Blog

Required Reading

Everyone should read historian Timothy Snyder’s important essay “The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.” He writes: Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to createContinue reading “Required Reading”

Poems in the Language of Death

In 1970 Paul Celan published a single line in the Paris journal L’Ephémère: “La poésie ne s’impose plus, elle s’expose” — Poetry no longer imposes itself, it exposes itself. Exposure resonates throughout Celan’s work: the isolated self, scarified by the horrific forces of history, exposes its wounds to the world in eloquent, gnarled, and deeplyContinue reading “Poems in the Language of Death”

The Independent Spirit of Herbert Gentry

Herbert Gentry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919 and died in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003, at the age of 84. In 2001, he moved permanently to Sweden because America lacked an adequate health care program. Otherwise, he would have likely returned to New York City.  During his lifetime, Gentry lived in Harlem and Chelsea, ManhattanContinue reading “The Independent Spirit of Herbert Gentry”

Rudy Burckhardt’s Innocent Eye

In a world where an artist is either a professional or an outsider, it is useful to consider these words by Rudy Burckhardt:  I am enough of an amateur existentialist and Buddhist to believe that we actually just mess around because we’re alive and awake — working, playing, scheming, falling apart, getting it together again,Continue reading “Rudy Burckhardt’s Innocent Eye”

Trump’s Last Act

On January 14, 2017, six days before the inauguration of the current president, Hyperallergic Weekend launched a weekly image-and-text series, Drawing in a Time of Fear & Lies, with a work by William Powhida called “Various Dismal Futures.” Based on imagery from sci-fi films and laid out as a set of 22 portrait tondos, “VariousContinue reading “Trump’s Last Act”

Rachel Eulena Williams’s Threads of Abstraction

Over the past few years, Rachel Eulena Williams has honed a distinctive style of brightly colored, multi-dimensional abstract paintings. The artist reconfigures canvases that she removes from conventional supports, and collages a myriad of diverse materials onto them. While always interesting, recently the works have taken a decided turn for the better. The artist, whoContinue reading “Rachel Eulena Williams’s Threads of Abstraction”

How to Recognize Right-wing Dog Whistles and Symbols, From Viking Hats to Flags

How did a mob of angry Trump supporters come so close to harming members of Congress on January 6, 2021? Capitol police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), two government agencies adept at suppressing dissent, have been conspicuously lenient compared to their interventions in leftist movements. Feigning ignorance to what the US really represents,Continue reading “How to Recognize Right-wing Dog Whistles and Symbols, From Viking Hats to Flags”

Essentially Invisible: Black Labor After the Siege on Capitol Hill

Not long after an insurrectionist mob of Trump supporters wreaked havoc in the United States Capitol Building, a group of curators and conservators was dispatched to survey the damage done to the cultural patrimony on display there. But before they could take stock of the situation—mere moments after the violent, largely mask-free rioters ended theirContinue reading “Essentially Invisible: Black Labor After the Siege on Capitol Hill”

Are Trump Staffers Taking Home White House Artworks That Belong to the Public?

Are Trump staffers taking artwork from the White House illegally on their way out? A stuffed bird, a framed photograph of the outbound US head of state meeting with the Chinese president, and a bust of Abraham Lincoln were some of the items seen carried out of the White House on Thursday, January 15, aContinue reading “Are Trump Staffers Taking Home White House Artworks That Belong to the Public?”

A Collection of Experimental Kinetic Art, Featuring Marcel Duchamp and Jenny Holzer

The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, received a gift of 98 works of kinetic art from the collection of the David Bermant Foundation in Santa Barbara, California. The substantial donation, which had been in the works for several years, includes pieces by Marcel Duchamp, Nam June Paik, Pol Bury, and Jenny Holzer, andContinue reading “A Collection of Experimental Kinetic Art, Featuring Marcel Duchamp and Jenny Holzer”