Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Art Embraced

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

[stifled guffaw] “Generally people don’t like to live with complicated subject matter,” Mr. Simons said. “But I have to feel the artwork stands for something that is important to me. I don’t like the idea that it has to fit … Continue reading →

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“Lobotomized by Rage”

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

Maybe it’s always been naïve to think about culture in a moral vacuum. Art comes from someplace and brings with it at least a little of wherever it has come from or whoever has made it. Why not keep those … Continue reading →

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“Free Solo”

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

[Reminds me of my mother — a historian, teacher, librarian, scribbler. (Ahem. I wonder who follows in her wake!) At her funeral I said of her grammarian and authorial chops: “For her, there was a good way and a better … Continue reading →

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Whitman on Abraham Lincoln

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

“None of the artists or pictures have caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man’s [Lincoln’s] face,” he wrote. “They have only caught the surface. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of … Continue reading →

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Jenny Saville

Posted on October 23, 2018 by JMN

The nude self-portrait “Propped,” by Jenny Saville, was bought by a telephone bidder at Sotheby’s on Friday night for 9.5 million pounds, or about $12.4 million… But before anyone had time to reflect on its significance, Banksy’s $1.4 million “self-destructing” … Continue reading →

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“Emphasis on the Right Syllable”

Posted on October 23, 2018 by JMN

[Neil Tennant is one half of The Pet Shop Boys, a long-running pop music duo (unknown to me) whose other half is Chris Lowe. At age 64, Tennant comes across In The Guardian interview as articulate, witty, and thoughtful in … Continue reading →

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“Two Different Paths into the Distance”

Posted on October 21, 2018 by JMN

Challenged to create work that could travel back to the States, Twombly created a series of wall hangings made from brightly colored fabrics. None of these works survive today, but in pictures of them, it is clear how Twombly is … Continue reading →

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“Woman From Bahia”

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

A large 19th century painting titled “Woman From Bahia” stands in contrast to all this. We don’t know who the subject is, or who painted her, or when (the guess is around 1850). But, wearing white gloves, a midnight-blue gown, … Continue reading →

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Distance from Marfa

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

That Marfa is becoming a destination might have been amusing to the artist [Donald Judd]. “When Judd lived in Marfa, he already thought it was too crowded,” [Ann Temkin, chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern … Continue reading →

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A “four-button mongoose”?

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

The Times described Mr. Bruce in 1959 as “a four-button mongoose” imbued with a streak of moral indignation. “The kind of comedy I do isn’t, like, going to change the world,” Mr. Bruce said in the interview. “But certain areas … Continue reading →

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