Category Archives: Art/Photography

“Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.” — poet/engraver/visionary William Blake

“I mean, don’t you think it’s a little bit excessive?” “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. William Blake.” Pause. “William Blake?” “William Blake!” “William Blake???” “William Blake!!!” — Bull Durham William Blake was a poet virtually … Continue reading

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“If the thing is there, why, there it is.” Happy Birthday, Walker Evans

That last photo is Walker Evans’ innovative perspective of the parade for Charles Lindbergh after Lindbergh successfully crossed the Atlantic in 1927. It’s one of the first photos Evans took, and shows that he had a “good eye” from the … Continue reading

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“A vast amount of rubbish is published in the name of art. A man should let his work talk for him. ” — Charles Dana Gibson

It’s his birthday today. Old-timers will remember when my blog-design was Gibson-Girl inspired. My favorite haughty Gibson Girl was in the blog banner for years! The only vestige of the Gibson Girl origin-story of this site is in the email … Continue reading

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“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” — Edward Hopper

It’s his birthday today. I wrote about Edward Hopper quite a bit in my Present Tense column at Film Comment, detailing the Hopper-y vibe of Tom Noonan’s great film about urban loneliness, What Happened Was… In fact, I have a … Continue reading

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“I believe the Negro blood counts, and counts to my advantage – though it has caused me at times a life of great humiliation and sorrow.” — painter Henry Ossawa Tanner

It’s his birthday today. When I lived in Philadelphia – a million years ago, with my boyfriend who was in law school at U. Penn – I became intimately familiar with Henry Ossawa Tanner’s paintings since so many of them … Continue reading

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Diane Arbus at the movies

Carroll Baker on screen in Baby Doll with passing silhouette, N.Y.C. (1956; Diane Arbus)

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“I should have been dead ten times over. I’ve thought about that a lot. I believe in miracles. It’s an absolute miracle that I’m still around.” — Dennis Hopper

It’s his birthday today. I’m so glad I used one of my columns at Film Comment -now on hiatus – to sing the praises of Dennis Hopper’s wild and nihilistic Out of the Blue, starring Linda Manz and Hopper. Of … Continue reading

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“My goal: never copy. Create a new style, with luminous and brilliant colors, rediscover the elegance of my models.” — Tamara de Lempicka

“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don‘t apply to those who live on the fringe.” — Tamara de Lempicka Spoken like a true exile of Jewish descent. For her birthday: “Self Portrait … Continue reading

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“I would rather take a photograph than be one.” — Lee Miller

Lee Miller, by David Scherman It’s the birthday of Lee Miller, fashion model, Surrealist artist, and … as if all that wasn’t enough … the only female combat photographer in Europe during the war, taking photos of concentration camps, firing … Continue reading

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“After all, when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. And in the Garden of Eden, God was probably naked as a jaybird too!” — Bettie Page

“I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything … Continue reading

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