Archives for July 2016

East-West Mash-Up, Hokusai Meets Wright

July 31, 2016 by Jan Herman

Not many people know that Richard Wright, renowned for his 1940 novel Native Son, and his 1946 autobiography Black Boy, wrote thousands of haikus — about four thousand actually — all of them in France, in self-imposed exile from the United States, during the last 18 months of his life. Wright prepared 817 of them […]

A Piece of Zen Music Called ‘Pond’

July 26, 2016 by Jan Herman

When I heard it for the first time, I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought of it as a demonstration of the trombonist’s virtuosity. Then I read the composers’ general description of the piece, explaining its origin, in 1976, and how it was composed. “Pond” was first performed in 1977 at the […]

Rugged Norwegian Art Show by War Vets

July 24, 2016 by Jan Herman

While traveling recently in Norway, I came across “Camouflage,” a group exhibition by military veterans of wars and other armed conflicts that doubled as a form of therapy. It was presented in Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, and was curated by Per Ruttledal with the assistance of Suellen Meidell and Robert Rodrigues. Meidell told me […]

‘Dadaglobe’: Art for Dada’s Sake

July 5, 2016 by Jan Herman

Although “Dadaglobe Reconstructed” at MoMA is a magnificent project of deep-dive reclamation, the catalogue that recreates Tristan Tzara’s never-realized Dadaglobe anthology also recreates the limitations of Tzara’s original concept. The catalogue is printed as he would have done it — in black and white. I prefer seeing the works submitted to him in their original […]

Dubuffet’s ‘Welcome Parade’ on Park Ave.

July 1, 2016 by Jan Herman

I was drifting down Park Avenue last night on my way to hear a talk on Buckminster Fuller by Jonathon Keats, when I came across Jean Dubuffet’s huge “Welcome Parade” of “pathetic monsters.” Both the piece and the placement — the sheer incongruity on that stretch of Manhattan pavement — made me smile. But whatever […]