Memorials

It was the falling that hit me first: the reflection of buildings in the smooth water along the parapet then their dissolving into water that  plummets first to one level then, through the center, to unseen depths.  Then came the particularity: the parade of names carved into the black stone and, just as powerful, the …

Art that drives me MAD?

Picks from "Beauty in All Things: Japanese Art and Design," currently at the Museum of Art and Design or -- you got it -- MAD: I could so easily live with this 1990 Toshiko Takaezu vase with its characteristic  tiny- puckered-mouth -- strong, calm, and elegant -- and this dramatic basket by Torii Ippo, who …

Remember Tintin going to Tibet? Well, he was not alone…

Years and years ago, I read Tintin in Tibet, but I had no idea that, since the 1940s, all sorts of comic book characters have been visiting this far-off land of snow-capped mountains.   This is what a show at the Rubin Museum of Art explores, and after I had read comic after comic after …

Eva Zeisel…

...now here is a woman who has crossed many a border: from Hungary to Germany to Russia to Austria and eventually the US... from painting to pottery to design that shaped the look of modern homes. Today's New York Times feature includes this: "By 1935, she was working in Moscow as the artistic director of …