Description"In this delightful autofiction--the first book by Gainza, an Argentine art critic, to appear in English--a woman delivers pithy assessments of world-class painters along with glimpses of her life, braiding the two into an illuminating whole." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors\' Choice The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art.
She is coeditor of the collection Los Sentidos (The Senses) on Argentinean art, and in 2011 she published Textos elegidos (.
She has also been a contributor to Artforum, The Buenos Aires Review, and Radar, the cultural supplement from Argentine newspaper Página/12.
She has worked as a correspondent for The New York Times in Argentina, as well as for ARTnews.
About the Author María Gainza was born in Buenos Aires, where she still resides.
It is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.
Seductive and capricious, Optic Nerve marks the English-language debut of a major Argentinian writer.
The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.
All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator\'s life in Buenos Aires--her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. . .
Alfred de Dreux visits G ricault\'s workshop
Gustave Courbet\'s devilish seascapes incite viewers "to have sex, or to eat an apple"
Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau\'s honor .
The mystery of Rothko\'s refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator\'s husband receives chemotherapy.
In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo\'s bodies.
Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her.
The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her.
Description"In this delightful autofiction--the first book by Gainza, an Argentine art critic, to appear in English--a woman delivers pithy assessments of world-class painters along with glimpses of her life, braiding the two into an illuminating whole." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors\' Choice The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art
