When did Colin Firth’s nose turn terra cotta? Why is the
area above his left eye teal-colored? Why are Meredith Monk’s cheeks bandaged
with strips of coral, lemon chiffon, puce, and aquamarine? When did Helen
Mirren’s face develop all those cracks and fissures? What is the meaning of
that turquoise dab under Penelope Fitzgerald’s left nostril? These are just
some of the questions that run through my mind as I gaze at Connor Langton’s
beguiling, eye-catching, delectable New
Yorker illustrations. Consider his arresting “Thomas Cromwell,” an illustration
for Emily Nussbaum’s "Queens Boulevard," in this week’s issue: fractured
alabaster visage daubed with clay paints; subtle backdrop of pastel Tudor
imagery and pattern. Langton’s portraits are among the most strikingly original
artworks to appear in the magazine in the last five years.
 |
| Conor Langton, "Thomas Cromwell" |
Postscript: The
two pieces in this week’s issue I found most absorbing are Dana Goodyear’s "The Dying Sea" and James Wood’s "Circling the Subject." Goodyear’s piece is about California’s shrinking Salton Sea, “one of the last significant wetlands
remaining on the migratory path between Alaska and Central America.” It’s sort
of a companion to Goodyear’s great "Death Dust" (The New Yorker, January 20, 2014). Wood’s piece is a review of Amit
Chaudhuri’s novel Odysseus Abroad. It
touches on a couple of Wood’s preoccupations – the representation of undramatic
life (“there is no obvious plot, no determined design, no faked ‘conflict’ or
other drama”), and homelessness (“Each immigrant deals with the loss of his home,
and the quest for a new one, in his own way”).
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