A Conversation With Alec Both About Art and Doubt

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Hanya Yanagihara

Alec Soth, “Dan-Georg. Dusseldorf,” 2018.

I had never met Alec Soth, and yet — in the artificial way that we feel we know something of the person who has created a work of art we’ve consumed and, in my case, returned to again and again — I felt I had. I first encountered Alec’s debut project, “Sleeping by the Mississippi,” several months before it was shown in New York City, in 2004. That work, a series of 47 images of people and places taken as Alec followed the sweep of the country’s second greatest waterway, which meanders and swells from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, remains the visual equivalent of an American songbook. [More]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK - 3rd Sunday of Lent

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Giovanni domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727-1804) "Christ and the barren fig tree" ; oil on canvas; 33 x 75 in. (Courtesy of Christies in June 2015)

In the late 1700s, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo depicted an angry Christ destroying a fig tree that did not produce fruit. However, in this week’s Gospel on the 3rd Sunday in Lent, we explore Christ’s great expectations for us, but also his patience (13:1-9). It’s been five weeks since Ernest’s foot fracture, but as the heel heals, his calf muscle weakens. We could cry about the calf, but instead, Christ’s patience teaches us to plan for running soon. That's why Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo’s “Christ and the barren fig tree" is our art of the week.

A Collector Juxtaposes the Erotic and the Familiar

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Warren Strugatch

Brian Phillips in his living room with, from left, “Black Goo, White Lace” (2015) by Torbjorn Rodland and “Loon” (2011) by Wyatt Kahn.

When Brian Phillips came to New York in 1998, he quickly gravitated toward the downtown art and fashion scenes and, through internships at Paper, Elle and Visionaire, connected with other aspiring, boundary-smudging tastemakers and haunted contemporary art hot spots. He also found mentors who guided him. Although he arrived to study architecture at Columbia, his career took a different turn and he founded Black Frame, an agency that represents clients in the arts, architecture and fashion. As a collector, Mr. Phillips favors contemporary art and photography, often created by artists he has met, including Paul Lee and Matt Saunders. His taste in art is strikingly personal and he has acquired several homoerotic pieces. [More]