I had heard great things about Michel Hazanavicius’ award winning silent film The Artist. How could I not have? The film won five Oscars, three Golden Globes, and a host…to the intertitles, the score, and even the aspect ratio of the screen is designed to resemble the films of the silent era. And yet, the film feels quite modern, in part, because of the self-awareness it brings to its imitation, but also because the film looks at Hollywood in the late twenties in a manner which could only be done in hindsight. In many ways The Artist has more in common with Singing in the Rain, another great film about Hollywood’…
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Sita’s Ramayana
Moyna Chitrakar is an artist from the Patua scroll painting tradition. The paintings in this book have been adapted fit the page, but they are rendered in a style that…may make you eager to explore this famous story’s many variations. Moyna Chitrakar’s art is beautiful, and while more care might have been taken in the page design, lovers of traditional art and myth will find something to appreciate in this book….
Krazy Kat: the Comic Art of George Herriman
Krazy Kat was a remarkable and hugely influential daily comic. Found in newspapers around the country for over 30 years, from 1913 and 1944, it would influence comics greats such…igid panels of today’s strips, it is the surreal landscapes and innovative design of the Sunday strips for which Herriman is best know, and with good reason. (Fans of Calvin and Hobbes will immediately recognize the influence of these strips on Bill Waterson’s Spaceman Spiff strips.) Krazy Kat is not particularly funny, but I love reading it. Krazy Kat is dreamlike and poetic, a little bit difficult, and very much worth your while. Full of charact…
A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney
Critic Martin Gayford has been interviewing David Hockney for many years and the two have developed a warm friendship that extends past their professional relationship. In A Bigger Message, Gayford…British artist. Discussions range from new technology, photography, stage design, living in different parts of the world, various histories of classical art and Hockney’s own process. Gayford frames each chapter with a theme that corresponds to the many phases of Hockney’s career. One very interesting segment discusses his attraction to creating work on an iPhone or iPad. The book exhibits several of these small scale works that look very much li…
Wheel of Time
Werner Herzog, director of Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre: the Wrath of God and Stroszek, has almost become equally as famous for his non-fiction work in recent years thanks to the success of…. At this destination, several artists create a giant, yet intricate, sand design or “sand mandala” (which is referred to as the wheel of time). The creation of the sand mandala is carefully constructed over a lengthy period of time and the viewer is constantly worried that it will not be completed by its deadline (or at least I was feeling tense). The stunning landscape along our travelers’ journey and the vibrant colors of the dyed sand are bril…
Summer Hours
Three siblings’ memories of the past and aspirations for the future collide when confronted with their shared inheritance of an exceptional 19th century art collection and the family’s country house…which it has been kept, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), a successful New York designer, Frédéric (Charles Berling), an economist and university professor in Paris, and Jérémie (Jérémie Renier), a dynamic businessman in China, confront the end of childhood, their shared memories and backgrounds, and unique visions of the future. The film is a complex spin on the traditional pastoral country house film and poses questions about the power of objects and…
A ‘Calvin Coolidge’ Living Room Set
March 18, 2009 — Per the caption, it seems the designer of this 1928 set felt if it were named after President Coolidge the chances of winning the (unnamed) competition would increase. Wrong. The style is closer to mongrel Borax than L’Art Moderne and seventh place was at best, well, kind. With 20-20 hindsight it’s easy to see why the first three years of American Modernism (1926-1929) was an abysmal failure both commercially and aesthetically. Image from ‘A Hist…
Frank Ashford
September 20, 2011 — In 1927, President and Mrs. Coolidge had a busy summer in Rapid City, South Dakota, a part of the country unfamiliar to both of these Vermont natives. It was here…line news release that startled the nation by saying, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.” Lesser known today is that Frank Clifford Ashford painted two portraits of President Coolidge and two portraits of Grace Coolidge that summer at the State Lodge in Custer State Park where they resided. Two of the artworks hang at the CCPLM, one of the president in the Native-American headdress and the other, a profile of the first lady in a red d…
General Pershing and President Coolidge
October 4, 2012 — Two powerful men of the early twentieth century met and interacted. General of the Armies John Joseph ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, (1860-1948) and President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). Pershing, the most illustrious…as his Vice President. Coolidge and Pershing had a meeting in Boston in February 1920 while Coolidge was governor. Between 1921 and 1924, Pershing was Chief of Staff of the United States Army. . On November 1, 1921, Pershing and Vice President Coolidge were in Kansas City, Missouri at the groundbreaking ceremony for a large World War I monument, the Liberty Memorial. On that day, more than 100,000 people assembled to hear the supreme Allied comman…
The life and death of Old Main
The life and death of Old Main: Images preserve the legacy of a now-demolished Northampton State Hospital building by Sarah Dunlap [Originally published in The Daily Hampshire Gazette on: Thursday, December 13,…ed windows. In this image, Old Main seems to tower above its neighboring structures, all of which have the same Gothic architectural features. In February, after Majeski’s exhibit concludes, the Forbes Library will digitize his images and place them in its Special Collection of historic photographs. Majeski originally took the photographs of the abandoned hospital for his own collection and did not consider the possibility of exhibiting the images…
The Angel of Hadley
The Painting The Angel of Hadley, or The Perils of Our Forefathers, by Frederic A. Chapman The “Angel of Hadley,” also known as “The Perils of our Forefathers,” hangs in…Goffe and Edward Whalley, both with prices upon their heads for being the ruling judges in the decision to execute King Charles I. Allegedly they were hidden in a secret room in Russell’s home, where they both eventually died. Goffe emerged only that once to warn the town of the imminent attack of the Indians. The Truth Apparently none of this story is based in fact. There is no record of an Indian attack on Hadley in 1675. The myth seems to have…
Foodie Lit
April 23, 2014 — Eating Abroad This reading list was compiled by Forbes Library librarians as part of the 2011 Novel Destinations Summer Reading program. Novel Destination is sponsored by Friends of Forbes Library, the Massachusetts Library System,…ering at Lillian’s Restaurant for a weekly cooking class, a young mother struggles with the growing demands of her family, an Italian kitchen designer works to adapt to life in America, and a widower mourns the loss of his wife to breast cancer. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender Discovering in childhood a supernatural ability to taste the emotions of others in their cooking, Rose Edelstein grows up to regard food as a curse when…
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