Posts by Jessica Cline

Have you ever found yourself looking for a review of a great painting show you saw in a Chelsea gallery four months ago?  Or, perhaps you saw the name of a new photographer working on Marc Jacobs’ ads and want to know more about the artist.  The Art and Picture Collections at the Mid-Manhattan Library offer art periodicals to take home from the last couple of years.  We can also help you find articles and reviews recently published or from years past in our online databases.  Listed below is an overview of our magazine collection. Stop in and check us out.

Recently, a reader asked me how to find out what the painting Lotus Lilies by Charles Courtney Curran was all about. All the reader knew was that the Terra Foundation for American Art owned this painting, as well as several others by Curran.  This type of query is popular for art works located in New York City museums. When an artist is famous it is relatively easy to help locate information in the catalog. But where do you go for lesser known art works and artists?

When I was a kid my grandpa smoked a pipe.  He would give me the cleaned out tobacco boxes to use as pencil boxes for school.  There was never any question of which box belonged to me.  I have to wonder, are kids allowed to use boxes advertising tobacco products at school today?  School administrators take note, I never became a smoker, but I did learn the value of repurposing and recycling.

If you would like to read more of Nella Larsen’s writing check out her first novel, Quicksand, which also has a multiracial heroine whose story helps define the era of Larsen’s life through lyrical and highly visual written detail.

I hope you have been enjoying Passing by Nella Larsen.

Please share your thoughts about the novel or the author and take a moment to discuss any of the questions posted below.

"Nella Larsen attempts quite a different thing. She explains just what "passing" is: the psychology of the thing; the reaction of it on friend and enemy. It is a difficult task, but she attacks the problem fearlessly and with consummate art. The great problem is under what circumstances would a person take a step like this and how would they feel about it? And how would their fellows feel?" W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, "Review of Passing." Crisis 36:7, July 1929.

Passing is the second novel by Nella Larsen published during the Harlem Renaissance.  It was written while she was a librarian at the 135th Street branch of the New 

Welcome to July’s edition of the Reader’s Den!  This month we will be reading and discussing Passing by Nella Larsen. Published in 1929, it is a novel of modern black life whose relationships are wrought with psychological tension.

The passions of mythological gods have been the subject of painting since the Greeks and Romans first told their stories to create an allegorical world for the lust and greed of humanity.  Lucky for us, the beauty and scandal portrayed by artists have been our feast ever since. 

In celebration of the National Day of Listening, the Art and Picture Collections have been collaborating with StoryCorps to produce an all-day drop-in event to consider your art and your life.

Then you are in luck! The Mid-Manhattan Library has expanded its hours and we are celebrating by sharing donuts and coffee from Tim Horton's with everyone who comes by today! Also, stop in at 8 p.m. for a live music performance by the Bushwick Book Club, a group of songwriters who take their inspiration from literary works.

Mid-Manhattan's New Hours:
Monday - Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Many of New York Public Library's branches are expanded their hours to keep services available for people on a variety of schedules. Check out the press release here.

 As a librarian, I am a list maker, and lately I have been lucky enough to review the bibliography titles in the Mid-Manhattan Library Art Collection. Bibliographies are elaborate lists that contain citations, and sometimes abstracts, of other books, journal articles, etc., that relate to a focused subject. If you have ever written a research paper, you probably created a bibliography at the end, listing the publication information of the materials you used in your research process.

An example that I find particularly charming is a two volume work entitled Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 1670-1870 by Sinclair Hamilton. It contains a catalog of 

Color Prints of the Thirty-six Immortal Woman
Poets (1801) A work of art has often inspired a poem, like The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, which sparked Anne Sexton’s poem of the same name; and likewise, a poem can inspire an artwork, as with Charles Demuth’s The Figure 5 in Gold, motivated by William Carlos Williams’ poem The Great Figure.

But, it is often the case that the artist and the poet are the same person. A few artist/poets of variety include William Blake, Marsden Hartley, Francis Picabia, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Chinese painters of the Song 

If you enjoyed spending time with the lively and passionate characters of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado this month, you may also find these titles interesting:

Have you been enjoying Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado? Please join me in discussing this novel by considering some of the following questions, or posting your own questions, thoughts, or favorite excerpts.

The story begins with the shooting of Dona Sinházinha (the wife) and Dr. Osmundo (the lover) by Colonel Jesuino Mendonca (the husband), and with old Filomena leaving Nacib. These two elements set forth the motion of the entire story and set the main thematic element — out with old, in with the new.

Read what Juan de Onis writes about Gabriela in 1962 for the American publication of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon:

“…an exciting and enjoyable romp of a book, rich in literary delights […] For Americans, ‘Gabriela’ has additional significance, as a striking portrait of Brazilian reality and change, it may serve to bridge the ‘gap of understanding’ between two culturally and psychologically distinct areas of the New World.” — New York Times Book Review 

"'Bahiana' in tipical dress." Picture Collection, NYPL.

Welcome to the Reader’s Den!

Please join me in reading the book selection for March, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (Gabriela, cravo e canela) by Jorge Amado.