By Nancy Nesvet Washington, D.C. - Crashing websites to obtain tickets to the show, standing for hours in multiple lines to view the work, never-before seen crowds in America are going crazy for Yayoi Kusama. Because the work relates to universal concerns, this trip to infinity has us all trailing along, and when done with our 30 seconds in an installation, just wanting to go back again for more. Alone, standing in a cosmos of pointed light, or surrounded by rows of golden pumpkins, my loneliness is alleviated by the unaccountable vastness and brilliant colors of these shimmering objects. As Yayoi Kusama fears loneliness most, she has conquered her fear with a self-imposed treatment program of desensitization. Her constant making of repetitive round forms, be they lights, pumpkins or seeds, leads to organized patterns that allow her and us to organize the overwhelming chaos in our … [Read more...] about Wanderlust: Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
News
Celebrating the life of Dahlov Ipcar
By Greg Morell Manchester, New Hampshire - Dahlov Ipcar was celebrating her 99th year when her life and her vibrant career as a prolific artist came to an end, February 10, 2017. I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Dahlov at her Maine home for Artscope Magazine when she was 93. At the time, she was putting the finishing touches on her expansive exhibition of her circle of life paintings for her one-woman show at the University of New Hampshire. Entering Dahlov’s world was a heady experience of artistic intoxication. Every corner of her domicile was crammed with paintings, bronze busts, sculptures in marble and wood, drawings, soft sculptures, and marionettes, all painted or stitched by Dahlov, or her artist parents. She was a joyous lover of life and art. Her work is a rich visual feast, an experience full of zest, color, and magical imagery. At the time if my … [Read more...] about Celebrating the life of Dahlov Ipcar
Da Vinci — The Genius at the Museum of Science
By Kate Kenney Cambridge, MA - Inside the Museum of Science is a dark room full of realized dreams that’s hosting a temporary exhibit from Grande Exhibitions and Pascal Cotte, France: “Da Vinci — The Genius,” an exhibition that allows visitors into Leonardo da Vinci’s world with a behind-the-paintings look at some of his most infamous creations. One side of the room is decorated with large wooden models depicting da Vinci’s finest experimental designs. What were once simply notebook sketches have now been realized into life-sized hand-crafted models. Structures range from a canvas parachute that could be easily mistaken for architectural art piece, to a Jules Verneian — and honestly terrifying — diving suit complete with webbed flippers. Many of the objects show da Vinci’s curiosity in military engineering. A large wooden catapult and tank show his imaginative ideas on how to … [Read more...] about Da Vinci — The Genius at the Museum of Science
Keep Still and Carry On
By Nancy Nesvet New York, NY - Three weeks after President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, five weeks after Miami’s declaration as a Zika-free zone, five months after Brexit and nine weeks after the close of Art Basel Miami, artists and other Americans and Europeans are emerging from a catatonic state of denial, protesting and marching and executing art projects that address the US and worldwide political situations. Art Basel Miami showed films by Alfredo Jaar and stills including William Pope L’s “Gold People Dance Contest, 1931, recalling the year of Hitler’s rise to power, and Sanford Biggers video showed shotgun holes in African figural sculptures, (sponsored by Marianne Boesky Gallery) calling attention to current politics. But whereas various Art Basel Miami projects were relevant to current politics, they often addressed events literally, whether in signs proclaiming … [Read more...] about Keep Still and Carry On
A Study in Contrasts: The 2017 Presidential Inauguration Festivities and Women’s March on Washington
By Nancy Nesvet Washington D.C. - On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, two artworks were exhibited in celebration of the event. In the Capitol Building, George Caleb Bingham’s “The Verdict of the People,” on loan from the Saint Louis Art Museum, hung over the dais table at the inaugural lunch for Congress and the president and vice president. In depicting a party of white men who had apparently voted, with the lone black man pushing a cart, and the three women, all of whom could not vote, waving a banner proclaiming “Freedom for Virtue, Restriction for Vice”, the painting seemed an odd choice for the lunch after President Trump’s oath of office. The second artwork, displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, is the only official portrait, so far, of President Donald J. Trump. The photograph, shown here, courtesy of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, made by … [Read more...] about A Study in Contrasts: The 2017 Presidential Inauguration Festivities and Women’s March on Washington
A Commitment to the Arts in Boston
By Meghan Richter The Boston Creates initiative is a newly launched cultural planning process designed to empower everyday citizens to design their own social policy, and above all else, create. While City of Boston Mayor Martin “Marty” J. Walsh’s administration has had a great deal to do with this planning, it was the passion of Boston artists that made it all possible. They called upon City Hall to increase its support for the arts, to “create a sustainable cultural plan, increase performance and work spaces, and embrace the rich diversity” of Boston. Walsh has been working to make the city a municipal arts leader since he was elected in 2013. This initiative is the first of its kind, and intends to provide more artistic resources to schools, and incorporate the arts into all of its new building projects. It also re-appropriates space within the City of Boston, one resource that … [Read more...] about A Commitment to the Arts in Boston