Speed of Life

“Those who do not read will have lived only one life at the age of 70: their own. The reader will have lived 5000 years: there was when Cain killed Abel, when Renzo married Lucia, when Leopardi admired the infinite ... because reading is a backward immortality " ~ Umberto Eco https://t.co/W7bz5MQruA — Paul Holdengraber (@holdengraber) August 31, 2022 "Carpe Librum (Maastricht)", 48”x36”, oil on Belgian linen, 2021  Collection of Dani Durkin and Dave Lowther, Brentwood, California   

SEAMUS HEANEY Reads “The Cure at Troy” “History says, Don't hope on this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.” Future US President Joe Biden often quotes these inspiring lines from Seamus Heaney's "The Cure at Troy" Hat Tip to Paul Holdengraber @holdengraber

by Gregg Chadwick Last night the L.A. Louver Gallery held a rousing discussion: R.B. Kitaj's Life & Passion , with Tracy Bartley (director of the R.B. Kitaj studio), Derek Boshier (artist), David N. Myers (professor and chair of the UCLA History Department), and Paul Holdengräber (curator, instigator and Director/Founder of LIVE from the New York Public Library). Titian Orpheus and Eurydice   15 9/16" x 20 7/8"   oil on wood  ca . 1508–12 Accademia Carrara, Bergamo photo courtesy Metropolitan Museum, New York As I listened to the conversation, I scanned the room full of many of Kitaj's last paintings and was struck by the realization that in these artworks Kitaj was attempting to bring his deceased wife Sandra  back from death - Kitaj as the poet/artist incarnation of the mythic Orpheus would bring Sandra (his Eurydice, taken too soon) back from the underworld. These vibrant paintings were not just a testament to their passion but inste...