abstract and modern art haters are sooo snobby like klein literally Created an entirely new pigment and then painted a canvas in a way where the brush strokes wouldn't be visible. the insinuation that people with no skill could reproduce that is so annoying because unless you are skilled at color mixing and painting you definitely couldn’t lmao
Also even in the case of works where the technical skill required isn’t immense, you can never recreate it because art is a product of its context!
To use the example of Jackson Pollock, he didn’t wake up one day and decide to make a bunch of splatters, he was part of a movement of abstract expressionists, specifically born out of the surrealist movement’s focus on automatic and subconscious decisions, hence the decision to physically distance the hand of the artist from the canvas. His work emphasized the motion of the painter’s strokes, not their subject or intent. If you seek to just recreate his work(which is impossible given the automatic and chaotic systems at play), you’ll never have the context it was made in or the same artistic goals.
And even if none of that were true, none of the “anyone could do that!” Crowd are going out and doing it!sube you could, but you don’t, and that’s exactly the point!
The way capitalist societies incentivize a lack of education about the arts is so sinister, and also just fucking annoying, because it results in people who don’t want to have their worldview challenged.
I read 45 books this year, including one for work. I don't typically include those but I was working with the translation of a book and so it had technically already come out so I decided to put it on Goodreads. I have however not included it in this wrapup, so there's only 44 of them here.
Classics (8)
1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 - ⭐⭐⭐
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (reread) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (queer, reread) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (e, childrens) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Grey Woman by Elizabeth Gaskell (au) ⭐⭐⭐
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (modern) ⭐⭐⭐
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera ⭐⭐⭐
Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz (modern) ⭐⭐⭐
Teleny by Anonymous (queer) ⭐⭐⭐
Poetry (4)
1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
1 - ⭐⭐⭐
Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky (e) ⭐⭐⭐
Closer Baby Closer by Savannah Brown (e) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Carrying by Ada Limón (au/ph) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha (e) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Romance (2)
1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
1 - ⭐⭐⭐
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (au) ⭐⭐⭐
Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (reread, queer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Non-fiction (10)
3 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
2 - ⭐⭐⭐
Letters to Camondo by Edmund De Waal ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Det är natten by Karolina Ramqvist (sv, e) ⭐⭐⭐
En bok av dagar by Patti Smith (tr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Kind of Magic by Luke Edward Hall ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Blir du ledsen om jag dör? by Nicolas Lunabba (sv) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Krigsdagböcker by Astrid Lindgren (sv) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dagbok från 20-talet by Nicolas Lunabba (sv) ⭐⭐⭐
The Forster Cavafy Letters edited by Peter Jeffreys ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Greco Disco by Luke Edward Hall ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fantasy (1)
1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (au, ph) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Contemporary (19)
1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9 - ⭐⭐⭐
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (queer, au) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kärlek i Seoul by Sang Young Park (queer, tr, au) ⭐⭐⭐
Andromeda by Therese Bohman (sv) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Min Far by Annie Ernaux (tr) ⭐⭐⭐
Göra sig kvitt Eddy Bellegueule Édouard Louis (queer, tr) ⭐⭐⭐
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (au) ⭐⭐⭐
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (queer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Babetta by Nina Wähä (au, sv) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts (queer) ⭐⭐⭐
Rumple Buttercup by Matthew Gray Gubler (e, childrens) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Aftonland by Therese Bohman (sv) ⭐⭐⭐
Om uträkning av omfång 1 by Solvej Balle (tr, au) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Adventures of the Seven Christmas Cards by Anthony Horowitz (au) ⭐⭐⭐
Vinternoveller by Ingvild H. Rishøi (tr) ⭐⭐⭐
Heartstopper volume 5 by Alice Oseman (queer, YA) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stargate by Ingvild H. Rishøi (tr, au) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
In the Absence of Men by Philippe Besson (queer, tr) ⭐⭐⭐
Saint Sebastian’s Abyss by Mark Haber (au) ⭐⭐⭐
Additional info and stats under the cut:
e = ebook
au = audiobook
ph = physical (only used when I alternated between the audiobook and the physical copy)
tr = translated
sv = originally in Swedish
It looks like you were really lucky with the books you read this year, you don't have a single rating below three stars! Which was you favourite book of the year? Also, did you have any kind of goal for the year in terms of genre or theme or did you just read whatever piqued your interest?
I managed to make an illustration for my portfolio without going insane and overthink too much, and I really like it, I think it represents me. I also finished the first season of Cruel Summer and started watching Hannibal.
I really need to watch more movies but I'm waiting until I send my application so right now I can focus and put all my effort and time into my portfolio.
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