Somehow or other, I happened to stumble upon Bob Duggan's Art Blog By Bob at the beginning of last week, and there's just so much good stuff on there I've hardly been able to tear myself away since. There are around three years' worth of archives for me to work through, and I've barely scratched the surface so far, since he keeps putting up new stuff with remarkable frequency. I have particularly enjoyed this recent post on Paul Delaroche's The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 
and last weekend's introduction to Entertain Us, an exhibition of portraits of the late Kurt Cobain now on at the Seattle Art Museum.
and last weekend's introduction to Entertain Us, an exhibition of portraits of the late Kurt Cobain now on at the Seattle Art Museum. These days, most of his more substantial pieces seem to be re-posts from his regular column on Big Think, like this essay on the restrospective of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson at the New York MoMA (somebody, buy me the catalogue for my birthday, please).
2 comments:
That piece on The Execution of Lady Jane Grey may be the only recorded convergence of the English monarchy and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
If you can get your hands on a copy of the June 12, 1989, issue of The New Yorker, it includes an outstanding story by Julian Barnes, called "Shipwreck." (It's also contained in his book A History of the World in 10-1/2 Chapters. Although dubbed fiction, this is one of the most incisive, best-written pieces of art history and criticism I've ever read. It's about Gericault's painting Scene of a Shipwreck, often called The Raft of the Medusa. Really unreservedly recommended.
(Although of course if you DO read it, I'd be willing to entertain reservations. Ha.)
Ah yes, thanks for the reminder, JES. I love Barnes, but haven't read that one in.... twenty years, probably. I should try to get hold of a copy here.
I was first introduced to Gericault's painting by the Pogues' album, Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash, which used it on the cover, with the faces of the band members superimposed on some of the figures in the picture. A year or two ago I saw a modern art piece here in China with a similar idea: the composition recreated in a photograph, with young Chinese in contemporary dress playing the shipwreck victims. (Not sure what political subtext that might have been suggesting!)
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