All My Stars (30)

By: Joanne McNeil
July 28, 2016

One in a weekly series in which Joanne McNeil recommends books, films, exhibitions, and more. You can also subscribe to the All My Stars newsletter here.

I’m traveling, tired, behind on work, and only just picked up my laptop after urgent repairs. So while I didn’t really watch or read or listen to or see anything this week that struck me, I thought this week I might share some stray thoughts on why I started the newsletter.

I found the tone of so many of my casual conversations about novels, films, music, etc., was not critical so much as dismissive. Certainly huge homogenous committees deciding what to fund and greenlight are guilty of sanding away the edges of art and sacrificing greatness for the bottom line. But it seems like the best way to ignore the overhyped is to drown it out with the underappreciated.

It is an interesting challenge for me to think about what work soars, surprises me, and resonates emotionally rather than exploit emotions. And I know I have blinders on, too. I find the best thing to do when something leaves me cold — and I’m sorry if this sounds obvious, but maybe not — is ask someone who really likes it… why?

To give an example, I went to the Robert Ryman exhibition in New York, last winter, and walked right on through. Not feeling it. But my friend, who is an artist, took about ten minutes with each piece. I went to join him and he pointed behind the canvas. “Look at the shadows, look at the way this hangs. Curators and painters love this because he’s exposing the decisions people make with a canvas.”

I went back to the beginning of the exhibition, walked through again much more slowly, and it was like an optometrist had adjusted my lens prescription. I could see it. It might not be what I seek out first, what speaks to me directly, but I could see it.

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All My Stars (30)

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