Nonfiction: Flashes of Brilliance: The Genius of Early Photography and How It Transformed Art, Science, and History, by Anika Burgess (W. W. Norton): Living in the smartphone era, when it couldn’t be easier to take a picture of any passing fancy, I sometimes like to imagine what social media might have looked like in the mid-nineteenth century. Instagram would be free of digitally saturated sunsets, and the rare mountain view, won by hauling a seventy-five-pound camera through backcountry, could elicit real awe; even stiff, long-exposure portraits might be an improvement on innumerable thoughtless selfies. Happily for me, Anika Burgess’s new Flashes of Brilliance takes us back to a time of more daring yet intentional photography, often by amateurs, and does honor to the persistence, artistry, and ingenuity of early innovators in the field. From the catacombs of Paris to the surface of the moon, cartes de visite to X-ray imaging, Burgess follows the camera almost anywhere it could go from 1839 to about 1910. —RE
“Eat the Heat,” at Frosch & Co (through August 16): With a buffet of group shows now on New York’s summer menu, Frosch & Co gives us something to savor. “Eat the Heat” presents a platter of eleven artists working on the theme of food and drink “as aesthetic subject, cultural artifact, and site of social exchange.” Working in a variety of media, the show’s participating artists include Elise Engler, Leslie Kerby, Jean Lowe, Joachim Marx, Edie Nadelhaft, Brad Nelson, Lucy Beecher Nelson, Judy Simonian, Fedele Spadafora, Jeanne Verdoux, and Becky Yazdan. With paintings, drawings, and sculptures, the exhibition promises “cake, coffee, cherries, hot dogs, dim sum . . . and plenty more” but keeps the repast light and whimsical—just right for a hot summer day. —JP
Swan Lake, performed by American Ballet Theatre, at the Metropolitan Opera House (July 18): The American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Gillian Murphy will cap a twenty-nine-year stage career by taking the part of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake for her highly anticipated July 18 retirement performance at the Metropolitan Opera House. Murphy’s ability to breathe dramatic vitality and technical firepower into any role in the classical repertoire made her one of the premier ballerinas of her generation. Given that the demanding lead role in Swan Lake helped define her career, it will make a fitting “swan song.” Tickets for the Friday evening performance have long sold out, but I have little doubt that a dedicated throng of balletomanes will keep vigil outside the box office, hoping to benefit from a last-minute cancellation. Who can blame them? —RSM
David Zwirner Books Moving Sale, at 535 West Twentieth Street (July 14–18): Hot heat and hot sales: this week only, David Zwirner Books, the publishing arm of the mega-gallery, is discounting its stock up to 75 percent in anticipation of a relocation. Stop by 535 West Twentieth Street to see what’s on offer from the publisher who brings out not only the expected (contemporary-art monographs) but also the curious, such as the only novel by the always beguiling Giorgio de Chirico. —BR
Dispatch:
“Moral kitsch & standing ovations,” by Max L. Feldman. On Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Cunningham’s Summerspace & Martin Schläpfer’s Pathétique at the Weiner Staatsoper.
By the Editors:
“No List, No Revelations, No Plot—Just Epstein”
Roger Kimball, American Greatness
From the Archives:
“The career of James Baldwin,” by Bruce Bawer (November 1991). On Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin, by James Campbell.
