Visual Arts
If I suffered half as much from the thought that most art has been lost as I suffer every day from the recollection of departed family and friends, I would be in a mental hospital. In this sense, I found myself resisting the message of “The Melancholy Art,” to the point that I felt that the book was laying a guilt trip on me.
The journey of Anders Zorn, from Swedish hamlet to the top echelon of society portraitists and back again, has a couple of messages for us. The first leg of the journey tells us that careerism is not a new phenomenon in the art world. The second tells us what it may be worth in the end.
Anyone interested in figurative art ought to rush over to Boston University’s Stone Gallery before “Teaching the Body” ends this Sunday.
It’s not a simple story. It’s a story about dreadful ideas, hideous politics and their interaction with art and aesthetic judgment.
In some ways, Jonathan Jones’ narrative structure works against his strengths. Highly respected as a critic, he is an energetic and engaging writer and excels at what art historians call “close looking,” where he guides the reader line by line, brush stroke by brush stroke, through a work of art.
The month’s standouts include Nick Cave’s Soundsuits at the Peabody-Essex Museum and two exhibitions at MassMoCA.
At times I leave off my avid samplings of one entrancement after another in a great museum. Instead, I make a pilgrimage dedicated to a single work, such as John Singer Sargent’s intoxicating woman in white in “Fumée d’Ambre Gris” at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
For those who missed this evening, pick up Roz Chast’s “Theories of Everything,” which is a wonderfully huge collection of her cartoons published in “The New Yorker.”
Artist Michael Lewy’s comprehensive, clever and surprisingly humorous take on an imaginary experimental settlement explores the ramifications of having human potential promptly assessed and harnessed for work, and work alone.
Visual Art Commentary: Silence Is Complicity — Why Museums Must Use Their Voice to Defend Democracy