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New England's Culture Magazine

Artscope Magazine | May/June 2020

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Artscope Online

THEATERS OPEN THEIR VAULTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

// Artscope Online, Audio/Visual, Movie, Theatre

by J. M. Belmont

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, live performance has been put on ice. But even though theaters have closed their doors, many are rummaging through their video archives and making productions from the past available for online viewing. Artscope has picked some of the best companies in this country and around the world that have opened their vaults for the locked-in public. THE NATIONAL THEATER: One of the United Kingdom’s most lauded theaters has begun a program they call “National Theater At Home.” An extension of their popular “National Theater Live,” which had broadcast plays live from London’s South Bank to cinemas across the globe, “At Home” will be offering a production a week. Currently showing at time of posting is the company’s frightening and technologically innovative adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein, starring Benedict … [Read more...] about THEATERS OPEN THEIR VAULTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

REFLECTIONS FROM UNDER THE RUG SHOP: A PERSPECTIVE ON COVID-19 FROM INSIDE ARTSCOPE MAGAZINE

// Artscope Online, Audio/Visual, News, Uncategorized, Visual Arts

by Hannah Carrigan

In many ways it seemed as though something in the universe had been telling me the coronavirus pandemic was to come. I miraculously chose this semester to take a leave of absence from my college (which is five miles west of New Rochelle, the epicenter of the New York outbreak) and to spend it, instead, at Artscope Magazine’s “underground bunker” (so nick-named for its location under a rug shop). At the beginning of the pandemic I joked that COVID-19 was a form of divine intervention… a “Noah’s arc-type situation.” I don’t know if that’s what this is exactly, but I do know that what is happening now is both an ecological/biological and social/cultural episode.  The pandemic did not come as a surprise to everyone. The first recorded travel-related COVID-19 case came to America on January 21, while the outbreak in Wuhan had been ongoing since December. People like Bill Gates have been … [Read more...] about REFLECTIONS FROM UNDER THE RUG SHOP: A PERSPECTIVE ON COVID-19 FROM INSIDE ARTSCOPE MAGAZINE

ART IN PLACE ONLINE AT STANDARD SPACE

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by J.M. Belmont

In mid-March, the art scene all over New England — and slowly afterwards, much of the United States — came to a standstill — or at least its institutions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many galleries moved to appointment-only viewings. An overwhelming number temporarily closed altogether. Cultural backbones like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are closed to the public, with its date for reopening being extended to further and further dates. The communal feeling that art brings has been thrown out of synch. Even imagining the empty halls of museums or a gallery with its lights out brings a disconcerting mood. But some institutions are defying that mood. Standard Space in Sharon, Connecticut, has launched “Art in Place,” a rolling virtual exhibition focused on art relating to the ongoing pandemic. The idea for its development came to curator Theo Coulombe two weeks ago: “My art … [Read more...] about ART IN PLACE ONLINE AT STANDARD SPACE

COPING WITH COVID-19: INSIGHTS AND INNOVATION FROM THE ART WORLD

// Artscope Online, News

by Hannah Carrigan

While artists may be spending much of this pandemic in their studios working to produce new works, many of us are left without such established art practices to help us make sense of (or escape) our current radical reality. At the same time, COVID-19 has pushed art institutions and organizations to get creative about the ways in which they operate. Many have created resources for the general public, so that we can create, view or in some other way take part in the excitement and depth of art — from wherever we may be.  At a time when uncertainties, fear and illness plague our society, art remains a resource and practice which, in its essence, cannot be stamped out. And if we’re going to be quarantined, we might as well use our time at home to engage with that art: to pause, reflect, create and, ironically, participate. While galleries and artists scramble to keep their audiences … [Read more...] about COPING WITH COVID-19: INSIGHTS AND INNOVATION FROM THE ART WORLD

LUCIAN FREUD: THE SELF-PORTRAITS

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by J.M. Belmont

Two self-portraits by British painter Lucian Freud (1922-2011) are the first works one sees when entering the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s "Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits” exhibition. The most recent of the two shows Freud at close to 80 years old, while the other dates towards the end of the Second World War. The self-portrait of the older Freud is a delicious blend of pink and greys that faintly mellows his face. In the one in which he is young, his image is amateur, flat and everything is just ever so slightly out of proportion. His left hand is far larger than the right. His eyes are not level to one another and his mask-like facade is reminiscent of the skulls engraved on colonial tombstones. The exhibit consists of 40-odd self-portraits, ranging from his time in various art academies to shortly before his death nine years ago, at the age of 88. The collection is filled with … [Read more...] about LUCIAN FREUD: THE SELF-PORTRAITS

“A HORSE WALKS INTO A BAR” AND OTHER CURIOUS NOTIONS AT HAMPDEN GALLERY

// Artscope Online, Current Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Hannah Carrigan

D. Dominick Lombardi’s curation of whit is unmistakable. In a fine arts show at UMassAmherst’s Hampden Gallery featuring works by 26 artists, and with a theme as broad as humor, cohesiveness is not a given. And yet, while “A Horse Walks into a Bar” contains a myriad of mediums and styles, its parts come together to form a wonderfully silly, provocative and subtly nostalgic whole. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of “A Horse Walks Into A Bar” is the innovative and unique use of materials and methods to achieve a sense of playfulness and absurdity. Among the most intriguing of these is Lucy White’s Band-Aid prints, “Sex Pistols,” 2005, “Peace Panty,” 2006, and “I Hate You Brief  XL,” 2006. In her signature minimalist style, with an edge of art-poking-fun-at-art, White offers viewers an easy avenue into weighty issues like gender inequality and gun violence. Other exciting uses of … [Read more...] about “A HORSE WALKS INTO A BAR” AND OTHER CURIOUS NOTIONS AT HAMPDEN GALLERY