ABOLISH THE POP CHARTS
Reading List #1
In the dead of winter, induced by SAD, I always buy big novels I don’t actually read: a hardcover copy of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, the Arion Press edition of Moby Dick, the 1918 version of Wyndham Lewis’ Tarr. A nice idea, though, right?
Seasonal depression and thinking about re-reading Moby Dick are both good excuses to get into Albert Pinkham Ryder.
After Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, a (woefully incomplete) syllabus for the great art restitution debates. Because it’s easy to get lost in the weeds here, you might first have to read this UNESCO 1970 Convention treaty, drafted in a dull, repetitive language familiar to former participants of Model UN. Then it’s time for two legal articles by art law founder John Henry Merryman: “The Retention of Cultural Property” and “Two Ways of Thinking about Cultural Property,” both from the 1980s. Merryman also edited Imperialism, Art and Restitution, …
