Visual Arts

Visual Arts Review: “Burning Down the House” — A Female Chorus of Concern

January 21, 2024
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These five artists do indeed make their voices heard. They shine as soloists, and their messages are only amplified when they join into a chorus of multi-part harmony. 

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Visual Arts Review: “Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice” — Religion and Rights

January 20, 2024
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The overall impression of this valuable exhibit is to remind us that religious conviction is by no means synonymous with conservatism.

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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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