Choice insipidness

Another damn special section on art museums. Some choice insipidness follows:
There are no rules, per se, about what the Newseum will and will not include in its daily digital display of newspaper front pages from around the globe. Incendiary opinions? Sure. Blood? Likely. Breasts? Constantly.
Oh how witty of you.
Blake Gopnik writes the same article that’s [...]

“Where’s the beef?”

I went to the non-library section of the Clark the other day for the first time in months to see “Dove/O’Keeffe: Circles of Influence“. Aside from its frankly dull title, it was a perfectly diverting show. I’d never really seen much of Arthur Dove’s work, and his choice to use metallic-colored paints in some frames [...]

Preschoolers v. Clement Greenberg

Daniel Siedell writes another post of note, reflecting on the well-established (to my eyes, at least, being an art historical child of the double-aughts) rift between formalism and, for lack of a more specific generalization, contextualism. For the non-jargon inclined, formalism is one way of looking at art in which one considers a painting, sculpture, or what [...]

March of the Nobles

So you remember that air-guitar cover band I saw rocking out across from Tunnel City a year and a half ago? They were back today, except with real instruments making some kind of transcendent noise outside of St. Pierre’s Barber Shop as part of Williamstown’s new(ish?) summer programming movement “Sundays at 6″. I love it [...]

Spectral Bagpipes

The Utrecht school that brought you “The Steadfast Philosopher” now brings you “Alluring Bagpiper”, coming soon to the National Gallery of Art!
Start of classes has been actually pretty exciting. Last night the six majors doing art history theses sat for two hours briefing each on the work that’s been done so far. Curiously, my work [...]

This Pumpkin Could Turn

The last week has been a real whirlwind, so I’m gonna go for the “bullet points” post right now rather than take up pages and pages:

Got fitted for a tuxedo for my cousin’s wedding later this June. Had to deal with a clerk who wanted to know whether I’d be picking up the tuxedo in [...]

Fried Artichokes and Passport Control

My final four days of Italy were spent in Rome, which was just as chaotic, ugly, and beautiful as everyone said it would be. We hit the usual spots (the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Colosseum) and they were all packed with tourists, but also all stunning and worthy of their place in the standard [...]

Ik heb de T-FACTOR!

When I was waiting at the gate for my flight from Gatwick to Fiumicino this January, I watched as each passenger came up to the agent and flashed his or her passport. I was the only American on the flight, and I was feeling quite lonely.
A couple months later the situation felt quite different as [...]

How to get into the Vatican Library?

A very long Saturday: visits to San Lorenzo and the Uffizi, this time with the full class. This meant following sheepishly while our statuesque, Prada-clad art history professor argued her way past every single line in Florence, relenting only in front of the Uffizi’s metal detectors and at the Brancacci Chapel (re: the lone attendant [...]

Polenta EVERYWHERE

The whole summer job search has certainly been complicated by this whole being in Italy business, but the most telling experience took place this Tuesday when I had my final interview for the Steamboat Foundation internship with the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston:
The curators at the Gardner scheduled the call for 1pm Tuesday; 7pm [...]