From Caravaggio to Tribeca

"Maybe it's the cabin fever speaking, but I think it's when it's the most brutal out that we turn inward, and the ghosts of the past come to visit. On the eve of that relentless snowstorm, for instance, my call with Morgan Library curator John Marciari transported me to the 17th century, to the moment Caravaggio became the mononymic character that remains so influential today. It's a reminder of how the past makes the present, and the present makes the future."

"Both links of the chain are at play in our city right now. Writer A. G. Sims walks us through how John Wilson's depictions of American racial violence (which can be seen at The Met through this weekend) are underpinned by the influence of Richard Wright's writings. "He put into words what I wanted to express visually," Wilson wrote about Wright, "the struggle of African Americans to maintain their human dignity in an oppressive world.""

Richard Wright's ideas shaped John Wilson's visual representations of American racial violence, emphasizing African Americans' struggle to preserve dignity under oppression. A major John Wilson exhibition at The Met runs through the weekend. Tribeca gallery owners met to discuss contacting city agencies about street vendors outside their businesses even as they issued statements expressing solidarity with anti-ICE sentiments. Damien Davis provides an opinion on effective solidarity and protest tactics. Historical influence appears in Caravaggio's rise from a small Italian town to an artistic force in Rome, illustrating how past and present continually shape cultural life.

Read at Hyperallergic