Matthew Westphal – Page 1725 – ArtsJournal Wayback

America’s First Abstract Painter Was An Engineer Who’d Never Seen Modernist Art

Manierre Dawson, “although not a household name, is increasingly recognized as the first American artist to work in a completely abstract mode. … He made his breakthrough to non-objective imagery prior to any exposure to modernist art. Instead, his innovation stemmed from his training and employment as a structural engineer.”

Alan Curtis, 80, Leader Of Baroque Music Revival

As a harpsichordist, scholar, conductor, and founder-director of the ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, Curtis brought an enormous amount of neglected music – opera and vocal works in particular – from the 17th and 18th centuries to modern ears. In recent years he was known for a series of Handel opera recordings funded by mystery author Donna Leon.

Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ – A Masterpiece Or A Mess? And Is It Just A Guy Thing?

“Jonathon Menjivar read On the Road as a teenager and, like so many American teens, was completely infatuated by it. His wife, fellow radio producer Hillary Frank, had never read it. They decided to read it together … Menjivar desperately wants her to see what he saw in it as a kid.” She doesn’t. (audio)

A Bubble That Can’t Burst (And That’s Okay): Peter Schjeldahl On Today’s Art Market

“Today’s art craze is baked into the global economy – not a local cyclone but a climate change caused by belching emissions of excess money that won’t stop while the carbon of present mega-wealth holds out. That is, art prices can crash only as one piddling consequence of a planetary catastrophe. … Sensing that people will one day look back on this era as a freakish episode in cultural history, why not get a head start on viewing it that way? Detach and marvel.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov: Why I Finally Agreed To Play Nijinsky

“It is a sign of Baryshnikov’s confidence in his director” – Robert Wilson – “that he has agreed to play Nijinsky, a role that has been suggested to him ‘at least 15 times’ in his life and which he had always turned down.” (One f those invitations came from no less than Ingmar Bergman.)

Tempest In A British Teapot: Complaints About Clenched Buttocks In ‘Mr. Turner’

“Timothy Spall’s clenched buttocks” – clothed, no less – “in Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner were the subject of 19 letters of complaint to the British Board of Film Classification.”

Actor Roger Rees Dead At 71

He made his name in the RSC’s marathon production of Nicholas Nickleby in 1980, became known to millions through roles in the series Cheers and The West Wing, and (between the occasional major film) maintained a long and successful career as a stage actor and director on both sides of the Atlantic.

A Street Artist Spends A Year Inside Philly’s Giant Mural Machine

RJ Rushmore: “A year inside of ‘Philadelphia’s community-engagement juggernaut'” – that’s the city’s famous Mural Arts Program – “has taught me a lot. It’s made me fall deeper in love with street art than ever before, and it’s also helped me to better understand the medium’s shortcomings. Here are a few observations.”

Reviewing The Reviews Of “Go Set A Watchman”

Jane Ciabattari finds that early assessments of the “new” Harper Lee novel fall into five categories.

Author: Matthew Westphal