In March of 1949—not sure of the day—Billie Holiday showed up for a photo shoot at Carl Van Vechten’s. She was told to wear a gown, but wore a grey dress. Her mood, we are told, was also grey. Van … Continue reading
Category Archives: Art I Like
Twelve Postcards
I like making things, and since my husband Akram’s drawings often fit my poems perfectly, I’ve made postcards out of them. In the time of an inundating Internet and a pandemic, postcards are something physical that a friend has … Continue reading
A Dozen Paintings by Emily Carr (1931-35)
I wonder if, when Emily Carr went as a young woman to study painting in Paris in 1910, she might have read the sonnet, Vers dorés, by Gérard de Nerval that ends: Souvent dans l’être obscur habite un Dieu caché;Et, … Continue reading
Judith Braun: Drawing While Listening
… … From the very first time I saw the art of Judith Braun, I’ve loved it. Though it changes, the remarkable meditative quality remains. Here are a few from the month of May, from her “Drawing While Listening” series. … Continue reading
The Art of Nicole Peyrafitte
… The thing about a performance is that when it is over, it is over, and if you were not there to experience it, then it’s been missed, but this is not so with Nicole Peyrafitte. I saw her do … Continue reading
Marcel Duchamp at MoMA: Anémic Cinéma
… I was almost caught by a guard filming. You can take photos but no videos. I think like in an old Greek myth, when a god comes, the spirit of Duchamp made me invisible as I held the phone … Continue reading
Sujay Sarkar, drawings and photos from Bangladesh
… Sujay Sarkar is 19 years old and from Barisal, Bangladesh. He helps to edit a little magazine called Tonga. I liked his drawings and photographs when I saw them on Facebook. He says, “I don’t know what I want … Continue reading
Woodcuts by Francisco Toledo
… Intense, scary, personal, sensual, funny, obscene, off-putting, the work of Francisco Toledo conjures all of those, and often at the same time, as the observer goes from one moment to the next, back and forth, again and again experiencing … Continue reading
Summer Paintings by Joan Eardley
… I am not sure if these are all really summer paintings, but they all seem to have summer in them. The artist Robert Rhodes introduced me to Joan Eardley; I knew nothing about her—still don’t know a lot—but I … Continue reading
from Nombres de las iguanas por Francisco Toledo
… From Nombres de las iguanas by Francisco Toledo a book without titles, dates, methods or materials from 1974 – 2001. Use your imagination; the artist certainly did. Francisco Toledo (1940 – 2019). Descansa en paz. . . … Continue reading
Basil King reads The Green Man Comes to 4th Street, Numbers 1 to 7
… When I was visiting Basil and Martha King recently, BAZ took me upstairs to his studio to see what he has been working on since January, a series called The Green Man Comes to 4th Street, engaging portraits with … Continue reading
Lines 644-691 from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book Three with a photo by Stanley Stellar
… When I recently saw the photo by Stanley Stellar of a beautiful painting of a phallic man with a dolphin, I remembered some lines from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a tale told by the captain of a ship who tries to … Continue reading