Birthday boy

Ardeshir Mohassess, The king is always above the people, 1977

Mohassess, The men bent in prayer to God and the government airplanes arrived, 1977

Mohassess, The convict’s execution coincided with the king’s birthday ceremonies, 1978

Mansoureh Alikhani 1966 - 2025

 

Edmund White 1940-2025

 

[Verlaine] moved more and more in an artistic milieu. Every week he attended a salon frequented by the composers Berlioz and Wagner and the painters Édouard Manet and Henri Fantin-Latour and all the Parnassan band, who grew accustomed to Verlaine's habits; when he started drinking absinthe, they made sure to hide the knives. They knew that in a matter of moments he could go from the meekest mildness to the most murderous and ungovernable of rages. One night when he was blind with drink and wanted money from his mother so that he could continue his rout into the dawn hours, he became so angry with her for holding out on him that he attacked with his cane the jars containing Madame Verlaine's miscarriages, smashing the glass and dismembering the tiny rubbery fetuses and scattering them across the floor - and remarking soddenly that they, like him, had been macerating in alcohol long enough. The next morning, Verlaine crawled to his mother's side, begging her forgiveness in a prolonged, tearful scene of penitence. As she would do each time for the rest of her days, she forgave him.

                                                               

                                                                         (Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel, 2008) 

 

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 1938 - 2025

"It is all due to a parable that came to me as I waited in a lobby of a New York hotel, trying to figure out the meaning of the wonders I had seen in a flight I had made around Africa and all the lands where dwell black folk, in the form of a bird.

"[The Wizard of the Crow] told the story of his travels in time and space in search of the sources of black power and a rather long parable of how humans surrendered control of their own lives to a blind deity with a double barreled name of M&M, or money and market, and how Africa's independence mutated to dependence.

 "Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa's souls from the continent to the four corners of the world?  How could Europe lord it over a continent ten times its size?  Why does needy Africa continue to let its wealth meet the needs of those outside its borders and then follow behind with hands outstretched for a loan of the very wealth it let go?  How did we arrive at this, that the best leader is the one who knows how to beg for a share of what he has already given away at the price of a broken tool?  Where is the future of Africa?  I cried.

"I saw this: Around the seventeenth century, Europe impregnated some in Africa with its evil.  These pregnancies gave birth to the slave driver of the slave plantation, who mutated into the colonial driver of the colonial plantation, who years later mutated into the neocolonial pilots of the postcolonial plantation.  Is he now mutating into a modern driver and pilot of a global plantation?  But Africa impregnated its own breed, which made our people sing.  Even if you kill our heroes, we women are pregnant with hope of a new lot.  Therefore, don't cry despair at those who sold the heritage; smile also with pride at the achievement of those that struggle to rescue our heritage.

"So I said to myself: Just as today is born of the womb of yesterday, today is pregnant with tomorrow." 

                                                                                     (from Wizard of the Crow, 2006)

Sebastião Salgado 1944 - 2025

At daybreak, Waurá Indians travel by canoe to collect the “waiting net,” Xingu Indigenous Territory, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, 2005, gelatin silver print, 20 x 24 inches/50.8 x 61 cm, courtesy Sundaram Tagore Gallery

 

Alice Notley 1945 - 2025

“In this moment” “before” “anyone, ever” “died” “before we were born?”
“in this moment forever before” “before we went to a war”
“Before we died” “In this moment, now” “In this moment before, it is
not before” “In this very moment” “where is it” “where we
haven’t died” “or died inside” “In this moment we haven’t” “in this
moment, no one” “in this moment, no one has ever, died” (“But I have
been born”) “in this moment” “where, where is it” “in moment” “who’s here”
 

                                                          from White Phosphorus, 1988

Elham Al Badi 1993-2025

 

"Operation Rough Rider"

  

"Nineteen months into the conflict, the Gaza Strip is still confronted with a critical risk of Famine. Over 60 days have passed since all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies were blocked from entering the territory. Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation. 

"From 11 May to the end of September 2025, the whole territory is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), with the entire population expected to face Crisis or worse acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). This includes 470,000 people (22 percent of the population) in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), over a million people (54 percent) in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and the remaining half million (24 percent) in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). This marks a significant deterioration compared to the previous IPC analysis (released in October 2024) and the already dire conditions detected between 1 April - 10 May 2025. During this time, 1.95 million people (93 percent) were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), including 244,000 people (12 percent) in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) and 925,000 (44 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency). 

"With the announced expansion of military operations throughout the Gaza Strip, the persistent inability of humanitarian agencies to access populations in dire need, an anticipated escalation in hostilities, and the continued mass displacement of people, the risk of Famine in the Gaza Strip is not just possible- It is increasingly likely."

(Integrated Food Security Phase Classification)

 

 

4 'O lofty virtue,' I began, 'who lead me 

5 as you will around these impious circles, 

6 speak to me and satisfy my wishes. 

7 Pasolini's film about Luigi, 

8 can it be seen? For all the lids are raised 

9 and there is no one standing guard.' 

 10 And he to me: 'All will be shut and sealed..' 

 

At 4:36 when the apostles approach, the figure, I believe, on the left is Giorgio Agamben in his early twenties as St. Philip. Scorsese's Last Temptation lifts this scene almost shot for shot

Luis Felipe Noé 1933-2025

Cerrado por brujería (Closed for Witchcraft), 1963, Oil and collage on canvas, 78 3/5 × 98 3/10 in

 

Joris Weighs In on the New York Times

I was taught growing up that it's polite to wait until someone's New York Times obituary is out before you publicly recall what they wrote about the 'paper of record.' A Syria-related chat from April 2017:

I.K. (in response to a Uri Avnery column): "The Syrians didn’t suddenly submit to a dictatorship in the 80s. ??? The Assads took over in 1970. Like Egypt, which it was previously unified with, fair elections have resulted and would result in leaders wanting to do something concrete for the Palestinians so the US won’t allow them, evidenced by several coups. The Assads moderated Syria’s position towards Israel and the US compared to their predecessors, but Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and the US want them out, largely to reduce the influence of Russia and Iran.

"I agree with Uri tho that there’s zero evidence of Assad’s fingerprints on the chemical attack and that he’s way too smart to alienate the West a few days after Trump said he wouldn’t intervene in the war. Someone didn’t like the news that Trump wouldn’t intervene and did something, but it’s unlikely Assad was that person. Reportedly the Trump administration warned Assad and Putin about the attacks, which would mean they’re playing to US politics, less dangerously in this respect than the Hillary crowd would have.

“What does that say about the American people, and about humanity in general?” I agree that they watch too much TV and still take the NY Times seriously, but increasingly less so."

+ "Intended to mention that all UN statements (one, by former Swiss AG Carla De Ponte) about the various 2013 chemical attacks implicated the rebels, and the UN has made no statement suggesting any evidence of Assad’s culpability." 

P.J.: "Thanks, Ian, useful comments as usual! & good to remind one that the NYT, which, given the circus, one nearly went back to take seriously again, is profoundly enmeshed with the enemies. Note that its opinion pages just acquired the services of one Bret Stephens, well-known climate change denier!"

 

Pierre Joris 1946-2025

When a person has died the men bring their little drums

Mothers of Monga yo yo pray for Monga

War has crushed him how did war crush him?

Cry my gullet, mother of Monga yo yo pray for Monga

War has crushed him O how did war crush him?

When they have finished crying they dance and sing all day long.

 

                        (P.J. translation of Tristan Tzara's translation of Mourning Song of the Ba- Totela, Batatela (Zaire)) 

 

 

 

it looks like this outside tonight only the sky is white (snow and 99% waxing gibbous)

 

René Magritte, L'Empire des lumières, 1954, Oil on canvas and gouache on paper

 

Update: The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave a lustre of midday to objects below, When what to my wondering eyes did appear, But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer, With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment he must be Coach Nick. Rapidly the Eagles his starters they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name: "Now, Cooper! now, Quinyon! now Zach Baun and Jalen! On, Saquon! on, Johnson! on, AJ and Jalen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now beat the Rams! Beat the Chiefs! Beat them all!"

 

 at the two minute mark:

 

..or in the remake...

 

 

Moreover, Śāriputra, this buddha-land continuously produces heavenly music, and the ground is kelly green. In the six periods of the day and night, the heavens rain down māndārava flowers. In this land throughout the early morning, due to the precepts, all sentient beings have an abundant multitude of exquisite flowers.

(Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra)

Susan Alcorn 1953-2025

"... each musician interpreting Alcorn's suggestion of a lone village woman raising the alarm before an encroaching military incursion ..."

Fire, 2025

Painter and Altadena resident Hayv Kahraman has set up a GoFundMe for her relocation. “Fortunately, Hayv and her family made it out and their home remains standing BUT it will be UNINHABITABLE for the next year as it goes through the necessary steps to get decontaminated, which means they are homeless and uncertain at this time. 

“Nearly everything they had in the house will have to be removed because of smoke damage and they will be moving into a temporary apartment in the coming weeks, hopefully.” 

Kahraman grew up in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war and the Persian Gulf War: "I would look out my bedroom window and see a rain of air-raid bombs. They looked like fireworks. (The air-raid sirens) are so loud and when they happen, you know that you might actually die any minute. It shakes you to the core." Her family attempted to leave for Iran when she was eleven and was struck in traffic for eleven days before finding the border closed, hiring a smuggler the following year to get to Sweden and then Florence where she copied Fra Angelico and Giotto. “People talk about (the Altadena fire) looking like a war zone and they are right. I can tell you that it does. The loss is so vast and encompassing. The rubble. The air. The color of the sky. I felt transported to that time. I had begun building a life here. A home where I was slowly shedding my survivor mode that I’ve carried in my body since the Iraq war.” 

“I am concerned with the multitude not the self," she said in a 2016 interview. "This is not only my story. It can be the story of more than 5 million people within the Iraqi diaspora or any diaspora.” Kahraman was a signatory to the October 19, 2023 ArtForum letter supporting “Palestinian liberation.. an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes.. that the institutional silence around the ongoing humanitarian crisis that 2.3 million Palestinians are facing in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip be broken immediately” which led to the firing of its Editor-in-Chief David Velasco. 

Recent works are up at Seattle's Frye Museum til February 2nd.

House in Kathemiya, 2013, oil on modular panel, 124 in. x 105 in.

Kachakchi, 2015, oil on linen, 200 x 274 cm

The Audience, 2018, Oil on linen, 97 x 73"

Neurobust no 6, 2022, Oil on linen, 60.96 x 60.96 cm

 

Love Me Love Me Not (detail), 2023; Oil and acrylic on linen, 80 x 100 in.

Syria before al-Qaeda
1994 Giorgio Armani, ancient city of Palmyra pic.twitter.com/nNiAKtQso9

— OstensibleOyster (@Ostensiblay) January 21, 2025

 

 (filmed in Palmyra, Syria)

 

Martha Rosler, Invasion, 2008

 

Christina Quarles, In 24 Days Tha Sun’ll Set at 7pm, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 77" x 96"

 

As the aforementioned paintings are hanging in there, so Christina Quarles' Altadena studio has survived both this and a fire last April, but her residence and personal items have been completely destroyed.

Two of Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan Revival houses are in the evacuation zones

 

 The 1923 Samuel Freeman house is in the mandatory evacuation zone from the Runyon Canyon fire

 

The Millard House, also 1923, in the Level 2 evacuation warning zone from the Eaton fire

Art just outside of the Level 2 evacuation warning for the Eaton fire (Norton Simon Museum)

(LA Times update)

     Chamuda, 9th century, Rajasthan, marble

Raphael, Madonna and Child with Book, c. 1502-03, oil on canvas

Jean-Antoine Watteau, Reclining Nude, c. 1713-17, oil on canvas

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, The Abduction of Psyche by Zephyrus to the Palace of Eros, 1808-1820, oil on canvas

Édouard Manet, The Ragpicker, c. 1865-1870, oil on canvas

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier), August 1888, oil on canvas

Georges Braque, Artist and Model, 1939, oil on canvas

Barbara Hepworth, Assembly of Sea Forms, 1972, marble

Sam Francis, Basel Mural, 1956-58, oil on canvas