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Fine Arts

  • Ancient Nubia Now

    Social Justice Catches Up with the MFA

    By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 25th, 2019

    During a recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts a school group was inappropriately treated in a blatantly racist manner. That has caught the museum, and its director Matthew Teitelbaum, in the cross hairs of media whiplash. There is a shameful legacy of racism and anti Semitism at the MFA. It will take decades to make appropriate changes.

  • Arnold Trachtman Boston Protest Artist at 89

    A Formidable Legacy of Social Concern

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 09th, 2019

    An exhibition of Vietnam protest paintings by Arnold Trachtman was censored and closed by the admninistration of Harvard University. We remounted it at the Institute of Contemporary Art then on Soldier's Field Road. That formed a professional and personal relationship. He was a part of a niche of major Boston artists that existed out of the mainstream, Yesterday he passed away in Cambridge at 89.

  • Pictures at an Exhibition

    Giuliano Opening at Real Eyes Gallery

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 10th, 2019

    Many artists and friends attended the opening of my exhbition "Then and Now: Analog to Digital" at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams, Mass. For the occasion I wore my Senegal robes. That reflected the exotic nature of the work. Music was performed on electric sitar and percussion by Nana Simopoulos and Caryn Heilman. There were lively dialogues about the work anticipating an artist's talk on Saturday, November 23 at 4 PM.

  • Artist Jane Hudson at Tourists

    Birthday Celebration on Becoming Jane

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 21st, 2019

    The upscale Tourists a hip, designer savvy resort in North Adams, has launched a program of evenings with artists. Last night there was a cozy, well attended fireside chat with artist and musician Jane Hudson. She and her husband Jeff operated Hudsons Antiques formerly at MASS MoCA. They also perform music as Jeff and Jane. Both are widely exhibited artists. She discussed phases of her career which I have followed as friend and commentator since the late 1960s. It was also her birthday.

  • Hyman Bloom Matters of Life and Death

    Putrid Cadavers a Late Bloomer for the MFA

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 28th, 2019

    The Museum of Fine Arts last featured Boston Expressionist Hyman Bloom in a 1959 group show. The current exhibition Hyman Bloom Matters of Life and Death, curated by Erica E. Hirshler, attempts to make up for that lapse. The focus on cadaver paintings and drawings is bold and spectacular. The work is ghastly with haunting beauty. On a national level it is among the year's best museum exhibitions.

  • Galen Cheney at Real Eyes Gallery

    Neo Platonic Abstraction

    By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 01st, 2019

    The anchor leg of a stunning season for Real Eyes Gallery in Adams, Massachusetts features “Galen Cheney: Mining Memory” through December 29.

  • May Stevens at 95

    Artist Was Born in Quincy Massachusetts

    By: Ryan Lee - Dec 11th, 2019

    The Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City announces the passing of May Stevens. The artist was born in Quincy, Massachusetts and educated at Mass College of Art. Her work was shown and collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

  • Boston Expressionist Jack Levine

    Neglected Colleague of Hyman Bloom

    By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 12th, 2019

    Separately at Jewish Settlement houses Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom studied drawing with Harold Zimmerman. In 1929, when Levine was 14, they were instructed at the Fogg Art Museum by Harvard professor, Denman Ross. By the late 1930s, with Karl Zerbe, they gained national attention as Boston Expressionists. After a lapse of decades, through February, Bloom is featured in "Hyman Bloom Matters of Life and Death." The MFA has never given Levine the time of day. In 1986, while making a film with David and Nancy Sutherland, I interviewed Levine.

  • 30 Americans at the Barnes Foundation

    Not Incidentally Black Artists

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 24th, 2019

    Representative works from the Rubell Family collection are on view at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. This is the 10th anniversary presentation of 30 Americans which has travelled the country, but have been seen only once before in the eastern United States. The Barnes presentation is striking. The art even more so.

  • TON presents Honegger with Felix Valloton

    Sight and Sound at Metropolitan Museum

    By: Susan Hall - Dec 25th, 2019

    Leon Botstein, the polymath conductor, has taken on a delightful series, Sight & Sound, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With The Now Orchestra (TON) he offers a musical program which is related to a current exhibit at the Museum.

  • Frontline Filmmaker David Sutherland

    18 Million Viewers for The Farmer’s Wife

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jan 09th, 2020

    The documentary filmmaker, David Sutherland, describes his approach as making portraits. The issues derive from the persona of his subjects which range from farmers, to teenagers coming of age in Appalachia, a battered Native American mother, to the artists Jack Levine and Paul Camus. In the past 20 years he has created 21 hours of film for long form documentaries featured on Frontline for PBS. His three-part series “The Farmer’s Wife” was a PBS hit with 18 million viewers.

  • Jo Sandman: The Photographic Work

    Legacy Project at Fitchburg Art Museum

    By: FAM - Jan 17th, 2020

    Jo Sandman: The Photographic Work on view February 8–June 7, 2020 at the Fitchburg Art Museum explores Sandman’s turn to photography in the 1990s.

  • Gerry Bergstein: Body Politic

    A Monumental Leap at Gallery Naga

    By: Naga - Jan 25th, 2020

    Gerry Bergstein is on the short list of leading Boston artists of his generation. Taking a leap on every level his monumental paintings will be show during February with a bonus day at Gallery Naga. Hood Museum director, John Stomberg, will provide an overview on the theme of Body Politic.

  • Boston Artist John Powell at 73

    Memorial Exhibition at Howard Yezerski Gallery

    By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 13th, 2020

    John Powell finished but did not see his final exhibition. He died at 73 just days before the opening of Neon Shadows at Howard Yezerski. Artists and former fellows of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT will gather to pay their respects. He will be celebrated for a career in art, science and technology. That was manifested in large public art projects. Using dramatic lighting he transformed quotidian into sublime. A bridge we traverse every day and hardly notice was transformed into an enormous sculpture with light shaping its form.

  • Boston Arts Leader Ted Landsmark

    Discussed Transitions in 2000

    By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 20th, 2020

    When we spoke in 2000 the arts leader Ted Landsmark was director of the Boston Architectural College. He was on leave as chair of the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art but still serving on the board of the MFA. It was a time of transition and change. The ICA was constructing a new building on the waterfront. Its director, Jill Medvedow, was competing for funding with MFA director, Malcolm Rogers. Landsmark argued that they should be working together

  • When by Ledelle Moe

    Massive Sculptures by South African Artist at MASS MoCA

    By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 21st, 2020

    Building Five of MASS MoCA is one of the largest spaces for contemporary art in North America. Since the museum opened in 1999 there has been an annual rotation. The results have been mixed with hits and misses. Curated by Susan Cross, the current installation When by the South African artist Ledelle Moe is on the short list of most astonishing projects. It remains on view in North Adams through September 5.

  • Real Eyes Gallery 2020

    March Madness Starts With Henry Klein

    By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 26th, 2020

    Real Eyes Gallery in Adams, Mass resumes its monthly exhibitions. One of two repeaters Henry Klein returns with Uber Waves: Other Location on March 7. Gallerist Bill Riley, the other prior exhibitor, is slotted for August. On March 14 at 5pm, Kathline Carr and Patricia Sheppard will read their poetry. Ricky Darell Barton shows in April followed by Gil Riley (June), Lauren Olitski (July), William Riley (August), Pennie Brantley and Bob Morgan (September), Diane Reed Sawyer (October), Cotter Luppi (November), and To Be Announced (December).

  • Drew Hyde Was Seminal ICA Director

    Led Institute Back from the Brink

    By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 29th, 2020

    In 1968 the Institute of Contemporary Art was evicted from Newbury Street. Bag and baggage it was mothballed in its failed former home on Soldier's Field Road. Connected to new Mayor Kevin White and Deputy Mayor, Katky Kane, they gave Andrew C. Hyde a long shot at turning things around. The relaunch largely entailed embracing an emerging generation of artists which formed the Studio Coalition in 1969 and Boston Visual Artists Union in 1970.

  • Marie Cuttoli at Barnes Foundation

    The Modern Thread from Miro to Man Ray

    By: Susan Hall - Mar 04th, 2020

    A new exhibit at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia features the collection of Marie Cuttoli, an entrepreneur who convinced many of the artists of her time to create designs for her the workshops, first in her own design studio in Paris and then for the tapestry weavers of of Aubusson, France.

  • Boston Gallerist Arthur Dion

    Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street Since 1977

    By: Charles Giuliano - Mar 25th, 2020

    Gallery NAGA, with a lease from Church of the Covenant, was organized as a cooperative in 1977. In 1982 Arthur Dion was hired as director and soon became sole owner. With a commitment to painting and studio furniture it prevails on what was formerly Boston's gallery row. Now director emeritus Dion stepped away from daily management. As part of compiling an oral history of contemporary art in Boston, Dion shared insights of his remarkable career.

  • MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum

    A 1993 Interview with the Acting Director of the ICA

    By: Charles Giuliano - Mar 29th, 2020

    A native of Toronto, Matthew Teitelbaum, departed Boston in 1993 to take a curatorial position at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In this interview he was acting director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. Then 37, it provides insights of his curatorial vision and process. He went on to be director of the AGO. In 2015 he returned to Boston as director of the Museum of Fine Arts.

  • Rafael Mahdavi: Corona Chronicles

    Pandemic News from France

    By: Charles Giuliano - Mar 30th, 2020

    During a time of confinement we reach out to family and friends by phone and e mail. From France my artist friend, Rafael Mahdavi, wrote a wonderful detailed note. He also sent a remarkable new work that inspired this piece. Art represents hope and salvation through the darkest moments of human condition.

  • Berkshire Artist Ricky Darell Barton

    Rethinking Real Eyes and Three Other 2020 Exhibitions

    By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 04th, 2020

    This was to be the breakout season for Berkshire artist Ricky Darell Barton. This week was to be the launch of a solo exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Three other solo and group shows by Barton are scheduled to follow throuth the summer. Social distancing, which is likely to extend for the coming months, changes everything. For now a single painting by Barton is displayed in the window of the gallery with more work available for on line viewing on the Real Eyes website.

  • MFA Cancels Programming

    Suspended Through August 31

    By: MFA - Apr 04th, 2020

    Responding to the pandemic the MFA has issued this letter to its patrons.

  • Provincetown Arts Magazine

    Needs Help for 35th Anniversary

    By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 05th, 2020

    The 35th annual issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine is ready to go to press. The pandemic, however, has created uncertainty about the coming season. There may not be enough crucial advertising revenue to publish the issue. This is an appeal for support.

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