Fine Arts
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Provincetown's Chris Busa on Ekphrasis
Publisher of 30-year-old Provincetown Arts Magazine
By: - Jul 23rd, 2015This summer Chris Busa has published the 30th annual issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine. The publication which is organized as a non profit is a widely respected compendium of the arts in the Lower Cape, past and present. The award winning magazine covers the fine arts, literature with and emphasis on poetry, film and theatre.
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Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art
Florida Themed Collection in Daytona Beach
By: - Jul 10th, 2015The newly opened (February 2015) Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art in Daytona Beach features a collection of 2,600 Florida themed oil and watercolor paintings, some dating back to the early 1800s, which recount the state’s cultural, geographic and natural history.
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Sublimating Text into Image & Image into Text
Pictorializing the Linear Barcode Symbology at Berkshire Artist Museum
By: - Jul 01st, 2015The art historian, Keith Shaw, has organized That '70s Show which is part one of a Then and Now project for the Berkshire Artist Museum in North Adams, Mass. He asked 15 artists to exhibit selections from some 40 years ago as well as their current work. In the case of Robert Henriquez his single piece is both Then and Now. The concept was conceived in the 1970s but it it only recently that digital programming has progressed sufficiently to realize a singular work of art. This research and technology has resulted in a stunning work of museum level quality.
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Berkshire Artist Museum
Featuring Work by Eric Rudd and Regional Artists
By: - Jun 28th, 2015After one season the Rudd Museum of Art in North Adams has been renamed with a new mandate as Berkshire Artist Museum. It recently reopened with a Rudd installation Iceberg in the nave and That '70s show as phase one of Then and Now which will be complete later in the season.
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European International Book Art Biennale
Bucharest, Romania with Artists from 22 Countries - Until June 30, 2015
By: - Jun 24th, 201580 artists from 22 countries are currently participating in an art book exhibition in Bucharest, which is following the 2014 Moskow, Russia, Biennale. Organizers are the National Association for Visual Contemporary Arts in Romania and D. Fleiss & East West Artists Association of Germany. A program with daily events adds to the exhibition's lively cultural activities.
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Basment Tapes
Tales from the Crypt of the MFA
By: - Jun 16th, 2015During my recent book launch at The Mount my friend private art dealer Jim Jacobs regaled playwright Mark St. Germain with stories of our time together as interns in the Museum of Fine Arts back in the 1960s. At Mark's suggestion this has now inspired a suite of poems gathered as The Basement Tapes. It is my first attempt to create an extended work an idea which previously was suggested by my poet friend and mentor Stephen Rifkin
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ICA Boston to Survey Black Mountain College
Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957
By: - Jun 16th, 2015When the rise of the Third Reich led to closing the Bauhaus in 1933 the architect Walter Gropius and his wife the weaver. artist Anni regrouped in rural North Carolina to establish a small experimental outpost for advanced art and design Black Mountain College. The faculty and students were intended to build their dorms and studios as well as grow their food and raise livestock. Never having a solid endowment the experiment ended in 1957. Gropius went on to Harvard and the rest of the faculty scattered. The impact on post war American arts was indelible. Organized by former curator Helen Molesworth this promises to be one of the most ambitious and informative exhibitions of the fall season. It will be on view in Boston Oct. 10, 2015 to Jan. 24, 2016 and then travel to LA and Columbus, Ohio.
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Francesco Clemente's Encampment at Mass MoCA
With Jim Shaw to January, 2016
By: - Jun 13th, 2015During the Pluralism of the 1980s the Italian born artist Francesco Clemente was a part of the neo expressionist movement. Having recently reinvented himself the artist who lives in New York and India had a series of glitzy decoratve tents fabricated by artisans. The artist has painted the interiors with provocative, fluid, naive narratives. This imajor installtion in Mass MoCA's vast Building Five has been paired with the cartoon inspired, theatrical scaled paintings of the populist artist./ musician conceptualist Jim Shaw. The work is obviously fun and accessible but skates on thin ice.
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Putting the Nose on the Ankh-Haf
Restoration Was Not Appreciated
By: - Jun 10th, 2015For two and a half years I worked in the basement of the Egyptian Department of the Museum of Fine Arts. But truly I was the servant of the Pharaohs and the spirituality of their sublime vision of an after life. Part of that was repairing damage and making them whole. Like fixing the broken nose of the Ankh- Haf.
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Collages by Raeford Liles
Publishing the Greek Pots Series
By: - Jun 05th, 2015I have known and much appreciated the witty and whimsical artist Raeford Liles since the 1960s. He was represented by the East Hampton Gallery when I worked there. Some years ago the artist returned to Birmingham, Alabama where he grew up. Now in assisted living his family has been working to catalog, archive and preserve decades of his work. From this extensive project has emerged the publication of a series of digital prints from his inspired Greek Pots series.
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Gerard Malanga on Andy Warhol's Mother Julia
Insights to Mother and Son Collaborations at WCMA
By: - Jun 04th, 2015The major exhibition this summer at the Williams College Museum of Art is "Warhol by the Book" through August 16, 2015. Of the 500 works on view some of the most intriguing material entails collaborations involving Warhol's graphic design and his mother Julia's calligraphy. We spoke about Julia with former Warhol associate the poet Gerard Malanga who knew her well.
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Tina Olsen Talks About Warhol at Williams
Making Books
By: - Jun 01st, 2015Warhol by the Book at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is on view through August 16, 2015. Creating books was a vital part of Warhol's career’s. It is the first in depth presentation of a relatively unexplored aspect of his work. Taking over the top level galleries of the museum there are 500 works on view featuring some 300 from the Williams collection and many works from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. We spoke about the project with MCMA director, Tina Olsen.
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Stickwork: Interweaving Myth and Reality
Temporal and Mystical Public Art at Peabody Essex Museum
By: - Jun 01st, 2015Enigmatically, sculptor Patrick Dougherty bends, weaves and flexes saplings into architectural sculptures that dynamically relate to the landscape and built environment. Over the last 30 years, he has created more than 250 works throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Constructed from saplings collected by area volunteers, "What the Birds Know" provides a wonderful and viscerally accessible counterpoint to the highly finished wood-frame early 18th Century Crowninshield-Bentley House. This is the first time PEM has commissioned an outdoor sculptural installation. And the bar has been set very high.
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Art and Poetry at Gallery 51
Stephen and Wilma Rifkin, Ellen Joffe-Halpern, Annie Raskin
By: - May 29th, 2015Two Natures Talking: Poetry and Visual Arts at Gallery 51 of MCLA in North Adams brings together the paintings of Wilma Rifkin with the poems they inspire by her husband Stephen. The exhibition which has been curated by Julia Morgan-Leamon also pairs the visuals of Ellen Joffe-Halpern and poems by Annie Raskin.
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Lauren Olitski: Painting From Nature
Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts, May 28 - June 28, 2015
By: - May 26th, 2015Lauren Olitski is known for the vibrant and exciting surfaces and bold colors of her abstract acrylic paintings. In this body of work, her masterful infusion of organic elements (garnet, pumice, and molding paste) into the plastic, inorganic acrylic gels and paints gives her work a rare visceral authenticity.
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Boston CyberArts Reaches into the Public Domain
From Desktop to Laptop to Public Art
By: - May 26th, 2015Making digital art even more accessible, Boston Cyberarts is fostering major public art installations. This is art with virtually no boundaries. Founder George Fifield is the "godfather" of new art forms being computer-generated. Cyberarts is a 21st Century entity bringing new mediums to the masses.
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Hokusai Makes Waves at the MFA
230 Works by Japanese Master on View to August 9
By: - May 25th, 2015Because of the activity of the 19th century collector William Sturgis Bigelow the Museum of Fine Arts has some 30,000 Japanese prints. He donated 80% of these treasures. Through August 8 the MFA is showing 230 works by the Japanese master Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The centerpiece is his iconic color woodblock print “Under the Wave off Kanagawa,†“a.k.a. “The Great Wave.†It is from "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji" which the artist produced while in his 70s. He later added ten more because of the success of the series.
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Zombie Formalism
Responding to Banality in Contemporary Art
By: - May 23rd, 2015Martin Mugar coined the term Zombie Formalism. That bounder, Walter Robinson, a known grifter and blowhard has claimed it as his own. Here our man Mugar bares his soul and makes a case. This is more heavy lifting in the realm of art criticism. Like how about that lead with Heidegger. Not exactly bedtime reading for most of us.
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Taubman Museum of Art
Opened in Roanoke, Virginia in 2008
By: - May 19th, 2015The Taubman Museum of Art occupies a dramatic, 81,000-square-foot geometrically oblique building just across from Roanoke, Virginia’s historic Marketplace Square. Designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout and completed in 2008, the museum, with its swooping and soaring metal roof, is a dramatic architectural presence that has established itself as a major force in the life of Roanoke’s thriving arts community.
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Janet Echelman's Dazzeling Aerial Sculpture
With This Project, Boston Has Become A Public Art Player
By: - May 17th, 2015A major piece of public art was floated above the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Downtown Boston. The scale, complexity and the fact that it was even done at all makes a clear statement that Boston has joined the 21st Century. The artwork by artist Janet Echelman is a strong indication that the sky is now literally the limit.
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Two Natures Talking at Gallery 51 in North Adams
Exhibition Combines Artists and Poets
By: - May 16th, 2015On Thursday, May 28, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ (MCLA) Gallery 51 will open “Two Natures Talking,†a text/image exhibition that pairs up visual artists Wilma Rifkin and Ellen Joffe-Halpern with poets Stephen Rifkin and Annie Raskin. On Sunday, June 14, the Gallery will host a poetry reading with Stephen Rifkin and Raskin, from 2 to 3 p.m.
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Conceptual Artist Chris Burden at 69
Shock of the No Longer New
By: - May 11th, 2015Particularly in the early work starting with Five Day Locker Piece in 1971 when he remained confined to a cramped space as his thesis project Chris Burden tested the limits of his human endurance. His occasionally death defying art entailed getting shot, crucified to a Volkwagen, and laying down in traffic. Given these dark projects, reporting on his death at 69 from melanoma, lacks the intensity and dramatic impact of his work. We recall meeting with him during a 1989 exhibition at Boston's ICA. Speaking with him about outrageous work made perfect sense.
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Museum Director Michael Rush at 65
Battled Brandeis University over Rose Art Museum
By: - May 03rd, 2015In 2009 Michael Rush, then the director of the Rose Art Museum, took the fall when Brandeis University schemed to close the museum and sell its $350 million collection. In 2010 he became the founding director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. He died recently at 65.
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Jane Farver Death in Venice
Former MIT List Director at 68
By: - May 01st, 2015The Venice Biennale is about to open. The renowned curator and museum director, Jane Farver, was working with the artist Joan Jonas on an installation in the American Pavilion. It was announced that she died suddenly apparently of a heart attack. Jane was a friend and beloved mentor during her tenure as director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center from 1999 to 2011.
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Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha
Journey of a Prince and an Artist
By: - Apr 29th, 2015From 1833 to 1834, the explorer and naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, Germany, traveled on a 2,500-mile journey into the American Interior, generally following the path of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-6). Maximilian was accompanied by the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, whom the prince had hired to record the cities, rivers, and people they saw along the way. Maximilian and the 23-year-old Bodmer left St. Louis in April 1833 and
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