Critical Matters: Reviews and Thoughts

Morris Louis, Beta Mu, 1961

Beta Mu hangs on a wall by itself. It’s massive: 102 x 170 inches. Thin lines of paint mixed with turpentine run down in diagonals and stain untreated canvas. The v-shaped center, the largest part, is naked. An inverted empty pyramid. It looks like two heaving lungs, I say to no one. A woman passing by turns and looks—at me, at the painting, at me. She walks away. What I mean is that it helps me to remember to breathe.

Grand Theft Hamlet

My relationship with Grand Theft Auto is virtually nil. I have never played any version of the popular video game—this is not a badge of honor I am pinning to my chest; the video game bug, like the comic book bug was one that never bit me. My closest relationship to it is the essay “Grand Theft” by Tom Bissell…

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here

Reading Julian Zabalbeascoa’s novel of the Spanish Civil War, What We Tried to Bury Grows Here, it’s impossible not to hear echoes of our current fractured political climate — and impossible not to think about French philosopher and political activist Simone Weil, her part in that civil war, and her abhorrence of political parties. “I don’t like war; but…