Tag Archives: art

Decree 349

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

The decree requires artists to obtain government approval before performing or displaying their work, while also regulating the artwork itself. For example, it prohibits audiovisual content that contains “sexist, vulgar and obscene language” or that uses “national symbols” in ways … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Massive Attack

Posted on February 18, 2019 by JMN

“Gigs have become very formulaic these days,” adds [Adam] Curtis. “Not just gigs but all of culture – and that’s the challenge. The way you make people look again is by finding a different sort of image. And so the … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Maurice Sendak’s Allure

Posted on February 16, 2019 by JMN

“Reaching the kids is important, but secondary,” Sendak once said. “First, always, I have to reach and keep hold of the child in me…” With their flattened perspective, the book’s pages have the allure of the poster, brazen, sleek and … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Art in the Closet

Posted on February 16, 2019 by JMN

… The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced plans to sell Mark Rothko’s “Untitled” (1960), mainly to “address art historical gaps” like works by women and people of color… The deep burgundy oil on canvas… is expected to … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tolkien, Amateur

Posted on February 16, 2019 by JMN

“He’s doing the drawings and the maps and the spreadsheets and all of that detail — the language, the calligraphy — for himself,” [Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford] said, after pointing out that Tolkien didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged | 4 Comments

Photographer on the Straightaway

Posted on February 16, 2019 by JMN

When Annie Leibovitz was starting out as a photographer in San Francisco, she would toss her camera equipment into the back of her ’63 Porsche Cabriolet convertible and tear off to Los Angeles on Highway 5. “You used to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 2 Comments

“Never Afraid to Seem a Little Mad”

Posted on February 11, 2019 by JMN

[This entertaining article about contemporary UK interior designers has stunning photo illustrations. The excerpts I provide here are mere pointers to author Hass’s sprightly, scintillating text.] “The English,” says Rita Konig…“have never been afraid to seem a little mad…” A … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ruskin’s Strong Instinct to Draw

Posted on February 10, 2019 by JMN

In the bicentenary of his birth, it’s time we looked again at the forward-thinking and influential ideas of the great Victorian, writes Daisy Dunn. — Read on http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190207-was-ruskin-the-most-important-man-of-the-last-200-years Indeed, Ruskin was not only an astute critic but a talented artist … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bauhaus

Posted on February 5, 2019 by JMN

For years, the roster of Bauhaus luminaries — such as Gropius, Mies, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee — was seen as exclusively male; recently, the contributions (as well as marginalization) of its brilliant women designers — such as Gunta Stölzl … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Posted on February 5, 2019 by JMN

He was especially admired by Seurat and Gauguin, and also Cézanne, and later, Matisse and Picasso as well as the perennially underestimated American Maurice Prendergast. In their works and that of many others, you’ll find different combinations of Puvis’s carefully … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment