Outliers and American Vanguard Art book cover

Review — Outliers and American Vanguard Art

Outliers and American Vanguard Art, by Lynne Cooke. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 412 pages, 450 color plates, 2018. ISBN: 978-0226522272. Hardcover, $65 Outliers and American Vanguard Art, filling several rooms at the National Gallery of Art, is a dauntingly large-scale show. And at five pounds, 412 pages, 450-plus illustrations and a 10 x12 form factor, its catalog is even more daunting. But, despite some excess imbrications and fixed subject positions, the art and the important points being made are plenty sufficient to interest non-academic readers. Curator Lynne Cooke’s core premise is that the story of modernism is woefully incomplete absent

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Wacky store names: Sign and storefront of Do Eat restaurant, Chicago

Some Really OK New Wacky Store Names

Another batch of the strange, the bizarre, the inexplicable wacky store names of the world. As someone pathologically prone to understatement, I’m especially fond of business names that don’t try too hard. Do eat some OK paella before buying a simply basic but typical gift. Do Eat Korean Barbecue, Chicago Favorable Chicken-Kebabs-Ribs, London: Photo by Martin Stocks Nice Pharmacy, Koh Samui, Thailand O.K. Paella, Toledo, Spain OK Painters, Siem Reap, Cambodia Simply Basic, Barcelona Typical Gift, Toledo, Spain Closely related to understatement, and just as dynamic, are the businesses  whose owners favor highly generalized branding. Here are those latest additions:

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LP Records For Sale

Vintage Vinyl For Sale

I’m selling many vintage vinyl LPs at my neighborhood’s community yard sale Saturday, Sept. 8, 9-4. Plus vintage furniture, art objects, collectibles, household items, vintage textiles and more. Of course, any reasonable offer will be considered. Here are the LPs that will be on sale:

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Joe Markevicius with his painting of the Tripoly building, Chicago

Farewell Joe Markevicius

I learned today of the death of Joe Markevicius, one of my favorite artists. Joe was a “soutsider” artist, a graduate of Gage Park High School and a wizard with pastels. I always thought there was a sadness to Joe at least partly reflected in his choice of subject — mostly Chicago places that had disappeared or were in the process of disappearing.

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Two figures on ceramic plaque by Harvey Ford, 1994

Harvey Ford: Objects of Beautyness

Harvey Ford was a prolific producer of drawings when he was in the art program at Joliet’s Stateville Penitentiary, but he also made some impressive sculptures, mostly ceramic, and at least a few papier-mâché. The colors and shapes are more than a match for the intensity of his drawings, many of which he made with burnt matches. Although prison art programs produce a lot of material that is of little interest beyond the cellblock walls, the Stateville program, as its output makes evident, encouraged artists to follow their own creative direction. Ford was a true visionary and a case study

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Box of 45s

My Last Days Of Vinyl

This week I completed my decade-long record-digitization project, having ripped around 675 vinyl LPs, 150 78s and 1,100-plus 45s. First record ripped, on Dec. 8, 2007: a 78 rpm disk of Milky White Way / Bread of Heaven by the Angelic Gospel Singers, followed by I Can’t Stand Myself When You Touch Me and several other vintage James Brown albums. Last record ripped, on May 19, 2018: A 7-inch record with uplifting public service announcements for young people from the Wayout project, circa 1980s. Immediately before that: three square-dance records complete with calls. I didn’t exactly save the best for

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