Author: Matthew Westphal

Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.18.16

Big Stakes For This Art Week
Tempus fugit! I’ve been meaning to write more about The European Fine Art Fair’s arrival in New York later this week, but have not had the time. But you can bet that I will be there, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-10-18

Artistic Excellence and Mutual Self-Interests
This post is part of a series in conjunction with TRG Arts on developing relationships with both new communities and existing stakeholders through artistic programming, marketing and fundraising, community engagement and public policy. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-10-18

“Capital Overhaul”: My WSJ Review of National Gallery’s Reinvented East & Strengthened West
Here’s the cast of curators who reshuffled the deck with provocative pairings and strengthened representation of key artists, aided by the influx of some 8,766 works (219 now on display), acquired from the venerable (now defunct) Corcoran Gallery of Art. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-10-18

The bizarre wonder of The Iceland Concert
About a week ago I went to see a cryptically named sort-of opera called The Iceland Concert at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. … I got a bit lost in the storytelling — probably my fault, not the production’s — but the music and setting could hardly have been bettered. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2016-10-18

Ten years after: is music sexy?
From 2006: Love-hungry bachelors of the Fifties and early Sixties were notorious for using jazz and romantic ballads to grease the skids. Frank Sinatra, I’m told, was their artist of choice, though … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-10-18

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Leo Beranek, Father Of Modern Acoustical Science, Dead At 102

“Under his leadership, [television station] WCVB instituted news programming changes that continue to shape Boston’s broadcasting landscape today. Dr. Beranek also was a leading philanthropist for major arts institutions, particularly the Boston Symphony Orchestra … Yet, it was his work in acoustics that created a lasting legacy, through improved concert venues in Boston, at Tanglewood, and around the world.” He was also, alas, involved in one of the 20th century’s great acoustical fiascos.

Painter David Salle Turns Art Critic

“Look, art doesn’t have to be daunting. It’s helpful to think of works of art in ways similar to how we think about other people in our lives. Some people are harder to get to know. Some are more open and accessible and we feel we know them straight off. Other people, we feel as though their essence is more guarded.”

He Stumbled On Grandpa’s Old Reel-To-Reel Tapes – And Found A Motherlode Of His Country’s Endangered Folk Music

“When Daniel Lofredo Rota began clearing out the apartment of his dead grandfather here in April 2014, he found several tons of newspaper, stacks of letters, broken typewriters and about 300 magnetic reel-to-reel tapes, almost perfectly preserved after 45 years in a cool, dry place. … It was a cultural time capsule carrying a vital chapter of Ecuador’s musical history.”

Anne Midgette, Classical Music Critic, Turns Her Reviewer’s Eye And Ear To Art

“The work of the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson is all about the quest for beauty and the ways in which that quest is doomed to failure, bogging down in mediocrity or kitsch, or, in these works, the trappings of Las Vegas. But the work radiates so much theatricality and glitz and humor that it feels like a big party. For a show about failure, it sure is having a good time.”

Russia Today’s Bank Accounts Shut Down; UK Denies Kremlin’s Accusations Of Censorship

“RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, … said she had received a letter out of the blue from NatWest saying that it was pulling the plug on the broadcaster’s accounts from mid-December. ‘We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities,’ it said.”