boars and fury

I say this with fervent emotion, which is what I use when I don’t have hard data.

— Night life: this is your brain on dreams (New Scientist)

House in MoMA Garden, Marcel Breuer, New York, NY, 1949
photographed by Ezra Stoller

All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will always be another poet.

— Stevie Smith

sumardagurinn fyrsti

The First Day of Summer (sumardagurinn fyrsti) is an annual public holiday in Iceland held on the first Thursday after April 18. In former times, the Icelanders used the Old Norse calendar which divided the year into only two seasons, winter and summer. Although the climate in late April cannot be considered to be summer-like, after the long winter, Icelanders still celebrate this first day of “summer” with parades, sporting events and organized entertainment, held in various places around Iceland.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Balthus

Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, and he resisted any attempts made to build a biographical profile. A telegram sent to the Tate Gallery as it prepared for its 1968 retrospective of his works read:

“NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES. REGARDS. B.” ^[1]

— Wikipedia

A LINE IS A LINE FOR ALL THAT

Andrew Graham-Dixon: Tell me why this is a drawing. Why is it a drawing and not a text?

Lawrence Weiner: Oh, using text for drawing is no problem. It tells you something. But drawing is explicit. Drawing is not implicit; there’s nothing hidden in a drawing. When you draw for people, you’re drawing something to tell them: it’s a message.

This is obviously drawn. And the typeface is something I designed. And of course I would design a typeface that I could draw!

AGD: I mean, I associate your work, maybe from an earlier phase in your career, as simply being words. Word art.

LW: No, that’s sculpture! This is drawing! [AGD laughs] I see language and the materials referred to as making sculpture. But I was asked here to do a series of drawings. There is a difference.

AGD: I’m struggling, I am struggling, I mean - just slightly -

LW: Why are you struggling? Why is it so complicated?

AGD: I don’t - I don’t know, I’m struggling with the idea that that isn’t a sculpture. When arguably I can…

LW: A sculpture is a fact of material relationship. ‘A line is a line for all that’ is a phrase that is not sculptural. It’s just talking about itself. Self-referential things are not art. [AGD laughs] Sorry!

AGD: Augh! My brain is exploding.

LW: Oh, I hope not. I could live without the mess all over my jacket.

— The Culture Show (BBC), 2 Dec 2010