nomadreader

The basics:  "This vivid graphic novel delves into his pioneering physical approach to making art, highlights the key characters surrounding the New York mid-century art scene, and reveals the intriguing relationship between Pollock's painting and the covert activities of the Cold War."--publisher My thoughts: I majored in Art History in college (and Journalism and Women's Studies), and I have a particular fondness for Abstract Expressionism and Jackson Pollock. I will never forget the feeling of seeing my first Pollock in person. The scope and scale and texture took my breath away and made me understand art in new ways. I was curious to see how this graphic novel (it is fiction, albeit very closely tied--for the most part--to history) told his story. I read this fascinating graphic novel in a single sitting. It has it all: history, art, drama, romance, politics, spies, and death. The visuals are stunning and capture the scale of Abstract Expressionism well. It...

This weekend, as I was putting away our Christmas decorations in the basement, I stumbled across a pile of books I'd forgotten about. Really, I am always stumbling upon piles of forgotten books, but this particular pile I hadn't seen since before we moved into our house five and a half years ago. On top was my college textbook for Art History 101 and 102: I don't think I've seen this book since 2008. This beautiful, 1000+-page book was a resource throughout my art history major. It wasn't a textbook we had to read cover to cover, so when we were assigned sections, I read them. They complemented the lectures and were great to refresh my memory. I decided to bring it upstairs and started flipping through it. I wondered, how many pages would I have to read each day to read this book by January 1, 2020? 3-4. I can read three or four pages of an art history textbook each day, I thought. Then I turned to the first page and discovered it was already page 15. How fort...

The basics:   "Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition, Still Lives, features portraits in which she depicts herself as famous, murdered women—the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others—and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. As the city's richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum's opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution's flailing finances. Except that Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala."--publisher My thoughts: I am perhaps the perfect audience for this novel: it's a mystery, but it's also a thoughtful examination of the contemporary Los Angeles art world, the role of women in art (as artist and subject), and how we view violence against women. I would ...

narrated by Xe Sands The backstory: The Art Forger  is one of my book club's picks for January (we meet every other month and read two books.) The basics: Claire Roth is an accomplished painter who creates and sells reproductions (legal) of famous paintings. Twenty-five years ago, there was an art heist at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (the heist happened in real life). Now an art dealer brings one of the stolen paintings to Claire to ask her to forge (illegal) it. My thoughts:    The Art Forger  had been on my TBR since it came out, so when my book club picked it, I was excited to finally read it. I opted to listen to it on audio, and the experience was a great one. I know a fair amount about art history, so I particularly loved this exploration into the art world, both historically through the heist paintings and Claire's reproduction work, and into the contemporary art world, where she struggled to find fame. Shapiro goes in depth into the detai...

The backstory: How to Be Both  is on the 2014 Booker Prize short list. Update: It also won the 2015 Baileys Prize  and was shortlisted for the 2015 Folio Prize . The basics: How to Be Both  is told in two parts, one from the point-of-view of George, a 16-year-old Cambridge (England) girl in current time, and the other from the spirit of Francesco del Cossa, a 15th century Italian artist. Which narrative you read first depends on the book; half the copies were printed with George's narrative first. My thoughts: A few years ago, I read my first Ali Smith novel, There But For The  ( my review ), when it was longlisted for the Orange Prize . I didn't love it, but I was impressed with Smith and her ideas, so I was eager to see what she would do next. Before starting this book, I did something I rarely do: I looked at a professional review (I usually think reviews give too much away.) I'm so glad I knew there are two orders in which to read this novel before I st...

narrated by Cassandra Campbell The basics: Nora Eldridge, an aspiring artist and third-grade teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tells the story of the year her utterly ordinary life becomes something more. The Shahid family, Skandar, a Lebanese visiting scholar, his wife Sirena, an Italian artist, and their son, Reza, arrive in town, and Nora finds herself drawn to all three of them. She shares a studio space with Sirena, teaches Reza, and looks forward to long talks with Skandar. My thoughts: Nora narrates this story from the future. She's a few years removed from the action, yet her storytelling is still filled with emotion. Her rage often seems just below the surface, and the pain is so fresh. The rawness of these emotions brings an air of mystery to this story. There's a haunting urgency to Nora's story, as though she's begging the reader to believe and understand her actions and emotions, even as she reflects on how some of her choices were not the best. ...

The backstory: The Blazing World  is on the 2014 Booker Prize longlist. The basics: Visual artist Harriet Burden and her work have long been in the shadow of her artist husband. When she recruits three young, male artists to show her work under their name, the men are heralded as brilliant and inventive artists. My thoughts: Hustvedt arranges this novel as a series of (fictional, obviously) texts put together in an edited volume. There are contributions from Harriet's journals; art critics; previously published interviews and reviews; narratives from her children, her therapist and best friend; people who knew the male artists; and the male artists themselves. The degree of difficulty in this novel is incredibly high. Hustvedt made me forget I was reading fiction. This novel reads like nonfiction or journalism. It often felt investigative; I wanted to see where the story ended, and I had to keep reminding myself Harriet Burden and her experiment aren't real. It's a...

The backstory: How Should a Person Be?  was longlisted for the 2013 Orange   Women's Prize for Fiction . The basics: This novel features a narrator named Sheila Heti. Heti uses some actual conversations with friends in this genre-defying "novel of life." The character Sheila seeks answers to the titular question "how should a person be?" My thoughts: Going into How Should a Person Be? , I was excited. I have a fondness for experimental novels. I may not always love them, but I do enjoy exploring new and creative approaches to literature. As I read, I was as enraptured trying to figure out what Heti (the author) was doing as what Sheila (the character) was saying. There's a sense of late night, wine-fueled conversations about deep things in the early pages of this novel. That will likely either intrigue you or have you running for the hills, but I couldn't get enough of it. As Sheila struggles with her identity, to some extent, but really herself,  ...

Welcome to Loving the Des Moines Life , my ongoing series of exploring my new hometown. Last weekend was the annual Des Moines Arts Festival . It features artists from around the country (typically, only 10% of those who apply are accepted. The festival includes live bands, theater and dance performances, a film festival, and opportunities for children and adults to create art. The best part: it's free. Mr. Nomadreader and I live close enough to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park to walk, but I appreciated the bicycle valet offered for those who rode bikes there. (it's the little things.) "Monumental Wine" by Signe & Genna Grushovenko While we weren't opposed to purchasing art, we were eager to simply explore art and talk in realistic terms about what kinds of pieces we want for our apartment. We are living in our favorite apartment ever, and it's exciting to be making permanent aesthetic choices that will work in this space and also translate to fu...

The backstory: Messenger of Truth  is the fourth historical mystery in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series. I'm reading the entire series as part of Book Club Girl's Maisie Dobbs read-along . (Links to my reviews of Maisie Dobbs , Birds of  Feather , and   Pardonable Lies .) The basics: Georgina Bassington-Hope, who attended Girton at a different time than Maisie, hires Maisie to look into the death of her artist brother, Nick, which was deemed accidental. My thoughts:  After the third Maisie Dobbs mystery being my least favorite, I hoped the series would rebound a bit for me. In the opening pages I discovered a delicious trifecta  of a suspicious death, art and a client with a hyphenated last name (I have a fondness for hyphenated names that has only increased since Mr. Nomadreader and I hyphenated our names.) Yes, these point of intrigue may be rather nomadreader-specific, but you must admit, art and murder are steeped with intrigue. This novel (a...

The annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala was last night, and the stars turned out in gorgeous dresses (except for Kirsten Dunst and my beloved Julianne Moore who made an unfortunate fashion decision.) New York magazine has an amazing slide show of the gowns.

Morning Edition had this fascinating story about the new challenge of preserving digital contemporary art. It's worth a listen.