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Sam Ben-Meir[/caption]
Sam Ben-Meir, PhD is an adjunct professor at Mercy College. His current research focuses on environmental ethics and animal studies. sam@alonben-meir.com
Read through the biblical Book of Job, Leviathan becomes a rigorously anti-consolatory work, approaching nihilism only to expose the conditions that make nihilism plausible. [Sam Ben-Meir]
The movie ‘Leviathan’ counters the biblical Book of Job Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & BroadcastHe took his walks by the river at dawn, when the fishermen were still flicking their lines to taste the mood of the current, and the first fruit sellers were bargaining with sleep. He liked the way mist lifted from the water as if the world were exhaling a secret it had no stake in keeping. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Jewish Short Story: ‘The Gatherer’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined ContributorsThere was no rabbinic academy then, no definitive text—only scrolls that wandered from town to town like goats, a few psalms humming under their breath, a few laws clean and sharp as a knife’s new edge. Prophets came and went as sandstorms do: sudden, convincing, then gone. The poet—let us call him simply the poet—kept his own counsel, carried a knife and an abacus, and learned the shapes of rumors. [Sam Ben-Meir]
A Short Story: The Poet of Uz Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Ndiaye’s Tabaski III (1970), explicitly depicts the aftermath of ritual sacrifice. The ram’s body, twisted and half-abstracted, glistens in layers of crimson and ochre, its form dissolving into painterly matter. The flesh here is not symbolic—it is the subject, the drama, the philosophy. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Flesh and Sacrifice: Iba Ndiaye at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
The foremost representative of early German Romantic painting, Friedrich is thankfully receiving renewed attention at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the public can acquaint itself not only with such well known works as Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and Two Men Contemplating the Moon, but lesser-known works that are no less extraordinary. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Nature and Geist: Caspar David Friedrich at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
By Sam Ben-Meir TOPEKA, Kansas — Dancing Waters is a new exhibition at Topeka’s Mulvane Art Museum, curated by museum director Connie Gibbons, and featuring the work of Rita Blitt, who has been making art consistently and diligently for over sixty years. In that time, Blitt has created a body of work of immense breadth
Dancing Waters: Rita Blitt at Mulvane Art Museum Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — The levels of wealth inequality we are currently witnessing in this country are unprecedented and alarming. The very richest among us have succeeded in grabbing ever more of the proverbial pie, and the trend is only worsening. Wealth inequality is proving disastrous for America. On both collective and individual
Freeing America From the Quagmire of Inequality Read More »
Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USA
By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — Clement Greenberg once observed that Edward Hopper was a “bad painter. But if he were a better painter, he would, most likely, not be so superior an artist.” “Edward Hopper’s New York,” a major retrospective currently on view at the Whitney Museum, confirms this judgment. There is occasionally a
Light and Obliquity: Edward Hopper at the Whitney Museum Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir “Anarchism is an aspect of socialism (among many others) that those of us wishing socialism, or some comparable form of resistance, to survive will have to think about again, this time without a prearranged sneer.” T. J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea It is 180 years since the birth of Pyotr Kropotkin
Pyotr Kropotkin, 180 Years Later Read More »
International, Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir
By Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, on view at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, features more than 200 artworks and artifacts from the artist’s estate – 177 of which have never been exhibited before. This highly unusual and intimate exhibition was assembled not by a curator or art historian, but by Basquiat’s
‘King Pleasure’ Lives Up to Its Name Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — If nothing else, the Republican Party has steadily removed any doubt that it has embraced an extremism that threatens the future of American Democracy. We can clearly perceive the imminent danger that the Party poses in several crucial ways, perhaps the most salient being the refusal of candidates to
The Authoritarian Personality and Rise of Right-Wing Extremism Read More »
Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USADuring his 50 years as a painter, Canadian American artist Philip Guston created a body of work that stands out as among the most significant and daring of the 20th century. His development as an artist involved several phases, and culminated with images notable for their dark, biting humor, distinct palette, unmistakable lexicon of objects, and concern with themes when taken together seem designed to heighten our uneasiness and have us question everything we thought we knew about painting. [Sam Ben-Meir]
‘Philip Guston Now’ at Boston Museum of Fine Art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-MeirBy Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — In the first episode of season three of The Kominsky Method (2021), there is a funeral service for Michael Douglas’ character’s lifelong friend Norman Newlander (played by Alan Arkin). By far the most inconsolable mourner to give a eulogy is Newlander’s personal assistant of 22 years who, amid a hyperbolical
Sleep No More: Capitalism and Insomnia Read More »
Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USABy Sam Ben-Meir NEW YORK — It is shameful and unconscionable that this country has allowed gun violence to become the leading cause of death among children in the United States – but that is the reality. The legislation, including gun measures, recently proposed by a bipartisan group of senators represents a step in the
Repeal the Second Amendment, Palladium of Death Read More »
Opinion, Sam Ben-Meir, USA