{"id":14637,"date":"2021-08-09T18:28:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T22:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=14637"},"modified":"2021-08-11T12:57:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:57:56","slug":"episode-447-peter-schjeldahl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-447-peter-schjeldahl","title":{"rendered":"Episode 447 – Peter Schjeldahl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 447:
\nPeter Schjeldahl<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_447_-_Peter_Schjeldahl.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“My job is to give people something to read that is enjoyable and in some other way perhaps worth reading. It’s almost not about the art; it’s about the concentration, the absorption.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>I traveled up to the Catskills this weekend for a round of Rip Van Winkle-themed putt-putt golf<\/a>, lunch, and some conversation with New Yorker<\/em> art critic Peter Schjeldahl<\/a>. We get into Peter’s 2019 diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer and how he gained & then lost the persona of The Dying Man during his one piece of memoiristic writing<\/a> about it. We also talk about his accidental transition from poet to art writer in the ’60s, why his two criteria for writing about art are quality & significance, his bias for authenticity over authority and sophistication over education, how HOWL<\/em> changed his life, why he hates reproductions of paintings, why it took him years to come around on Rembrandt, his experience of revisiting Velazquez’ Las Meninas<\/em> over the years, the piece of art he’d like to revisit when we can travel again, his love of (& aesthete’s approach to) fireworks, and plenty<\/em> moreon the art of living! Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Hot, Cold Heavy, Light: 100 Art Writings 1988-2018<\/a><\/p>\n

“There’s no art to dying at all.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n