Visual Arts

Visual Art Commentary: Boston and Sargent, For Better, For Worse.

December 31, 2023
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Boston’s veneration of John Singer Sargent is awkwardly implicated in the city’s habit of denouncing modern art.

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Book Review: “Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism” — A Man of Admirable Qualities

December 28, 2023
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Anka Muhlstein’s book is probably best read as a biography of a hard-working family man and not as a thorough assessment of Pissarro’s art.

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Arts Feature: The Best of Visual Arts and Design, 2023

December 21, 2023
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Amid the year’s chaos, art was a saving grace, civilizing and humanizing: a much needed blessing that allowed us to breathe, to inhale beauty and perhaps a whiff or two of truth.

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Visual Arts Review: “50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions” at The Clark

December 17, 2023
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Plan to linger over every moment of this revelatory, diverse, and understated special exhibition.

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Book Review: Follow These Artfully Woven Threads

December 14, 2023
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The textile arts have been dissed by so many narrow-minded educators and critics over the years that it is heartening to have two exhibits (and their catalogues) treat the art of the woven with the respect and awe that it deserves.

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Visual Arts Review: “Fashioned by Sargent” — Round Two

December 8, 2023
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Was John Singer Sargent just a talented flatterer of his wealthy patrons or was there more to him?

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Visual Arts Commentary: “Fashioned by Sargent” — The Elephant in the Room

November 9, 2023
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The MFA’s Fashioned by Sargent alludes — only at whisper level — to the fact that many of John Singer Sargent’s clients represent questionable ideals.

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Visual Arts Review: “Fashioned by Sargent” — Round One

November 6, 2023
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Is the artist’s direction of clothing choices — and how he painted the garments — a sufficiently compelling inquiry in which to anchor an exhibit?

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Visual Arts Review: “Strong Women in Renaissance Italy” — Women’s Lives Mattered

September 27, 2023
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The show would have been stronger if more context had been provided, both about women’s lives and the artistic traditions that inspired and influenced artists of the Renaissance.

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Visual Arts Review: Photo Exhibits of Springsteen and the Stones Rock Boston

September 20, 2023
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The Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame and the Panopticon Gallery host very different shows featuring rock icons.

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