What is Art?
Author's Deep Dive Reveals Absurdities of NYC's Contemporary Art Scene
By Mel Laytner
What is art?
Journalist Bianca Bosker tackled this question head-on, or more accurately, head-first, diving deep and emerging with "Get the Picture," a rollicking expose of New York’s contemporary art scene.
With sharp humor and sharper insights, Bosker shared her experiences in a wide-ranging conversation with the Silurians own Betsy Ashton, herself a successful artist, at the club’s Feb. 19 luncheon, catered, perhaps ironically, by the National Art Club.
“For most of my adult life, art and I were not on speaking terms,” Bosker said. Wandering through galleries and museums, she recalled she felt “at least two tattoos and a master’s degree away from figuring out” what she was seeing.
This led her to withdraw from art entirely, a retreat she now calls “the coward’s way out.”
A turning point came in the family attic with the discovery of paintings of “dancing carrots” by her late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, created for children in a displaced persons camp after the war.
Click to register - Wednesday, Mar. 19
In 2025, Our Profession is Being Challenged Like Never Before.
A combination of new political threats to press freedom, collapsing business models and rapidly advancing AI is jeopardizing the essential elements of fearless reporting that have made America's news media the envy of the world.
Our March 19 luncheon will feature three of the most incisive observers of the news media today — Brian Stelter, Oliver Darcy and Sewell Chan who hopefully will help find answers to a key question: What can we do about it?
Brian Stelter is the chief media analyst for CNN Worldwide and the lead author of the Reliable Sources newsletter.
He is also host of Vanity Fair’s weekly podcast, Inside the Hive, and author of three books, most recently “Network of Lies,” which examined Dominion’s blockbuster defamation case against Fox News.
The Wall Street Journal has declared Oliver Darcy's new independent newsletter, Status, a "must-read" for anyone who wants insight into what's happening inside the news media.
Status prides itself for its "scoop-driven reporting and sharp-edged analysis." Darcy covers everything from Silicon Valley to presidential politics, aiming to connect the dots in a fragmented and fast moving media landscape.
Sewell Chan is the new executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. Previously, Chan was editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit newsroom based in Austin.
During his tenure the Tribune won the National Magazine Award and the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
A Silurian at the Met Museum of Art: Chester Higgins, Jr.
Award winning photographer's fascination with Egypt
By Roberta Hershenson
One of the hottest art shows in town this winter was “Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876—Now,” which closed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Feb. 17. Critic Jason Farago, writing in the New York Times, called the show “winningly eclectic” and “beautifully designed,” while referring to Ancient Egypt as “an inspiration but also a lost dream” for the Black diaspora.
Photo by Betsy Kissam
Chester Higgins, Jr., flanked by his two pieces in the Met’s “Flight Into Egypt” exhibit: “My two images help celebrate the African presence in the ancient Egyptian civilization.”
Applications Now Open for Silurians' 80th Excellence in Journalism Awards
- We're the only awards program exclusively honoring local news coverage in the Metro area.
- Awards presented in 16 categories.
- Entry deadline:midnight Monday March 10, 2025.
Selwyn Raab, The Don of Mafia Reporters, Dies at 90
From Mafia chronicler to Best Selling author to Consulting Producer
By Clyde Haberman
[Excerpt from NY Times Obituary, March 4, 2025]
Selwyn Raab, an investigative reporter for The New York Times and other news organizations who in exacting detail explored the Mafia’s many tentacles, and whose doggedness helped lead to the exoneration of men wrongly convicted of notorious 1960s killings, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 90.
His son-in-law, Matthew Goldstein, a Times reporter, said the cause of his death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, was intestinal complications.
Selwyn Raab in 1974, the year he joined The New York Times. He would work there for 26 years. [Credit...The New York Times]
