04 Jul 2026
issue 04 July 2026
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In this clever, moving mosaic of a book, Sara Baume tells us she originally wanted to be an art critic and that she wrote exhibition catalogue copy. It has served her well, as Opening Night is an evolved form of that genre – including 39 excellently reproduced images of paintings by the subject, and one extra – but it is also a form of memoir. By that I do not mean ‘life writing’ or ‘autofiction’, as it is a work of remembering and memorialising, even if that involves recording the gaps and lapses. The lacunae operate like an undercoat: the occluded thing that changes how you see.
Just before the pandemic, Baume states in the opening sentence: ‘I met Mollie’s paintings before I met Mollie.’ The small paintings have skewed perspectives and an ‘atmosphere pitched somewhere between cheer and creepiness’. Mollie is Mollie Douthit, originally from North Dakota, but who considers herself – or at least her work – Irish. She lives a pared-back, spartan existence, and the two women (via Instagram) become friends.
