A Brooklyn Art Critic’s Notebook @hragv - Tumblr Blog

Today's #YearOfHours is @freelibraryofphiladelphia Lewis E 99, a Flemish book of hours, use of Rome, likely created in Bruges in the 1430s. It contains fourteen full-page miniatures attributed to the Gold Scrolls group of illuminators - and lots of pink!

Online:

With more than 900 illuminated manuscripts, 1,250 of the first printed books (ca. 1455 - 1500), and an important collection of post-1500 del

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The beautiful visual rhythm of manuscript illumination 😍

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Around 1911, mother and son Shushan and Vostanig Adoian visited a local photography studio in Van, a heavily Armenian city near the eastern border of the Ottoman Empire. There, they sat for a portrait, one they might send to Setrag Adoian, her husband and his father, in the United States. The absence of that man from the portrait is palpable. It is but the first of many absences and disappearances to disturb a photograph that in time became a memorial object and then artistic source material.

In later years Vostanig, by that time a migrant to the United States and an artist using the name Arshile Gorky, was reunited with the photograph and used it as source material for two monumental pieces that he worked on over a period of decades. The photograph is in a private collection but belongs no less to the world of art, for it has become part of an art historical narrative.

As we pursue photographer Hovhannes Avedaghayan, a fascinating picture begins to emerge of him and the world of which he was a part, the world from which the Adoian portrait hailed.

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Sing, goddess, of the wrath of John Wick, the widow of Helen and defender of canines.

Like the famous first line of Homer’s “Iliad,” which begins with a request to the muse of epic poetry to tell us of the wrath of Achilles, the four films begin and end with the ire and vengeance exacted by one man: an assassin-protagonist named John Wick.

The body count is high, but Wick, played by Keanu Reeves, has more affability and mild-mannered words than the ancient Greek hero ever mustered. And as in the films prior, familiar tales of Greek and Roman mythology abound in this allegedly final chapter of the cult series.

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The Google doodle today celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. and features members of a community creating a mural. The artist is Brooklyn-based Richard A. Chance.

Here is a short interview he did with Google:

Q. Why was this topic meaningful to you personally?

A: I first learned of Martin Luther King when I was in kindergarten — it was a picture of him alongside other historically significant black activists in the elementary school I went to. There was also a bust of him in this park I went to as a kid as well as the street names I previously lived on. His presence was around me at multiple stages of my life. Learning about MLK’s life made past references of him very memorable — so memorable that I even remember the grade I received when I did a biography about him.

Q. What were your first thoughts when you were approached about working on this Doodle?

A: I wanted to make something that was different than the previous years. I also wanted to make it more of a city scene.

Q. Did you draw inspiration from anything in particular for this Doodle?

A: Martin Luther King Place is a street I walk past a lot. There were wheat pasted posters on the wall across from a housing complex there which gave me that idea to make it a scene of people putting up a poster.Q. What message do you hope people take away from your Doodle?A: I wanted people to have a similar experience I had when I first saw MLK in elementary school — intrigue and curiosity.

Anselm Kiefer show at Gagosian gallery in Chelsea, NYC

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Billy Childish paintings at Lehmann Maupin gallery in Manhattan. What do you think?

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All I can think is Group or Sevens meets the Woodland School.

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What feels like the right way to write about Roman Catholicism, or Christian iconography, to most art critics is heavily influenced by museum discourse, which is far from neutral.

Many writers are not cognizant of the hidden incentives and tradeoffs that play into Museum/Church relationships, and in turn shape our shared discourse.

Holofernes sculpture inside Audrey Flack’s New York City studio

#Audrey flack

Louise Bourgeois sculpture at the National Gallery of Canada

#louise bourgeois

What the fuck is going on at Twitter!? I feel better just typing that.

Saya Woolfalk at Leslie Tonkonow Gallery

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For thousands of years, tattoos have allowed us to view the body as our canvas. Either as adornment or camouflage, they function as permanent reminders of the art that really matters to us. Someone’s tattoos can speak volumes about their experience, just as they can reveal so much about the artists who made them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many tattoo artists start off in other disciplines. Painters, illustrators, graphic designers, and printmakers often turn to tattooing as a more stable form of artistic labor that fosters deeper interpersonal connections. For that reason, young queer and non-White artists are exploring how the artform can complement the body’s natural curves and colors.

Billy Anania highlights seven artists in their latest article.

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One of the immediate takeaways of “Into View: Bernice Bing” at the Asian Art Museum is the many paths Bing took in her work reflect her lifelong desire to find a unified self. Her search was not about style, being fashionable, or fitting in. It was about trying to acknowledge the multiple worlds one inhabits.

Read John Yau’s full review on hyperallergic.com.