To Run, To Go, To Get, To Give

Journal entry for 01 Nov 2010 | Link

Remembrance of Leafs Signaled

Untitled drawing by Warren Craghead (see here)

Warren Craghead did yeoman's work guiding Leaf and Signal to victory. Somewhere I have photos of a grand opening, thick with people. Somewhere I have uncoupled thoughts worth assembling into an essay. (One: are we coming back into a time that favors immediacy, access and emotion in art; see Europe circa Kollwitz, Kirchner, Heckel, Die Brücke, etc.) But they will have to wait still more. In the meantime, Craghead has created a downloadable book in honor of a show that earned much honor for all concerned.

The Talk, It Walks

Detail of After Yehuda Amichai, 2010, ink on paper

This Thursday, The Talk That Walked begins at Main Library in downtown Miami. There is a website that you should have a look at. (Check back Thursday to see images. I've learned my lesson about posting them in advance. People hate waiting but they hate spoiled surprises even more.) Keep in mind that the reception will take place on the 18th, not at the start of the show, but I will be around in Miami from this evening until the 19th and will be available to meet with anyone at the library at his convenience. This is excepting the evening of November 5 to the morning of the 10th, when I'll be doing my first full Zen retreat in five years.

New Writing

My latest review, of Leonardo Drew and Martha Friedman at the deCordova, is up at The Arts Fuse.

The career arc of Leonardo Drew began curling upwards over 20 years ago, and by the time his reputation had spread nationally in the early 1990s, identity politics had become an established feature of the art world. Consequently, some of the appreciation of his work at the time was too pat. After all, here was a black man working with cotton as a medium and otherwise providing low-hanging fruit for the critical establishment.

But while race bears upon his work, its driving force is not so much identity as humanity.

Read the whole thing here.

Retreat! Retreat!

It pains me to say it, but the aforementioned retreat will prevent a post next Monday, thus interrupting a perfect record of putting up new journal entries on Monday that stretches back to May. But it is what it is. Talk at you again on the 15th. Enjoy your November.

Hammond Pond Conservancy, Boston, October 31, 2010

Title source: this.