes place in the art world emerging around Soho in the 70’s […]
- Aesthetics
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Nozkowski: Art Objects are Gifts
Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (7-107, LA III), 1998, oil on linen on panel, 22×28” (Photo: BOMB Magazine) [Note: Here is another post I have pulled up out of the Slow Muse archive from 2012. I am still a bit ham-handed from my surgery and typing is hard so I have been revisiting posts that speak to […]
- Aesthetics
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Gleeful and Outward Looking
Illustration for the essay, “Talent,” from Amy Leach’s “Things That Are.” (Pen-and-ink drawing by Nate Christopherson, courtesy of Milkweed Editions and the artist) I have been reading nonstop while my hand heals since there is really nothing I can do in the studio. The body does this part all on its own which, like a […]
- Art Making
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Silky Attention
The sand along the shore in Small Point, Maine: The water’s silky attention brought to bear [Note: I had surgery on my right hand this week so my ability to type has been compromised while it heals. I am reposting from a few years ago since Jane Hirshfield continues to be a guiding force for […]