The Art of Love

A Sketched Guide to Michelangelo

The Michelangelo show at the Met is a conundrum. On the one hand, the work is for the most part so private. On the other hand, the show is a blockbuster, full to the brim with the kinds of people who go to big name museum shows.

February 24, 2018

The Machine is Calling

Soft City by Pushwagner is something of a miracle. The comic-strip dream book is unlike anything ever drawn, the sort of magical object one wakes up from seeing in the imagination only to fade within seconds of consciousness.

October 8, 2016

The Artist’s Closet

Every Friday night I go to the Met to draw.

July 21, 2017

The Magic of Iris Murdoch

Look—I know it’s corny to have a favorite writer, but I realized recently that in my case there’s just no denying it. And this month would have been Iris Murdoch’s 100th birthday.

July 15, 2019

Hamlet, My Prince of Pigs

You’ll see that Hamlet: Prince of Pigs has been stripped of all fat. And tragedy minus many words is comedy. A pared-down Hamlet is a funny Hamlet. Here are a few scenes from my tragicomic.

February 25, 2018

A Magician in Pigment

Titian was a painter of astonishing versatility, a master of landscape, of portraiture, of sacred painting, historical painting, mythology, a magician who could turn a dab of pigment into a flame, a pleat, a thunderbolt, a twinkle in the eye, a Cupid’s wing.

November 8, 2013