artscope magazine: July/August 2008 Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor Letters to the Editor Past, Present, Future: ANISH KAPOOR ANDREW SAFTEL: How do we get there? WEDDED BLISS: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony A POLITIC, Gallery XIV El Greco To Velázquez: Art during the reign of Philip III Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008 Collector's Choice: Late 19th Century Vibrations OFF THE WALL: 2008 Annual members’ Juried exhibition Featured Artist Laurence Young An Artful Touch: An Artful Touch Gallery Everday Monuments: the Photographs of Jerome Liebling: SAM FEINSTEIN (1915-2003): A retrospective DORA ATWATER MILLIKIN: Geometry of Place Nancy Craig: New Paintings and Works on Paper, and Romolo Del Deo: New Sculpture and Bronze Furniture ALEX KATZ AND FRIENDS / THE GLEANERS BLACK WOMANHOOD: Images, Icons, And Ideologies of the African Body 215 College Street Artists' Cooperative Gallery Kevin Gilmore: Recent Paintings Paintings: Stephen Courbois, Sculpture: Pat Musick Penelope Jencks: Sculpture in Bronze, Terracotta and Plaster Theater: Counter Productions Theater: Ko FEST Music: Marblehead Summer Jazz Concerts and Festival of Arts Dance: Bates Summer Dance Festival Musings: FUNG WAH ADVENTURE Capsule Previews: May/June 2008

WEDDED BLISS: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony Roanna Forman Peabody Essex Museum East India Square Salem, Massachusetts Through September 14 With 130 paintings, garments, artifacts and installation pieces from the 18th century to the present, this intercultural exhibit shows the simple joys and complex tensions within that universal rite of passage, marriage. Beginning with the “Art of Negotiation,” works represent how the bride (or groom) is chosen, the relative role of wealth or love in that choice, how that wealth is transported to the new household, and cultural variations of the wedding procession uniting suitors and their families. The arranged marriage, so counter to romantic fantasies, is hardly a non-Western concept, as John Clevely’s 1762 panorama of the harbor arrival of George III’s bride attests. Knowing neither her husband nor English, the young Queen Charlotte is a stick figure amid the naval salute, symbol of British power. Bikash Bhattacharjee’s “Thakur Mathura Das, 1982,” an ambiguous portrait of a graying Indian man and doll-sized bride, conveys the oppressive elements of arranged marriage. The bride, in light-green sari and burnt-orange robe, gold headdress and baubles, is joyless. Sitting alongside the sullen figure at her right (father or husband?), she projects resignation and anger. Contrast that to the relief of courtship, again not exclusively Western. A photograph by Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone catches Wodaabee Tribe Nigerian males lining up to impress would-be brides. Wearing elaborate outfits, Read the entire article in our magazine pages...