Fine Arts
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Arnold Trachtman Boston Protest Artist at 89
A Formidable Legacy of Social Concern
By: - Nov 09th, 2019An exhibition of Vietnam protest paintings by Arnold Trachtman was censored and closed by the admninistration of Harvard University. We remounted it at the Institute of Contemporary Art then on Soldier's Field Road. That formed a professional and personal relationship. He was a part of a niche of major Boston artists that existed out of the mainstream, Yesterday he passed away in Cambridge at 89.
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Ancient Nubia Now
Social Justice Catches Up with the MFA
By: - Oct 25th, 2019During a recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts a school group was inappropriately treated in a blatantly racist manner. That has caught the museum, and its director Matthew Teitelbaum, in the cross hairs of media whiplash. There is a shameful legacy of racism and anti Semitism at the MFA. It will take decades to make appropriate changes.
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Charles Giuliano Photo Collages
Solo Exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery
By: - Oct 22nd, 2019Last summer for exhibitions at Gallery 51 and the Eclipse Gallery, both in North Adams, with Amanda at Beck's Printing I created large format digital prints on canvas. There were five last summer. Three classical based surreal prints are included in the November exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Ten more large canvases have been created for the project curated by gallerist Bill Riley. There are also some framed giclee prints as well as original collages.
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Drawing and Painting By Martin G. Mugar
Lesson Plans for Faculty and Students
By: - Oct 22nd, 2019The artist Martin Mugar has posted a number of provocactive think pieces to this site. His self published book Drawing and Painting provides lesson plans for progressive faculty and students. It distills what he learned earning an MFA degree at Yale followed by decades of teaching. Like all of his writing the book is challengings and insightful.
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James Aponovich at Clark Gallery
Parables, Portraits and Recent Still Lifes
By: - Oct 21st, 2019James Aponovich is on the short list of leading American realist painters. He is having a stunning exhibition of new work at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
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The Clark Art Institute Preview
Summer 2020 Schedule Includes Outdoor Exhibition
By: - Oct 21st, 2019“The Clark’s upcoming summer season is an ambitious program highlighting new discoveries and new initiatives,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “We are truly energized by the opportunity to activate our entire campus by sharing exhibitions that will introduce our visitors—and the world—to artists whose work is vibrant, dynamic, and inspiring. This summer’s programs span more than one hundred years of artistic practice and explore a rich array of themes through both historic and contemporary lenses.”
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Women You Should Know
Begging the Question at Gallery 51
By: - Sep 30th, 2019By any measure the current exhibition at Gallery 51 in North Adams is superb. There is a compelling synergy that threads through work by five artists all of whom live and work in the Berkshires
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Alvin Ouellet at Real Eyes Gallery
Plein Air Paintings and Prints of Adams and North Adams
By: - Sep 27th, 2019With poetic irony, visitors to Ouelett’s one man exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams literally walk past his subject matter. To verify the veracity of his depictions one need but stand and gawk about on Park Street.
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Don’t Give a Crap
Solid Gold Commode Gone Missing
By: - Sep 14th, 2019The rich are different from us. As a symbol of ultimate decadence Maurizio Cattelan created "America" a sold gold toilet. I lined up to take a pee in it at the Guggenheim Museum. Now it has gone missing.
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John Zorn World Premiere at Columbia University
Pianist Stephen Gosling Paints in Notes
By: - Sep 12th, 2019The first of a series of monthly pop up concerts at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University presented the world premiere of John Zorn’s 18 Studies from the Later Sketchbooks of JMW Turner. This expansive work embraces a variety of styles and forms, all inspired by the watercolors of 19th-century English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. Pianist Stephen Gosling, a masterful interpreter of contemporary music and particularly Zorn's, performed.
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Marjorie Kaye Synaptic Tides
Boston's Galatea Fine Arts
By: - Sep 10th, 2019I have been working on sculptural surfaces for my paintings for 6 months. In addition to the resulting surface tension, the work has become more lyrical, sprinkled with recognizable imagery. Vines, galaxies, probes, suns, microbial animals and plants divide the surface and define the space.
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Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition
North Adams Events in September and October
By: - Sep 06th, 2019The Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition will be held September 6 to September 29 at 243 Union Street in North Adams, Mass. 01247. This serves as a preview for Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20. The complex, which houses forty live/ work lofts, is the epicenter of an ever growing community of artists in Northern Berkshire County.
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Bill Riley at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams
Interrupted Landscapes
By: - Aug 18th, 2019Bill Riley wears a number of hats. He is showing this month at Real Eyes the top notch gallery he runs in Adams. Mass, Now retired his day gig for many years was as a scene painter for the Metrpolitan Opera. Recently he has been free lancing for the hit Amazon comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He has the skill set to be a master forger to create works and sets in any medium or style. Many of these technical skills are applied to the works in the exhibition Interrupted Landscapes.
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Oliver Beer's Vessel Orchestra at the MET Breuer
Nico Muhly and John Zorn compose for the Vessels
By: - Aug 13th, 2019The Metropolitan Museum of Art has mounted its first sound-based installation. British artist Oliver Beer selected 32 vessels from the Museum's vast collection. They form a 32 note chromatic scale which can performed on an electronic keyboard. The exhibit was a feast for eyes and ears.
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Carl Chiarenza on Boston Photography
Harvard Dissertation on Aaron Siskind First on Photography in US
By: - Aug 07th, 2019During graduate study at Boston University photographer Carl Chiarenza was a professor, mentor and friend. We spoke at length about how JFK and the Vietnam War nudged him into studying art history. At Harvard he was the first American to write a dissertation on photography. It was a biography and critical study of then living American icon Aaron Siskind. Now retired from the University of Rochester he continues to create new work.
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Renoir: the Body, the Senses
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
By: - Jul 23rd, 2019On the occasion of the 100th anniversary since his death the Clark Art Institute has organized a scholarly exhibition Renoir: the Body, the Senses. At his best few 19th century masters can match his charm and popular appeal. His greatest works were included in the 1985-1986 blockbuster exhibition Renoir, which was shown in London and Paris before it came to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It broke MFA records with 500,000 plus visitors. The Clark show by comparison is small and uneven.
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Kevin Puts Premiere at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons Conducts Renee Fleming and Rod Gilfry
By: - Jul 21st, 2019The Brightness of Light by Kevin Puts had its world premiere at The Shed at Tanglewood. Rod Gilfry, baritone, and Puts' collaborator Renee Fleming, sang the baritone and soprano roles of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keefe, who were married for twenty-two years. Often living and working in different parts of America, they corresponded. Puts scoured the correspondence to develop an arc for his orchestral song cycle. It is a brilliantly achieved work.
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Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian
Up Close and Personal at the Gardner Museum
By: - Jul 16th, 2019To mark the 500th anniversary of the legendary painter Raphael’s death, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will bring together - for the first time – Raphael’s portrait of papal librarian, Tommaso Inghirami, from its collection and a painting depicting an episode in his life from the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City.
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Marjorie Minkin: The Shape of Light
Museum Quality Work at Real Eyes Gallery in the Berkshires
By: - Jul 05th, 2019In a relatively short time Real Eyes Gallery. located in the heart of Adams in the Berkshires. is notable for programming museum level exhibtions. Marjorie Minkin: The Shape of Light sets the bar high. Gallerist Bill Reilly has been able to work with artists from an expanding and ever more remarkable community of artists. How long can MASS MoCA ignore phenomenal work being created in its own back yard?
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Patricia Hills on American Art
Whitney Museum Curator and Boston University Professor
By: - Jun 25th, 2019A leading scholar of American Art, Patricia Hills curated major exhibitions for the Whitney Museum including "John Singer Sargent."Her books and catalogues range from Eastman Johnson, to Alice Neel and Jacob Lawrence. At Boston University she trained a generation of scholars and curators. As a Marxist she has been particularly involved in social justice projects.
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Mugar's Theory of Zombie Abstraction
An Update and Controversy
By: - Jun 24th, 2019When I first wrote about Zombie abstraction in December 2013 several months before the concept achieved notoriety in Walter Robinson's now famous essay on Zombie Formalism, I got a blowback in a comment on my Zombie blog from artist Craig Stockwell.
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Basquiat x Warhol at The School
Summer Exhibition in Kinderhook New York
By: - Jun 22nd, 2019The Swiss dealer, Bruno Bischofberger commissioned a collaboration between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as well as Francesco Clemente. The project with Clemente fizzled by thrived with the other two artists. The dealer would purchase between sixty and eighty of their works together. The project wasn't completed but eight works from the series are on view at The School in Kinderhook New York. There are some hundred works by the artists on view, Saturdays, through early September.
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Phenomenal Nature at Met Breuer
Mrinalini Mukherjee, Sculptor
By: - Jun 17th, 2019Phenomenal Nature, the first American retrospective of the remarkable sculptures of Indian artist, Mrinalini Mukherjee, will be on display at the Met Breuer until September 29 and is well worth viewing.
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Gabrielle Barzaghi: The Tzar’s Children
Gloucester’s Trident Gallery
By: - Jun 14th, 2019Trident Gallery in Gloucester is presenting Gabrielle Barzaghi: The Tzar’s Children. There will be a discussion wth the figurative /narrative artist on Sunday, June 16, at 4 PM.
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50th Anniversary of Stonewall
About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art
By: - Jun 09th, 2019About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a spontaneous rebellion by gay activists after a police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Curated by Jonathan David Katz, Ph.D., activist, art historian, writer and university professor, the exhibit features almost 500 works of art in every conceivable media.
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