Friday, August 2, 2024
The meaning of the work is not embedded in the object, but in the relationship between object and collector. As a collector, I do not display things that I don't like, but liking is connected to my self-image and how I wish to display myself to others through my possessions. Part of the value of these works is linked to the characteristics of the artists and the stories that the objects call forth. The works are authentic because of the biographical contours of their creators—life stories of diference that infuse the content of the work.
— Gary Alan Fine, Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Arbus was good at personalized presents too, but Israel's, in addition to affirming the intimacy of friendship, implied a comprehension that bordered on partnership. It was a form of inspired matchmaking, the pairing up of an artist with a sympathetic predecessor, and it contributed to his charismatic pull in which he made the beneficiary of his attention feel truly understood.
— Arthur Lubow, Diane Arbus
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
She kept saying to me "the more specific you are, the more general it'll be."
— Arthur Lubow, Diane Arbus
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
At this stage of her career she was figuring out her subject matter, a choice that is more important for a photographer than for any other kind of artist.
— Arthur Lubow, Diane Arbus
Monday, July 29, 2024
A puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king.
— Frank Sinatra, "That's Life"
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Once again, the artist can't help himself, insinuating his own life story to such an extent that it obfuscates the work.
— Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon
Saturday, July 27, 2024
I dunno his business.
— Lily when I asked if the dog across the street was licking a woman's toes.
Friday, July 26, 2024
"Atget represented to John the very best of photography for many reasons, not least of which is that Atget seemingly saw a purpose for his work that had nothing to do with creating art, but rather, a moral purpose," said Susan Kismaric, who worked with Szarkowski.
— Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Is he too young to have coins?
— Edmund
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The Case for Being Unburdened by What Has Been
— @nymag
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Is that me? I thought that was me.
— Oscar pointing to Wally
Monday, July 22, 2024
Would have done anything to be in the meeting where they brainstormed what emoji reaction Jill Biden should post in response to her husband dropping out of the presidential race.
— @svershbow via @mashable
Sunday, July 21, 2024
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, naturalists, interpreting the Jonah story as a historical account, became obsessed with trying to identify the exact species of the fish that swallowed Jonah.
— Wikipedia, "Jonah"
Saturday, July 20, 2024
We could feed them to Wally in a day and he would gain so much weight.
— Lily on all the quarters in the bag in the trunk of the car
Friday, July 19, 2024
They are 911!
— Nice estate sale man who was half of a duo liquidating Miniature Occasions and Dolls showing us a video of himself messing with a scam caller by pretending that he had gone and withdrawn the cash they requested but now the cops were chasing and confronting him
Thursday, July 18, 2024
How fragile is his pinky toe?
— Isaac
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
I have a massive collection of former students, so do I need more?
— J*
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Mr. Trump also briefly described his recent call with President Biden and said he had asked about the near miss of the bullet in Pennsylvania. “It was very nice, actually,” Mr. Trump said. “He called me, and he said, ‘How did you choose to move to the right?’”
— Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Jonathan Weisman, "In Leaked Phone Call, Trump Tries to Coax Kennedy Into His Camp," The New York Times
Monday, July 15, 2024
And in the introduction Szarkowski offers a simple insight about photography that is hard to argue with, "It is easier for an old photograph to be interesting than it is for a new one," he writes, "to show clearly the life of our own time and place demands acute perception, for our eyes grow accustomed to everyday miracles, but it would seem that the pictures in an old album need only to have been sharply focused and clearly printed in order to reveal the sense and spirit of their past time."
— Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Unfortunately, to repeat once again, the clarity of Avedon's reading of the cultural mood, the depth of his intentions, and the quality of his work, were too often obscured in the glare of his own self mythologizing tendencies. The flash and the glitz of Nothing Personal undermined its credibility, and Avedon's need to include too much of his work exhausted the book's potential for cohesion.
— Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon
