Mars van Grunsven

Samples

OLD MASTERS AMONG CONCRETE
— March 18, 2021
Less frills, more grandeur. The classic masterpieces from the Frick Collection temporarily reside in the former Met Breuer in New York. The result can be surprisingly intimate. ‘It’s hard to miss the sadness in Philip IV’s eyes.’
NRC – Frick Madison (Dutch)

ODE TO BLACK CULTURE’S RESILIENCE
—March 10, 2021
The exhibition “Grief and Grievance”, at the New Museum in New York, is all about black grief from the civil rights movement to now—and the white grievance that causes it. It is the last exhibition by curator Okwui Enwezor, who passed away in 2019.
NRC – Grief and Grievance (Dutch)

MURDER IN PARADISE — October 18, 2019
A trip to the Galapagos reveals a bizarre sequence of events that unfolded there between 1929 and 1934—including a birth in a pirate cave, possibly poisoned boiled chicken, and a series of deaths and disappearances that look a lot like murder.
Literary Hub – The Baroness and the Bohemians

HOMO AMERICANUS — June 6, 2017
Raymond Pettibon came up through the 70s punk scene of LA, these days his work is on view in the world’s fanciest galleries and museums. It hasn’t changed him as an artist, he says. At all. “I work with what I know. That’s baseball and surfing. Not cricket.”
Zuiderlucht – Interview Pettibon (Dutch)

WHEN GREAT ARCHITECTURE MEETS GOOD ART — March 24, 2016
With the Met Breuer, New Yorkers gain another museum for modern art. The opening exposition holds the promise of good times coming.
NRC – Opening Met Breuer (Dutch)

IN SLOVENIA, EVERYTHING IS BETTER — March 23, 2016
In Where to Invade Next the film maker Michael Moore comes to Europe “to conquer ideas” he thinks his own country should implement. At times, that is entertaining. But does it make for a good movie?
De Groene – Michael Moore (Dutch)

THE NEGOTIATOR — January 13, 2016
In The Diplomat the documentary film maker David Holbrooke looks back on the life of his father, Richard Holbrooke. The result is a fascinating, though quite selective insider perspective of American foreign policy since the Vietnam war.
De Groene – Holbrooke (Dutch)

CAPTAIN COOK’S COMPANIONS — July 1, 2015
Infrared and magnetometry have replaced pure adventure, yet in the Explorers Club in New York the urge to explore is alive and kicking. “The world is made of atoms, but it’s really made of stories.”
Groene – Explorers Club in NYC (Dutch)

IS DETROIT THE NEW BROOKLYN? — January 28, 2015
After twenty years, the Galapagos Art Space swaps expensive New York City for inexpensive Detroit. Can the Motor City become the new Brooklyn?
NRC – Detroit’s Art Scene (PDF, Dutch)

IN SEARCH OF THE APOCALYPSE
— November 12, 2014
Interview with George Packer about The Unwinding, his “non-fiction novel” that depicts the social breakdown of American life from the late Seventies until now. “I wanted to write a book that is not easily forgettable.”
Groene – Interview Packer (Dutch)

TWO GREATS DRIVEN BY THEIR SEX DRIVE
— June 27, 2014
Norman Mailer (1923-2007) and Gore Vidal (1925-2012) combined intellectual acumen with a loud public voice. Both were pugnacious and led promiscuous lives. The latter aspect is the focus of two new biographies.
NRC – Review biographies Mailer and Vidal (Dutch)

ELVIS AND GLADYS — October 14, 2014
Essay in the collection The Who, the What, and the When, an inventory of the sidekicks behind a wide range of cultural icons—in this case Gladys Presley, who inspired her son to create a sound that would change pop music decisively. Illustration by Rachael Cole.
Essay (scroll to middle of page) and book spread (PDF)

SHE TURNED TURBULENCE INTO LITERATURE
— June 4, 2014
Maya Angelou grew up in poverty and became an inspired civil rights activist. But we will always remember her as a writer who turned her turbulent life into literature.
Groene – Maya Angelou Obituary (PDF, Dutch)

FOR COUNTRY, MUSIC AND JUSTICE — February 5, 2014
Pete Seeger – This Land Is Your Land, We Shall Overcome – wasn’t just a troubadour for the good: he was an optimist with a deep love for his country and its music.
Groene – Pete Seeger Obituary (Dutch)

MARTHA NUSSBAUM ON FEAR AND IMAGINATION
— June 20, 2013
The famous philosopher worries about religious intolerance and goes to bat for the liberal arts. “We need to ask ourselves: what kind of citizens do we want to be?”
Groene – Interview Nussbaum (PDF, Dutch)

ON THE WAVES OF INTELLECTUAL DISSENT
— April 12, 2013
A double portrait of two pillars of New York intellectualism—the New York Review of Books and the Paris Review—whose circulations are up.
NRC – NYRB and Paris Review (PDF, Dutch)

WHEN THE APPLE DOES FALL FAR FROM THE TREE
— January 15, 2013
Andrew Solomon’s new book, Far from the Tree, lovingly describes the experiences of parents whose children have radically different identities than their own—from prodigy to mass murderer.
NRC – Review of Far from the Tree (PDF, Dutch)

AMERICAN MEDIA LACK SUBVERSION
— November 22, 2012
The American tradition of advocacy journalism has practically disappeared from the mainstream media. Where are the I.F. Stones of back in the day?
Groene – Advocacy Journalism (PDF, Dutch)

ABSINT & SEXY POETRY — July 4, 2011
For 10 dollars, the whores of The Poetry Brothel in New York will give you a private reading of their poetry. Reportage of a night at the Poetry Brothel.
NRC Next – The Poetry Brothel (Dutch)

NUNS, DOGS & ELVES — May 11, 2011
Laurie Anderson tells stories about “things the way they are, not how they could or should be.” Her muse is Lolabelle, her recently deceased terrier.
Groene – Laurie Anderson (PDF)

JUMP INTO THE SHALLOW — August 12, 2010
The younger generations grow up with the Internet and wireless technologies. Are these “digital natives” different from the rest? And what does the digitalizing of our lives mean for the future of thinking?
Groene – Generation Digital (PDF, Dutch)

THE SALINGER OF THE SOUTH — July 8, 2010
On July 11, 1960, Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird. The people of Monroeville, Lee’s hometown in Alabama, are still keeping the story alive.
Groene – To Kill a Mockingbird (PDF, Dutch)

FROM EIGHT TO EIGHT — July 8, 2010
Idleness is not much appreciated in the US, let alone that one has time for it. At least, that is how the culture prescribes us to feel. “The longing for flow is deeply embedded in humans.”
Groene – Idleness (PDF, Dutch)

WRITING BEHIND A SECRET DOOR — January 7, 2010
Park Slope in Brooklyn, probably New York City’s most literary neighborhood, houses 826NYC, a charitable writing school for kids, founded by Dave Eggers. Its philosophy: writers own the future.
Groene – Dave Eggers School (PDF, Dutch)

“DIE YUPPIE SCUM, DIE!” — November 20, 2009
Clayton Patterson has been documenting life in New York’s Lower East Side for more than thirty years. Without knowing it, he was registering the last convulsions of a “wild, free, lawless, utopian and visionary spirit.”
Groene – Gentrification and the Lower East Side (PDF, Dutch)