fire of pale irony @artistreader - Tumblr Blog

I love to go to the movies. What I hate are the images on the screen. —Theodor W. Adorno

(via artistreader)

i was led upstairs, and to the left–into “my” room. i inspected it through the mist of my utter rejection of it; but i did discern above “my” bed rene prinet’s “kreutzer sonata.”

(humbert humbert describes being led on a tour of the haze residence; vladimir nabokov, lolita, ch.10, p. 38).

rene prinet, ‘kreutzer sonata’, painted in 1901.

“I think that it is superfluous to say that I was very vain. If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living. So for that Sunday I had busied myself in tastefully arranging things for the dinner and the musical soiree. I had purchased myself numerous things for the dinner, and had chosen the guests. Toward six o'clock they arrived, and after them Troukhatchevsky, in his dress-coat, with diamond shirt-studs, in bad taste. … Oh, how well I remember all the details of that evening! I remember how he brought the violin, how he opened the box, took off the serge embroidered by a lady’s hand, and began to tune the instrument. I can still see my wife sit down, with a false air of indifference, under which it was plain that she hid a great timidity, a timidity that was especially due to her comparative lack of musical knowledge. She sat down with that false air in front of the piano, and then began the usual preliminaries,–the pizzicati of the violin and the arrangement of the scores. I remember then how they looked at each other, and cast a glance at their auditors who were taking their seats. They said a few words to each other, and the music began. They played Beethoven’s 'Kreutzer Sonata.’ Do you know the first presto? Do you know it? Ah!” … Posdnicheff heaved a sigh, and was silent for a long time. “A terrible thing is that sonata, especially the presto! … (from chapter 23 of leo tolstoy, 'kreutzer sonata’)

‘death and maiden’ by marianne stokes, 1900

#marianne stokes

head of j.y.m. by frank auerbach, 1981

#frank auerbach

likeafieldmouse-deactivated2015

poeticasvisuais

Anselm Kiefer - The Renowned Orders of the Night (1997)

fleurs-du-bien

Massaida sur le divan, Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen 1912

udnie (young american girl, the dance) by francis picabia, 1913

#Francis Picabia #dada

russian-style

Pyotr Konchalovsky - Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold, 1938

The portrait was created not so long before the arrest and death of Russian theatre director Meyerhold, so there is a contrast between the vivid background and sadness of removed master.

nyrbclassics

You can be a bit freer—no, why is it more fun to translate? I feel like with poetry you can … I spend longer on each word. I spend a lot more time per word on poetry than in a novel. You can’t pore over a novel in quite the same way you can with a book of poetry. And I do feel that...

bookowlnews

In The Ego and the Id Freud argues that narcissism must give way to objects,and that one must finally love in order not to fall ill.

Judith Butler (via alterities)

cavetocanvas

Expanded Expansion - Eva Hesse, 1969

From the Guggenheim:

Expanded Expansion is a sculptural embodiment of opposites united. Both permanence and deterioration operate in the piece: fiberglass poles—rigid, durable entities—are juxtaposed with fragile, rubber-covered cheesecloth. While its height is determined by the poles, the width of the piece varies with each installation; like an accordion or curtain, it can be compressed or extended. Its repetitive units echo the programmatic seriality of Minimalism, but here they accentuate Hesse’s desire to illuminate her view that “if something is absurd, it’s much more exaggerated, more absurd if it’s repeated.” The very redundancy of the title reinforces this idea.