Metropolitan Museum of Art

For the past 15 years artist Peter Dudek has been a part of a team of three that manage Bascom Lodge on Mount Greylock. Prior to that, with Maggie Mailer, he managed Storefront Artists Project in Pittsfield. It brought life to the moribund downtown. Recently we met to discuss a limited edition facsimile of a 1951 Met catalogue American Sculpture.

Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso’s death, Young Picasso in Paris highlights a significant work, Le Moulin de la Galette (ca. November 1900), from the Guggenheim collection. The famous dance hall—formerly a mill engaged in the production of a brown bread, or galette—had also been depicted by such avant-gardists as Ramón Casas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh.

De Montebello, who was formerly Executive Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has repeatedly refused to address staff concerns about health and safety for both staff and the collection itself.  

The realist painter Alfred Leslie had a major impact on the Boston Art World. In 1976 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. He also commuted to teach at the Boston University School of Fine Arts.

Through January 29 the Institute of Contemporary Art is displayng a gallery with 11 totemic ceramic standing figures by Rose B. Simpson. A graduate of RISD she grew up in a culture noted for its distinctive pottery created by her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, her late grandmother, Rina Swentzell and her late great-grandmother, Rose Naranjo.

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) has announced the promotion of Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan, a specialist in modern and contemporary art and one of the world’s leading experts on art and technology, to the position of Curator.

On Sunday, September 4 at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark to celebrate the current Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern exhibition. This free outdoor concert takes place on the Fernández Terrace near the Clark’s Reflecting Pool.

Through September 18 the Clark Art Institute is presenting the blockbuster exhibition Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. More documentary than retrospective it tells the tale of Rodin in America and his great collectors. All but one of the 50 sculptures and 25 drawings are loans from American museums and private collections. This is the must see exhibition of summer in the Berkshires.

Julia Bullock has made a big opera career outside conventional wisdom. At the Aix Festival in Provence this year she sang Olivier Messiaen's Harawi, a challenging work to which she brings unusual insights.

On Saturday, July 23 at 3 pm, the Clark Art Institute hosts a performance by acclaimed Jacob’s Pillow alumnus Jonah Bokaer. The choreographer and visual artist performs a solo choreography inspired by Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, Fallen Angel.

The Rodin exhibition explores changing perceptions of the sculptor’s work, beginning with the first acquisition made by an American institution—the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1893—and Rodin’s controversial debut at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in the same year. The exhibition examines the collecting frenzy of the early twentieth century, promoted by noted philanthropist Katherine Seney Simpson, avant-garde performer Loïe Fuller, and collector Alma de Bretteville Spreckels

This spring, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will present an exhibition by pioneering abstractionist artist Sam Gilliam. Between May 25 and Sept. 4, “Sam Gilliam: Full Circle” will pair a series of circular paintings (or tondos) created in 2021 with “Rail” (1977), a landmark painting in the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection.

Heartbeat Opera is a New York based company committed to making opera for the Now. Years before George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, they adapted Fidelio, Beethoven’s sole opera, to prison life today. 

It comes as no surprise that the oldest piano in the world, created in 1720 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, is now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An earlier instrument was recorded in the inventory of the Medici family in 1700, but the Met’s piano is the oldest to survive today.  It has hammers and dampers, two keyboards, and a range of four octaves, C–c”’ The instrument was on view for concertgoers, who enjoyed a talk by Leon Botstein om the development of the instrument. He focused on Beethoven's response to more notes with a wider dynamic range, The Orchestra Now performed the Emperor Concerto, Shai Wosner at the modern Steinway and Leon Botstein conducting.

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has successfully completed the public consultation process for the revitalization of its Sculpture Garden. The Hirshhorn is the only Smithsonian museum directly integrated into the National Mall. The revitalization project will connect the 1.5-acre garden on the National Mall with the 4-acre plaza surrounding the museum, which welcomes 1 million visitors annually.

Remarkably, Museum of Fine Arts Boston , 1870 to 2020, by Charles Giuliano is only the second comprehensive history of the MFA. Much has transpired since the centennial publication some fifty years ago. Over those decades the author interviewed directors, curators, trustees and administrators. The museum's great collections as well as issues of elitist exclusion, racism and anti Semitism are conveyed in their own words. The Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements have impacted all of America's cultural institutions. Giuliano will discuss the book at the Williams Faculty Club on Friday, November 19 at 7 PM.

Our panel discussion will consider ways in which the practice of Indigenous curation enacts sovereignty. We will address the various challenges of doing Indigenous curation within and, at times, against art institutions. Our discussion will take into account the difficulties of collaborating across various differences—cultural, disciplinary, educational, etc.—that are specific to exhibiting Indigenous arts.

Arvo Pärt has celebrated birthdays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His music is often performed at the Temple of Dendur where one wall dances with reflections from a pool of water, reflections that seem to move with the beat of the music. They soothe and elevate, a mood captured by the Nile River in the temple’s original Egyptian location.

Italian American Artists Grapple with Christopher Columbus's Legacy at MAD Museum. The Museum of Arts and Design will host 4 NYC artists of Italian heritage for a discussion about the colonial legacy of Christopher Columbus and his importance to the Italian American community. 

The National Academy of Design is pleased to announce the launch of the virtual Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné on July 29, in recognition of the anniversary of the artist’s birthday. In this first phase, the catalogue raisonné is focused on American artist Eastman Johnson’s paintings. Subsequent phases will include the artist’s drawings and prints.

The Al Hirschfeld Foundation's latest online exhibition focuses on canines. The show features drawings of some of the most famous dogs in 20th century media. The drawings of Al Hirschfeld stand as one of the most innovative efforts in establishing the visual language of modern art through caricature in the 20th century.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University announces today the ensemble of magicians to perform in the return engagement of The Conjurors’ Club created by Vinny DePonto and Geoff Kanick. Back by popular demand, the live interactive multi-magician experience runs online April 28 - May 16, 2021.  

American art scholar Patricia Hills has researched and published the work of genre painter Eastman Johnson (1824-1906). She is seeking funds to launch a Catalogue Raisonné website working with the National Academy of Design.

Artist Carrie Mae Weems will join students from Williams College, Bennington College, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for an online public conversation at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 1. Some 500 individuals may register for the Zoom lecture which will later be available on YouTube.

The work of Benny Andrews (November 13, 1930 – November 10, 2006) is complex, compelling and problematic. The son of Georgia sharecroppers he matured to be a true polymath in the art world. Today he is regarded as a leader in the development of African American art. He was also a part of the movements of figurative expressionism and the Rhino Horn group. This is the third exhibition and an extensive catalogue from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery which represents the estate.