Book Review: Rudy Burckhardt, by Phillip Lopate with an essay by Vincent Katz Abrams, 2004 (224 pp, $65) Rudy Burckhardt: Selected Photographs through September 11, 2004 724 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, 212 262 5050 Rudy Burckhardt’s Sense of Place What makes Rudy Burckhardt unique among many great photographers of New York is his magic … Continued

Book review from 2004 as major Resnick survey continues at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, through August 1

Art critic and poet Raphael Rubinstein began publishing art criticism in 1986, taking the position that the well worn territory of Minimalism and its offshoots was not his bailiwick. Instead, Rubinstein looked to postwar painting movements in France and their living exponents for a key to his interest in new modes of abstraction in contemporary … Continued

The World of Proust as seen by Paul Nadar Edited by Anne-Marie Bernard, translated by Susan Wise MIT Press (2004) $38 hardcover, $21.95 paper Proust insisted that “A La Recherche du Temps Perdu” (“In Search of Lost Time”) was a work of art, not an autobiography, and that his characters were invented rather than drawn … Continued

Imagine an art school that functioned like no other. Located far from the bustling art scene of New York, it was nestled remote North Carolina, miles away from anything. Here, the student decided what classes to take and how long his course of study would last. A school that could not afford to pay its … Continued

Soon after reading Michel Pastoureau’s fascinating book, The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric, I noticed that the inside of the cardboard container that holds Macdonald’s french fries is lined with a pattern of delicate yellow stripes. Utilizing the information in the book, I was able to trace the historical roots of … Continued

Isaiah Berlin said that all the problems of our age could be traced back to Romanticism. Anita Brookner heard him lecture on the subject and decided to teach it herself. This took place at the Courtauld Institute where she was an authority on eighteenth century painting. She has written monographs on Greuze, Jacques-Louis David and … Continued