Tag Archives: language

‘A Gloriously Unsatisfied Painter’

Posted on October 7, 2021 by JMN

Brobdingnagian ocular hubbub. Colossus of hue and scream. Tympanic boom. These phrases leapt to mind — of course they did! — as I eyed Sarah Cain’s work. Confession though: Cain owns me for rejecting the term “murals” in favor of … Continue reading →

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

Sean Scully: ‘Backs and Fronts’

Posted on September 29, 2021 by JMN

“Here’s another thing that I don’t agree with,” Scully says to me – the last comment he makes in our conversations for On the Line – “and that’s when Picasso said that art is war. Art is not war. War … Continue reading →

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

Remedios Varo (1908 – 1963)

Posted on September 27, 2021 by JMN

“Armonía (Autorretrato Sugerente)”/“Harmony (Suggestive Self-Portrait)” 1956. Credit… Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VEGAP, Madrid, New York; Sotheby’s, via Associated Press. Her father, Rodrigo Varo y Zejalvo, a hydraulic engineer, taught her mechanical drawing and encouraged her interest in … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

‘Jasper Johns: Divide and Conquer’ — Review by Holland Cotter

Posted on September 25, 2021 by JMN

Flags, maps and numbers were among the artist’s earliest repeating motifs. In “Map” (1961), the artist blurs the boundaries of states and strikes a line through the name South Carolina. Credit…Jasper Johns/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Charlie … Continue reading →

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

‘No path to heaven / except through this dirt’

Posted on September 16, 2021 by JMN

My title is from the poem by Philip Metres, “Never Describe the Sky as Azure,” in Poetry, September 2021. A Reservation Over the Fist Resisting the repressive Texas governocracy is of the essence. Are fisting poses ginned up for camera … Continue reading →

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

“I’m Trying to Overwhelm the Museum,” He Said

Posted on September 12, 2021 by JMN

[Adam] Pendleton, 37, is best known as a painter of abstract canvases in a distinctive black-and-white style that challenge how we read language. Made using spray-paint, brush and silk-screen processes, they incorporate photocopied text, words unmoored from context, letters scrambled … Continue reading →

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

Peter Bradley: ‘What’s Important Is the Color’

Posted on September 1, 2021 by JMN

“In person, Bradley is warm, refreshingly irreverent, unapologetic, and potty mouthed.” Bradley was among a handful of Black artists, along with [Sam] Gilliam, [Ed] Clark and Williams, making abstract work in the late 1960s and 1970s. Now as then he … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Travesía (16) Final

Posted on August 1, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN [Translator’s note: This is the last segment of part nine, and the end of Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and my Spanish version … Continue reading →

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

Sancho Panza Appreciates a Nip of Good Wine

Posted on July 30, 2021 by JMN

Sancho Panza takes a memorable pull from a companion’s proffered wineskin (“bota”) in this scene from part 2 of “Don Quijote.” Y diciendo esto, se la puso en las manos a Sancho, el cual, empinándola, puesta a la boca, estuvo … Continue reading →

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

Travesía (15)

Posted on July 28, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN [Translator’s note: This is the third segment of the ninth and last part of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” One segment remains.](9)Appearances, now or henceforth, … Continue reading →

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