It’s Tuesday, June 12 and Kaveh Mojtabai, Artscope publisher, accompanied by Nancy Nesvet, writer, have the distinct pleasure of attending a talk at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. The talk includes Sam Keller, foundation director, along with Chief Curator Raphael Bouvier, and Diana Widmaier Picasso, the granddaughter of Marie Therese Walter and Pablo Picasso. In honor of the exhibition of his work, The Early Picasso: The Blue and Rose Period, beginning later this year, these connoisseurs of his work shed light on Picasso’s early œuvre. Blue, the tone of his mood when his work was not yet selling in his early career, 1901-7; Rose the color of his figures when, in love with Marie Therese, resulted from his lifted mood. His courage showed in Demoiselles d’Avignon, a study for which Picasso’s friend Ernst Beyeler bought for his collection. This study was so cherished that … [Read more...] about It’s a beautiful day at the Beyeler Foundation.
Day 1 Rainy Day in Basel at Volta and Liste
Rain or shine, and it did, Nancy Nesvet, intrepid Artscope writer, spent the first day in Basel before Art Basel opens at two satellite fairs, Volta and Liste. Both showed artists, and galleries reflecting subjects with the environment and social-political issues using codes to define and display nationhood. The socially concerned seemed to predominate at Liste and Volta. Another trend, at both shows, was a use of handcrafts and textiles, naturally obtained, challenging the hard-edged resin obsession of some artists. This emphasis on natural, locally-sourced materials and hand-made objects and sculpture differed from the technological at Art Basel’s installations, (where we’ll have more reports tomorrow on Artscope Online), and, more importantly, emphasized the connection between locally-sourced material and the from which it came. Local sourcing seems like a play to the definition of … [Read more...] about Day 1 Rainy Day in Basel at Volta and Liste
Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America
WATERTOWN, MASS. --- Marsha Nouritza Odabashian’s small but mighty solo exhibition “Skins” is on view through June 24 at the Armenian Museum of America. “Skins” features 3 components — “Reliquaries Series,” “Altamira” and “Galaxy Waltz” — that dialogue together, creating a powerful meditative and revelatory environment containing within a remarkable transcend sacred energy. The theme of the exhibition engages the idea that the human body mirrors the land and sea from which it emerged, and all is one holistic living organism marked and bruised by human events and the shift of time. Formally, it is a landscape and figurative exhibition demonstrating the material possibilities of painting with nontoxic onion skin dyes on paper, and the expansive and flexible opportunities found within the practice of drawing and sculpting realism from abstracted forms, and the continued importance … [Read more...] about Marsha Nouritza Odabashian: Skins – The Body Landscape at the Armenian Museum of America
Nora Valdez’s Immigration Nation Settles at MFA Boston for Memorial Day Weekend
On Memorial Day Weekend, audiences at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will have the opportunity to encounter “Immigration Nation” by artist Nora Valdez. This Intervention style artwork is planned as a happening in three locations inside the MFA: the Shapiro Family Courtyard, Gallery 168 and Druker Family Pavilion. The artist will install on Friday and then remove “Immigration Nation” on Tuesday. As a framework of thought, the project will have three zones of presentation described by the museum as “bringing together more than 100 sculptures made by members of the Boston community with Valdez’s direction.” The artist will speak about the development of “Immigration Nation” in two artist talks scheduled for Monday May 28 at 11:30 am and 2 p.m. These artist dialogues in the museum’s Riley Seminar Room will last about 30 minutes. During these talks, Valdez will share personal experiences … [Read more...] about Nora Valdez’s Immigration Nation Settles at MFA Boston for Memorial Day Weekend
The Women Who Mapped the Stars at Central Square Theater
There are times when a reviewer comes home after a late night to look at his theater ticket and feel like kissing it for the scintillating drama its admission provided. That’s how I felt, in spades, as I looked at author Joyce Van Dyke’s light blue ticket to her play, “The Women Who Mapped the Stars,” now running at the Central Square Theater through May 20. The setting is the Harvard College Observatory in the late 1800s, just as the door of the 20th century was about to swing open on so many new ways of thinking, so many scientific discoveries. That door was also opening for women in science, but more hesitantly, more creakily, and not with the wide-open brio with which it swung open for able men of most any brand. This play takes no time at all to introduce the audience to both the opportunities and the obstacles for women, the former dauntingly narrow but doable, the latter all … [Read more...] about The Women Who Mapped the Stars at Central Square Theater
WHAT’S UP? NEW ADMISSIONS POLICY AT THE MET
NEW YORK CITY -- On March 1, the Metropolitan Museum of Art instituted an admission fee for the first time since its April 13, 1870 founding. It was a sad day for art, art lovers and those not yet aware of how enjoyable the art experience can be. Numerous artists, including Ai Wei Wei, have vociferously objected to the new policy, but let us examine the reasons for the change, the possible financial success of the new policy, based on other museums’ experience of charging admission, the legality of the new policy and the social change the new policy might affect. The New York State Legislature amended its April 13, 1870 Act chartering the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art with the 1893 Act, Chapter 476, which required that its collections “shall be kept open and accessible to the public free of charge throughout the year.” The Met’s board has apparently defined the public as … [Read more...] about WHAT’S UP? NEW ADMISSIONS POLICY AT THE MET