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55b. Bonus: Sandow Birk on the Divine Comedy.
I’ve always struggled, since I went to art school, with the question of: What
is the career of making paintings in the twenty-first century? Of sitting
alone in a room and painting in a way people did 500 years ago, in the world
of technology and movies and stuff. So I always wanted to make works that are
about now, but then show that they’re coming out of the history of art and are
tied to art history.... And to say, look, see how the history of art keeps moving
forward, and it’s still connected… It’s sort of a way to try to prove that
painting matters.
Sandow Birk is an artist whose works have dealt with contemporary life in
its entirety, exploring themes such as inner city violence, graffiti,
political issues, travel, war, and prisons, as well as surfing and
skateboarding. Some of his work specifically engages with the kinds of “great
books” that we explore here at the Spouter-Inn, including an illustrated
version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, reworked with Marcus Sanders, from 2005, as
well as the American Qur’an, published in 2016.
Sandow joins us to discuss these two projects and the impulse of reading a
centuries-old text and saying: What if this were here and now? What would that
look like?
Show Notes.
Sandow Birk’s website includes illustrations from
the Divine Comedy, the American
Qur’an, and other works we discuss.
The Divine Comedy.
[Bookshop.]
American Qur’an.
[Bookshop.]
A talk Sandow gave about the American
Qur’an (introduced by Karla
Mallette, who spoke with us about
Purgatorio!)
Gustave Doré’s illustrations for the Divine
Comedy.
Matthew Collins, ed.: Reading Dante with Images.
Dante’s Inferno, the animated film.
Kent Monkman.
The Chester Beatty.
Arion Press and their editions of The Fairy
Tales of Oscar Wilde and Moby-Dick.
Machado de Assis: The Posthumous Memories of Brás
Cubas.
Roberto Bolaño: 2666.
Support The Spouter-Inn and our network, Megaphonic, on
Patreon! Thanks.
View all episodes
By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma
4.8
3030 ratings
I’ve always struggled, since I went to art school, with the question of: What
is the career of making paintings in the twenty-first century? Of sitting
alone in a room and painting in a way people did 500 years ago, in the world
of technology and movies and stuff. So I always wanted to make works that are
about now, but then show that they’re coming out of the history of art and are
tied to art history.... And to say, look, see how the history of art keeps moving
forward, and it’s still connected… It’s sort of a way to try to prove that
painting matters.
Sandow Birk is an artist whose works have dealt with contemporary life in
its entirety, exploring themes such as inner city violence, graffiti,
political issues, travel, war, and prisons, as well as surfing and
skateboarding. Some of his work specifically engages with the kinds of “great
books” that we explore here at the Spouter-Inn, including an illustrated
version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, reworked with Marcus Sanders, from 2005, as
well as the American Qur’an, published in 2016.
Sandow joins us to discuss these two projects and the impulse of reading a
centuries-old text and saying: What if this were here and now? What would that
look like?
Show Notes.
Sandow Birk’s website includes illustrations from
the Divine Comedy, the American
Qur’an, and other works we discuss.
The Divine Comedy.
[Bookshop.]
American Qur’an.
[Bookshop.]
A talk Sandow gave about the American
Qur’an (introduced by Karla
Mallette, who spoke with us about
Purgatorio!)
Gustave Doré’s illustrations for the Divine
Comedy.
Matthew Collins, ed.: Reading Dante with Images.
Dante’s Inferno, the animated film.
Kent Monkman.
The Chester Beatty.
Arion Press and their editions of The Fairy
Tales of Oscar Wilde and Moby-Dick.
Machado de Assis: The Posthumous Memories of Brás
Cubas.
Roberto Bolaño: 2666.
Support The Spouter-Inn and our network, Megaphonic, on
Patreon! Thanks.
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