Really Real
One Sentence Art Reviews & New Episode of "Private Life"!
The inimitable Johanna Fateman asked me and eleven other writers to contribute “one sentence reviews” over at The Critics Table: “Speed Round! 13 Critics Review 25 NYC Shows Before You Finish Your Morning Coffee”
I wrote about Anne Truitt @ Matthew Marks, Robert Mapplethorpe @ Barbara Gladstone, David Levi Strauss’s Robert Bergman show @ the Hill Art Foundation and Yuval Pudik @ Palo.
To give you a taste, here’s my “one sentence” (generously defined) on Truitt:
“Twelve of what at first appear to be identically-scaled, imageless monochromes in slightly off-putting, off-pastel shades, ranging from buttercream to tawny apricot to damp rose to dusty lilac to dingy seafoam, redolent of nursery or hospital waiting room interiors, eventually reveal a similar cross form on square sheets of paper, whose rough edges lend the works an undulant object-quality, and which would be more effectively shown unframed, entering them into a fuller dialogue with the entire space and the artist’s three, characteristically human-scaled, free-standing rectangular columns, each painted a much deeper, more vibrant color: egg yolk cadmium, brilliant ultramarine, and an almost blackish green.”
It was a fun project and I’m so happy to be a part of it—thanks Johanna Fateman !
ALSO! The new episode of “Private Life” is out!
I’m very proud of this one, a conversation with Namwali Serpell about her new book on Toni Morrison —“Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison, Criticism, and Narrative Empathy"
Please give it a listen! Rate/subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (apparently it really does help people find it!) and send to any friend you know that might enjoy a deep dive into Toni Morrison’s novels and the perils of empathy in contemporary criticism.