Saturday, February 22, 2014

Friday, February 21, 2014

The "Mirror Man": Art Spiegelman Retrospective

The Jewish Museum's presentation of Co-Mix: An Art Spiegelman Retrospective presents an exceptionally detailed summary of the life and work to date of the artist best known for his groundbreaking graphic novel, Maus.
The exhibit presents work from his high school days through the present with exhaustive coverage of Maus and remarkable ephemera including the typescript letter used by the Nazi's to document the arrest and deportation of his parents to Auschwitz as well as a stuffed mouse that served as a reference tool for the author. 
From The New Yorker: Maurice Sendak and Art Spiegelman discuss literature and childhood.

The exhibit is decidedly small scale, the largest works are those that are the basis for his famous New Yorker covers. If you have followed Mr Spiegelman's work much of this will already be familiar. But the opportunity to observe many of the original sketches and finished drawings, to admire his creativity and the vision that  brought about the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus, and the personal history behind it all, is something not to be missed.
Through March 23.
--Anthony Napoli
Deep in the Heart ofBrooklyn 

My Roman Ruminations: "The Persian Drunkard Follows Me"

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Ai WeiWei Art Destroyed by Protester at Miami Museum

Part of a work by artist Ai Weiwei was destroyed at the Perez Museum in Miami  by a Miami-based artist as a protest against what was termed the lack of representation of local artists in Miami Museums. Ai Weiwei's work has itself featured the repurposing and sometimes destruction of Chinese antiquities.
Full story here http://nyti.ms/1e2DVEw

"Colored Vases" by Ai Weiwei

Monday, February 17, 2014

Whistle blowing, Big Data and the Left

Slavoj Zizek on Snowden, Julian Assange, the N. S.A., cloud computing, the Leftist imagination and whistle blowing link here from The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/03/snowden-manning-assange-new-heroes

Steve Fuller on Zizek on Snowden, the N. S.A., cloud computing, the Leftist imagination, and SZ's "fetishism of BIg Data" link here http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/13940

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

'Thistle and the Drone': US Dials Down Dronefare to Explore Peace Talks with Taliban

In Akbar Ahmed's 2013 volume The Thistle and the Drone, the American University scholar explores the deep cultural divides that exist between traditional tribal peoples throughout the world, but especially in Muslim inhabited regions, and the globalized technocratic cultures that are impacting the world of traditional tribal peoples - the thorny thistle of the title. 
Perhaps evincing access to  Prof. Amed's interesting book, subtitled 'How. America's War on Terror became a Global War on Tribal Islam',  the US military has dialed back drone attacks as the Pakistani government attempts to wage peace with the Taliban, story here http://m.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-curtails-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-as-officials-there-seek-peace-talks-with-taliban/2014/02/04/1d63f52a-8dd8-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

More on Dr Ahmed's book and work here's http://www.brookings.edu/experts/ahmeda

Monday, February 3, 2014