7) Castellani_Superficie argentata_1971

Enrico Castellani at Dominique Levy

If you happen to be in New York this spring, Enrico Castellani’s new exhibit, Interior Space, at the uptown gallery Dominique Levy is worth a visit. It’s the first solo exhibition of the revered Italian artist in the gallery, and it spans Castellani’s oeuvre from the 60s to the near present. Castellani was part of the Zero movement, which is now having a resurgence of interest with museum and gallery exhibits around the world, and he, along with his acquaintance Lucio Fontana, is one of the best known Italian figures of the mid-20th Century avant-garde.

FourCornersBooks-HeartofDarkness-cover-9781909829053

Heart of Darkness

Underneath the pressing debate in the publishing industry that’s threatened by e-readers and Amazon, there lies one basic question – what does a book make? Especially, a book of literature? Is a text simply a text? Does the physical book matter? Ask any old bibliophile, and their lament will extend way back to the rise of the cheap trade paperback that replaced the beautiful folios of yore in most home libraries. To them the physicality of the book extends the respect due to the text.

KONIG Boris Mikhailov 9783863358167

Boris Mikhailov: Diary

Boris Mikhailov is a somewhat accidental artist. He worked as an engineer in the Soviet Ukraine, dabbling in photography on the side when he was ratted out for taking nude photos of his wife. He was subsequently thrown out of work for spreading pornography – a common practice to remove “undesirable elements,” especially those of Jewish descent. Consigned to the dregs of society, which included the bohemia of the artists unapproved by the state, Mikhailov began to take photos in earnest. Photos that reflected the deep aesthetic and spiritual ugliness of the homeland that betrayed him.

14_Osiris und Iris

Anselm Kiefer in Paris

If you happen to be in Paris, don’t miss the Anselm Kiefer exhibit at Centre Pompidou. This comprehensive retrospective, first in Paris since 1984, of nearly 150 works of the German master of pain and reckoning is spread over ten thematically organized rooms. It is an awe-inspiring show, profound and simultaneously quiet and disquieting.

KONIG On Being an Angel 9783863357504

Francesca Woodman: On Being An Angel

Francesca Woodman was one of those art prodigies who has never quite found her place in this world.

She died young, but she has left a rich body of work that consists of photographs that could easily be mundane in the hands of a lesser artist, but in Woodman’s hands become enigmatic.

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SZ MIX | Alexandre Plokhov

Several days ago I announced the closure of my eponymous label. But instead of dwelling on that, I want to share with you my deep passion for music, as a farewell of sorts. Not a sad one, but meaningful.

So, here are 13 songs I could live with on a desert island – or, better yet, in a fortress of solitude.