Trevor Fairbrother

Book Review: Catching Up with Minor White’s Off-Beat Journal

March 3, 2025
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Minor White’s autobiographical undertaking lacks diaristic narrative. There’s too much neurotic navel-gazing too much of the time. Yet it is very appealing as a twisted personal miscellany whose contents range from summaries of sex dreams to snarky letters that were never sent.

Book Review: “Leonardo da Vinci — An Untraceable Life”

February 3, 2025
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This book is an anti-biography that argues Leonardo had little interest in autobiographical self-promotion and claims that the many gaps in the historical record prevent him from cohering as a biographical subject

Arts Commentary: Candy Rappers of 2024 — Remembering Candy Darling

January 9, 2025
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It is clear to Candy Darling’s biographer that the present moment contains alarming reminders of the political scapegoating generated by the culture wars of the ’90s. She leaves no doubt that her subject’s difficult, complicated life embodies a cautionary tale.

Visual Arts Review: Manet at the Gardner — The Tension Between Revelation and Obfuscation

November 9, 2024
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It is a great gift that the Gardner Museum has made such a strong and lively exhibition, presented exclusively in Boston, devoted to Manet.

Visual Arts Review: Together Again? — O’Keeffe and Moore at the MFA

November 3, 2024
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“Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore” at the MFA builds a case for two artists that many are inclined to think of as “unlikely bedfellows.” Brava! 

Book Review: Moon Unit’s “Earth to Moon” –A New Age Quest for Healing

September 16, 2024
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Moon Unit devotes less than a quarter of her book to the three decades since her father’s death. Despite his failings as a parent, she wants to respect Frank Zappa’s stature as an artist.

Book Review: “America and Other Myths” — Sucking “a Sad Poem Right out of America onto Film.”

August 28, 2024
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In her fine book, Lisa Volpe examines mid-’50s picture-making expeditions taken across the U.S. by photographers Robert Frank and Todd Webb.

Visual Arts Review: Salvador Dalí Touches Down on Huntington Avenue — Quirky and Proud of It

August 9, 2024
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For decades the MFA gave Dalí the cold shoulder, so it’s great that this maiden voyage is non-puritanical and open to the artist’s less than wholesome instincts to provoke.

Visual Arts Commentary: “Razzle Dazzle” in Red — Jonathan Yeo Hails (?) the King

May 28, 2024
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The fact that King Charles went along with Jonathan Yeo’s amped-up riff on academic portraiture intrigues, especially in light of his peevish opposition to modernist architecture.

Visual Arts Review: A New Fashion Statement from the MFA — Consumer Dreaming and Catwalk Preening

May 12, 2024
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This midsized MFA project is a solid bid for summer foot traffic from the fashionista demographic.

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