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New England's Culture Magazine

Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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history

Ansel Adams, "Pictures and mementoes: Yonemitsu home," 1943.

REVIEW OF ‘ANSEL ADAMS: IN OUR TIME’ AT MFA BOSTON

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Review, Visual Arts

by Jack Curtis

Ansel Adams’s Manzanar photos “burn one’s eyes.” Twice in 1943, Ansel Adams ventured to the desert of east central California, to focus his lens, not on some magnificent landscape, but on the desolate Manzanar War Relocation Center to document the life of the Japanese interred there. The result was the 1944 publication of Born Free and Equal, a 112-book that presented a selection of his Manzanar photos with text by Adams. The MFA exhibition “Ansel Adams: In Our Time” thoughtfully and beautifully demonstrates Adams’ influence on the work of several 21st-century photographers. But the exhibition (which ended February 24) offers up only four small photos and a brief explanation about this little-known chapter in his life’s work. Adams’s Manzanar photos, which warrant further exploration, are strongly “of our time,” a time when once again “the other” is being demonized. On February … [Read more...] about REVIEW OF ‘ANSEL ADAMS: IN OUR TIME’ AT MFA BOSTON

Fenway Open Studios.

CORNERED: LYNDA MCNALLY, FOUNDING PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF FENWAY STUDIOS

// Artscope Online, Cornered, Exhibit Openings, Visual Arts

by Brian Goslow

This weekend, November 10 and 11, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Fenway Studios, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest purpose-built structure in the country designed solely as artist studios, hosts “Fenway Studios Open Studios Weekend.” Work ranging from abstract expressionism to post-modern realism is available; whether you’re a major collector or someone looking for a special gift or unique stocking stuffers or cards to adorn your gifts (all worthy of frames in their own right) — or you’re just interested in seeing a strong cross-section of locally-created art in the space where they’re made, the event promises to be visually and spiritually rewarding. If you attend, please bring a donation for its 10th Annual Food Drive to Benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank.   A few days prior to the event, Artscope managing editor Brian Goslow exchanged questions with Lynda McNally, the … [Read more...] about CORNERED: LYNDA MCNALLY, FOUNDING PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF FENWAY STUDIOS

Nevet Yitzhak, WarCraft (detail), 2014. Photography by Thomas Seely. Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Common Threads: Contemporary Fiber Art at the Gardner

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by Bryanna F. Drew

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is known for many things: the beautiful Venetian palazzo-inspired architecture, the unconventional way it displays its pieces of art, the largest and still-unsolved art heist in history, and Isabella Stewart Gardner’s wide taste in art — from Italian renaissance and medieval European to Asian and Islamic art; from paintings and sculptures to rare books and textiles — to name a few. Keeping in tradition with her love of textiles, “Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time,” is on view through January 13. The exhibition features work from contemporary artists who are continuing the tradition of conveying stories and histories in their works while pushing the boundaries of textile art and distorting the line around what can be defined as a tapestry. Their works are housed in both the Hostetter Gallery as well as the Tapestry Room. Walking into the … [Read more...] about Common Threads: Contemporary Fiber Art at the Gardner

LEFT: Martin Luther King, Jr., 1965, gelatin-silver vintage print, 9.2” x 13.5”. © Dennis Hopper. Courtesy The Hopper Art Trust. RIGHT: Ike and Tina Turner, 1965, gelatin-silver vintage print, 6.55” x 9.77”. © Dennis Hopper. Courtesy The Hopper Art Trust.

Still the Coolest: Dennis Hopper’s Lost Album Brings Us All Back

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by Kristin Nord

That Sunday afternoon in 1970, students and regular patrons in Fort Worth Art Center Museum had turned out for a show that seemed to encapsulate the age: Bellbottomed jeans and maxi-dresses mingled with the suits, minks and diamonds, when the photographer and now-director Dennis Hopper emerged, dressed in a gray pin-striped suit, Indian shirt and black western boots, his long hair flowing. Hopper had chosen more than 400 photographs out of some 10,000 he had captured and printed between 1960 and 1967. They were mounted in a succession of fascinating groupings, each image postcard-sized. Billboards, car with fins and twinkling tail lights competed with romantic motorcycle and bullfighting tableaux; young actors and artists on the cusp of greatness were captured in their element with what appeared to be disarming ease. Hopper had been in the thick of this milieu for more than a decade, … [Read more...] about Still the Coolest: Dennis Hopper’s Lost Album Brings Us All Back

LEFT: Faig Ahmed, Epiphany, from the “Liquid” series, 2016, handmade woolen carpet, 74” x 79”. Courtesy of the artist and Sapar Contemporary, New York. Image courtesy of Ahmed Faig Studio. RIGHT: Samira Alikhanzadeh, No. 10, from the “Double” series, 2010, digital print, mirror fragments and acrylic on board, 35” x 50”. Lent by Azita Bina Seibel.

The Shape of Birds: Bridging the Cultural Divide Through Art

// Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by J. Fatima Martins

“The Shape of Birds” takes the theme of displacement, remembrance and adaption from Nizar Qabbani’s poem “A Lesson in Drawing” which begins with “My son placed a paint box in front of me / and asked me to draw a bird for him. / Into the color gray I dip the brush / and draw a square with locks and bars. / Astonishment fills his eyes: / ‘...But this is a prison, Father. Don’t you know, how to draw a bird?’ / And I tell him: ‘Son, forgive me. / I’ve forgotten the shapes of birds.’” The artists in “The Shape of Birds” are from nine countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Azerbaijan. Some continue to live in their countries of origin, while others have immigrated to adopted homelands of Europe or the United States. The exhibition is arranged in three galleries: the large Ilgenfritz Gallery and its Corridor, the … [Read more...] about The Shape of Birds: Bridging the Cultural Divide Through Art

ALLURE OF VENICE: LANSIL AT WHISTLER

// Issue Articles, May/June 2018

by Flavia Cigliano

REVIEW THE ALLURE OF VENICE WHISTLER HOUSE MUSEUM OF ART 243 WORTHEN STREET LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS THROUGH JUNE 23 Whistler House Museum of Art, in partnership with Fry Fine Art, is presenting a special exhibit of paintings by underappreciated late 19th century New England artist Walter Franklin Lansil. “Allure of Venice” presents 70 paintings depicting the lagoon, canals and architecture of Venice, one of the world’s great cultural sites. Venice’s fabled appeal to artists and writers begins with the city’s unique history. For centuries, the Republic of Venice, ruled by an extremely wealthy and powerful merchant class, was an economic powerhouse, serving as an essential link in the trade routes between Europe and Asia. During the 15th and 16th centuries, patronage of the arts became an active competition among the rich, with individuals, families and the Republic’s … [Read more...] about ALLURE OF VENICE: LANSIL AT WHISTLER