Clearer heads conclude that there will be plenty of cultural space for both physical art and this highly monetized new digital art.
Mark Favermann
Book Review: “Museum of Fine Arts Boston: 1870 to 2020, An Oral History” — Questioning the Elite
This is an invaluable gathering of interviews, an impressive excavation of institutional memory that not only recognizes the MFA’s grandeur but its many deficiencies as well.
October Short Fuses – Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Visual Arts Commentary: A Creative and Cultural Opportunity Lost — The Look of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Dull, flat, and boring, with no discernible personality, the Olympics 2020 graphics made no impact on anyone other than, perhaps, its creator/developers and maybe a (very) few members of the host committee.
Visual Arts Review: New Public Art — Past, Present, and Future Ghosts of the Imagination
Recently, a number of public artworks have been charged with memorializing ghosts or “specters” of the past.
Visual Arts Commentary: “The Scream,” “Sunflowers,” and the “Mona Lisa” — Gone Baby Gone
Perhaps we need to call on Sherlock Holmes in order to resolve the 31-year old “no end in sight” Gardner heist?
Visual Arts Review: Trump Likes Minimalism? Really?
All four budgets that Donald Trump and his sycophants sent to Congress had nada for the arts and humanities.
Visual Arts Commentary: Preservation, Two Cases of To Be or Not to Be
Today’s increasingly heated argument about architectural preservation revolves around discerning which pieces of the past are worth saving, which buildings are valuable to our present and future.
Visual Arts Review: Two Public Art Projects in Boston — Provocative Visual Expressions of the 21st Century
Steeped in technology, non-traditional public art is about sparking conversations about visuals as well as playing with contemporary aesthetic perspectives.
Visual Arts Commentary: An Enduring New England Design Influence — The Shaker Style
As we move into the 21st Century, with the Climate Crisis and consumerism on the rise, the Shaker’s “less is so much more” sensibility takes on even more significance, practical as well as spiritual.