Saturday 16 December 2017

Reading list, 16 December 2017

A beautiful piece in the NYT's 'One Little Thing' series by Jason Farago on Manet's Mademoiselle V … in the Costume of an Espada.

Daniel Penny's long essay comparing our current Instagram moment with the development of the picturesque drifts towards the end, but is good up top.

I still hope to revive the idea of an art podcast sometime, and when I do this guide from NPR's Alison MacAdam will be getting a lot of exercise: The journey from print to radio storytelling: A guide for navigating a new landscape.

It's a long path between a speech and legislative change, but French president Emmanuel Macron has made some strong statements about repatriations to African nations.

The Odyssey's most recent translator, Emily Wilson, on its 'complex and truthful articulation of gender dynamics that continue to haunt us'.

Boris Kachka for Vulture on The Director and the Pharaoh: How Thomas Hoving Created the Museum Blockbuster.

Saturday 9 December 2017

Reading list, 9 December 2017

The National Museum of African American History's community curation project, digitising family collections and archives.

'How a Trove of Nazi Art Wound Up Under Lock and Key on an Army Base in Virginia' in the Washingtonian

"Conserving a building’s skin while destroying its heart isn’t historic preservation. It’s taxidermy." - Feargus O'Sullivan in Citylab on the V&A's acquisition of part of a 1960s social housing project.

I've really enjoyed Philip Kennicott's writing this year. Here's another: The new Bible museum tells a clear, powerful story. And it could change the museum business.

And on the topic of new museums, from Holland Cotter: Louvre Abu Dhabi, an Arabic-Galactic Wonder, Revises Art History

Ignore the bombastic title - this piece on artist educators at PAMM (PĂ©rez Art Museum, Miami) is really interesting.

Everything I hate about the current fixing-art-with-apps conversation in one handy article.