In his essay about Cy Twombly, ‘The Wisdom of Art’, Roland Barthes introduces the Latin adjective rarus as a way of describing the dispersed elements of the artist’s canvases. In a lyrical moment in which Barthes recalls his own experience of the Mediterranean, Barthes pinpoints the sources for this Latin term in a passage from […]
On Saturday I am making a very brief visit to New York City and I thought that the best way to prepare was to pick up a copy of poet, artist and activist Kenneth Goldsmith’s immense new book Capital: New York Capital of the 20th Century (Verso 2015). On opening the pages of this gilded […]
I generally wish I could be in Los Angeles, but even more so this Thursday March 12th for Prof. John Van Sickle’s talk Picturing Virgil’s Pastorals in Graphic Novel Style at the USC Dornsife Department of Classics. Prof. Van Sickle, who teaches Classics at Brooklyn College and Comparative Literature at CUNY, has devoted his career […]
SapphoMartialPublilius SyrusAristotleEuripides[EuripidesThe Trojan Women]Seneca’s Thyestes DiogenesVirgilAeneid Benjamin Jowett[Ovid Amores 1. 8. 40?]Plutarch re CaesarSophoclesAristotle (again)SimonidesSpartansSlain atPlateaLucretius wroteBeing Euripides (again)Being Seneca (again?)[Horace Odes 4. 7 16] Quoth HoraceOdysseus once says Asks someone in Aristophanes
– I mean I just saw an advance review of your art book, some half-ass critic takes it apart.Valentine paused, lighting a cigarette. He held the match before him, looking at the flame. then he blew it out. – How do you mean, takes it apart? – He takes your own words out of it, and […]
As his latest Balloon Dog (this time of the orange variety) goes under the hammer at Christie’s tonight, it is worth noting that, when given the chance, its creator, Jeff Koons, has consistently described this particular work of his as a ‘Trojan Horse’. From the current Christie’s sale: “It’s a very optimistic piece, it’s a […]