The planned sale has implications far beyond Pittsfield, Mass., which is why the San Francisco Chronicle‘s art critic is writing about it. “There is a real sense in which these collections belong to all of us. These institutions exist for the benefit of the public, and they subsist through public support, whether directly with government dollars, through tax deductions for their donors, or both. The law can be unclear on the particulars, but there is little doubt that, ethically, museums hold works of significant cultural value in the public trust.”
Blog
Thirty-Six Prayer Rugs Against The Travel Ban
The show has work by Ai Weiwei, Mona Hatoum, Hank Willis Thomas and many more, all woven in Lahore and shipped to San Francisco specifically to respond to the president’s ban on travelers from certain countries. “Sanctuary is distinct in its melding of faith-based practices, especially its integration of Muslim and Christian traditions – and in a former military space, at that.”
When ‘Casablanca’ Debuted In Germany In 1952, Warner Bros. Removed All References To Nazis
What even is the movie Casablanca without Nazis, without fighting Nazis, without singing the Marseillaise in front of Nazis? Well … “Resistance fighter Victor Laszlo became a Norwegian atomic physicist, renamed Victor Larsen, who discovers mysterious delta rays and is on the run from Interpol.”
Art And Protest And Censorship, An Unholy Mess That Grew Deeply Tangled In 2017
Carolina Miranda, in a nuanced piece: “The debate that fills me with the greatest ambivalence centers on the frequently posited idea that only certain artists should be allowed to tackle certain subjects … Inequity undoubtedly persists — less than a third of solo shows at major museums in the U.S. go to women. But the nature of the debate on these issues threatens to constrain artists at a time when a multiplicity of voices and subjects is what’s needed.”
How A Woman – Brigid Hughes, Second Editor Of ‘The Paris Review’ – Was Nearly Erased From History
This is quite the unpleasant literary lineage story. According to a former board member of The Paris Review, “As soon as Hughes was named to succeed Plimpton, receiving her Times profile, there were ‘powerful movers and shakers in the literary world, and they exerted influence continuously until they got their way.’ Those voices, the former board member said, were led by the late Bob Silvers, who wanted an ‘NYRB or New Yorker type guy.’ Hughes was in the midst of publishing her first full issue around the time that Silvers-led faction started maneuvering to limit her tenure to a year. Eventually, they pulled enough board members over to their side.”
A Deep Dive On The Culture Of The Comic ‘Dilbert’
Dilbert supposedly depicts work – a kind of Hotel California of work, where you can maybe go home from the office to complain about the office, but you’re coming right back in. But in the last few years … things changed. “The ability to detect irony is increasingly necessary for being alive in America. If you have not by now recognized on your own that the world has been careening through a too-salty first draft of The Onion, there is no helping you. Irony is especially important with Dilbert because the antagonist of Dilbert, at least for the first few decades, was the Pointy-Haired Boss. And there is no other person in the entire public consciousness who is more like the Pointy-Haired Boss than Donald Trump.”
A British Photographer Says That Now, Brexit Infects Every Space He Photographs In Britain
Martin Parr says it’s almost like the 1980s, now: “One of the things that galvanised photographers then was a dislike of Thatcherism, and we are in the same position. It is almost like a therapeutic process to examine your relation to these things, to this history. That is what I use the camera for.”
Bette Howland, An Author Who Wrote Several Acclaimed Books, Won A Genius Grant, Disappeared And Was Recently Rediscovered, Has Died
Howland was 80. Her work “might never have resurfaced had not a copy of ‘W-3’ caught the eye of Brigid Hughes, editor of A Public Space, when she was browsing through a $1 cart at the Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan in 2015. The book intrigued her, and some digging eventually led her to Jacob Howland. A Public Space now hopes eventually to reissue all of Ms. Howland’s books.”
The Lincoln Plaza Cinema Is Going To Close, Alarming Art Movie Lovers
It would be hard to overstate the impact the art house’s owners, Daniel and Toby Talbot, have had in shaping art film reception in New York. The building it’s in, and the theatre itself, need upgrades, but there’s also this: “Moviegoers increasingly want ‘the experience,’ [an assistant manager] said, such as reclining seats and huge screens. ‘We don’t have that stuff. … Here, it’s all about the movie.'”
The Editor Who Pulled Joseph Conrad From The Slush Pile
He worried it was one of many Far Eastern potboilers in the pile, but then he started to read. “Indeed, the manuscript seemed to challenge many of the conventions of such books: there was a distinctly antiheroic aspect to its main protagonist, the portraits of the natives ran counter to prevailing stereotypes, and the narrative’s mordant undercurrent was entirely unlike superficially similar works.”