Visual Arts

The Four Sides of the Church Tower of Strängnäs

August 23, 2007
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Cleaning up my desk, I came across the following mysterious note, written on a sheet torn out of a small spiral notebook: “Now I see what you mean with the question you had about the stones outside who is different on every sides. I have asked but no one could give some answer. Maybe they…

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The Ultimate Feel-Good Artist

March 20, 2007
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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.

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Visual Arts Feature: Smart Art Museums

February 27, 2007
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Boston-area college art museums go where many mainstream exhibition spaces fear to tread. By Margaret Weigel Originally Published February 07, 2006 Boston, MA – Throw a stone in Boston and you’ll hit a college (or an undergraduate); throw it a little further, and you’ll likely hit a college gallery or museum. The Boston metropolitan area…

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Arts Commentary: The Attack of the Mooninite

February 19, 2007
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Given the growing inclination, in the name of security, to regulate public expression, is it any wonder that protest art is scarce?

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Book Review: A History of Art Made to Shock

February 12, 2007
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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.…

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New Art in Old Buildings

February 5, 2007
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By Peter Walsh When a new contemporary art museum gets up on its feet, it typically constructs a slick, fashionable new address for itself and leaves its old, recycled quarters like a student couch at the curb. But is that always a wise decision? Sometimes it makes sense to put new wine in old bottles.…

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Music To My Eyes

February 1, 2007
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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…

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Art Alive and Kicking

February 1, 2007
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By Adrienne LaFrance February 22nd, 2006 Chances are, when you think of interactive art the first thing that comes to mind is the lineup of cranks to turn, buttons to press, and microscopes to peer into at a children’s science museum. But the exhibition COLLISIONnine BOTbits (at Wellesley College though March 8, 2006) proves that…

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Detained Youth Freed Through Art

February 1, 2007
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By Adrienne LaFrance March 13, 2006 It’s not an area of Boston that tends to attract art-goers. And the works are not by those normally considered artists. “Visual Voices of Detained Youth” was on display at the Rhys Gallery in South Boston through March 4, 2006 but the implications of the exhibit live on. The…

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Visual Arts Commentary: Magritte’s Impact on Book Cover Design

February 1, 2007
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This is an intelligent exhibit, not just conceptually but in that it requires the viewer to actively make connections while absorbing the art.

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