Fine Arts
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Strandbeests — Theo Jansen’s Divine Machinery
Kinetic "Living" Sculptures Delight at Peabody Essex Museum
By: - Jan 06th, 2016A thought-provoking life work by Dutch artist Theo Jansen that explores the notion of movement, robotics, nature and artificial intelligence. It is gracefully done with a smile and a deft touch. Here engineering becomes art, and art becomes fantasy and even myth.
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2015 in the Arts
Hiphopera, Tap, Berkshires and Beyond
By: - Jan 02nd, 2016In some of the most exciting and insightful productions and performances of the year there was a notable cross pollination and invention as vernacular street cultures and indigenous art forms conflated into high art. Classic works were not just revived but reinvented from the insight out. The best works of 2016 raised the bar through risk taking and challenging audiences. These rare experiences tend to make the majority of what we experience ordinary and enervating. In an era signified by ubiquitous standing ovations what is truly worthy of special recognition?
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Where Time Meets Space
James Crump's Troublmakers: The Story of Land Art
By: - Jan 02nd, 2016“Troublemakers” documents Virginia Dwan’s unflinching belief in projects unimaginable to most – in sheer vastness of scale and sometimes limitlessness of time to realize. Her generous patronage made some of the most profound Land Art projects realities, like Heizer’s “Double Negative,” Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” and more recently in 1996, Ross’s solar spectrum environment for the Dwan Light Sanctuary in Montezuma, New Mexico, to name but a few. Her philanthropy continues to this day with her 2013 bequest of her collection and archive to the National Gallery of Art, of which “From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971” is being curated by James Meyer to open in the newly renovated East Building in 2016.
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Finally Public Art Booming In Boston
Boston’s Visual Art Ethos Safe and Non-experimental Beginning to Change.
By: - Dec 30th, 2015For decades, no centuries, public art in Boston was a bronze statue of mostly historical men sometimes on horses. Unlike most contemporary cities, there were few and mostly small examples of public art sprinkled throughout the city and the region. The long time Mayor Menino regime was frightened of public art. Conservative institutions and universities seemed to ignore what was happening outside the region as well. Public art was something other cities invested in, but not Boston. However, the year 2015 began to demonstrate that there was a new flowering of public art. And about time, too!
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Pop Art Design in Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art Through March 27
By: - Dec 29th, 2015The new Pop Art Design exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art pairs 150 art works and design objects in an exhibit that sparkles with wit and irreverence. And it reminds you of how Andy Warhol's "Campbell soup can art" was first received with ridicule...by non-connoisseurs. That was just about the time that the elite collectors woke up and began buying Warhols.
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Abstract Artist Ellsworth Kelly at 92
Graduate of Boston's Museum School
By: - Dec 28th, 2015In 2013 we interviewed abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly during an exhibition of his relief series in wood at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. A graduate of the Museum School he maintained close times with the city and its museum. He passed away yesterday at his home in Spencertown, New York.
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Athena LaTocha: Curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Exhibition at CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea
By: - Dec 25th, 2015CUE Art Foundation presents a solo exhibition of new work by Athena LaTocha, which has been curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. The show features a large-scale immersive installation of an ink-wash drawing by LaTocha that spans the entire length of the gallery. While the work depicts a landscape, its more abstract elements leave the viewer to decipher what they see.
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Peabody Essex Museum's Mellon Foundation Grant
Supports Native American Fellowships
By: - Dec 22nd, 2015The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will allow the museum to expand and strengthen its Native American Fellowship program.
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Curious Sound Object At Boston Cyberarts Gallery
Hearing and Seeing As Part of the Visual Arts Experience
By: - Dec 21st, 2015Visual art is evolving in wonderful technical directions. Boston Cyberarts is continuing to foster this development. A Fall 2015 exhibition showcased a whole group of artists working not only visually but auditorially. Hearing and seeing was believing.
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MASS MoCA Winter Spring
Upcoming Exhibitions and Performances.
By: - Dec 14th, 2015MASS MoCA has many highlights in its schedule for exhibitions and performances. Start to mark our calendars particularly for the June 11 exclusive performance of The National which is sure to sell out in a flash.
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ICA Acquires Works by Women Artists
The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women
By: - Dec 10th, 2015The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women, established at the ICA in 2014, represents three decades of collecting by Lee and brings together painting, sculpture, photography, and videography by iconic modern and contemporary women artists.
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Tom Krens Develops Business as a Museum
A For Profit Paradigm for North Adams
By: - Dec 08th, 2015Tom Krens joined the Guggenheim Foundation in 1988 when museums were attempting to transform to business models. Now, for North Adams he is developing Global Contemporary Art Museum. In a new paradigm it is being privately funded as a for profit institution. With reverse momentum he is establishing a business on the model of a fine arts museum.
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Tom Krens Has Plans for Northern Berkshires
Discusses Williamstown to North Adams Cultural Corridor
By: - Dec 07th, 2015For seven years former Guggenheim Foundation director, Tom Krens, made grueling monthly trips to China. He declines to discuss how he was "beaten down" in negotiations with the Chinese. He has opted to develop two museum level projects closer to home. Krens, a Williams alumnus and former director of its museum, initiated what is now Mass MoCA. He left decades ago but has maintained a residence in Williamstown.
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Tom Krens Outlines Plans for a Cultural Corridor
Former Governors Dukakis and Weld Share North Adams Podium
By: - Dec 05th, 2015Using a satellite image Tom Krens commented on a six mile line connecting North Adams and Williamstown. It was a part of an engaging power point presentation to develop a cultural corridor connecting world class resources including a new for profit museum and one in North Adams featuring model railroads and maquettes by renowned architects. Former governors Dukakis and Weld attended the presentation.
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Memories of a War to Come by Erika Marquardt
A German Girl Growing Up in the 2nd World War
By: - Dec 01st, 2015Do all, who have experienced war first-hand respond differently, perhaps more knowingly to images, reports and articles, now inundating the air waves about current wars, notably in Syria and Iraq? So very timely is the poetry and picture book by Erika Marquardt, which I received recently. And what a book it is! Her WW II childhood memories have haunted her all her life and she has written poems and painted pictures and collages for decades. Marquardt now collected those memories eloquently in her 2015 published book, which deserves a wide reception and circulation. Will there ever be PEACE?!
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Frank Stella at the Whitney
Ad Astra Per Aspera
By: - Nov 29th, 2015In an Ivy League mashup, Yale grad, our man Martin Mugar, takes a go at Princeton alumnus Frank Stella. More on Zombie Formalism. Let the games begin.
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Artist Raphael Soyer
Russian Born American Master
By: - Nov 28th, 2015The Russian born brothers Soyer- Raphael, Moses and Isaac- were little men but giants of the era of Social Realism and the WPA. They painted the workers of New York. Pat Hills organized a retrospective for Raphael at the BU Art Gallery. I met him then and he signed a poster. Later I photographed Raphael in Provincetown.
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The Arts in Cuba
Music for Breakfast and Studio Visits
By: - Nov 22nd, 2015While in Cienfuegos, we had some interesting musical entertainment. After walking around the square, we climbed several flights of stairs to hear a special concert by the Choir of Cienfuegos, a chorus of about 24 local men and women, who performed a concert of Cuban and international songs and show tunes. One of them, incongruously, was the American folk song, “Shenandoah.”
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Visionary Artist Paul Laffoley
World Renowned Except in Boston
By: - Nov 18th, 2015When I curated a solo exhibition of work by the Visionary artist Paul Laffoley it was his first Boston show in 20 years. The exhibition was ignored by the Boston Globe. A few years later, during his brief time at the Globe, Ken Johnson declared Laffoley to be the most important Boston artist of his generation. In recent years he enjoyed national and international recognition
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Westward Ho Ho Ho! Berkshire Museum
2015 Holiday Theme at the Berkshire Museum
By: - Nov 16th, 2015Each year, the Berkshire Museum, hosts the Festival of Trees. Both a fundraiser and a social event, this years theme is 'Westward Ho Ho Ho!' The goal is for the eighty participants to decorate their holiday trees in the theme of the event. The theme coincides with the museums 'American West' and 'Go West' exhibition.
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Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood at the Rose
Bimbo Kitsch As High Art
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The big boobs and porn of Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood at the Rose Art Museum are sure to delight some and offend many. With sensual, candy colors and finger licking erotic surfaces the Yale educated artist has made a nifty career of conflating high art and kitsch. If you visit this exhibition be sure to leave the kids and your inhibitions at home.
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Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh
Installation by Chiharu Shiota
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The Mattress Factory, featuring site-specific installations created by artists in residence from around the world, was founded in 1977 by Artist Barbara Luderowski in a former Stearns & Foster mattress warehouse in Pittsburgh’s historic Central Northside.
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Black Mountain College: Truth or Dare
Curator Helen Molesworth Is Against Interpretation
By: - Nov 05th, 2015It took four years for former ICA curator Helen Molesworth and current one Ruth Erickson to organize 200 works by 100 artists as the landmark exhibition "Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957." In a provocative catalogue essay, however, Molesworth states why she has come to no easy conclusions about what occurred in Appalachia during the formative years of the American avant-garde.
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ZERO and Sky Art in Istanbul
A Poetic Convergence at the Sabanci Museum
By: - Oct 31st, 2015ZERO, Countdown to the Future is a comprehensive exhibition, which highlights the works of the movement's founders, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and their close friend Gunther Uecker. It provides in depth understanding of ZERO that took away the limits of "what is art" and expanded what art can be in the 20th century.
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Stagestruck City
Chicago's Theater Tradition and the Birth of the Goodman
By: - Oct 24th, 2015Special exhibition explores the origins of the historic Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It's on view at the Newberry Library through December 31.
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