In December 1974, there was a memorial service at St. James Episcopal Church on Madison Avenue for Louise Fitzhugh, author and illustrator of Harriet the Spy, the groundbreaking children's novel that has sold 2.5 million copies since its publication in 1964. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Mar 26, 2012 -
45 comments
For decades Dawn Powell was always just on the verge of ceasing to be a cult and becoming a major religion. But despite the work of such dedicated cultists as Edmund Wilson and Matthew Josephson, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, Dawn Powell never became the popular writer that she ought to have been. In those days, with a bit of luck, a good writer eventually attracted voluntary readers and became popular. Today, of course, "popular" means bad writing that is widely read while good writing is that which is taught to involuntary readers. Powell failed on both counts. She needs no interpretation and in her lifetime she should have been as widely read as, say, Hemingway or the early Fitzgerald or the mid O'Hara or even the late, far too late, Katherine Anne Porter. But Powell was that unthinkable monster, a witty woman who felt no obligation to make a single, much less a final, down payment on Love or The Family; she saw life with a bright Petronian neutrality, and every host at life's feast was a potential Trimalchio to be sent up. - Gore Vidal
posted by Trurl
on Nov 12, 2011 -
38 comments
Suffering from emotional distress caused by receiving a parking ticket? Not to worry -- members of NYC's
Parking Ticket Emotional Reclamation Project places a therapeutic hand-written note with art into the ticket envelope in hopes to "restore emotional balance to New York, The World, The Universe."
posted by bayani
on Apr 26, 2011 -
11 comments
The Coolest Locksmith Shop in New York City "From a distance, it looks like a bunch of golden squiggles and spirals have been added, snaking whimsically across the facade. But get a little closer and you’ll find the real magic… The new design is made up entirely of keys, literally thousands, and thousands, and thousands of keys, twisting into wonderful assortment of swoops and twirls."
posted by ocherdraco
on Feb 8, 2011 -
45 comments
Where can you find the Sun, the Moon, nine giraffes, a lion and lamb lying together, the Archangel Michael holding a sword in one hand and the severed head of Satan in the other, all atop a giant crab which is itself standing on a double helix? Well, there is
this one statue.
[more inside]
posted by davidjmcgee
on Jul 21, 2010 -
50 comments
"
Event Horizon1 is meant to encourage viewers to 'reassess their environment and their position in it,' as [Antony] Gormley puts it, due to the sculptures' interruption of their usual surroundings—
London,
2 in its first installation in 2007, and
now New York.
3 'There's very little art in these things,' said Gormley of his figures, which he also refers to as 'three-dimensional shadows' and 'indexes.' The sculptures are but
copies of his body at a particular time,
4 in various poses. Where the 'art' is, then, is in what happens when viewers engage with the figures. 'When you then insert these still industrial fossils
into the stream of daily life and real context5 they can begin to be active in the same way that a chemical catalyst ... causes a transformation,' Gormley said. 'I would like to think that's what happening here.'
6 [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Apr 13, 2010 -
20 comments
The New York Moon is an internet-based publication adhered to the lunar phases. It is a collection of experimental, reflective, and imaginative projects produced with every other month’s full moon. In the current issue visit the
6th Borough interactive map to discover imaginary precincts, find ephemeral street sculptures on
The Trash Map, browse sketches of the moments in between
Waiting, or redesign your neighborhood in
Blueprints.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Jun 29, 2008 -
7 comments
Elizabeth Murray, a New York
painter who reshaped Modernist abstraction into a high-spirited, cartoon-based, language of form whose subjects included domestic life, relationships and the nature of painting itself, died yesterday at her home in upstate New York.
(Images)
posted by R. Mutt
on Aug 12, 2007 -
7 comments
Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project "brings
185 banners created by the world’s most celebrated designers, artists, photographers and illustrators to New York’s Times Square. Each banner uses the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement. Together they create a forest of thought-provoking images at one of the world’s busiest, most energetic, and emphatically
urban intersections." Including work by
Milton Glaser, the
Walker Art Center, and many, many others. Via
Speak Up.
posted by tpl1212
on Aug 29, 2006 -
9 comments
2 years ago I FPP'd
FlavorPill, a company that sends out permission-based emails for books (
Boldtype), music (
Earplug), and fashion (the
JC Report). They've since added
ArtKrush (it's art, stupid! - nsfw) and
Activate (world events) to their aresenal. In addition to the topic-specific mailing lists, they offer city-specific lists for
London,
New York,
SF,
LA, and
Chicago. Sample issues are archived on the site.
posted by dobbs
on Aug 11, 2006 -
6 comments
Caution. Low Flying Planes: "He arrived with a ladder, paint and rope. Brazenly, alone and in broad daylight last Saturday, James Peterson, "guerrilla artist," climbed atop a landmark TriBeCa building just nine blocks from Ground Zero. It was a one-story garage, right next to a large brick wall. It became his canvas. He painted a Warholesque message about Sept. 11, 2001."
a debated artistic statement about 9.11. aside from the fact that it was a public building he painted on, how do you feel about
this. [via the washington post]
posted by sixtwenty3dc
on May 15, 2003 -
51 comments
Tumbling Woman A statue of a falling woman designed as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death from the World Trade Center was abruptly draped in cloth and curtained off Wednesday because of complaints that it was too disturbing. It's all right if you don't want to discuss it here and now. I was also in NYC and saw the towers on that day.
posted by neu
on Sep 18, 2002 -
70 comments
Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll
right to get to the thumbnails.)
posted by BT
on Apr 3, 2002 -
8 comments
"Britney Underground takes you on a tour of poignant urban artistry in a time of crisis." it's a
nice collection of graffti from britney spears posters in new york, pretty funny. the
negative emails are possibly the highlight.
posted by rhyax
on Mar 16, 2002 -
10 comments
