Author Archives: michael andre

Pause for something completely different

By michael andre | July 27, 2010 | 0 Comments

Suddenly at the University of Chicago I discovered I could no longer tolerate literary criticism. I had noticed that anthologies of poetry and anthologies of art criticism seemed to have the same authors–Ashbery, Benedikt, Schjeldahl, O’Hara, et cetera–and all these writers seemed to live in New York. So I transferred to Columbia and decided to [...]

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Poetry and art and the Catholic Church

By michael andre | July 16, 2010 | 4 Comments

At one time Andy Warhol seemed the pinnacle of mysterious fame and glamour — beyond comprehension. He certainly seemed that way to me — and I published interviews with him in three different magazines. But when Andy died fifteen years later, it turned out he was secretly a practicing Roman Catholic. I was surprised. So [...]

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Line on Vasquez

By michael andre | January 18, 2010 | 0 Comments

The photographer Victor Vazquez makes a virtue of his defects. His nudes, for example, are not erotic. Yet as photographs they carry potent ideas. A lady in feathers, for instance, only evokes Santeria. Alas, poor chicken! Vazquez is a Puerto Rican nationalist. But his political views are neatly disciplined by a potent witty formalism. In [...]

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Triptych – Life, Art, Death

By michael andre | January 3, 2010 | 5 Comments

1. NORTH BAR & NEEDLE From the window of an elevated train I scout North Philadelphia. Topless bars. Beer and shot bars. “Police” equipment: handguns, rifles, shotguns. 99 cent stores. Pawn shops. Guys congregating on corners drinking beer. I wander a neighborhood at random. The consolidated library is empty and forlorn. The cashiers in the [...]

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Magicians of the Earth

By michael andre | October 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

John Baldessari that bastard, the late Jimmie Byers, the late Nancy Spero, august Louise Bourgeois, Claes the great Oldenburg, and Alighero e (and) Boetti are International School artists sharing space with Third World or “marginal” or “vernacular” or “outsider” artists in Back to the Earth: Revisiting Magiciens de la Terre at Fleisher/Ollman through December 5.

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Book Review: Games and art

By michael andre | July 23, 2009 | 2 Comments

Cage and Duchamp utilized chance in their art. Cage was less competitive than Duchamp. He loved casting yarrow sticks and reading the I Ching.

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Book review — Dead tree alert

By michael andre | July 6, 2009 | 2 Comments

Michael Andre edited with Erika Rothenberg The Poets’ Encyclopedia so he knows some things about reference books. Here’s his review of the Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists

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My heart belongs to DADA

By michael andre | June 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

Dada for Andrei Codrescu was not a style but a movement.  Movements are  part of  life. Dada reminds Codrescu of chess; chess is for the most part either war or a preparation for war. Chess, indeed, was once a war game. Aristocrats played it to get ready for the next fight.  

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A poet, a priest and a political activist walk into a room…

By michael andre | April 21, 2009 | 4 Comments

Religion distorted late twentieth century New York culture. For instance, I hosted a dinner party, and among the guests were the poet, priest and political activist, Daniel Berrigan, and the literary agent and retired epistemologist, John Brockman. John spoke nary a word. Afterwards I asked him about it, and he confessed: “I can’t help it. [...]

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Death and Stan the “Man,” or, the Gross Clinic in 2009?

By michael andre | April 5, 2009 | 2 Comments

My doctor back in New York was a D.O. rather than M.D. Doug Koch is a biologist at PCOM. That’s PCOM.edu. I thought it should be PCOM.com. It’s the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Doug says they’re stuck with PCOM. edu Whate’er.

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