In the twilight of empire

This just in from Orion Online: a brief, lyrical appreciation of the contemporary USian landscape painter Linden Frederick by the author of The Geography of Nowhere.

Frederick’s method is to capture his subjects in crepuscular light. This allows a kind of natural editorial process in which the superfluous visual clutter recedes and the seemingly banal buildings can be viewed in full frontal nakedness, like old prostitutes in a dim room. Often a light is burning somewhere in or around the subject to remind us that inside dwells the remnant of a human spirit. Other times his subjects appear to be derelict or abandoned. The beauty of the evening skies Frederick depicts is in vivid contrast to the mood of ruin and anomie that pervade his scenes.

– James Howard Kunstler

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