#artfulreading

[weinbergmodernbooks]

In the distant summer of 2018, we collaborated with the talented @yaffegiraffy to create our branding suite that you see above and below.💙🤍 After that and the debut of #WeinbergModernBooks @brooklynbookfair, we set our sights on *the website* — then life intervened, as it is wont to do: We mounted an exhibition, went back to the classroom, wed, found our home (near amenities that truly matter — Austrian café & German deli!), endured a renovation in historical UES (#iykyk), reimagined and consolidated our business, packed up our entire life and work and made both moves in vicious summer heat, set up our Tribeca bookstore/gallery, and watched many a ballet along the way… Has it really been FOUR years? Apparently it has.🤪 . . . September 12, 2018: “2. Part #FrankLloydWright stained glass, part #WienerWerkstätte wallpaper. Our #WM📚 icon has endless stylish potentials. 😎 #bookishliving #artfulreading” https://www.instagram.com/p/Chp7fUhBBQv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#weinbergmodernbooks #iykyk #franklloydwright #wienerwerkstätte #wm📚 #bookishliving #artfulreading

[ebbandrose]

BOOK CLUB // The Lonely City review

So anyone who follows me on Instagram may have seen my recent shot of ‘The Lonely City’ by Olivia Laing. I started reading this after seeing a different post on insta by Artfulreader. Although the tag line is “Adventures in the art of being alone”, the book is less about the authors experiences and more snapshots of artists and individuals she felt connected with by virtue of living in the same city decades later. It’s a testament to how our cities are developing not only in the present sense, but also in the way that history grows a little bigger with each passing day. I really enjoyed the well chosen, monumental events juxtaposed with Laing’s own situation of loneliness. The four main subjects (Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz and Henry Darger) are possibly the creators of urban loneliness, before that was even a term. Surrounded by bodies- naturally, living in New York- but unable to bridge that deep and meaningful connection to satisfaction, they instead chose to devote themselves to their arts.

Of course the need for connection does not just vanish, but left unfulfilled it became the subject of many of their best pieces (whether they wanted to admit or not). Hopper’s use of space in his paintings, the lack of closeness between anything or anyone he depicts, are brilliantly explored by Laing in parallel: living in a city by yourself you are nearly always surrounded by a bubble of personal space that most daren’t cross into. She lives Warhol’s attachment to technology, as we all might do when the first thing we do upon waking is check our social media. The themes turn darker still when we are introduced to the AIDs epidemic through David Wojnarowicz’s eyes. I cannot comprehend the fear and isolation experienced by all in the communities affected, not only between different groups but within the same populations.

The journey takes Laing outside of herself: to see loneliness through another’s eyes is to feel a connection. Being reminded that loneliness is simply another human state is something I think we could all do with hearing every once in a while. Rather than reject our emotions, we ought to acknowledge the stigma and exclusion in the larger world leading to this state, and work on shielding ourselves against that. There are no peaks without troughs, and I believe to exist in a state of constant would be worse than not existing at all.

What did you think of The Lonely City? Find it here.

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