Looking up at the sky from outside Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education’s headquarters in NYC, is this lovely statue of Le Petit Prince, a character from the book of the same name by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Created by French sculptor Jean-Marc de Pas, it was installed in 2023 for the 80th anniversary of the book which was published in 1943.
In Le Petit Prince, or The Little Prince, a young prince from a very small planet lands on Earth and recounts his adventures to an aircraft pilot who is stranded in the Sahara desert after a crash. Through the prince’s stories Exupéry explores themes of love, loneliness, loss, and human nature.
With ghosts from the past lingering, the characters in director John Huston‘s 1961 film The Misfits are trying to survive in a world they’ve lost connection to. In a role written for her by her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe stars as Roslyn, a recently divorced woman in Reno who attracts the attention of three troubled men who think she might be their salvation, despite the her having has issues of her own. Clark Gable plays a womanizing older cowboy, Eli Wallach is a former WWII pilot and mechanic, and Montgomery Clift arrives later as a charismatic rodeo performer who is down on his luck. The group eventually decides to head off into the Nevada desert to capture a group of wild horses in the film’s most dramatic scene. Shot in black and white, it’s visually stunning, and all of the actors, including Thelma Ritter as Roslyn’s landlord and friend, put in exceptional performances.
Watching The Misfits, it’s hard not to also be reminded of the actors’ lives outside of the film, and what was to come. While writing her character, Miller used aspects of Monroe’s past and personality. This mixture of fact and fiction feels present in her performance and was complicated by her health struggles, substance abuse, and the continuing problems in her marriage to Miller. They divorced soon after, and within a year and a half, Monroe died, at 36, from a drug overdose. Clark Gable, who has some physically demanding scenes in the film, had a heart attack two days after the film was completed and died ten days after that. He was 59 years old. Montgomery Clift’s self-destructive behavior and substance abuse issues led to his death in 1966, at the age of 45.
Several photographers from Magnum photo agency were hired to shoot the making of the film. It’s an incredible list of famous photographers that includes Henri Cartier-Bresson, Inge Morath, Eve Arnold, Bruce Davidson, Cornell Capa, Ernst Haas, and Erich Hartmann. In Magnum’s On Set series, Inge Morath and Arthur Miller discuss working on set, and in another Eve Arnold‘s work is highlighted. Arthur Miller would later go on to marry Morath in 1962.
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, “A Reading from Homer” (1885) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
While interest in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey grew this summer with the release of Christopher Nolan’s film version, it is also one of the oldest and most popular works of literature in the Western canon. Over the years it has been referenced by many artists in painting, film, and works of literature. In addition, according to Merriam-Webster, there are even a few words in the English language that can trace their origins back to the Odyssey.
Here, a young poet crowned with a laurel wreath reads from Homer to an audience dressed for a festival. The setting is probably Greece toward the end of the seventh century BCE. The Greek letters in the upper right indicate that the place is dedicated to the poet.
Through attention to details such as architecture and dress, Alma-Tadema evokes scenes of everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome. However, his pictures are rarely entirely archaeologically accurate. For example, while he accurately rendered the ancient musical instrument on the left, a cithara, he also included a type of rose that did not exist before the nineteenth century.
Live readings of Homer’s works continue to this day. At the end of October, for example, the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago is hosting a marathon reading of the Odyssey taking place over two days.
Protesting injustice is a powerful way for individuals to come together to create change. In the exhibition How We Stay Free at Tilt Institute for the Contemporary Image, photos by Mike Arrison, Harvey Finkle, Joe Piette, and Sunny Singh vividly capture past protests that have taken place in Philadelphia over the years, reminding visitors of the power of community.
From the gallery about the exhibition:
Following the widely publicized murders of George Floyd and other Black citizens by police, an unprecedented wave of public outcry swept the nation. Despite the pervasive uncertainty and restrictions imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, Philadelphians organized and sustained mass protests, taking to the streets to emphatically demand racial justice, police accountability, and structural reform. Later that same year, the tragic shooting death of Walter Wallace Jr. by police officers in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Cobbs Creek further underscored these systemic issues. His family had called 911 seeking assistance for a mental health crisis, only for the encounter to escalate fatally, tragically illustrating the severe gaps in the community’s support and emergency response systems.
Inspired by the energy generated from these events, West Philadelphia residents Fajr Muhammad and Christopher Rogers published How We Stay Free: Notes On A Black Uprising. This project is not merely a book but a dynamic, living archive of community resistance, featuring powerful, multi-modal contributions from a diverse coalition of artists, writers, poets, and scholars who were active participants in the struggle. This exhibition, which shares the same title, serves as an essential visual and experiential archive. It documents the work initiated by the authors, alongside the tireless efforts of local organizations, grassroots collectives, and community-based activists. Philadelphia’s legacy of civil disobedience is both deep and enduring, stretching from the national Black Lives Matter protests to localized calls for Palestinian liberation and the No Arena fight against a proposed sports complex in the historic Chinatown neighborhood.
The visceral imagery and compelling narratives presented on the gallery walls emphasize a crucial point, a collective and sustained response is necessary to ensure meaningful and lasting progress is achieved. This philosophical approach—that change requires unity and shared purpose—serves as the foundational connective tissue binding both the publication and the exhibition. Spanning several decades of resistance and activism, the collection functions as a series of time capsules. These suspended moments deliberately position the artist not as detached photojournalists, but as participant-observers—marching alongside a broad and diverse coalition of revolutionaries united by the inalienable right of all people to be truly free.
Magic Hour by artist Brad Carney and poet Ursula Rucker was created to reflect personal moments and shared feelings from community experiences during magic hour. Magic hour is a transitional moment each day at sunrise and sunset where the light embraces us and gives us pause to view the awe of the light. The design represents a scene of transition. The sun is just about to set, people are coming and going, embracing the moment of illuminating light.
The mural, placed across the street from the Berks SEPTA station, is also reflective of a location of transition for many commuters going to work, school, and home. The mural aims to provide a moment of pause to those in their daily commute and passers-by, just as magic hour does — reflect in a moment, shed light on our lives, and embrace the day.
Each figurative element represents an expression of joy or wonder as the viewer connects within themselves or with others. The landscape draws from nature, historical buildings, and local contemporary settings reflecting the past, but also looking ahead at the collective bright future. The words and images in the mural are meant to stand alone. They can be formed into one’s own narrative, or be something that the viewer thinks about and interprets as they walk away from the mural.
Cy Twombly “Fifty Days at Iliam: Shield of Achilles”, 1978
Cy Twombly “Fifty Days at Iliam”, 1978, oil, oil crayon, and graphite on canvas
“Fifty Days at Iliam: Achaeans in Battle”, 1978
“Fifty Days at Iliam: The Fire that Consumes All before It”, 1978
“Fifty Days at Iliam: Shades of Achilles, Patroclus and Hector”, 1978
“Fifty Days at Iliam: Shades of Eternal Night”, 1978
Cy Twombly was born today, April 25th, in 1928. One of his most famous works is Fifty Days at Iliam, his visual interpretation of Homer’s poem the Iliad. This “painting in ten parts” is currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and images of each of the individual works can be found on the museum’s website.
About Fifty Days at lliam from the museum-
The pinnacle of Twombly’s lifelong preoccupation with Greek and Roman mythology, Fifty Days at lliam is the artist’s rendition of the last fifty days of the Trojan War. The monumental series fuses elements of Homer’s epic poem The lliad, probably written before 700 BCE, and Alexander Pope’s translation of that poem from the 1700s.
The artist purposefully misspells the name of the besieged Trojan city as lliam, instead of the Latin llium or the Greek Ilion. The letter “a” stands as a symbol for the Greek warrior Achilles, whose rage sparked by the death of his friend Patroclus propels the end of the decade-long conflict.
Partaking in a long artistic tradition of depicting war, Twombly addresses themes of heroism and aggression, comradeship and revenge, jubilant victory and the mourning of the dead. The ten canvases can be encountered sequentially or experienced as an all-encompassing panorama that gives the sensation of witnessing the battle firsthand.
Twombly’s signature style combines the poignant gestures of abstraction with poetic allusions to classicism. Relocating from the United States to Italy in the 1950s proved decisive for Twombly’s art, which uses raw mark-making to allude to the myths of antiquity.
For a look at Twombly’s life and career, the 2018 documentary Cy Dear, is well worth a watch. The film begins with a discussion of Fifty Days at lliam, which was on view as part of a 2017 retrospective at Centre Pompidou in Paris. It also includes interviews with several of his friends and colleagues– including former assistants, his son Alessandro, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and photographer Sally Mann.
Happy Birthday to music legendIggy Pop, who turns 79 today! He most recently performed (shirtless, of course) at Coachella, leaving the stage theatrically in a coffin. His set included his popular solo hits, like The Passenger (which he sings in the above video), as well as a few from his time with The Stooges.
Below he reads Dylan Thomas‘s poem, Do not go gentle into that good night, a performance included on his 2019 album, Free.
Cleveland artist Jake Kelly‘s 2010 mural was inspired by the artwork and concepts of ArtsCollinwood‘s portfolio project students. Along with his numerous murals band posters, and fliers, he has also made several comics detailing darker moments from Cleveland’s history.
He also created the fictional series, The Lake Erie Monster, with fellow artist John G. A few issues are currently available online for free.
More about the series from their website-
The flagship story is an “adaptation” of a fake movie that J. Kelly developed for a series of Ten Imaginary Movie Posters. Set in the 1970s, we follow a cast of eclectic characters as they have to navigate the choppy waters stirred up by a Monster born out of the pollution from a city gone to seed. Along with the main title, each issue will feature at least one short back up story.
The Aither‘s 2023 interview with Kelly is also worth a read for more information on the artist.
In Andrei Tarkovsky‘s 1983 film, Nostalghia, a Russian author finds himself lost in memories of home while traveling in Italy researching the life of an 18th century Russian composer who committed suicide after returning to Russia from Italy. The film initially follows the author, Andrei Gorchakov, and his relationship with his attractive interpreter. Drifting between dreams of his family in Russia shot in black-and-white and the present day in color, he later becomes fascinated by a local man, Domenico, who struggles with complicated issues of his own.
Nostalghia features motifs Tarkovsky used in many of his films including reflections, mirrors, water, and birds. There are also several scenes reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman‘s work, including the dream scenes of his wife and the interpreter (seen below). Tarkovsky’s feelings while living in Italy, away from his homeland, are also mirrored by those of Gorchakov.
It is in the character of Domenico (played by actor Erland Josephson who was also in several Bergman films), his past, and his connection to the author, that the film takes a more interesting and tragic turn.
Through Domenico’s moving speech, given from on top of a statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, Tarkovsky comments on a culture he sees headed in the wrong direction.
“What ancestor speaks in me? I can’t live simultaneously in my head and in my body. That’s why I can’t be just one person. I can feel within myself countless things at once.
There are no great masters left. That’s the real evil of our time. The heart’s path is covered in shadow. We must listen to the voices that seem useless in brains full of long sewage pipes of school wall, tarmac and welfare papers. The buzzing of insects must enter. We must fill the eyes and ears of all of us with things that are the beginning of a great dream. Someone must shout that we’ll build the pyramids. It doesn’t matter if we don’t. We must fuel that wish and stretch the corners of the soul like an endless sheet.
If you want the world to go forward, we must hold hands. We must mix the so-called healthy with the so-called sick. You healthy ones! What does your health mean? The eyes of all mankind are looking at the pit into which we are plunging. Freedom is useless if you don’t have the courage to look us in the eye, to eat, drink and sleep with us! It’s the so-called healthy who have brought the world to the verge of ruin. Man, listen! In you water, fire and then ashes, and the bones in the ashes. The bones and the ashes!
Where am I when I’m not in reality or in my imagination? Here’s my new pact: it must be sunny at night and snowy in August. Great things end. Small things endure. Society must become united again instead of so disjointed. Just look at nature and you’ll see that life is simple. We must go back to where we were, to the point where we took the wrong turn. We must go back to the main foundations of life without dirtying the water. What kind of world is this if a madman tells you you must be ashamed of yourselves!
O Mother! The air is that light thing that moves around your head and becomes clearer when you laugh.”
Although written in the 1980s the speech feels relevant today, perhaps more than ever. Below is the re-release trailer.
Isabelle, by German sculptor Julian Voss-Andreae is located in Palm Springs, California. Voss-Andreae creates sculptures designed to change their appearance- disappearing at times when viewed at a certain angle. His background in science helped to influence this work when he went on to study art.
Below is a section of his biography from his website-
Prior to his art career, Julian Voss-Andreae studied quantum physics and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin and Edinburgh. As a graduate student at the University of Vienna, Voss-Andreae was one of the small team led by 2022 Nobel Prize Laureate Anton Zeilinger that conducted a ground-breaking experiment in quantum mechanics in 1999. The researchers showed that even molecules as big as C-60 “Buckyballs” can reveal their fundamentally quantum nature under the right conditions. Zeilinger’s group found that a beam of them, passed through a diffraction grating, will exhibit the purely wavelike property of interference. Subsequent experiments showed how interactions with the environment (in the form of infrared photons and background gas of different densities) will gradually wash away the ‘quantum-ness’ thanks to the process of decoherence, which is now recognized as the way the classical world emerges from the quantum.
Our Single Garment of Destiny, (pictured below) is located in Washington Gladden Social Justice Park in Columbus, Ohio. It was specifically designed for the park and takes its name and inspiration from the Martin Luther King Jr. quote below.
“All [people] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)
The video below explains his process when creating the sculptures.
