The MiraculousSeptember 2020New York
20. (Canal Street)
Word count: 134
Paragraphs: 3
When he dies of a drug overdose at 33 during a vacation in the Maldives, a German artist, lately resident in New York, leaves behind in his Düsseldorf studio a sequence of 40 aluminum panels painted in bands of red, yellow and black. Apparently conceived on a transatlantic flight (among the earliest traces of the work is a sketch on airmail stationary carrying the Lufthansa logo), the series reflects the last few years of his life in New York City, where his favorite activities included studying displays of Native American art, seeking out live jazz, and playing pinball at dive bars around Canal Street. Written in pencil on the back of each painted panel is the title of the work: To the People of N.Y.C.
(Blinky Palermo)
Raphael Rubinstein is the New York-based author of The Miraculous (Paper Monument, 2014) and A Geniza (Granary Books, 2015). Excerpts from his recently completed book Libraries of Sand about the Jewish-Egyptian writer Edmond Jabès have appeared in Bomb, The Fortnightly Review and 3:AM Magazine. In January 2023, Bloomsbury Academic will publish a collection of his writing titled Negative Work: The Turn to Provisionality in Contemporary Art. Since 2008 he has been Professor of Critical Studies at the University of Houston School of Art.