Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Otto Schubert: Paintings from the Trenches

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

  Art student Otto Schubert (1892-1970) was 22 years old when he was drafted into the war. As the conflict unfolded, he painted a series of postcards that he sent to his sweetheart, Irma. … All pictures extracted from Postcards … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Nabi Dictum: The Essence

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

“A picture, before being a war horse, a nude woman, or some anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered by colours in a certain order.” (Maurice Denis) (c) 2018 JMN.

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 1 Comment

“Cream-colored Screams”

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

“I swear if I had to do this over again, I would just do the paintings and never show them,” [Twombly] said in a 1994 profile in Vogue. “I was brought up to think you don’t talk about yourself. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Leonor Fini

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

“She always felt that identity was just a mask,” Ms. Rivera said. “So the masks that she chose to wear were more true than her biological face.” (Daniel McDermon, “Sex, Surrealism and de Sade: The Forgotten Female Artist Lenor Fini,” … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | 1 Comment

Chrissie Hynde

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

Rock stars becoming painters remains one the most cliched career transitions in showbiz… Hynde has reservations about entering this gang. “I mean, who the fuck am I? There’s so many people who’ve been doing this all their lives and they … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Judith Kazantzis

Posted on November 8, 2018 by JMN

Ms. Kazantzis wrote in free verse, her language intelligent but not didactic, powerful but not polemic. It could be witty, with traces of sarcasm. She portrayed women as complex, to correct literature’s pigeonholing them in one-dimensional characterizations as goddess or … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | 1 Comment

“Glenn Gould’s Scribbles”

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

Those scribbles? That’s Glenn Gould, scratching on his sheet music as he recorded Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations in 1981. We reported this week on the newly rediscovered score, which offers some insights — barely legible ones — into Gould’s process and … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Young Woman and the Sea

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

I’d worried about being lonely in France. I needn’t have. Brittany is the epicentre of sailing and everyone was interested in my journey. “You are taking on the nose of Brittany!?! By yourself? In this leetle boat?” This reaction became … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

“The Good Witch of Park Avenue”

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

The death of David Rockefeller in 2017 at the age of 101 also helped fortify Ms. Gund’s legend. With him gone, she has become the good witch of Park Avenue, torchbearer for the obligation of the rich in an era … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Word Solace

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

… Jewish prayer is not primarily personal or spontaneous. It is communal reading. Public recitations of ancient words, scripts compiled centuries ago and nearly identical in every synagogue in the world. A lot of those words are about exactly this. … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment