Sebastian Smee
Arts & Letters
No Script, No Storyboard: William Kentridge
Sebastian Smee
“What times are these,” wrote Bertolt Brecht in his poem, ‘To Those Born After’, “when a talk about trees is almost a crime because it...
More ...
Noted
What’s in a Face? Aspects of Portrait Photography: Art Gallery of NSW - 24 September 2011 to 5 February 2012
Sebastian Smee
What can you read into a photograph of a face? Hurt. Happiness. Confidence. Contempt. There’s no limit. Indeed, if you’re anything like me...
More ...
Art, Arts & Letters
Republic of Art: 'The Mad Square: Modernity in German Art 1910–37'
Sebastian Smee
You can look at French art of the 1870s and momentarily forget about the Franco–Prussian War and the Paris Commune. You can study the...
More ...Vanity Case: The 54th Venice Biennale
Sebastian Smee
Who would have thought that the first major movement of the twenty-first century would be a revival of trompe l’oeil? I admit, it’s...
More ...
Books, Arts & Letters
Shadow Play: Peter Robb’s 'Street Fight in Naples: A Book of Art and Insurrection'
Sebastian Smee
The first time I read Peter Robb’s Midnight in Sicily was also the first time I travelled around Sicily. The first and only. I remember at...
More ...Books, Noted
'Point Omega' by Don DeLillo
Sebastian Smee
The title of Don DeLillo’s new novel reverses a concept known as the Omega Point, which was coined by the renegade Catholic thinker Pierre...
More ...Books, Arts & Letters
Animating Spirits: Janine Burke's 'Source: Nature's Healing Role in Art and Writing
Sebastian Smee
Janine Burke’s Source (Allen & Unwin, 400pp; $55.00) is about the inspiration and sanctuary that artists have found in nature. It reads...
More ...Books
C'est la vie: Edmund Capon's "I Blame Duchamp"
Sebastian Smee
No one ever seems surprised by Edmund Capon’s success, for he is charm incarnate. He has led one of Australia’s most visited art galleries...
More ...Art, Arts & Letters
A Matter of Taste: The 53rd Venice Biennale
Sebastian Smee
Art that indulges anarchic impulses – even if the results are a little fatuous – is almost always preferable to art that...
More ...Books, Arts & Letters
Castaway: Murray Bail’s "Fairweather"
Sebastian Smee
Starting out as an art critic for newspapers, in the early '90s, I remember well the way people talked about Murray Bail's 1981 monograph...
More ...
