Valentine’s Day is approaching and “Love Stories,” a fabulous exhibition of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, London, is a perfect way to explore love and sex vicariously. Over 100 paintings of famous people, famous artists, famous love affairs and famous sex scandals fill the Worcester Art Museum gallery. Almost every art style and medium is represented beginning with the 1571 oil portraits of the Archbishop of York and his wife, through 2018 photos of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The exhibit is almost overwhelming in its visual riches and storytelling. “Scandal and Tragedy” and “Love Against the Odds” are two topical groupings — out of seven — of portraits that have the most contemporary appeal. An example is the famous sex scandal of Oscar Wilde’s outlawed love for Lord Alfred Douglas for which he was sentenced to “hard labor” (Gillman & Co., 1893, … [Read more...] about A RARE OPPORTUNITY: LONDON’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT MUSEUM’S TREASURES AT WAM
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SERENITY, BEAUTY & PEACE: THE GUILD’S SISTERS OF THE BRUSH PROVIDE NEEDED WARMTH
“Sisters of the Brush and Palette: Women Artists of the Guild” displays the art by all the women members of the Guild of Boston Artists, founded in 1914. The 15 artists display art that is serene, beautiful and deliciously painted and sculpted. In our current Covid-induced state of anxiety, social distrust and racial turmoil, their art is a welcome respite. Hopefully, there will always be a place for serenity, beauty and peace in our lives. Gertrude Fiske and Lilian Westcott Hale were founding members of the Guild, and current members follow in their tradition. Member Christina Mastrangelo’s paintings reflect on the world around her, with or without gender identity in mind. “I am interested in making paintings that speak to who we really are, not as seen by the male gaze, but from the gaze of a female artist,” Mastrangelo said. Five of the women direct their gaze to portraits of … [Read more...] about SERENITY, BEAUTY & PEACE: THE GUILD’S SISTERS OF THE BRUSH PROVIDE NEEDED WARMTH
A BLURRING OF EDGES: MATTHEW’S IMAGES OF SOCIAL COMMENTARY AT NEWPORT
Pointed engagement of social commentary, coupled with experimentalism with the presentation of photography as a medium are both hallmarks that define the artwork of photographer and installation artist Annu Palakunnathu Matthew. Through January 9, 2022 at Newport Art Museum, audiences can experience Matthew’s mid-career retrospective, “ReVision,” curated by Dr. Francine Weiss. The show is installed in four museum galleries that are located in the John N.A. Griswold House. The galleries relate a range in approach by the artist, from intimate dissolving animations on small wall hung iPad screens framed as traditional photographs, to monumental projected videos and more traditional appearing photographs. A simple looking, but complex to achieve, installation by Matthew fills one gallery and includes digitized World War II film footage projected onto dhotis, traditional Indian clothing … [Read more...] about A BLURRING OF EDGES: MATTHEW’S IMAGES OF SOCIAL COMMENTARY AT NEWPORT
A REBELLIOUS ELOQUENCE: “NEW PHOTOGRAPHY” ON DISPLAY AT ADDISON GALLERY
The Addison Gallery of American Art on Phillips Academy’s Andover, Massachusetts campus is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Impressively, its collection includes nearly 22,000 objects that span a timeline that begins in the early 18th century and ends today. As if that weren’t enough, admission to the Addison is notoriously free. My visit felt as expansive as its collection; meandering through the space felt less like a gallery visit than a trip back in time, to be sure. The purpose of my visit, however, was singular: to explore the gallery’s latest exhibition “Language, Sequence, Structure: Photographic Works by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer,” which will be on view through January 23. With the promise of these three artistic powerhouses on display, I had little doubt of returning home disappointed. This prediction was correct. Thomas, … [Read more...] about A REBELLIOUS ELOQUENCE: “NEW PHOTOGRAPHY” ON DISPLAY AT ADDISON GALLERY
PAINTING A DAILY SHOW OF STRENGTH: DONALD LANGOSY’S HOME AT MULTICULTURAL ART CENTER
Just at the tipping point of the 19th into the 20th century, Paul Gauguin gave us an operator’s manual for humankind in a painting he brought back to Paris from Tahiti: “Where are we going? What are we? Where do we come from?” He had trouble unloading his painting, for keeps — too many questions — until Boston’s own Museum of Fine Arts bought it in the 1930s, where it’s now a staple of modern art. The manual, though reluctantly at first, was picked up by other artists who wanted to be thoroughly modern. And these artists ran with it in every direction, from modern to postmodern — onwards. “Excerpts from My Studio,” the art of Donald Langosy, now on view at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, traces one of those trajectories, in all its twists and turns, in all its personal vicissitudes. And it’s a dinner plate heaped, in … [Read more...] about PAINTING A DAILY SHOW OF STRENGTH: DONALD LANGOSY’S HOME AT MULTICULTURAL ART CENTER
A COLLECTION OF MAINE RICHES: BATES UNVEILS COSTELLO WELLEHAN COLLECTION
“Maine... the way life should be.” The tourist tagline you’re greeted with as you enter this much sought-after vacation state is classic, timeless marketing. Poignant. Iconic. Like the marketing strategy tagline, the new show at Bates Museum of Art, “An Adventurous Spirit: The Jane Costello Wellehan Collection,” is also poignant, iconic — and by Maine artists exclusively. Many were from Maine. Many moved away from Maine and returned. Many chose Maine later in life, desiring a laidback, casual lifestyle. And many chose Maine because they deemed it the quintessential environment for an art career. All believe that Maine is the way life should be... The show opens in Lewiston, Maine, on November 5 and runs until March 19, 2022, and showcases the work of approximately 50 Maine artists donated by Maine collector and Bates alumnus, Jane Wellehan. She followed the careers of artists whose … [Read more...] about A COLLECTION OF MAINE RICHES: BATES UNVEILS COSTELLO WELLEHAN COLLECTION