One of the most controversial exhibitions in decades, Pollock Matters, curated by Case Western Reserve Professor Ellen Landau and others, opened quietly at Boston College’s McMullen Museum just this past Labor Day weekend. But it is already turning heads.
Anonymous Sources: Pollock Exhibition Will Make Global Splash
A front-page story in the Boston Globe arts section last Sunday reminds us that the Pollock-Matter Affair is alive and well and moving to Boston. One of the biggest art world controversies in decades, this perfect storm of paint, press hype, and cultivated invective swirls around a group of Jackson Pollock-like art works that filmmaker […]
Rare Brain Power
A memoir by one of the world’s few savants is thoroughly rewarding.
Wild Ride with The Decemberists
The Decemberists are passionate, intense and they put on one hell of a show.
The Ultimate Feel-Good Artist
During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Gordon Matta-Clark did what many of us think might be cool, but never dare try to pull off.
Rock Concert Review: Polished Pogues Shine Anew
The Pogues are back and they’re ready to rock. By Ira Kantor BOSTON, Mass.– For the iconoclastic (and newly reunited) band The Pogues, the moment of truth has arrived. It’s 8:30 p.m. and Boston’s aged Orpheum Theatre has just gone dark. Cheers and applause rattle the walls. Is the worst going to happen or will […]
Poster-Boomer for a Generation
From gophers, “Ghostbusters” and groundhogs to “Broken Flowers” and beyond, Murray evolves into something much more meaningful.
Film Review: “Because I Said So” Isn’t Good Enough
By Adrienne LaFrance Before you say “I told you so,” let me explain. I wasn’t expecting Annie Hall. I thought Because I Said So might be likable in a Something’s Gotta Give kind of way. I was wrong. Diane Keaton’s latest star vehicle is an empty vessel of a romantic comedy, pieced together by poorly […]
Book Review: A History of Art Made to Shock
Edgar Degas once said that painting should be akin to committing a crime. And many Americans saw creation of some of the most important works of American art as just that—roguish, cunning and wicked—in short, criminal. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture by Michael Kammen. Penguin Random House, 480 pages, $18. […]
Music To My Eyes
By Milo Miles November 18th, 2005 World-famous jazz impresario George Wein went to Boston University. I went to Boston University. The Boston University Art Gallery is currently hosting the show “Syncopated Rhythms: 20th-Century African American Art from the George & Joyce Wein Collection.” Boston University is behind this blog. None of that matters: it’s still […]