December 18 & 25, 2017 Issue

Every now and then, there’s a note in “Goings On About Town” that strikes me as just about perfect. Example: “Art: Andy Hope 1930,” in this week’s issue, which reads as follows:

In what used to be Eva Hesse’s attic studio, and is now a gallery named after the Robert Moses highway project that would have destroyed the neighborhood in which it is located, four silicone brains sit in fish tanks on the floor. They’re thinking about Hegel’s “Phenomenology of the Spirit,” a section of which is busily typing itself on a nearby MacBook. They’re thinking about the shape that dominates the lacquer, oil, and acrylic paintings of Hope 1930, a German artist, who was born Andreas Hofer. (The shape is reminiscent of a male torso, but is actually the silhouette of a rolling garbage can.) They’re also thinking about the flat hierarchy of images in the Internet age, in which “Star Trek” and Francis Picabia—both sources here—have an interchangeable cultural value.

I’d love to know who wrote that. The brilliant combination of so many diverse elements – “Eva Hesse’s attic studio,” “Robert Moses highway project,” “four silicone brains,” “fish tanks on the floor,” “Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of the Spirit,’ ” “nearby MacBook,” “lacquer, oil, and acrylic paintings of Hope 1930,” “male torso,” “silhouette of a rolling garbage can,” “Internet age,” “ ‘Star Trek,’ ” “Francis Picabia” – into a coherent, shapely capsule review smacks of genius.