Out Front, Atlanta’s new LGBTQetc. theater company, was preparing its upcoming production of Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told when it began receiving messages and a petition from an organization called American Needs Fatima thundering that “this blasphemous play is a vile insult to the Mother of God!”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Art Critic Finds Out What It’s Like To See Yayoi Kusama Show With Regular (Huge) Crowds – And It Worries Him
Philip Kennicott: “This exhibition highlights problems far deeper than those raised by the all-too-successful blockbuster shows of the past. This isn’t about managing success and finding the right balance between access for crowds and the integrity of the individual aesthetic experience. Rather, this is about the nature of experience itself, and whether museums want to reinforce an understanding of existence that is fractured, competitive, capitalistic and ultimately alienated from art.”
Since Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms Are So Wildly Popular, Why Not Just Make More Copies Of Them?
“Because one essential feature of the contemporary art world is artificial scarcity,” Philip Kennicott writes. “Theoretically, the Hirshhorn could line its ringed galleries with four or five versions of each room. More people could see them, and more people could experience the effect for longer periods. Except that Kusama has defined her rooms as ‘unique art works,’ and that ultimately diminishes their reach and impact.”
Michael Ballhaus, 81, Cinematographer For Scorsese And Fassbinder
“Much of the visual dynamism associated with Fassbinder and Scorsese must be credited also to Ballhaus. There are the complicated but elegant compositions in Fassbinder, for example, where closeups, reaction shots and the simultaneous movement of actors are often incorporated into a single frame without recourse to cutting … There are the accelerated zooms and dolly shots in Scorsese’s films, where the camera rushes toward a face or an object to afford it special emphasis.”
Misty Copeland And Justin Peck Curate Ballet Series At Kennedy Center
“Both Peck and Copeland are established names in their art forms, but handing them the reins for a major event on the Kennedy Center’s ballet subscription series is a risk. Why did the center decide on guest curators, and on these artists?” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter has an answer.
Cultivating The Next Generation Of Choreographers At Dutch National Ballet
Certainly there are other companies at work developing young dancemaking talent, but DNB artistic director Ted Brandsen has a unique four-pronged approach.
Battle Breaks Out Over Parking Lot At Britten’s Own Aldeburgh Festival
“The green idyll of the village of Snape and its environs is under threat, menaced by the prospect of a giant car park to serve the increasing number of visitors to the area. As battle lines are drawn, a coalition of local people and music lovers has formed to see off the threat and tempers are becoming frayed.”
Christopher Morahan, Director Of ‘The Jewel In The Crown’, Dead At 87
“The successful completion of the [difficult and troubled] project was due in no small part to Morahan’s tenacity and dedication. Tall and commanding, on set his directorial cry of ‘why wasn’t this done earlier?’ could make the most hardened crew member tremble.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.17.17
The Met’s new Rosenkavalier: Hello Robert Carsen, goodbye (maybe) to Renée Fleming
So personal is the relationship between Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and its admirers that the arrival of a new production at the Metropolitan Opera is like having your living room redecorated: It has to happen every so often but disrupts your inner and outer world … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2017-04-17
American Watercolors: Excellent Exhibition, But…
American Watercolor In the Age of Homer and Sargent, now on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is an exhausting exhibition, in a good way. It displays more than 170 artworks and covers the … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-04-17
Monday Recommendation: Mosaic’s Savoy Bebop Treasury
Classic Savoy BoBop Sessions 1945-49
Just a quick run-through of the names involved in this ten- CD set might be enough to whet the curiosity of the uninitiated and the appetites of … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-04-17
They May Have Found Where Empathy Lives In The Brain
They did it by studying the brains of children right at the age where they develop empathy and theory of mind.