Fine Arts
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7th Annual Berkshire Salon
Launches North Adams Gallery Season
By: - May 06th, 2014Visitors passing along Route 2 and the Mohawk Trail on their way to Mass MoCA and nearby Clark Art Institute and Williams College Museum of Art can pause and refresh with a taste of locally created work in the 7th Annual Berkshire Salon. (May 9 to June 1)
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Goya and Steve Mumford Depict War Horrors
Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts Through June 8
By: - May 04th, 2014The Frist Center for the Visual Arts has conflated visceral and gut wrenching exhibitions: Goya: The Disasters of War and Steve Mumford’s War Journals, 2003–2013. The tandem of shows updates from the iconic series of prints by Goya to the combat images of Mumford that track from the war zone, to veterans undergoing rehab, and the restricted access to terrorists incarcerated without due process of law in the Army operated prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
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British Pop Artist Richard Hamilton
Co Curated by Tate Modern and London's ICA
By: - Apr 27th, 2014Richard Hamilton is a truly influential figure in the history of British art and is considered to be the founder of the Pop Art movement. This retrospective is a collaboration between Tate Modern and the ICA, and covers the eclectic career of a very important British artist who wanted to get “all of living†into his art.
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Lázaro Saavedra's Funerary Egocentrism
Performance April 30 at Boston's MFA
By: - Apr 12th, 2014Overcoming both administrative roadblocks and censorship, Cuban artist Lázaro Saavedra performs Funerary Egocentrism at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), on Wednesday, April 30.
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Christopher Wool at the Art Institute
Chicago Celebrates a Native Son
By: - Apr 11th, 2014Thirty-one letters brought more than 26 million dollars at an art auction last fall. Visually the letters are compressed, blob-like, stacked. Musically, each of the three phrases has a sound which is considered one of the most beautiful in the English language: sell or cell. Two hard "c" sounds (actually a ‘kâ€) break up the beauty. The entire phrase startles because selling the kids is verboten. Do you have to know the title, "Apocalypse Now", to react?
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Norman Liebman's Evocative Paintings
At Art Alternative Gallery in Brookline. MA
By: - Apr 08th, 2014Trained as a physician, actually a surgeon, Norman Liebman painted throughout his college education and medical career. Liebman has spent his retirement painting in his studio five or more days a week working in a style related to the COBRA group that worked from 1948-1951 in Europe. He uses bright color and distorted representational form to create semiabstract moody images that have a Modigliani mysteriousness and an expressionist's visual articulateness to them. In his ninth decade of life, he expresses himself in an exuberant, skillful way that underscores a vitality and a youthful experimentation.
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5 UK Artists Better Than Bansky
British Street Scenes
By: - Mar 31st, 2014Think street art, and chances are you think Banksy. For some, he’s the wittiest man ever to have touched a spray can, while others consider him nothing more than an overhyped phenomenon with a technique and style that’s just a reproduction of other artists’ work from 20 years ago. Love him or hate him, his work never fails to stir up a buzz. But think Banksy’s the most exciting artist to emerge from the UK? Think again. Britain’s streets are home to some of the world’s most diverse and talented artists.
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Jumping Out of Enframement
Is Everything Mostly Post Moderm
By: - Mar 30th, 2014Painting still privileges the individual and their own notion of time. It is, as well, in an inevitable dialogue with all that painting has ever been, so that intentionally or otherwise the artist is forced to accept the history of painting. Its uniqueness lies in its ability to create time out of its own language, which forces the viewer to linger in front of it.
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The Clark's Masterpieces Home at Last
On Tour to Eleven Venues on Three Continents for Three Years
By: - Mar 21st, 2014After three years with eleven museums on three continents the treasures of the Clark Art Institute are back home safe and sound. They will be seen this summer when the museum reopens after extensive renovation and expansion on July 4. This grand tour of major museums will reap benefits as the Clark requests loans for major exhibitions. Other major museums, however, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Guggenheim, have loaned works to their satellites and commercial exhibition promoters for cold cash.
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The Clark Art Institute Embraces Modernism
Pollock's Masterpiece Lavender Mist This Summer
By: - Mar 20th, 2014This week representatives of the Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Mass MoCA met with the media to promote plans for a spectacular Northern Berkshires season. The Clark reopens following extensive expansion and renovation. Mass MoCA offers the first full season of its Anselm Kiefer building. Jenny Gersten has planned a blockbuster program for WTF. WCMA plans special events like a Think and Drink series. In high season it may be hard to book a hotel or dine at the best restaurants.
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Arnold Trachtman Portraits, Galatea Fine Art
Visions Through a Personal Prism
By: - Mar 19th, 2014At 84, Arnold Trachtman is exhibiting a dozen pieces from the last 50 years of his artistic career. Relentlessly he is compelled to express and document history through a vey personal lens. His art never fit the current fad. Arnie never got the memo on the next big wave. Or if he did, he disregarded it. He often combined the past imperfect of the political and social agenda of Europe and the USA in his mostly strident painted images. But the works shown at Galatea Fine Art are more mellow memories yet painted in his most original voice.
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Fernando Botero Seen in Bogota
Colombia's Living Treasure
By: - Mar 17th, 2014Botero's art permeates Bogota's and Medellin's major museums and plazas with overwhelming grandeur and sensuality. Contrasting giant and dwarf figures, sometimes with underlying satire, the artist creates voluptuous exuberance that charms and captivates.
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Cape & Islands Theater Coalition
David B. Kaplan Appointed Executive Director
By: - Mar 11th, 2014The Cape & Islands Theater Coalition announced today that it has created the new position of Executive Director and has appointed David B. Kaplan to fill that post. The members of the Coalition took this step in recognition of the growth of the Coalition and its activities on behalf of the Cape and Islands live performance theaters, and in anticipation of greater collaboration and outreach by the organization. The Coalition is composed of 24 member theaters and a Friends organization which helps raise awareness of our regions theaters and promote theater-going.
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Joe Thompson Expansion Part Two
Economic Impact and Wish Lists
By: - Mar 10th, 2014Massachusetts funded Mass MoCA initially, and now again, as an economic development to drive the creative economy of cultural tourism in the depressed Northern Berkshire County. In addition to the Clark Art Institute expanded and coming back on line this summer, in a few years, Mass MoCA plans to double its exhibition space. A key result of that expansion will be a shift of visitors from day trips to weekends. In this next phase more involvement with the local community, particularly its artists, will be crucial.
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Looking Back with Global Artist Rafael Mahdavi
From Figuration in Painting to Abstract Steel Sculpture
By: - Mar 10th, 2014In 2000 when Rafael Mahdavi was commuting between Wellesley, Mass and a studio in Paris we collaborated on dual exhibitions at Suffolk University/ New England School of Art & Design and Boston's French library. Recently we connected to catch up and reflect on a multi national career as a painter and sculptor. Through hard work and entrepreneurship he has had the life and career that many artists aspire to.
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Joe Thompson on Mass MoCA Expansion
Part One on Phase Three
By: - Mar 09th, 2014Several months ago we spoke in depth with Joe Thompson about a bill pending on Beacon Hill to grant $25 million toward the final phase of developing the North Adams campus of Mass MoCA. This week, early August, 2014 the bill has been signed by outgoing Governor Deval Patrick a Berkshire neighbor of the museum. Thompson, as he discusses here, must raise an additional $30 million for the project which will take several years.
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Not Quite April in Paris
Current Exhibitions
By: - Mar 09th, 2014Our correspondent is in Paris for the annual meeting of AICA (International Society of Arts Critics). Of which he is a board member. He sent links to exhibitions which he plans to check out. We appreciate being kept in the loop.
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Third and Final Phase of Mass MoCA Buildout
Commonwealth's $25.4 Million Kickstart
By: - Mar 06th, 2014With a $25.4 Million grant from the Commonwealth Mass MoCA is embarking on the third and final phase of renovation and development of its 26-building, 600,000 square foot, 16-acre factory campus. Phase III research and concept design work is complete. The project is ready to move construction projected for 2014-2016. This entails 130,000 square feet of gallery space requiring $25 million in state infrastructure grants, plus $30 million in privately raised construction investments, building maintenance reserves, and endowment funding.
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La Biennale de Montréal,
Defining Its Mission
By: - Mar 05th, 2014The mission of La Biennale de Montréal is to foster, support, interpret and disseminate the latest visual arts practices, while raising the international profile of Montréal as a destination of choice for contemporary art. Building on this mission, Uniform has drawn inspiration from the organization’s artistic vision—conveyed by four key terms: experimentation, agility, rigour and openness—to develop the graphic identity of La Biennale de Montréal.
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Malcolm Rogers Another Opinion
Defending Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood
By: - Mar 03rd, 2014David Bonetti started a career as an art critic writing for the Boston Phoenix and Art New England. He moved on to write for daily papers in San Francisco and St. Louis. Now retired from covering fine arts he has returned to Boston. For the past few years he has covered opera for Berkshire Fine Arts with the occasional art piece. In response to our coverage of the retirement of MFA director, Malcolm Rogers, in a letter to the editor he offered a different take. We post it as an op ed piece.
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Malcolm Rogers Resignation Sidebar
Transition of Perry T. Rathbone to Merrill Reuppel
By: - Mar 02nd, 2014The MFA today has been totally rebuilt and defined by Malcolm Rogers. He is resigning after 19 years of dramatic and event brutal change. Part of that transformation is a not so benign neglect of more than a century of institutional and cultural history. The story of the resignation of Rogers was written under pressure of deadline. Since then further research has clarified points raised in the article. More will follow.
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Malcolm Rogers Retires from the MFA
More Autocrat than Aristocrat
By: - Feb 28th, 2014By just two years over Perry T. Rathbone, at 19, the British born Malcolm Rogers is leaving the Museum of Fine Arts as its longest running, most successful and controversial director. From top to bottom he reformed, renovated and rebuilt ever aspect of the museum. Along the way playing a hardball game of croquet worthy of the Queen of Hearts.
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Polish Artist Konrad Smolenski
Caused Buzz at 2013 Venice Biennale
By: - Feb 27th, 2014It would be funny to say that Konrad Smolenski is someone you will soon have heard of. Already a pretty big deal throughout Europe, he had the honor of representing Poland at the Venice Biennale this year and made quite the lasting impression.
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Ai Weiwei a Smash in Miami
Florida Protest Artist Destroys Priceless Vase
By: - Feb 18th, 2014As an act of protest the renowned dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, famously was photographed deliberately dropping and destroying a priceless Han Dynasty vase. Now it appears that in protest an artist has dropped an ancient vessel, painted over by Weiwei, that was included in his traveling exhibition. We explore the many layers of irony that tracks vandalism mimicking the creative destruction of Weiwei. Yet again imitation, however criminal, is the sincerest form of flattery.
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FreePort [No. 007]: From Here to Ear
Musical Performance Art By Birds at Peabody Essex Museum
By: - Feb 18th, 2014Most Performance Art is warmed over conceptual art from three or four decades ago. So when something is truly new and exciting, even intellectually and aesthetically provocative, it should be celebrated. Currently at the Peabody Essex Museum is a performance piece by 70 beautiful finches created by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. It should be seen and heard.
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