Tag Archives: art

Alice Trumbull Mason: ‘Adamantine’

Posted on January 2, 2021 by JMN

In the matter of electing to be born of illustrious forebears Alice Trumbull Mason, of Litchfield, Connecticut, chose well. Her rumbling name preserves affiliation with a “well-off family of old New England stock.” (All stock isn’t equal even where egalitarian … Continue reading →

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Cardin Made His Bed and Lay in It

Posted on January 1, 2021 by JMN

“I wash with my own soap… I wear my own perfume, go to bed with my own sheets, have my own food products. I live on me.” The proudest garment in my closet was once a blazer with the Pierre … Continue reading →

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Alternatives to Fact

Posted on December 28, 2020 by JMN

“I think that perception and comprehensible information based in truthful reality is what has been burned to the ground,” he says. “Answers are lit on fire like burning leaves in the wind. Nobody really has any facts.” Never at a … Continue reading →

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Salman Toor

Posted on December 27, 2020 by JMN

Ligaya Mishan’s early-December essay on cancel culture is well worth reading (“The Long and Tortured History of Cancel Culture,” NYTimes, 12-3-20). Initially, however, I was distracted from the essay itself by the paintings of Salman Toor which figure among the … Continue reading →

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Beyond Noise

Posted on December 19, 2020 by JMN

The painter William Bailey died in April, 2020, aged 89. He taught for many years at the Yale School of Art, and is said to have influenced generations of students. In 2010, Bailey decried the amount of “noise” present in … Continue reading →

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Beethovian

Posted on December 16, 2020 by JMN

If there’s something that can be called a Beethovian gravitas assumable by a sculptor who is female, artist Maggi Hambling is a contender. That’s by way of an admiring aside to the topic of this article. “Luxuriantly bushed,” “obligingly passive,” … Continue reading →

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Ironic Fashion Shoot

Posted on December 14, 2020 by JMN

For me, what elevates irony over sarcasm is a dose of humor. I like to imagine each member of this crew, sporting the same scruffy costume, doing the swivel-hip runway strut, flaunting a thousand-yard stare behind their John Lennon shades … Continue reading →

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‘Burden of Representation’

Posted on December 11, 2020 by JMN

Roberta Smith writes of the Rothko painting that it “presents a glowing stack in brown, red and black on a red ground.” She describes the Church painting as “an expanse of shockingly deep red sky with a little sun peeping … Continue reading →

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Incandescent Kandinsky

Posted on December 4, 2020 by JMN

I’ve lost the article from which I clipped this painting — something about vicissitudes and provenance. No matter, the painting is the thing. It trips and snares me. It’s like a knotty, naughty doodle done with psychedelic syrups from a … Continue reading →

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Pictures Matter

Posted on November 30, 2020 by JMN

Richard Frishman is a photographer based near Seattle. You can follow his work on Instagram. (Photographs and Text by Richard Frishman, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation,” NYTimes, 11-30-20) (c) 2020 JMN

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