Considering that NASA just released the highest resolution image of Earth that the world has ever seen, it’s kind of hard to imagine that once upon a time we had to rely on artists to show us what the planets might look like. While these early illustrations were based on astronomical observations, and in many cases, are surprisingly detailed given how crude the available technology, we think they function even better as works of art. Click through to check out a selection of recently-digitized drawings by 19th-century artist (and Harvard College Observatory employee) E.L. Trouvelot, and head over to LiveScience to view the full gallery.
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We’ve been feeling like the New York Public Library has been a little distant lately – but that’s all about to change. Our pals over at Gothamist have alerted us to a delightful way to show support for the NYPL – a little body-on-building PDA. Today, starting at 1:30pm, the group Urban Librarians Unite is holding a “hug the library” event, meant “to call attention to the potentially devastating budget cuts being proposed by the city.” Stop by to join hundreds of library lovers who plan to surround the NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and give it a big ol’ squeeze. Not feeling it? To get you in the hugging mood, we’ve assembled a little slideshow of some of our favorite vintage New York Public Library photographs, many of them from the NYPL’s own extensive digital gallery. Click through for some black and white inspiration, and let us know if you’ll be hugging or shrugging this afternoon.
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Today at Flavorpill, we were impressed by this sculpture in front of the New York Public Library, which was created from 25,000 classic Dr. Seuss books in honor of Read Across of America. We downloaded Animal Collective’s free mixtape, which they put together to mark the ATP they’re curating in May. We wished we lived in Sedgwick, Maine, the first town in the US to pass into law their right to produce and sell local foods of their choosing, without the oversight of state or federal regulation. We imagined what Ernest Hemingway’s reviews on Yelp might have sounded like (A sample: “I met a woman who said she had been to Pinkberry. ‘What the hell is that,’ I said, and she laughed but said nothing.”). We were surprised by how many non-Harry Potter films have more than four Harry Potter wizards in their respective casts. We discovered that two of the drunkest cities in America can be found in Hawaii — and the remaining member of the top three is Fargo, North Dakota. We watched Pixar animator Nick Pitera’s one-man Disney movie. And finally, we wondered why Woody Allen would get in a boxing ring with a kangaroo.
Live-action cartoonist and New York Public Library artist-in-residence Flash Rosenberg creates situational portraits using images, words, and whimsy.
From Dada-esque flights of fancy to unsettling historical testimony and more planned-out animations for dramatic readings (John Lithgow’s Mark Twain is a perennial favorite), Rosenberg expands portraiture’s meaning to include the viewer, time, and artist’s own imagination. As Live from the NYPL‘s artist-in-residence, she creates composite, time-lapse “conversation portraits,” depicting the participants’ images, ideas, and actual words, in a witty, evocative art-form all her own.
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We can’t begin to explain how giddy we were last night as we waited to enter the New York Public Library for an unprecedented Velvet Underground reunion of Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule (ie, the band members who don’t hate each others guts). As we snaked through lines and into the grand room, our excitement built. Two large screens projected a slideshow of images from the newly-released coffee table book The Velvet Underground: New York Art while we waited for the show to start. After the jump, read the five things that surprised us most about the sold-out event.
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“Your nature is to do evil; mine is to love the truth and publish it despite you.” This entry is from Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, under the entry on Fate. On the 250th anniversary of the publication of Candide, Voltaire’s masterpiece attacking the philosophical doctrine of Optimism made popular by writers like Alexander Pope and Gottfried Leibniz, the New York Public Library has organized Candide at 250: Scandal and Success, examining the many forms and legacies of this bold, satirical tract.
Dr. Paul LeClerc is not only the president of the NYPL, but an integral part of the realization of this exhibition. Comprising borrowed elements but mainly representing a proud acquisition for the NYPL collection — they now own one of only two complete sets of all 17 “original” versions. We caught up with LeClerc on the eve of the opening to talk censorship, connoisseurship, and Catholic school.
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Noble, wise, genteel: the aging lion was an apt metaphor for the sagacity and permanence of the New York Public Library, especially its grand Carerre and Hastings-designed home in Bryant Park. Even old warhorses need an upgrade in These Modern Times, however, and the lion is now looking a little perkier after a logo upgrade by the library’s in-house art department. Details on the design nitty-gritty, plus an NYPL video outlining the logo evolution, after the cut. Read More »
