Diamond Life @hharri1 - Tumblr Blog

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Roy Lichtenstein - Cup of Coffee (1961)

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Bernard Plossu

via Lens Culture

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Zanzibar

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Birthday for Loleatta Holloway at Zanzibar

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Jean Hugo (1894-1984) Two Footballers, 1921

Sotheby’s

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The Thinker, 1936, Yiannis Tsaroychis

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The New York Times, especially at that time, was gigantic. I remember it because they gave me the topic: What was the effect of AIDS on the culture? Which, in my opinion, was: What is culture without gay people? This is America, what is the culture? Not just New York. AIDS completely changed American culture. People always say “pop culture.” As if we have some high culture to distinguish it from. The effect of AIDS was like a war in a minute country. Like, in World War I, a whole generation of Englishmen died all at once. And with AIDS, a whole generation of gay men died practically all at once, within a couple of years. And especially the ones that I knew. The first people who died of AIDS were artists. They were also the most interesting people. I know I’ve said this before, but the audience for the arts—whether it was for writing or films …

CLEMENTE: Or ballet.

LEBOWITZ: Or ballet. The knowing audience also died and no longer exists in a real way. So all the judgment left at the same time that all this creativity left. And it allowed people who would be fifth-rate artists to come to the front of the line. It decimated not just artists but knowledge. Knowledge of a culture. There’s a huge gap in what people know, and there’s no context for it anymore.