Word: catalogs
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...Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World," the sprawling show that kicks off the 2000-01 exhibition season at the New York Public Library. It was jointly organized by the library and the mighty Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris--a rare enough collaboration in itself--and its catalog features essays by some 22 scholars, French and American...
...these pieces may have been drawn from photographs, a point which would undo Lake's romantic pretensions. Moreover, Lake's predictable shapes, inconsistent light sources and over-all muddy palette undermine her attempt at credible luminosity and whimsy. Her consistently equivocal and feathery mishandling of her medium (which the catalog terms "atmospheric") is enough to make you want to pay Lake's T-fare to the Gardner to see one of the Rembrandts. With such banal fare, the Pucker Gallery would do well to set up a booth at the Oktoberfest bazaar next season in place of a gallery exhibition...
...Scratch a collector, and you find a pack rat who likes to play librarian. As a teenager Elton bought rock records extravagantly, then organized them with Prussian efficiency, filing them by record label and catalog number. With early stardom he loaded up on the usual blunder acquisitions of new-money collectors. (What was it exactly that baby boomers saw in Art Nouveau posters and Tiffany lamps?) Most of that he sold off some years ago in the mental and physical housecleaning that accompanied his decision to stop drinking. Then he went to lunch in France, somebody showed him some prints...
...engraved with the words THIS SPHERE WILL BE A SHARP POINT WHEN IT GETS TO THE FAR CORNERS OF THE ROOM IN YOUR MIND. You can try lending weight to this by comparing it to the gentle paradoxes of Zen and the subtleties of haiku. In the show's catalog, Alexandra Munroe, the director of Japan Society Gallery, who curated this show, tries. But no one would blame you if Peanuts also came to mind...
Most students at Harvard know Robert Coles as the professor of the immensely popular General Education 105, "The Literature of Social Reflection." The course catalog describes it as "an examination of selected novels, essays, poems, and autobiographical statements which aim at social scrutiny or at a moral critique of a particular society," and devoted students have been known to swear that "this class will change your life." Is Robert Coles really that good? Well, Coles does have a Pulitzer Prize to his credit, not to mention over 50 books. These are books on writers, philosophers and social activists, as well...