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Art News: A Wall of Schjeldahl, and Niemann Wows Us (Again)

Filed under: Eustace Google Tagged: art, Christoph Niemann, design, Peter Schjeldahl, subways

We knew New Yorker art reviews were huge, but this huge? Via the Tomorrow Museum, news of an ersatz Peter Schjeldahl art review, "Canal Street Swoons," with classic New Yorker layout (more or less) and all, on a Brooklyn building. C-Monster, whose Flickr link this is, writes,

Proving that there’s never any shortage of excitement in the small and entertaining world of New York City street art, some super-meta conceptual type decided to paste a fake New Yorker critique about street art on the side of some building in Brooklyn. The prankster even attributed the “review” to the magazine’s art critic, Peter Schjeldahl.

I’m all for spoofing mainstream media, but, sadly, this piece doesn’t live up to its promise. For one, anybody who is gonna spoof the New Yorker better be able to deliver on the turn-of-phrase. This does not. (Sample sentence: “There is no sacrifice to putting this work on the street. That’s the street game, duh.”) On the content side, things don’t fare too well either. Someone risked arrest to let us know that there’s a visual kinship between the work of Swoon, Gaia and Elbow-Toe.

I was very excited, however, to see that a long-time New Yorker staple--the European beret advert, at bottom right--made it into the piece. I like to believe that everyone who works for the New Yorker wears one of these when they write.

And now, Christoph Niemann the Great on his subway-obsessed kids. If this doesn't become a children's book soon, the numberless Arthurs and Gustavs of the five boroughs will have a tantrum that will stop the system in its tracks.

Thanks to J.M. and J.G., respectively, for these links. They are fabulous.

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Who we?

Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

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We welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.

No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.

This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.

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Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)

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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

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Edited by Martin Schneider, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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