Category Archives: Modern art

Frank Stella, Agha Shahid Ali: Moby-Dick into ghazals

Feb 20, 2014 Stella’s “Fedallah” isn’t anything like Melville’s: not the “tiger-yellow” apparition “with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips,” but a fluid, dancing figure, with some dark streaks and shadows, it’s true, but otherwise resplendent, impressive. … Continue reading

Posted in abstract expressionism, adaptation, Arabic, Classics, Middle East, Modern art, Near Eastern poetry, Poetry, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Edward Weston, Walt Whitman: Grass

November 7, 2012 Whitman, poet of New Jersey and New York.   Also poet of grass, the force of demographics, what comes up from the ground. He would have been unsurprised by Hurricane Sandy, or by the rising sea levels … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic, Autobiography, Cities, Climate change, collaboration, Environmentalism, Modern art, Nineteenth-century literature, oceans, Photography, planet, print medium, Publishers, Remediation, twentieth century art, Vernacular dialects, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pynchon on the Simpsons, Hughes on the Bootsie cartoons

August 29, 2012 I’m not absolutely sure it is his voice, but most people seem to think it is: “Diatribe of a Mad Housewife,” Season 15 of The Simpsons, aired on Jan 25, 2004. Marge is mad enough to write a … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, collaboration, Contemporary Art, Ethnicity, Graphic Novels, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, Modernist poetry, print medium, Race, Remediation, Television, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, YouTube videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Literature to Film, Sydney 2012

May 30, 2012 May 28, 2012 was the centenary of the birth of Patrick White.  Many of us from the conference went down to a special screening of The Eye of the Storm, directed by Fred Schepisi, featuring Charlotte Rampling … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, architecture, Arts communities, Australia, Cities, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary Art, Diaspora, Educational institutions, film festivals, film medium, Global South, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, museums, Music, Remediation, Rock music, Theater, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Space Brownies: Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs

May 16, 2012 Gertrude Stein was dead at that point; she had died in 1947.  In 1952 Alice signed a contract with Harper’s to write a cookbook. Then in her 70s, Alice was not as quick with her pen as … Continue reading

Posted in Arts communities, collaboration, Experimental poetry, film medium, Food in literature, Handwritten script, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Remediation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Gertrude Stein: Pittsburgh to Paris

May 9, 2012 850 Beech Avenue, Allegheny West.   A two-story house, 5 windows on its front facade, 3 on the second floor, 2 on the first.  A modest house, middle-class, no more. I remember this, of course, from The Autobiography … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Arts communities, Modern art, museums, Paris, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments