“It’s the most familiar thing there is, whether it’s experience of emotion, pain, understanding what someone is saying, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or feeling. It is in fact the only thing in the universe whose ultimate intrinsic nature we can claim to know. It is utterly unmysterious. The nature of physical stuff, by contrast, is deeply mysterious.”
Tag: 05.16.16
You Can Now Tour The Studio Where The Whitney Was Born
“The New York of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s day did not respect female artists, did not prize contemporary artists and did not appreciate American artists. Mrs. Whitney set out to change all that.”
Marvel Turned A Female Villain Into A Male Villain Because, You Know, Toys
“Iron Man 3 writer and director Shane Black explained that although he had written the film with a female villain, there wasn’t one on screen because Marvel feared it would hurt toy sales.”
We Think Sea World Is Cruel, But Then We’re Wowed By The Use Of Live Animals As Art
“It is hardly debatable that the employment of animals (beings incapable of consenting to spending days, weeks, or merely hours, confined to, and on display in, galleries or museums … ) is exploitative, reflecting a form of domination that does not simply regard living animals as material so much as it deforms animals into material.”
Lufthansa Denies Boarding To Cellist Leaving For European Tour
“A cellist traveling to Spain for the start of the Curtis [Institute] European tour was not allowed to board a Lufthansa flight Saturday at Philadelphia International Airport … But this was apparently not a case of an airline simply refusing to let on a large instrument.”
Critic Sasha Frere-Jones Out At L.A. Times, Accused Of Expensing $5K Tab At Strip Club
The music and culture critic, who won awards and gained fame during his years as a New Yorker staff writer (2004-2015), “has abruptly exited the L.A. Times after less than a year amid allegations of expense-account shenanigans involving a strip club and accepting expensive freebies from sources.”
The Compromises David Adjaye Had To Make To Get The National Museum Of African-American History And Culture Built
“Like so many things in Washington, it has been debated, refined and amended. In the process, it has become both a better and a worse building than the 2009 winning design concept presented by the team of Freelon Adjaye Bond.” Philip Kennicott gets into the details.
More Art On Rails: Paris-Versailles Suburban Trains Decked Out Louis XIV-Style
The new decor “feature[s] details such as bookcases, sconces, decorative wall and ceiling panels, and scenes from the sumptuous gardens” – all made and installed with a new specialized plastic film developed by 3M. The company has also partnered with the Musée d’Orsay to create Impressionism-themed cars for several intercity trains.
Is There No Accounting For Taste? The Complex Psychology Of Why People Like Things
Tom Vanderbilt, author of the new book You May Also Like, says that taste is partly “a way of filtering the world, of ordering information” and partly “another form of social learning” – but “always a mixture of exposure, of culture, of a person’s personality. And none of these are particularly static or fixed.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.16.16
This Week In Audience 05.15.16 – New Audience V. Old Audience Edition
A confluence of stories this week that rocket between new and old, digital and physical. Physical books making a comeback while e-book sales fall. Downloads collapsing as streaming takes hold. Transitions sure are messy … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-05-15
An Asterisk for Twombly Record* at Sotheby’s? Bloomberg Reports Payment by Art-Swap
When is an “auction record” not really an auction record? That’s a question that may be raised regarding a wobbly Twombly benchmark set at Sotheby’s last November. In her Bloomberg report on that auction house’s … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-05-16
Cattle And Kenny Dorham
A cycling expedition this morning found me in cattle country. As I pulled over to enjoy the bucolic scene, who should pop into my mind but Kenny Dorham. A native Texan who spent considerably more … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-05-16
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