Picasso through Words

It’s a little known fact that Picasso — that big bald hunk o’ painterly manflesh (see photo at left; in particular, check out the size of that palette!) – was an aspiring writer as well as one of the greatest painters of all time. In a new exhibit at Duke University, various pieces of written work concerning the artist are being shown alongside his paintings, creating what sounds like a cool-beans new show.

At one time a roommate to poet Max Jacob, as well as a regular fixture in Gertrude Stein’s famed salons, Picasso wrote hundreds of poems, a few plays, and played a role in several books involving illustration and art.

“Picasso and the Allure of Language” is on display at the Yale University Gallery before moving to Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art. The exhibit hosts more than 70 works of art, which encompass most of the 20th century, from 1900, when Picasso was 19, to 1969, when he was 91. Interspersed with the paintings are items from the literary legacy of Stein and Alice B. Toklas: a series of writings (letters, postcards, even an audio reading) about Picasso. Also highlighted is the role literature played as an inspiration to the artist.

“Picasso and the Allure of Language” runs through May 24 at Yale and opens at Duke on August 20.

 

Story Source  Nashua Telegraph via Rare Book News  |  Image Source  The Age

February 12, 2009 | Filed Under Authors, Newsies | 6 Comments 

Your Love Life in Six Words

Last year, Smith magazine published a fascinating collection of six-word memoirs, inspired by the one left behind by Hemingway (”For sale: baby shoes, never worn”). On my other blog, I wrote a handful of my own condensed autobiographies. Among them:

-Passionately, I lived, loved, hated, died.

-Wanted to be Bea Arthur. Failed.

-Spent too much time answering phones.

-Read with abandon. Glimpsed God there.

-Met Meryl, but never banged Brody.  (Note: Booksnark looooooves him some Adrien Brody. Like, dayum and yum.)

-Alas, I am just too much.*

(*Thanks, Bette Davis. I stole that line from a Barbara Walters interview she once did.)

Now the fine folks over at Smith are at it again, asking writers to describe their love lives in tiny little six-word epics. The results range from hilarious to heartbreaking and are presented in a new book, Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by Writers Famous and Obscure. Here’s a sampling of some of the entries:

If I get Chlamydia, blame MySpace.
- Hanorah Slocum

Will government ever let us marry?
- Viki Marsh

Silently suffered his facial hair experiments.
- Elizabeth Minkel

Tried men. Tried women. Like cats.
- Dona Bumgarner

Leap of faith. Shit, no parachute.
- Katherine Yunker

Inevitably, his obituary didn’t mention me.
- R. Sue Dodea

Read more and listen to the full story at the NPR website.

Story Source  NPR

February 11, 2009 | Filed Under Authors, Biography & Memoir | 20 Comments 

Two HarperCollins Imprints Shut Down

Just add this to the list of Casualties of a Shitty Economy.

HarperCollins Publishers is shutting down two of its imprints, Collins and Bowen Books. Collins published nonfiction, and Bowen was a children’s publisher. Both divisions had reported lackluster sales at the close of last quarter.

HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray wrote the following in a memo distributed today: ”Over the last several months, the unstable economy has had a significant impact on businesses and consumer spending. Our industry is not immune to these market forces, and there is increasing pressure on us, along with our retail and wholesale partners, to adjust.”

Dayum.

Layoffs were also announced. Exiting the company are Steve Ross, who worked previously at Crown, and Barbara Bowen, a former Disney executive who headed her namesake divison at HC. Several other employees were laid off, but an exact number was not disclosed.

This is so goddamn depressing. Why is it that decent, book-lovin’ folks like Ross and Bowen have to lose their jobs, while illiterates like Paris Hilton continue to make money? I just don’t understand.

 

Story Source  Yahoo  |  Image Source  Babble

February 10, 2009 | Filed Under Newsies | 1 Comment 

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