Jan 23, 2021 • View in browser

On January 20th, America inaugurated a new leader. President Biden’s speech was significant not because of its timelessness but because of its timeliness — it will remind future generations that no nation or person is immune to forces of chaos and destruction.

This weekend David Carrier looks back on the Italian painter Francesco Polenghi, who succumbed to COVID-19 in 2020. As fatigue and apathy from the ongoing crisis threaten to overshadow those we’ve lost, Carrier’s memories of Polenghi bring into focus one life, one person who brought a rare beauty into the world.

To move toward a better future is to recognize, in a nightmarish past, the good that persisted.

– Natalie Haddad, Co-Editor, Hyperallergic Weekend

Martin Puryear’s Open Questions

To focus on Puryear’s devotion to craft and the handmade is valid, but now seems too narrow a view.

John Yau

The Melancholy Marriage of Tracey Emin and Edvard Munch

What do Emin and Munch have in common other than a burning desire to embrace, and be defined by, the miseries of life?

Michael Glover

What a Painter Taught Me

Coming from a secular perspective, it seems strange to speak, in almost mystical terms, of being taken out of oneself.

David Carrier

"Pieces of a Woman" Falls to Pieces

What begins as a trenchant exploration of losing a child becomes a “Lifetime”-esque affair that strays so sharply from a mother’s grief that it feels a bit like a betrayal.

Eileen G'Sell

Playboi Carti’s Impressionist Rap

Carti’s willingness to disappear runs counter to the egotist individualism that has characterized rap since its inception.

Lucas Fagen

Writing from Another World

Eric Baus’s sentences follow the rules of grammar, but something inexplicable happens by the time you reach the end.

John Yau

Required Reading

This week, Dennis Cooper, white savior cinema, the maker of Bernie’s mittens, a decolonial Qur’an, Ishmael Reed, and more.

Hrag Vartanian

From the Store

Marguerita Mergentime "Once in a While" Cloth Napkins

Based on a pattern by American textile designer Marguerita Mergentime, these napkins are formatted so that four different graphic effects can be achieved depending on how they’re folded. Available in both cool and warm colors, the set complements any of the items in our Home Goods collection.

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