Tag Archives: style

Monsieur

All respect to Pierre Cardin’s memory and legacy. I’m no fan of censuring yesterday’s culture for not living up to today’s expectations. But in matters such as gender parity it doesn’t seem unfair to observe dispassionately how an artifact may … Continue reading

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Alice Trumbull Mason: ‘Adamantine’

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

“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

“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

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

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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Lineation Meditation 1

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… If a clodbe washed awayby the sea,Europeis the lessas well as ifa promontory were,as well as ifa manor of thy friendsor thine ownwere… In free verse, are line breaks the product of daemonic possession? Sovereign whim? Delphic insight into … Continue reading

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Beethovian

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

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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‘Not Objectionably Reasonable’

EthicalDative must have a focus to offset my wandering attention. I try with mixed results to blog about art and language, and respond elsewhere and otherwise to the rest. An October 6th article about an appalling event has stayed in … Continue reading

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