A striking pairing of quotations from Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes by Lynn Garafola (Oxford University Press, 1989). First, on the innovativeness: “In the History of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. It existed for only twenty years—from 1909 to 1929—but in those two decades it transformed […]
Innovation in ballet — and market entrepreneurism Read More »
In this article, Newberry discusses Kant’s theory of the sublime and contrasts it to Aristotle’s and Rand’s aesthetic theories, along the way using modernists and postmodernists such as Duchamp, Manzoni, Hatoum, and Creed as examples, and then giving an extended review of Start Mark Feldman’s The Future in Our Hands sculpture group. Pandora’s Box: The
Michael Newberry on the sublime in art Read More »
Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain at the Tate and the challenge to defining art.
The Most Important Artist of the Century [Good Life series] Read More »
New York’s Park Avenue Armory’s current major exhibition is a retrospective of Martin’s Creed’s work over two decades. Viewers will experience films and installations of nipples stiffening and softening, flaccid penises firming, and a young woman squatting to defecate. One room’s back door opens and closes, inviting one to explore a small, dark opening. The
Does Martin Creed Speak for All of Us? Read More »
“Weary of liberty, he suffered himself to be saddled and bridled, and was ridden to death for his pains.” Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
The Fable of the Horse Read More »
Rounds one and two, I hope, of a good discussion of Rand’s philosophical fiction. Sarah Skwire: “Ayn Rand, John Steinbeck, and Fiction with a ‘Message’: The Problems with Didactic Fiction.” Onkar Ghate: “Is Ayn Rand a Writer of Didactic Fiction?” One interesting sub-issue to me arises from the fact that many readers do experience Rand’s
Skwire versus Ghate on Rand’s fiction Read More »
You may have noticed that things in the art world are a little, well, off these days. The artists we hear most about are those like vomit girl, also known as Millie Brown, who drinks colored milk and then makes herself throw up on the canvas. Or Jeff Koons, who gets millions for intentionally-banal objects,
Taking Modern Artists at Their Word [Good Life series] Read More »
[Re-pinning for this season’s festivities.] We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Or do we? Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has generated an astonishing variety of interpretations, and as with most rich tales the interpretations often tell us as much about the interpreter as the original story. The legend of Robin Hood is a
Will the real Scrooge please stand up? Read More »