Jeff Wall, Searching the Property Line, 2015
1. Julian Barnes reviews a new translation of The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne by Anna Bikont. The book takes as its subject one of countless massacres that occurred during World War II. However, the book takes as its mission that, indeed, these massacres should not be countless and with extensive research, the crimes can be uncovered. The result is not what one expects. In the little town of Jedwabne, the silence is thick and the guilt is wide ranging. Barnes gives a good account of how Bikont gets to work in this tough circumstance.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/nov/19/jedwabne-even-worse-we-thought/
2. Quite a contrast from the last article but who doesn't like a bit of fun, Vanity Fair published a delightful rumination by Robert Hughes about the lost world of magazine expense accounts or, perhaps more importantly, the lost world where art critics and their writing were taken seriously. The article answers a great deal about Hughes that I didn't know and has a memorable appearance by Alexander Lieberman, a sculptor who I admire greatly.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/11/robert-hughes-the-spectacle-of-skill
3. The link jumps to a very informative piece on Jeff Wall. For the casual observer of art who may not know why Wall is important, the article clearly demonstrates the fault line in photography that Wall so wonderfully straddles and gives a clear account of his technique.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/03/jeff-wall-photography-marian-goodman-gallery-show
4. Jessa Crispin of Bookslut is interviewed by the L.A. Review of books about her first publication, a group of essays about various exiled women in the arts. The book sounds fascinating, and the interview is also interesting, taking us through the process of creating a book that one is unsure that they can pull off. It is good example of where following your heart meets hard work:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/writing-against-complacency
5. Poem for the week:
I could simply get lost on the Poetry Foundation's website and never return, such is the treasure there. This week, I ran across Carl Phillips, a poet who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. The link takes you to A Kind of Meadow, an absolutely remarkable poem that contains the flavor of many old lovely things yet makes them feel unbelievably hedged and contemporary. What I mean by that is the poem is by turn John Keats and Gerard Manly Hopkins and you can listen to how each's understanding of beauty and aesthetics rub up against the other's. Phillips does not believe in either Keats or Hopkins, yet lets their seductions and beauty live in his language even while he doubts them.
Listen to him study the meadow:
"whether trees as trees actually,
for their shadow and what
inside of it
hides, threatens, calls to;
or as ever-wavering conscience,
cloaked now, and called Chorus;
or, between these, whatever
falls upon the rippling and measurable,
but none to measure it, thin
Compare to Hopkins' Pied Beauty and you will find some of the same music, pieces of Hopkins' sprung rhythm, yet here, unlike in Hopkins, there is indeed "none to measure it," or if there is, that God is quiet as human, semiotic relationships toward meaning step forward, "this stands for."
This is such a smart, dense, and wonderful poem.
One click deeper:
More about Phillips here and his new book here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/11/carl_phillips_reconnaissance_reviewed.html