Art Dealer And Collector Eugene V. Thaw Dead At 90

“‘I can’t create the objects I crave to look at,’ he [once] said, ‘so I collect them.’ … His personal collection featured more than 400 drawings, including rare works by Goya, Van Gogh and Andrea Mantegna and price-setting items by Rembrandt and Samuel Palmer. But he insisted that ‘great art collecting need not be based on a great fortune; education, experience and eye are more important.’ He spoke from his own history.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.08.18

Is There Anything New In Costume Exhibits?
Yes, maybe. Vogue magazine recently wrote: “Couture Korea proves that in the often choked-up calendar of museum fashion exhibitions, there are still fascinating new subjects to explore that are fresh and full of feeling.” … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-01-08

Britain, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and 1966
What was the real heart of the ’60s? That depends, of course, on what we really mean when we talk about that much-mythologized and contested decade. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2018-01-08

My Debt to Eugene Thaw, the Late Dealer, Collector, Connoisseur, Scholar, Donor, Mentor
I’ve never met an art dealer as brilliant and multifaceted as Eugene V. Thaw, who died Jan. 3 at the age of 90. Selling works of highest quality, from old masters to modern, he advised the … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-01-08

Big man, small screen
Seeking to rest my weary mind, I brought a short stack of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mystery novels with me to Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. T and I retreated last week … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-01-08

Recent Listening: A Porter, Porter And King Collaboration
Randy Porter Plays Cole Porter, special guest Nancy King (Heavywood)
If Randy Porter played more widely outside the US Pacific Northwest, he would likely be lauded as one of the leading contemporary … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-01-08

 

How To Do Arts Advocacy? Here Are A Couple Of Transformative Ideas

A few years ago we launched a simple, yet transformative project asking our nonprofit arts organizations to become polling places. This opened up their relationship with their local community and provides a way to have a non-transactional relationship with their neighbors. It also shows that we are community members who care about the local legislation and policies that affect our lives as individuals and as organizations that serve our neighbors. In many cases it also is an opportunity to expand the audience of who these organizations are reaching. The primary goal is to expand the definition of who the organization is and how do they fit into “more art everywhere”.

Citing Rising Concerns About Free Expression, PEN Chapters In LA And NY Will Merge

The New York-based PEN America and California-based PEN Center USA told The Associated Press on Monday that they will be called PEN America. Suzanne Nossel, currently executive director of the New York chapter, will oversee the new entity along with an expanded board of trustees that will include members from both chapters. Nossel said in a statement that the decision came out of a “shared sense of urgency” about free expression in the U.S. and overseas.

Autism: Impairment Or Gift?

These debates point to an apparent paradox in our understanding of autism: is it a disorder to be diagnosed, or an experience to be celebrated? How can autism be something that must be ‘treated’ at one level, but also praised and socially accommodated at another?

Graham Greene Came Pretty Close To Winning The Nobel Prize In 1967

Of three serious finalists, newly opened records reveal. “Greene was supported by the committee’s chairman, Anders Osterling, who called him ‘an accomplished observer whose experience encompasses a global diversity of external environments, and above all the mysterious aspects of the inner world, human conscience, anxiety and nightmares.'” But the two others on the committee disagreed.

Author Carmen Maria Machado On Writing Sex Scenes In Her Literary, Genre-Crossing Short Stories

Machado’s debut book, Her Body and Other Parties was a finalist for the National Book Award, and she was interviewed by the Paris Review about it as well. So of course The Guardian asks her about writing sex. “What’s the secret?” the paper asks. The reply: “Letting some sex scenes be pleasurable, letting bodies be real.”

The *Real* Word Of The Year 2017 (And 2018), Like So Many Words, No Longer Means What It’s Meant To

A rather grouchy Louis Menand, after dissing the various dictionaries’ choices and suggesting that, perhaps, the word of the year ought to be a hashtag (#), argues that his choice of the emblematic word of these times is apt precisely because so many words are being deliberately distorted: “‘Fake’ once meant ‘counterfeit’ or ‘inauthentic,’ like a fake Picasso or a fake birth certificate. It is now used to mean ‘I deny your reality.'”