Fine Arts
-
David A. Ross Four
Edifice Complex of Mega Museums
By: - Nov 25th, 2011In this fourth and final installment David Ross discusses the phenomenon of museum expansions and the creation of global satellites by the Guggenheim. He applauds Adam Weinberg for moving the Whitney to the Meatmarket. Surprisingly, he says that as the Whitney's director he would have lacked the guts for such a bold decision.
-
Young and the Restless
Delia Brown, Will Cotton, Tim Gardner. Hilary Harkness, Damian Loeb
By: - Nov 23rd, 2011In 2001 Peter Plagens wrote about a new group of New York realists in a rather nasty manner. Not content to discuss their work he also had things to say about their then media inspiring life style. About which I begged to differ. This is a re posting of the article which appeared in Maverick Arts.
-
David A. Ross Part Three
Hits and Misses of a Former Museum Director
By: - Nov 22nd, 2011David A. Ross started a career in museums at 20 while still an undergraduate. He became curator of video art for the Everson Museum of Syracuse. His career as a museum director ended abruptly, at 53, in 2001 when he was fired just short of four years at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Currently he lives in Beacn, New York and commutes as chair of the MFA in Art Practice program at New York's School of Visual Arts.
-
Okwui Enwezer on Documenta
Five Platforms
By: - Nov 22nd, 2011We spoke with t he organizer of Documenta XI in 2000.
-
Okwui Enwezer on Documenta Part Two
A Dialogue from 2000
By: - Nov 22nd, 2011We met and discussed the upcoming Documenta after its organizer Owkui Enwezer gave a presentation at MIT.
-
Okwui Enzezer Part Three
A Letter from Austria's Robert Fleck
By: - Nov 22nd, 2011This is the conclusion of a three part report on documenta X which opens in June, 2002, in Kassel, Germany. Leading up to Kassel are Five Platforms, starting with, “Democracy Unrealized,†in Vienna, Austria, in March, 2001. This segment deals with controversy surrounding the decision to open the first Platform in Vienna which is the subject of an art boycott.
-
David A. Ross Two
Critical Remarks on the MFA and Rose
By: - Nov 19th, 2011David Ross is less than impressed by the installation of the Museum of Fine Arts's new Linde Family Wing of Contemporary Art. He also expressed impatience with the lack of fundraising acumen by Carl Belz during his directorship of the Rose Art Museum. But Ted Stebbins of the MFA was a gentleman whom everyone loved.
-
Former ICA and Whitney Director David A. Ross
Part One of a Feisty Dialogue
By: - Nov 18th, 2011In 2001 David A. Ross, after a four year "honeymoon" was fired as the director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Prior to that he served as director of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Since departing as a museum director Ross has been a chameleon after decades in the art world with more than nine lives. Today he performs as lead singer with the band Red. His day gig is running a graduate program for the School of Visual Arts in New York.
-
Clyfford Still Unfolds in the Rockies
A Stand Alone Museum for Still Opens in Denver
By: - Nov 18th, 2011Ninety-four percent of Clyfford Still's output is now housed in a new museum in Denver. The hush hanging over his work has been broken and all the early excitement and praise he received from his peers and critics is proven correct in the paintings exhibited in this extraordinary viewing space.
-
Rembrandt and Degas: Two Young Artists
Clark Art Institute to February 5
By: - Nov 13th, 2011The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown is fighting off a double Dutch dilemma (pun intended) with a miniscule but riveting special exhibition Rembrandt and Degas: Two Young Artists. It is now off season in the Berkshires and the museum is 90% closed for renovation and construction through summer 2014. But it gamely remains open with free admission, terrific small exhibitions, and the enormously popular Met Live in HD broadcasts.
-
Under the Big Top: Festival of Trees 2011
Berkshire Museum Nov. 18- Jan. 2
By: - Nov 11th, 2011Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, for Under the Big Top: Festival of Trees 2011 at Berkshire Museum. The 27th annual holiday event, featuring more than one hundred dazzling, decorated trees filling the Museum’s galleries, begins with a gala Opening Night Party on Friday, November 18, 2011, and runs through Monday, January 2, 2012. Special exhibitions of vintage circus memorabilia and photography add to the exciting Big Top atmosphere. Bring the whole family to the most thrilling Festival of Trees ever!
-
Eclipse Mill Gallery Annual
North Adams Exhibition Extended to December 3
By: - Nov 08th, 2011The popular Eclipse Gallery Annual, featuring work by residents of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, Mass. has been refreshed and extended until Saturday, December 3. Because of prior commitment of some artists the overview has been refreshed with new works inviting a second look at this lively annual exhibition.
-
Margaret Stein, Berkshire Artist
Two Retrospectives of Her Work
By: - Nov 08th, 2011Stein painted her way through life. She taught for decades at the Greenfield Community College where she ran one of the most important small print making departments in the country. Now her daughter Jenny offers up her work for view.
-
Dream and Reality at Istanbul Modern
A Celebration of Woman Artists of Turkey
By: - Oct 31st, 2011Via an impressive historical overview of Turkish woman artists, the exhibition highlights the changes from empire to republic to today's vibrant contemporary art scene in Turkey. Curated by Levent Çalιkoglu of Istanbul Modern, feminist academic and activist Fatmagül Berktay, and art historians Zeynep Ãnankur and Burcu Pelvanoglu, the exhibition takes its title from the 1891 novel, Dream and Reality, coauthored by Fatma Aliye Topuz, the first female Turkish novelist, and Ahmet Mithat, a male journalist. The show runs to January 22, 2012.
-
Istanbul Biennial
An Outstanding 12th Edition
By: - Oct 24th, 2011Istanbul is up there with Venice and Sao Paulo among the art biennials that matter. The 2011 edition explores the relationship between art and politics. Aesthetically pleasing, it is a sophisticated, rewarding show, which runs to November 13.
-
Pennie Brantley at National Association of Women Artists
NY Exhibition on View Through October 27
By: - Oct 20th, 2011The work of the realist painter Pennie Brantley is readily familiar from participation in Boston and Berkshire based exhibitions. She is currently the focus of a one woman exhibition at the venerable National Association of Women Artists. This stunning show remains on view through October 27.
-
The Art Salon in Central Mass
An Interview with Pat Bock
By: - Oct 20th, 2011When I sat down with Pat a week ago, ostensibly to discuss her Eagle Hill 2011-2012 Art Teas schedule, I had little idea how wide a spectrum of ideas we would end up exchanging. Here in a somewhat distilled form is the essence of our conversation.
-
Van Gogh's Death Suicide or Murder
Gregory White Smith & Steven Naifeh's Gogh: His Life
By: - Oct 19th, 2011The 1991 Pulitzer Price winner Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh argue a new theory regarding Van Gogh death in their recently published book Van Gogh: His Life. According to the two authors the world most famous painter would not have committed suicide but would have been murdered. This is an intriguing hypothesis worth contemplating but cannot be proven.
-
Big, Bold, and Undeniably Ambitious
Jonathan Prince at the Sculpture Garden in New York City
By: - Oct 18th, 2011At first glance, Prince’s monumental sculptures appear to be nothing more than simple geometric forms, a square with a broken edge, a column with its top gouged, and couple of circular sculptural riffs, one resembling a large distressed pill set on edge, the other a partially eaten donut doing a clever balancing act. On closer examination the lively simple shaped quartet begins to take on an otherworldly, if not quasi-religious cast.
-
Ellsworth Kelly at the MFA
Museum School Alumnus Shows Wood Sculptures
By: - Sep 30th, 2011The first special exhibition in the newly renovated Linde Family Wing of Contempoary Art is a survey of wood sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly. With this project the MFA honors one of the most distinguished among the alumni of its Museum School. During the opening Kelly spoke with the media about studying with Boston Expressionist Karl Zerbe.
-
Contemporary Art in Boston
Smoke and Mirrors at the MFA
By: - Sep 23rd, 2011On the occasion of the opening of the Linde Family Wing of Contemporary Art we reflect on a troubling history. There has been a struggle going back to the 1930s and the founding of the Institute of Contemporary Art. There has been an awkward relationship between the ICA, MFA and other museums in the area. It is now time for art workers to unite and throw off their chains.
-
MFA Goes Contemporary
New Linde Wing Abounds in Surprises, Satisfactions
By: - Sep 19th, 2011Many scoffed that the MFA didn't have any contemporary art. The new installation of the collection proves that the old dame has more than Morris Louis. Bostonians are among the best-educated and most sophisticated people in America and they don’t need to be treated as if they are grade school children when it comes to contemporary art.
-
Paul Ha Named Director of List Visual Arts Center
MIT's Contemporary Art Museum Has New Leadership
By: - Sep 12th, 2011Paul Ha, the current director of the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, has been selected as the new director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) List Visual Arts Center. Mr. Ha is expected to begin his new position Dec. 1.
-
Prince Ankhaf a Coveted Treasure of the Museum of Fine Arts
Grandstanding Mohamed Saleh Demands Its Return to Egypt
By: - Aug 14th, 2011The Museum of Fine Arts is known to have the finest collection of Old Kingdom Egyptian art outside of Cairo. Its greatest treasure, which it acquired through shrewd negotiation in 1927, is the limestone, polychromed portrait bust of Prince Ankhaf. Egypt wants it back. The MFA response is more or less, bloody hell.
-
Mass MoCA Confirms Anselm Kiefer Installation
Adding to Success of the LeWitt Building
By: - Aug 08th, 2011Since December of 2010 we have been asking Joe Thompson about a long term installation of works by the major German contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer. He squirmed and refused to answer the question. As we have previously reported the museum is now in the process of creating another long term installation similar to the enormously successful building devoted to the late Sol LeWitt. It greatly strengthens North Adams as a global art world destination.
<< Previous Next >>