The first part of the Return from Parnassus, by Cy Twombly The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The image is in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and […]
Aesthetics
This Flashing Present
A subset of Rhapsody, by Jennifer Bartlett I usually don’t write about a book until I have finished it. Or at least done the gleaning. But my enthusiasm won’t be bridled. Although I am only 100 pages into The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, I can’t NOT talk about this book. Every page is delicious. The […]
- Aesthetics
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Equipment for Looking
Table (Tisch), by Gerard Richter No.1: First Works of 362 Artists is a book based on the premise that most artists have a piece they consider their true first painting. Editors Francesca Richer and Matthew Rosensweig attended a lecture by Robert Storr in conjunction with the Gerard Richter retrospective at MOMA in 2002. Richter had […]
- Aesthetics
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It’s Only Afterwards
Penelope’s Heart, by Paula Overbay When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the […]
Kenjilo Nanao: Hand of a Master
“Boxes in Terra Rose I,” oil and silver leaf on canvas, 2009 (courtesy of the artist) Kenjilo Nanao, printmaker and painter, passed away on Monday. He was 83. Born in Aomori, Japan, he came to San Francisco in 1960. He studied printmaking with Nathan Oliveira, married fellow artist Gail Chadell, and together they spent most […]
- Aesthetics
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Being Seen
Close up of the surface of a painting from the Orbilinia series I am honored—and really humbled—by a terrific post written about me and my work by Sloan Nota. We have been friends for about 20 years. While our orientation to many aspects of art and art making are very different, we share a mutual […]
Your Own Way of Looking at Things
Solitary boat man on the river in Hampi, India When I Met My Muse I glanced at her and took my glasses off – they were still singing. They buzzed like a locust on the coffee table and then ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and knew […]
Embracing the Ephemeral
Still in tact: The view of the Pacific from UCSC’s Porter College (AKA to some of us as College Five) “Material Ephemera” at UC Santa Cruz Another view Long time friend Alicia Falsetto at the artist reception on Saturday Things, people, ideas—they operate with a certain kind of circularity. That coming round again has becomes […]
- Aesthetics
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Paying Attention
Ice patterns in winter: enchantment for free Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager. –Susan Sontag Susan Sontag’s words are inspriring for anyone, not just […]
- Aesthetics
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Pieced Cloth
Fragment of cloth in the Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum Breaks are always, and fatally, reinscribed in an old cloth that must continually, interminably, be undone. –Jacques Derrida, Positions Sometimes it isn’t just about the whole cloth. This past weekend I thought a lot about fragments, about the shards of incompleteness that are “continually, […]