Generalelective - GENERAL ELECTIVE

When women writers of my generation speak in awed tones of Didion’s “style,” I don’t think it’s the shift dresses or the sunglasses, the cigarettes or commas or even the em dashes that we revere, even though all those things were fabulous. It was the authority. The authority of tone. There is much in Didion one might disagree with personally, politically, aesthetically. I will never love the Doors. But I remain grateful for the day I picked up “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and realized that a woman could speak without hedging her bets, without hemming and hawing, without making nice, without poeticisms, without sounding pleasant or sweet, without deference, and even without doubt. It must be hard for a young woman today to imagine the sheer scope of things that women of my generation feared women couldn’t do—but, believe me, writing with authority was one of them. You wanted to believe it. You needed proof. And not Victorian proof. Didion—like her contemporary Toni Morrison—became Exhibit A. Uniquely, she could be kept upon your person, like a flick knife, stuffed in a back pocket, the books being so slim and portable. She gave you confidence. Shored you up.

—Zadie Smith on Joan Didion

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/joan-didion-and-the-opposite-of-magical-thinking

@sofıkulin | Instagram

Join Kameelah Janan Rasheed for a two-part workshop on close reading, in conjunction with her installation Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely?—on view November 11. In the first session, on November 19, Rasheed presents an artist lecture that gives a “close reading of close reading.” The second session, on December 17, expands the practice of close reading into a communal exercise as participants work together to dissect short texts, pieces of media, and current events. 

Each session is limited and registration is required. Registration is $25 for both sessions, or $15 for a single session. A Zoom link will be sent by email.

⁠Kameelah Janan Rasheed (American, born 1985). A Nourishing Page (detail), 2020. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

Maryam Nassir Zadeh

Ellsworth Kelly

Centennial Certificate: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Rauschenberg, 1969, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Prints and Drawings

In 1969, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned Rauschenberg to produce a lithograph commemorating the 100th anniversary of the museum. For this print, he combined representative imagery selected from the Metropolitan’s extensive permanent collection of art. During the project, Rauschenberg learned that the Metropolitan museum’s original goals were detailed in a “certificate” dating to 1870, a document that had been prepared on graph paper. Using this concept, Rauschenberg prepared an updated certificate with his own text, which was then signed by Metropolitan officials, including the museum director, Thomas Hoving. Size: 35 5/8 x 24 3/8 in. (90.49 x 61.91 cm) (image, irregular) Medium: Color lithograph

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/54697/

Larry Poons, Photo by Hollis Frampton, 1963

Anastasia Savinova

Beautiful architectural collages, very neatly-organized.