How, as an African-American visual artist, do you represent something that no one wants to think about, much less look at? Kara Walker’s solution is ultimately an aesthetic one.
Visual Arts
Visual Arts Review: “Landmarks” at Williams College Museum of Art — Losing Your Way
The Ruskinian mantra of “truth to nature” was eventually upended by the development of digital imagery and the agile manipulations of Photoshop.
Visual Arts Remembrance: Farewell to a Light Artist — John Powell
It seems quite fitting for an artist of light to leave a gallery show filled with his distinctive multimedia light art. Memories of John Powell, like his art, will continue to glow, brightly.
Visual Arts Review: “Lucian Freud Self-Portraits” — Pictures of a Cool Narcissist
I recommend this show for Lucian Freud’s highly polished craftsmanship, but his wry game of psychological hide-and-seek is not all that satisfying.
Visual Arts Commentary: Museums are Getting Woke for Real
By digging deep into Thomas McKeller, the Gardner Museum has not only resurrected a lost figure (and lost music, and “lost” art) but revealed and contributed to an ongoing history.
Visual Arts Review: “Painting Edo” — Lessons About Art and the Good Society
Go feast your eyes.
Arts Commentary: All Is Not Copacetic for the Fine Arts in the Berkshires
Despite the growing number of artists in the Berkshires, there seems to be an effort, among large cultural institutions and the major media, to pretend that they are not around.
Visual Arts Review: Ledelle Moe’s “When” — Figures Worthy of Awe
Ledelle Moe’s work is fresh, innovative, and contemporary — yet deeply rooted in a primal humanism that courses through the millennia of every continent and culture.
Visual Arts Review: The National Academy of Design — Another New Chapter?
This fascinating exhibition surveys the entire history of the National Academy membership and, almost incidentally, provides a potent cross-section of the history of American art and its discontents.
Visual Arts Review: The Legacy Museum — An American Inheritance
The Legacy Museum draws on a passionate and visceral mix of architecture, graphics, text, art, music, video and spoken word to prove that — ever since the time of slavery — white views on race have distorted the presumed fairness of our legal system.