You don’t have to be an art history student to know about the Farnsworth House, an iconic glass home in Illinois designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951.
| You don’t have to be an art history student to know about the Farnsworth House, an iconic glass home in Illinois designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951. But the legacy of its namesake, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, has often been reduced to her rumored affair and falling out with the famous architect who built her home.
In Almost Nothing, author and artist Nora Wendl does more than set the record straight — she takes an intimate approach to chronicling and responding to Farnsworth’s life by interpreting it through her own. It reminds me of titles like JoAnna Novak’s Contradiction Days (2023) that melt the genres of biography, memoir, and artist’s diary together, and there’s something particularly refreshing about reading books that abandon the guardrails of genre right now. You can read Nancy Zastudil’s sensitive review of Wendl’s book below, along with an equally thoughtful piece by Eileen G’Sell on a tome that attempts to detangle the knot of gender and gaze in feminist film.
Don’t forget to check out our latest art-book guide for reading this summer by the seaside (or your A/C), plus a true treat: Acclaimed author Arthur Nersesian, who was part of the vibrant 1980s East Village creative scene, reviews a book about the rise and fall of the neigborhood’s Pyramid nightclub. Happy reading! — Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Associate Editor | | |
|
|
|
| You’re currently a free subscriber to Hyperallergic. To support our independent arts journalism, please consider joining us as a paid member. | | Become a Member |
|
|
|
| | A new translation of a beloved Argentine comic, artists over 50 tell their stories, diasporic Puerto Rican art history, and more to enjoy by the seaside (or your A/C). | Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Valentina Di Liscia, Natalie Haddad, Nancy Zastudil, and Alicia Grullón |
|
|
|
| | | A book of oral histories about the now-shuttered venue takes us through those who came before, made it big, and died too soon. | Arthur Nersesian |
|
| | The life of Dr. Edith Farnsworth was long distorted by her dealings with Mies van der Rohe, who designed her glass house in Illinois. Almost Nothing asks us to take a closer look. | Nancy Zastudil |
|
| | Feminist film scholar Lori Jo Marso redresses misconceptions of the gendered gaze, parsing through the lessons we can learn from our exhilaration and unease. | Eileen G’Sell |
|
|
|
FROM THE ARCHIVE | | | Whenever French 18th-century artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard is mentioned, it’s almost always as a counterpoint to her better-known “rival,” Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. | Bridget Quinn |
|
|
|
| You’re currently a free subscriber to Hyperallergic. To support our independent arts journalism, please consider joining us as a paid member. | | Become a Member |
|
|
|
|
