Matthew Westphal – Page 1171 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.20.17

Love, Hate and Design Research
Sigh. We live in interesting times. Increasingly folks are driven further apart, retreating into factions that love one thing/person or hate another. Naturally, we are right and they are wrong. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2017-03-19

Operas That Dance
The Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Mark Morris: Two Operas (Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), March 15 through 19. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-03-20

Film Composition
We had composer Chris Heckman in on Friday to talk with our composers about careers in Film Composition. … He was direct and informative with the students: no sugar-coating, no blasting the bad guys, just shared a clear sense of how the profession works. A few themes emerged. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-03-20

The awkward master
Marsden Hartley was a major American painter, to my mind a great one. Robert Hughes called him “the most brilliantly gifted of the early generation of American modernists,” … Yet his work has never come close to receiving its due, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-03-20

Betty Boop Was Black And White: Here Are The Two Jazz Singers On Whom The Cartoon Sex Symbol Was Modeled

Writer Gabrielle Bellot introduces us to Helen Kane, “Baby” Esther Jones, and the court case over Betty Boop that revealed her origins.

Chromophobia – Western Architecture Is Paralyzed By A Fear Of Color

David Batchelor: “As with all prejudices, its manifest form, its loathing, masks a fear: a fear of contamination and corruption by something that is unknown or appears unknowable. This loathing of colour, this fear of corruption through colour, needs a name: chromophobia.”

Want To Maximize Box-Office Income? Make Your Ticket Pricing As Complicated As You Can Get Away With

“This doesn’t mean that prices shouldn’t be presented simply. Your pricing should be ‘swan-like’: serene on the surface, with all the paddling going on underneath to maximise the opportunity for income.” Consultant Tim Baker discusses applying the concept of “marginal gains” to ticket pricing.

The Secret Life And Love Of A Lexicographer

With the first chapter of her new book, Kory Stamper of Merriam-Webster describes how she came to work for the venerable dictionary and offers a look at the complicated process of getting the reference work together.

Did Lucrezia Borgia’s Daughter Write These Anonymous Sacred Works?

Very possibly. Musicologist Laurie Stras writes about a carefully but anonymously published collection of motets, all for treble voices, from 16th-century Italy; about the life of Sister Leonora d’Este, born four years before her notorious mother died; and about why she thinks that Leonora wrote this music but would have to keep her name off of it. (includes video and audio)

Ten Woman Composers From History That You Probably Don’t Know About

In assembling this list, critic Alexandra Coghlan made it a point to avoid the names that always come up (Hildegard of Bingen, Clara Schumann, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre), but ranged from 9th-century Byzantium to 17th-century Milan (a nun, no less) to the Depression-era U.S. (includes sound clips)

This New York City Ballet Principal Is Helping Put More Cracks In Ballet’s Glass Ceiling

Ashley Bouder is spearheading a project to create programs choreographed by women to music by woman composers. She explains to Chloe Angyal (who made her cry) why this is so important.

‘It’s Not An Attack On The Arts, It’s An Attack On Communities’: Kennicott On The Trump Budget Cuts

“These cuts aren’t about cost savings – they’re far too small to make even a ding in the federal budget. They are carefully calculated attacks on communities, especially those that promote independent thinking and expression, or didn’t line up behind the Trump movement as it swept to power through the electoral college in November. But the president’s proposed budget also includes attacks on communities that did indeed support Trump but that are too powerless to resist.”

A Great Collection Of Impressionist Art Takes Its Place In Kansas City

The Bloch Collection – amassed by one of the co-founders of H&R Block and containing works by Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, and Pissarro – is now on view in specially renovated galleries at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.