Author: Matthew Westphal

Let’s Stop Defining Artemisia Gentileschi As The Rape-Victim Painter

“Indexing Gentileschi’s oeuvre back to the rape and trial reinscribes the painter as an adolescent sex object, rather than an eminent adult artist with a 40-year career across major European cities. It also means that several of her paintings have been misattributed or overlooked because they didn’t correspond to the tropes of stricken or vengeful women. – Psyche

Modigliani Scholar Sues Guy Wildenstein’s Nonprofit For Holding His Research ‘Hostage’

“[Marc] Restellini’s lawsuit against the institute asserts that it is in possession of roughly 89 boxes and various other containers of research materials that he had amassed over the years and that are rightfully his. The lawsuit accuses the nonprofit of holding this research ‘hostage.’ The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, however, says the records are theirs.” – The New York Times

Some Dance Companies Are Moving Beyond Online Classes Into Zoom Rehearsals

“Ballet companies are in a bizarre holding pattern right now. With studios and theaters shut down indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, how do they keep the repertoire alive and dancers in shape? A handful of companies, including Pennsylvania Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem, are pressing on with rehearsals, even with no confirmed performances.” – Pointe Magazine

Even ‘Paw Patrol’ Is Getting Slammed For Depicting Cops As Too Benign

Amanda Hess: “It’s a joke, but it’s also not. As the protests against racist police violence enter their third week, the charges are mounting against fictional cops, too. Even big-hearted cartoon police dogs — or maybe especially big-hearted cartoon police dogs — are on notice. The effort to publicize police brutality also means banishing the good-cop archetype, which reigns on both television and in viral videos of the protests themselves. Paw Patrol seems harmless enough, and that’s the point: The movement rests on understanding that cops do plenty of harm.” – The New York Times

Live Video Theatre: What It Is, What It Is Not

Peter J. Kuo of ACT: “With the ability to gather in person on freeze, many of us in the theatre industry collectively held our breaths, waiting to exhale. Now, we find ourselves gasping for air. … I believe, with the community’s support, live video theatre can pump the oxygen into our respiratory systems. Not simply sustaining us through this pandemic, but growing our field into the future. The investment in this art form requires a mental shift among creators on how we define theatre, but the product and process will be strangely familiar and satisfying for artists and audiences of both theatre and film.” – HowlRound

Here’s Who Will Be Hurt If Philadelphia Eliminates All City Arts Funding

“The vast majority of the 349 recipient groups from the 2020 fiscal year are small, their audiences mostly neighborhood audiences who often see themselves reflected on the stages or in the galleries. More than a quarter have annual budgets under $50,000, and more than 60% are under $400,000, according to city records. … Here, eight recipient groups describe the impact of the [funding] on their organizations and their communities.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

‘The Simpsons’ Wins Peabody Awards’ Top Honor

The long-running cartoon series was given the Peabodys’ Institutional Award along with (less of a surprise here) the PBS documentary series Frontline, while actor Cicely Tyson, 95, receives the Peabody Career Achievement Award. Among this years’ honorees were entertainment series Succession, Fleabag, Ramy, Stranger Things, and Chernobyl; documentaries Apollo 11, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Surviving R. Kelly, and four programs from PBS’s POV; the children’s animated series Molly of Denali; and the WNYC podcast Dolly Parton’s America. – Variety

Poetry Foundation Leadership Resigns Following Demands And Criticism

Just a few days after a letter, written by 30 prominent poets and now co-signed by roughly 2,100 people, called for the resignation of the $250 million foundation’s president and board chair and a detailed plan for the organization to hire from and support the work of marginalized groups and to “eradicate institutional racism,” president Henry Bienen and board chair Willard Bunn have stepped down. – Chicago Magazine