In “Turning Journalism Into Art,” Marsha McCreadie describes a show currently running at the Brooklyn Museum, but she also sums up our mission here at CityArts. This issue covers the wide range of art experiences on offer in New York from the perspective that it makes city life more interesting—not just a place to be but the place to be, in order to understand the how and why of human function and social relations.
This insight is to be had from sources as varied as Jay Nordlinger’s report on the two landmark operas The Barber of Seville and Aida and Kate Prengel’s coverage of Chinese artist Fu Baoshi at The Met, which complements Mario Naves’ story on Sarah Sze, which leads him circling back to The Met’s show on Japanese art.
Jared Hess’ new animated TV version of Napoleon Dynamite.
From there to the Rubin Museum of Art, where writers Renfreu Neff and Melissa Stern both take in the oasis-like space and two of its current offerings (on Tibet comic books and the body in India, respectively). There is a sense of art adventure and travel: The world on Manhattan Island.
By reporting on these unique, bold undertakings, CityArts means to bring thoughtful responses to art that represents what it means to be human. That’s the delightful and undeniable mission Ben Kessler finds in Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess’ animated TV version of his 2004 hit feature film. Often called a “cult” movie, Napoleon Dynamite is the rare example of an artwork that actually brought its audience together in popular rather than coterie terms.
Art—and cultural journalism—ought to do the same, uniting us even as it leads us to introspection. (It can also lead us to celebration, as in “The Whitney Houston Dream,” a remembrance of the late singer’s impact on pop culture.)
About the cover: Djuna Barnes’ sketch of a woman thinking comes from the Brooklyn Museum show Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes 1913– 1919, whom McCreadie describes as a flâneur. The apt term pertains to “a person who walks the city in order to experience it.” The idea comes from Baudelaire, yet it’s not antithetical to the hard-boiled, no-BS approach to journalism that can also be devoted to “a complete philosophical way of living and thinking.” CityArts is unembarrassed by that largesse as we go about bringing thinking back to cultural journalism.
