Posts by author
David Breithaupt
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Beaking the Language Barrier
Twain endorsed the book, saying “Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect.” A 19th century Portuguese-to-English phrase book, English as She Is Spoke, broke…
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A Field Guide To The Muses
This summer, an exhibit and accompanying book, Picasso: The Artist and His Muses, brings light to the women who inspired some of the artist’s greatest paintings: Women play an essential but complex role in the father of cubism’s sprawling oeuvre,…
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Let My Doggies Go
Hey China, what the hell? A dog meat festival? You can’t do that. Here is the story of one man who agreed.
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Never Say Nada to Dada
In 1920, Tristan Tzara put out a call to his fellow artists to contribute to an anthology to be called Dadaglobe. Many submitted but the book never happened. But fear not—the Museum of Modern Art in New York has put…
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Plagued by Sanity
I had become periodically insane, with long bouts of horrible sanity… –Mark McCawley Just how do we define someone like Mark McCawley, who died earlier this year after a twelve-year wrestling match with cancer? Writer Bart Plantenga does his best…
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Art Imitating (Imaginary) Life
Rubens Ghenov’s solo exhibit at the Morgan Lehman Gallery, Accoutrements in Marwa, an Interlude in Silver, has an interesting source of inspiration: For the past four years, Ghenov’s paintings have been inspired by the unpublished philosophical texts and verse of…
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Time is Not on Your Side
Mick Jagger stands for every baby boomer, the generation that refused to grow up. Nothing makes you feel older than watching rock stars grow old. Rich Cohen offers this milepost at the Los Angeles Times to mark Mick Jagger’s journey beyond…
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Cancer and Other Space Journeys
Aoife Mannix is a novelist and poet who grew up in Dublin and lives in London. This week she underwent surgery for cancer. Here is a wonderful poem she wrote and posted on her blog, Living as an Alien, before…
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Whipping up a Frenzy
As an intern at the Corcoran, I suddenly understood the power of art. When a 1989 Washington DC Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit was cancelled, young art major Jack Ludden found himself beginning his career amidst one of the biggest culture wars of the…
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Look Away, Dixie Land
Two stained glass panels depicting the Confederate flag in Washington’s National Cathedral are being removed. The windows were installed to memorialize Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson: They may have been easy to overlook, but their ousting from one of…
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Summer of Love
Charlotte Shane, best known for her newsletter portraying her life as a sex worker and philosopher, Prostitute Laundry, now has a column at Fusion. Her collected writings are also available in her newest release, N.B.
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The Only Way to Travel
A new exhibit, Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction 1780–1910, is on view at the newly renovated Smithsonian Libraries Gallery at the National Museum of American History. The exhibit explores the imaginations of 18th and early 19th century science fiction writers like H.G. Wells,…