A Medium of Ideas

The other day, I asked a girl I work with about her art. She said, "I want to work in a medium of ideas."

Trying to keep up with this blog...

"Also in the Frick show is a sumptuous painting by the sweet-tempered Bartolome Esteban Murillo, who ousted [Zurburan], late in his career, from clerical favor. 'The Birth of St. John the Baptist' (c.1660) teases softly glowing figures, including a rumpus of putti, from ambient blackness, with baby John, at the center, managing to be realistically infantile while conveying, by look and gesture, that he can't wait to get started prophesying."

Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker [April 6, 2009].

Responds to "Xerxes"

Matt Damon on a Unicycle

"Nothing in these operas is any more implausible than the events of the average Shakespeare play, or, for that matter, of the average action movie. The difference is that the conventions of the latter are widely accepted these days, so that if, say, Matt Damon rides a unicycle the wrong way down the Autobahn and kills a squad of Uzbek thugs while singing becomes, under the circumstances, more plausible."


Alex Ross, "Unlikely Stories" (Opera Review in the New Yorker), [2009].

A photo tribute to Morgan the Wonder Corgi, who turns 10 tomorrow.

Corgi Guests

"Morgan can stay over too. We usually put our corgis in the Florida room."


My good friend Liz McInnes

Duchampian Nonsense

"Conclusion: after many efforts in view of the comb, what a shame! all the furriers have left and they mean rice."


Marcel Duchamp, [1915].

Colors as Sounds

"YELLOW, for example, possesses the special capacity to 'ascend' higher and higher and to attain heights unbearable to the eye and the spirit; the sound of a trumpet playing higher and higher becoming more and more 'pointed', giving pain to the ear and to the spirit. BLUE, with the completely opposite power to 'descend' into infinite depths, develops the sounds of the flute (when it is light blue), of the cello (when it has descended farther), of the double bass with its magnificent deep sounds; and in the depths of the organ you 'see' the depths of blue. GREEN is well balanced and corresponds to the medium and the attenuated sounds of the violin...and RED (vermillion) can give the impression of strong drum beats, etc."


Wassily Kandinsky, "The Art of Spiritual Harmony" [1912].

A Montage of Andy Warhol's Most Beautiful

Screentests from the 1960s Factory days of Andy Warhol (Paul America, Edie Sedgwick, Richard Rheem, Ingrid Superstar, Lou Reed, Baby Jane Holzer, Billy Name, Mary Woronov, Freddy Herko, Ann Buchanan, Susan Bottomly, Nico, Dennis Hopper).

Art is a Liar

"The fact is that we look back on the ages entirely through the medium of Art, and Art, very fortunately, has never once told us the truth."


Oscar Wilde, "The Decay of Lying" [1891].