Category: William Eaton
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Cy Twombly, Charles White — Art & the Unspeakable
Twombly’s work is a win-win because it does not force us to think or feel at all, except insofar as the work reminds us that most of what we think and feel we are afraid to speak publicly about. (And this, perhaps, for good reason?)
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Collage, TV President, Bonnard, Miró
In the aftermath of Trump’s election, artists and writers have had the feeling that all is changed, and their work, too, has to change somehow; they—we—have to come up with an effective response. One way I have approached this is, in my museum wanderings, to see which works from the past seem most right to…
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The New Shadows, Judd, Artin
At sea in these thunder-clouded days we write out of habit and wishing that we might find some magical, Archimedean fulcrum that would right the ship or allow us to gather the pieces and start building anew. At present we cannot be sure how, or if, these pieces fit together. In any critic’s work, we…
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Dylan, Nobel, Paris, Chimes Flashing
Le monde s’étire s’allonge et se retire comme un accordéon qu’une main sadique tourmente The earth stretches elongated and snaps back like an accordion tortured by a sadic hand Dans les déchirures du ciel, les locomotives en furie In the rips in the sky insane locomotives S’enfuient Take flight Et dans les trous, In the…
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Smithson, Tuymans; Art & Explication
Beauty is a form of genius—is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray I Robert Smithson’s Mirrors and Shelly Sand (images above) is a long, low, floor-lying crest of sand (approximately 30 feet by 5 feet), which is divided in equal parts by 50…
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Guston, Schapiro, Rosenberg, . . . Dialogue
Why do we think Guston made paintings like these? This becomes a question, too, about how we are compelled, how we respond. By William Eaton I think every good painter here in New York really paints a self-portrait. I think a painter has two choices: he paints the world or himself. And I…
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De Bruyckere, Ibsen, Gatsby, Graceland
Or, Dying, “What does it feel like?” First approach Torvald Helmer: Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child. Nora, his wife: Maybe. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could bind myself to. As soon as your fear was over—and it was not fear for what threatened me, but…
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The Greatest Movies of All Time
The films touched upon here and below are: The Third Man, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Farewell My Concubine [English title], Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, or The Bicycle Thief), L’Amant (The Lover), Touki Bouki, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Anna Karenina (1935 version), Un air de famille (Family Resemblances), Carol, Youth,…
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MORANDI, RELATIONSHIPS, FASCISM, STILL LIFE
Living with the objects, they became his family, his neighbors, his friends. — Janet Abramowicz, former assistant to Morandi You don’t have to paint a figure to express human feelings. — Robert Motherwell [1] (1) For what, in the past year, have been revealed to be psychological reasons, I have long been drawn…
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Paris, Terrorism, Religion, Justice
The recent documentary about the Black Panthers called attention, among other things, to that group’s ten-point platform, which included such demands as “We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Of Human Beings” and “We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role In The Present-Day Society.” The Panthers were not a terrorist…
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