Alexandra Blaison
@alexandrabl.bsky.social
Pinned
Should you care to read on Gerhard Richter, I did put a few thoughts down on the subject. For those of you in Paris, his retrospective opens tomorrow at the Fondation Vuitton.
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
Should you care to read on Gerhard Richter, I did put a few thoughts down on the subject. For those of you in Paris, his retrospective opens tomorrow at the Fondation Vuitton.
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
October 16, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Should you care to read on Gerhard Richter, I did put a few thoughts down on the subject. For those of you in Paris, his retrospective opens tomorrow at the Fondation Vuitton.
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/on-gerhard...
In 1975, Richter depicted the duo Gilbert and George from a series of multiple exposure photographs of the artists. The works achieved a striking sense of motion and atmospheric blur, challenging the belief that such effects could be obtained from oil on canvas.
October 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM
In 1975, Richter depicted the duo Gilbert and George from a series of multiple exposure photographs of the artists. The works achieved a striking sense of motion and atmospheric blur, challenging the belief that such effects could be obtained from oil on canvas.
Raúl Zurita, translated by Anna Deeny
October 8, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Raúl Zurita, translated by Anna Deeny
‘Say, It doesn't matter. Say, That would be enough. Say you'd still want this: us alive, right here, feeling lucky.’
October 2, 2025 at 7:53 PM
‘Say, It doesn't matter. Say, That would be enough. Say you'd still want this: us alive, right here, feeling lucky.’
Jean Tinguely & Eugène lonesco, Drawing made with a Meta-matic (1959)
October 2, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Jean Tinguely & Eugène lonesco, Drawing made with a Meta-matic (1959)
Borges on Writing:
“one should work into a story the idea of not being sure of all things, because that’s the way reality is”
- Jorge Luis Borges
“one should work into a story the idea of not being sure of all things, because that’s the way reality is”
- Jorge Luis Borges
September 30, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Borges on Writing:
“one should work into a story the idea of not being sure of all things, because that’s the way reality is”
- Jorge Luis Borges
“one should work into a story the idea of not being sure of all things, because that’s the way reality is”
- Jorge Luis Borges
a space of the unknowable 💕
“One of the things for me about free jazz or experimental jazz, or not just jazz but experimentation within the arts, where we can go with it and what it can do, is that there has to be a space of the unknowable for us to feel we can venture into.”
- Sonia Boyce
“One of the things for me about free jazz or experimental jazz, or not just jazz but experimentation within the arts, where we can go with it and what it can do, is that there has to be a space of the unknowable for us to feel we can venture into.”
- Sonia Boyce
September 30, 2025 at 9:24 AM
a space of the unknowable 💕
“One of the things for me about free jazz or experimental jazz, or not just jazz but experimentation within the arts, where we can go with it and what it can do, is that there has to be a space of the unknowable for us to feel we can venture into.”
- Sonia Boyce
“One of the things for me about free jazz or experimental jazz, or not just jazz but experimentation within the arts, where we can go with it and what it can do, is that there has to be a space of the unknowable for us to feel we can venture into.”
- Sonia Boyce
Giuseppe Verdi to Clarina Maffei on December 29, 1872:
“Dear Clarina,
Good morning and a happy new year— that is to say, good health and peace! Peace! The best thing in this world, and the thing that I desire most at this moment.”
“Dear Clarina,
Good morning and a happy new year— that is to say, good health and peace! Peace! The best thing in this world, and the thing that I desire most at this moment.”
September 29, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Giuseppe Verdi to Clarina Maffei on December 29, 1872:
“Dear Clarina,
Good morning and a happy new year— that is to say, good health and peace! Peace! The best thing in this world, and the thing that I desire most at this moment.”
“Dear Clarina,
Good morning and a happy new year— that is to say, good health and peace! Peace! The best thing in this world, and the thing that I desire most at this moment.”
I wrote some reflections on Verdi’s Aida and Shirin Neshat’s political remaking of the opera that you can read here bit.ly/4nT2UVs on The Paper Drop ➰
September 29, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I wrote some reflections on Verdi’s Aida and Shirin Neshat’s political remaking of the opera that you can read here bit.ly/4nT2UVs on The Paper Drop ➰
“Art is always self-parading, I think. Always was, always will be.
Is there something wrong with the self? I parade as much as I can.”
―Paul Thek, postcard to Robert Pincus-Witten, 1969
#FromTheNotebook
Is there something wrong with the self? I parade as much as I can.”
―Paul Thek, postcard to Robert Pincus-Witten, 1969
#FromTheNotebook
September 25, 2025 at 2:08 PM
“Art is always self-parading, I think. Always was, always will be.
Is there something wrong with the self? I parade as much as I can.”
―Paul Thek, postcard to Robert Pincus-Witten, 1969
#FromTheNotebook
Is there something wrong with the self? I parade as much as I can.”
―Paul Thek, postcard to Robert Pincus-Witten, 1969
#FromTheNotebook
Some thoughts I've written on ‘Alberto Giacometti and the Existentialists’ that you can read here
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/alberto-gi...
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/alberto-gi...
September 23, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Some thoughts I've written on ‘Alberto Giacometti and the Existentialists’ that you can read here
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/alberto-gi...
thepaperdrop.substack.com/p/alberto-gi...
“Someday our bodies will no longer matter,
and we will leave them in our sleep, to travel easily.”➰
and we will leave them in our sleep, to travel easily.”➰
September 22, 2025 at 6:50 PM
“Someday our bodies will no longer matter,
and we will leave them in our sleep, to travel easily.”➰
and we will leave them in our sleep, to travel easily.”➰
Some reflections I've written on Marlene Dumas' exhibition Cycladic Blues that you can read here bit.ly/46sNNLx
Marlene Dumas
and the Politics of Sorrow
open.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Some reflections I've written on Marlene Dumas' exhibition Cycladic Blues that you can read here bit.ly/46sNNLx
“I like to begin where winds shake the first branch.”
-Odysseus Elytis ➰
-Odysseus Elytis ➰
August 25, 2025 at 1:50 PM
“I like to begin where winds shake the first branch.”
-Odysseus Elytis ➰
-Odysseus Elytis ➰
“Have you ever seen anything in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon…”
- The Sun by Mary Oliver
#FromtheNotebook ✨
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon…”
- The Sun by Mary Oliver
#FromtheNotebook ✨
August 21, 2025 at 7:09 PM
“Have you ever seen anything in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon…”
- The Sun by Mary Oliver
#FromtheNotebook ✨
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon…”
- The Sun by Mary Oliver
#FromtheNotebook ✨
O body o summer, naked, burnt
Eaten away by oil and salt
Body of rock and shudder of the heart
Great ruffling wind in the osier hair
Beneath of basil above the curly pubic mound
Full of stars and pine needles
Body, deep vessel of the day!
-Odysseus Elytis, Body of Summer
Tr. E. Keeley & P. Sherrard
Eaten away by oil and salt
Body of rock and shudder of the heart
Great ruffling wind in the osier hair
Beneath of basil above the curly pubic mound
Full of stars and pine needles
Body, deep vessel of the day!
-Odysseus Elytis, Body of Summer
Tr. E. Keeley & P. Sherrard
August 19, 2025 at 4:38 PM
O body o summer, naked, burnt
Eaten away by oil and salt
Body of rock and shudder of the heart
Great ruffling wind in the osier hair
Beneath of basil above the curly pubic mound
Full of stars and pine needles
Body, deep vessel of the day!
-Odysseus Elytis, Body of Summer
Tr. E. Keeley & P. Sherrard
Eaten away by oil and salt
Body of rock and shudder of the heart
Great ruffling wind in the osier hair
Beneath of basil above the curly pubic mound
Full of stars and pine needles
Body, deep vessel of the day!
-Odysseus Elytis, Body of Summer
Tr. E. Keeley & P. Sherrard
Today, my hope is vertical.
Tomorrow it will be horizontal.
The next day, cloudy.
My hope is like a Greek myth:
exchanging skin for bark,
bark for scales,
scales for the hollow bones of a bird.
- Jane Hirshfield, TODAY, MY HOPE IS VERTICAL
#FromtheNotebook
Tomorrow it will be horizontal.
The next day, cloudy.
My hope is like a Greek myth:
exchanging skin for bark,
bark for scales,
scales for the hollow bones of a bird.
- Jane Hirshfield, TODAY, MY HOPE IS VERTICAL
#FromtheNotebook
August 18, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Today, my hope is vertical.
Tomorrow it will be horizontal.
The next day, cloudy.
My hope is like a Greek myth:
exchanging skin for bark,
bark for scales,
scales for the hollow bones of a bird.
- Jane Hirshfield, TODAY, MY HOPE IS VERTICAL
#FromtheNotebook
Tomorrow it will be horizontal.
The next day, cloudy.
My hope is like a Greek myth:
exchanging skin for bark,
bark for scales,
scales for the hollow bones of a bird.
- Jane Hirshfield, TODAY, MY HOPE IS VERTICAL
#FromtheNotebook
"Profuse light; splendour. Summer asserts itself and compels every soul to happiness."
- André Gide, Journal (1943)
#SummerWriting
- André Gide, Journal (1943)
#SummerWriting
August 13, 2025 at 9:07 AM
"Profuse light; splendour. Summer asserts itself and compels every soul to happiness."
- André Gide, Journal (1943)
#SummerWriting
- André Gide, Journal (1943)
#SummerWriting
In the recent Matisse–Marguerite show, one work held me: Marguerite with a Black Cat. Exhibited from Berlin Secession 1910 to the Armory Show 1913, it remained with Matisse until his death. On International Cat Day, what better tribute than to recall the cat in the portrait? It’s a famous #cat. 🐈⬛
August 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
In the recent Matisse–Marguerite show, one work held me: Marguerite with a Black Cat. Exhibited from Berlin Secession 1910 to the Armory Show 1913, it remained with Matisse until his death. On International Cat Day, what better tribute than to recall the cat in the portrait? It’s a famous #cat. 🐈⬛
In Antonello da Messina’s Crucifixion
Painting, I am the one on the right.
I am hanging like that,
My back is arched like that,
I am facing the real God,
I am unknown and will be forgotten,
But I am there, too, and my body is
Open to all the pain of life.
— Preservation, Sylvie Baugartel #Ekphrasis
— Preservation, Sylvie Baugartel #Ekphrasis
August 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
In Antonello da Messina’s Crucifixion
Painting, I am the one on the right.
I am hanging like that,
My back is arched like that,
I am facing the real God,
I am unknown and will be forgotten,
But I am there, too, and my body is
Open to all the pain of life.
— Preservation, Sylvie Baugartel #Ekphrasis
— Preservation, Sylvie Baugartel #Ekphrasis
On this day, shall we remember Paul Claudel, the writer & brother to the brilliant Camille Claudel?
One of my favorite lines of his is the one where contradictions are in harmony:
‘Order is the pleasure of reason, but disorder is the delight of the imagination.’
— #paulclaudel
#bornonthisday
One of my favorite lines of his is the one where contradictions are in harmony:
‘Order is the pleasure of reason, but disorder is the delight of the imagination.’
— #paulclaudel
#bornonthisday
August 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
On this day, shall we remember Paul Claudel, the writer & brother to the brilliant Camille Claudel?
One of my favorite lines of his is the one where contradictions are in harmony:
‘Order is the pleasure of reason, but disorder is the delight of the imagination.’
— #paulclaudel
#bornonthisday
One of my favorite lines of his is the one where contradictions are in harmony:
‘Order is the pleasure of reason, but disorder is the delight of the imagination.’
— #paulclaudel
#bornonthisday