New York Times

As research for the exhibition Native New Yorkers we interviewed artists, a curator and collector. We found that questions led every deeper into a richly diverse and little understood field of contemporary art. The article is reposted from Maverick Arts Magazine.

Thaddeus "Thad" Beal is included in the Chawky Frenn book 100 Boston Artists. Actually I have long regarded him as one of the top ten Boston painters. It was a privilege to curate an exhibition of his work at the Gallery of the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University. In 2006 we met for a Beer and Burger as reported in Maverick Arts Magazine.

The illustrative realist painter has explored the old master techniques of Caravaggio as well as smarmy soft and hard core porn. At the eyebrow raising age of 41 he was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum of American Art. This review is resposted from a 2003 article in Maverick Arts Magazie.

During a studio visit in New Mexico Jaune Quick To See Smith agreed to create new works for a special exhibition at the Gallery of New England School of Arts and Design. She presented a lecture to a large audience of students and faculty and also spoke intimately in the gallery. The artist Ric Haynes, who works extensively with the Crow Nation participated in the informal discussion. This is reposted from a 2006 article in Maverick Arts Magazine.

Conductor Michael Christie continues as Music Director of Minnesota Opera, a post he began in fall 2012, leading three productions during the 2013-2014 season. Christie conducts Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from September 21-20, 2013, Richard Strauss’ Arabella from November 9-17, 2013, and Verdi’s Macbeth from January 25-February 1, 2014 at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (345 Washington Street).

Due to popular demand, the Huntington Theatre Company again extends the run of its world premiere adaptation of The Jungle Book – the final performance will now be Sunday, October 20. The “inventive and visually stunning” (Entertainment Weekly) production officially opens tonight, Wednesday, September 18 at 7pm at the Huntington’s mainstage, the Boston University Theatre.

The Spanish born artist, Domingo Barreres, has now retired from teaching at Boston's Museum School. His work often commented on the roots of his Spanish heritage. his piece originally appeared in Maverick Arts Magazine.

ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage announces the second half of its fourth theatre season, beginning in early 2014. This covers productions into June of 2014. Rob Orchard, Executive Director for the Arts stated that "Our fourth season offers world premieres, classics, return visits from friends we've hosted before, and dialogue around important historical moments as well as a number of works featuring multi-media and music. In short, a world on stage coming to us this year from Belgium, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, England, Israel, The Netherlands, Russia and across the U.S."

Following World War II the matrix of global contemporary art shifted from Paris to New York with the development of abstract expressionism as the leading movement of contemporary art of that era. During the 1950s there was much speculation about a Return to the Figure. Young artists who flocked to Provincetown to study with Hans Hofmann and Henry Hensche explored a synthesis through Figurative Expressionism. A number of these artists showed with Sun Gallery in Provincetown and Hansa Gallery in New York. The exhibition "Pioneers from Provincetown: The Roots of Figurative Expressionism" curated by Adam Zucker, Co-curator, Stephanie DeTroy focuses on this important movement.

Three's a charm with Orange Is the New Black the third mini series created by Netflix. All 13 episodes were released on July 11 resulting in an orgy for fanatical viewers. There was a cliff hanger ending followed by the good news that Piper and her inmates will be back next year with season two. Initially we thought of Piper as a good girl who made a bad mistake. Gradually she is revealed as a bad girl who has to make good. Or just survive her 15 month sentence.

Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre is located at 25 E. Main St. in Cambridge, NY. HHOT’s performances of Barber of Seville— Aug. 16, 17, and 22 at 8 pm and Aug. 24 and 25 at 2 pm — will be fully costumed and staged, sung in Italian (with supertitles), and accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra conducted by Hubbard Hall favorite, Maria Sensi Sellner (Don Pasquale, La Traviata).

Twenty three years ago Ed Herendeen left an administrative position at Williamstown Theatre Festival to found Contemporary American Theatre Festival for Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. There out of the glare of the urban theatre world he has nurtured the creation of 100 new plays through commissions, premieres and second productions. He strives to create an environment which is review proof and writers are able to experiment without fear of failure.

To get a handle on the disembodied moves of the Israeli company L-E-V, making its American debut at Jacob's Pillow, think of a Michael Jackson Moonwalk. They have expanded his pop innovations into a stunning new style and vocabulary of dance. Their hour long work House left us hungry for more.

The 23rd annual Contemporary American Theatre Festival opened on July 5 and ends on July 28 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Last week some 75 members and guests of the American Theatre Critics Association met in Shepherdstown to view and discuss five new plays. During a brutal national heat wave there was a busy schedule of performances, meetings, lectures, panel discussions, banquets and visits to surrounding Civil War sites. It was an intense and richly informative experience.

If shows are not instant hits in regional theaters they rarely get a second chance. It is especially difficult to develop musicals. Johnny Baseball, a musical about the Boston Red Sox and the Curse of the Bambino, opened at American Repertory Theatre in June, 2010. The idea started in 2003 and development, with six new songs and other changes continues. It opens on July 24 at Williamstown Theatre Festival. During a recent press conference we asked about love/ hate relationships which resulted in Globe critic Louise Kennedy losing her job in reaction to her Johnny Baseball review.

Broadway in the Berkshires, produced by Deborah Grausman and hosted by John Douglas Thompson, was presented as a benefit for the Education and Training programs of Shakespeare & Company. Singer and actor Grausman, appearing this summer in Master Class, was able to call in favors from her many and diverse Broadway, Off Broadway and S & Co. colleagues. Over 300 tickets were sold and upwards of 75 Shakespeare & Company artists and other special guests were also in attendance. The benefit raised $110, 000.

Jacob’s Pillow presents Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre, July 3-7. These fiercely-talented performers present Tuplet by Nederlands Dans Theater’s Alexander Ekman; Grace Engine by 2011 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award winner and Artistic Director of Kidd Pivot, Crystal Pite; and Norwegian choreographer Jo Strømgren's wild Necessity, Again.

Brooks Ashmanskas, De'Adre Aziza, Reed Birney, Joey Slotnick, and Omar Metwally are among the actors who will take part in this Williamstown Theatre Festival summer’s productions. Dominique Morisseau has been awarded WTF’s 2013 L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for her play Paradise Blue. She will receive a $10,000 grant and receive a reading as part of WTF’s FRIDAYS@3 series, as well as publication by Samuel French, Inc.

A blessing and curse the life and career of the artist Matuschka has been defined by a single iconic image. It has both opened and closed reports on work that came before and after the cover of the New York Times Magazine in 1993. The media entirely focuses on that image and her somewhat complex and freaky life. Attempts to evaluate her as an artist are few and far between.

The former model, photographer and breast cancer awareness activist Matuschka is the subject of a current 40 year retrospective of her work at Sohn Fine Art in Stockbridge. Much of the work was created in the Berkshires as the jazz entrepreneur and journalist Edward Bride explored in a 2006 interview. Because of the media coverage of the recent elective surgeries of Angelia Jolie this proves to be both timely and provocative coverage of a courageous and interesting artist.

A former model, Matuschka, created a riveting self portrait revealing a radical masectomy. It was on the cover of the New York Times Magazine and has been published in a Time Life book as one the 100 most influential photographs of the 20th century. With the recent coverage of Angelina Jolie ironically Matuschka is back in the news. Yesterday we attended her 40 year retrospective of self portraits at Sohn Fine Arts in Stockbridge.

Traditionally it was anathema for critics to talk to and socialize with those they write about. With print in decline and the rise of blogs that has changed. But what happens when we are all in bed with each other? It both enriches our understanding and compromises objectivity. The third and final installment of a dialogue with Julianne Boyd may be a case in point.

With the numerous cancellations of former Music Director, James Levine, his inevitable retirement and a two year interregum, the past few years have been a nightmare for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Just in his mid 30s the Latvian born Andris Nelsons has been appointed as Music Director of the BSO and Tanglewood.

Julianne Boyd, the artistic director of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield called for a morning chin wag about the upcoming season. That led to a lively discussion of the current state of theatre and impact of criticism. Now in its 8th season the company has just completed raising $7 million. This is part one of an extended dialogue.

Edith Wharton was 35 in 1897 when, in collaboration with Ogden Codman, she published her first work, the widely influential treatise "Decoration of Houses." Eight years later, in 1905, she published her first work of fiction "House of Mirth. " By then the Whartons had been living in The Mount, their estate in Lenox, Mass. for three years. The mansion and grounds expressed many of her theories of architecture, interior deign, and landscape gardening. She left under unhappy circumstances in 1911 never to return to the home she no longer owned.