Architect and author Juhani Pallasmaa A few days ago my friend Janet alerted me to an appreciation of Frank Kermode in the New York Times (an excerpt is posted here.) She also left a comment on an earlier post about Dorothea Lasky that asked this question: “I am curious about what your response might be […]
Being Scared, The Cultural Commons and the Fate of Fish
Bluefin tuna, one of many ocean fish at risk Book updates: Dorothea Lasky‘s most recent book, Black Life, is reviewed in the Boston Globe today. I just recently discovered Lasky and am a fan of both Poetry is Not a Project and Awe. In this review Michael Brodeur speaks to the contrasts at play in […]
Entanglements and Mysteries
Frank Kermode died this week at the age of 90. His output was staggering. I’ve only read a small sampling of a body of work that is wide ranging as well as insightful. In her appreciation of Kermode in the New York Times, Verlyn Klinkenborg describes Kermode’s literary modus operandi. It struck a chord. The […]
In Awe of “Awe”
Whatever you Paid for That Sweater, It was Worth It Be scared of yourself The real self Is very scary. It is a man But more importantly The man is tall And is everything in you that is an absolute reverse of all your actions. In you he will do things and in you no […]
- Architecture
- ...
Architecture and Beauty
Another book that sounds like it is right in my sweet spot: Architecture and Beauty: Conversations with Architects about a Troubled Relationship, by Yael Reisner. Ah, beauty… It continues to be an issue of dispute in every contemporary métier—visual art, music, literature. This topic continues to engage, divide, provoke, perplex. I know a bit about […]
- Aesthetics
- ...
Doubters
Crossfield 1 by Jack Tworkov (Collection of Ms. Beatrice Perry) This has been a summer of enjoying the art reviews of Sebastian Smee in the Boston Globe. (Before coming to the Globe, Smee has wrote for The Australian, the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Art Newspaper […]
The Intuition Deliminator
Homage to Ucello #4, Anna Hepler (Photo: Courtesy of Karin Thomas) I have written about Sebastian Smee’s review of Anna Hepler’s show at the Portland Museum in an earlier post but there’s another passage in that article that has continued to hold my attention. Hepler’s approach to her work and to teaching runs close to […]
Burchfield on My Mind
Charles Burchfield, Gateway to September Tanglewood in Winter Autumnal Fantasy (This painting was not included in the original Hammer exhibit but was available for inclusion in the Whitney show) How easy it is to think you know an artist’s work. I’ve seen Charles Burchfield paintings all of my life, but now I know that really […]
Human Rootedness
The dominance of the eye and the suppression of the other senses tends to push us into detachment, isolation and exteriority. The art of the eye has certainly produced imposing and thought-provoking structures, but it has not facilitated human rootedness in the world. The fact that the modernist idiom has not generally been able to […]
The Eye in the Hand
White Tara, Dharmapala Thangka Centre *** The hands want to see, the eyes want to caress. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe *** The dancer has his ear in his toes. –Friedrich Nietzsche *** How would the painter or poet express anything other than his encounter with the world? –Maurice Merleau-Ponty These quotes are included in The […]