Tag Archives: Arts & Literature

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept. 23, 2024

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The New Yorker (September 16, 2024): The latest issue features Christoph Niemann’s “Smoke and Mirrors” – The latest trends are often derived from unexpected places…

The Presidential Campaign, After Philadelphia

Part of the intrigue has been which movement would run out of steam first: Trump’s MAGA, through its failures, or Obama’s liberalism, through its successes. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

The Art of Taking It Slow

Contemporary cycling is all about spandex and personal bests. The bicycle designer Grant Petersen has amassed an ardent following by urging people to get comfortable bikes, and go easy. By Anna Wiener

The Anguish of Looking at a Monet

More than beauty, more than color, the artist reveals the doubts that bind us. By Jackson Arn

The New York Times Book Review – Sept. 15, 2024

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (September 15, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Making Art and Selling Out’ = In Danny Senna’s fleet, funny novel “Colored Television”, a struggling writer in a mixed-race family is seduced by the taste of luxury….

Debt Was Supposed to Cure Poverty and Help Pay for College. What Went Wrong?

Three new books examine debt’s fraught politics and history.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Looks Forward to Reading Fiction Again

The Supreme Court justice has been drawn to American history and books about the “challenges and triumphs” of raising a neurodiverse child. She shares that and more in a memoir, “Lovely One.”

Arts & Culture: The New Criterion -October 2024

The New Criterion – The October 2024 issue features

Democracy in America: a symposium

Tocqueville’s limitations by Glenn Ellmers

Democracy in America: an introduction by Roger Kimball

Our Athenian American democracy by Victor Davis Hanson

Tocqueville versus progressive democracy by Daniel J. Mahoney

The Washington octopus by James Piereson

Art Reviews: Gagosian Quarterly – Fall 2023

Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2024 | Gagosian Quarterly
Detail from Andy Warhol’s Mao (1972)

Gagosian Quarterly (Fall 2024) The new issue features Jessica Beck discussing Andy Warhol’s Mao series, contextualizing Warhol’s return to painting in the early 1970s and his attraction to subjects of notoriety. We dig into the archives to honor the inimitable Richard Serra, who had over forty exhibitions at Gagosian since his first in 1983. Elsewhere in the issue, Salomé Gómez-Upegui examines the work of artists confronting the climate crisis, and Péjú Oshin speaks with Jayden Ali about his expansive view of architecture.

In Conversation – Christopher Makos and Jessica Beck

Christopher Makos and Jessica Beck

Andy Warhol’s Insiders at the Gagosian Shop in London’s historic Burlington Arcade is a group exhibition and shop takeover that feature works by Warhol and portraits of the artist by friends and collaborators including photographers Ronnie Cutrone, Michael Halsband, Christopher Makos, and Billy Name. To celebrate the occasion, Makos met with Gagosian director Jessica Beck to speak about his friendship with Warhol and the joy of the unexpected.

The Art History of Presidential Campaign Posters

The Art History of Presidential Campaign Posters

Against the backdrop of the 2020 US presidential election, historian Hal Wert takes us through the artistic and political evolution of American campaign posters, from their origin in 1844 to the present. In an interview with Quarterly editor Gillian Jakab, Wert highlights an array of landmark posters and the artists who made them.

Literary Previews: The Paris Review – Fall 2024

Paris Review Fall'24

Paris Review Summer 2024 (September 10, 2024) — The new issue features:

Not Enough about Frank: A Visit with James Schuyler

Peter Schjeldahl

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From left, Frank O’Hara, John Button, Schuyler, and Joe LeSueur, ca. 1960. © Estate of John Button, courtesy of CLAMP, New York.

James Schuyler on Frank O’Hara: “I still can see Frank, standing on that street corner outside a pastry shop, holding a neatly tied-up box of God knows what—éclairs, perhaps.”

James Schuyler was born in Chicago in 1923, grew up in Washington, D.C., and East Aurora, New York, and spent most of his adult years in New York City and Southampton, Long Island. Although he is perhaps less widely known than the fellow New York School poets with whom he is associated, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Barbara Guest, and Kenneth Koch, he published six full-length books of poetry during his lifetime—beginning with Freely Espousing, published by Doubleday and Paris Review Editions in 1969—as well as two novels, and a third written in collaboration with Ashbery. In 1981 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection The Morning of the Poem (1980). Mental illness plagued him intermittently, and there were times when his life threatened to veer out of control, but friends repeatedly rallied around him, and the years before his death in 1991 were happy and productive. 

Javier Cercas on the Art of Fiction: “Hell, to me, is a literary party.”

Prose by Josephine Baker, Caleb Crain, Marlene Morgan, Morgan Thomas, and Fumio Yamamoto.

Poetry by Hannah Arendt, Matt Broaddus, Sara Gilmore, Benjamin Krusling, Mark Leidner, James Richardson, and Margaret Ross.

Art by Ayé Aton and Ron Veasey, and cover by Sterling Ruby.

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Sept. 11, 2024

Country Life Magazine (September 10, 2024): The latest issue features

The summit of achievement

Charles Quest-Ritson marvels at Friar Park’s ‘Henley Matterhorn’ in the superb Oxfordshire garden created by the late Beatle George Harrison and his widow, Olivia

How to time travel to spring

Now is the time to plan next year’s colourful garden display. John Hoyland advises what to plant and where for best results

Put a smile on your garden

John Hoyland hails a welcome resurgence in the popularity of pelargoniums, a stalwart that  lights up the summer garden

Sing on, sweet bird

The soothing notes of Britain’s thrushes have long provided a reassuring soundtrack to our lives. Mark Cocker tunes in

Bravery beyond belief

As the Royal Humane Society marks its 250th anniversary, Rupert Uloth recounts a host of incredible life-saving feats

 ‘Without fever there is no creation’

Henrietta Bredin examines how the colourful life of Puccini was reflected in the melodramatic plot lines of his greatest operas

Rachel Podger’s favourite painting

The leading violinist chooses an inspiring, uplifting masterpiece with a beautiful depth of colour

Happiness in small things

The challenges facing female farmers in Africa put life in perspective for Minette Batters      

The great indoors

Amelia Thorpe has the pick of planters and accessories to make the most of your houseplants

Civic splendour

John Goodall is heartened by the restoration of St Mary’s Guildhall, a symbol of Coventry’s great 14th-century prosperity

The legacy

Kate Green applauds the work of Sir Arthur Hobhouse, founding father of our national parks

Let’s get to the bottom of this

Is it a blessing or a curse to find a well on your property? Deborah Nicholls-Lee tests the water

I was on fire for you, where did you go?

David Profumo is in his element as he teases Atlantic salmon from Iceland’s low, clear waters

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell turns over a new leaf with autumn-inspired jewellery

Interiors

It’s show time! Amelia Thorpe seeks Design Week inspiration

Get your cob on

Prepare to be amazed by maize as Tom Parker Bowles savours those golden corn kernels in mouth-watering Mexican style

Foraging

Do you know a damson from a bullace? John Wright revels in the plum job of explaining it all

The colour revolution

The 19th-century development of new paints was a green light for artists, finds Michael Prodger

Colour vision

Rob Crossan catches up with the most famous and enduring face of our television screens

Culture: The American Scholar – Autumn 2024

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (September 10, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Queen of the Night’ – Behold the wonders of a Carolina moonflower…

Moondance

Experience the marvel that is night-blooming tobacco By Leigh Ann Henion

In western North Carolina, the mountain growing season is short, and autumn is already tossing yellow-and-red confetti against my windshield as I drive the back roads to my friend Amy’s homestead. Curve after curve, I find locust trees that are a few shades lighter than they were last week. Buckeyes also seem well on their way to change. It is now hard to tell the difference between orange leaves falling and monarch butterfly wings rising. The signs of summer and fall, all intertwining.

Thoreau’s Pencils

How might a newly discovered connection to slavery change our understanding of an abolitionist hero and his writing?

By Augustine Sedgewick

Look Out!

Why did it take so long to protect spectators of America’s favorite pastime?

By Debra Spark

Teach the Conflicts

It’s natural—and right—to foster disagreement in the classroom

By Mark Edmundson

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept. 16, 2024

Surrounded by cats a woman reads in her apartment.

The New Yorker (September 9, 2024): The latest issue features Mark Ulriksen’s “Childless Cat Lady Inexplicably Enjoying Life” – The artist celebrates the subjects of J. D. Vance’s disparaging comments.

“In the Dark” Reports on the Lack of Accountability for a U.S. War Crime

The podcast investigates the events in Haditha, Iraq, and compiles a database to show the inherent problem of the military judging its own members. By Willing Davidson

Are Your Morals Too Good to Be True?

Scientists have shattered our self-image as principled beings, motivated by moral truths. Some wonder whether our ideals can survive the blow to our vanity. By Manvir Singh

Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic

For years, Russia has been using the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, which borders its nuclear stronghold, as a laboratory, testing intelligence operations there before replicating them across Europe. By Ben Taub

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Sept. 4, 2024

Country Life Magazine (September 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Otterly Wonderful’ – How Otters reconquered our rivers…

Building blocks

A sensible framework on land use must be in place before we embark on a ‘build, build, build’ crusade, argues Fiona Reynolds

‘Neither fish nor flesh’

Laura Parker charts the lore and legends attached to Lutra lutra, that bewhiskered, bright-eyed beacon of conservation

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe luxuriates in an array of elegant tubs, tiles and accessories for the bathroom

London Life

  • A fresh vision of the city’s future
  • Tom Parker Bowles lauds the capital’s most fêted restaurateurs
  • Jo Rodgers marvels at a pop-up stationery shop

Travel

News of islands and ice

Jane Wheatley cruises the waters of Indonesia and Australia

Rosie Paterson is on a slippery slope in St Moritz

Pamela Goodman relives the ups and downs of walking on Paxos

Talk of the ton

Susan Jenkins examines the high fashion of the Regency period, from low-cut necklines to trussed-up regal sausages

Claire Booth’s favourite painting

The soprano is moved by an emotional Expressionist work that hits you between the eyes

What’s next?

Carla Carlisle is growing weary of damaging family feuds as she charts a positive way forward

Building nationhood

The meticulous restoration of Villa Golescu in Romania is a tribute to the country’s Revival style, suggests Jeremy Musson

The legacy

Kate Green celebrates the 16th-century life of William Cecil, the man who left us Burghley House      

By the light of the harvest moon

How do onion skins reveal what the winter holds in store? Lia Leendertz explores the weather lore for September

The best seat in the house

Chairmaker Finn Koefoed-Nielsen tells Nick Hammond how he met his ‘national treasure’ mentor Jim Steele thanks to Country Life

Friends in low places

Mark Cocker gives us the low-down on the miracle of moss, a wonder of the natural world that lives right under our feet

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell selects elegant bags that are bound to work for you

It started with a blank canvas

A painterly eye has transformed the gardens at Patthana in Co Wicklow into an artistic delight, reveals Jane Powers

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson revels in the soft and squishy joy of figs

Foraging

Humans have been harvesting hazelnuts for millennia and long may it continue, says John Wright

Books: Literary Review Magazine – September 2024

Literary Review – September 3, 2024: The latest issue features @claire_harman on female detectives; @WomackPhilip on childhood reading; Georgina Adam on art market scandal; @dannykellywords on ageing rockstars and @mathewparris3 on the Queen

Handbags & Handcuffs: “The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective” By Sara Lodge

‘If there is an occupation for which women are utterly unfitted, it is that of the detective,’ claimed the Manchester Weekly Times in 1888 – already behind the times, it seems, as women had been acting the part for years, albeit invisibly. They had started to feature in detective fiction too. It was studying the burgeoning market in ‘lady detective’ stories post-1860 that led Sara Lodge to wonder who the fantasy sleuths were modelled on, and why the Victorians found them so disturbing and alluring.

Forging Ahead: “Rogues and Scholars: Boom and Bust in the London Art Market, 1945–2000” By James Stourton

It is hard to think of a person more qualified to write this book. In addition to being an art historian, a prolific writer, a lecturer and a broadcaster, James Stourton is also a former chairman of Sotheby’s UK. He joined the auction house in 1979 and left in 2012 to become a senior fellow at the Institute of Historical Research.