Man Ray and the Aztec Corn Goddess

The other day I was perusing (for the umpteenth time) Man Ray Portraits: Paris—Hollywood—Paris, featuring photographs from the archives of the Centre Pompidou, when suddenly this picture on page 284 jumped out at me in a new way. The subject of the photograph is the ballerina Tamara Toumanova, but behind her is the Arensbergs’ Aztec Corn Goddess!

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Diego Rivera’s Flowered Canoe

The wonderful exhibition Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, curated by Barbara Haskell (with a book designed by Michelle Nix of McCall Associates!) is still up for another few weeks at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It’s a great chance to see Diego Rivera’s La canoa enflorada (The Flowered Canoe).

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