Not Sublime, But Superfine
Deborah Solomon on Amy Sherald's portraiture.
[Sherald’s paintings’] titles add another layer of fictional intrigue. Sometimes taken from novels or poems, they alternately heroicize her figures or gently poke fun at the human capacity for small, foolish, everyday self-deceptions. For instance, “It Made Sense … Mostly in her Mind” (2011), shows a 30-ish woman dressed in a timeless navy blazer with gold buttons. She could be a lawyer until you notice she’s wearing a lavender plastic helmet and holding an old-fashioned toy, a pink-and-white unicorn stick horse. It doesn’t add up, but you can’t say Sherald didn’t warn us: The outfit did make sense … mostly in the subject’s wishful and daydreamy mind.
| Deborah Solomon, Amy Sherald’s Blue Sky Vision for America
Cinema Du Look
I had one of those catching-your-own-reflection moments this week. I was discussing the movie Diva with some family members. One of the group typed the movie’s name into Google, since I mentioned I had written something about it. They found this:
I am leaving breadcrumbs behind me, everywhere.