Today is August 12, 2023. On this day, Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World (1492); American inventor Thomas Alva Edison makes his discovery of the phonograph (1877); Henry Ford’s company builds the first Model T car (1908); William Somerset Maugham’s acclaimed Of Human Bondage by is published (1915 ); A dedication of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home as a national shrine is held (1922); East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall serving as a symbol of the Cold War and separating East Berlin from West Berlin for 28 years (1961); Echo 1, the first communications satellite, is launched by NASA (1960); IBM introduces its first Personal Computer (1981); On this day 6 years ago, then U.S. President Donald Trump at a press conference hails the phrase “very fine people on both sides” in reference to the one-sided violence in Charlottesville, provoking widespread protests and resulting in the resignation of 16 members of the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (Art & Politics in America).
On this day August 12 was born German artist Hans Haacke (1936), and died Jean-Michel Basquiat (1988).
Welcome to the .142nd edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.