Fine Arts
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First Nations at Art Gallery of Ontario
A Third of the Museum’s Gallery Space
By: - Jun 03rd, 2019During a recent road trip we visited museums in Montreal, Ottowa and Toronto. We noted different strategies to intergate First Nations artists into special exhibitions and permanent collection galleries. A third of the exhibition space of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto features First Nations artists. With an unfavorable comparison only a handful of American museums have a commitment to feature Native American art and culture.
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MFA Addresses Recent Incident of Racism
An Open Letter from Director Matthew Teitelbaum
By: - Jun 03rd, 2019A group of 26 middle-school students with chaperones from the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy visited the MFA on May 16, 2019. They were on a self-guided visit. Before leaving the Museum, the group filed a complaint with Member and Visitor Services that they were met with racism and verbal abuse from visitors and staff during the visit. In an open letter to the MFA Community its director Matthew Teitelbaum details the museum's response and plan of action.
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Canadian Curator Claude Gosselin Turns 75
Founded Biennale de Montréal
By: - Jun 05th, 2019Today, June 5, friends will gather to celebrate the 75th birthday of the curator Calude Gosselin. Not having visited Montréal in some time we made plans for travel in the fall. That changed abruptly when we were bumped off a flight to the U.K. From the road we called Claude and told him we would arrive in a couple of hours. It was great to catch up. Since the 1980s he has curated major exhibitions including Les Cent jours d’art contemporain de Montréal and Biennale de Montréal. We covered many of those projects.
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50th Anniversary of Stonewall
About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art
By: - Jun 09th, 2019About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a spontaneous rebellion by gay activists after a police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Curated by Jonathan David Katz, Ph.D., activist, art historian, writer and university professor, the exhibit features almost 500 works of art in every conceivable media.
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Gabrielle Barzaghi: The Tzar’s Children
Gloucester’s Trident Gallery
By: - Jun 14th, 2019Trident Gallery in Gloucester is presenting Gabrielle Barzaghi: The Tzar’s Children. There will be a discussion wth the figurative /narrative artist on Sunday, June 16, at 4 PM.
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Basquiat x Warhol at The School
Summer Exhibition in Kinderhook New York
By: - Jun 22nd, 2019The Swiss dealer, Bruno Bischofberger commissioned a collaboration between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as well as Francesco Clemente. The project with Clemente fizzled by thrived with the other two artists. The dealer would purchase between sixty and eighty of their works together. The project wasn't completed but eight works from the series are on view at The School in Kinderhook New York. There are some hundred works by the artists on view, Saturdays, through early September.
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Mugar's Theory of Zombie Abstraction
An Update and Controversy
By: - Jun 24th, 2019When I first wrote about Zombie abstraction in December 2013 several months before the concept achieved notoriety in Walter Robinson's now famous essay on Zombie Formalism, I got a blowback in a comment on my Zombie blog from artist Craig Stockwell.
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Patricia Hills on American Art
Whitney Museum Curator and Boston University Professor
By: - Jun 25th, 2019A leading scholar of American Art, Patricia Hills curated major exhibitions for the Whitney Museum including "John Singer Sargent."Her books and catalogues range from Eastman Johnson, to Alice Neel and Jacob Lawrence. At Boston University she trained a generation of scholars and curators. As a Marxist she has been particularly involved in social justice projects.
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Marjorie Minkin: The Shape of Light
Museum Quality Work at Real Eyes Gallery in the Berkshires
By: - Jul 05th, 2019In a relatively short time Real Eyes Gallery. located in the heart of Adams in the Berkshires. is notable for programming museum level exhibtions. Marjorie Minkin: The Shape of Light sets the bar high. Gallerist Bill Reilly has been able to work with artists from an expanding and ever more remarkable community of artists. How long can MASS MoCA ignore phenomenal work being created in its own back yard?
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Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian
Up Close and Personal at the Gardner Museum
By: - Jul 16th, 2019To mark the 500th anniversary of the legendary painter Raphael’s death, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will bring together - for the first time – Raphael’s portrait of papal librarian, Tommaso Inghirami, from its collection and a painting depicting an episode in his life from the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City.
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Kevin Puts Premiere at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons Conducts Renee Fleming and Rod Gilfry
By: - Jul 21st, 2019The Brightness of Light by Kevin Puts had its world premiere at The Shed at Tanglewood. Rod Gilfry, baritone, and Puts' collaborator Renee Fleming, sang the baritone and soprano roles of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keefe, who were married for twenty-two years. Often living and working in different parts of America, they corresponded. Puts scoured the correspondence to develop an arc for his orchestral song cycle. It is a brilliantly achieved work.
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Renoir: the Body, the Senses
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
By: - Jul 23rd, 2019On the occasion of the 100th anniversary since his death the Clark Art Institute has organized a scholarly exhibition Renoir: the Body, the Senses. At his best few 19th century masters can match his charm and popular appeal. His greatest works were included in the 1985-1986 blockbuster exhibition Renoir, which was shown in London and Paris before it came to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It broke MFA records with 500,000 plus visitors. The Clark show by comparison is small and uneven.
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Carl Chiarenza on Boston Photography
Harvard Dissertation on Aaron Siskind First on Photography in US
By: - Aug 07th, 2019During graduate study at Boston University photographer Carl Chiarenza was a professor, mentor and friend. We spoke at length about how JFK and the Vietnam War nudged him into studying art history. At Harvard he was the first American to write a dissertation on photography. It was a biography and critical study of then living American icon Aaron Siskind. Now retired from the University of Rochester he continues to create new work.
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Oliver Beer's Vessel Orchestra at the MET Breuer
Nico Muhly and John Zorn compose for the Vessels
By: - Aug 13th, 2019The Metropolitan Museum of Art has mounted its first sound-based installation. British artist Oliver Beer selected 32 vessels from the Museum's vast collection. They form a 32 note chromatic scale which can performed on an electronic keyboard. The exhibit was a feast for eyes and ears.
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Bill Riley at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams
Interrupted Landscapes
By: - Aug 18th, 2019Bill Riley wears a number of hats. He is showing this month at Real Eyes the top notch gallery he runs in Adams. Mass, Now retired his day gig for many years was as a scene painter for the Metrpolitan Opera. Recently he has been free lancing for the hit Amazon comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He has the skill set to be a master forger to create works and sets in any medium or style. Many of these technical skills are applied to the works in the exhibition Interrupted Landscapes.
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Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition
North Adams Events in September and October
By: - Sep 06th, 2019The Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition will be held September 6 to September 29 at 243 Union Street in North Adams, Mass. 01247. This serves as a preview for Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20. The complex, which houses forty live/ work lofts, is the epicenter of an ever growing community of artists in Northern Berkshire County.
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Marjorie Kaye Synaptic Tides
Boston's Galatea Fine Arts
By: - Sep 10th, 2019I have been working on sculptural surfaces for my paintings for 6 months. In addition to the resulting surface tension, the work has become more lyrical, sprinkled with recognizable imagery. Vines, galaxies, probes, suns, microbial animals and plants divide the surface and define the space.
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John Zorn World Premiere at Columbia University
Pianist Stephen Gosling Paints in Notes
By: - Sep 12th, 2019The first of a series of monthly pop up concerts at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University presented the world premiere of John Zorn’s 18 Studies from the Later Sketchbooks of JMW Turner. This expansive work embraces a variety of styles and forms, all inspired by the watercolors of 19th-century English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. Pianist Stephen Gosling, a masterful interpreter of contemporary music and particularly Zorn's, performed.
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Don’t Give a Crap
Solid Gold Commode Gone Missing
By: - Sep 14th, 2019The rich are different from us. As a symbol of ultimate decadence Maurizio Cattelan created "America" a sold gold toilet. I lined up to take a pee in it at the Guggenheim Museum. Now it has gone missing.
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Alvin Ouellet at Real Eyes Gallery
Plein Air Paintings and Prints of Adams and North Adams
By: - Sep 27th, 2019With poetic irony, visitors to Ouelett’s one man exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams literally walk past his subject matter. To verify the veracity of his depictions one need but stand and gawk about on Park Street.
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Women You Should Know
Begging the Question at Gallery 51
By: - Sep 30th, 2019By any measure the current exhibition at Gallery 51 in North Adams is superb. There is a compelling synergy that threads through work by five artists all of whom live and work in the Berkshires
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The Clark Art Institute Preview
Summer 2020 Schedule Includes Outdoor Exhibition
By: - Oct 21st, 2019“The Clark’s upcoming summer season is an ambitious program highlighting new discoveries and new initiatives,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “We are truly energized by the opportunity to activate our entire campus by sharing exhibitions that will introduce our visitors—and the world—to artists whose work is vibrant, dynamic, and inspiring. This summer’s programs span more than one hundred years of artistic practice and explore a rich array of themes through both historic and contemporary lenses.”
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James Aponovich at Clark Gallery
Parables, Portraits and Recent Still Lifes
By: - Oct 21st, 2019James Aponovich is on the short list of leading American realist painters. He is having a stunning exhibition of new work at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
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Drawing and Painting By Martin G. Mugar
Lesson Plans for Faculty and Students
By: - Oct 22nd, 2019The artist Martin Mugar has posted a number of provocactive think pieces to this site. His self published book Drawing and Painting provides lesson plans for progressive faculty and students. It distills what he learned earning an MFA degree at Yale followed by decades of teaching. Like all of his writing the book is challengings and insightful.
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Charles Giuliano Photo Collages
Solo Exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery
By: - Oct 22nd, 2019Last summer for exhibitions at Gallery 51 and the Eclipse Gallery, both in North Adams, with Amanda at Beck's Printing I created large format digital prints on canvas. There were five last summer. Three classical based surreal prints are included in the November exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Ten more large canvases have been created for the project curated by gallerist Bill Riley. There are also some framed giclee prints as well as original collages.
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