Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick Frequent readers know that I enjoy the wit and  erudition  of Tyler Green. His Modern Art Notes Podcast is always worth a listen. The latest episode, embedded above, features  art historian  William E. Wallace   and curator   Julian Brooks. Wallace discusses his latest book - “Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece.” Wallace's new book is available on Bookshop .   Tyler writes :"The book offers a rich and lively biographical examination of the last two decades of Michelangelo’s life, a period when he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other buildings, even as he continued to sculpt and draw."  Michelangelo The Florentine Pietà  1547-55 Wallace's discussion of Michelangelo's late  Pietàs is exceptionally interesting. These are two of my favorite sculptural works by Michelangelo because of their incomplete nature.  Michelang...

  "I have always tended to take art contextually. If I have any merits as a critic, they have to do with my ability as a storyteller — and above all I wanted to tell a story." Robert Hughes in Salon , May 23, 1997 Robert Hughes in New York City - 1970's In a  1997 piece  on "60 Minutes," correspondent Steve Kroft said to Robert Hughes that he was the most powerful art critic in the world. Hughes deftly avoided the moniker and described his job as being akin to being the most important beekeeper in the world and that his influence said more about Time magazine than it did about the importance of his writing. But Robert Hughes writing is important. For many of us it was the first real taste of the transcendence and power of great art.  Since I discovered the art criticism of Robert Hughes in Time magazine when I was a teenager, I have eagerly awaited each of his new works. Robert's articles, books, and documentaries helped open the worlds of art...

Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A Roman bust thought by some French historians to be the only surviving statue of Julius Caesar that was carved during his lifetime. On display at the Musée Départmental de l’Arles Antique. Julius Caesar's assassination in Joseph Mankiewicz' 1953 film version of Shakespeare's play. The Ides of March by C.B. Cavafy Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory. And if you cannot curb your ambitions, at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. And the higher you go, the more searching and careful you need to be. And when you reach your summit, Caesar at last— when you assume the role of someone that famous— then be especially careful as you go out into the street, a conspicuous man of power with your retinue; and should a certain Artemidoros come up to you out of the crowd, bringing a letter, and say hurriedly: “Read this at once. There are things in it important for you to see,” be sure to stop; be sure to postpone all talk or b...

"Pompeii, especially, with its grand murals and flourishing gardens haunted by the dark shadow of Vesuvius, has always suggested uncomfortable parallels with our contemporary world, especially here in Southern California, where the sunlit life also turns out to have dark shadows in which failure and death lurk at the edge of consciousness. Now, in these times, we have even closer parallels with those ancient, beautiful, affluent people living the good life on the verge of annihilation." —Eleanor Antin on Classical Frieze Eleanor Antin The Artist's Studio from "The Last Days of Pompeii," 2001 (detail) chromogenic print 46 5/6 x 58 5/8 inches Eleanor Antin The Tree from "The Last Days of Pompei," 2001 chromogenic print 60 x 48 inches Eleanor Antin's film and photo work, Classical Frieze , re-imagines Pompeii and the classical Roman world as if seen through the eyes of a contemporary filmmaker paying homage to the sword and sandal film epics of t...