fire of pale irony

(via artistreader)

“I think that it is superfluous to say that I was very vain. If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living. So for that Sunday I had busied myself in tastefully arranging things for the dinner and the musical soiree. I had purchased myself numerous things for the dinner, and had chosen the guests. Toward six o'clock they arrived, and after them Troukhatchevsky, in his dress-coat, with diamond shirt-studs, in bad taste. … Oh, how well I remember all the details of that evening! I remember how he brought the violin, how he opened the box, took off the serge embroidered by a lady’s hand, and began to tune the instrument. I can still see my wife sit down, with a false air of indifference, under which it was plain that she hid a great timidity, a timidity that was especially due to her comparative lack of musical knowledge. She sat down with that false air in front of the piano, and then began the usual preliminaries,–the pizzicati of the violin and the arrangement of the scores. I remember then how they looked at each other, and cast a glance at their auditors who were taking their seats. They said a few words to each other, and the music began. They played Beethoven’s 'Kreutzer Sonata.’ Do you know the first presto? Do you know it? Ah!” … Posdnicheff heaved a sigh, and was silent for a long time. “A terrible thing is that sonata, especially the presto! … (from chapter 23 of leo tolstoy, 'kreutzer sonata’)

Massaida sur le divan, Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen 1912

The portrait was created not so long before the arrest and death of Russian theatre director Meyerhold, so there is a contrast between the vivid background and sadness  of removed master.

You can be a bit freer—no, why is it more fun to translate? I feel like with poetry you can … I spend longer on each word. I spend a lot more time per word on poetry than in a novel. You can’t pore over a novel in quite the same way you can with a book of poetry. And I do feel that...

Judith Butler (via alterities)

Expanded Expansion is a sculptural embodiment of opposites united. Both permanence and deterioration operate in the piece: fiberglass poles—rigid, durable entities—are juxtaposed with fragile, rubber-covered cheesecloth. While its height is determined by the poles, the width of the piece varies with each installation; like an accordion or curtain, it can be compressed or extended. Its repetitive units echo the programmatic seriality of Minimalism, but here they accentuate Hesse’s desire to illuminate her view that “if something is absurd, it’s much more exaggerated, more absurd if it’s repeated.” The very redundancy of the title reinforces this idea.

Nude No. 1 By Irving Penn, 1949–1950

Johann Melchior Dinglinger, Sun mask with facial features of August of Saxony, the Strong, 1709. Gilded copper. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Massaida sur le divan, Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen 1912

Dancers in Pink ~ Edgar Degas