Art Reviews: Ashcan Views of New Yorkers, Warts, High Spirits and All
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The Ashcan artists were a lively bunch of provincial rebels who created Americaâs first true avant-garde, and their chapter in the book of art history is still fascinating.
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When everything gets an API then everything you can imagine will be possible if you can write a script.  And sometimes, to give you an idea, all that has to happen is that a wall come down. The latest, most intriguing such wall was the paywall at the NY Times. Now all of a sudden we find the wealth of information published by the NY Times over many decades is available without tariff. More important, we can point into the archive. We've gotten so accustomed to the wall, that you actually have to think when it may be possible to go in there, as if it left behind a wall in our minds, even after the wall on the web is gone. For example, the first episode of Ken Burns's The War, an epic series about World War II from the American perspective, cited several NY Times articles. If you looked carefully you could see the dates, and the actual headlines, and then if you have a browser handy, as I do (I have an iPhone) you can actually read the article while the narrative continues. Today this is mostly a gimick, but I suspect as we get used to having history so available (like having a library microfilm machine, which I used to spend whole days playing with when I was a kid) it will change our sense of information, perhaps as much as anything else that's ever been on the web. Take movie reviews for example. What a thrill to be able to read a review of a movie that I love that came out in 1932! The reviewers back then were more forgiving, less sarcasting, more enthusiastic. Consider their review of the Hollywood Revue of 1929, a favorite of mine that I've only seen once (I'd pay for a DVD, if it were available). They loved audible movies (that's what they called them) as if the term "talkie" was as elusive as "podcast" was in the summer of 2004. Again, we've just scratched the surface. Wouldn't you like to have NY Times movie reviews integrated with Netflix? Or have Yahoo's movie rating service available on the NY Times site. And I have to wonder whether they really have gone all the way. You can't see the reviews unless you're logged in. Can Google's robots, therefore, see the movie reviews? Unless the've made some special arrangements, it seems not.  It would be helpful to get a technical guide to the newly hatched NY Times on the Web, or (as in the old days of software) a reviewer's guide, so we get some ideas of what to look at. Clearly a lot of work went into opening up the Times archive. I'm going to be in NY the week of October 8 and will have some time toward the end of the week. If anyone at the Times would be willing to spend some time with me reviewing what's now open, that would be helpful. In any case, at least the Times today is somewhat more available to be integrated into the fabric of the web. That's some progress. How much, remains to be seen. Postscript: Kottke did a great job of skimming the surface of the newly opened Times when it first came online, just one week ago today.
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A landmark exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York tackles surprising contemporary issues.
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Yesterday's piece, lightly edited, on the Huffington Post. http://x98.us/jz  I think it looks pretty good over there!
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Whether you're into science fiction's predicted future or just like bizarre creatures, here's an art show for you. Rachel Metz reports from New York.
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The photo on the front page (Feb. 13) is Pulitzer quality. I suggest you nominate Mike Terry for that award. The photo has urgency, drama, composition and is alive with tense action. It is one of the best photos you have published.
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Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus is one of my favorite paintings.  I actually own a print in my bedroom.  I was amazed at how well Google image search did on this query   Literally 90% of the images are perfect captures of the painting...
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"Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints" (Pantheon Books. 524 Pages. $30) &#151; Joan Acocella: While culling essays for her new collection, "Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints," Joan Acocella discovered a loose theme: the hardships that come with creation, and how various artists dealt with these obstacles &#151; or did not. The humbler virtues of perseverance, she came to see, are as important, and as laudable, as talent.
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If you are new to contemporary art, you might find âArt:21 â Art in the Twenty-First Centuryâ a useful, mildly engaging introduction. Informed viewers will find it annoyingly superficial.
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After trawling through the museums of London, Times Art Critic Michael Kimmelman finds a small gem in the postcard-sized art of Adam Elsheimer.
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Tycho:  I uploaded the comic early, as many of you noticed.  I entered the wrong number in the update field.  You may also have noticed that the spelling in these posts has really gone to hell.  So, that's numbers and letters.  I hope to one day discover a set of pictograms with which I can manage some baseline fucking proficiency.
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To engage with an artwork, especially contemporary works, can be a daunting task.
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âChuck Close,â about the painter, photographer and printmaker by the documentary filmmaker Marion Cajori, truly excels in its depiction of the physical process of making art.
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Gabe: So the big news today, in the world of web comics at least is that PvP is getting itself animated. Scott posted the news along with a little teaser over on his site. He"s actually writing the entire thing with the help of Kris Straub. I was a big fan of the old Blamimations they did together and I"ve told them both whenever possible that they needed to collaborate more. I make jokes when I"m uncomfortable and it just so happens I have issues with anxiety so I"m essentially uncomfortable all day. That means I spend a lot of my time making jokes. When Scott and Kris were up here visiting I hardly said a word. They"re just too funny and they"re always on. You just can"t compete with them, all you can do is laugh.
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A commercial photographer and train buffâs works seem at once folksy and uncanny, with phallic monsters of industrial dynamism racing through benign, Norman Rockwell-esque visions of semirural America.
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A new print collection compiles essays and excerpts from 27 blogs, nine of them based in New York City. The critical reaction has been mixed.
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Tycho:  I'm super depressed.  I thought I had invented a new word - mirthquake - and then I was going to say that you should prepare yourselves for the aforementioned, as today's comic strip was rated this or that number on the rictus scale.  I mean seriously, I've been excited all weekend.  A simple Google search put me in my place - the word is practically ubiquitous.  Expect it soon on Urban Dictionary, that mausoleum of once vibrant language.